Chris Super's Life in Central Minnesota

Minnesota April Blizzard of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:59:00 +0000

April 11th 2008: Residents of Central Minnesota had a nasty view in the morning. Overnight we got nailed with a nasty April snowstorm. In Sauk Centre we received around 18 inches of new snow. Previously most of the snow had melted, I woke up to 3 foot snow drifts in my driveway.

This snow was wet and very heavy, this in combination with high winds cause multiple large branches to come crashing down. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

April 10th

April 11th

Technorati Tags: Snow, Snow Storm, Blizzard, April 2008, Minnesota

March 2008 in Minnesota

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:55:00 +0000

So I mentioned in the post Winter 2008 Turning Point that I was thinking February 20th was the last day this winter that was going to get below -15 degree F. I was wrong, it is March 7th and it was -19 degrees F with wind chills in the -20s. Winter is not letting its death grip on Minnesota go.

Hopefully soon

Technorati Tags: Central Minnesota, Tempurature, March, Winter, 2008

Winter 2008 Turning Point?

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Well it is February 20th and it is the coldest morning yet this winter at my house. The coldest morning before this morning was -20.8 degrees F. This morning when I left for work it bottomed out at -23.4 degrees F, that is air tempurature by the way not wind chill which is in the -40s. I am hoping this is the last morning that is colder than -15 degrees F. This weekend we are looking for 30s and hopefully a continuing upward trend in temps going into March.

Technorati Tags: Central Minnesota, Tempurature, February, Winter, 2008

Super Bowl XLII

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:54:00 +0000

Last night's super bowl was one of the best I have ever seen. Some years the only thing worth watching are the commercials but this year the game was great. Everyone was expecting the Pats to continue with their out of control scoring. But instead the game was close the whole way through. Even in the 4th quarter I was waiting for the Pats to start rolling, touchdown after touchdown. You have to give most of the credit for the Giants win to the defense. No-one has been able to shut down Brady's offensive as year.

Eli Manning did a great job when it counted on that final drive but without the great Giant's defensive they wouldn't have had a prayer. I think the outcome was perfect, not just because I don't like Tom Brady but I don't think the Pats deserved to win the Super Bowl. Any team that is caught cheating doesn't deserve the Super Bowl or a perfect season, they got what they deserved.

Giants win 17-14

On the commercial note I was not that impressed this year, I mean there were some commercials that were ok but nothing that really blew me away this year. The game action made up for it though.

Technorati Tags: Super Bowl XLII, Giants, Patroits, Tom Brady, Eli Manning

New Water Heater

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:32:00 +0000

So even though I wasn't planning on it I had to get a new water heater. My old one wasn't heating that well, which I was just ignoring, and it decided to spring a pretty good leak in the tank. So I had to pony up some money to get a new one. I try to go green when I can, mostly to save monthly energy expenses, if it help the environment great but I want to pay less every month.

So I went with a tankless water heater instead of a regular water heater. They are about twice as expensive but they never run out of hot water, which is good because I like hot showers and tend you use all the hot water, and they are supposed to have double the life of a regular water heater. They say they should last about 20 years.

Well after getting it installed it was great, I could take a piping hot shower and my wife could take a bath right after without waiting. We did run into a problem with it though. I went to Florida for a business trip and wouldn't you know it, it breaks. I am thinking WTF I just bought this thing. Turns our the installers that put it in didn't do a very good job. They hooked it up with a 1/2" gas line instead of the recommended 3/4" gas line and there was a venting issue as well. Anyway it is working great now and I would recommend one to anyone who's family uses a lot of hot water.

Technorati Tags: Water Heater, Tankless, Hot Water

Infections, Infections, Infections

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:41:00 +0000

So it is almost finished finally. What started out as a nasty little cold turned into a terrible family infection. My wife, my daughter and myself all got colds which turned into a sinus infection and double eye infection for me. My wife got a sinus infection and one eye got infected, my daughter also got a sinus infection. The only one who seemed unaffected was my son until overnight he came down with a sinus infection, an ear infection and a double eye infection.

We are all still on a ton of antibiotics but things seem to be getting better. I don't know what was in the cold we got but it took all of us for a ride. What a horrible week. I actually read that there is a new type of cold spreading throughout the US this year that in known for causing upper respiratory infections. It has caused at least 10 deaths since last year. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.

