Text Archive Version 12
11/05/2007 to 3/5/2009

Home | Family News | Photo History | Links.| Song Pages | Text History | Our Email

3/5/2009 - JV Badminton Season! Beautiful Day and 2 milers... Shop Talk (GPS)

Yep, it's Badminton Season again and Corinne has made JV this year! She is at practice now.

Casey is enjoying the beautiful weather at WIU and I was really enjoying it here! I just realized that I forgot to update the website with the fact that I made my running 2 miles goal for this year!Yep, I made my 2 mile run goal on 2/19 and have been running 2 miles a few times a week since then. For some reason I still haven't lost any weight though and still look fat. Not sure why that is, but it feels good when I run so I guess I'm in good shape that way!

I have done a lot of work on my websites recently but my confidence comes and goes as far as the possibilities of that actually making enough to support us. It looks like I'll be giving it a real good try though.

<Shop Talk> I was just catching up on the bike site stuff and researching GPS units a little and I see that they have lots of cycle computers with GPS now. I did not see that at all 5 years ago when I first wrote my bike GPS page. The bike sites didn’t even carry GPS. I had to send people to Amazon and Wal-mart. Now I have seen a $1,200 bike computer (with GPS) at Performance!!! Wow! I’m sure some people will buy that too! I have just changed my bike accessories pages to include the GPS page on all of the pages. In other words, I have made it a major accessory category on my bike site. </Shop Talk>


3/1/2009 - Sweet Sixteen! Turnabout... Freedom!! (is just another word for...)

Well, It's MARCH and of course that means lots of things and lots of changes. First of all Corinne just turned Sweet Sixteen of course! We just had a nice dinner and birthday cake. Corinne (and Mike) went to the turnabout dance last night. I just saw a bunch of the pics that they took and wanted to post them, but I haven't had a chance yet. Maybe later.

I decided that even though I can't post an actual "Robmark" card on the website, easily, I liked the photo that I did for Corinnes card so I thought I would post it... The from of the card said: "Something Wild Happened on March 1st... But I just CAT remember what it was..."


(click to enlarge)

Then the back said "OK, I was LION (with a lion photo) Happy BD..."

Well, as that old Janis song goes... freedom's just another word for nothin let to lose... I'm not sure if that's exactly right, but I am free from the 9 to 5 (as they say) and rush hour and stuff like that... I've been really busy catching up on SEO and updating my websites... I just got all the links fixed on the bike site and the pet site... I still have the 4 other sites to fix before I even work on the additional articles, new pages and link campaigns... Believe it or not, I actually have an incredible amount of work to do... and I need to check out my options with a regular day job too... I hope I can actually find some free time too... OK, well, updating this website is actually some free time... well, I gotta git now.


02/14/2009 - Happy VD! Good News Bad News...

Happy Valentines Day everyone! (I almost forgot to put my heart and arrow logo up at the top this year...).

Well, I thought that I would do the good news, bad news game... I'll start with the bad(to get that out of the way). For those of you that don't already know, I am losing my source of income. I can't say that I am being laid off because I never signed on as an employee at DHL (a calculated risk on my part). I stayed on as a contract programmer and they had to let the contract programmers go so I will only be there until the end of the month (February) I only have good things to say about DHL. The people that I've worked with were really great (a major reason why I liked it there!) and they also let me stay on there as a contract programmer for a long time when I really needed a steady income and even offered me an employee position. But, all things do eventually come to an end...

OK, now for the good news... I am very excited about getting back into the internet marketing game. I have already learned quite a bit about this from working on the affiliate web sites before I started at DHL and  I have contacted my two good friends in NC and have gotten a lot of good advice and information. I just found out that my friend that was doing affiliate websites when I was (5 years ago) is now really doing great at it now. I don't know if I can do nearly as well, but I do know the possibilities... and they are very real!

It is scary, of course, but I remain very positive about this opportunity. I will take a good programming job if a good opportunity comes up, but my focus will really be on internet marketing... Go ahead... say I'm crazy or foolish (because I am a little bit)... But I will be giving this a whole hearted try and if I end up as a Wal-Mart greeter :-) a year from now, then so be it... I really think my odds are pretty good though, but only time will tell.

Also on the good news side of things, I will have a little more free time and spring is on the way! I know that I will probably get pretty obsessed with the marketing and website work (which is necessary) but I am going to try to take a break occasionally and enjoy the weather, some family time, and some down time...

OK, well, I still have a lot of work left to do today... Updating this web page doesn't really count as web site work!!! :-)

catch cha all later!


01/24/2009 - Corinnes Bad Report Card, Park Dist Workouts, New CDs...

Well, it's Corinnes turn for 1st semester Report Card this time... I hate to say it but she is really falling behind... She got 2 B pluses on her report card :-( (The rest were As) :-) Reminds me of my old report cards... :-) :-) -) lol! Yes, we are very proud of her!

Well, due to all this ridiculous winter weather!, I have had to resort to the Park District track for my walk/run exercises.  You have to do 14 laps for a mile and it's a narrow track. I am running 1 mile and 2/7th regularly now... getting close to my goal (2 mile run.) I really prefer the great outdoors, but the PD works for a backup.

OK, here's the other part of the Park District story, I brought Corinne with me to check out the tread mills in the workout center (at the park district). It cost her/me $5 for the workout room and she had to get lesson on all of the equipment there… I hung around for that…

Wow, they really got cool shit… Besides for all the computerized tread mills and stuff, they have TVs in the wall and earphone jacks on the treadmills for the TVs… or you can use your own iPod, etc… You can workout just about any part of your body… Well, I just use the track, but this other stuff is really cool!

And finally, I just did a CD upgrade (mostly for my iPod, since that is how I listen to my music). I ordered some old disks that I either had before, and liked (Aerosmith, Pump), or artists that I have always liked and just wanted the "greatest hits" (Queen G.H., Beach Boys G.H. and Paul Simon G.H. (haven't received that on yet though...)

01/19/2009 - KCs gone again (with honors)... A little Summer Flashback...

