Week 10 - Fall

I kept saving this post title until the week that I thought it was appropriate. Well, if there was a fall week this year, this was it. The weather was really hot through the Indian summer part of the early week and then snapped down to the 50s with some clear skies and heavy dews. Needless to say, this was a weekend of great yardwork that I owe thanks to Chris for helping me with. We dug up an 8' birch tree and transplanted it to the pasture. Chris also burned up a lot of the scrap hedgeapple from behind the house and the concrete pad is much cleaner now. Earlier this week, my wife and I moved a lot of the leaves out of the hard. Unfortunately, this is a failing endeavor as each time we finished, we awoke to a fresh carpet of brown and yellow. She is considerably more adept with the leaf blower than I am, so we ended up in a job pattern where I would rake up piles of leaves and move them to a giant collection in the pasture while she would blow another section into a pile. All in all, the outside looks better than it did last week but, as always, there is still so much to go. The fence is done so the rush is now on to get some sheep out to graze before the grass is completely dead.

The birch tree in its new location.

Betsy is also very excited about this weather.

My Spartans pulled off an OT win this week and while the odds are against them, they can still salvage their season with some limited honor. As Dantonio said, "We're just playing one game at a time." That's really all they can do. Meanwhile, OSU has finally dominated up to the top after a rousing defeat of Penn State.

My hard cider bubbling up beside the newly bottled pear wine.

On Sunday night we bottled the pear wine and then early this week we transferred over the hard cider. I have to say that the cider looks fantastic. It was alive and very bubbly when we made the transfer and foaming in the new glass container. It is probably the first time that I've made the transfer this early and on time, and I can tell that we are definitely doing things right. The pear wine tastes really good, with some bubbles and a bit of sweet to it. Hopefully as it ages it will only get better. Based on the sugar content, I still have some concern of corks blowing out down the road but there is only one way to find out. I'm not sure why I worry so much about the quality of my products... while doing some reading, I dug up this article of a guy who brewed beer with yeast living in his old beard. Gross!

My wife showed me how to slip political brochures into door handles.

Sunday morning we went out on the Pat Tiberi bus. Despite a pretty rainy and cold day with the Hurricane Sandy weather changes afoot, the Tiberi trip was a pretty good time. We met some people with mutual friends and also got to know a lot of close-minded, self-privileged whiners. Those people aside, we really enjoyed talking to Pat and it is really good to know that there is a politician out there still concerned with representing his people. Unfortunately, with all the weather, we didn't get to drop as much literature door-to-door as we had hoped, but I did learn quickly from my wife how to get the flyers folded and inserted in stormdoor handles in under 2 seconds. I learned a new skill from her this weekend.

That evening we went down to the wonderful zoo for their last night of Boo at the Zoo. It was cold and rainy as I had already mentioned, but that just kept us closer together as we walked around, ate free candy and looked for animals with a spark of energy. All the bears were asleep, as were the fish in the water. It's very fascinating to me to see outdoor fish so close to the glass and holding their position so steady in the water. Sometimes I wish that I could float so easily in the water and move so gracefully. We also saw the largest elephant in North America, Hank, and his lady friend and the baby elephant. The zoo has been working on their elephant breeding program, so he was just brought in to hopefully bring about another baby elephant. Speaking of babies, there were some baby bats hanging upside down in the Asia display. I'd never seen bats so small.

One of the fish sitting in the water.

Python at the Asia exhibit.

Hank the elephant (right).

Fall brings about such crisp weather which leads into the cold, wet nights. I love coming home and cuddling up on the couch next to my wife. In fact, that's where I'm headed off to right now. Have a good week!

Special Topic - Politics

With the elections just 8 days away, I thought I would share my brief summary of politics - what I think, why I care, and how I keep from going crazy. Regardless of your political party affiliations or religious background, I hope that you can appreciate my point of view and allow me to explain my background on the issues. I've spent my fair share of time around the world and it has opened my eyes to issues we have here in America and all of the possible solutions to them that we are too close minded and "bipartisan"to ever fix. Americans are burned out on politics and half of running for office has turned into dragging people to their precious liberty of actually casting a ballot. Damn are we ungrateful and lazy.

