Sunday, March 30, 2008

We made the final four!

So we went to the Ag Issues final after spending several hours in both research and rehearsals. The kids and I felt that they did about the best job they could do in the final, so then all we could do was wait. And wait. And wait. Until the session started, then we waited some more, until the announcement came that we had made the final four!

Baker ended up in fourth. The kids were disappointed, and so was I, but there's always next year, if anybody's interested. I know three of them are graduating this spring, but the others might want to work in Ag Issues again. If they do, I'm ready to help. We'll see...

Friday, March 21, 2008

We made it!!!

Today was the first day of the FFA state convention. It was also the day of the Ag Issues prelims. Things were a little confused as far as the administration of the contest, but that's pretty normal for Ag Issues. Or at least it has been for the four years I've been coaching Baker's teams. The contest was supposed to start at 4:30 and finally started at 5:00. We were up third in our flight. We have a pretty simple presentation, with not much in the way of props but good costuming. We're using animal cloning for our topic, and we've got a pretty good show figured out. The kids nailed the presentation but they thought their answers to the questions were a little weak.

We went back to the hotel for a while, then went and ate, and got back up to Pendleton High School to check on the results just as things were about to close down completely for the night. The top six, three from each flight, come back for the finals, and we're on the list!!! Apparently the judges thought we did well enough to bring us back. The kids were pretty droopy until they saw that we were in, then they were totally jazzed up...

Now it's time to do some more research. We need to come up with better info for the questions, especially the ramifications of human cloning, and the costs and etc. of animal cloning. The judges asked some pretty tough questions and only four of the six kids had answers. We especially need to work on getting the other two into the contest that way. The kids are pumped enough to be eager to do some research...

The final is Monday at one PM. We'll see, I guess...

Monday, March 17, 2008

Life in the slow lane...

Life is slow right now. Slow is our friend. I've got about 460 miles on the trainer (road bike on a stand) since January 5th, and the night before last the scales in the bathroom said I only have 12 more pounds to shed to get back where I was three years ago...

I'm thinking that getting back down to that weight isn't as big a thing as it could be, because of the trainer miles. I'm relatively certain it's more a matter of muscle mass (I never thought I'd refer to muscle mass and myself in the same sentence) than the blubber I used to pack around...

With the weather improving, it will soon be time to start hiking the stairs out in the plant every day after lunch. Maybe even start biking to work again. Biking to work is the easy part, relatively speaking. It's the biking home from work that's hard, because it's mostly uphill...

All of this reference to exercise, which used to be a bad word in my vocabulary, is because I signed up for a three day organized bike ride in the Pendleton area on Memorial Day weekend. Call me deranged, but I'm actually looking forward to climbing Emigrant Hill, which we jetted down on Cycle Oregon in 2006. It's gonna be a tough climb, but it's something I want to do...

I'm not getting much writing done on the latest book, although I am getting a few posts in on Firelands. Some day I have to get my act together and get closer to finishing Valentine's Revenge, if for no other reason than to not have two books ready for publication at the same time. It's entirely possible that Tyler's Law may be on paper some time this summer, unless by some strange quirk of fate Penguin Books decides to pick it up and make me an offer I can't refuse, then it will probably be later than that. Hope springs eternal...


Saturday, March 8, 2008

On the road again...

Living in hotels and motels is okay for a while, but it seems like I've been gone from home pretty much forever. I actually was home for I think it was eight days before I jetted off to the wilds of Utah to our plant there, so I was actually home for one week out of four.

On the plus side, I did get some writing done while I was sitting in the Salt Lake airport waiting for my flight to be called. Valentine's Revenge is moving, albeit slowly...

Dreams can be kind of weird things sometimes, don't you think? The last night I was in Utah, I woke up from a dream that the world as we know it was ending, and it stuck with me clear into the light of day, to the point that I had to go to the computer and "write" the opening to what could actually be a potentially interesting book idea. Time will tell, I guess. I'm going to bounce it off of some of my writing associates and see what they think...

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I get to go home tomorrow...

I've been traveling for work the last few weeks. So far I've been home one week out of the last four, counting this week. And this week the motel doesn't have a fitness center, so I'm feeling like the Goodyear blimp. Can't wait to get home and see my lovely wife's smiling face, and get some time on the trainer before I turn totally to oatmeal from too much sitting in front of microscopes and computers and in cars and airplanes...

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Welcome to my world...

Howdy, and welcome to my world. It's a world of God, family, and living the rich life the Good Lord has seen fit to provide for me to the best of my ability. It's a world of bicycles, novel writing, hunting, and generally enjoying life. In the coming days, weeks, months, etc. I'll try to share a little (or a lot) of what it is that makes a fifty year old guy embark on the adventures of writing novels, and riding a bike 500 miles in one week each September, not necessarily in that order or even because of each other. I don't know where this ride is going to go or where it'll end; come along and let's find out together...