Going "Pink" to Save Energy

When we moved into our house back in August of 2004, we had decided that the furnished part of the basement would become our living room. With the summer heat, it would stay nice and cool and we would be able to minimize the amount of time the A/C unit was running.

Of course we didn't plan for the winter temperatures and the fact that we couldn't keep the room warm if we tried. So we didn't. We closed the vents and just warmed the main floor and we would watch TV under 5 blankets (or so).

Over the last two years, I had been contemplating doing something about the lack of warmth. When the furnished part of the basement was being created, there was no insulation put up behind the drywall. From the outside, you had:

• Outside bricks
• Cinder Blocks
• 3/4 inch furring strips
• Drywall
• Wood paneling

It was time for insulation.

About a year ago, I took down the paneling, but got stuck with a custom shelving unit that was built into one side of the wall, which the paneling ran behind. After trying to figure out the best way to remove it with the hopes of being able to reinstall it, I finally took it apart.

After pulling out the drywall in November and moving our living room up to the main floor, I hit a bit of a delay with a bunch of business travel in December. I finally got around to making some progress the other day as I went to Menards with a gift card from the in-laws (THANK YOU!) to purchase styrofoam insulation.

I'm still working my way around the room, as I have most of the easy stuff done. The open spaces have electrical wiring and sockets that I need to work around. I plan to finish this up by the end of the week.

The overall plan is to turn this area into an entertainment area with a home-theater set-up. I'd like to mount speakers from the ceiling and have wires running behind the walls. I suppose I nned to finish the first couple of steps

More to come...

SURPRISE...I'M IN WISCONSIN!

In a unexpected turn of events, Leandra and I drove to Wisconsin on Wednesday evening. I never mentioned it because I decided to surprise my mom. The story goes back to October, but this is how it went down:

Leandra works at a music store in Evansville and she had been given a memo saying that she would not be able to request time off until February. Because of that, and a number of other factors, we had accepted that fact that we would not be going to Wisconsin for Christmas. We actually bought a webcam for my family in October so that we could talk to each other using Skype.

The week before Christmas, Leandra got her work schedule and she had Christmas Eve off and wasn't scheduled to work until 1:00 pm on Saturday. So I brought up the idea of making the trip.

I thought it would be fun to surprise the family, particularly my mom. On Christmas Eve, my step-dad's family gets together and, for as long as I can remember, someone has ALWAYS dressed up as Santa for the little kids. I have been the recent designate for the job...mostly because the little kids don't recognize my voice because I'm not around as much. It's also kind of fun.

I needed someone on the inside to help me out...so I called my sister. I also had to call my uncle who owned the Santa suit. My sister got my step-dad in on the job or we might have had some problems logistically gettng dressed and not getting spotted.

There was one wild-card to the scenario and that was the weather, which I kept an eye on up until the point that we were leaving. If ice was in the forecast, I probably was going to abort the trip. Luckily, the weather was OK for the majority of the trip. We left after Leandra got off of work at 8:30 pm and got in around 4:00 am...ugh.

We slept in on Christmas Eve (sort of) and visited Leandra's family in Elkhorn before we drove to East Troy for the surprise. We snuck into the garage where my sister and uncle were waiting with the Santa suit. I quickly got dressed, slapped on the wig and beard (which ended up being a whole separate issue/story during the Santa visit), grabbed my bag of gifts and headed into the house.

I headed to the basement/family room where everyone was waiting. I wasn't really looking at faces as I was walking down the steps, but there was a lot of surprised laughing so I think it worked. After I got through the kids, I called up my mom to sit on Santa's lap.

Mission complete. Merry Christmas!


Standing (L-R): Andy (brother), Kim (sister), Leandra (my wife), Dan (me)
Sitting (L-R): Dave (step-dad), Kristen (sister), Mary (mom)

SEF Challenge to All of My Facebook Friends

I've decided to put a challenge out to all of my friends on Facebook, mainly my Sinfonian brothers, to support the Sinfonia Educational Foundation. Here's the deal.

