First, the basketball update.
All four number one seeds are still in but that 's about the only prediction I've hit on so far.
Now for the flood update. I've had several people ask me if the water got into our town hall project. Fortunately, it did not.
As I mentioned before, we were questioned about why the building was sitting up so high compared to the other buildings in the area. Within this stretch of S.R. 56 through West Baden Springs, every other building except ours had water inside. In an e-mail to my cousin, I noted that whether by design or by luck, we certainly looked like we knew what we were doing!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
NCAA Tournament Picks
Here's my last minute secret for all of you bracket players out there:
There are going to be very few upsets this year. The only 9 over 8 will be Kent State over UNLV. No 12 seed will beat a 5 seed this year. Wisconsin will beat Georgetown to get into the Elite 8. Gonzaga/Davidson will go into overtime. So will Mississippi State/Oregon. Drake will be the Cinderella team. All four #1 seeds get to the Final Four with North Carolina winning it all.
If I'm right, I'll look like a basketball genius. If I'm wrong.........well, I'll find that "edit post" button on here somewhere!
There are going to be very few upsets this year. The only 9 over 8 will be Kent State over UNLV. No 12 seed will beat a 5 seed this year. Wisconsin will beat Georgetown to get into the Elite 8. Gonzaga/Davidson will go into overtime. So will Mississippi State/Oregon. Drake will be the Cinderella team. All four #1 seeds get to the Final Four with North Carolina winning it all.
If I'm right, I'll look like a basketball genius. If I'm wrong.........well, I'll find that "edit post" button on here somewhere!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Project Flood
We recently completed a project in West Baden Springs, Indiana for a new town hall. My cousin was the architect on the job. Anyway, we had to show the Indiana Department of Natural Resources that the floor elevation for the new building was higher than the 100-year flood elevation. The Corps of Engineers had done two studies in the area to determine this elevation and the building was designed accordingly. The building is now under construction.
Most people were wondering why the building sat up so high. Even the oldest residents noted that they had never seen water up to that level.
I received a couple of e-mails from my cousin today. The first noted that there was water coming up around the building but that it ought to be safe. The second was a forwarded e-mail from the West Baden Springs police department indicating that water may actually enter into the new town hall building sometime today.
I've attached several pictures showing the extent of the flooding in this town. Unfortunately, the pictures were taken by a local resident who wasn't really part of the new town hall project so it's not in any of the pictures. However, I can tell you that it's directly across the road from Fast Eddie's gas station and you can see that the water in that picture is getting up to the top of the pumps.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Great Training
I allow myself a stop at Starbucks on Wednesday mornings on my way in to work. I'd do it more often but my wife doesn't give me a big enough allowance. To me, their coffee is the best. And for those of you who owe me a favor, my favorite is the vanilla nonfat latte.
Normally, I always go to the Starbucks on 82nd Street in the Castleton area of Indianapolis. It's right on my way in so it's a quick drive thru and the people there have gotten to recognize my face which is always nice when you're in the customer service business. Also, they've never failed to make the latte exactly the same every time I've been there.
You might remember a few weeks ago that Starbucks shut down their entire operation for training. If memory serves me correctly, it was on a Monday night. Of course the following Wednesday, I arrived promptly at 7:20 for my vanilla latte.
Now I don't like my coffee steaming hot so I normally place it in my cup holder and don't take a sip out of it until I get in the office. That morning was no different except that when I took a drink I realized that they had forgotten the vanilla! Yep, that's right - they messed up my first latte after they had shut down for training to improve their quality!
Not to worry - I've been back to that same Starbucks and they've since always gotten my latte the way I like it. I just thought it was ironic how their training had not paid off in my eyes.
Normally, I always go to the Starbucks on 82nd Street in the Castleton area of Indianapolis. It's right on my way in so it's a quick drive thru and the people there have gotten to recognize my face which is always nice when you're in the customer service business. Also, they've never failed to make the latte exactly the same every time I've been there.
You might remember a few weeks ago that Starbucks shut down their entire operation for training. If memory serves me correctly, it was on a Monday night. Of course the following Wednesday, I arrived promptly at 7:20 for my vanilla latte.
Now I don't like my coffee steaming hot so I normally place it in my cup holder and don't take a sip out of it until I get in the office. That morning was no different except that when I took a drink I realized that they had forgotten the vanilla! Yep, that's right - they messed up my first latte after they had shut down for training to improve their quality!
Not to worry - I've been back to that same Starbucks and they've since always gotten my latte the way I like it. I just thought it was ironic how their training had not paid off in my eyes.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Expiration Dates
Many of you know of my dislike of attorneys. Most of our elected officials at the national level are attorneys and look where that's gotten us!
