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| Showing 8 posts from the general category |
| New Cabinets are here! |
| By Brad Ball on 5.26.2009 @ 4:18 PM. Filed under General |
 Finally! After a nine week wait, our new cabinets have arrived! Now to get them from the garage into the kitchen ... We're almost done now ... just another week or so. You can see some pictures to see what they are going to look like.
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| Free Stereo Equipment |
| By Brad Ball on 12.30.2008 @ 12:04 PM. Filed under General |
| I've got a Kenwood 200 Disc (That's right, two hundred!!!) CD changer that I'm no longer using. If anyone wants it, you can stop by and pick it up free of charge. I'm 95% sure it's in perfect working order.
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| Ball Family Christmas 2008 |
| By Brad Ball on 12.22.2008 @ 10:27 AM. Filed under General |
 Last night, I celebrated Christmas with the immediate family. It was a wonderful evening, and we all had a lot of fun. We started off with an excellent dinner (Thanks Mom!). Beef tenderloin, asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, Russian potatoes, and much more. It was yummy!!
Afterward, everyone was very excited to open presents and see what they got. Camera's were a hit with the girls, and once again, I outdid my parents in excitement factor for Jon by getting him a "Gator Golf" putt putt set. My brother really hit the jackpot (roll eyes) with his pajamas that are all one big piece (complete with a button in the rear for those late night trips to the bathroom) and coon skin cap. Oh how I wish I could've gotten a photo of him wearing those.
Jon put on a performance that Braden couldn't get enough of, and Pop has the bruises this morning to prove it. All in all it was a great night and we had LOTS of fun.
Click here to see pictures
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| An accurate summary ... |
| By Brad Ball on 10.28.2008 @ 10:33 AM. Filed under General |
It's no secret that I don't like Barrack Obama. Besides being a rookie, with only 143 days of experience, and not a single bill passed, he's an extreme liberal, who leans WAY too far to the left for me. However, that's not even the biggest reason I have for not voting for him. The thing I fear most, is a government that is controlled entirely by one party, be it democrat or republican. If Obama is elected, Democrats will have complete control of the House, Senate, and White House. They will be free to implement their agenda unfettered, with no one to present alternative ideas. This is not good, and as I said, it's not just because it's democrats. I would say the same thing about an all republican government ... not good. It's only happened two times in the last 70 years or so, and both times were disastrous (coincidentally, both times democrats had control).
Anyway, I'm a republican (actually, I'm a conservative ... I'm not really sure what the republican party is doing these days, but it is NOT conservatism), and the cartoon below I think accurately and concisely sums up why I can't get on board with anything liberals and Barrack Obama want to do.
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| A little patience, and a little less narcisism would be nice |
| By Brad Ball on 9.17.2008 @ 10:49 AM. Filed under General |
Neither us nor the Straubs have power yet. The rest my family and my in-laws all have power. Larosa on one side of me got power yesterday, and Holiday Manor on the other side of me got power yesterday, but still none for me. But you know what? That's OK. I can be patient (especially since the weather is cooperating). I know that LG&E E.On is working hard and will get power back as soon as humanly possible.
But apparently I'm in the minority. Last night, listening to the radio (what else is there to do when you have no power?), caller after caller called into to the talk show to whine and moan about how the electric company isn't doing enough to get power back on. One guy called in complaining that they only have 400 trucks. I mean, what does he want them to do? Where does he propose they get more trucks from? And what does he propose that they do with all those extra trucks for the next 10 years until there is another large scale power outage? Another guy called in (or was it the same guy?) and was ranting about the fact that as a service provider, LG&E E.On has a service level contract with him, and they are failing to live up to that contract at the moment, thus suggesting that all 315,000 of us who had some kind of power outage should sue. He suggested that they bring in large generators (such as those used to power the TV equipment and such out at Valahalla) and hook those up to affected neighborhoods. The show host did a good job to point out that A.) Those generators could power a couple houses, but not a whole neighborhood, and B.) Even if such a generator did exist, it would be useless cause the down power lines would still be the root of the problem.
Then there are the callers who think that the electric company isn't in any big hurry to get power back on. They think they are lazy and just enjoying the time off work. Again, the host was quick to point out that no one wants the power on more quickly that E.on. They are in the business of providing power, and when that power is out, they are losing MASSIVE amounts of money. I was out at Valhalla yesterday, and there are about 20 corporate tents, that LARGE companies paid BIG MONEY to have. One of those tents was an E.On tent. And Guess what? They had a sign out front that said basically, "Due to the weekend storm, and the amount of work we have to do to get this community back up and running, our tent will be closed for the duration of the Ryder Cup". To me, that says it all. They spent an unimaginal amount of money on that tent, and they very well could still have all the big wigs out there getting drunk and having a good time while I sit at home with no power. But they didn't do that. They ate the cost, and closed the tent, cause getting my power back on (well, getting my meter running anyway) is more important to them than having a few beers and watching some golf.
