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This weekend, my friend Shawna and I surprised our friend Catie for a birthday lunch and a lovely little place called the Garden Cafe at Flag Fork.  Catie had previously been, though Shawna and I had not.  We decided it would be nice to make a girl’s day of it, and we sent the boys off to fend for themselves for lunch.

Catie came over to the apartment to supposedly pick me up, so Matt and I hid Shawna and Robert (her fiance) in the bathroom.  When Catie came in, out they popped!  Since we had a bit of time to kill before our reservation  (you have to make reservations for this place, its small and very popular) we went ahead and had her open her presents prior to leaving.  Matt and I got her a gift card to download some more books on her Sony Ereader, and Robert and Shawna got her a Hello Kitty Gumball Machine (Catie is a Hello Kitty Fanatic).

We then headed to the restaurant, which was built in an old plantation house, and includes a store full of all sorts of crafty knick-knacks.  We told them we were there for our reservation, and browsed the store till our name was called.  A simple restaurant, they serve soups and sandwiches, fresh fruit and pasta salads, and a huge variety of desserts.  Shawna and I each had a simple turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread and fresh fruit, and Catie had peanut butter and strawberry jelly on white bread with seafood linguine pasta salad.  And they also have the most delicious lemonade I have ever had in my life!  Regular old lemonade, infused with spearmint YUM YUM!

The food was fantastic, the turkey sandwiches were delicious and the fruit was perfectly sweet.  Catie also ordered a bourbon chocolate cake that was served warm and melted in your mouth.

All in all, a wonderful little place, perfect for a quiet lunch or a girls day out!  Hidden in the heart of downtown Lexington, its definitely worth checking out! – Heather

Last year, Matt and I went with my parents to the Land between the Lakes in western KY to attend the annual “Eagle Weekend“. We had so much fun, that we jumped on the chance to go back again this year. So we drove down to Kentucky Lake on Friday afternoon to meet up with my parents at the cabin we rented this year. A long drive from home, but one of the most worth it trips we could take. I love nature and all forms of animal life, and getting the chance to study these magnificent creatures in their natural environment is something that I will always enjoy.

Friday night began with the orientation meeting at the Kentucky Dam Village conference center. We headed over early enough to get decent seats for the evening’s presentation. After settling down in our seats, we were surprised to find out that my Uncle Russ and Aunt Laura were also there for the weekend! The orientation presentation is mainly aimed at those who hadn’t been to Eagle Weekend before, but it is always very interesting, and worth going to for the refresher course on recognizing eagles. They explained how to recognize the American Bald Eagle, as well as how to tell the approximate age of the eagles we would be spotting. After this presentation, we made sure we had the times and locations down for the following day’s activities, and headed back to the cabin, where Matt and I taught my parents how to play Phase 10.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early, and we got ready to head out to go on the boat tour on Kentucky Lake. We picked up my aunt and uncle and headed to the marina where the boat was docked, about half an hour away (the location had been changed due to the KY Dam Village Marina still being frozen over due to the VERY cold weather we had been experiencing in KY). But the weather was nice that day, and once we got out to where we could view the eagles, we could all go out on the deck without being totally frozen. With the help of some high-powered binoculars and my new Fuji-Film S1500 camera, we saw, and took pictures of, around 50 eagles, including the nesting pair in the picture below.

Saturday afternoon, we headed out to the heart of the Land between the Lakes, to the Elk and Bison Prairie.  Here there are many bison and elk, all living in the wild, but fenced in so that we can drive along a road through the prairie and study them much closer that normally.  We saw these amazing animals in all their glory.  The bison were mainly resting, in a huge group very near each other, as seen in the picture below.  The elk, however, were not quite as cooperative as far as seeing them or taking pictures.  We only saw a small group of elk, laying in the woods together, and they were all males.  We assumed that there had to be females as well, but we unfortunately didn’t get to see any.

And here is a picture of the elk we saw.  As you can see, they were all laying down near each other, and using the trees for camouflage.

Saturday evening ended with a presentation from Raptor Rehab of Kentucky, which is a non-profit organization based in Louisville.  They brought several birds for us to see up close, including a bald eagle, a peregrine falcon, a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl, a turkey vulture, and my personal favorite, a saw-whet owl.  Each of these animals had been injured in some way that prevented them from being able to survive in the wild, and therefore now will live out the remainder of their lives in captivity, at the Raptor Rehab facility.  However, these birds are brought along on presentations that the group does, which helps raise awareness and funds to take care of these magnificent creatures.  Below are some of my favorite pictures of the raptors from the presentation.