Anyway, here's another thing I'm pretty sure we can blame on attorneys:
To help my wife out, I normally do the weekly grocery shopping. When I pick up items, I normally check out the expiration date just to make sure it's still good. I've noticed lately that there aren't many expiration dates on stuff anymore. Now it's a "sell by" date.
So here's my question: how long is something good after it's been sold? If the "sell by" date is March 14, how long do I have to use the product before it's bad? Obviously if my cheese has turned green or my milk is lumpy, I'm throwing it out. But what about other products that may be "bad" but still look fine visually?
I'm sure the change is because of a lawsuit so the attorneys came up with this to weasel out of future lawsuits but I want my expiration dates back!
Anyway, here's another thing I'm pretty sure we can blame on attorneys:
To help my wife out, I normally do the weekly grocery shopping. When I pick up items, I normally check out the expiration date just to make sure it's still good. I've noticed lately that there aren't many expiration dates on stuff anymore. Now it's a "sell by" date.
So here's my question: how long is something good after it's been sold? If the "sell by" date is March 14, how long do I have to use the product before it's bad? Obviously if my cheese has turned green or my milk is lumpy, I'm throwing it out. But what about other products that may be "bad" but still look fine visually?
I'm sure the change is because of a lawsuit so the attorneys came up with this to weasel out of future lawsuits but I want my expiration dates back!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Passwords
Okay, so does anybody else get frustrated by needing user id's and passwords for everything anymore? I know that it's a security issue so people can't access my online bank accounts and such but why does there have to be different rules on every website for the creation of my password?
I've tried to use the same password as much as possible but some sites will only let you use letters, some require letters and numbers and yet others want you to use a special character like a question mark or exclamation point.
Now I've had to resort to creating a spreadsheet showing sites I've registered for, userid and password.
Not to worry, though. If I forget my password I only need to know my mother's maiden name, the town I was born in and my first pet's name.
Now if I can only remember my user id and which e-mail address I used when I registered.........
I've tried to use the same password as much as possible but some sites will only let you use letters, some require letters and numbers and yet others want you to use a special character like a question mark or exclamation point.
Now I've had to resort to creating a spreadsheet showing sites I've registered for, userid and password.
Not to worry, though. If I forget my password I only need to know my mother's maiden name, the town I was born in and my first pet's name.
Now if I can only remember my user id and which e-mail address I used when I registered.........
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Alisa's blog about her hesitancy to fly reminded me of a story of a trip our family had taken a few years ago. My in-laws live in Cape Cod, Massachusetts which is about 1,000 miles from Indianapolis. Many times, we've completed this trip by car and it takes about 17 hours to do so. With young kids, it seems like the trip is about 17 days so this particular year we decided to fly into Boston and have the in-laws pick us up.
The trip out there was fine. Even with a three, five and eight-year old, the quick trip was certainly less stressful than driving. We always have a great time on the Cape and it's a relaxing time for all of us.
But then there was the trip home.
Our flight was to leave Boston fairly early in the morning so we got to Logan Airport, checked our bags, made it through security and proceeded to our gate to catch our plane. We got on the plane and was off to our layover in D.C. After a short time at Dulles Airport, our flight was off and headed to Indy.
Or so we thought.
A few minutes into the flight the pilot made an announcement that we had lost an engine but should be fine although it would delay our arrival in Indy. After about another ten minutes, the pilot came on the P.A. system, asked the stewardesses to take a seat and noted that we were turning around to head back to Dulles.
No problem I thought. The plane is still in the air. What's the worst that could happen? Of course the words "we're turning around" brought fear to most passengers in the plane and it became deafly quiet. Still, I wasn't that worried until I looked out the window.
Now, being a surveyor, I love the window seat because I can see different properties and how cities have been developed over time.
This time I didn't like what I saw out my window.
As we started to make our approach to Dulles, I happened to notice that one runway was lined with several emergency vehicles. Okay, not just any runway - OUR runway. I didn't know until later but we had lost another engine and the pilot wasn't sure that he was going to be able to get the plane stopped before running off the end of the runway. Fortunately, the landing was pretty uneventful and we taxied back to the terminal.
We sat in the terminal for a couple of hours before we were told that they finally had some flights that we could get on to continue our trip. Unfortunately, these flights were originating at National Airport so they put us and our luggage on buses for the trip there.
While we were on the bus, an announcement was made that there were four flights available and that we'd all get on one of them. Some how, we lucked out as we were told that we would be on the first flight out of National. Maybe it was the fact that we had three young kids that were getting restless.