I should warn you that if Ron Paul was running in this election, I would vote for him. For those of you who left my blog because of that sentence, good riddance. It's your subjective type that keeps us in the fatal loop. It is frustrating to me that in today's America, to vote for any candidate except for one of the two who has a lot of campaign money, is to "waste your vote" as so many of my friends have told me. Instead, I prefer to look at which candidate best matches my views on the issues and vote for them. Thankfully, to make this easier my wife has dug up "isidewith.com". This website queries you on your views and then reports back your most aligned candidate. Mine was Gary Johnson. Who? Yeah, exactly. Unfortunately for the guy, his Libertarian party is not currently giving away signs for free so I won't be displaying one in the front yard, but he does have our votes.

So what causes all this political burnout? For me, it's the phone calls. Our house rings every night with misinformed Democratic telemarketers trying to force to see who we're voting for in Florida. Too bad we don't live there. And it's not just one party... the only reason the Republicans don't call me any more is because I told the last lady (3 weeks ago) that if they ever called me again I wouldn't vote for them. Coming from a registered Republican, that's saying a lot. And it's not just the phone calls. Negative TV and radio ads barrage my ears day and night. I fall asleep to it. I sit in traffic jams with it. I watch comedy shows which won't even leave politics alone. Trust me, there's not enough comedy in the world to glaze over a 75% negative presidential campaign ad season. This is ridiculous. Why can't we go back to the old days where people debated on the issues and voters used their brains to pick a candidate. Both parties and all their PAC cronies use so much propaganda you would think we were the Slavs during the Cold War.

To avoid the political burnout, I decided to try something new this year. I signed my wife and I up for a bus tour with the only political candidate that we like: Pat Tiberi. Pat is one of the true representatives out there. Like the good old days, he truly believes in representing his district in DC. He testifies on our behalf and uses personal from his constituents in every issue he discusses. He takes the time to connect with the people in his district and learn what is really important to them. This is why his re-election is really not in doubt, and also why I volunteered my wife and I to go out this past weekend and walk around on his behalf. I just wish that more politicians would take more time to know and represent their people rather than their sponsors. It's because of this that I often debate running for office. I have a respect for those true servants of the people, the ones who give up their livelihoods to represent the unrepresented in our capitals and legislative bodies. I'm not sure I could ever give up that much time myself. But on the flipside, I am so sick of being forgotten and ignored, while fought over and patronized. I just want a break from all of this and I'm not sure how we'll ever get one unless someone like me stands up and takes the initiative.

So here's what I would do if I could be the one in charge...

First off, we need to make better use of our prisoners. I'm morally against the death penalty (it's also a cheap way out), but life in prison is way too good to people. We need to threaten them with real work for the rest of their lives. There are plenty of jobs out there that we can put people to that they would be able to perform without danger to the community while at least paying for their room and board with the government. Along these same lines, I believe that if we're going to hand out welfare checks anyhow, we might as well pay people to perform a job for the government and increase government or civil service contributions with the money that we're giving away. And IDs should be issued for food handouts. People should be more restricted on what they can get with taxpayer money. If I'm paying for someone else's dinner, I at least want to know that they are getting appropriate nutrition with it so that I also won't have to be paying for their healthcare.

Second, with foreign policy, we can stay the course. Foreign occupation is unnecessary and a long-term problem for us. Instead, we should be tactical with handling of those who are wrongdoers while limiting our time spent in foreign countries. I wouldn't want police patroling outside my house every night just because there's one bad guy who likes to speed past there once a week. I think it's the same with military occupation of other countries. We can deal with dangers to our country while not forcing ourselves upon the people. It's no wonder that they're tired of having us there. If we moved faster and stronger we wouldn't be taken for granted by our allies and we wouldn't be taken as pricks by civilians in aggressor countries.

