West Michigan Whitecaps game!

Great Weekend with the Family

Well, I went back to Bay City last weekend on June 27-29. My parents bought a new toy. A Wii!!! They have been wanting one ever since they played a few games on some of my cousins' Wiis. Well, it proves to be addicting and of course lots of fun. I played Wii tennis with my mom and against my dad. And once I started getting better, started beating my dad in Wii tennis.

Later Saturday night, Mom, I and other family headed to a surprise birthday party on in Mt. Pleasant. And yes, you know what is there, the casino! A group of 15 of us headed to Soaring Eagle Casino around 8pm. My cousin Meghann and I sat down at Blackjack table and played for about an hour until they took my $60 and her $50. Oh well, its just chips. lol! Then I hear a woman in our group won $2,600 with her second pull at a 50 cent machine! I would be the one walking away from the machine, and seeing some woman play if after me and win big. That's my luck with slots! Why can't that happen to me?? Well, I turned out a loser, but my mom surprisingly ended up ahead (something that never happens).

Sunday we went out to brunch at Cracker Barrel, great home cooked food, and you know its home cooked when you accidentally find 2 chicken bones in your tortilla soup. Kind of scary and gross, but hey, they took the $5 off the bill and we were happy (aren't we cheap)! Next time, I am going to bring some my own chicken bones and throw them in there! Just kidding! Later that day my dad and I played tennis with Uncle Dennis and Andrew. We played 3 fun and very close sets (about 35 games) in the hot weather. Plus I drank my water too fast, and was left without any for the last set!!! Here's a picture of dad and I from tennis on Saturday (taken with his phone).

Experimenting with HDR Photography

I went to Grand Haven and biked on the pier and took some great shots of the pier, beach, lighthouse and the Pere Marquette train. I wanted to play around with HDR. (High Dynamic Range). I took these photos with my Canon Rebel XT and shot in RAW format. I was then able to take the photos into Lightroom and create 5 different exposures of the photo. I imported the 5 exposures into a program called Photomatix to generate 1 HDR image, then used a tone mapping process. You can make the photos look like a fantasy or you can tweak to make it look more like reality. In the case of the lighthouse, I was more on the fantasy edge. I think it turned out cool!

Mackinaw Bridge Race

May 24, 2008 - The bridge race was much easier than I thought it would be! I will for sure do it again! The race started before the bridge and ended about 6 blocks after the bridge and was about 5.6 miles. I did it in 51:21! I was very proud of my time, and that was my first race ever. Next year I hope to shave a couple minutes off. The pictures in the video make it look like I am walking, but I never walked.

1 Day til the Big Run

Tomorrow I run the Mac Bridge. 5.8 miles. I am ready as I'll ever be. I missed a good week of running due to my Vegas trip, but got back on track when I got back. My goal is 63 minutes or less. We'll see. I'll post my time soon.

Reed's Lake Trail

Friday evening was a beautiful day in Grand Rapids, so I headed over to Reed's Lake in East Grand Rapids to run. The first time I ran this course the previous weekend I got a little lost and wasn't sure which road to take to make it all the way around back to my car. So I ended up going half way and returning the way I came. The roads can get tricky in between. So after consulting the trail map earlier this week, I was ready to do it again. The course all around is 4.3 miles. The trail actually consists of paved sidewalks, trails and roads. You pass by million dollar homes and many active people out and about. Here is just one of the amazing homes you pass by:
I just like to pretend I live in the neighborhood. Surely I would rather run outside here than on a boring treadmill for that long. The course proved to be a nice one with 2 big hills (had to stop and walk up one hill, quite steep as my heart rate was shooting through the roof). My time was 44:30 for 4.3 miles. Can't wait to do it again to improve on my time, but looks like we're going to have snow/rain this week. Bummer. Treadmill it is.

I am training for the Mighty Mac Bridge run on May 24th. It is a 5.3 run with a 5 degree incline the first half of the bridge. Here's what it may look like:

Why is my bed shaking? Last thing on my mind was an Earthquake!