As soon as we got off of the bus and collected our luggage, we headed directly to the counter to get our tickets and boarding passes for the flight. Sure enough, we had been scheduled to go out on the very first flight available.
The one that had taken off five minutes before we got there.
I'm normally a pretty patient person but when I got to the counter at about 4:00 in the afternoon the lady there asked "and how are you today, sir?" At this point, I had had enough and replied, "I'm not very happy but that's okay because I'm going to Disney World for free." When she inquired what I had meant by that statement, I let her know that I was not leaving the line without complimentary air tickets in my hand. She went and got her supervisor who brought me five vouchers for free tickets for anytime within the next year. On a side note, we did use them to go to Disney World later that year.
Anyway, she informed me that there were no other flights that she could get us on but she'd put us up at a hotel for the night and give us food vouchers. I explained in no uncertain terms that I was not going to be spending the night in D.C. and that I'd be flying another airline home. At this point, she was just trying to get the crazy guy (me) out of the line so she got us booked on a flight from D.C. to Cincinnati and another from Cincy to Indy through Delta.
We made our way to the new terminal and sat down to wait for our flight. As it was dinner time, my wife and my oldest child took off with the food vouchers to find something for all of us to eat. She ordered dinner for all of us and handed the cashier the vouchers. The vouchers were worth more than the cost of our dinner but the cashier told her that he could not give her the difference back in change. Seeing two Delta stewardesses in line behind her and thinking quickly on her feet, she told the cashier that she was buying their dinner, too, since they were getting us home and making sure she spent all of the other carrier's money.
We finally got into the airport at Indy, I retrieved our car from long-term parking and we headed home.
We pulled into the garage at 1:30 a.m. - about 17 1/2 hours from the time we had left Cape Cod.
Yep, that's right - we could have driven and gotten home earlier.
The trip out there was fine. Even with a three, five and eight-year old, the quick trip was certainly less stressful than driving. We always have a great time on the Cape and it's a relaxing time for all of us.
But then there was the trip home.
Our flight was to leave Boston fairly early in the morning so we got to Logan Airport, checked our bags, made it through security and proceeded to our gate to catch our plane. We got on the plane and was off to our layover in D.C. After a short time at Dulles Airport, our flight was off and headed to Indy.
Or so we thought.
A few minutes into the flight the pilot made an announcement that we had lost an engine but should be fine although it would delay our arrival in Indy. After about another ten minutes, the pilot came on the P.A. system, asked the stewardesses to take a seat and noted that we were turning around to head back to Dulles.
No problem I thought. The plane is still in the air. What's the worst that could happen? Of course the words "we're turning around" brought fear to most passengers in the plane and it became deafly quiet. Still, I wasn't that worried until I looked out the window.
Now, being a surveyor, I love the window seat because I can see different properties and how cities have been developed over time.
This time I didn't like what I saw out my window.
As we started to make our approach to Dulles, I happened to notice that one runway was lined with several emergency vehicles. Okay, not just any runway - OUR runway. I didn't know until later but we had lost another engine and the pilot wasn't sure that he was going to be able to get the plane stopped before running off the end of the runway. Fortunately, the landing was pretty uneventful and we taxied back to the terminal.
We sat in the terminal for a couple of hours before we were told that they finally had some flights that we could get on to continue our trip. Unfortunately, these flights were originating at National Airport so they put us and our luggage on buses for the trip there.
While we were on the bus, an announcement was made that there were four flights available and that we'd all get on one of them. Some how, we lucked out as we were told that we would be on the first flight out of National. Maybe it was the fact that we had three young kids that were getting restless.
As soon as we got off of the bus and collected our luggage, we headed directly to the counter to get our tickets and boarding passes for the flight. Sure enough, we had been scheduled to go out on the very first flight available.
The one that had taken off five minutes before we got there.
I'm normally a pretty patient person but when I got to the counter at about 4:00 in the afternoon the lady there asked "and how are you today, sir?" At this point, I had had enough and replied, "I'm not very happy but that's okay because I'm going to Disney World for free." When she inquired what I had meant by that statement, I let her know that I was not leaving the line without complimentary air tickets in my hand. She went and got her supervisor who brought me five vouchers for free tickets for anytime within the next year. On a side note, we did use them to go to Disney World later that year.
Anyway, she informed me that there were no other flights that she could get us on but she'd put us up at a hotel for the night and give us food vouchers. I explained in no uncertain terms that I was not going to be spending the night in D.C. and that I'd be flying another airline home. At this point, she was just trying to get the crazy guy (me) out of the line so she got us booked on a flight from D.C. to Cincinnati and another from Cincy to Indy through Delta.
