Last week I got the opportunity to spend some quality time with some students and staff from the University of Northwestern Ohio in Florida watching them race and wrench at Volusia Speedway. It was a great experience and I had a wonderful time (in spite of the rainy / cold weather).
The University took 8 (yes 
race teams to Volusia for speedweek. 4 of the team were owned by UNOH and 4 of the team were privately owned and sponsored 100% by UNOH. All 8 teams had students working on the crew. 2 of the teams were complete student entries – drivers included. UNOH even got David Reutimann (of NASCAR fame) to drive one of the cars one night. I got the chance to spend some time with David and found him to be a very likeable guy. I hope he and UNOH do some more projects together. He spent a ton of time talking to and working with the students.
The team that I own was one of the privately owned teams there and although we did not perform as well as we had hoped, we had a good week and our 2 students, Jared and Freddy, were very professional and able to work on the car on their own. They are the type of guys that I would love to have on the team full-time – of course, that is why they are on the Motorsports Team at UNOH.
Because the racing was at night, I had some time to do a little shooting during the days. I got some cool shots!
I also got the chance to visit the pits for the ARCA race and the Bud Shootouts at Daytona. What a blast. It is amazing to see how much different everything is at that level compared to our relatively small budget operation.
All in all, I had a great time. If you get a chance, go to the UNOH website and have a look around. What a great school! It is truly unlike any other University in the country.
See you all later!
Posted February 14th, 2010. Add a comment
Well, the time has come to move on. My wife and I have made the decision to sell our house in the country and move closer to town. We live in a great little community, Bluffton, Ohio, where the kids who live in town are able to walk to school (and not uphill both ways). We think it would be great to live closer so our 4 kids can do just that. Plus we would be able to walk to football games on Friday nights, the Dairy Freeze in the Summer, etc.
We are going to list the house with our friend, Valerie Emans. I told her I would take the pictures of the house for hew website and brochures. I thought I would do a natural HDR look for the upstairs rooms and kind of a grunge HDR for the basement. Our basement has 2 areas. The 1st area is a home theater, the 2nd is a home arcade. The whole basement is done up very crazy and I figured the “Harry Potter” look would be cool.
Let me know what you think!
House
Posted January 27th, 2010. Add a comment
This Saturday was the Invitation Only pre-opening of the new Findlay location of Texas Roadhouse. My wife and I took our dear friends Kurt and Valerie Emans and had a wonderful afternoon. The store Manager, Joshua Kouts was a gracious host. The place was packed as it seemed that everyone who worked there was allowed to invite some friends and family.
There were plenty of pagers for people as no one had to wait for a seat.
Once we were seated our lovely waitress, Ashley A, quickly showed up to explain how the ordering was going to work and get our drink orders.
There were four entrees on our table and we were requested to each pick one of the four items. I had the ribeye, Cindy had the sirloin, Kurt had chicken fried chicken, and Valerie had the portobello chicken. As usual, the food was awesome. We had great hot dinner rolls.
Plenty of peanuts.
Salads showed up.
We loved our meals, talked for another half an hour, thanked Josh for the invite, went to the ‘outhouse’ and headed home.
It was a mile or two down the road that I realized we had not tipped poor Ashley. I’m not totally to blame, though. The meals were all free, so having not had to get my wallet out I just plain forgot. But worry not, I turned around and drove back and apologized and took care of it 
(After all, I didn’t want to be haunted by ‘Puff’)
All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I would recommend either Texas Roadhouse to anyone!
Posted January 18th, 2010. Add a comment
Nothing says holidays like a 5-day weekend! I took Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off work and spent some quality time with my family. It was really great. Its times like these that I try to remember Psalm 107 – Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
On Wednesday, we spent the afternoon and evening at my father-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving. It is also the time when his 4 daughters set-up and decorate his Christmas tree.
Thursday we spent at my parent’s house. I attempted to take a family portrait, but it sucked — judge for yourself. I told Mom to get us all together again and I promised to do better (or bring someone with me to take it). Family just won’t listen to me the same as they do for a stranger. I assume that is everyone’s toughest customer??
Friday was relaxing around the house then off to the start of the girls basketball season at Bluffton High School. I shoot the game for a local website run by a friend of mine… www.BlufftonPirates.com. Its a fun gig that let’s me get into the games for free and it helps a friend out. I post all of the pictures on my Facebook page and the kids on the teams really appreciate seeing themselves.
Saturday was the big Blaze of Lights parade and official lighting of the Ream Family light display. They close downtown for the evening and have performances and food and schmoozing with the locals. It was perfect weather, 50+ degrees. It was the largest crowd in recent memory and I assume it was due mostly to the good weather.
Sunday was church, football and we ended the day watching Elf while we decorated our Christmas tree. Life is good.
It was a busy weekend – even wore out Harley!
Back to work today – should be a good one. Our sales manager comes back from Maternity leave. We have a lot to discuss with the new printer addition!
Posted November 30th, 2009. Add a comment