Well, during the 5am hour on Friday April 18th (later determined at exactly 5:37am), my bed was shaking. I was either awake or woken up already. I was thinking at first, why is my bed shaking (felt like someone put a quarter in one of those beds to make it vibrate). Then I thought, what in the world is my neighbor doing (I live in a condo where the walls are shared with neighbors)? Were they getting happy, moving furniture? Then my heat was kicking on and could really hear a lot of clatter in the vents, and just thought, hmmmm….maybe that’s how it always sounds and I didn't ever notice it. Then the whole building started shaking, then I thought, what is going on, maybe a few units down something exploded and there is a fire? (I was thinking of those Indian Town Condos that were on fire a few months ago). Well, I didn't hear any sirens or anything, and the shaking of the building had stopped. I kind of just laid in bed for awhile. The whole thing lasted for about 20-30 seconds. Got up and worked out, and then watched the news and they reported an earthquake in West Salem, Illinois. People from a 350 mile radius reported feeling it. The last thing on my mind was an earthquake. I was excited to learn that I felt an earthquake, in Grand Rapids, MI! No other co-workers of mine really felt it. My mom and dad reported no feeling of it in Bay City, nor did my brother in Tennessee. Here is what Mlive had to say: http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/earthquake_centered_on_illinoi.html

Earthquake centered on Illinois/Indiana border felt in Michigan

by The Grand Rapids Press staff and wire reports

Friday April 18, 2008, 6:12 AM

A strong earthquake that rattled parts of southern Illinois and Indiana early this morning was felt in the Grand Rapids area, about 320 miles away.

The quake, given a preliminary magnitude of 5.4, occurred about 6 miles from Mount Carmel, Ill., and about 131 miles east of St. Louis, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It took place about 2 miles underground and struck about 5:36 a.m., USGS said.

"It shook our house where it woke me up," said David Behm of Philo, Ill., 10 miles south of Champaign. "Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It's not like California."

The quake also shook skyscrapers in Chicago's Loop and tall buildings in downtown Indianapolis. It was felt in Milwaukee and Cincinnati as well.

Irvetta McMurtry of Cincinnati said she felt the rattling for up to 20 seconds.

"All of a sudden, I was awakened by this rumbling shaking," said McMurtry, 43. "My bed is an older wood frame bed, so the bed started to creak and shake, and it was almost like somebody was taking my mattress and moving it back and forth."

Lucas Griswold, a dispatcher in West Salem, said the Edwards County sheriff's department received reports of minor damage and no injuries.

Quake strikes during weathercast AP Video

"Oh, yeah, I felt it. It was interesting," Griswold said. "A lot of shaking."

Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle in Evansville, about 38 miles from the epicenter, said there were no immediate reports of damage.

A 5.4 quake can cause considerable damage.

Grand Rapids police dispatchers felt the building shake around 5:30.

Lt. Larry Frye said a couple of dispatchers who work on the fourth floor of Grand Rapids headquarters called him to find out if he felt anything in his lower floor office. He did not notice any tremors.

The USGS received reports from all over West Michigan, including Grand Rapids, Ada, Caledonia, Holland, Wayland and Trufant

The quake occurred in the Illinois basin-Ozark dome region that covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis, according to the USGS.

The organization's Web site said earthquakes occur irregularly in the area, and that the largest historical earthquake in the region -- also a magnitude 5.4 -- caused damage in southern Illinois in 1968.

Three of the most powerful quakes felt in North America struck in the region.

In 1811-12, a series of quakes along the New Madrid Fault in Missouri, near the border with Tennessee, measured 7.8, 8.0 and 8.1, which is 10 times more intense than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. They devastated the sparsely populated area, and reportedly caused the Mississippi River to flow backward for a time.

The quakes, occurring from from Dec. 16 to Feb. 7, were felt as far away as Boston. Damage was reported as far away as Charleston, S.C., and Washington, D.C.
The earthquake is being monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey.

-- Press writers Dan Hawkins, Dave Odette and The Associated Press contributed to this report.