Technorati Tags: Infections, Colds, Sick, Antibiotics

Outdoor Cat Becomes Indoor

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:24:00 +0000

So I posted this summer about our outdoor cat that had adopted us. He hung out with us all summer and into the fall. He started to live in our garage and was clearly an abandoned cat. He was the nicest outdoor cat we had ever met. My daughter named him Flower and when we were outside he was always there.

It has started to get cold out and winter is on its way. We didn't want to leave him out in the cold over the winter so it was either we bring him to the humane society or we bring him in the house. If we brought him in he would need to be fixed and declawed but if we brought him to the humane society you don't know what would happen. We felt it was worth it to bring him in so we got him fixed and declawed last week.

Technorati Tags: Cats, Adopting, Humane Society

Vikings vs. Bears Game 5 - Win (34-31)

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:50:00 +0000

The Vikings pulled one out! This was a must win for the Vikings, it is a tough year for our division since the Lions and Packers are playing good this year. We need every win we can get. The Bears are coming back from the Super Bowl so it wasn't looking good for the Vikings this year. More things against the Vikings this Sunday was history, we hadn't won in Chicago since 2000.

It was a nail biter all the way, the Vikings made it a little too much in the end. Peterson is the man! Peterson ran for 224 yards in a new Viking's single game record performance. It was only his 5th start in the NFL and he has the all time single game rushing record for the Vikings. Along with that he had 3 touchdowns and a kickoff return that got us in position to win the game. People are talking that Peterson is the best running back in the NFL right now. Good too since that is really the only thing on the offense the Vikings have.

Jackson was ok yesterday, he didn't have any interceptions and no fumbles. He had one 60+ yard touchdown pass but had a rough day otherwise. Seemed like most passes he threw were dropped, granted not all of them were great passes but at the NFL level you have to make those catches.

The Vikings defensive for most of the game wasn't too bad, a few mistakes here and there but pretty solid until the 4 minute mark in the 4th quarter. The Vikings are up by two touchdowns with 4 minutes to go in the game and the defense decides to lay down. The Bears quickly score 2 touchdowns to tie up the game making it look like we were going to overtime. Thank God that Peterson was able to run the final kick return into Bear's Territory and allow Longwell to kick a 55 yard game winning field goal. The field goal in itself was amazing, a career long 55 yarder late in his career.

Hopefully Jackson can keep improving on the passing game since defenses will be focusing more and more on Peterson. The defense needs to play all 4 quarters and hopefully Peterson can carry the team. They have some tough teams coming up.

Go Vikings!

Technorati Tags: Vikings , Peterson , Jackson , Bears , Football

Rain, Rain, Keep it coming

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:31:00 +0000

So after less than 1 inch of rain from May until August, in Sauk Centre, of this year we are finally catching up. The Sauk Lake was low and the Sauk river was terribly low. A couple of weeks ago we got 4 inches of rain and have had a couple of other 1 inch rain events since.

We had quite a weather weekend, on Saturday it got up to 87 with a dew point of 71. That is July weather and was just plan too hot for October. We had a major transition on Sunday. Got up to 73 then dropped from there. Yesterday and overnight we got another 3 inches of rain! We got two storms, one yesterday afternoon and the other last night.

The first storm was a lot of thunder and lightning, some heavy rain but mostly a light rain. The second storm was bigger, thunder shaking the house and sheets of rain that caused flooding in the streets.

What was interesting besides the 3 inches of rain was in-between the two storms we had a power outage for about 35 mins. Not sure what this was from, was before the flooding and was way before the second storm hit. Also our power is provided by the city of Sauk Centre so it shouldn't have been affected by storms elsewhere. If I read about it in the paper and find out I will comment on this post.

Technorati tags: Rain, flooding, Minnesota, Storms

Bush Doesn't Care About Children

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:51:00 +0000

So it doesn't get much lower than denying our children health care. President Bush has decided to veto a bill that would extend healthcare coverage to 4 million kids for an extra $25 billion over 5 years. This is too much money according to Bush. In the same breath he is asking for $200 Billion for part of 1 year for our war in Iraq. Good thing his war is more important than our children.

I am sorry most things Bush does I disagree with but this is over the line. I guess he has no heart and maybe no soul. I hope the Republicans and Democrats in congress can pull together on this issue and throw that veto back in his face. Congress it is time to stand up and get a backbone against Bush. If we can't help our kids what future are we going to have?

