Its been a while.

Sorry to everyone that looks at this for updates, it has been a very long time since I wrote anything.  Here it goes some informatino for the last year.

The early part of 2008 was great I spent a lot of time in the mountains skiing and snowboarding.  It was a good year I think I made it out about 18 times.

In January I head out to Seattle to see a friend who was living there.  She showed me around the city and we did some snowboarding up at Steven’s pass.  The last day I was there we had beautiful weather and could see Mount Rainier and the Cascade’s, it was a very fun trip.

I made a few trips to Rapid City and to Kansas city for work during the first couple months of the year for various projects I was working on.  In May I got promoted to the Application Manager for our Exploration & Production department.  So far it has been challeging but every educational.  I’ve also made a few trips to Grand Junction and a trip up to Gillette, WY for work as well to better understand how our field communications work.

This spring and summer I tried to do as much climbing, mountain biking and road biking I could.  I didn’t get as much climbing in as I would have like but it gave me more desire to do more this coming summer.  I did get out on the bikes quite a few times.  I even did a 80 mile bike ride called the Cooper Triangle in August.  It was a fun ride but the last 10 miles coming up Vail Pass were brutal.  I did not have the time to participate in any triathlons or adventure races last summer, looking to possibly do a couple this summer.

As for the new house I have been doing quite a bit of work on it.  The first couple months were spent clean up.  I had to remove a wall of ivy from the outside of the house so I could look out 2 of the windows.  I removed wall paper, carpet, mirrors, lights from just about every room upstairs.  I have finished reworking the walls texturing and repainting every room.  I have put new lights and fans up in each room and even had all new windows put in the house.  Late last year I started working on the basement and finish half of it.  The half I finished had to have wall paper removed and some drywall work done.  Once that was done I textured everything and painted.  I also built new window sill out of oak for all the windows downstairs.  In January this year I started on the other half of the basement which included the basement bathroom.  This side I gutted down to the studs.  I added a bedroom to the down stairs.  I’m just finishing up the drywall getting it taped up and finished.  I also had the electrical box changed out with a new one and we added a couple of new breakers to split off some overloaded ones.  Hope to have the basement finished by the end of March.

In October last year I made a couple trips back to Omaha to see friends.  I was also able to attend the Nebraska games versus Missouri and Colorado.

I made a few trips back to see the family and help take care of things at the farm, I brought back a trailer load of tools and misc things that I wanted to keep from the farm.

That brings us to the start of this winter.  I started the winter out in great fashion, I made it to the slopes 16 times before the new year.  Which included 10 of 11 days of skiing over Christmas and New Years.  Mom, Tanya and Casey came out over Christmas we got a condo up in Dillon and did some skiing and snowmobiling.  Jerry and Katie also joined us for Christmas.  It was a fun Christmas.  The family left on my birthday, but Jerry and Katie stayed until Jan 4th.  We got a different condo for the rest of the time and stayed up in the mountains for a week skiing out our knees.

Well hopefully that gives you and idea of what I have been up to for the last year.

Until next time,

Troy

Bought a house in Golden

Hello everyone,

Here is another update from Colorado.  I finally found a house that I liked and put in an offer on it.  It took just about 2 1/2 weeks to get all the paperwork done and we closed on the house on 11/28 (Wed).  This was great timing because I had to be out of my temporary apartment on 12/2 (Sun), however I didn’t have much time to get the house ready.

I finally took possession on the house on 11/29 (Thursday) because we were waiting on the last set of signatures from the bank that was selling the property.  I started working on the property on Thursday evening and then all day Friday ripping out the carpet upstairs to get it ready to move into by Sunday.  I really had to be ready by Sunday because on Monday all my household possession were being delivered by the moving company.

I had to remove carpet from 2 bedrooms, hallway, living room, bathroom and kitchen.  I also had to remove a cooktop stove and a built-in microwave and range unit.

All this work was being done without heat or water.  There was a gas leak in the house so all the appliances where turned off.  I worked with a plumber on Friday to try to isolate the leak.  We finally had to rip into some of the drywall in the basement.  In all we fixed 8 leaking joints in some of the new plumbing that was done when the new furnace was put in.  The plumber that did the rework for some reason didn’t use any pipe dope on the joints.  By the in of the day we had all the gas leaks fixed, but still didn’t have any heat.  Since the gas line was locked by the local gas company we had to get a permit from the city and then have an inspector come out and inspect the work before the gas could be turned on.  Luckily my Realtor let me borrow a couple of radiant heaters which help a little bit.

I was able to stay the night at my apartment through Saturday night but come Sunday night I had to stay at the house, which still didn’t have water or heat.  I slept in my sleeping bag on the living room floor between the two heater I borrowed.  I wasn’t to bad luckily it hadn’t been as cold and the next couple of weeks were going to be.

