Pickleball

It is over one year since I started playing pickleball at YMCA.
Pickleball is getting popular in the United States and similar to tennis, badminton, and table tennis.
Here is more information about the sport.

Jacksonville, IL

We found one of the cheapest gas in the area on the way to Saint Louis.

Flood Again

N Yorktown Rd was flooded due to the heavy rain last Tuesday.

Abby had to wait for a half hour to get the MOPS meeting.

GEOG 108

I will teach a class called Digital Earth next spring.
I am currently redesigning contents and should be ready no later than the winter break.
Registration is open through STARS (it is listed under geography).

Deer meat

Abby cooked chili mac with ground deer Chad gave us.
It was delicious, and we could eat for two meals.

MACOMB AREA MAP

I found a digital copy of the city map we created is available at the website.

A large map for Regional Office of Education

We created and mounted a large school district map (72" x 80") for ROE26.

Sola at Preschool

He enjoys going to preschool :) 

ILGISA Conference

I attended the conference in Springfield and made a presentation about CMV (Configurable Map Viewer).
The session went well, and there were quite a few attendees.

Family Photo in Summer, 2015

During a visit to grandparents, we asked them to take a family photo for us.

Tablet

Since I bought a smartphone, I would no longer use a 7 inch tablet.
The 4.5 inch screen smartphone seems potable and functionable.
A 11 inch netbook is more convenient when viewing and editing the projects.
Hardware is getting smaller and lighter these days.

The Crossing Preschool

Starting at August 25, Sola started going to the crossing preschool.
His class is scheduled three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).
He was very excited to meet new teachers and friends.
This is a photo of Sola leaving the house on the first day.

Smartphone

We finally updated our cell phones on August 18.
Our 2 year contract ended last May, and we had been looking for an affordable smartphone plan.
After long research, we decided to purchase prepaid phones with Verizon.
With a great coverage, it provides unlimited talk and text with 2GB data for $45 per month.
Disabling data and setting WiFi as default, we would not use much data.
A device we selected was LG Transpyre which is compatible with 4G LTE.

City Map 2015

Lexi revised the city map I created several years ago.
The map was enclosed in today's newspaper.

Additionally, the glossy paper map was provided to the community.

Very hot

It recorded 105F heat index on Tuesday.
I felt dizzy when getting in a car.
I am glad it cooled down today.

Facebook app

When I reformatted my tablet, I decided not to install facebook app.
Therefore,  I will not check facebook as often as I used to.
But I seem to enjoy more time without facebook.

Flood around Saint Louis

2 lanes on US 67 near Alton were under water!
We visited there on the July 4th weekend.

Korean Student

We hosted a Korean student on the weekend of June 26 to 28.
Due to the rain, we could go out only Saturday.
We visited Macomb Heritage Days after Sola's gymnastics class at YMCA.
She spoke English very well and seemed to have a wonderful time with our kids.

Dine Smart

I developed a web map for restaurants with food scores in McDonough County.
It was announced on the newspaper and radio station.

• McDonough Voice
• Own Video

Tablet

Due to the low performance,  I reformatted my tablet.
I only installed apps I really need.
My tablet now runs faster,  and I feel more relaxed without facebook app.

Eggs

I heard eggs are getting expensive due to the bird flu.
But there is a sale on eggs at Walgreens this week.
I bought two dozens of eggs today and saved lots of money!

Nira

We managed to overwinter garlic chives inside.
And they seemed to get stronger.
Here is a photo when we first harvested today.

Jacksonville, IL

We drove to STL last week and noticed Jacksonville seems to provide the cheapest gas ($2.47 per gallon).
STL is no longer cheaper than Illinois.
I do not know the reason but guess the city would have been taking an advantage of residents during the holidays.

Google +

I finally migrated to Google + from Picasa Web Album.
Picasa Web Album had some issues loading videos (Adobe Flash Player is required).
Google + seems to run fine on mobile devices.
I think Picasa would be phased out gradually.

GIS Center Website

New mobile friendly site!

MDH Network

It is nice that the hospital provides free wifi.
But speed is 0.57 Mbps for download and 2.43 Mbps for upload.
Pretty slow :(

A good shot of the boys

It is my favorite photo I took this morning.