Well, Casey is back at school now... I guess he had today (Monday) off, but starts 2nd semester tomorrow! - I just found out that KC was notified that he is eligible for the Centennial Honors College (with his 3.5 gpa from this semester)... I found some info on it here: http://www.wiu.edu/honors/convocation/

I put together couple more "trail pages" for my bike site yesterday... I took the pictures on a ride that Dale and I took last July but never got around to updating the website... I've been saving some of my bike site trail page updates for now (the cold boring part of winter...). The pages were really a lot of work (as usual), it took about 4 hours total (photo selection, formatting, writing, etc.). But it sure was a nice Summer Flashback seeing the photos and thinkin about riding season again!

Check out the new pages here http://www.about-bicycles.com/robert-mcclory-trail.htm and here http://www.about-bicycles.com/illinois-state-beach-trail.htm (I liked this part of the trip the best!)


01/11/2009 - Too Much Snow!  Da Bulls!

Well, here we are well into 2009... I don't have any new photos (or videos) handy (although I was thinking I could get some good SNOW photos (if I really wanted to go outside!)), but I wanted to ramble on a little so I decided that I would do a straight text blog like I used to do more often...

  < I am really getting tired of all this Snow! Yesterday, I had to resort to doing my walk/run indoors at the park district... I ran a mile and walked 2 miles (as usual) then shoveled (at 2 houses)!!! I think I over did it a little and am just going to be lazy today...

 

 Casey did real good with his grades at Western, but I was just checking the "Dean's List" qualifications and you need a 3.6 and he got a 3.5... Damn! now I can't get the bumper sticker! :-) Corinne has also been doing great at school, but she hasn't gotten this semesters grades yet...

 

Casey is home until next week and we are going to Da Bulls game tomorrow! I am looking forward to that, although after watching the Bulls last few games it seems like they are struggling to beat the really bad teams and the Trail Blazers (that we are going to see) are pretty good, so I hope somehow we can win... (or at least have a close game).
 

Well, I may add on here a little more later (since I'm not planning on a lot or outdoor (or any other kind) of activities today) , but that's it fer now... l8r!

01/01/2009! -  Christmas Photos are in! Cam Tape Conversions, 2008, 2009 Milestones...

I just finished selecting and touching up the Christmas Photos! Check out the link below!

As for the Cam Tape Conversions, I am up to cam tape 17 (out of about 78 or so...)... It's a very time consuming (but worthy) project... It is a little tedious setting up the recordings and baby-sitting them, but it is also pretty fun to see all of the old tapes again!

I have reached one of my workout milestones, Barely in time for 2008 (on New Years Eve...)... I have been working up to running 2 miles this season (since November)... I'm not there yet, but yesterday I ran my first mile in quite a few years! Then I just ran another one tonight! That may not be much for some people, but I have been working up to it 1/10th of a mile at a time (for 2 months)... It was hard, but it did feel good afterwards (so I think that I am doing it right and pacing myself well...). I don't go all that fast... I timed my mile at about 13 minutes (about 4.5mph) and I walk a mile in about 17 minutes (about 3.5mph)... but at least I am doing it!

Christmas 2008 Photos!

 

12/07/08 -  YouTube and Videos... Thanksgiving Photos are in!...

Well, I guess the YouTube videos were not that big of a hit... I didn't hear anything about them... It was still a good experience to learn how to do the video editing and I am working on my camcorder to DVD video conversions... I have my 1st 4 camcorder tapes done! Wow, it's a slow process...

I made the "December" logo on top of the page tonight from a photo of this over done Christmas house that I took a picture of last year... I may still make some other logo(s) for December, but it will do for now...

OK, well let's get right to the Thanksgiving Photos! I think I got a few good ones...

Thanksgiving 2008 Photos!

I have some Thanksgiving video too, but that's more of a project and like I said, I'm not sure if video is as popular on the internet anyway... I'll have to review that later...

11/29/08 -  Great Thanksgiving... Video Projects...

Well, first of all we had a Great Thanksgiving at Rich and Dianes! Lots of great food and lots of quality family time! My niece-in-law, Diane (and nephew Rich) did an excellent job on the dinner and the arrangements. I also got quite a few photos and some video too... I have not yet downloaded the photos but I will try to put up a page of photos next...

I actually don't want to do the Thanksgiving pictures just yet though because I have just spent some time learning some movie editing techniques (with Adobe Premier Elements) and I wanted to show off the Video Projects that I just worked on... (if I do the Thanksgiving pics right away, I may lose my audience for the videos... :-) )

I was reading up on the internet how camcorder tapes (8mm specifically) have a limited lifespan before they start deteriorating...  (as soon as 15 years and some of our tapes are 20 years old!) So one of my next projects is to put these tapes on to DVDs... In the meantime I checked out some of our original camcorder tapes and I also wanted to get the music videos up (on YouTube) that I did at the Village Squire restaurants back in 1990...

 OK, so here ya go... Here's a composite of a bunch of the songs that I did at the Village Squires (in Dundee and McHenry) in 1990 (including a cameo appearance by some guy in the audience/restaurant...) and a Rock Show clip from the very first recordings that we did with the camcorder at a party at Jeffs house... (I've removed this one (12/27) due to lack of interest and also to protect the (not quite) innocent!)

1990 Village Squire Shows - my semi-acoustic sets

Try the "High Quality" or "Full Screen" options on YouTube... I think they look better...

Now wasn't that fun!!! I hope to find some additional fun videos as I start the camcorder tape to DVD conversions!

11/16/08 - Rambling on... November logo up... Mowed...

Ya know, I've gotten behind on my web page updates and I realized that just because I don't have any big news or new pictures that doesn't mean that I can't just ramble on about anything (or nothing...) so here goes...

Mostly I wanted to get a new November logo up on the page and I had this photo of a big leaf pile (from when Palatine picks up our leaves) and it took me a while to get it right... I am slowly getting logos for each month that are all my own photos that I have doctored up... I had to fool around with adding TEXT in Photoshop quite a bit, but I finally got it the way I wanted it...