Third is taxes. I'm so sick of hearing about taxing them or taxing me. Everyone should pay taxes. Self-employment opportunities don't pay taxes well. To fix this, let's try random audits of self-employment filings. If everyone pays the same percentage of taxes, I'm fine with that. This is the land of opportunity, not the land of get whatever you want until you make $100,000. And since I'm headed that way, what about education? I don't think we have a problem with enough people going to college. No, I think we have a problem with enough quality people going to college. Trust me, I've seen them in the classes I TA. What we need to do is invest our loan support money into grade schools instead. If we can build up education at this level, we can increase intellectual growth in our students through highschool. If they learn in highschool what people used to learn in highschool, the diploma would again have the value that we have inflated to a community college degree now. Rather than inflate education, I would prefer to decrease our educational statistics and instead increase the quality of education provided to kids.

People tell me that things are just not that simple. Well, I have trouble believing that. We've made things far too difficult for ourselves and if we don't snap out of it, America will be outsourcing our Obamacare medicine to China and then paying interest on it via imaginary monopoly cash from a couch at a European McDonald's where we reside on disability. People need to stop complaining about how hard everything is and get back to work on making things better. Who cares if it doesn't go perfectly as planned? If we don't try to fix things we know what the end result will look like.

Week 9 - Herefords

There's a lot of headliners from this past super busy week, but the biggest one I will have to keep secret for just a little while longer. I know that I didn't come across excited, but mostly because it scares me shitless and the excitement is still struggling to overcome the gut-bottom feeling of "Oh Shit".

The time has literally flown by and I feel like I can't get near enough done. My hydrogen measurements are finally starting to run smoothly and the machine is more responsive. I've got a system down which can pump out data and save me time. We still don't know what units are really being reported, but that's an after-the-fact problem, right? I also bottled the pear wine this past weekend with my wife's help and apart from being a little sugary, I think it should be just fine. Hopefully the sugar fermentation after the sealing doesn't lead to a bunch of blown tops, but the stuff looks good and tastes pretty good as well. For those of you out there who are wondering, you can use corks in standard liquor bottles - they have the same aperture as standard wine bottles. We finished our first puzzle together, and I have learned just how much she loves puzzles.

Our first puzzle together. As it turns out, my wife LOVES puzzles.

Wednesday was the OSU Horse Judging Team's debut back into judging. Although we fielded some kids last year, this was the first year with a team and I'm really proud of the kids. I help with the team from a reasons standpoint and was glad to see a couple kids place in reasons with all sets over the average for the contest. Congratulations to the team for placing 10th overall and this is only the start. You can check out a press release here.


Friday night, we camped out at the family farm. With the wind and cold, and rain, it was a pretty rough night. We ran around shooting each other with tactical airsoft in the dark and my older brother ran through a fence we never knew was out there. Dad tried a new method to keep us all dry this year with a tarp stretched over the ground rather than a tent set up. Cold, but moderately dry given the rainstorm. As always, the fire-cooked breakfast in a Dutch oven makes everything worth it. This weekend was truly a food weekend, as we went to Schmidt's on Sunday night to celebrate my sister's and my birthdays.

Celebrating as Scmidt's like we did in the old days.

No, the main announced headline is the sadness up in East Lansing from this past week - the End of a Legacy sale. In the ultimate wisdom of administrative staff as MSU, the Hereford (pronounced Her-fird, unless you're from the shire of origin in the U.K.) herd was determined to be no longer essential to the university. Now, the MSU Herefords have a long history of greatness in shows across the United States and beef cattle greats like Dr. David Hawkins (and OSU grad) have helped develop a strong genetic pool which has led the breed for decades. Certainly, it was a sad day when we all had to say farewell to the bulk of the herd as they were dispersed this past week. I have fond memories of watching the show out at Kansas City in '07 and showing Herefords at the Little I in '07 and '08. I only hope that these actions can help save the Ag programs at MSU and continue the prestige of the academics and experiences at my alma mater. Click here for a reflection on the meaning and impact of the sale.

