Front Row Basketball...

And for the last post of the year, we bring you pictures from the OSU - Coppin State game!

OSU-Coppin State

We took our good camera to the game, and got some great shots! Check out all the pictures (by clicking on the link or picture above), and also look at the LAST PICTURE. That wasn't taken by us... that shot was published in the Columbus Dispatch. Check to see who is watching in the background. You can't get any closer than that!

In other news, I wish all of my loyal readers the Happiest of New Year!!! (you know who you are, Mom(s) , Grandma, and family!)

Stay tuned for more excitement next year!

Merry Christmas!

Accenture had their Holiday Party this past weekend (on Saturday night). Holly and I got all dressed up and went out for a great evening with my coworkers.

Since I rarely am ever caught in a tux, we figured we would take the opportunity to capture it on film. So, here we are, all nice and fancy.

Christmas Party

OSU - Football and Basketball

What a great time to be a Buckeye?

If it's not our football team (OSU in the National Championship Game, Troy Smith's Heisman), it's the basketball team (already been ranked #1 before a tough UNC loss, the return of Greg Oden)!!!

We've been taking advantage of the situation, living in Columbus, going to the Michigan game (which was truly amazing!), and now getting ready to go with basketball. I was surprised that our game tickets to Ohio State-Cleveland State were courtside!

Please see my pictures below for OSU-Michigan from a couple weeks ago (sorry that the pictures are late). Also see below pictures from my cell phone (sorry they are blurry) of my surprisingly good seats at the Schott today. #20 is Greg Oden, the best college center in the country, in only his 2nd game of real action playing with one hand (his right hand is still in a heavy brace). Mr. Oden did not miss a shot today from the floor... he went 8-8, and showed flashes of his true potential as a dominating big-game scorer.

Like I said earlier... it's a great time to be a Buckeye.

OSU-Michigan

OSU Basketball 2006 -- Cleveland State

OSU - Northwestern Trip 2006

So it is written:

Every year the group of four shall convene at a Big 10 stadium to watch the glorious Ohio State Buckeyes take on their inferior opponent. He who does not make the trip, shall pay for all!

So it was done:

By air, by road, but not by sea (although in Chicago it could have been possible...), Bill Niebruegge, Jason Waina, Mike Olsen, and myself converged upon Chicago and Northwestern University.... each being too cheap to be caught as the guy that would have to spring for everyone else's expenses!

Check out the pictures! (With a special appearance by Chad Spring!)

Northwestern

We've been busy...

Lots of new pictures to share.

First, Patrick and Amanda got married on 11/4, and are hopefully enjoying themselves in Aruba as we speak! Holly and I took some pictures at the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The photographer at the wedding and reception definitely took plenty of pictures, so we didn't bring our camera to these events.

Patrick and Amanda's Wedding

Secondly, we have accumulated a bunch of pictures "without a home". Things that didn't neccesarily get their own blog post, like our birthdays, a trip to the Air Force museum, the finishing touches on our garage, and our most awesome ride this past weekend (a 2006 Ford Mustang). So, if you are curious about any of those things, click the link below to view some of those pictures.

Misc. Pictures 2006

Jason Takes to the Air Again...

Today was bright and clear, the wind was calm.... a perfect day for flying.

I reserved a Cessna 150, grabbed my camera, and took to the air. I wanted to get some aerial photos of my home on this beautiful day with my green yard and leaves still on the trees.

I took off and flew over the house, taking several passes. Then I called Holly on my cell phone and had her come out and wave to the camera in the sky. Look for her in some of the pictures!

(Click on the picture below to be taken to the photo album to view additional pictures).

Our House From The Sky

Oct 8, 2006 - 15 Photos

Also a new note... I've been trying out several web photo galleries over the past couple of months. I think I've finally settled on a good one (Google's Picasa Web Albums). It's free and easy to use. As such, I think I'm going to stop using my old one (which had several sets of photos from about June of this year forward). So... if you have a few photos you'd like, please download them by the end of the month, as I am going to discontinue my membership to the old photo gallery suite.

Technical Difficulties

My apologies to our fan club out there...

