Spooktacular 2007

Be sure to go to Spooktacular 2007 at the Dickerson Park Zoo. Here is a promo our dept put together for it.



Enjoy!

Petit Jean S.P. Arkansas

This weekend we spent a couple days at Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas. This is the oldest state park in Arkansas, and although it's fairly small if you look at it on the map it surely has a lot to offer. My family went to Petit Jean a lot as a kid, and I hadn't been back for many years until we went last year. My wife Jerilyn liked it so much she decided we should go back this year, so we did. Our friends Dan and Tara decided to go along even though they had both just returned from a trip to New York City. Nothing like going from the center of the world to the middle of nowhere in a matter of 2 days.

We arrived late Friday night, set up our tent and built a campfire. My new tent is the biggest tent I've ever owned, it would probably sleep 6-7 people comfortably if you didn't have inflatable mattresses. I bought it from a co-worker who was trying to get back into camping, and had the misfortune of setting it up once in the rain and then vowing to never go camping again. I bagged the tent, 2 queen sized inflatable mattresses, a twin sized inflatable mattress, and an air pump for $50 bucks.

The next morning we cooked up a traditional campsite breakfast, scrambled eggs and bacon, coffee, milk and OJ. We then proceeded to the trailhead of the Seven Hollows trail for our first hike. Seven Hollows is a 4 1/2 mile loop hike that passes several different features. The first interesting feature is a natural bridge that is at least 25 ft high to the bottom of the arch. At around the half-way point you reach what they call the "grotto," this is a small canyon like half-cave with a small trickle of a waterfall. The water was pretty mossy, I assume it is due to low rainfall and stagnant water, but it's still interesting. Moving along, there are some rock formations called Turtle Rocks, I have no idea how they are formed, but they're pretty interesting to look at.

After our hike we went back to the campsite to hang out where Daniel and I proceeded to craft our own bow and arrow out of sticks and rocks we found laying around. Oddly enough, it worked pretty well and we were able to shoot the arrow around 25-30 yards, I doubt you could ever kill something with it, but we were pretty proud of ourselves.

That night we made made dinner over the campfire. We had Turkey Cheese Brats (only 7 g of fat each), pizza mountain pies, Oreo cookies, and Pringles. It was a nice night, and we all slept good with full bellies.

Sunday morning we got up, cooked breakfast and decided to hike the Cedar Falls trail. This trail is only 1 1/2 miles, but the first half mile is descending a steep switchback, which can only mean the last 1/2 mile is spent going right back up from whence you came. It's probably the most popular trail at Petit Jean, which means there are a lot of people, but the falls are really pretty. Again, there wasn't much water flowing, but there's enough for it to be pretty.

I think everyone had fun, and I hope to go back to Petit Jean again sometime soon. It's a nice place that is pretty out of the way, but I always wish I could spend more time there. Maybe I'll get to spend 3 or 4 days next time.

Bicycling to Work

After a couple weeks of no real exercise, I decided to wake up a little earlier than normal and ride my bike to work today. It's really not that far, only 2.2 miles according to Google maps, but for some reason it's just far enough that it's not "easy" to wake up and decide to ride on any particular morning without a small bit of planning. I haven't ridden my bicycle to work since around July and I'm not sure why, before then I had been riding 2-3 days a week for about 3 months.

It's always interesting to me how people in general (myself included), have a hard time staying in a routine with some things (like exercise), but routines like getting home and turning on the TV is one that never seems to get old. I suppose it's just the amount of effort needed to keep one's self in a routine.

With all that said, I forgot how much I really enjoy riding my bicycle to work, and I hope to start a "routine" once again.

*Note - if you ever want to start riding to work on a regular basis, I recommend getting some sort of rack and bags for your bicycle. I bought some Trek interchange panniers for mine, but I have a friend who bought one of the Topeak MTX expandable bags with side panniers, and he loves it. All you really need is something that you can use in place of a backpack (or you can just use a backpack and get your back all sweaty before work).

Happy Riding!

POSTSEASON BABY!

It starts again. Possibly the most stressful, agonizing, and self-doubting times of the year for Cubs fans. The Cubs officially clinched the NL Central Division title on Friday. As we all know, the ole' Cubbies are not known for their post-season record in the past 99 years, much less actually getting to the post-season.

What are we all to think? My rational side says to just keep it to yourself, and don't get too excited because they'll probably choke after the first week, but the
side of me that dreams big (and usually ends up emotionaly scarring me) wants to believe that the Cubs actually have what it takes to make it to the World Series and take the cake! I think being a Cubs fan has made me into even more of a pessimist that I really am.

When the Cubs made the NLCS in 2003, I really REALLY thought they had what it took. But oh no...that stupid billy goat came back to bite. I wonder what Steve Bartman is doing now. I think they should have done more to that stupid baseball rather than blow it up in a Plexiglas box. Why not charge $10 a pop to take a whiz on it and give the proceeds to charity? So much wasted potential...

Just for the record, I really don't see the Cubs going past the Division Series. But if they do, I hope for the sake of all Cubs fans everywhere there isn't some fluke play in game 7 of the NLCS that ruins it all again. Otherwise the whole north side of Chicago will have to be put on suicide watch. MLB.com had a pretty good article on it all yesterday.

**UPDATE**

Well, it's Friday night, and I'm still mourning the last 2 nights' losses to the Diamondbacks. Does anyone see what I'm talking about. I'm still keeping the hope alive...stranger things have happened...unfortunately those things never seem to happen to the Cubs.

**UPDATE #2**
It is Saturday night now, and I did not get to see the Cubs game, but they lost...