Louisville 90, Notre Dame 85

Just got back from my first big time college basketball game since moving to the big city. Louisville dominated the game from the start - with Notre Dame only pulling to within ten points in the last few minutes. Was a fun time to sit and watch a team win with 19,000 fans most dressed in red.

Anyways - here are a couple shots I took from the game. The scoreboard shot is for Mr. Humphrey back in Billings. I hope someone in that office shows it to him - preferably during a map briefing one morning!

Ahhh....ICE

There's nothing like a nice freezing rain slash ice storm event to make your time at work zip on by. Here's a couple pictures of HAL from today...

HAL at noon...

HAL at 5pm...

The view from inside HAL at 5pm...

Denver Trip: Red Wings 4, Avalanche...ZIP

On my 3rd (Ohio 1, SD 2) vacation of 2008, I took a brief two-night trip to Denver to visit with Albert (NWS Billings), Albert's wife Lorraine and Carp. The purpose was to relax, have a good time and watch the Colorado Avalanche beat the tar out of the Detroit Red Wings from the club level. Well - the Red Wings won 4-0. Ouch. But hey - club seats are great hockey viewing.

I did really enjoy myself and my visit with my good friends out West. Got to see mountains again...I never thought I'd miss them as much as I did. I also got to drink some 90 Shilling on draft, along with Fat Tire, Sunshine Wheat and Springboard from the New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collins. I did know I would miss drinking those a lot. :)

Anyways, here are a few pictures from my trip.

The view of downtown Denver from Albert's hotel balcony...

The Coors blimp in the Pepsi Center that unfortunately did not drop Coors or Coors Light to the fans below.

The Pepsi Center Empty before game time...

The view from our Club Seats...

The opening face off...

One of several fights to take place...

Close Call...

Remember that tornado outbreak February 5-6th across Kentucky that I mentioned a little bit ago? Remember how I got some damage to my home? Well I spoke with my county Emergency Manager today and he sent me an updated map of damage across the county.

So...I cropped out my portion of my county (Shelby County) and added a little information for your amusement. All those little red dots are reports of damage whether it be structural or just some trees...

Though I did take that damage...I feel 100% lucky because of what was on the ground immediately to my east/northeast. Wow. I feel very lucky.

Wintry Mix

It's only fair that we should see a little winter here in Kentucky after the three severe weather outbreaks between January 10th through February 6th. Almost 4" of snow last night, followed by a change over to rain overnight in temperatures in the mid 20s. So, I woke up to find a nice glaze of ice on everything. Fortunately I have today off, so I think I'll go get a breakfast martini or something. :)

Here are a few pictures from this morning...

From my front porch...that lighter grey stuff is basically 2.5" of almost frozen puddles

My front gutter...

The neighbors tree

Feb 5-6 Tornado Outbreak

So far - it has been determined that 25 tornadoes touched down in Kentucky with our 'little' outbreak this week. That is approximately the same number of tornadoes KY (huh-huh) saw in the 1974 Super Outbreak. Wow. Anyways, 17 of those touched down in the area of responsibility I forecast and warn for at the National Weather Service in Louisville. Yikes...

Anyways - my damage was part of a lengthy path of straight line winds that stretched in parts over a damage path of 15 miles. The last 6 miles (due east of my house) or so of that was a tornado that peaked at EF-2 strength. I consider myself very lucky.

Just for fun - this is what an EF-3 supercell tornado looks like on radar. This cell had an EF-3 (165mph winds) on the ground for about 60 miles and went very close to downtown Nashville, TN before crossing into KY (smirk). I have included one picture of the damage it caused in Monroe County, Kentucky (there were zero deaths in Monroe Co.). I hope to have more damage photos from across KY (c'mon) posted somewhere soon.

Tornado Outbreak

Hey All-

Major tornado outbreak - I got called in to work and ended up pulling a 8pm - 5am Overtime shift. We dealt with several super cells as well as a very dynamic squall line that dropped tornadoes in many of the 59 counties that are the responsibility of the NWS in Louisville.

I managed to survive the event without a scratch. My house however did not. Just some of my siding along the roofline was ripped off. Look closely at the photo below and you can see some of that siding dangling from both the left of the roof on the side of my house, and the right of the roof in the front of the house. So...since i'm taking care of that while trying to prep for mids, the license plate decision will have to wait until next week. So keep voting!

HELP ME!!!! Please Vote

Hey Everyone...I figured since I moved here in June I should probably get Kentucky license plates.

I did stall a little because of the $900 sales tax they wanted to charge me since I bought the car in MT. Post Jan 1, that went down to around $700. So I figured I might as well save a few bucks.

Anyways, personalized plate decision forthcoming and I could use some help. I have narrowed it down to 4 options- anyone and everyone vote and help me out PLEASE!!! If you don't like any of the options, you can visit the following link below to test new ones.

Kentucky DMV to see if your idea is available

Thanks for playing everyone! Would like to go Tues or Wed this week...so vote fast!