Leukemia Fund Raising Update

There's just about a week to go before Imelda and I fly up north to take part in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk. It's designed to raise money for the treatment and research for these diseases. Christopher's parents have decided to do the walk and we decided to not only donate to the cause, but to also take part in the walk.

I posted about this before, but decided to let that post go in favor of this update. They have already managed to raise $2815 which is outstanding, BUT we're so close to $3000 that it would be awesome to make that milestone. So again, as I posted below, if you can afford to make a donation that would be awesome. Thanks to everyone who has helped out with this.

Remember I'll do the walking for you if you toss a bit of scratch their way. :)

Yawn...

Well work has picked up quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. It's left a lot less free time for me. I should say a lot less free time where I feel motivated to do anything, including making posts or looking for cool stuff to post about. Bummer, but oh well. Work will eventually slow and I'll have more time for this. Just a PSA for FYI ;)

Sure Drove Like One

If driving slow as hell equals Putzmeister then he was one. Otherwise it's just a funny as hell name for a piece of rolling heavy machinery.

I've taken to trying to tote my camera around with me where ever it is I'm going. I figured I wouldn't be able to take pictures of fun and funny stuff if I didn't have the camera with me. Makes sense to me anyway.

Thunderstorm, WTF?

It's not even October yet and we're having a thunderstorm. What the hell is up with that? This is supposed to be the land of sunshine, swimming pools and starlets. If we had this kind of weather more often people wouldn't be flooding in. Bah humbug.

Photos Galore, Uh I Mean ARRR Photos Abound

I never did really get to take part too much in National Talk Like A Pirate Day. Oh well. On a different note here's the link to the photo album. It has been updated with the latest pictures from the Yosemite trip. Also included are the wedding and honeymoon pictures as well as everything else. Enjoy.

Update: I managed to hose the photo album page a couple of days ago after making some additions. The additions went fine, but the upload back to the server failed. I have not yet had time to recreate the page that I stupidly did not have a backup of. Patience please. :(

Update Again: Ok, it should be fixed. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along.

Definitely Not Good At This

Well I have never been good at asking for help. Even when I know I need it there is something inside me that just doesn't like to "bother" other people with my problems. This goes for my work as well as my personal life. It's something I need to work on, but that's for later.

The real intent of this post is to ask for help for someone else though. I realize that my readership here is quite small (thank you all of you who do stop by, even those of you who don't comment) and that what I'm doing today won't reach that far. However, if it reaches even one little bit further then that is enough.

Some friends of mine who I have known since junior high are going to be doing the Light the Night Walk to help raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There are a couple of reasons I'm bringing this up. The first is that their son Christopher was diagnosed with Leukemia about three months ago and is currently going through treatment. A great little trouble maker if there ever was one and he and all the others that are or will be suffering from this need our help. The second is that my grandfather was struck down by this killer back in 1975. So I figured now was a good time to ask for a little help. Here's the link for Christopher's donation site.

I realize it may be a tough time for some of you to give a bit what with Katrina and all. Imelda and I have both given for that as well. If you could find a little extra to put forth for this it would be most appreciated. Imelda and I busted the first goal that he set so they bumped it up. Please help to bust their new goal as well.

Thanks,
~lk

UPDATE: 24-SEP-2005 Well the progress made towards busting Christopher's goals has been awesome. It started at $1000, which we plowed right through. It then was raised to $2000 and while that took a bit longer it too is now left in the dust. $2500 was the new goal and after taking about a day off to update that level was also met and exceeded. This is awesome. To any and all of you that have donated 'Thank you so much!'. The response has been outstanding. There is still about 2 weeks to go before the walk, which Imelda and I are flying back to the Bay Area to take part in, so even though the goal has been met please feel free to add to it.

Note: This post has been postdated so that it stays at the top. Please look below this post for new posts. kthx

Yosemite Photo Gif Geekery

Arrrrr!

Just saw this referenced over at Mac's and definitely wanted to post it here as well. Next Monday, September 19th, is National Talk Like A Pirate Day. So get yer avasts and ayes in order or else.

Or else I'll make ye walk the plank ye scurvy dog. Arrrrr.

Cheesy, Bready Goodness

I almost forgot. We changed plans on the last day as to how we were going to head home. The original plan was to retrace our steps the way we came in. But then...

DUN-DUN DUN

Plans were changed and we exited the park on the east side so we could go through Bishop. Just wait, I can hear you saying it. "Bishop? Ken what the hell would you want to pass through there for?"