We made our way to the new terminal and sat down to wait for our flight. As it was dinner time, my wife and my oldest child took off with the food vouchers to find something for all of us to eat. She ordered dinner for all of us and handed the cashier the vouchers. The vouchers were worth more than the cost of our dinner but the cashier told her that he could not give her the difference back in change. Seeing two Delta stewardesses in line behind her and thinking quickly on her feet, she told the cashier that she was buying their dinner, too, since they were getting us home and making sure she spent all of the other carrier's money.
We finally got into the airport at Indy, I retrieved our car from long-term parking and we headed home.
We pulled into the garage at 1:30 a.m. - about 17 1/2 hours from the time we had left Cape Cod.
Yep, that's right - we could have driven and gotten home earlier.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
I'm a Big Loser
I was reading an article today about Jared Fogle. You know him as Jared the Subway guy who lost 240 pounds about 10 years ago and has been the spokesman for Subway since then. He lost the weight by eating a Turkey Club sandwich twice a day. Fortunately for Jared, he's been able to keep the weight off.
I did something similar beginning January 1, 2006 but not near as drastic as what Jared did. At one time, I weighed in the neighborhood of 240 pounds. That wouldn't have been so bad if I was about 6'10" but I'm only 5'10" and trust me, it wasn't pretty. I tried the Atkins Diet at one time and got down to about 205 but couldn't stay with the reduction in carbs and ballooned back up to about 225 by January 1, 2006. It was at this point that I decided I had to do something.
The NBC show "The Biggest Loser" had been inspiring to me as the people on the show were able to not only change their physical appearance but also their psychological approach to food. While I wasn't sure that the rapid weight loss the contestants had was optimal from a medical standpoing, by August of 2006, I was down to 178 pounds. My weight loss was about two pounds per week average and I probably didn't have any single week when I lost more than five pounds.
Many people have asked me how I did it. I wish I could say that there was some magic involved in losing the weight but, as I had heard from my doctor several times, the key was exercise and watching what I ate.
So here's what I learned to help me with the weight loss:
1. It's all about calories in versus calories out. Your body needs calories to function so there's no way you can cut them out completely. For me, the number of calories I consumed in a day was 7 times my then-current weight. So for example, when I was 200 pounds I set my target for 1400 calories a day. There's no reason to get carried away with it - if I ate 1500 calories one day, I'd try to eat only 1300 the next. As long as I averaged the target amount for the week, I was happy and able to lose weight.
2. Fat calories definitely count. I was religious about reading labels. If the percentage of fat calories to total calories was more than 30 percent, I didn't eat it.
3. Cardio workouts were a must. I tried to burn 500 calories a day by working out at the YMCA. Why 500? Because it take 3,500 calories burnt to lose one pound. If I burnt 500 calories per day, seven days a week, I knew I'd at least lose a pound. I've been a member of the Y for just over five years. I've probably ran a couple thousand miles in that time and biked five to six thousand miles.
4. Strength workouts are much more important than I ever thought because when your muscles are repairing themselves after a workout, it raises your metabolism. With an increased metabolism, more calories are burnt. I lifted weights no more than every other day because your muscles need a day off to repair themselves. I'd lift one set of 12 reps. If I could get in all 12 reps, I'd raise the amount I lifted by 5 pounds until I got to a point where I couldn't lift 12 reps.
5. You can't diet all the time. I had a goal to eat 20 good meals a week and one bad one, normally on Sunday night. That was the night I'd allow myself to eat chips, a bowl of ice cream or something that wasn't "good" for me.
6. Weigh yourself every day. If I found that I had gained a pound from one day to the next, my workouts were normally a little longer or more strenuous. Weight gain was certainly a motivator for me to get my butt to the Y to get it right back off.
7. When you're hungry - eat! Your body is trying to tell you something. It was not unusual for me to eat a cup of yogurt at 10:00 a.m. after eating breakfast just three hours earlier. I've heard on other diets that you're supposed to eat until you're no longer hungry. For me, I ate until I was satisfied, meaning that sometimes I was still a little bit hungry. At meals, I had to learn when to push away my plate.
8. Learn what a portion really looks like. In these days of supersized everything, I learned that a portion of food is about the size of your fist or a hockey puck. I always made sure I only got one serving spoon of a food on my plate and no more.