I worked the rest of the weekend getting the house ready for movers on Monday.  The movers showed up at 8am on Monday and were done unloading everything by 9:30.  Also on Monday I had my satellite with HD hooked up.  The inspector showed up to the house around noon and gave us an a OK on the gas lines, it now was a waiting game with Excel to get the gas turned on.  I finally call Excel about 2:30pm to see when they were coming out to hook it up.  I was informed with the way the account was setup and then turned off it could take up to 3 business days to get the gas back on.  The could have pushed out heat until Friday and on Thursday we were suppose to get some really cold weather.

So Rocky and I spent another night in the house without water or heat, but this time we had a bed and some extra blankets.

Tuesday morning I had my new appliances delivered from Home Depot.  I got a new dishwasher, range and over the range microwave.  I also was getting my internet and phone hooked up this morning.  About 9am the doorbell rang and it was the gas guy from Excel here to hookup my gas, what a great surprise.   After hooking up the gas meter he kindly started my heater and water heater and we were in business.  I finally could turn on the water and not worry about the line freezing, mostly I could take a shower.

I worked Tuesday to get the kitchen up and running which included a new faucet on the sink  and a couple of new cabinets where the old cooktop and oven were.  I hung the wall cabinet that would be used to hang the microwave and then I got the microwave hooked up and mounted.  I was going to plug in the range and found out that the plug was different, so it was another trip to Home Depot.  I think my visit count in the last 4 days was somewhere around 16.

So in all I have had my house for a week and I am slowly unpacking the boxes.  I have posted some pictures of the house before I bought it and I will be posting some pictures as I update areas of the house.

I guess for now take care,

Troy

Finally moved to CO

For those of you that do not know, I finally made the move to Colorado.

I accepted a job with Black Hills Corporation in their Golden location. I accepted the position the middle of August but decided to stay on with West through the last week of Sept, this allowed me to see through the last part of our big project rewrite. I loaded up my truck with just the essentials to get me through the first couple months. My offer included a great moving package so the movers loaded up my house on Sept 26 and once they where done I headed for the mountains.

I got really lucky I was able to get my house sold before I left town, this was one less headache I would have to worry about. You can say it was a busy 6 weeks prior to my leaving. I had to finish the basement remodel and get the house ready to put on the market. You can see pictures in the gallery.

I have been here in CO for 6 weeks now and 3 out of the 6 weeks I was out of town. One week I was up in Rapid City meeting the rest of my team and more of the IT staff. The 2 other weeks I was out in Costa Mesa, Ca for IBM training. Last week I was out in Ca I decided to take the weekend and go up to Apple Valley to spend the weekend with my Aunt Chris and Uncle Jim.

While I was in Ca I had an offer accepted on a house that I submitted and I am now in the process of getting all the paperwork in line for the loan process. The property is in Golden about 1.5 miles for my office building. The house needs a little TLC but it is something that can be done after I move in. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a possibility of 1 or 2 more bed rooms in the basement which is currently finished but also needs some updating. The best thing about the property is has a 20 x 30 detached garage in the back, so I will have plenty of room for my toys. We are hoping to close on the property by the end of the month, so we will see if that happens.

Well until next time take care,

Troy

Tanya finally had her baby.

Tanya and Casey had their baby. They named her Addison, she weighed 8lbs 1oz and was 20 1/2″ long.

Here is a photo: Click Here

Day 4 – On the way back from Mexico.

Well day 4 is here and we were scheduled to fly out at 2:55pm, so we have a few hours to kill before we leave. So, Tanya, Casey and I head over to the market area in the town next to the resort. We stopped at most of the shops; however I wasn’t able to find anything that I need or couldn’t live without.

We didn’t get back to the resort until 11:15 and again mom was worried because they changed the time we had to head to the airport. When we got there they said we could check out at 11:30. I guess they told us wrong and we were suppose to check out at 10:30 so mom was worried that we were going to get in trouble and was upset that she couldn’t find us.

The only thing that happened was that we didn’t get the free transportation back to the airport. When we got to the air port we had to have our luggage search since they didn’t have scanner they would open each suitcase and just look around to see if you had anything suspicious. We ended up getting in the wrong line and they started to search mom’s bag and when we realized we were in the wrong line we were instructed to got to a different line. When the lady went to give mom back the suitcase she forgot to close it and everything fell out on the floor, mom was a bit embarrassed.

After getting through the check point we headed up and picked up our picture from the canyon adventure and bought a couple tee shirts. We then grabbed some lunch before boarding the plane.

We left Mexico around 2:55pm and landed in Chicago at 6:50pm. Once in Chicago we had a 3 ½ hour layover so we got some dinner and sat waiting for our plane.

Casey went and bought a Sudoku book so we worked on several of those puzzles before out plane was ready to go.