AP Article

Technorati tags: Health Care, Children, Veto

Smoking Survey

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:39:00 +0000

Well last night I got a phone call from a phone survey company. Ended up being pretty short for once. They asked one question, have I smoke part of all of a cigarette in the past week. I said no and they ended the survey. I have a feeling this survey is a anti-smoking ban survey. The ban for all work places including bars and restaurants started on Monday. Guess they are looking for ammo to try to repeal the ban next year, they have already said they will try.

I am glad we finally can say good bye to the smoke in bars and restaurants here in Minnesota.

Technorati tags: Smoking, Ban, Bars, Restaurants, Cigarettes

The Fall Switch

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:58:00 +0000

So it is October 1st and winter is coming fast. I took some time this weekend to do the Minnesota garage switch. I moved my lawnmower, racks, and dirt shovels to the back of the garage. I moved the snowblower, and snow shovels to the front of the garage.

I am planning on switching out the oil and firing up the snowblower this week sometime so when the snow does come I will be ready. I put some gas stabilizer in the lawn mower since it doesn't start I can't run out the gas. I need to put some gas stabilizer in my boat's gas tank too and it should be ready for winter.

Even though we may not get any snow until December I want to be prepared for it. Seemed weird pulling out the snowblower when the forecast for the next week is still in the 70s.

Bring on the snow!

Technorati tags: Winter, Snow, Snowblower, LawnMower, Fall

Vikings Game 4 - Lose (23-16)

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:51:00 +0000

Man it gets harder and harder to write about the Vikings with the season they are having. Now this weekend was pretty much what I thought it would be. I really doubted the Vikings could pull it out unless the Vikings defensive had a huge day. They didn't and the Vikings lost.

The Vikings offensive is still nowhere to be found, Holcomb did ok with Jackson still being hurt. We got Chester Taylor back and he was some help. Classic Vikings receivers, dropping balls left and right, some pretty horrible passes. The defense didn't play well again the pass which is what the Packers do.

The Vikings did have a chance to come back in the end of the 4th quarter but that chance was taken away by a terrible no call. That last interception should have been called back because of defensive pass interference. Not saying that the Vikings would have converted on the drive but it would have been nice to let the drive play itself out.

Thankfully the Vikings have a bye next week which should give them time to get healthy again. About the only thing I hope for anymore this year is that the Vikings don't finish last in the division and even that will be tough.

Oh by the way, I am sick of hearing how wonderful Brett Favre is, we know he is a great quarterback and will be in the history books. Every other word out of the commentator's mouths doesn't have to be my God he is amazing. Shut up and call the game. Also if Favre is really that great and the only thing carrying the team what are they going to do when he retires?

On to the next game.

Technorati tags: Football, Vikings, Packers, Favre

Company Paintball

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:05:00 +0000

So I had the most fun I have had in years yesterday, we had a company paintball tournament at crossfire paintball. I believe that we had 24 people show up and we all got rental guns and unlimited ammo.

They had 4 courses at crossfire; speedball, short course with log barriers, short course with plywood barriers, and a 7 acres wooded course. The wooded course was the worst of the 4, they didn't keep that course up at all and it was nothing but heavy brush. The heavy brush included tons of thorns which I crawled through, cutting up my hand and neck.

Speedball was fun, it was a ultrashort course with plastic tubing barriers. You went through a ton of ammo here since you were shooting all of the time, couldn't move much on this course. I ran out of ammo the first time I played this course and ended up picking up paintballs one at a time off the ground and putting them into my gun. Amazingly with one of those ground balls I got Adam right in the head. Also it was a good try when LiLu rushed us in the speed round and was promptly shot over 10 times by 3 of us. Better luck next time.

The other two courses were fun because it was big enough you could run between barriers and have a little more strategy. My favorite course was the plywood barrier because I could actually fit behind the plywood and still see around to shoot.

My favorite round was the final round which was the iron man. If you got shot you just had to go back to the starting point and come back out. You play till you are out of ammo, last team with ammo wins. This is a good round to go all out. In this round I was running between barriers, turned around to slide into the barrier. I didn't get hit but basically went through the barrier ending up on my back which is where I got shot.

Overall it was a great time, I think I shot Adam the most. I got shot most of the time in the head. I wish I had the time and money to play this every weekend.