For everyone of my friends on Facebook that makes a $20 (or more) donation to the Sinfonia Educational Foundation between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I will make a $1 donation. With 900+ friends, that means I could be paying as much as....well I think you get the picture.

There are a couple of procedural things to be aware of:

1. These must be NEW donations. Some of you (including myself) already do monthly contributions. Monthly contributions will not count towards this donation.
2. Once you make a donation, you must notify me through Facebook (personal message preferred) or e-mail at yesman1000@hotmail.com
3. After Christmas, I will tally up the donations, confirm them and make my contribution to the SEF.
4. ANYONE can donate, as long as you are my Facebook friend. If you are a non-Sinfonian and want to see me dig myself into a hole, feel free to do so.
5. All donations to the SEF are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
6. (There may be something else that comes up, but I can't think of it right now.)

To make your gift today, please go to www.sinfonia.org/sef/givetoday.

36 Green Gift Wrapping Ideas

These are not my ideas, but from someone else. It might be a little last minute, but I will be wrapping up my shopping today like many other people. Check it out at:

http://www.wisebread.com/36-green-gift-wrapping-ideas

...at The Midwest Clinic (Day Two and Three)

Thursday ended up being a really long day and I all I wanted to do was go to bed once I got back to my room. So here is a combined Day 2 & 3 recap at The Midwest Clinic.

Day Two: The day started out nice. There were a lot of brothers who stopped by over the course of the day. I'm not sure if was the layout of the space, but there seemed to be a consistent stream of members stopping by the booth. In prior years, there tended be large wave of members stopping in followed by a long lull. For whatever reason, the time went by much faster with the regular interaction with Sinfonians.

Highlight of the day: I met David Martin from the University of Cincinnati who was the cooperating teacher for Rich Crosby, Sinfonia's immediate past national president.

The reception that evening had about 50 brothers in attendance. We had a bunch of items to raffle to our members, including a number of items sponsored by our alumni association in Chicago. Afterwards, I gave a presentation that highlighted the Fraternity's progress over the last year and we ended the evening with some singing.

After the reception, I joined the Chicago Area Alumni Association members for dinner and we discussed how we can increase their involvement in planning next year's reception. I will be happy to delegate some of the responsibility to them

Day Three: As usual, this tends to be a quiet day. Most people who are here on Friday have been in attendance for multiple days. I like to refer to this day as the day we get the "stragglers." We'll also have guys stop by who make sure that we are still awake in the booth.

Highlight of the Day: Had a gentleman stop by asking for some colony information for University of Minnesota-Monroe. The school is on the western side of the state close to the North Dakota border. If things should work out, this would put a second Sinfonia entity in the state.

Overall, I think we had at least 300 people stop by the booth. We just need to find a way to get more of them to attend our reception. I have some ideas...

...at the Midwest Clinic (Day One)

Had a very interesting day at The Midwest Clinic today. Everything inside the building was fantastic; outisde te building is another story.

Based on what we handed out, it looks like we easily had over 100 people stop by. I had a lot of new faces stop by, including a nuber of Sinfonians in the military...much more than what I have seen in the past.

I had a great conversation with Mike Cesario, who is an alum from my hope chapter (Xi Pi) and a Signature Sinfonian. We talked about one of our alums who had passed away and turned out to be Mike's roommate in college. I never had met the alum, but I had heard a lot of great things about him, which Mike further supported by what he was saying about him.

My lunch stop was at a McDonald's outside the building. I was trying to save some money because food is a "little" over-priced. Unfortunately, there were a number of homeless people there and one was harrassing me quite a bit. I guess I will be spending the extra money to not have to deal with that again.

Anyways, the day moved quickly with all of the people that stopped by this first day. We'll have the see how the next couple of days go. From here, I find dinner, hit the gym and update contact information for those members who stopped by.

Reception is tomorrow...keeping my fingers crossed that attendance is good.