The ChalkServer (home of the ChalkBoard) experienced some "technical issues". As some of you regular readers out there (Hi Moms and Grandma!) may have noticed, the ChalkBoard has been down a lot lately. Finally this morning, the ChalkServer up and died. I'll spare you the technical details... but let's just say it doesn't work anymore.

Thankfully, armed with a spare PC and my supreme technical knowledge (also with a little bit of humility), I was able to put my "disaster recovery" plan into place. Now, a new ChalkServer has been christened and all is well with the world. This new ChalkServer should be a little bit better with uptime and is actually a faster and more capable PC... although I'm not sure that means much since this little webpage doesn't neccesarily need a supercomputer.

Anyways, sorry for the technical issues... but they should be resolved for the foreseeable future!

2 National Title Contenders in our Midst?

So, everyone knows that OSU is #1 in the country for college football at 4-0. Everyone also knows that Holly and I are die-hard fans (it's awesome that my wife enjoys OSU football as much as I do!!!) But I have to give props to the Undefeated, 4-0 Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Yes, they lost their quarterback in the first game, but they've managed to find a way to win... and now they are starting to get the publicity that comes with 4-0:

"Finally, talk about the ultimate indignity: Not only was it pointed out to me that my "Upset Special" pick this week, Ole Miss, was actually a three-point favorite against Wake Forest, but the Demon Deacons beat the Rebels 27-3. Heads up, fellow pollsters: Wake Forest is 4-0" (source)

They also are starting to make some noise in the polls as well... they picked up 12 votes, enough to put them as the 36th best team in the nation!

Amanda's Shower

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to begin the celebration of Patrick and Amanda's wedding with Amanda's bridal shower. It was a lovely afternoon at Mia Familigia Restaurante. It was wonderful to meet Rachel (Amanda's sister) and Donna (Amanda's mom), and we look forward to welcoming them into our family. Many of Amanda's friends came to wish her the best of luck and to give her some pretty great presents!

Click here to see all the pics from Amanda's shower.

College Football Underway!!!

Go Bucks!!!

OSU's offense shined and the defense looked young, bended (a little too much), but did not break. Holly and I were seated in 13AA, row 6, and have the pictures to prove it!

Bring on Texas next week! In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of the game and the alumni band by clicking HERE!!!

Congraultations Jenn!!!

I'm now officially the third most educated person in my family. First Holly, and now Jenn have received their Masters degrees!

We had a great time today, with the family in town (Grandma and Grandpa too!). We also got to meet Matt's (aka Jenn's Matt, aka Buttons) family. They were very nice and fit in well with the Chalk clan.

We started the day at Jenn's place, then went to graduation, followed by the parking lot (which was tons of fun), and then we shot on over to Cap City Diner for a great supper. We ended the day at my home with some cake (because every celebration needs a cake!!!).

Below are some pictures, and also you can see the rest of the pictures by clicking here!!!

Happy 30th Anniversary Mom and Dad!

It seems like they've been married FOREVER (and I guess, in my case, they have...), but my Mom and Dad celebrated their 30th anniversary together with our family last Saturday. Jenn and Matt (aka Buttons) helped to put together a GREAT meal here in Columbus. After that, we took Mom and Dad to the Franklin Park Conservatory, and then finished the afternoon with dessert at The Melting Pot. Below is a great picture of Mom and Dad at the Conservatory!

Congratulations Mom and Dad!!!

Holly's new office!

Holly has an AWESOME new office at Miami University. All of you cubicle-dwellers can eat your hearts out, because Holly has four walls and a door of her very own. There's no window, but it's pretty cozy. Check out more pics here.

White Water Rafting

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this West Virginian port,
aboard this tiny ship.


The mate was a mighty sailin' man,
the skipper brave and sure.
Fourteen passengers set sail that day,
for a five hour tour, a five hour tour...

The rapids started getting rough,
the tiny ship was tossed.
If not for the courage of the fearless crew,
the Edward (Miller) would be lost; the Edward (Miller) would be lost.
------------
We all survived the waters of the Gaulley river.

To see more proof, view all the pictures by clicking on this link.

Bunny Short Films

No, not our Sunny Bunny, but still funny none-the-less:

Click Here to be taken to "Angry Alien Productions"

They do 30 second parodies of famous movies, using animated bunnies. Be careful where you play these, some of them use foul language (if the movie uses it, the parody usually does too).