In other news... Casey has been at WIU for quite a few weeks now but he'll be back for Thanksgiving break next weekend... Corinne just got her quartely grades and they were excellent!

And in other, other news... on the homefront... I raked yesterday, then mowed (both houses) hopefully for the last time this year... I let the lawnmower run out of gas so it's winterized now... I guess I really am done with da mowin!

Well, I suppose I better get going and get some stuff done today... Catch cha all later!

10/25/08 - New Glasses (and glasses history pics!) and new DVD Recorder

As part of my economic stimulus contribution, I just went out and bought New Glasses and a DVD Recorder... I also did an interesting little thing and took some self portrait photos of myself with my new glasses and the previous pairs that I had laying around... I thought that it was real interesting and figured that I had to share this with all of you! (just what you were waiting for, pictures of me! right? :-) )

Before I get to the glasses pics, I gotta mention the new DVD Recorder... This is my VHS VCR replacement (since most of our current VHS players are broken...). (I guess they call them DVD Burners if they are for computers and DVD Recorders if it's for TV...) Anyway, I really like the DVD recorder! It's a major upgrade from VHS VCR recorders (even if it's not quite up to the "DVR" standards...)!

The quality of the DVDs that I burn is excellent and the direct access beats the S*** out of fast forwarding and rewinding tapes... It also has the simultaneous record and play (chase-play) feature (that DVRs have) which allows you to watch something that you are recording while it is being recorded... Very nice!!!

OK, now, as promised... Here's my glasses history pics! I was surprised to see how similar my current pair is to the glasses that I wore before the last ones... Anyway, for your viewing pleasure! :-)

My Glasses History Pics!

 

10/18/08 - Beautiful Fall Weekend, Hunnert Car Pictures are in!

Wow, what a nice fall weekend (so far...). I just did a 32 mile biker ride!!! I met up with Dara after 20 and we saw 9 deer on our ride! I got a few pics on my phone, but my phone pics just aren't that great...

Last weekend we went to the Hunnert Car Pileup! Larry had his hot rod (#23) on display this year and the whole event was very entertaining (once again)! We actually got there pretty late and people were already starting to leave, but we still caught most of it and I managed to snap a few pictures... Well, no use rambling on too much... (there's more comments in the photo pages, as usual, of course).

Hunnert Car Pileup - 2008 Pics!

 

10/8/08 - The "getting ready for homecoming" pictures are in!

Here are some pictures that we took this weekend of Corinne and Mike getting ready for Fremds homecoming dance... With an appearance from KC back from college for the weekend...

The homecoming pre-dance pictures...

 

10/4/08 - Bike Miles Goal Clenched on 52 mile ride... (The Cubs...) Some Pics...

As you can see above, yesterday I clenched my goal of over 1,000 miles in a biked riding season!!! This is the 4th season that I have done over 1,000 miles (including my record breaking season of 2182!) I just checked my total miles since I have kept records (1997) and I have done 9,312 miles so far... I guess it's almost time for a tune up!

 Well, the playoffs have been pretty disappointing for the cubs so far... We aren't out yet but it's gonna be pretty nerve wracking to watch the (potentially) last game tonight... go Cubs go??? The Sox aint doing so great either.. (for you south siders out there!)

And finally... a small batch of New Pics... Most of these are from our 52 mile ride yesterday... We went from South Elgin through Geneva, St Charles, Fermi National Labs and Warrenville (and maybe a few other towns...) It was a great day for a ride! I wasn't even going to bring the camera but I did and I'm glad I got a few pictures... I also threw in a picture that I took on our anniversary last month... Well, enjoy the pics and catch cha next time!

October Bike Ride Pics Plus...

9/30/08 -  Just Some October stuff... South Siders!

Well, I put up the October banner a little early... (at least I haven't had Halloween decorations up all September like some people around here...). I was just reminded last week that we have some "south siders" in the family... Our "south siders" are actually pretty far south of the city, but still south I guess... Well, I heard tonight is the all of nothing night for the Sox... It would actually be fun to have the 2 teams play each other in the world series... But, the Cubs need to win, of course!!! (Com on... it's been a hundred years!!!)

9/21/08 -  Clinching... Off into the Sunset...

Just a couple of quick notes... as you see from my new headings, the Cubs just clinched the central division and will be in the playoffs... They are doing great and it's been fun being a fan this season!!! I hope they don't blow it like a few years ago (the last time I became a big Cubs fan...) Actually, I think they got a great chance!!! (yes, you heard it here... from the certified sports expert! :-) )

Also, I've done quite a few bike miles in September and have almost clinched my seasons goal (of 1,000 miles). It looks pretty likely that I'll make that goal this year... unless something totally unexpected happens (an injury or something...) This should be the 4th time that I've ridden over 1k miles in a season (including my record of 2182 miles)

Casey was back this weekend! I know he hasn't been gone all that long, but it was great seeing him and havin him around! But it was a short visit, as usual and we just dropped him off at the train station and watched him ride off into the Sunset... well, off to WIU anyway...

9/18/08 -  Goin down... This just in (back up again...)

Just a real quick update... I hope it's not my last for a while... I'm powering down for the Power Supply repair... I hope to be back soon...

OK, just a quick 9:30pm update... It worked!!!! I replaced my power supply and everything seems to be working great!!! You can’t imagine what a relief that is… and it was really scary too! Of course, there were absolutely no instructions… Just a metal box with eight cables coming out the back that had to be fished around the inside of the confuser…

I had to take out all the disk drive bays and disk drives to get to the PS. Also disconnected all power cables, removed a big fan and a few other parts… Then managed to get the new PS in and all the parts back with nothing left over!

Well I guess I have no excuse for not doing updates now... Catch cha all later!

9/15/08 -  Wet Weekend... YoYoPC.

Well we didn't exactly get the full force of Ike but it sure was a Wet Weekend here! Fortunately, our house and basement stayed dry... I know lots of people had problems and the rivers are all overflowing... As for me, it meant no outdoors activities... (which sucked!)

