Curling, Dinner, and a Concert

One of my students is an exchange student from Thiland.  He is taking physics externally so he can take both of my classes.  He is great to have in class, and very polite and just an all around good student.  In class on Friday he asked if I was going to watch him in the band concert on Monday night.  So Monday after school Erin headed to Virginia.  While I was waiting for her to make the 80 mile journy, I went curling with Tony at the curling club in Eveleth.  It was my first attempt at the sport.  I found that I seemed to bang my left knee up a bit when I would push off to deliver the stone.  There really is a learning curve.  It was a lot of fun.  When Erin made it into town we went out for dinner at Good Fellas just down the street from the curling club.  After dinner we walked around Target a bit where I picked up some much needed chap stick.

We left Target and headed over to the school.  I showed Erin around the school a little more and then we went and found a couple of seats in the upper deck of the auditorium.  The concert started off with the Jazz Band which my thi student was apart of.  It was fun to watch them play.  He was very animated while playing the piano.  The whole concert was very good.  Virginia is really well known for its band and chior programs.  After the concert we had the 40 mile drive to get home and ended up climbing into bed as soon as we got home around 10:00.

An end to the week…

I was able to sleep in on Saturday which was great.  I didn’t get up till 10:00 AM.  It was a beautiful day out with the sun and bright blue sky making the new snow sparkel on the frozen lake.  I went out and did some shoveling to get the steps cleared off of both Jims place and ours.  I then fired up the snow blower and headed down to the lake in an attempt to get the skating area cleaned off again.  I quickly found out how out of shape I acutally am.  When using the snow blower you have to lift up on the handle bars the whole time so that it scrapes the ice as clean as possible.  In doing so my biceps were quickly tired out.  I then came up to the house and did some looking on craigs list for a four wheeler with a plow.  That would be the best way to keep the ice clear.

Saturday afternoon I headed over to Hoyt Lakes to hang out with Kate and Tony.  We went bowling with Kates three kids.  It was fun to watch them wrestle with the heavy bowling balls.  There were a couple of times the rolling technique looke like a shotput.  After rolling the one game we headed back to Kates for some Lasagna.  After dinner we watched 5 minues of “Back to the Future” with the kids and then they went to bed.  Kate Tony and I then played a game of Farkle and I hit the road.  On the way home I got a bit lost and drove about 10 miles towards Two Harbors before realizing I was going the wrong way.  I got back on track and then came across a car full of High School kids in the ditch.  I turned around to see if they were okay about the same time a police officer showed up.  So I continued on my way home.  I had to drive relatively slow because the roads were a bit unpredictable.

Today has been nice and relaxing.  April and Laura stayed the night, so we’ve been watching tv and pretty much not doing anything.  I think Im going to run into town and pick up a christmas tree.  We were going to go cut one, but with hunting going on I think it might be a bit safer just to buy one.

Photos of that to come soon.

Finally Friday

The week has finally come to an end.  To cap off the week I successfully broke the school districts website this morning.  It was only visually down for about 5 min.  It wasn’t fully restored for a few more hours.  I won’t go into the nerdy details too much, but it involved a corrupt file being uploaded causing the site to not work.  I have since made a complete backup of the entire system just for such an occasion.

Erin and I decided to go out to a movie and dinner tonight.  So while I was waiting for her to drive over from school Tony and I went out for a tasty beverage.  When Erin got to Virginai we headed out to the mexican resturant for dinner and caught up on the day.  After that we went and did some grocery shopping before heading to see 4 Christmases at the theater.  The movie was pretty funny.  I really do like Vince Vaughn.  After the movie we made the 40 mile drive home in a pretty heavy snow storm.  It was very difficult to see at times, and the road was less than visible.

Its very nice to have the week done and better yet have the opportunity to sleep in tomorrow.  More than likely I’ll be up at 8:30 feeling like I’ve slept forever.  Crazy to think back to the days when I’d sleep till 2:00 in the afternoon.  Man that was nice.

Ehh

So I figured I should keep up the schedule of posting, but I couldn’t really think of a title for this post.  Work has been well… Work…. The 9 – 5 hasn’t been super duper fun lately, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes.

I got to work with a few of the Parkview teachers this morning.  They were getting trained in on how to use their staff websites.  They were great to work with.  Very upbeat and willing to learn.  I know some of the things asked of teachers (such as a staff website) can really add a lot of work to your already busy day.  These folks sure took it in stride and were brainstorming ways they could utilize this online system not only to connect with parents, but also to provide information for their students.  I hope they are able to log in a couple times in the near future and post a couple more times.  It always helps to practice a few more times right after you learn it to help make it stick in your brain.

My broadcasting class have been given the task of creating a 30 second commercial about the school district to have aired on the local television channels.  Its a tight timeline to have it all done by Christmas break, but they are eager for the challenge.   I’ll keep you posted on our progress and will more than likely post the finished product on here when its completed.

My web design class just took on a big project.  I put them into groups of three and gave them the task of creating a full website including a main site, a forum, and a gallery.  All three installs need to have a very similar design and layout which is very time consuming.  I’ve asked them to make this very professional looking.  Up until now I’ve let them be “creative” with their design, and it has really opened up wide range of design styles.  It will be interesting to see how these come out.  They are a fun bunch of kids to work with.