I thought it was funny, so pass it along or pass it around! Don't worry, it's free (as in no sign-ups or anything, just click and play).

Welcome to Miami... (of Ohio)

Holly moved succesfully into her apartment on 7/30, with the help of her wonderful husband and his even more wonderful family! (Thanks Mom, Dad, and Jenn for helping us move!!!)

Holly and company arrived at around 1:30 on Sunday to Miami of Ohio and found that Holly's roommate Sara had the apartment mostly settled, with the exception of Holly's room (of course) and Holly's half of the office.

The apartment isn't too bad... although it's a bit of a stretch from the comforts of our home.

The good:

• A great roommate with most of the apartment already furnished.
• The carpet is in good condition.
• Holly has enough space (barely). Of course, Sunny has prime real estate in Holly's room!
• Location--about 3 minutes to her work, and close access to food, groceries, and Wal-Mart.

The "ok":

• It could stand to be a little further than 50 feet from the railroad tracks.
• Whoever wired the cable tv outlets (by stringing cable around the floor of the apartment, in one wall and out another) clearly should have watched a little more Bob Vila while growing up.

The worst:

• 2 hours away from "home"!!!

After we got everything moved in and thanked the family with lunch at Qdoba and desert at Coldstone Creamery, we got to work unpacking (and multiple trips to Walmart and Kroger for supplies and groceries). By Monday morning, we got almost everything unpacked. We went to lunch with some people from Holly's internship, saw Holly's office (pictures will be coming soon), and then went to dinner with Holly's roommate Sara.

After that, Jason took off to come home and dutifully update the blog, so that everyone can see Holly's new "Vacation Home" in beautiful Oxford, Ohio!

So, without further ado... the pictures:

A look at Holly's room from her door.

Holly in her room in "Chair Giant"... she'll be using it to study, relax, or...

With a quick change of cage configuration, Holly can let Sunny come over for a visit. Sunny's a big fan of this feature!!!

Holly's bed is all made... had to take a picture, because odds are it won't stay made!!! (We're both bad at that... but Holly particularly so!!!)

And Holly in her office with her big XM Radio playing tunes.

For *ALL* the pictures, (including pictures from other rooms in the apartment) click HERE for the full gallery.

Holly starts work at her internship bright and early at 7:30AM tomorrow. Wish Holly well with her new endeavor!!!

I love you, dear, and miss you (and Sunny) very much!!!

The Super Chalktendo has a home on the web...

I finally finished the last step of the Super Chalktendo project... a home for it on the web. Most people who create these projects put together a website documenting their progress. This allows people "in the community" to learn what works and what doesn't as they attempt their own projects.

I think it is a pretty interesting read, as it goes throw the process of turning one of my dreams into a reality :-). I also wrote it... and built the Super Chalktendo... so I am incredibly partial.

Without further ado, the project webpage:
http://superchalktendo.googlepages.com/

And finally, an interesting aside. I made this website with Googlepages... basically if you have a Gmail address, you can log into Googlepages.com and create a website with pictures and links for *FREE*. It hosts up to 100 Megabytes of pictures and was EXCEPTIONALLY easy to use.

See http://www.googlepages.com for more information. My only word of advice is that if you use post the page somewhere (like I did), create a separate GMail account for the webpage. This is because your GMail account becomes a part of the page name. I created SuperChalktendo@gmail.com so that I could have "superchalktendo.googlepages.com".

If you want a GMail account, just let me know and I'll send you an invite with instructions to get started. It's without a doubt the best EMail interface on the web... better than hotmail, yahoo, or anything else! It's free, but it's by invitation only, so I can give you an invite.

Deck Stained!

While artfully dodging raindrops (it drizzled for about 3 or 4 minutes with no warning today!!!) We completed staining the deck today. Below are several pictures of the completed project as it dries in the hot afternoon sun. We'll touch up a few boards tomorrow, and then move everything back onto the deck probably on Thursday.

We decided that if sweat equity adds value to a house, that by staining the deck on the 2 hottest days of the year so far meant that we added a lot of sweat... and value... to the house!

