tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64096822024-02-19T20:54:02.715-06:00Life, the Universe, and EverythingRandom web sites and thoughtsStevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05332238140198696666noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-53513380884798076782011-11-22T22:33:00.001-06:002015-09-03T12:32:27.603-05:00Scout GearHere are some items that I have purchased for use on Scout outings that I would recommend to others:
Sleeping Bag -- The Suisse Sport Ultra Compactable Sleeping Bag has been great. Rated as a +30 degree bag, it can be comfortably used in spring, summer, and fall. (For winter camping, consider a bag rated for +15 degrees, or use a +30 degree bag and add a fleece liner to the inside.Steve Whitcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11742886903846849490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-7407356306930340442010-02-06T23:56:00.000-06:002010-02-06T23:56:48.956-06:00PicturesI am taking some time this weekend to scan in a bunch more old(er) family photos. So far, I've got about 80 scanned in, but of course I've barely scraped the surface of this box. I've also skipped over a lot of photos, such as landscape photos and pictures taken of vacation landmarks that didn't include anyone we knew. (I figure, if I want to look at the Epcot sphere that badly, I can find an Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-79964060252752203102010-01-01T02:05:00.000-06:002010-01-01T02:05:37.015-06:00Happy 2010!This is just a short post to wish everyone a happy new year. May twenty-ten bring you all the best.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-77855662837113603992009-12-31T13:31:00.000-06:002009-12-31T13:31:24.307-06:00Is it the end of the year already?Wow. Another year gone by. This one has been eventful, but overall a pretty good year. Based on my last blog post (in APRIL!), everyone knows I have a new son, now 8 months old. I think I also covered the fact that we bought a house. Shortly after the baby was born, I was laid off from Genesis, and spent about 3 months on unemployment and taking care of the kids. Since then, I've been Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-43675288301217884552009-04-10T16:21:00.003-05:002009-04-10T16:29:39.027-05:00Picasa web albums issuesApparently EyeFi is having issues uploading images to Picasa Web Albums this afternoon. I've got several more pictures on the camera with Ryan, Grandmas, and Grandpa holding the baby. Those are floating around in cyberspace right now, but as soon as the problems get resolved, they should show up as part of the slideshow in my previous post. Or, click the title of the previous post and it shouldUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-85695223363504366722009-04-10T00:58:00.006-05:002009-04-10T08:37:40.786-05:00Announcing: William Everett Whitcher !!!!!Update: Born at 7:18am on Friday, April 10th, 2009, William Everett Whitcher weighed in at 8lbs, 9oz. He was so excited to come out into the world, the nurses had to hold him in until the Dr arrived. Since then, he's been very quiet, only crying for two brief moments. He's talking a bit though now, while mom fawns over him. He's a beautiful baby boy!Also, this slideshow should update Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-9336371024301819332009-04-09T21:54:00.002-05:002009-04-09T21:57:41.911-05:00The Whitcher Family is about to be 1 bigger!We're expecting William to be born sometime tonight. The battery in the camera is dead (Darn it allison for not putting the battery on the charger after the baby shower!) but as soon as I can get another battery or the charger, I'll be ready to snap pictures of the new baby and put them online for all to see. Well, after he's born, of course.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-12394329265942569752009-04-07T15:14:00.000-05:002009-04-07T15:21:59.922-05:00Baby is happy, healthy, and head down.We're at allison's Dr appt now, waiting for the Dr to come see us. (They always keep us waiting forever here! :( )We've already had the ultrasound, and the tech says William is about 7lbs right now, and right on target. He is also head down, so hopefully he'll stay that way and make things easy.I have decided we sould shoot for him being born this Sunday. That way even though it's not my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-75148378990818426132009-04-07T15:01:00.000-05:002009-04-07T15:13:34.084-05:00I'm in Esc-a-row!Well, we signed our paperwork for the house and mortgage note today, and are officially in debt for the next 30 years or so. Well, officially that is except for the fact that all the papers were dated for Thursday, due to the delay I mentioned in the previous post. Still, it's all done on our end, and we should have keys in hand by noon thursday.Now, cleaning, painting, fixing, and moving, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-35899409872273748122009-04-04T00:44:00.001-05:002009-04-04T00:44:19.748-05:00Home Ownership Delayed. . . Again.We had an appointment scheduled to close on our house Tuesday morning, and it finally seemed like all of the barriers had come down, all of the glitches rolled out, and we were actually going to own a house by Tuesday afternoon. I knew it was too good to be true… Today I got a call from Joyce at the attorney’s office where they are handling my closing.  It seems there was a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-33885005731565473462009-04-04T00:33:00.001-05:002009-04-04T00:33:12.235-05:00Taking Care of BusinessThis evening I took time to stop in to two area businesses.  Neither visit went exactly perfect, and yet I left the two stores feeling very different about the experiences. The first trip was to Benny’s Cycle Works in Silvis.  A little bit of background is is probably in order to explain why I was there.  