We finally landed in Omaha around 11:30pm and got to the house about 12:15pm. Oh yeah I had to work the next day. 🙂

Day 3 – Still in Mexico

The third day started about the same as day 2 except we waited a little while longer to start drinking. We drank several glasses of water at breakfast.

Again we headed to the beach to relax in the sun. Casey and I thought we would give boogie boarding a try this time. We where able to catch a couple of good waves but that was it.

Around 2 or so we headed out to the front of the resort to catch a cab to the marina again. This time it was just Tanya, Casey and I. We were going to go on a canopy adventure through the mountains around Puerto Vallarta. Mom decided to stay back and do some shopping, hanging from a wire 400 feet off the ground isn’t her idea of fun.

After getting to the marina we loaded a navy seal like inflatable speed boat and cruised across the bay to a small port on the other site. We were flying across the water at around 60 mph. After arriving in the small port area we had to wait for about 30 minutes for our ride to get there that would take us to the base camp where we would start our adventure. Our ride was a 1970 Yellow Army Supply truck modified to carry 15 people.

The truck ride was around 30 minutes up to the base camp where we were given our harness and other gear. There we were given some basic instruction on what to do and how to do it. We then headed over to the far side of the camp where there was a stable with mules. We where about ready to ride mules up to the top of the ride where we would start our zip line adventure back down to the base camp. The mule ride was about another 30 minutes to get us to the top of the ridge. From there we dropped off our mules with the farm hand and headed up to the first zip line station.

Click Here for a map of the course.

We than proceed to enjoy the rapid descent via several different zip lines and repel stations. There was one line that had a large pool of water at the bottom of it and you can probably guess is used to get everyone soaking wet. Under normal circumstances that would be fine but it was getting dark and the temperatures were dropping fast, so everyone was freezing cold. We continued our descent to the base camp navigating some rope bridges and a few other zip lines. When we got back to the base came it was time to change into dry clothes, oh yeah we didn’t bring dry clothes. Oh well it will be a quick trip back across the bay to the marine, oh wait the ocean is to rough for the small boat. So we had to wait for our military trucks to pick us up and drive us 1 ½ hours back to the marine instead of a 25 minute boat ride.

We finally got back to the marina around 9:00 pm. We were supposed to have dinner reservations at 8:00 so we missed those also. We finally got back to the resort around 9:30 or so. Mom was so worried that she reported us missing to one of the staff people at the resort. She kept asking if the trip we went on was safe and if she need to do anything. The lady asked how old are your children, the mom said well they’re 26, 27, 28. The lady told her not to worry that we would be back any time. We don’t worry doesn’t work for my mom, so she continued to worry for the next hour until we made it back safe and sound.

So instead of eating a nice sit down dinner at one of the fancy restaurants on the resort, we just grabbed dinner from one of the buffet areas that were open.

We spend the last night of our vacation in Mexico enjoying a few more margarita’s and relaxing.

Day 2 – Mexico

We all probably woke up around 8 or so and headed down to have breakfast. Again it was a beautiful day; however we had to wait until 10am to get our first ice cold beverage. We spent most of the day just lying on the beach. Casey and I took our turn in the ocean trying to body surf.

Mom and Tanya walked around and looked at some of the small shops in the area and bought a couple things.

We really didn’t do much this day except for drinking and relaxing.

For our evening adventure we headed into the marine area via the public bus. This was very interesting since for those of you that know mom doesn’t do well in fast and crazy driving situations when she isn’t in control. We rode the bus for probably 20 minutes which was plenty long for mom she was more than ready to get off.

We got off the bus at the marina where we had decided to take part in the Pirate Ship Dinner Show. The loaded a authenticate pirate ship and set sail out into the bay where we were entertained by the cast on site with different skits and a pirate show. Half way through the show we headed down below in the ships belly for a fantastic dinner of steak and scrimp. It was one of the best steaks I have had in a long time. After dinner we headed back upstairs to the deck of the ship for the rest of the show. The whole cruise lasted 3 or 4 hours.

After the cruise we were provided with free transport back to the resort via a nice site seeing bus.

Once we got back to the resort we drank a few more drinks and got a late night snack from one of the food bars and then headed to bed.

Day 1 – On our way to Mexico

This year for Christmas we decided to head down to Mexico. It would be myself, Mom, Tanya and Casey.

They came to Omaha on Christmas eve. We made a nice dinner in which we had the other Troy (Splichal) join us. He was suppose to be in Brazil but due to all the snow storms in Denver he didn’t make it out so he drove to Omaha and flew out from there.