We’re all looking for ways to save money. My wife and I have decided it’s time to reduce our entertainment expenses at home. Looking at what we spend on home entertainment (books,movies,tv, etc) there didn’t seem to be much we could live without. However after looking at our cable bill it seemed to be apparent that we’re spending $50 bucks a month for extended basic cable.

With as much video content available on the web today, why pay for cable? Most of the major networks (ABC,CBS,etc) are putting their shows online. Shows aired the previous evening are online for viewing the next day. Simply shift your viewing schedule a night ahead and you’re still keeping track of your favorite shows. The best part is you’re in control of when you watch.

Services such as Hulu and Joost have made it extremely easy to find content. Hulu just recently launched a desktop application for Windows and Mac. Hulu Desktop gives you the look and feel of using a DVR. You can find, watch, pause, rewind and fast forward through content. Boxee is another option we’re testing. Boxee allows you to access content on Hulu and other sites as well. Boxee can also play media files stored on your machine. Both pieces of software are sleek and easy to use. Best of all, “Free!”

Our final step was to decide how to get the content on our tv. Luckily our home computer is right next to our tv. With a video card with TV-OUT you can easily pipe video into your tv. You can also channel the audio from your sound card to complete the audio/video experience. What about a remote control? Well you could go out and buy a Media Center remote and use that. However we’re on a budget. We already own a Wii. As you may not know, the Wii Remote uses Bluetooth technology.

Using a Bluetooth adapter on my PC we were able to get the Wii Remote to communicate with it. An application called GlovePIE allowed us to map the buttons however we pleased. Now we can control Hulu Desktop and Boxee with the Wii Remote from the confort of my couch. We can even play emulated games using our Wii peripherals.

Now you have it. We’ve found a sound alternative to paying for cable tv. A total yearly savings of $600 without missing out on our favorite shows. Are you ready to cut the cord?

A year ago today, June 6th, 2008 Heather and I were married. The setting was the First Methodist Church in Richmond, KY at 1:30 pm. It was bright and sunny day. The service was lead by Equipping Minister Mary Lou Stevens. Our Best Man was my brother Dee Kendrick. Our Maid of Honor was Catie Poff. Behind Catie was Shawn Carlson and Jessica Hamilton. Behind our Dee was David Poff and Jake Manning.

The service proceeded on schedule and was followed by a reception at the Historic Boone Tavern Hotel & Restaurant in Berea, KY. After the reception, Heather and I kicked off our honeymoon by spending the night at the Double Tree Hotel in Lexington, KY. The next morning we headed to Williamsburg, VA. Heather and I enjoyed a great week in Williamsburg. We went to Bush Gardens, Water Country and Colonial Williamsburg.

Last night I took Heather to dinner at Malones in Lexington, KY. We enjoyed a great meal and had a good time. I spoiled her with some chocolates from Godiva. Then it was off to the movies at the Kentucky Theater. However parking was not to be found. We ended up going home early. But we enjoyed talking about wedding and our times together.

We want to thank everyone who attended our wedding. It was truly the happiest day of our lives!

In the mood for a cute movie that will make you laugh? How about a touching love story that will move you to tears? Well you can have both in Disney/Pixar’s latest movie, Up. Matt and I, along with our friends Catie and David went to see this movie in 3D yesterday afternoon. I’m sure you’ve seen the previews, but they don’t do the movie justice. It opens with one of the famous Shorts, the best I’ve seen so far, about Storks delivering babies…but that’s all I’m saying, because I sure don’t want to spoil it for you!

Then we get to the actual movie, which opens with a scene of a little boy in an aviator’s hat and goggles watching in awe a documentary about his hero. On the way home, he meets up with a spunky little girl named Ellie, who is also enamored with this same hero. As the movie progresses we get to see how their relationship blooms.

Later on we meet a goofy, kindhearted little boy named Russell, who is a Wilderness Explorer, similar to our Boy Scouts, who is desperate to earn his final patch to make him a Senior Explorer.

We also encounter such crazy characters as Kevin, an enormous multi-colored bird, and Doug, a lovable dog whose master created a collar which allows him to talk.

Long story made slightly shorter, this movie was great! Two thumbs up (eight if you count the others that I saw the movie with)! This is a great family film or just something fun to go see. Don’t waste time, and head to the theater to see in in 3D!

I love to play this game…rarely does a day go by that I dont sit on the computer for at least an hour playing. However, I have some issues with the game and would like to suggest some additions to it.

1. It would be nice to be able to hire someone to work at your farm anytime there is something needing to be done. That way it would not always be necessary for friends to be online everytime they want to have something harvested. This should be in a permissions list like the block user list, something we have the availability to edit from time to time.