I was going through my iPhoto library and came across this photo…  I think its kind a cool… A reflection of a tree at the edge of the lake on one of our BWCA trips.

Have a happy Friday.  I’m sure looking forward to the weekend.  Hopefully some fancy posts to follow.  🙂

First Skate

This weekend was the first where we woke up to a nice “solid” layer of ice on the bay in front of our house.  We had a few chilly days ending the week so Jim and I decided to lace up our skates and just find out how thick it actually was.

After a couple of holes poked through the icy layer with an ice chisel we assessed the average ice thickness at roughly 2 inches.  There was also very little snow if any at all, and with a relativly quick freeze we were able to see right through the ice.  This was a little un-nerving, but very cool at the same time.  It also allowed us to see the cracks in the ice which did a great job of showing the ice thickness as well.

We skated for maybe an hour.  It was about 27 degrees out and no real wind to speak of, making pretty much the prefect skating conditions.

[QUICKTIME http://www.bbryson.com/bill/files/2008/11/skating.m4v 320 260]

Labor Day Weekend

This was our last real weekend of freedom before heading back to school with kids.  I have been working for the last three weeks trying to rebuild all of the district websites… Its quite a task.   The list runs something like this…

• District Website
• High School
• Roosevelt Elementary
• Parkview Elementary
• Nurses Website
• Each staff member has a site. (roughly 250)
• All the sports (basketball, track, football, tennis, etc.)
• All the student activites (chior, band, orchestra, etc.)
• Community Ed

Im sure there are more that I am either not thinking about, or haven’t even been made aware of.  So that has kept me pretty busy.

Aside from that I’ve been helping Rudy (the network admin for the district) set up polyvision boards, install projectors, set up airports, which doesn’t really fall under my job description, but its a lot of work for one guy.  I have also been helping teachers get their classroom websites up and running, and working with a few of them on how they can start to implement some technology into their classroom.

Needless to say, I’m wicked behind and have decided I’ll work as hard as I can, but at the moment I have more tasks then can be completed before school starts.

So back to school starting tomorrow morning.  Amidts all that I haven’t really had time to plan for the two classes I’ll be teaching.  One being web design and the other broadcasting.  I’ve worked of the last couple of days hammering out a syllabus for each class, and lesson plans for the first week.  Those are finally under my belt, which feels good.  We’ll see how those plans play out in the classroom this week.

So to take a little break from the actual computer we headed out on Donny’s new pontoon boat yesterday with April, Trisha, Tonya, Cindy, Erin, myself, and of course Donny.  It was a great day to be out on the lake.  Very very warm, and just enough of a breeze to keep us somewhat cool, and throw the occasional wave up over the bow splashing everyone from the front of the boat to the stern.

I was reading up on CSS (cascading style sheets) while we were out and about.  I haven’t had time to do any reading lately, so it was a perfect time to relax on the boat and listen to everyone chit chat and catch up on all that fun xhtml/CSS goodness.

Although summer feels like it has come to an end, the days are still warm, and the lake is still swimable.  We went out a couple times today.  Its nolonger like bath water, but it sure helps cool you off from the hot sun.

The McDonalds

Erin and I were lucky enough to have Jeremy and his family drive up from Bemidji to stay with us.

Its been fun to spend some time with their little girl Scout who is a little cutie.

They pulled in this afternoon and we hopped in the boat for a little tubing and swimming out at twin islands.  Rowan is pretty much a pro when it comes to the tube.

We did a little swimming out at Twin Islands.. Jeremy had a great jump off the top of the island.  It really is a fun place to go swimming.

We boated around a bit and even went to MooseBirds by boat to get some ice cream after dinner.

Its been a great day.  Its so much fun hanging out with Jeremey again, and getting time to spend with Nikiya, Rowen, and Scout.

Lots to catch up on…

I know its been a long time since my last post, so I’ll try to give you a quick recap of whats happened since then.

Currently I am waiting for the third overtime in game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals between Detroit and Pittsburgh.  If Detroit scores the next goal they win the cup, if Pittsburgh scores they force a game 6 back in Pittsburgh.  Its been an exciting game.  They are tied at 3 a piece.

A few weeks ago Jesse and I took a weekend motorcycle class in Eveleth.  It started Friday night from 5 PM to 9 PM, and let me tell you, they used every minute of it.  The 4 hours was basically going through a book they had sent in the mail with instructions to read it before the class.  The evening came to an end with a multiple choice test.  Jesse’s quick studying in the parking lot allowed him to pull off a 100%.  My diligent three days of reading through the book and answering the questions through out the book enabled me to only miss one on the test.  So with the first step done we were back bright an early at 8 AM for the first 5 hours of actual riding time.  The class assumes you know nothing about riding a motorcycle, so it was perfect for me.  They walk you through everything from how to use the clutch to shifting, swerving, and turning.  We had great weather for the occasion with cool over cast skies.  I am so glad it wasn’t 90 degrees out.