Me and 2 of my best friends at the 2007 Little International.

MSU Block & Bridle Club with award-winning Hereford Heifer at the 2007 American Royal.

This past weekend was also notable due to 2 B1G football games. Ohio State pulled off an OT win that was absolutely fantastic and had the campus rocking. With the cold weather and an exhausting overnight campout the previous evening (Redneckness at its best), it was nice to sit on the couch and watch the game. Unfortunately, my Spartans lost the big game of the year to those damn Wolverines up north in the Whore.. Which leads to the joke I heard on the radio with a new WNCI parody: "Why do they throw a sack of manure at a UM wedding? To keep the flies off the bride." No love for that team and school's haughty attitudes towards the "lower callings".

In class we were talking the past week about energy expenditures during walking or running. As it turns out, a human will spend more energy walking at 5 mph than jogging, regardless of how slow the jog actually is. Here all this time I've been thinking that Olympic speedwalking isn't a real sport (and perhaps it still isn't) but in reality, the physical exertion is probably greater than those people running some of the longer races. That's amazing. We also learned about the genetic propensity for obesity which I have been fighting for a long time, but it turns out that from the standpoint of heritable energy storage and probability for increased or decreased PPAR expression, there is some fact behind the myth of genetic obesity. Unfortunately, that's not true for me - but I've committed to losing about 35 pounds and this time it's going down. I'll keep you posted - it won't be easy.

My inspiration for today comes from a microbiologist's art. This guy used his knowledge of bacteria to create beautiful art. The method can be more accurately described here, but briefly... The guy took bacteria of different colors and grew them. Then he used a negative plate to block the potential living cells for color on the "print", while killing the exposed cells with UV rays. Then he sealed the "print". I've included a photo below. Again, very awesome and innovative!

Image created with bacteria. How cool is that? Credit

Week 8 - Fences

The day has finally come when our fence is being put in. I was taking my good old time with the trees until the middle of last week when I came home to a bulldozer and trailer with fenceposts parked behind the house. Excitement mixed with anxiety as I realized that I still had a bunch of trees which needed to be taken down. I started chopping away like a madman, going all Gears of War as I curbstomped branches off the downed trees rather than taking the time to cut them neatly. Good news is that it's the start of a new week and all the necessary trees are down. As it turns out, they didn't quite have enough posts to do the job and they were held up before starting.

That's where the moral of this story comes in - always make sure that you have communicated everything 3-4 times to a contractor before you commit to a project. When the guy came out, my wife talked to him while I paced off the property with his assistant to get a quote, etc. Despite clearly pacing off corners and discussing gate locations, when the contractor returned 2 months later (despite a 2 week promised turnaround), he was unsure of the actual location of the fence. Worse so, he was pretty sure of the location and his idea of where it belonged was incorrect. I stuck around the following morning to wait for him and walk the line, and it was a good thing I did. Otherwise we would have all been disappointed by how much he had accomplished when I got home from work. However, problem is solved and I have clarified the pathway of the fence. They are working on it as we speak (I hope, finally not rainy today) and we should be able to start moving animals in this weekend. I'm very excited to have animals around again, they make me more relaxed and cheery.

The moral of the story coming so early in the post, you can guess that it's been a pretty simple week. Dad was right, chopping down trees  really is an equation of 1 hour of chainsaw to 10 hours of clean-up. There is so much crap around the place now, but that means we get to have a few bonfires and the weather is so perfect for it right now. Cool crisp mornings, sunny days which just barely ease the nip in the wind, and dewey, damp evenings with dark silence of approaching winter. I love me some October!