My PC has been up and down like a YoYo (only much slower than that)... The best that I could figure out is that it could be the power supply... at least that is what it seems like from the people that I've talked to and what I've seen online... There is one other possibility, which my computer expert (Brad Oium) brought up when I talked to him (unfortunately, after I ordered the power supply from Dell!)... It could be as simple as the battery on the montherboard!!! I got the new battery, but I'm not going to power down until I get the new power supply because when I power down is when I have the problems and it's real hard to get it to come back up again...

Anyway, I expect to get the new power supply next week and will attempt the repairs... I hope I am not offline for too long... Fortunately, I do have old98 as a backup and can at least get my main email (ChapmanRob@comcast.net ) there...

Well, I hope to have another update soon!

9/708 - ...Moms (and sisters) Weekend at Western! Confuser problems...

It was "Moms Weekend" at Western this weekend and Dara and Corinne went out there to visit Casey. They took the train yesterday (Saturday) and are heading back as I am writing this now (Sunday night). It sounds like they had a great weekend... I only know from a few phone conversations... Maybe they will have some good pics or something that I can post when they get back...

So that makes it a bachelors weekend for me!!! So What did I do??? Mostly the same old stuff... I didn't really do much in the way or chores and things that I really need to get done... I had a great 41 mile ride, with Dale, on the Skokie Valley and North Branch trails (from Lake Bluff to Glenview) and then took the dogs for some long walks and did the usual 11 miler today... It has been a great weekend weather wise...

I've also had some confuser problems with old Della here (my new Dell XPS710). I'm not too happy with Dell right now... It seems to be an intermittent hardware problem. Whenever I power down the PC and try to power back up al I get is a flashing yellow light... I tried various things, but after having this happen a few times, it seems like it comes back after leaving the machine powered down for about an hour... One of the main reasons that I am mentioning this here is because if you don't see an update for a real long time (or if I am not responsive to emails)... I may be "offline"!

8/24/08 - ...and now KC is at Western! Caseys WIU Address, A few pics

Well, it's official now... Casey is at WIU in Macomb, Illinois. We drove down there and moved him in this weekend... It's about a 4 hour drive from here... So I guess we are 1/2 empty nesters now... Actually, it's still all sort of temporary since he'll be back and forth for holidays (including Labor Day next weekend already) and for the summers of course... but he is officially living on his own there now...

It was very tricky getting the furniture in his room arranged (2 people, lots of furniture and a very small room) and I had a few technical difficulties while setting up his PC and internet connections, but all is setup and working now... Casey and his roommate (Charlie) can (and will) do what ever they want with their room now... but we did what we could to get them setup and off to a good start... We met Charlie and his family and they were really nice... so hopefully that will all work out OK...

Before I pop up a few WIU pics, Here is Caseys WIU contact info:

Casey Chapman
Room 307, Henninger Hall
730 West University Drive
Macomb, Illinois 61455

Room Phone (309) 298-6915
Cell (847) 704-0676

Email:
ChapmanCasey@comcast.net - cr-chapman@wiu.edu
Casey has been using the comcast email, but he may start using the WIU email more often soon... I've been using the comcast one so far...

Some Photos of Casey at his dorm room at WIU

 

8/11/08 - We are Back and the Vacation PHOTOS are IN!!!

Wow! We had a great vacation! We did a last minute, not very well planned, road trip to Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida (in addition to the other states that were on the way!) I've already included a lot of the details in the text with the photo pages but I'll summarize some of the highlights...

I had hoped that we could do Parasailing, Jetsking, some Orlando stuff, swimming with the manatees and snorkeling in Florida... We only made it to Daytona Beach (not the Keys) but we managed the parasailing and jetski / wave running... They were both a blast!!! We also managed to get a fantastic hotel, on the beach with an ocean view, in Daytona Beach, so we made that our base for Florida operations... We were not disappointed with our choice! We also really enjoyed the Kentucky and Tennessee legs of our trip...

Well, I'm not going to ramble anymore... It has already taken a lot of time to filter through all of the photos and put them into web pages with text so let's get right to it! I categorized the photos by the major events (mostly) and we had 2 cameras (Corinnes and mine) so in some cases the photos skip around because of the photo naming with the 2 cameras...

Here are the vacation photos... I hope ya like em!!!

Mammoth Caves

The Great Smoky Mountains

Daytona Beach!

ParaSailing (and waverunning)!

Sunrises at the Atlantic

Daytona Speedway and Dolphins

Later, Rob

7/17/8 - Not Much...

Just a quick update... Not much new at the moment. I think I am going to try for another 1,000 bike miles this year! It's not a record anymore but on my good years, I can usually manage 1K... If I don't get too lazy, I think I'll try for it... Summer is 1/2 way started (that's the optimistic version) and I am just over 500 miles... So If I do the same in the next 3 1/2 months, I'll make it...

Well, that's it for now... come back soon... or send off an email ifn ya like... Later R

7/8/8 - SUMMER is HERE! Caseys Golfin BD... the Fourth! Bikin and New Path!

Man, it's been busy! I've got a bunch of pictures but haven't had a chance to upload much yet...

We all had a great time at   Caseys Golfin Birthday Casey chose the activities and we went to the driving range... (yes I wacked some balls too!!!) Then we ate a Buffalo Wild Wings... Then we had a short break then we did some mini-golfin... then we are dinner at the Cubbie Bear... It was a full day! ...and lots of fun!

Karen Daryoosh and Nadia were here for the Fourth and we were pretty busy and did lots of fun stuff... I wasn't involved in all the activities cause I was workin a lot but I did join in when I could... I actually dove into the massive crowds at the Palatine Fourth of July celebration and we had front row seats (asphalut actually) for the fireworks! The next night we saw more fireworks in Glenview...

 Dale and I did a 43 mile Bike Ride from Lake Bluff into Wisconsin and then back along the Illinois Beach State Park... The North Chicago and Waukeegan parts were like major gettos! It was not a nice trail at that point... BUT the northern part was nice and the path along Lake Michigan was GREAT! I will eventually update my bike site with this stuff, but not right at the moment...