Some Videos take during:

Particle Board Course (1st Attempt)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7160682515785350728&hl=en

Speed Ball (1st Attempt)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8045813634081767295&hl=en

Speed Ball (2nd Attempt)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2064943413261697333&hl=en

Iron Man

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5737397960163736631&hl=en

Technorati tags: Paintball

Rain Event 9-20-07/9-21-07

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:56:00 +0000

Man what a storm we had on Thursday September 20th. It was a strong thunderstorm; lots of wind, lightening, hail, and rain. When driving home I got within about 5 miles of Sauk Centre and the torrential rain came down. I was driving about 40 mph on I94 and couldn't see anything in around me. Hail was pelting my car and the booming thunder was incredibly loud. Most traffic had pulled over on the shoulder but I kept going because I had to get home.

Once I got into town the streets were flooded, with my little Civic I could feel the water running across the bottom of my car and was just hoping I wouldn't stall out in the street. The home was fine, we are on a big hill so flooding has never been a problem for us. Part of our driveway did get washed away but not too bad. What really shocked me was when I checked my rain gauge. We got over 4 inches of rain!! That is the most rain I remember getting since 2001, lets hope that this storm will mark a new more generous precipitation cycle. I would love ton of snow.

Technorati tags: Rain, Storms, Flooding, Central Minnesota

Vikings Game 3 - Lose (13-10)

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:44:00 +0000

Here we go again, looks to be a tough season for the Vikings. Not like this is news to most Vikings fans. While we all hoped the Vikings would come out and shine most of us knew already in the off-season that this would be a tough year. The Vikings don't really have any offensive stars to take the team to the top of the division. Peterson continues to look great but can't pull all of the load himself, Chester Taylor is still hurt which is a big blow to the offensive.

Jackson was hurt and out this week, we had to go with a backup QB in Holcomb. Holcomb looked pretty good in the 1st quarter but like the rest of the Vikings team got worst throughout the game. The Vikings really looked like they would pull this one out until the 4th quarter. Classic Vikings, play 3/4ths of the game and give it up in the end. I would say that I would put my hopes on Holcomb any day over Bollinger.

If the Vikings want any chance to not finish the season in last place in the NFC Central they need to get healthy. Already after week 2 injurys were everywhere on the Vikings team. Both major offensive and defensive major players were hurt. This is also a classic Vikings problem, they are always hurt. I am keeping my blog entry about this game a little shorter because it really isn't worth talking about.

This coming week is the 1st meeting of the Packers and Vikings for the year. I am not very positive about what is going to happen, the Pack is hot this year and everyone seems hurt on the Vikings team. You never can tell though, when the Vikings and the Packers meet all rules go out the window.

Go Vikes!

Technorati tags: Vikings, Peterson, Holcomb, Football, Packers

Vikings Game 2 - Lose (20-17)

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:51:00 +0000

So what a disappointing game this weekend for the Vikings. I think this is one of the sloppiest games I have seen. Not only did the Vikings have 5 turnovers, but the Lions had 5 turnovers as well. No it wasn't rainy or muddy, it was just a worthlessly played game.

Jackson was at fault for more of the turnovers on the Vikings side, he was trying to force the ball into dangerous places and got burned numerous times. When had had time and took his time he was throwing great passes but was also trying to make things happen when they weren't there.

I am not sure what the offensive game plan was for Sunday and why they went that way. We have a running back in Peterson who had over 160 all purpose yards in week one and they hardly used him this week. Seemed like we tried to put the entire game on Jackson's shoulders and as we all saw he isn't ready for that.

Our defense looked ok, they had a hard time with the starting QB and their no huddle offense. The Vikings had opportunities to win the games but after the game they played didn't really deserve it. Jackson got hurt in OT and Bollinger came out to play, this sealed the game for the Lions. Bollinger is the most worthless backup QB out there, he was worthless last year and this year is not better. The couple of passes he had were wild and ended up dropping a snap for the last turnover that nailed the coffin shut.

It doesn't appear Jackson was hurt bad and will be back in next week, hopefully so will Chester Taylor. I think if the Vikings are going to have any chance this year they need both Chester Taylor and Peterson healthy and in the game. Let the running game control the pace of play they have Jackson pass when he can. Jackson isn't ready to take all the load of the team and we don't have anyone else who can.

Our division is looking tough this year and the Vikings will have to fight to stay off the bottom. Lions have a high powered offensive this year. Packers have a great defensive this year and the Bears are back with their great defensive as well. Hopefully things will be better next week.