In other news, the phone that I dropped last week in a toilet is cleaned and finally dried enough to be working again. Lesson has been learned; add "Don't text while peeing" to "Don't call someone in the shower" "Don't text in the shower" "Don't call in the rain" "Don't text in the rain" and "Don't leave your phone near the dishes". Needless to say, I think I've learned all these great (and no-brainer) lessons with cheap phones, but I'm finally ready to stop neglecting the value of the phone and upgrade to the new generation. It's time to get a smartphone. My plan comes for upgrade this November, so I'm starting to count down the days until I can check my email when I receive it rather than be the one guy at the meeting who didn't know the meeting was cancelled.

My Spartans lost again this week and they've officially blown it. As long as they win out from here, they still have a good chance to go to the Rose Bowl, given that the Leaders Division player will likely be 3rd best and that Iowa still has to play Michigan. All pressure is now on the MSU vs scUM football game this Saturday at 3.30 and I am so excited. If nothing else comes to fruition this year, I can still gloat in a 5th straight win against the other guys down in the whore, something that's never been done before.  Speaking of football, my fantasy team continues to be blown out of the water by everyone else in my league. I'm living proof that the automated draft can kick your ass clean back to the stone age. There is just no way to trade yourself out of the black hole.

Friday night, my in-laws treated us to a night of beer tasting here on campus. It was a very relaxing way to end the week, and as always, the barrel aged beer was my personal favorite. We had a good time of food and fellowship for a couple of hours and tried probably 10 different beers, including a probiotic, gluten-free mango tea beer which tasted pretty good in all honesty. The cranberry cider was awesome too, as was the Belgian blonde imitation. The Belgian-style takes me back to the first few weeks in the Netherlands when I was hooked on that type of beer. We hit it pretty hard in Leuven when we went down there - but a story for a different day.

I might have created a monster in my sister with Gears of War. I don't play a whole lot, but I would consider myself to be pretty good at the game. I have great statistics and those can't lie when you play by yourself against the computer. I don't have a current Xbox Live subscription, but I regularly tear it up and the computer is pretty vicious towards me at this point. Well, I introduced my sister to the game and all of her pent up violence came out very quickly. Next thing I knew, she was lighting up waves of drones on fire (pure luck) which egged her on to running out into the open field and I was obligated to follow her. She sure knows how to keep things exciting, but at the end of the game I found her trying to keep on playing. If she fails out of undergrad now I will personally blame myself.

This is essentially how she looked during the whole game. Convincingly dangerous but unpredictable.

I'm headed off to the lab until next week. My method of measuring hydrogen continues to over-saturate the machine, blocking measurements for 24 hours, and I continue to get aggravated about it. Here's to hoping this week brings some real results which can at least be read.

Week 7 - Hedgeapple

The biggest highlight of this past week? We dropped a tree on our house. For those of you city slickers, dropping trees is slang for cutting them down. For those of you who are wondering how I manage to drop one on my own house - it's really easier than you think. Let me explain.

When we first looked at our house back in February, we were blown away by all of the tree cover around the place. Trees do great things for houses, such as decreasing heating bill, shading our grass so that it survived further through this summer's drought, bringing in lots of critters close to the house and generally beautifying the area. Unfortunately, having trees also means lots of leaves (why I don't need a gym membership in the fall), branches falling in storms (last week of June - perfect example), lots of spiders around the house (no idea why, but I hate it just the same), and lastly, risk of damage from falling trees. You see, as trees get older, they might not have grown down the straight path in their youth (how many of us do?), so the weight of all the mature branches continues to tilt them exactly where you don't want them to go, like a drunk tripping towards High St. This was the case of a Hedgeapple tree leaning over the garage when we moved in.

Betsy staring into the wind with her ears blown back.

All summer, I'd look out the back and say it needed to go, but I kept putting it off. Finally, on Friday night, after another beautiful (yet windy) walk on the dam with the dog, I convinced my wife to help me get the tree down before dinner. I wanted to spend the weekend dropping trees at risk to our new fence (coming soon) and figured I'd start with the tree on the property that made me the most nervous. If you aren't aware of Hedgeapple trees, they're really quite friendly. The wood is so dense that it causes chainsaws to spark and burns so hot you can't get close enough to enjoy. It is popular for fenceposts because it never rots or bows because it is so freaking strong. Oh, and did I mention the 2-inch thorns which are a guaranteed infection if poked by one? Lovely tree. Only good thing is that the fruit seems to scare off spiders in houses, even though spiders love to live in trees. It's the ultimate Halloween tree.