When I had picked up my bike from the service department nearly two weeks Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-38927538666847024692009-04-01T04:29:00.002-05:002009-04-01T04:30:58.188-05:00Google's new featureEvery year on this day, Google announces a new application or feature. Some of the past few years have had pretty amazing announcements. This year, it's Artificial Intelligence smart enough to even reply to your emails for you!http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.htmlUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-39909702352518243052009-03-24T22:01:00.005-05:002009-03-24T22:22:43.158-05:00My WishListOkay, I'm not posting this to drop hints or be pushy, just because I've had a couple of people asking lately what I want for my birthday. Now, there are lots of great ideas, stuff for my bike, stuff for the house, etc, but for those who just want a simple list of things I want that they don't have to think about, I'm posting a link again to the wishlist I have setup on amazon. If you click the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-61938281860841666332009-03-24T16:29:00.003-05:002009-03-24T16:35:53.906-05:00Share and Share AlikeOne of the websites I visit most, probably more than any other, is Google Reader. If you're not familiar with it, Google Reader is a web based RSS reader. In plain Dnglish, that means it grabs all the stories from my favorite websites, and puts them together in one place. It's easy to use, and let's me go to one site to skim hundreds of headlines and part or full articles each day, from 50 or Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-55011565992210047882009-03-16T09:10:00.005-05:002009-03-16T09:44:00.847-05:00Wii Users: Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit $119 Today onlyAmazon has the Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit for $70 off regular price today in their gold box deals. $119 includes the game, guitar, drums, and microphone, and free shipping. (Free 2 day if you have amazon prime, super saver shipping otherwise.)Update: The Guitar Kit for wii is also on sale right now, as a lightning deal, for $59.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-82874853023779738732009-03-12T10:39:00.002-05:002009-03-12T10:50:42.948-05:00GrandCentral grows up! (Now known as Google Voice)Some of you may know I'm a big fan of the GrandCentral service, and have been using it for some time. Because there hadn't been any word from google about it in a long time, rumors were going around that it might be on the 'chopping block' to get shut down along with some other google services recently. Fortunately, that's not the case.The long delay was in fact due to Google totally rebuildingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-3700906726047394082009-03-12T10:34:00.003-05:002009-03-12T10:39:07.245-05:00More waiting. Can we hurry up and buy the house yet?As of today, we're still waiting for the appraisal to come in for our house. Meanwhile, our Realtor found a lien against the house from the local subdivision association that maintains the community well. It took some digging, but she did get a hold of the president of the association, and found that the bill had been paid, but the lien wasn't released. He's supposed to take care of that todayUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-13720745224250870162009-03-08T00:47:00.001-06:002009-03-08T00:47:03.648-06:00Sweet!Recently, you may have seen commercials on TV for a new non-sugar sweetener, Truvia.  For those who fast forward through commercials with their TiVo, here’s what I’m talking about. I’ve heard of Stevia before (the plant that Truvia is made from), but hadn’t tried it.  With these recent commercials, plus reading a bit of discussion online about it, I went out in search of this new Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-69414102944310702492009-03-06T09:21:00.002-06:002009-03-06T09:27:05.968-06:00Friday!Well, here it is, Friday again. I'm sitting at work, shuffling backup tapes around, and waiting for our banker to call and tell us the Appraisal finally came in. Because we're still waiting for the appraisal, and because HUD wants 7 days notice to schedule the closing, it looks like we probably won't be able to close next week. Still, It's March, less than 3 weeks from my birthday, hopefully Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-46402243323068138822009-03-05T09:53:00.002-06:002009-03-05T10:00:55.581-06:00You've Made a Sale!One thing about moving, it's a great time to get rid of stuff you don't need or use anymore. Getting rid of things, however, doesn't necessarily mean throwing them away. Allison and I have a lot of old books we bought and read years ago, and probably won't read again. Rather than moving all of them to the new house and taking up space, I listed many of the books on half.com. Half is an ebay Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-22592438251201681402009-03-04T08:31:00.004-06:002009-03-04T09:42:26.559-06:00Amazon's Kindle, and app now available for iPhoneI don't know how many of you pay attention to tech news, but lately there's been a lot of focus on the new Kindle 2, Amazon's ebook reader. The first Kindle was pretty impressive, and the new version is even better. With all the great features, and all the recent press coverage, it's hard not to get swept up in the hype and want one. Still, eventually reality sets in. The reader costs $359, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-37889584696257961002009-03-02T15:02:00.001-06:002009-03-02T15:05:17.027-06:00And you thought it cost a lot to fill your gas tank...An article on 'The Consumerist' describes how a man was charged $81 billion dollars (Yes, that's a B) to fill up his 1994 Camaro. Yes, it was clearly a mistake, but try telling the credit card company that. . .Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-42463290020019550042009-03-02T10:15:00.003-06:002009-03-02T10:18:46.706-06:00Free Turbotax Deluxe Federal and State EfileUsing this link, you can use turbotax online to file your taxes for free. This is NOT the 'tax freedom' version that requires under a certain income level. This does apply to both federal and state taxes, and includes efiling. Also, this applies to either the basic or Deluxe editions, where most of these promos are for the basic only.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-56468237653565804742009-03-01T14:34:00.001-06:002009-03-01T14:34:44.394-06:00Cleaning UpOne thing about moving, you find things you’ve not seen for a while.  Allison, Ryan, and I just spent the last hour or two out in the garage, going through boxes of things that we haven’t touched since we moved here about 18 months ago. (Well, Ryan helped a bit, but mostly whined.) Clearly, with stuff we haven’t used in that long, a lot of it gets pitched.  On top of the stuff that we Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6409682.post-85240001752612788652009-03-01T11:55:00.001-06:002009-03-01T11:58:52.752-06:00Crocs 50% 0ff at Amazon TodayI’m not trying to turn this blog into an ad flyer, but I know that some of the people who read this blog like crocs, so I wanted to pass this on.  The Amazon Gold box deal of the day today is Crocs 50% off, starting at $11.49/pair.  If you wear these ugly things, check it out! Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0