The next day we were back again for the last day at 8 AM.  We had another 5 hours on the bikes picking up the speed and difficulty a bit working more on quick stops, running over obstacles, swerving, and slow tight turns.  The day ended with the actual driving test.  I made a couple of mistakes, but passed anyway.  The cool thing about the class is the test you take is good enough to get your Minnesota motorcycle license.

A quick break in the story..  Pittsburgh just won in the third overtime.. Game 6 in Pittsburgh on Wednesday…

So when I got back to Baxter I went into the DMV and not only added the motorcycle license, but also got my address changed to Erin’s Grandparents place in cook since we are moving there in a couple days.

Also since my last post I have finished my BSSD contract which feels really good.  Getting all 15 videos done was quite a job.  Its nice to have that all wrapped up before the summer really starts.

Two weekends ago I flew out to Tacoma to attend Katie’s college graduation.  It was fun to hang out with family and spend a quick couple days with her.

When I got back to Baxter I had a couple days off and then drove down to the cities to pick up Rick Holt who was coming over for a couple of days to work with me on finishing up my RISC contract.  Along with the barrage of video editing we found time to play a little Wii golf.  Rick is a feisty competitor.

Friday I drove him back down to the cities to fly out, then back up to Baxter to pick up Erin and we continued on our way up to Cook for the weekend.  We got in super late and worked all day Saturday on her grandparents house.  The new carpet was installed and looked and felt really nice.  We went out to dinner Saturday night with April, Jesse, and Trisha and then worked again all day Sunday on the house before heading back to Baxter.  We pretty much have all the plumbing done, and are getting closer and closer to having the place all fixed up.  Its really starting to look nice.

Erin is finishing up her last bit of work this week.  She worked Monday and still has Tuesday and half of Wednesday.  The nice part for her is there are no kid on any of these days.  She gets to work on packing up her classroom since they are cutting her position.

Tomorrow morning I will be picking up the Uhaul to load up everything in our apartment.  It’ll be a big job, but we should be able to get it everything packed up tomorrow.

Then Wednesday morning I will head off to cook, and Erin will follow when she is done with work.

I hope it all goes well…

Also in the last few weeks Jim and I have been working on getting his Motorcycle up and running.  I’m happy to say after a few parts from DennisKirk and some new gas and oil the bike is running like a charm.  Erin and I have been out for a couple short rides.  Once the house gets all settled I’m sure we’ll be out for some longer excursions.

Well that’s all for now.  Sorry there aren’t any pictures or video, I know they make posts a ton better.  I’ll try to do a better job of that on the next post.

Table Rock Falls

Last weekend Erin and I headed up to Cook.  We picked up some linoleum along the way.  I got the wood stove going as soon as we got home to get the house all warmed up before we attempted the install.   Saturday night around dinner time we started the process.

The directions tell you to leave an extra half inch on all the edges, put the linoleum in place and then after a day of sitting to trim it down.  Well let me tell you, that is the stupidest line of reasoning EVER.  In my experience (doing this only once) when you leave a half inch on every edge, it doesn’t fit in the area you cut it for.  Especially around the corners.  Anyway after about 6 hours of work we got it all installed.  It looks pretty good.  We still have to put the trim back on the doors and put baseboard down.  The carpet should be getting installed in a couple weeks.

On Sunday I was pretty sore from crawling around on the floor for 6 hours the night before.  Jim, Jesse, and I headed out for a little canoeing trip to Table Rock Falls.  We shot an episode for the BWCACAST site.  Jesse had his camera with and took some pretty cool pictures.  Here are a few of them.

It was a fun trip.  Nice to get out on the water.  We had a few snow flakes flying in the air, and it was a little grey out, but watching the volume of water churn its way down the narrow gorge.

It should be posted in the next week or so on the bwcacast site.  Hope you enjoy.

BWCACAST Anouncement!!

For those of you who haven’t heard…

I will be starting an IPTV show (Internet Television show) or if your more familiar with the term VideoPodcast.

The show will be a weekly trip into the Boundary Water Canoe Area (BWCA). Most trips will be just day trips in and out the same day, but once a month the show will be a multi-day camping trip. I entered the permit lottery back in January and was able to get all three permits that I wanted. One in May, June, and August.

I will be shooting the show in High Definition and viewers will be able to subscribe to a HD feed, a SD feed, a video ipod feed, or watch each episode embedded in the website. I will be looking for sponsors for the show to help pay for equipment, travel costs, and editing time. So if any of you are connected to any companies that are looking for a new way to advertise have them take a looks at the site in a couple months, I should have some content up by then.

I have built a website for this whole new endeavor. You can find it at www.bwcacast.com.

Here is a preview….

Tied in with the website I have created a forum (Discussion Board) for viewers to chat about the show or anything BWCA related.

There is a link off the main site to the “Discussions”, or you can go directly to it by using this link. www.bwcacast.com/forums/

Here is a preview of the discussions site…

Feel free to sign up for an account. It has many features. I’ve set it up so when you log into the forum your also logged into the blog so your able to comment on both. In the forum you are able to upload a personal avatar that will be associated with all of your posts. I hope that people enjoy the show. Feel free to send me feed back on the site. I’ll need help looking for bugs and typos.