I also got a chance to ride Dales new Tour Easy recumbent (bent) bike... I really liked this bike!!! I think it will be my next bike! Here's a few shots of me at the beach with my old and "new" bikes!

  


My current (wedgie) bike (at Lake Michigan)

The Tour Easy bent... My next bike!

 

6/21/8 - Western! Beauty School! Painting and Cubs Fever!

Wow, it's already been 2 weeks already since I did a page update?!?! (how time flies!)

Well, last weekend Casey, Dara and I went to WIU (Western Ill. University) in Macomb, Illinois for freshmen orientation... I thought it was great and really informative. It's about a 4 hour trip for us and we stayed one night... in the dorms!!! Well, that was a trip! The food was great and the room was... well, just like a dorm room... What a flashback! Casey has registered for classes and we still have a lot to do before move in day!... (I also won a Western T-Shirt door prize).
With all of the hustle and bustle of graduation and college preparation I have not yet written about Corinnes Beauty School (Cosmetology) Studies and Work!  Well, Corinne has been persistent about wanting to go to beauty school since Jr High... So... we finally agreed to let her do it... It's expensive and requires a commitment and a lot of work... which Corinne has been doing! I actually think that it's great that she has taken the initiative to take this on... Also, keep in mind that this is not in place of high school and college but in addition to it... Corinne wants to keep her options open so she can do this kind of work, part time (during HS and college), or full time or whatever seems to be work out...

...Oh yea, and congratulations to Casey and Corinne for being on the honor roll again this semester!!!

Getting to my boring stuff now... Well, I have 350 bike miles for the season now (not exactly a record number for the end of June) and just Painted the garage door trim today... actually I prepped (scrapped and patched), primed and painted... I also clamped and straightened the frame (perviously) which had started to sag about an inch or two... (not bad for a (construction work challenged) programmer, eh?)...

...and finally, ever since Casey and Dara went to a Cubs game last year, I started watching Cubs games... Well, normally my usual sports M.O. is to be a fair weather fan, but I almost consider myself a real Cubs fan this year... I've been watching all the games, when I get a chance, and have been keeping up on it... Wow, imagine that.. me.. a baseball fan?!?! Well, anyway, we just kicked the Soxes asses today and have the best record in all of baseball so far!!! Maybe this year!!! (remember you heard it here in June!)

6/6/8 - Caseys Graduation Photos and YouTube!

Alright! I finally went through Caseys graduation photos and put together the photo pages below! I also did some camcording and wanted an easy way to upload them and to make them accessible by most people so I decided to give YouTube a try...

Well, I edited the graduation video and got it down to about 4 minutes... Just the highlights... Although I wish I would have recorded some video in the Portellos! As usual, we took a lot of photos (Dara, Corinne and I all took some) so we did get some good ones... Unfortunately it was hard to get any really good photos in the ceremony because of the lighting in the gym and distance, etc... I guess we'll have to see how the ones that they sell look.

OK, enough yappin about the videos and photos!!! In this case, a video and the photo pages are worth a giga-byte or words!!! (Or something like that...) Here they are:

Caseys Graduation Pictures!

Caseys Graduation Video on YouTube! (4min, 13sec)

The Yellowstone Video on You Tube  (5min, 49sec)
(This was my original test and is a short remake of the original video that I did last year... Most of this one is really like a slide show of still pics...)

6/108 Caseys Graduation Day!

It doesn't look like I'll get the graduation photos posted tonight since it is already getting late, but the ceremony was really nice and we had a great time at the graduation and dinner after... Photos to come soon!

5/25/08 More like Labor Day(s)... Signs Up, First Showing...

Well, Happy Memorial Day everyone! Sure is nice to an extra day "off"... OK, well, I just fixed the frame to our garage door and put a new floor in one of our bathrooms (a repair)... Of course, that's why it seems like Labor Day.  (I'm exhaused...)

I also put up the for sale sign in front of the other house so it is "officially" on the market now!!! That is really a major mile stone for me... There are still plenty of things to do there (and at our house)... but at least it's showable and "on the market"... I will do more advertising and things as time goes on... but a little bit at a time...

So, I put the sign up yesterday and had our First Showing today!!! It was a nice young couple that just sold their condo and were looking for a house... I have no idea if they were interested at all, but at least someone came over to see it...

Maybe tomorrow, I'll just relax... I dunno...

5/14/08 Angry Readers Force Update!!! Going to Western Illinois University! Badminton Camp... House for Sale...

OK, I like using the "Angry Readers" heading... Anyway, someone who shall remain nameless (but whos initials are AO) reminded me that I haven't done a website update since April! Sorry... There actually is a bit of news that I need to get out here...

First, Casey has decided on WIU! (Western Illinois University). We have signed him up for housing and will be going to an orientation this summer... Wow, things are moving FAST!

Corinne had a great badminton season and is really looking forward to Badminton Camp this summer! This is a totally new development but I am glad that she has an interest in this... and it sounds like it will be fun for her...

Well, I don't like to dwell on the "other house" (mistake) that I have to deal with... but well, as most of you know, I have to deal with it... I have been spending most of my spare time (mostly on the weekends) trying to get the place in order to sell... I hope to have it market ready (well, the first pass anyway) next weekend or shortly after... I need to tidy up the inside and get some pictures to finish off the website and brochure... Anyway, I do need to get the work out.. so if any of you know someone out there looking to buy a house in Palatine... We have a House for Sale Check out the website http://www.546lincoln.com (still incomplete as of today).

Well, I think that will do it for now... L8-R

4/15/08 JV Singles VICTORY!

We just got back from Corinnes Badminton meet at Fremd tonight and Corinne  WON in JV Singles!!! As some of you may know Corinne is actually on the Freshmen team but occasionally, when they need subs they will move a player up for a particular meet... Well, Corinne played JV tonight against Schaumburg HS... OK, they lost at doubles, but it was really exciting to see her win at singles!!!

I am really getting into watching the badmit matches... I know badminton is not all that popular and I think it gets a bad rap in this country... but it can really be fun to watch some good players... It's really a lot like watching Tennis (I think anyway)... So, if you've seen Wimbledon or other tennis matches and liked it... You might like watching badminton too...