For what it's worth, my current weight is normally in the upper 180's but I'm training for a half marathon in May so I'd guess I'll probably get down into the 170's again. My "long run" day is normally on Saturday and I'm up to five miles on those days right now following Hal Higdon's (www.halhigdon.com) half-marathon training plan. I'm running the race with another surveyor who is the past president of the Indiana Society of Professional Land Surveyors. We're not in it to race with the Kenyans but basically our goal is to finish in under two and a half hours. That's about an 11:24 per mile pace and today I was around 10:54 for the five miles so I think I'm in pretty good shape to make the goal. I'll keep you updated from time to time on my training.
If you've been on every diet imaginable, try some of the things that worked for me. Let me know how it works out for you.
I did something similar beginning January 1, 2006 but not near as drastic as what Jared did. At one time, I weighed in the neighborhood of 240 pounds. That wouldn't have been so bad if I was about 6'10" but I'm only 5'10" and trust me, it wasn't pretty. I tried the Atkins Diet at one time and got down to about 205 but couldn't stay with the reduction in carbs and ballooned back up to about 225 by January 1, 2006. It was at this point that I decided I had to do something.
The NBC show "The Biggest Loser" had been inspiring to me as the people on the show were able to not only change their physical appearance but also their psychological approach to food. While I wasn't sure that the rapid weight loss the contestants had was optimal from a medical standpoing, by August of 2006, I was down to 178 pounds. My weight loss was about two pounds per week average and I probably didn't have any single week when I lost more than five pounds.
Many people have asked me how I did it. I wish I could say that there was some magic involved in losing the weight but, as I had heard from my doctor several times, the key was exercise and watching what I ate.
So here's what I learned to help me with the weight loss:
1. It's all about calories in versus calories out. Your body needs calories to function so there's no way you can cut them out completely. For me, the number of calories I consumed in a day was 7 times my then-current weight. So for example, when I was 200 pounds I set my target for 1400 calories a day. There's no reason to get carried away with it - if I ate 1500 calories one day, I'd try to eat only 1300 the next. As long as I averaged the target amount for the week, I was happy and able to lose weight.
2. Fat calories definitely count. I was religious about reading labels. If the percentage of fat calories to total calories was more than 30 percent, I didn't eat it.
3. Cardio workouts were a must. I tried to burn 500 calories a day by working out at the YMCA. Why 500? Because it take 3,500 calories burnt to lose one pound. If I burnt 500 calories per day, seven days a week, I knew I'd at least lose a pound. I've been a member of the Y for just over five years. I've probably ran a couple thousand miles in that time and biked five to six thousand miles.
4. Strength workouts are much more important than I ever thought because when your muscles are repairing themselves after a workout, it raises your metabolism. With an increased metabolism, more calories are burnt. I lifted weights no more than every other day because your muscles need a day off to repair themselves. I'd lift one set of 12 reps. If I could get in all 12 reps, I'd raise the amount I lifted by 5 pounds until I got to a point where I couldn't lift 12 reps.
5. You can't diet all the time. I had a goal to eat 20 good meals a week and one bad one, normally on Sunday night. That was the night I'd allow myself to eat chips, a bowl of ice cream or something that wasn't "good" for me.
6. Weigh yourself every day. If I found that I had gained a pound from one day to the next, my workouts were normally a little longer or more strenuous. Weight gain was certainly a motivator for me to get my butt to the Y to get it right back off.
7. When you're hungry - eat! Your body is trying to tell you something. It was not unusual for me to eat a cup of yogurt at 10:00 a.m. after eating breakfast just three hours earlier. I've heard on other diets that you're supposed to eat until you're no longer hungry. For me, I ate until I was satisfied, meaning that sometimes I was still a little bit hungry. At meals, I had to learn when to push away my plate.
8. Learn what a portion really looks like. In these days of supersized everything, I learned that a portion of food is about the size of your fist or a hockey puck. I always made sure I only got one serving spoon of a food on my plate and no more.
For what it's worth, my current weight is normally in the upper 180's but I'm training for a half marathon in May so I'd guess I'll probably get down into the 170's again. My "long run" day is normally on Saturday and I'm up to five miles on those days right now following Hal Higdon's (www.halhigdon.com) half-marathon training plan. I'm running the race with another surveyor who is the past president of the Indiana Society of Professional Land Surveyors. We're not in it to race with the Kenyans but basically our goal is to finish in under two and a half hours. That's about an 11:24 per mile pace and today I was around 10:54 for the five miles so I think I'm in pretty good shape to make the goal. I'll keep you updated from time to time on my training.
If you've been on every diet imaginable, try some of the things that worked for me. Let me know how it works out for you.
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