Holly did a tremendous job helping out, and we managed to keep the stain from going anywhere but on the deck :-). All-in-all, a successful project. Click the various pictures below for a closer view of the deck.

Viva Mexico!

Just got back from Mexico! We had a wonderful time at Aventura Spa Palace... located just South of Cancun in the Mayan Riviera. Like any vacation that we go on, we tried to keep busy! A list of things of note that we did:

1. Chichen Itza--Wow... imagine Rome in North America and this is what you have. I wish I could have spent more time here! It was amazing!
2. Swam with Dolphins at XCaret--A great experience... the Dolphins were very well trained and very tolerant of us dumb humans (So long and thanks for all the fish!)
3. Snorkeling in the Caribbean--never gets old!
   
4. 4-Wheeling through the Mexican "jungle" (more like huge brush fields). Much of Mexico is very remote and desolate, and it was neat to see so much of it up close.
5. Speed-boating in the Caribbean. A 2 person fiberglass hull and a speedboat motor made for a LOT of fun!!!
6. Enjoying time with family... priceless! (Or Price-ful... depending on how you look at it).

So that was our vacation in a nutshell. What!? You want more pictures? Look here for more pictures...

Paging Dr. Chalk...

Ok... ok.... not yet, but almost...

Holly completed the second-to-last major requirement to graduation today... Officially completing her dissertation by passing her oral defense.

Holly picked a wonderful day to defend her dissertation... our anniversary. Now we will always have 2 reasons to celebrate June 26th!

Why is this day a big deal? Well, even though she has her internship (1-year) starting in August (yes, she still walks in June '07), Holly says that "People fail their defense... No one fails internships". So... I think we can call this one officially "in the bag".

Send Holly your congratulations. She no doubt deserves it after all of the hard work over the past 5 years. Today is truly a crowning achievement in her career and one that I am very proud of. It takes a special person to become a PhD, and Holly is no doubt deserving in every single way. I love you dear!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

On June 17th, we went over to Indiana to "surprise" my Grandma with a ??th Birthday party at one of their favorite local restaurants. (I'm not one to say my Grandma's age... but if you are curious, take a look at the cake picture...) Of course the "surprise" was leaked (thanks Mom and Jenn), but it still was a lot of fun. It also marks the 1 year anniversary of the Chalk Family Cruise. While no such extravagant getaways are planned this year, we might have to start thinking about one the following year??? (Or the year after that at least!)

Below are some of our favorite pictures. Click on them to get the larger versions.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!

Sunny Bunny!

Yes, we are completely obsessed with our ADORABLE bunny rabbit! If you ever wonder what it's like to be a spoiled house bunny, watch this video of Sunny getting his morning carrot. Notice how he stands on his hind legs and runs in circles with excitement. :)

It's like having a child!

Here is Jason demonstrating his skills as a magician. As you can see in the picture, he is making smoke from his breath. You give the boy a block of dry ice and he thinks he's David Copperfield :)

Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! Sunny celebrated the beginning of summer by playing in the yard with his Aunt Jill. We're so glad that Jill and Price could come visit us this weekend! We love you guys!

Holly's Research

As many of you know, I am wrapping up my dissertation. To read about my findings (in real English), visit my results website for participants:

http://msresearch.dyndns.org

Cross Country to Indiana

Holly and I completed a cross country flight to Indiana to visit my Grandparents on Saturday. We also recently purchased a new digital camera, so I put both of these together to come up with some great in-flight pictures of lots of stuff that we flew over... enjoy!!!

Holly and I in the Cessna 150 that we flew to Indiana

The back of our house...

Grandma, Grandpa, and myself in front of the airplane.

The Mort Family Farm

My home in Indiana... I lived here from 4 until 10. My Dad architected this home, and I've always liked the way it looked.

My Grandparents' home in Columbia City.

These pictures are just subsets and lower quality than the full-size pictures. If you'd like to look at ALL of the full-size pictures, download all of the images by clicking HERE. It's a zip file, so you'll need Winzip to open them. It's a 15meg file so it's a little large.

