pre-weekend activities...

enjoyed a rare work outing and took in a saints baseball game last night with two of our vendors, insight, and lan desk. free food and drinks, a little schmoozing and some baseball. hard to beat.
tonight taking the family to a slice of shoreview, right directly across the street from where i work. it's booths, a carnival with some mini-rides, food, etc. usually a pretty good time.
looking forward to what will hopefully be a pretty quite weekend.
hyperlink overload! more later...

new look...

well, there's nothing really very extreme about this makeover. just decided a fresh look was in order. as you can see, i basically changed the visual theme of this site, made a few changes here and there but the content is pretty much the same. any thoughts?? good? bad? indifferent? let me know if you come across any broken links as i'm sure they are out there. i know of a few tweaks i'll need to make time permitting. again, i didn't test this with every browser known to man at every resolution but i think we'll be fine. poke around, see what you think. more later...

paying for it...

as mentioned i played in pretty much an all-day (5 game) softball tournament this past saturday, and omg am i sore! we actually won the thing, (30-some teams) it was pretty amazing. it was fun to play with some of the guys i haven't seen in like 10 years or more. i thought i performed adequately, especially for the fact that i haven't played since last october. i was glad not to embarass myself anyway :-)there was a sizable storm that blasted through in the morning but by late afternoon, the hot temps and humidity arrived in full-force. hung out for awhile afterwards and bonded with some guys i probably won't see again for awhile. all in all, it was a good day and almost worth all of the pain i am in right now.
once again, i am toying with the idea of giving the site a little visual make-over. i try to keep it once a year, (but i get easily bored) and i last updated the look last november. got a couple of ideas but probably end up modifying a generic blogger template and just going from there.
more later..

swing of things...

the summer of '05 rambles on... some of you may know i used to be a pretty avid softball player. there was a time 10-15 years ago, where it wasn't unusual for me to play 2-3 nights a week (usually double-headers) and tournaments 1-2 weekends a month. i've played asa, usssa, and all the different levels.
these last couple of years my increasing age, and waning skills, time, & interest have pretty much reduced that to almost nothing. that said, i always find time to play in a fall league that usually starts up in august. planning to do that again this year. also, i have been asked to play in a tournament this weekend. gauranteed 4 games. now, i have not swung a bat since last fall, and have only thrown a couple of times. should be interesting....the good news is that this is sort of "for fun" meaning, not the level of competition i used to play at. it's a group of older guys i used to play with way back when, just getting together for old times sake & have some fun. we'll see how it goes.
soccer ended for the girls last night. as glad as i am that they participated i can't say i'm disappointed that it's over. it was monday-wed every week there for quite a few weeks in a row. it got to be a little much but i'm still glad they played. i know they learned a lot about the fundamentals, developed some skills and made some friends on their teams. kicking around (no pun intended) the idea of either coaching or helping coach again this fall, if the girls decide they want to play again. we'll see.

look who's turning 10!

today marks the 10 year anniversary of the file compression technology known as "mp3" or "mpeg audio layer 3. in case you have been stranded on a desert island for the last 10 years or have recently come out of a coma, an mp3 is a compressed music file, typically "ripped" from a cd, or downloaded legally or otherwise. books have been written on the topic, and i won't go into the technical details, but let's just say, mp3's (and their various relatives) have changed they way i, and millions of people listen to their music. mp3's have exposed me to tons of other music that i would never normally have a chance to hear. the digital music "revolution" is here and has been here for quite some time. so...happy birthday mp3! i can't believe you'll be driving in 6 years!

the heat is on...

i know, i know, i vowed to never again make the weather a theme in my blog. however, it is worth mentioning that we are experiencing something like our 6th day of 90+ heat in a row. and there's at least 5 more days to go. can't wait to see the nsp bill this month. it give's us minnesotan's something to complain about ya know. too cold in the winter, too hot yadda yadda...thankfully, i don't work in road contruction and my office is fully ac'd. this is also a good warm-up (no pun intended) for our mid-west vacation in august.
the first 3 days of the week are often my busiest. girls have soccer monday, tuesday, and wednesy nights (one more week to go). things usually slow down a little by the end of the week.
more later...

up to speed....

ok, i know i was posting like mad there for awhile. i've left it alone for a few days but thought this would be a good chance to catch up.
enjoyed a fine independence day down at my folks in eagan. we attended the eagan fourth of july parade, pictures of which can be seen here. not a big fan about weather related posts, but it truly was a spectacular day in the weather department. made an attempt to light up some 3 year old sparklers at the house monday night but the results were pretty wimpy.
have a short work-week and taking tomorrow off to play a little golf with my dad.
that's it for now, enjoy your weekend.

last spy sheriff related post...

people, people, i love ya and i want to help but i have been receiving waaaay too many emails on how to fix spy sheriff. i didn't create this fix, i simply used it successfully. so...this will be my final post on the topic.

if you are looking for step-by-step instructions on how to remove spy sheriff and the dreaded "stop" wallpaper. please try one of the following links.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=55&t=22402

http://www.thetechguide.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18353

please do not send me any more emails requesting help. i have provided links to the same steps i used. GOOD LUCK!

my ipod...stripped down to the bone....

ok, i realize that actually admitting to doing this by posting it on my blog is a riduculously geeky thing to do. we won't even mention the fact that i actully got a euphoric high from completing this task successfully. however, as mentioned in a previous post, i purchased a 3rd generation ipod battery replacement, due to the fact that i was barely drawing a 2 hour charge. i charged the battery last night but of course i don't have a feel yet if it will deliver the results it has promised. one things for sure, any new battery will be better than the one i was using! jeff and i replaced the old battery last night and have provided the pictures to prove it. click here to read the full story.