Everything was going fine through the first drop. The tree had grown in 2 halves, both of which has curved along the house and were leaning over the house. An additional concern was the power lines which ran to the house across the more logical falling path, so we used a rope to pull the trees in the opposite direction - towards a chain-link fence that we're pretty ambivalent about. First half down, and I am cutting through the second half, sparks flying, when the tree starts to go the wrong way. Mind you, we have cut a wedge to gently remind it where to go, but when I cut, it was so heavy on the one side that it pulled my wife off the rope pulley system she had set up and pinched my saw. Both of us were then frantically pulling on this rope to prevent it from falling on the house. The only thing we accomplished was reducing the momentum. It was getting dark, and we had dropped a tree on our garage.

The rest of the story is really pretty boring. I went up on the roof with the only other cutting tool I had, a Coleman camping hatchet, and cussed and chopped the ever-living $#!? out of the thing. I don't have a good relationship with the tree, given many previous encounters resulting in infections, etc., and I made sure the tree knew about it. A lot of hard work from the both of us and the tree was diced and off the house, with the chainsaw freed. It was only 8.30 pm. Thus began a weekend of heavy work and heavy caloric consumption resulting in 4 more trees down and diced. Hopefully by the end of this week I will have the rest done and the fence guy will have finally shown up. Once the wood is dried there will be one heck of a Halloween party at our place.

Only picture in the dark that I have to prove there really was a tree on our garage.

Firewood consuming the bulk of my weekend, I spent the rest of my time writing papers for classes this coming week. To be blunt though, with a second degree in the bag, I'm not spending a lot of time worrying about classes or grades anymore. Earlier in the week, my wife and I played some pretty comical tennis. Neither of us are especially good at the sport even though we're familiar with the concepts. I seemed to have perfected the lob, while she lays a good first serve. Other than that, we were shamefully terrible. Still, it's fun to get out and exercise, something we are trying to do more these days in an effort to lose weight (results still pending). This was the motivation for the walk Friday night over the dam as well. We saw a snake and lots of dog bags not cleaned up by their owners, and walked through a brisk wind which was putting up whitecaps on the reservoir.

My wife sent this to me, saying, "This is you". Everyone just has a different style of learning.

Close-up with camera-phone of baby snake on walk.

My birthday has officially come and passed now, with celebration on both sides of the family. Mine came over to the house Wednesday night to eat pizza and watch the Reds. We had a great time until I made the mistake of turning on the first presidential debate. My family has definitely split into many branches of political thought since I moved out of the house. We will not be talking politics again. Then on Saturday, we went out to my in-laws to pick pumpkins, eat chili and hang out. My Spartans barely pulled out a win against Indiana and made me further glad that I sold all of my tickets before the season got started. Huge thanks to the in-laws side of the family for getting me totally set up for wood season. A couple of axes, a maul, sledgehammer and 2 wedges will all be broke in this fall as we cut our first firewood together for the new house.

Every so often there comes a time where you owe an apology, but after giving it, you still don't feel better. I know I'm forgiven, but my heart still aches knowing what an ass I was and that I can't take the hurt away. This is even worse if the apology goes out to my wife. We've put each through it over the years, but this one was my turn I guess. Everyone is talking about the great football game and marching band performance (both were amazing on film), but we never got to see it and that is my fault. I feel so horrible. She lives for football season and I ruined the second biggest game of the year. I hope I never make her feel so unhappy again. I love her with all that I am, so desperately, and I hate knowing I ruined what should have been a really great day for her. It's a day that I'll never get back but I will use it to focus on being a better husband and a better best friend in the future. I love you.