Our Tulips

Our tulips started blooming over last weekend, while we were out of town. I wanted to get some pictures up before they were gone. Almost all of our bulbs came back from last year, but due to some wind last night they got blown around a little bit. Still I think they look pretty good, so I wanted to share them with everyone. Hopefully they'll stick around for a week or so more! I think they really make our front yard look good.

Close behind are some bulbs that we planted last year. Holly chose them and we planted them. They were supposed to come up after the tulips (but more like mid-summer). Apparently, they got jealous of the tulips and wanted to follow suit, because they look like they are just a few weeks away as well! You can see them poking out in between the tulips... not sure what they are going to look like, but I'll be sure to include pictures of them here!

June 26th is my lucky day!

Anyone who attended my beautiful wedding on June 26, 2004 knows that this was the luckiest day of my life. The sun was shining... the birds were chirping... everything was perfect. Now, nearly two years later, let's all hope that June 26th is going to remain a VERY lucky day for me.

On June 26, 2006, I will face my final dissertation defense!!! Now, I won't officially graduate until Summer of next year, but hopefully I will have completed my doctoral dissertation by June 26th 2006 at 12:00 noon. Please keep your fingers crossed that June 26th works out for me again. Thank you all for your support!!!!

They can't take *MY* Banner away!!!

There are 2 major memories I have from my college career as an OSU Sports fan. The 2002 National Championship (that I was able to drag out my college career to say I could witness), and the 1999 Final Four Appearance (and Big Ten Championship) Ohio State Buckeyes Team.

Sure, it was later found out that Jim O'Brien (I have an autographed copy of his biography, by the way) was a crook... but did they really have to take down our 1999 Final Four banner? Boban Savovic only scored 10 Points in the entire NCAA Tournament! (Citation: Ryan Fuchs, when at the weird Barnes and Noble that pretends it's Long's Bookstore, tonight. (Further aside: Gateway area is creepy. It's like Easton on South campus. So it's cool, but in a very I'm an American Eagle punk college kid kind of way. It's definitely not South campus anymore!))

ANYWAYS, the NCAA can not require that the ChalkBoard take down the 1999 Final Four Banner. It will always wave proudly at this blog.

Source: OSU-Purdue game, 3/5/2006, OSU wins outright Big Ten title. I was in the cheap seats with my brother. I took my camera just so I could get a picture of the banner for one last time.

In the end, everything worked out, because we have Matta. But that just means that this year's team is going to have to avenge the loss of our '99 banner (they will never take our '99 memories!)

GO BUCKS!! Outright Big 10 Champs!!!

A Whole New Sunny

A lot has happened since "Sunny - Back from the Brink". Sunny actually got a lot worse. He dropped 1.6 lbs (from 3.7 lbs!) and his coordination got even worse. We were surprised how much he lost when we took him to the vet and they weighed him. The prognosis from the vet was not good: "He may not recover. Give him one more month and we'll see how he does."

Sunny must have been listening. Armed with new eye salve (he had scratched his eye when he was rolling) and a new commitment to cramming as much food into him as possible, we went back to work. After about a week, we saw something strange happening. When he was getting ready to flip, he stuck a paw out and steadied himself. He reoriented his twisted head, and slowly came out of a spasm! This had never happened before!

A few days later, he was standing on his back legs (although hunched over in case he fell) cleaning himself. A few days after that, he was scratching his ears with his back paws! This sounds simple for a rabbit to do, but it requires balancing on his other 3 feet and coordinating back to front.

Sunny is now almost one week without rolling. He is back to playing and running. He's also gained a bunch of weight back, and we are thinking about reducing his feeding schedule as he is now eating A LOT! His head is a little twisted, and he still isn't quite back to 100% with his coordination (I'd say 80%), but that is a lot better than the 5-10% low he was probably at.

Now that Sunny is really getting better, I told Holly that I secretly took pictures of Sunny when he was sick. I was hoping to make a post like this, showing before and after.

(BEFORE)

Notice that in the before picture, how skinny he was and how he was leaning (heavily) against a box we had padding his cage. He spent the better part of a month leaning on things.

(AFTER)

Notice in the after pictures him playing, eating, and running right through the middle of the cage.

He still has a little bit further to go, but he has passed the threshold of "sick" and is now firmly in "recovery mode". We are so glad to have our bunny back!