Out flight was schedule to leave a 6:00 am on Christmas morning. We left for the airport at 5:00 am. We arrived to the airport in Omaha after parking the car there was a line at the United counter that was 200 people deep. We thought oh great we are going to miss our flight to Chicago. How ever after standing in the long line for a few minutes a worker announced that if you were flying international you could get in the line that had only 2 other people in it. So after checking out luggage we headed up to the gate to fly to Chicago where we had a 2 hour layover before departing for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

We landed in Puerto Vallarta around 2:00 pm. We waited for our taxi to take us to our all inclusive resort. We were standing in the sun and 85 degree weather which was a slight change from the 20 degree weather we left in Omaha. It took a while for our taxi to get there and take us to the resort. Our resort “The Royal Decameron Costa Flamingos” was about 20 miles north of the airport. After arriving at the resort we checked in got our wrist bands and headed to the rooms to drop off our luggage and then headed down to the bar to get a nice ice cold beverage.

For the rest of the day we just sat around the beach and bar areas enjoying and relaxing in the nice warm weather. We also did enjoy some of the food while we sat around.

That evening we went to the ocean front patio bar and join others in a music trivia game. After the trivia game we headed over to the theatre for a interesting dance and singing show. The show included a lot of audience participation. Casey had a guys dress in drag setting on his lap for part of the show. Then for another part of the show I was dragged up on stage along with another guy to participate in the game that included the host putting his hand on our leg and then we had to try to hit it with one of our shoes. The outcome was we both ended up with nice red spots on our legs.

After that Mom headed to be and the three of us headed over to the disco to listen to some of the music and have a few more drinks.

I think we finally called it a night about 1:30 am.

Ragbrai XXXIV – Day 3

Day 3 a day of rest, somewhat. The third day from Audubon to Waukee from the map looked like it was going to be somewhat easier. We all awoke around 8:30 or so after a long night. We packed up came and hit the road around 9:30. Again Katie and I were riding first and Jerry was driving. The first leg was from Audubon to Guthrie Center (26.6 miles.)

Once we made it to Guthrie Center we had some lunch and sat around the area for a while. None of us were in a great mood to ride but it had to be done. I didn’t feel very good after eating and wanted to drive but Katie didn’t want to drive the last leg so I decided I would let her drive next and I would ride. The first 2 miles of the next leg were not very fun, however after that I was really glad I decided to get back on the bike and finish out this leg from Guthrie Center to Redfield (21.8 miles.) Once we got into Redfield we met up with Katie and switched drivers.

Jerry and Katie headed out and I headed toward Waukee via I-80, it only ended up being about a 20 minute drive so when I got to Waukee I parked the car and got on the bike and biked back to Adel (9.0 miles) to meet up with Jerry and Katie at one of the bars. We had a beer and talked to some guys that Jerry had met. We hung out there for a while before heading the 9 miles back to Waukee.

I finished the day with 68 miles on the odometer; I was to say the least very pleased with myself. Once we got back to the car we had to wait for Mary friend Michelle to show up so we could give her her things that were in my car. We luckily met up with them as we were riding back to the car in town. After we unloaded we headed back to Audubon to pickup Jerry and Kaite’s car and after I dropped them off I headed back to Omaha.

I got home around 9:30 and was ready to take a break before heading to bed early.

All-in-all it was a great ride and we are hoping we can do the entire week next year.

Ragbrai XXXIV – Day 2

Day 2 was going to be a long day. We awoke around 8:00 and packed up camp. Today we would be saging a vehicle, Jerry would be driving first. That meant that Katie and I would ride the first leg of the day from Ida Grove to Boyer (24.3 miles.) The first leg was a grueling climb all the way to Boyer. It was by far the hardest day I have rode this year or last. It took us just over 2 hours to get to Boyer.

We met Jerry in Boyer and it was Katie’s turn to drive. The next leg Jerry and I would ride would be from Boyer to Arcadia (17.1 miles.) This again was another grueling climbing leg. We stopped in Arcadia for lunch. Jerry and I were suppose to continue riding from Arcadia to Manning (14.6 miles) but I was beat We all loaded up the car and drove to Manning where I dropped them off so they could ride the last 21.4 miles from Manning to Audubon.

I headed to Audubon via county roads and made it there in about 45 minutes. I headed up to the high school where we had dropped off Jerry’s car and met up with Mary and setup camp. I then went in and to a nice relaxing $5 shower; it was well worth it though.

After everyone finished riding and taking showers we headed into town to get something to eat. Mary, Kent, Michelle and I headed over to the Methodist Church for a spaghetti feed they were having. It was very good but a little expensive it was $9 for one plate of spaghetti, salad and a piece of pie.

After dinner we headed downtown to the beer garden where we watch the Audubon Idol show that was going on. Anyone could sign up for a chance to sing and win $500 bucks. The few singers we saw were actually pretty good. After the show was over Jerry and I headed back to camp to pickup our lawn chairs so we could sit outside the beer garden. We figured it would be cheaper to go get beer from the grocery store instead of buying it from the beer garden. By the time we go back the band had started, they were horrible.

We decided to play some stupid games while we drank and listen to the music. By the end of the night we were are ready to go to bed.