Finally, and this really gets me, are the significant number of people who called in to complain that the Valhalla area and the Ryder Cup got special treatment to get their power back on first. There are so many problems with this arguement I don't know where to start. I guess the first thing to point out is that the area in and around Valhalla never lost power, so they didn't have to give them special treatment. Secondly, even if they did, can you blame them? The Ryder Cup is a world wide event, being shown in something like 155 countries. It's WAY bigger than the derby, in scale, viewership, and economic impact on this comunity. No one would complain if this was derby week and Churchill Downs got some special treatment. Lastly, this storm and damage it caused will cost this community millions and millions of dollars. But the money generated by the Ryder Cup will more than offset that. So if I were in charge, you can be sure I'd give them special treatment, as the money they generate for this community would enable me to absorb the costs asssiated with the damage and power outage caused by this "wind event".
So, if your power is out, have a little patience, and be assured that they are doing the best they can to get it back on. Realize that you are not the only person suffering right now, and there's a lot of other people who are in a lot worse situation than you are. Suck it up, and take it like a man.
All that said, if they don't have my power on by this weekend so I can watch the Ryder Cup, I'm going to be quite angry!!! ;)
Let's hear your thoughts in the comments ...
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| Ike blows |
| By Brad Ball on 9.15.2008 @ 10:54 AM. Filed under General |
As you sit there with no power and no internet connection, unable to look at this, you can thank Hurricane Ike. Now we all know how Tina Turner felt.
This is a really really cool satellite photo of Ike as it made Landfall in TX, courtesy of NASA. Cool stuff
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| New Features Added |
| By Brad Ball on 9.12.2008 @ 4:17 PM. Filed under General |
I'm glad to announce a couple of new features and improvements to the site. Hopefully they'll make for a better experience, and maybe even some more regular visits. Due to the nature of these updates, I'd like to ask you to take a minute to update your profile by logging in and clicking My Profile in the upper right portion of the screen. Changes are as follows:
- Events Calendar - For booya members, I've added an event calendar. Any booya members can view the calendar and add, edit, and view events. It has complete support for recurring events, all day events as well as day, week, and month views. Having a party? Getting married? Having a baby? Put your event on the calendar to let everyone know about it. To see the calendar, just click on Friends on the main nav bar, and then click on Calendar.
- RSS Feed - I know everyone has been waiting for this! ;) If you are so inclinded, you can subscribe to the RSS feed on the homepage and view the latest blog posts in your favorite RSS reader. Learn more about RSS. To subscribe to the RSS feed for this site, click on the RSS feed link on the left of this page.
- Notifications - When updating your profile, you can sign up for email notifications. In addition to signing up for notifications of message board posts, you can also sign up to be notified whenever there is a new blog post and/or Event added to the event calendar. To set your notifications, just edit your profile by clicking on My Profile in the upper right portion of the screen.
- Updated Registration and Profile - Registration for a free account is now much easier, as you just have to fill out some basic information to create an account. Additionally, updating your profile is easier as well. The My Profile page it now divided into 3 tabs to more easily find and update your account, personal, and notifications settings.
That's all for now. Watch for more updates to follow....
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| New and Imroved! |
| By Brad Ball on 8.4.2008 @ 5:29 PM. Filed under General |
As you can tell, the site has been updated! With the arrival of Braden, I wanted to change things up a bit. I got rid of the customizeable homepage, as I seemed to be the only person making use of it. If you used it and want it back, post a comment below and let me know, and I can bring it back. I thought about keeping it, and making it really awesome, but I opted for a blog instead, for a couple of reasons.
- I wanted to get an update up in time for Braden's arrival, and doing a blog was a much quicker solution. I still didn't meet that goal, but an improved customizable homepage would've taken much longer
- I wanted some way to keep everyone up to date on Braden's progress and goings on. Kerry and I get LOTS of questions about him, and this can be a place to answer those. I also have lots of pictures and video of him to share, and this will make it easier to do that.
Other Site Changes
There are several other updates and additions to the site as well. They include:
- Your login will now be valid for up to a week (it used to only last 2 days), so as long as you login once per week, you won't have to login over and over again.
- Some features of the homepage are still available. You can still get weather, UK, and Liverpool FC news on the lower left. Sorry UofL fans, no UofL news ... do you really want to read about how bad they are anyway?
- On the lower right ... Chat with Me! That's right, you can chat with me live using the control on the lower right of this page. I know you are dying to talk to me, and have nothing better to do with your time, so go ahead and get started now!!!
- Fun Stuff - The Fun Stuff section has been updated, and I'll try to keep it updated with new stuff. There are links to some of my favorite web sites, links to some fun and free browser games, and you can view all my photo albums right from the Fun Stuff home page.
- I've also added a history of the New Minglewood Ramblers on the Music page if you are so inclined.
- Fixed a bug on the Map, that caused the formatting of people's addresses to be incorrect. (Thanks for pointing that out, Kellie!!)
That's about it for now! I'll be making more changes as time goes by, so keep an eye on this space.
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