Well, that's it in sports news tonight... Catch cha later,  SportsRob...

4/6/08 Beautiful (Taxing) Weekend!

Well, we finally got a Beautiful Weekend!... and I pretty much finished my taxes! (I still have to review them, but I think that they are done...). I still manged to get out and enjoy the whether (like most of the rest of Chicagoland!). We have all been so desperate for good whether that everyone was out...

I put together that April logo (above) from a picture that I took last year... Unfortunately the picture was really in May... I still need to get some good (official) "April" pictures!)

We worked on Caseys basketball net and court today too... I let Casey paint some court markings on the driveway... check out our new basketball court...

After that Dara and I had a nice bike ride and now (unfortunately), I must call it a weekend... later, Rob.

 

3/27/08 True Bravery (guts and obsession!)

I was just doing some misc. confuser work and I updated my weekly weight spreadsheet chart and I thought that it was interesting so I thought I would show it to everyone... Now that is True Bravery to post my own personal weight stats (for the last 20 years) out on the internet to share with everyone in the world!!!! (or anyone that might know about our site anyway)...

Yes, I said 20 years! (minus a few weeks here and there) I weigh myself every weekend and have been in the habit of writing it into these little pocket calendars and I've managed to keep them for about 20 years... Wow! A little obsessive... I guess... I think I have cloths from about that far back too!!! :-)

Robs Weight - 20 years! (Click to enlarge (the chart that is) if you dare...

OK, what I can see at a glance is that I topped out in November of 1996 (at a whopping 213) then got serious about loosing weight and got down to 175 in May of 1998... (I was really watchin what I ate and got into a great walking and running routine...). Then I gained a little and stayed around 185 for quite a few years and then have gained about 10 or so in the last few years... (my bad!) OK, I'm workin on it!!!

Well, there you have it... Shared with the world!!! (it takes guts to tell the world how fat you are and how fat you have been!) Well, after all, I am in the Information business... (who put the "I" in IT?)

3/23/08 Dreaming of a White Easter!

This was just so perfect that I had to put it up on the web page... (I also thought about sending this to the channel 5 news photos to see if they would show it... but didn't get around to that...). This was at a house down the street from us:

Nothin like an Easter Snow Bunny!


3/15/08 Badminton Uniform, First Ride! New Laptop!

The  Ides of March are upon us! ...and it's time for a little update...

First off, Corinne is well into her badminton season and is doing very well! I haven't made it to her meets yet (for those live action photos) but here's a couple of Corinne in her Fremd badminton uniform (actually the pants are just for travel...)

<Click on the photos for the full size, of course>

Next, one of the first signs of spring and summer is, of course, that First Bike Ride of the Season! Some of you may have noticed the new 2008 Bike Miles at the top of the page... It is still a little cool and still really wet and sloppy out (it would be nice to see some green... but it sure felt great to be back in the saddle again!

...and finally a little follow-up on Corinnes birthday... She finally got that laptop that she has wanted for quite a few years now! (I hope it lasts...) ...and I think we got a pretty good deal... I can't believe how cheap things are getting... Anyway we got a HP with 2gb memory and 160gb disk space for $600 at Best Buy... Here's a link to the details on Corinnes PC at Best Buy (back to the non-sale price)

...and here's a picture of the real thing! (Yes, Corinne has that picture of her and Casey as her Desktop background...)

 

2/29/2008 (Leap Day) What's UP(S),  The Good and the Bad... minton... (NEW) Rafting Return (fun with gifs)

There's been some changes goin on here that I thought I better blog about...

First of all, Casey has just about completed his second week of work at UPS! I don't know where I went wrong... All this time at and Casey goes and works for the "other place"!!! :-) He's been loading trucks at the UPS facility. It's been a tough job and quite a few hours so I don't know how long it is going to last... but he has been hangin in there!
Next, it is badminton season once again (just before Corinnes birthday, as usual)... Except this time it's not Dara coaching, but Corinne playing!!! She has tried out and has made the Fremd Badminton team!!! She had to try out and beat out quite a few of the other aspiring badminton players... She almost made JV too! She was actually close to making JV, but just missed it...

 Well, congratulations to Casey and Corinne both with their new activities!!!

(actually added 3/1) I was just reinstalling some of my old 98 programs and was fooling around with some animated GIFs... I modified the old one at the top of this page (the "In like a lion" one... they are old pictures) (I used my old Babarosa program for that) and I did the RETURN of the RAFTING gifs below with Photohouse...

<Click on this photo to see the SMALLER sized animated rafting ride! (may be better for dial up (or Slowskis))
<Click on this photo to see the LARGER sized animated rafting ride! (if speeds no problem...)

Photohouse isn't as advanced for animated gifs, but it's pretty easy for just animating multiple pictures as I did with the rafting... Well, wasn't that fun... :-)

2/17/2008 Trackin Bigfoot! New Trail Page (back to fall), Photoshop Fun...

Well, I decided to walk the trail behind our house for some exercise yesterday... It was probably one of the hardest walks (or hikes might be a better description) that I have taken this year... In most places the snow was packed down and you could get by OK... but other places you would sink in almost a foot... Man, that's hard walkin!!! OK, as for the article heading... I ran across some incredibly large footprints!!! It was either Bigfoot or someone wearing snowshoes... (probably snowshoes... but I am trying to make these boring February blog notes a little more interesting! :-) )

Well, I finally finished my  Illinois Prairie Path web site pages on my bike site ! Dale and I did this ride in the fall and I am just now getting the article and pictures posted... It's getting hard to keep up on my bike trail articles... I think that I've actually been doing too many photos... since this is not a totally automated photo format, I have to manage each picture individually and it's been taking a long time... Now, I still need to get my additional Green Bay Trail pics formatted and posted! Check out the trail article on the link above!

