Travel Bug in Svalbard

One of my Geocaching travel bugs with the goal of traveling around the world heading east is currently hanging out in Svalbard. Svalbard is halfway between main land Norway and the north pole. This travel bug has been on an amazing trip starting in December of '05 and has travel to Venice, Mauritius, Austrian Alps, Sweden, and now islands in the Arctic Ocean.

Lower Bellbrook Washington Mills Loop

I'm going to be posting my non-commute bike trips on my blog.


Starting Point: Sterling Greene and Lower Bellbrook.
Type: Loop
Length: 20 Kilometers (12.4 Miles)
My Time: 53 Minutes*
Weather: 67F Sunny and Very Windy W at 28 mph gusting to 35 mph
Quick Description: This is route is very hilly for SW Ohio, with a killer hill on the way out of Bellbrook. The roads are well paved and there is plenty of rural scenery to enjoy. Traffic is on medium side. Very enjoyable route.

Lower Bellbrook-Wahington Mills

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*includes time to get to starting point

Growing Tomatoes upside down

This is our effort to grow cherry tomato's without having the dig up our yard. We are growing the tomatoes up side down in two litter bottles of pop filled with 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 manure and compost, and 1/3 peat moss. We grow the tomatoes from seed. I bought 7 iron hooks from Lowes and attached them to my desk railing. They are very easy to water, and hopefully will produce tasty tomatoes. I'll keep you posted on their progress.

CNN and credit cards

How often do you read about Clark Howard, Dave Ramsey and Crown Finical in One CNN Story that includes quoted scripture?

Not voting

Tomorrow, us Xenia folks have to opportunity to vote on a massive expensive new school system. The good news is that the state of Ohio is going to match almost dollar for dollar what Xenia will raise in increased property taxes. This just drives me crazy, personally, I don't think we need to spend 85 million dollars on schools. True some of our schools are falling apart and need replaced, but why do we need the Cadillac version? I'm not trilled about paying $365 a year for 28 years in extra property tax. But I would like to see nicer schools, but I don't think it's fair to the families who home school or families who pay to sent their kids to private school. With increased property taxes comes the possibility that families could not afford the higher taxes. With all this turmoil in my mind, I think that I am not going to vote. I'm going to be unhappy either way, that is unless this vote fails and we vote yes for far less extravagant new schools in yet another election later this year.

Mexican Coke

Today, I enjoyed a Coke imported from Mexico, complete with glass bottle and a pop cap, that I needed a bottle opener to open. The basic different is Mexican Coke is made with sugar not corn syrup. US coke is made from corn syrup because of the sugar tariff. The Mexican Coke does taste mush better, more pure and less like syrup. Stupid government messing up the Coke tast.

Movie Lily's Easter Egg Hunt

A bit delayed but here is a clip of Lily hunting Easter Eggs.