WSU Raiders Go to the Big Show

We were so happy to learn of Wright States big turn around this year with their basketball team. Kristy and attended so many games to watch our Raiders receive beating after beating. Wouldn't you know it though the very year we leave they get a new coach and go all the way to the NCAA championship.

I remember when they would give each student 2 free tickets for each home game. Even with the free tickets never once had I seen even half the arena filled. This year was much different, a winning season results in a filled arena, plain and simple.

They did so awesome this year making it all the way to the big show as the 14th seed. Unfortunately they didn't make it past the first round of the NCAA championship but at least they were there, it was the second time in the long history of the program. So all the same we send a BIG CONGRATS out to our Raiders.

photos obtained from the Dayton Daily News

Petra Rock Climbing Gym and the Speleo Box

So Travis and I must have thought that we needed a way to feel young again or something, but whatever the reason in the end we felt older than ever. We went to the local rock climbing gym called Petra and took our initial belaying class to qualify to be able to climb at the gym. The class was very easy going and took about 40 minutes. We learned a couple of vital climbing knots and the essentials of climbing and belaying. Before we knew it we were climbing the wall.

These knots are called the figure 8 and the figure 8 follow-through, both are very essential to not falling which was the one thing that was most important to us.

So the climbing was great, very exhilarating, very satisfying, but very challenging. Travis and I made multiple climbs through the night.

An unexpected thing that was also at the gym was something called a speleo box. This is a climbers labyrinth. It was not very tall, maybe 7-8 feet and about 11-12 feet wide. Yet it had 4 levels and so many nook's and cranny's. It was not so much a maze as it was a challenge to climb through and get through all the obstacles. Travis and I went through this thing multiple times and let me tell you this thing is so fun! My best time was 2 minutes and 32 seconds and I was flying through that box.

It was a tight fit no matter how you approached this thing, if a person had even a hint of claustrophobia this would certainly send them right over the edge.

Climbing was fun but this thing, this thing was just way awesome!

Travis and I were sure not feeling to young by the time we were done crawling around in this thing.

Good times with my good friend Travis, some rope, and a big box labyrinth.

Check out Petra at http://www.petrarockgym.com/

The Rootbeer Brothers Form and the Brew Begins to Flow

A very good friend of mine from back in the Navy, Jeff Hertz, and I have undergone a project that has been many years in the making, sort of anyway. Him and I have been swapping soda from around the country for years. So the other day I decided to start back up this old tradition of ours and bought a mailing tube with the thought that we would exchange a bottle of root beer every so often. As I was preparing to do this the thought came to my mind that we could really carry this further than just simple indulgence of a smooth cold draft brew. You see he has been blogging for about a year now, which is listed in my links list (check it out, he has an awesome family) which makes him very familiar with blogging in general. So with all that in mind I presented an idea to him, start up a website that is primarily based on our adventures with root beer. I registered our domain and Jeff made the logo and before long we were up and running. So if you like root beer check it out. http://www.rootbeerbrothers.com/

One of our goals is to evaluate and rank as many root beers as we can. Our first root beer was Sprecher and after I was done with my evaluation I asked Neleha what she thought. She agreed with me, Sprecher was better than A&W. Check out the website to read not only my evaluation but also Jeff's. Hope to see you at Rootbbeer Brothers.

Church Chili Cookoff

Our Chruch Ward (Congregation) held their annual chili cook-off so I decided to throw together a pot of my green chili. Growing up in Arizona I never realized there was any other kind of chili, of course until I left and realized that most had never even heard of green chili. So I made it just to see how it would be recieved. It was basically my green chili burrito recipe but with more pinto beans than normal. I only added a few fresh (as fresh as Missouri can offer anyway)jalapenos and had no real intention of it being very spicy. When the judges were done however, mine claimed the prize as Hottest Chili. Good thing I didn't use habaneros.

Trying Out the New Camera

After many frustrations with our very broken Canon camera I decided to check out Ebay for a replacement. Our first Canon point and shoot was purchased new for around $250 about three years ago. I am very confident that we got our moneys worth. However, losing our camera at this point and time places us in a very tight spot, hence Ebay here we come. We could only budget about $100 but I wasn't willing to compromise on quality of the camera. So I did a search and found the perfect camera, in fact I found the Canon camera that I have wanted even before we purchased our original Canon. The s400 Elph series is so compact but delivers the quality you can always expect from Canon. Although it is an older model it was well within our budget. I dropped a bid and won an auction from a guy living in Alaska. Ebay is just too cool, I'm living in Missouri and needed a S400 Elph for $100 and found one from a guy in Alaska. A done deal! So I decided to test the camera on the most gorgeous person I know.... My sweetheart was a wonderful model to test out our new camera. Beautiful............the camera works great too.