2. I also think that we should be able to earn experience by harvesting others’ fields. Even if it is only one experience point for every five fields or so, just something like that. It tends to get very frustrating that the only way to gain experience is to plow, plant, and work on our friends fields, because it takes so long to regenerate any of these things.

3. It would also be nice if there were bots in the marketplaces designed to hire lower level players to help them earn money. These bots should, of course, be programmed to have fully grown fields (large or small) every hour or so and programmed to only hire people who are say level 15 or less.

These are just suggestions that my friends and I think would help make the game even more fun, but I do hope that the programmer(s) will seriously consider these. They’ve done a wonderful job so far in programming a fun, addictive game, but I know a lot of people feel that an update should come soon.

Had a nice long weekend to enjoy. Got to go out and do some Geocaching! What’s Geocaching? In a nutshell, its a high tech scavenger hunt, involving GPS systems. The quest is to find treasure or “cache”. You go to a website that lists all the caches in your area. Each cache has rough GPS coordinates. The coordinates take you to the treasure. Different caches have different “treasures.” Sometimes the treasure is just the trip itself. Its a great way to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. I’ll have the website links at the end of the post for you. Also watch my blog for more details about this great hobby.

So, I took Friday off  and we all met up in Morehead, KY. Our friend Shawna’s sister is having a baby. The girls stayed busy all weekend setting up the baby shower. So while the girls were out doing this, Bobby (Shawna’s future husband) and I began our quest. The first cache led us to the Morehead Recycling Center. However we didn’t find the cache right away. A lady came by and asked if we were on a cache hunt. She kept dropping hints as to where it may have been. We felt she may have been the cache owner. We gave up after a few attempts and moved on to the next cache.

The next cache proved to be much easier. We found it within 10 minutes. Snapped some pictures and went on to the next one. We quickly learned the GPS is going to be off a little bit off in most cases. So we trained ourselves to keep a watch full eye. The next two caches were micro caches (usually just a log book). The following one was attached to an old abandon bridge off US 60 near Farmers, KY. Bobby and I have driven by this location hundreds of times, and have never noticed it. We also stopped at an old school house that was converted into a antique/consignment shop. Then off to the next cache, near some signage about the history of the Farmers, KY. Then we went back to the recycling center for another go. We found it on the second time around. Full day of Geocaching was exciting. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to show you soon. That night we all stayed in Morehead and just hung out. Watched the movie Dodge Ball again. Remember “If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.” That movie doesn’t get old.

The next morning we headed out to Richmond, KY. After we got settled, we headed out for some more caching. It started poring the rain. We sat and let it pass. The first cache we didn’t find. It was a little wet out, so hunting did prove to be a little harder then normal. We found a total of 3 caches before dinner. Some of the caches required stealth, due to non-geocachers or muggles present. The last cache that day seemed to be the best of the weekend. We found the cache without drawing attention. Felt like we were members of a secretive treasure hunters. Bobby and I were like the characters from National Treasure, Ben Gates and Riley Poole. That night we ate at Cracker Barrel. Thanks to Shawna’s parents for providing the meal.

Sunday afternoon came, and Bob and I decided to try our hand at caching in Lexington, KY. That didn’t prove to go so well. Some of the caches were either missing or really hard to find. We only found one cache out of the few we planed for. Started to wonder if someone had been before us and swiped the caches. Never the  less we had fun. I would recommend Geocaching. We’re fairly new to the hobby, but I’ll pass on what we’ve come to know in a later posts. Till then, stay on the trail and don’t get lost!

Offical Geocaching Website

Beginners Guide to Geocaching

This past weekend started off a little early. I took off Friday to spend with my mom during her operation. Mom had a heart catheterization performed to check for blockages. We left Thursday afternoon to drive down to Elkhorn City. But before heading home we met up with some friends of ours in Pikeville, KY. Josh Phillips and the future Mrs. Beth Phillips treated us for dinner at El Azue Grande Mexican Restaurant! Thanks guys! Heather and I had our normal, Polo Bandito with no beans and extra rice. The four of us joked and talked for a few hours. Then it was off to Elkhorn City.

The next morning we left for the hospital. We got there around 9:00 am or so. Went through administrations and she was in her room by around 10:00 am. We watched some TV while we waited for nurses to get mom ready for the operation. I showed my brother Dee how to play Fantastic Contraptions. We worked through a few puzzles. Mom went to the operating room around 11:30 or so.