...in Chicago (Day One)

It's the evening before The Midwest Clinic and I've had a pretty productive day. The first thing I took care of was setting up our booth at the McCormick Place. This was no small task, but got it busted out in about two hours thanks to the help of Norm Kellar of the Chicago Area Alumni Association.

While I was running supplies from my car to the exhibit hall, I was lucky to run into a number of Sinfonians:

Chris Donze: president of Ludwig Publishing

Frank Ticheli: 2009 National Honorary

Col. Alan Bonner: Executive Director of KKPsi and TBS

Col. John Borgeoius: 2000 Man of Music...among many other things

Dr. Ray Cramer: president of The Midwest Clinic

Once we finished up, I went to check into my room at the Hyatt and did a recon missiion throughout the building with the hope of finding some food. The whole facility is huge. I think The Midwest Clinic made the right choice in moving from the Hilton...the exhibit hall looks fantastic...but we are a good distance from the local area restaurants which allowed me to diversify my meal options. As it stands for today, I found a McDonald's in the "nether regions" of the building for lunch (blah!).

On the plus side, the rooms really are nice and the Hyatt has a free workout facility (the Hilton charged $20/day). No climbing the stairs in the fire exits this year.

With a free evening and no real plans, I got in touch with my best friend and fraternity brother, Tim Cooper and attended a holiday concert at his high school and had some dinner at a local bar and grill...which shouldn't burn a hole in my pocket. I just need to remember to keep the beer on my own tab.

Hibernating the Rain Barrels for the Winter

As many of you know, I have three rain barrels hooked up to my down spouts to gather water that I use to water my garden in the spring and summer. Once fall hits, the need to water anything lessens and I end up having barrels with no reason to empty them.

Until today...

With the cold weather we have experienced, the barrels need to be emptied so they don't crack as a result of the water freezing. I didn't do a good job of it last year. I emptied them, but just left the spickets open at the bottom so the water would drain out if there was any rain or melting snow.

I decided to completely unhook them this year, but there was a problem...I cut the downspouts to fit the barrels, but now they don't reach the ground. Luckily, someone, in the history of house owners, placed some in-ground drainage that leads out to the curb. I purchased some extendable tubing which fit perfectly into the drainage tubes that go underground. Problem solved...as long as it works.

...in Charlotte (Last Day)

I just finished up my final conference in Charlotte with CASE (Coucil for the Advancement and Support of Education). The week was split into two conferences:

• Young Alumni and Student Programs
• Regional Strategies for Engaging Alumni

The vast majority of attendees come from alumni and/or development offices from universities looking to find ways to keep their alumni involved with their universities and bring money in for the long-term success of the organization. I come in these type of conferences at a bit of a disadvantage because my profession is not directly impacted by universities. I take the information I get and use what pertains to Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia

Some cool pieces of info:

1. I met with two alumni on Sunday who are involved with the Charlotte/Metrolina Alumni Association. Special thanks to Brother Joey Aycock for the ride from the airport.
2. I happened to come across a brother from the Phi Chapter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was attending the first conference. I haven't checked his information with the Fraternity, but I have his business card.
3. During the second conference, I talked to the wife of a brother who was initiated at the Omicron Rho Chapter at Belmont University. His information is up-to-date.
4. Before I head back to the airport, I'm having lunch with Pat Clancy, the province governor for the state of North Carolina. He also happens to be my ride to the airport...thanks dude.

I feel pretty good coming out of the conference. I needed a little re-charging. I feel like I have been in a funk at work recently. Of course, I come back into the office and turn right around towards Chicago next week.

BTW...downtown Charlotte is AWESOME!

Starting Fresh

Hey everyone. I decided to start my own blog talking about my life and experiences living in Evansville. You will likely see me talk about things happening in my personal and professional life, cover some of my interest and hobbies and share some of my opinions of life in Evansville.

Of course, I won't always be in Evansville. Right now, I am in my hotel room in Charlotte as I attend a conference but on by CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education).

This will not be a professional blog...that's over. Hopefully, you will enjoy reading about my life in Evansville. I just might also.