Well let me tell you. Last year we camped at Rock Creek which is just a bit south of Mammoth. To get there and back you pass through Bishop. Erick Schat's Bakery is in Bishop.


At this bakery is a fine assortment of cheese breads. Once you try one you too will make significant detours so you can stop by and load up. Yes you will.

Hiking and Camping and Bears Oh My

It's getting late, but I wanted to share at least some of the last weekend. It was mostly good stuff. Here are some pictures, a small fraction, of the sights.

This was a little place in on the way that was selling used tires. Needless to say it was out of business. To use Mac's term click the picture to "embiggen" to get a better look at the price.


Traffic found at the entrance to Yosemite.


Traffic found at the entrance to our campground. Just can't escape it.


The result of A-Risk not using either the flashlight in his front pocket or his back pocket.


Needless to say he wasn't able to go on the 8 mile hike on Saturday and unfortunately missed quite a bit.




It was exciting to see this bobcat on our trail. It walked down the trail for a few hundred feet before it took off onto these rocks and then into the woods.


This was some form of box canyon we found at the end of the hike. Very interesting, but unstable formation.

I took hundreds of pictures this trip and am still sorting and tossing. I doubt more will make it up here, but they may. Who knows how I'll feel about it when I'm not quite so tired. Nighty-night.

Oh Lordy

Well I'm still feeling all the hiking from last weekend. There are tons of pictures so I need to go through them so some of them can go up here. This week is not looking like it is going to be a slow one at this point so just be patient and I'll be updating as soon as I can.

That's it.

Carry on.

Nothing to see here.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Love Is Blind

Well there won't be any posting this weekend as I'll be in Yosemite. Woohoo! Here's something to tide you over. Enjoy.

Yosemite

That's right. You read it correctly. I'll be there this weekend for the first time ever. So looking forward to it. I understand I'll be able to see this:

Definitely Longer Than Three Hours

Well I just saw this over at the Peskers. Sad.

Gilligan's gone.

Joe Normal?!!

I figured I'd be anything but. I mean it's a Nerd, Geek, Dork test afterall. I thought I'd score right in there at the nerd level, but the title says it all. Here's the results from my test.

Joe Normal
43 % Nerd, 34% Geek, 21% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.

This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an outcast.

Not much of an outcast?! Well screw you guys I'm going home.

Idea to take test via Neuro.

Domesticated

Just so you don't think all I did was have fun this weekend here ya go.



It wasn't all work though. See Dave I watched football. I did. I did.

China, Yeah Right

Not even close. So this is what I did for the second half of Saturday. I'm still feeling it. And yes I can't tell the difference between the before and after pictures either. Digging. Yes, digging.







This is what we filled. It may look small, but you fill it and then tell me it's small.


Even though we moved that much dirt it sure doesn't look like it. Oh well. I got carne asada con torillas for my efforts.

What's that you say? You have a bridge you want to tell me about. Sure I'm interested.

Social Commentary & Katrina

Well I usually tend to stay away from it for a couple of reasons. The first is basically because I'm an apathetic shit. The second is that while yes I do have my opinions on matters I don't really want to discuss and debate them with someone else. They're my opinions and I may or may not change them based on more information. I'm certainly not going to change them based on some debate I have with someone about them.

However, the mishandling of the Katrina aid efforts by President Monkeyboy and his bannanahead minions stirred me enough to at least bag on him here. I've been reading a bit. I've seen the video of Geraldo and Sheppard (higher quality Quicktime version here)* from Fox news where the two of them report what's actually going on rather than the party line despite the best efforts of pretty suits behind the desk trying to make it sound not so bad.

Then I found this** from a link somewhere else. A fucking squirrel has a better handle on what's going on than REAL, LIVE PEOPLE.

Remember, Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. Just make sure it's a legit organization and then send some help. Don't wait. This could easily be anywhere else in the country when something huge hits, earthquake on the west coast, tornadoes in the Midwest, etc. You'd want some help too and sooner rather than later.

*Faux videos via C&L
**Squirrel movie via EJ

Home Alone - Aging Uber Gamer Edition

What you ask does "The" Lil K do when left by himself for a whole weekend? Well here is your answer.
Here's the made for TV movie version.

Dinner

Tonights dinner was definitely in a different class from last night. Not that last nights was bad. Not by a long shot, but In-n-Out is not surf and turf. Refer to the flickr pictures to the right for what remains of the evidence.

Double-Double With Grilled Onions, Fries Animal Style, Coke No Ice