30 minutes and a puzzle later she was ready for post-op. The doctor had some good news. She went through fine, had no major blockages. We were all revealed about that. Mom of course was out of it, for a few hours. Glad she got some rest. She’s been needing to slow down. She’s always busy with school and community events. I ran into a few people I knew from back in middle and high school. Didn’t realize it at first, but one of my tech buddies’ mom was in the other bed in mom’s hospital room. Jim Smallwood and I were involved in county technology fairs in school. Jim’s now working for the Pike County Board of Ed. Glad to see him. Also ran into one of my classmates, Rebecka Price. She was one of the nurses working the Cardiac floor.

Mom got to go home around 7:30 pm or so. It was a long day. But at least the weekend wasn’t over yet. Saturday morning we slept in and got up around 10 am. Pretty much hung out at the house. We put up a cabinet in the garage. Did some grilled chicken on the grill. Turned out real nice with some rice. That night we went to the local auction house and watched the action. Pretty fun stuff. People will bid on anything!

Sunday afternoon we treated mom to lunch at Bob Evans for Mothers Day. Real good meal. I had the Wildfire Chicken Salad. We left for home later on. Stopped and saw Bobby, Shawna and Hammy. Bob had a major exam for radiology in Lexington this morning. That’s about all for now. If you’ve forgotten, its never to late to wish you mom Happy Late-Mothers Day!

Its been a real rainy weekend. Spent most of the time indoors. Catie and my wife Heather went up to Ashland, KY to help out Catie’s parents. They were setting up a yard garage sale. Meanwhile, back in Richmond, Dave and I had some guy time. Boy we had fun!

Went to Krystal’s and ate. We usually go to places the girls don’t like. We got a two man combo meal. 12 Krystal burgers, 2 fries and 2 drinks were slaughtered in nearly 20 minutes. Then it was off to Big Lots to look at cheap tools. Then we went to Lowe’s to look at expensive tools. After we wiped the drool off the tools, we went and looked at building materials.

Dave’s been talking about getting into metal work. So we discussed the basics. But we both agreed he needed a work bench. So we looked at supplies and plans for that. However there were no plans to be found. The store was about to close. Wouldn’t be the first time we closed somewhere. But anyways we looked at plans online. We were real surprised when we found videos on YouTube (below). Also found out how not to build a work bench.

Dave went home about 11:00pm, and I stayed up and watched movies. Sometime around 1:30am or so I fell asleep. Real odd waking up the next morning and not having my girl next to me. Saturday was free comic book day at the Cosmic Oasis store in town. They asked Dave to come out and be Captain America for the kids. I was hoping to get out there and have some pictures for you. But I didn’t make it out there in time. But they did snap some for him. Maybe we’ll have some to post soon. Dave said it was a real bust. No kids. But he did score some free comic books.

After that Dave and I went to Harbor Freight to do some more tool shop’n. Dave found a metal shaping bag. I didn’t pick anything up. But I saw a lot of stuff I’d like to have. Looked at air compressors, hammers and all kinds of goodies. Including this mini table saw. The girls came home later on. Heather and I settled in and played some games on Facebook. Some include Vampire Wars and Farm Town. (more on that later).

Sunday, another rainy day. Heather and I just stayed in and played some more Farm Town. Proud to say I’m a level 5 farmer. Its addicting be careful! Other then that, we’ve just been chill’n. Nice to have a laid back weekend. Next weekend we’re heading to Elkhorn City. My mom is having a heart cath done. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayer concerns. Catch ya laters!

Well it’s a official this week. My wife Heather, has beat Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii! Lego studs/coins rained from the sky and there was a lot of cheering. Well I didn’t get to witness this. But she said it was great. I’ve gotten to play a little myself. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as Lego Batman, but I do.

In the game you can relive all of the first three movies. Just as every other Lego game there are over a 100 characters you can unlock and use. Most characters have special abilities/attributes. For example Indy is afraid of snakes and will not go near them. In scenes where snakes are present you must switch off with a different character. What’s even more interesting is how every now and then you’ll unlock a Lego Star Wars character.

Not to mention you can also run around and smash stuff. Never know what your going to find. Objects, hidden passages etc. Also a good way to collect studs. You’ll need as many studs as you can find to earn the “True Adventurer” status.

There is one frustrating thing about the game. For example if you get to a point where you need a tool and don’t have it. You will need to go back and find it. Chances are you’re going to be looking for it. But that’s not a bad thing. It wouldn’t be fun if you could just produce the object you need out of your butt (ex. The Sims, rockets…).

As you play you can collect objects to unlock things. I like this model, because it gives the game a little extra replay value. However one piece of advice we pass on about Lego Indiana Jones is play through the game and have fun. Then you can go back and unlock stuff. Heather has completely unlocked every character, mini-kit, postal box, etc. Sure it may take twice as long, but its twice as fun. Have a little extra fun and play with a friend!

So whats next? Not sure but my wife rocks the house at video games.