Technorati tags: Vikings, Football, NFL, Lions, Travaris Jackson

Go Vikings!

Fall is Here

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:54:00 +0000

So fall is here in Minnesota once again, I love fall, I think it is the best time of the year. I do not like the days of 90s in Minnesota, I know compared to a lot places in the US and the world 90s isn't that hot but in Minnesota it is plenty hot. I like the cold, in fact in the dead of winter I enjoy the -30 degrees days (I don't like paying for heating my house) it is kind of a pride thing, being a Minnesotan and going on day to day in that kind of cold. I won't get on my soap box about Minnesotans who don't like winter, maybe another time.

Back to fall, this morning it was a nice crisp 34 degrees at my house. Perfect fall morning where it will get into the upper 60s maybe 70 during that day. Doesn't get better than that. This year we had well over 30 days over 90 in Central Minnesota and the average is closer to 13 days over 90. The past few years we have been well over the 13 days of 90s every year. Also throughout the year it has been warmer including winters.

We have had well below normal snow fall in Central Minnesota since at least 2001, ends up just being gray and cloudy for November and December. I am hoping for a fall that stays around where it is now for September and into October. Hopefully November will bring early snowfall which I doubt and maybe we can have more of a normal snowfall year this year.

I am hoping for at least 1 foot of snow for Christmas, hasn't even been close in recent years.

Technorati tags: Weather, Snow, Fall, Winter, Minnesota

Minnesota Vikings Win Season Opener

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:39:00 +0000

Well the Vikings are 1-0 after this weekend. I would have to say in pretty typical form the Vikings defense won the game for them again. Last year the only way the Vikings could score points was with there defense.

The defense scored 14 out of the Vikings 24 points yesterday and overall looked pretty good. The defense had there good and bad moments they can improve but did well enough for us to win the game.

The offence for the Vikings wasn't great but was better then pretty much any game last year. They moved the ball pretty well, Travaris Jackson was throwing well and scrambling well for his first season opener start. When the pressure was on him he could have made some better choices and his receivers could have caught the ball better but they really showed promise for later in the season.

Running back Adrian Peterson in his first NFL game looked damn good, he had the only Offensive touchdown of the game and looked like he had great vision and speed. It really is too bad that Chester Taylor had to get hurt already because him and Peterson could have made a great one-two punch in the running game. Peterson stepped it up though to fill in for the injured Taylor by rushing for over 100 yards in the game.

Back to Travaris Jackson, he seemed to keep the offence going when his running game seemed in jeopardy. I think Jackson is the future of this team or at least has the potential to be.

I will say this only in the season's first post, all last year I said Johnson is washed up and we need to put in Jackson. This did not happen until the end of the season last year and because of it we had one of the worst offences in the league last year. Already in the first game of the season Jackson had a better game than all of last year for Johnson. Go Travaris Jackson!

Technorati tags: Football, Vikings, Fan, Travaris Jackson, NFL

Bats, Bats, and More Bats

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:57:00 +0000

So I have lived in my house for almost 2 years now. The first year we lived there we had a pretty sizable bat problem. On average I caught 5 bats a week in the house. I had a bat exterminator come in and for about $900 there sealed up all the holes in the house and extracted all the bats.

Well everything was going well until about 3 weeks ago. Since then we have had 4 bats in the house, most at night but one during the day. This gets quite annoying even though I am such a pro now at catching bats it takes no time.

Thankfully I have a 2 year warranty on the bat job so the "bat guy" is going to come up and take a look for us. I think there are a ton of bats in the area and it will always be a little annoyance for us. Oh well I guess it keeps me on my toes right?

Technorati tags: Bats, Old House

Projects - Kitchen Faucet

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:43:00 +0000

Well after buying a new Kitchen Faucet about 3 months ago and it sitting in the basement collecting dust I finally got it installed this past weekend. I hate anything to do with plumbing and water. I am not a small man and it always seems like, plumbing projects get me to squeeze into really small spaces and bang on pipes, normally breaking crap.

Getting the old faucet out wasn't too bad this time, I have gotten pretty good at knocking them loose with a couple of vise grips. Once I got it out I put in the new faucet which was easy, then I connected up the water lines and turned the water back on. Both of the connections leaked, tightened them up and then only one leaked. Pulled that one off taped it up with Teflon tape and retightened it. Still leaked so I tightened it even more and the leak got worse. I remembered that I had this problem once before and had gotten a paste that sealed the threads. Put this on, tightened it up one more time and everything worked great.

