Ready, Steady, Frame

We lost 3 days due to "weather" which would include rain, cold, snow, ice stormy crap, etc. Luckily, we started framing last Friday and the picture is from today. Walls deliver tomorrow and trusses next week. Nothing much else exciting is happening!

I did one mens playoff game last week, but it wasn't very competitive. In light of that, I thought I'd post a referee youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjynbUNlvWU

Enjoy.

-John

Breaking Ground

So I haven't made a post in over a month, but thats because I suck at blogging. The good thing about this is that posts can have more content if you post less. At any rate, I broke ground on our house on Oct. 15th and a week later I had the basement foundation set. I had concrete schedule for this morning, but once the sub-contractor looked at this weather this AM, he wimped out and now the pour will hopefully be in the morning. If we get the basement floor poured tomorrow, we should have the first floor framed and sheated by the end of the week and be on track for dry-in by Thanksgiving. To the left is a picture on 10/15, then one from 10/22.

The basement walls are a product called "Superior Walls" which are pre-cast concrete walls that utilize steel studs and foam insulation with a concrete cast exterior. The walls weigh somewhere around 350lbs/lin ft. at 8'. The basement walls came out on two flatbed trucks and full size crane set them in place. The entire basement had walls up in under 6 hours. More on the house next time..

On the soccer front, the junior high season is over and so I am done coaching for a while. We ended the season with a home game where we tied a tough opponent. The official end of season record was 4-4-2 (W-L-D), which I am told is quite the improvement for the team over last season. The junior high season was a good time and definitely something different. We'll see if I can committ the time to that team again next fall.

As for officiating, the NCAA regular season is coming to a close. I have 3 regular season games this week as well as one playoff game. Then on Nov. 7th I have a double header - quarterfinal playoff games. By the end of this collegiate season I will have driven close to 6000 miles for games and officiated just under 40 games. This is great, but I hope to do close to 70 collegiate games next fall if life allows such. I've also been invited by US Soccer to attend their winter showcase tournament in Lancaster, CA. This opportunity allows me to officiate some of the top youth players in the country alongside many of the best up and coming soccer officials in the U.S. I plan to be in CA from Dec. 4th until Dec. 9th. After that point, I will look for a break from soccer for a while. On that note, I thought I'd post a soccer video from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT6YzJrLbq4

<---- Insane stuff I never will have the skill nor flexibility to do.

-John

Yeap

So it looks like I will start work on our house here in about two weeks. The final committment from the bank came through and we will be closing this next week. I've still been doing a lot of NCAA games, like 3-5 each week, with two tomorrow, and 5 amateur games on Sunday, and another 4 NCAA games next week.

On the fitness front.. I still think getting fit sucks. I've been playing basketball down at the Y 3 times a week with the "Lunch Bunch". Running a paced 4 miles two nights a week, and playing soccer when I get the chance. I'm shooting to run back-to-back 6 minute miles by next March.

Thinking about getting started building the house made me think of tools which made me think of today's youtube goodness. If you like tools and you are a man, you should enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWEISlPn_FM

It should be safe for work at any rate.. it is on youtube after all.

-John

Game on!

So the college soccer season is in full swing here in PA now. I've run a couple of lines on Div II & Div III games. Yesterday I ran the center on a Div III game and today on a Div II game and all went well. Thankfully NCAA games pay fairly well here as it is the only work that I am currently doing that is making me any $$$. However, I am traveling on average 80-100 miles each way per game. Sarah's new car, only 14 months old, is over 26K miles already. We will likely buy another car that doesn't drink gas like the Germans drink beer, or perhaps I will get a motorcycle. I will not, however, get a MOPED like our friends the Christensen's are considering. If I ever get a MOPED, someone please run me over. In keeping with the SNL skits theme, enjoy one of the best, if not THE best, Will Ferrell skit ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhSkRHXTKlw

Yes, the famous "Blue Oyster Cult" and "cowbell"

-John

I thought I never would..

.. get into blogging, that is. But then I tought, 'Hey, if Doogie Hauser could use a computer to keep a little record of his TV life, why can't I?' Of course, I'm not Doogie Hauser and I don't have interesting things to write like he did, nor do I have an interseting life as a TV ER doc. In the case that you want to waste your life reading my blog, have at it.

For some reason I thought about old SNL skits the other day and found my favorite on youtube so I thought I'd post it. This if by far the best version, though not the original which had Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, since it has a mess of cameos by everyone from Pamela Anderson to Jack Nicholson himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaYLdFE7s9Y

-John