Well, I am getting the hang of Photoshop quite a bit better now and can do most of the photo editing that I did before on my earlier photo packages just and easy and with even more options now! It has taken a fair amount of time to go through the learning curve... You need to know a few basics, some of the tricks and ways around some of the quirky things in Photoshop to be fairly proficient at it... Fortunately, I enjoy that stuff, so it is not quite as painful as it would be otherwise...

Anyway, here's a little sample of the shallow depth of field (Gaussian Blur as it's called in Photoshop) with a photo of Casey and Corinne (also from the fall...). This may not be the best sample photo for this effect, because the background is sort of interesting, and not too distracting anyway, but I wanted to show off the picture too, so that's why I choose this one!

Here's the original:  (click on the photos to enlarge and see better, of course)

 

and here's the version with the background bokeh (blur):

 Can't wait for spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's it for this week...

2/10/2008 Snow...Cold...Snow...Cold... Blurring

Not too much new here in Febuary, so far... I was just doing some confuser maintenance and wanted to get an update in... so here it is...

We have had a ton of snow this year and a fair share of below zero weather too... It's getting very old! I have even had a hard time getting out to do my exercise walking... Just when I was losing a little weight too!

I did get a chance to do some work with Photoshop and have gotten much better at it... You have to get the "selection" options down before moving on to other stuff, because it is required for so many other cool options... I also got the blurring option down to highlight the foreground and blur the background in the photos like with a very shallow depth of field (with most of the better cameras). Sometimes I can get that shallow depth of field effect, but I can not always get it when I want it or exaggerated as much as I want with my camera... So, now I can do it  (pretty well anyway) "in the lab"! Look for improved pictures in the future!

You know, I just can't think of that much that is all that new and exciting to write about tonight... Sorry about that... I guess I'll just keep this one short and look for some more exciting news for the next update...

Stay warm out there!

1/30/2008 High Honor Walkin...

Not a real lot of major news... Just winter and walkin a lot for exercise and sanity... but I just had to mention that both Casey and Corinne made the  High Honor Roll this semester! I wanted to figure out a way to say that without sounding all braggy... (although I have probably done that in the past just for fun...)... But it is not just a "given" that they will be on the honor roll as it is for some kids... You know, some are just on the honor rolls almost every semester... I am just very proud of them and wanted to pass on the good news!

In other, potentially more boring news... I have been trying to walk a lot for exercise and I am even keeping a spreadsheet of the days that I go and the miles and time, etc... I am a little wacko with stats and stuff sometimes! Anyway, it's been a little bit of a challenge to walk a lot in this heavy duty winter whether... I was out there on quite a few of the below zero days!!! So you may be wondering

HOW CAN I WALK IN THIS WEATHER? <Click to find out, of course...

l8r

1/1/2008 Happy New Year All! The Christmas Pictures are in!

Well, here we are in 2008!!!! Christmas hype and commercials should be over and the diet and fitness commercials will be beginning! I would like to take some more time to reflect on 2008, but I am already running out of the time that I have left on my day off!!! Damn! Well, maybe I can write more later... let's just get to the pictures anyway!  Here they are:           

The Christmas 2007 Pictures!

 

12/28/2007 Welcome to RobandDara.com on the new Comcast Site! Email Changes too...

Hi everyone! If you are reading this, you have now made it to the new Chapman Family and Friends page on the Comcast Site!!!In some cases, us programmers and system people have succeeded if you don't see any difference at all... I have been working on moving off of the old AT&T isp service for quite a while now... I had a lot of stuff over there including this site... The comcast page hit counters were not as easy as the at&t ones so I didn't set them up (sorry, I just left the counter at the last at&t number (7794 visits ... not bad for 8 years or so...)

Our Email accounts will be changing too... We will each have an account with LastNameFirstName@comcast.net (instead of the chapman99 @att.net account). I will send an email on these changes next... (I don't want to type in the actual email addresses on the website because of the pesty spamers that get email addresses that way...

OK, well more later on the holidays and stuff... for now, I have to take care of some confuser maintenance tasks...

Later, Rob.

12/16/2007 Christmas on the Way... New Bike Trail Pages... Some Website and Email Changes coming...

 We just put up our Christmas tree and I even put up a few lights outside... (I actually didn't think I would get to that this year...) It was kind of nice and I guess Christmas is on it's Way! I had a few pictures of the tree but I ran out of time and didn't get them uploaded to the site...

Well, I finally got the photos and pages done from the bike trip that Dale and I took on the Fox River Tail and Illinois Prairie Path back in September! I haven't completed the IPP pages and photos yet, but check out the Fox River Bike Trail South pages!

And one final note... I have been working very hard to consolidate and organize our websites and emails and am trying to get rid of our old AT&T emails and websites. This may seem like a simple maintenance task, but it has already been very difficult... These were the first web pages that I ever did and I have stuff all over the place! If I do everything well, the changes will be transparant... (so that's my goal!)

What have I done so far? Well, I've setup all new email accounts using my comcast emails instead of the old AT&T emails. I'll send out an email, with our new email addresses of course when we switch over completely. I have also moved the old "SongPuppy" pages (my songwriting and music pages) to a new site with an official domain name... My new site and domain name is http://www.RobChapmanMusic.com I stuck with a simple (possibly conservative) name and am hoping that I can get back to some music and recordings at some point... I also fixed all of the audio (MP3 and Real) files on this site. I also lost the domain name SongwritersHelper.COM and had to switch it over to www.SongwritersHelper.ORG and have moved this site to the new location. This site just sells a few songwriting books, but it's a good partner site for my music site...

What is left to do? I still need to move THIS SITE to the comcast areas and change the RobAndDara domain name to point to the new site. I also need to change my email address with a bunch of online places...

Once this is all done, I'll shut down the AT&T stuff completely and We will be on the new sites and using the new emails... More to come on this soon!

Ya'all come back now...

11/24/2007 Thanksgiving 2007!

We just got back from Thanksgiving up in Wisco, and it was fantastic! We had a great meal, lots of fun stuff going on and most of the family there... (We missed a few, including my nephews in the Navy and Marines though. I hope they had a good Thanksgiving too and can make it next year!)