Finally I have a good faucet to use in the kitchen. The whole reason I had to replace it was that I broke off the aerator including the threads and it made a terrible noise when you turned it on low. Another project bites the dust.

Technorati tags: Facuet, Kitchen, Plumbing, Teflon Tape

Heart Stress Test

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:51:00 +0000

So I had a good time yesterday, I got to go into the doctor for a heart stress test. I have had really high blood pressure lately and was feeling a heaviness in my chest when working out sometimes. I went to the local hospital for the test which is nice because I didn't have to run all the way to St. Cloud to do it.

Well what they do at these things is take your blood pressure and heart rate at rest both laying down and standing up. Then they have you take off you shirt to put on a bunch of probe patches all over your torso. Well for those patches to stick they not only have to shave patches off you but have to "rough" up the skin with what they call "scratch pads". Basically they rub you with sand paper which is fun let me tell you.

So after they got me all prepped I got to sit around waiting for the doctor for about 20 mins and then they put my on their treadmill. You start off at a walk and every 3 mins they raise the speed and incline of the treadmill. Every couple of minutes they take your blood pressure and they watch your heart on their equipment. When by the time you get to level 5 you are running up a hill and I am getting quite tired, thankfully I made it.

Everything in the test turned out well and man was I sore later that day. I guess I should have stretched first. Oh well. Now how do I get my blood pressure down.

Technorati tags: Heart, Doctor, Stress Test, Running

BBQ for the 4th of July

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:06:00 +0000

BBQed for 9 hours yesterday, I cooked a turkey on the grill for the first time. Did it real slow with indirect charcoal and smoked it with apple wood. I basted it in butter about every hour. The turkey came out pretty good, I had a little bit of a hard time not overcooking the breast while still getting the legs done. The turkey legs are typically about 20 degrees behind the breast and you want both of them to end up at about 165. Problem is by the time you get the legs to 165 the breast is at 185 and getting too done. We tin foiled the breast when it reached 165 and finished the legs, seemed to work pretty good.

The favor was wonderful, I think I really like the apple wood. After about hour 8 I was looking up ways to get both the breast and the legs done at the same time and found a trick I might use next time. Cool the breast with an ice pack while the rest of the turkey is at room temperature before putting it on the grill. You want to make up this 20 degree difference in cooking speeds so if the breast is 20 degrees cooler they both should get to 165 at about the same time.

Technorati tags: BBQ, Turkey, 4th of July

There goes the Neighborhood

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:37:00 +0000

So can one house on your street ruin the entire neighborhood? The answer is yes! We had a nice quiet neighborhood and lived on a less traveled street. When we moved in it was great, all the neighbors seems to have kids and it was nice and quiet for the most part. I mean every now and then we would get a loud motorcycle but nothing on a regular basis.This is good for me because I have two little kids and neither one likes loud noises.

So in the past couple of weeks someone moved out of their house down the street from us, thankfully not next to us, and I think they started renting the house out. Single handedly the people who moved in have doubled the traffic and noise level on our street. At any one time there are between 5-10 vehicles in their driveway. Most of them beat up old trucks with loud exhaust and crappy cars with no exhaust. Mopeds, scooters, motorcycles, you name it and all loud. This has royally pissed me off and I hope they can't pay rent and get kicked out.

It is really sad when one house ruins it for the rest.

Technorati tags: Neighbors, Loud

Out with the Old and In With the New

noreply@blogger.com (csuper163) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:57:00 +0000

So I had to have our old family cat put down this week. Jasper was somewhere between 16-20 years old and we had owned him for about 7 years. He had really been slowing down over the past 6 months and we felt he didn't have too many more years left but seemed healthy. Well this week he started throwing up blood all over and just laying around not wanting to move. We knew this was the time so we had him put down at the local vet.

We have another cat that is about 1 year old but with Jasper gone we needed another cat to fill his place. My wife wanted to go as soon as possible so we packed up the kids and headed to PetSmart who houses cats for local humane societies. We found a cat that my wife and daughter likes and adopted him. He is a little white and tan cat that is 8 weeks old.

It has been fun already trying to get our current cat to accept the new one but my daughter loves her new cat. I am sure the two will get together soon just fine.

Technorati tags: Cat, Adoption