ILGISA Regional Meeting

The GIS Center is hosting a ILGISA regional meeting on Thursday, May 14.
It is the first time for ILGISA to come to Western Illinois University.
The meeting is rather social networking than technical presentations.
Chad and I are excited to meet GIS users in the western Illinois region.
Detail information is listed at our website.

Short Visit to Japan Part 3

One of the main reasons for this trip was visiting Grandma's cemetery.
It has been 3 years since she passed away.
Grandma gave me lots of wonderful memories, and I miss her a lot.

Donghee

He finished working at the GIS Center after his Master's degree.
He and his wife went back to South Korea for a while.
We hope to see them again.

Short Visit to Japan Part 2

Due to snow in Chicago, the airplane arrived at Narita Airport about 50 minutes late.
It was 9:20pm, and I ran to the immigration and custom with one carry-on luggage and backpack.
Fortunately, I was able to catch Narita Express 54 departing 9:44pm.

If I missed the last express train, I would not have arrived home before midnight (Narita is about 70km from the downtown Tokyo).
I needed to change to Yokosuka Line at Shinagawa Station and finally saw my family a little after 11pm.

Short Visit to Japan Part 1

I had a quick visit to Japan in the end of March.
There is a non-stop flight from Chicago to Tokyo, and I took a train from Macomb to Chicago.
The train ride was great, but it started snowing in Chicago on the day I departed.
Due to 4 to 5 inches of snow, it was hard for me to walk with carry-on bags from Union Station to CTA Clinton Station (Blue Line).
Many flights got cancelled or delayed, and there was a long line at the check-in counter and security check point.
ANA 1011 left the airport about 45 minutes late.
But a quality of customer service and meals by ANA is impressive and a seat next to me was vacant fortunately.
This photo would show how much I like Boeing 777-300ER even though it was still a long flight.

Drury Inn Fan

We still love this hotel and heard that the company does not belong to the national hotel chains.
Once experienced 5:30 kickback and hot breakfast, we have no desire to try other hotels.
Customer service is also great while staff at the brand hotels tend to be arrogant.
We strongly recommend Drury Inn.

ANA

We love this airline, especially customer service and meals.
There is a non stop flight from Chicago to Tokyo twice a day.
Check it out.

Georgetown Board

Abby's name is now listed on the website.  I am proud of my lovely wife.

B777-300ER

Am I weird enjoying this seat map?

New netbook

I wanted to have a netbook which I could easily carry.
A tablet is not convenient for my work, and the GIS Center kindly provided me a netbook.
It has Windows 8.1 with a keyboard.
And the weight is less than 1kg.
I love it!

New tablet

Abby got a new 10 inch tablet.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 was the first choice, but I found Lenovo sells a similar tablet for less.
Abby seems to enjoy the large screen a lot.

Winter may be over

I guess spring begins tomorrow (Friday).

My name?

Abby's friend told her that my name is mentioned on the newspaper.

UPS

How can UPS choose this route to ship the package?

It is Amazon Prime 2 Day Service.

Vegetable Spaghetti

Hyvee sells store brand vegetable spaghetti.
It was 88 cents last week, and I bought four of them.
The pasta is made of spinach, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, beets, and Shiitake mushrooms.
It is both delicious and healthy!

Saku sleeping on Daddy

He is recovering.

Aerial firm

We visited the aerial firm in Saint Louis to discuss the future project.

Crazy weather

-24C yesterday and +5C today.

Google Earth Pro is now free

Good news!

Snow storm

5 inches as of 10am.

Ymca discount

Gas price dropped to $1.77 per gallon in Macomb.
Showing ymca membership,  I could get 5 cents per gallon discount.

Cheapest milk in town

Hyvee offers milk for $1.89 per gallon,  even cheaper than Aldi.

Garden Salad offered by International Meeting on Thursday night

This is what happened (PDF).

Saku - One Month

Saku is almost one month old.
He has no health concerns, and Sola is getting used to spend time with him.
I usually take Sola to YMCA when playing pickleball or exercising.
Here is a photo when we had dinner at Ponderosa.

Best offline map for Android

App used to be $5 is now free!
Here is more information.