I took quite a few pictures, and have filtered my collection down to less than 50 of the best ones. but I really wish that I kept my camera by my side more often... The pictures below are from the "main event" (Thanksgiving dinner), but we also had a great time gathering fire wood (at the ranch) and hanging out at the Oiums and at the ranch and I missed a lot of other good shots... Oh well, I guess that you just do the best that you can and keep trying to do better the next time...

Anyway, there are some good shots in here and, as usual, I have included plenty of comments, so enjoy the Thanksgiving 2007 photo tour!

Thanksgiving 2007!

Also, while we were up there, I had a request for a "clearer" photo of Corinnes boyfriend, Mike... So here are a few shots of them (for the "enquiring minds" out there!)

Corinne and Mike

11/1/2007 New Speed Walking Record!!! A Great Season Anyway!

I've started my exercise walking routine and, as usual, I get a little crazy about stats and stuff like that... Mostly I like to know how far I go and how fast... and then compare it to my running speed, etc. Generally my walking course is 3.1 miles and I usually walk at around 3.5mph (so it usually takes me around 53 minutes...)

I have always found it hard to try to hit 4mph walking speed... So today, I decided to try to walk as fast as I could and see what my speed was... Well I did my 3.1 miles in 44 minutes for a new walking speed record of 4.23mph!!! This was REALLY hard! I walked as fast as I could just about the whole time... It's not as nice as a leisurely walk... When I run, I usually only go about 4.6mph so it's almost as fast as running... WEll, it's great exercise, but I won't be doing that one all the time!

Well, Fremd H.S. had a great football season... No loses until the playoff game last night... They had their first loss to Glenbard North. I was hoping that they would make it a little farther in the playoffs, but all it takes is one game to knock you out at this point... I guess that we lost one of our better players last week with an injury, so that was part of it... Oh well... as the Cubs always say... there is always next year!

 

11/05/2007 Made my 2007 Mileage Goal!  College Bound... To The State Championship!!!

Well, I made my 2007 bike miles goal of 1000 miles... Just in time, I think... The weather has just taken a cold turn and we are back on daylight wasting time again! Now, it's back to walkin (and maybe runnin) for exercise again... (maybe a ride or 2 if we get some nice days again).

We just went to Western Illinois University (WIU) in Macomb Illionis this weekend. We had a great trip... It was an absolutely beautiful day... We had a big advantage to be able to meet with Caseys old babysitter, who goes to school there now... (she was REALLY nice and helpful!).. and we even saw some of the WIU / SIU football game! (it was almost over, so we got in for free and was right down on the field... That was cool!

We went to ISU in Normal, Ill. a few weeks ago... I have some pictures of both trips, but I haven't formatted them for uploading... I decided that I need to do some more text updates and it's easier not to do pics every time... Maybe I'll post some pictures later though if I get a chance...

In other news... Fremd H.S. (where KC and Corinne go...) football team had a great season and is doing real well in the playoffs now... We play Glenbard North this weekend and if we beat them, we only have 2 more teams to beat to be the State Champions in our division! (I think that's pretty cool... but there is still a little ways to go...)

 


Previous text moved to TEXT History below...


Our EMAIL address is: chapman99@att.net

Family Page Related Web Sites:

PHOTO HISTORY. All the previous photos, Click Here. Some of the REAL old pics.
Page TEXT History / ARCHIVE - Most of our Old Stuff - Text and Photos now
www.homeKat.com/basketball - Caseys basketball photos from 2006 and 2007.
Click here for Casey's Web Page - old out of date page
Click here for Corinne's Web Page  - old out of date page
www.LarryandPatty.com
Brad and Andi's Web Site

Some Just Plain Helpful Links (Click Here)

I am NO LONGER the SONGPUPPY and the PAGEMOUSE!!! but here are the links to these pages:

The Song Pages Click here for the www.RobChapmanMusic.com Song Pages - (formerly www.SONGPUPPY.com) - My old song pages

Click here for the web site development site - (formerly www.PAGEMOUSE.com) - Historical only

I lost these domain names from a clerical error... I was getting tired of the names anyway... The sites are still there though!

Affiliate Sites that I have webmastered:

Find Cashback Credit Cards, reward credit cards, Visa, Master card, Discover and Amex online at the lowest rates.
www.101-Satellite-TV.com - A great selection of satellite TV providers online, plenty of free satellite TV deals and everything you need to get set up now.
101-Baby-Stuff.com - Baby Stuff to show your baby off, keep your baby happy, look great and be practical.
Save money with Discount Contact Lenses Now. Be different with color contacts.
www.Pet-Supplies-Online-Resource.com
www.SongwritersHelper.com
www.About-Bicycles.com

Other sites that I have webmastered:

www.JB-decorating.com - Painting, Wallpaper and Professional Finishes For Homeowners and Quality Builders (Chicago, North and NorthWest)

Touch of HealthCare - Feel the difference combining traditional medicine with alternative and holistic health care makes at Touch of Health, in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.


Bike Mileage: Season Records 2006 Season 2(Final)
RC: 2005 - 2,182*
*Corrected for odometer error
732
Dale: 2006 - 2700 (recumbent miles) 2700... OK, so I lost the record this year...
Bike Mileage: Season Records This Season  
Me 2008   1104  
Me 2007   1001  
Dale 2006 2700   New Record
Me 2006   732  
Me 2005 2182! 2182 New Record
Me 2004:   759  
Dale 2004: 2,008 2,008 New Record
Mine 2003: 1,048 1,307 New Record
Daras: 330 53  
Corinnes: 187 43  
Caseys: 402 82  

Tip-o-the-year: If it moves and it shouldn't... Use Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and it should... Use WD40.

New philosophy from a bumper sticker that I just saw:
Government Policy:
"If it aint broke... Fix it until it is..."

Caseys tae kwon do belts:

Final

Casey and Corinne, 2006-2007 Class Pictures
Casey and Corinne, 2005-2006 Class Pictures 


AT&T Accesses: 7794


Home | Family News | Photo History | Links.| Song Pages | Our Email