Week 6 - Virus

Thankfully, this does not pertain to a computer virus. For the most part, I keep my computer pretty well protected from viruses. I've picked up a few over the years, but mostly when someone in the office uses a computer for purposes not publicly acceptable and then when my flash drives plug into the USB port and then into mine the wonderful coding spreads. No, the past 2 weeks my wife has been pretty sick. I'll spare you the details, but she had a bad case of the common cold. It was pointed out to me that I should avoid contact, but being married generally guarantees you will be exposed despite your best efforts. Luckily, I have developed an intense immune system over the years that can rock and roll with the best that evolution has to throw at me. I'm like Madagascar or Cuba in Pandemic 2, which is a pretty fun waste of time if you have some to lose - tough to infect and tougher to kill (so far, anyways).

Betsy out at the reservoir.

To get her out of the house for a break, we took a beautiful fall walk on the local dam in the evening at the beginning of the week. With the crisp breeze off the water and leaves just starting to change, I felt like we could even breathe relaxation. Of course, Betsy's excitement kept me grounded in reality, as she was trying to meet every new dog she saw. Sometimes she still seems like a little puppy even though she's 3 1/2 years old now. It is hard to believe that just 2 years ago we didn't have her in our family. She fits right in and makes us so happy; I never want to lose her.

This past week flew by very quickly with so much to get done but nothing really accomplished. For example, I managed to get all the laundry done but not folded. I got the dishes washed but never put away. Little things kept coming up which turned into big things, which in turn took too long and ruined my plan for the evening. One good thing has come about which is a huge time-saver: I found Betsy's magic food. She will absolutely do anything for a piece of bread, including come running when called from anywhere on the property. After spending so much time convincing her to come in, this is a refreshing change which I am willing to sacrifice some people food to keep.

At the end of the week, I took the county 4-H livestock judging team to Omaha for a national judging contest. Packing highschoolers into a mini-van and driving 13 hours each way is not my idea of paradise but they were troopers and very upbeat through the whole trip. We did very well, too, placing 5th nationally as a team which is awesome considering we didn't exist 5 years ago. Hopefully this is just the start of some awesome times to come. I'm so proud of the kids I coach. Also, I'm thankful for the flexible job hours that I have as a graduate student. My advisor just signed off and let me go for the contest without blinking which is why I am determined to get a lot done for him here in October. Hopefully I will have something to show for his trust in me soon.

Three things of note from the trip. First off, never stay in the Baymont on 72nd in Omaha unless it burns down. We checked in and the one room smelled like locker room and the closet smelled like vomit. The girls' room looked like someone took a jackhammer to the bathroom and my room hadn't even been cleaned. When we went to complain at the front desk, another couple said they had 5 rooms which were leaking water from the story above them. The hotel was great about a refund, as I informed them the only price adjustment we would take was zero, and we promptly moved to a Best Western in Bellevue, just outside Omaha. Nice little place.

Second, the team judged in the same arena that the Olympic swimming trials were held. It was amazing to think of there being a swimming pool set down and crowds cheering on Phelps and the gang when we were sitting watching kids judge sheep, cattle, goats and pigs. The fact that there was a rodeo and drunk Diamond Rio fans there the night before also adds to my amazement at the previous functions of the place. Very amazing.

Swimming trials photo. Credit

Ak-Sar-Ben stock show in Omaha.

Last, but definitely not least, we stopped at the American Pickers place on the way back. It is only a mile off I-80 in La Clair, and was totally worth it. There's not a ton to see, but that is why I liked it. It's cool to see where a show takes place and see also that it is still a real junk shop with real people working there. The girl at the register grew up showing sheep and was telling us about how the owners of the place now have to hide from the public stalking them at home since their rise to fame.

Me, outside Antique Archaeology (American Pickers).

Definitely a week to remember with so many highs and also the lows of getting so tired from all the travel and work. Now that the judging season is officially over for us, I can finally enjoy fall in all its glory.