Obviously working at any big company its impossible to know all the intentions of the overall business but normally at least you have some clue of whats doing to happen but in the case of IBM opening a 1,300 employee office in my old home town I was shocked. Of course my lovely sister in law Abby decided to call last night after I was sleeping to break the news for Lindsay and me and then this morning I got about four simultaneous emails with links to the thonline.com page showing it was indeed true. All I can say is absolutely awesome for my old home town and I really hope to see the city start to move into the 21st century by finally taking out the stop lights on 151 and more specifically Dodge street so people can actually get to the other end of the city in less time than it takes me to drive from Rochester to Minneapolis.
General, Work and Geeky Stuff Dubuque, IBM
So after procrastinating for what now four years (to Lindsay I think it probably seems like infinity) Lindsay and I are finally going to start to finish our basement. That’s right ladies and gentlemen you’ll be along for the ride…all the broken bones, cut of fingers, cusing and swearing up a storm, and most importantly all the nail gun accidents. Rob starting his basement motivated me to get rolling on mine but piece by piece over the next year as there is no real immediate need for it so I am going to spend my time looking for the best prices and making sure I do the best job possible…all while learning how to screw up doing Rob. I told him I would pay him back for us learning how to put a race car together with my car. 
First plan is to get the lumber ordered and have my dad come up the weekend of the 24-25th of January here to frame the baby in. All the lumber from the local ProBuild here should be in the $600 range and hopefully that will include delivery as well. I figured all those reading would be interested to see pictures of the progress as it SLOWLY moves along this year so below are the first pictures of what she looks like now. Oh and if anyone wants a Bowflex I’ll cut ya a good deal. 
Our basement looking to the southwest corner
Our basement's south east corner
Our basement looking to the North
Home Improvement, Home Life Basement, Lindsay, Rob
Today I woke up after the first real good nights sleep in a long time (thank you Bella for actually staying on the bottom of the bed) and headed over to Rob’s house to help him inch his basement closer to completion. Today Rob, EJ, Billy and myself finished up all the wiring for his basement so he’s all ready for his first inspection from the city. It actually went a LOT smoother than I was expecting for some reason and we wrapped up after about 7 hours of work. Pretty cool all around and alway nice to help out Rob after all he’s done for me over the years. Hopefully the rest of his house goes as smooth as this part has so far.
Home Improvement Bella, Billy, EJ, Home Improvement, Rob
So I complained yesterday about the glorious ice outside and pondering why in the hell people live in Minnesota…someone must have heard me and said screw you I’ll show you bad. Well that’s what they did. Today we must have had a nice amount of freezing rain topped off with a few inches of snow. Which makes it so SO much fun shoveling. Just cleaning off the little path Bella follows to go to the bathroom I ate it twice. However the funniest was Bella rocketing out the door and sliding four feet past her turn all the way to the end of the sidewalk and then sitting down cause she didn’t know what was going on.
Home Life Bella, Ice, Minnesota, Snow
I ask myself that question every year about this time but yet extol the virtues of living in Minnesota during the summer months while my friends and coworkers in the South bake in the heat…but now its my time to bitch and moan so deal with it. Here is what my walkway has looked like since Saturday…yep full sheet of ice about 1/4 inch thick. Why am I posting this because today I ate it while taking Bella out and it peeved me off. So today I officially give you winter the middle finger. Bring back summer ASAP please.
The usual Minnesota walkway ice over
General Bella, Minnesota, Winter
So Lindsay prodded me by making fun out of me for hours and then emailing me today making fun of me to tell everyone about my new work chair. I have been trying to figure out how in the hell to get some exercise sitting in the office on a daily basis pounding away code (or powerpoint sadly) and I stumbled across some pretty fit folks that were using a exercise ball as their office chair and I said screw it I know what I am getting. So I picked up my exercise ball and tried it out as a chair for the first time yesterday and damnit it’s a hell of a lot more physical than I imagined. I can pretty much sit on it for about 2 hours before my abs and lower back start to burn. I was skeptical that it would actually do anything but you really do subconsciously put in a good deal of physical effort to keep yourself balanced on the ball and in a normal seating position.
I picked up a 75cm Weider one since I am 6′3″ pumped it up to the max and she was beautiful. I’d recommend anyone out there try it cause hell if what I read on multiple health websites is true and you can really burn up to 200-300 calories more per day just sitting on it thats an easy way to lose weight.
That’s right guys I am not embarassed to say I sit on a ball at work instead of some ergonomic chair.
General, Work and Geeky Stuff Exercise Ball Chair, Fitness, Lindsay, Weight Loss
So shockingly enough I actually got someone emailed me and asked who I was. Now after having this up for all of two days I was shocked anyone outside of myself actually stumbled upon it so my odds on bet is telling me that it was just a spammer and I’ll be getting a bunch of Viagra emails over the next few days but ah well. So a little about me…not enough to bore you but enough to mildly know me.
My name’s John Joseph Stecher and I was born and raised in Iowa and currently live in the unbelievable cold state of Minnesota (yes I am writing this during the winter and why people like snowmobiling is beyond my small brains comprehension). I am married to probably the greatest person I have ever met in my entire life Lindsay (see picture) who despite her shopping and purse addictions still scores of the charts.
John and Lindsay Stecher in Vienna
No kids to speak of at this time but you’ll hear about them probably as they come over the years and yes they will be exploited on youtube like every other baby in existence today. I have an absolutely awesome dog Bella who I am pretty sure scientifically could be proven to be a human with as much as Lindsay and I baby her. At the same time check out the picture and tell me how you can’t?
Our little Bella
Career wise I currently work for IBM and have my own awesome little company Trackpedia with a few of my best friends and since this is my personal blog I will try to keep posts for cool technology stuff over on middlewareworld and keep all my Trackpedia and racing related stuff over on that blog cause god knows my fans…all 4 of you would have to sift through stuff.
Beyond that I am just a normal guy. I am a Chicago Bears fan (well hold on a sec that actually make me a above normal guy) and a Cubs fan, I absolutely love to race my cars, I do stupid stuff and make mistakes and I probably once and a while do some great stuff.
Lastly your probably asking why in the hell would you spend 5 minutes everyday writing an entry here. I figured writing this blog was a pretty sweet way for folks that I work with in the real world (both customers and in my company) to know who I am personally without having to ask deep probing uncomfortable questions and that someday eons from now when the internet is going the way of the Encyclopedia my kids can look back and actually see that at one time I was just like them.
Home Life Austria, Bella, Lindsay, Travel
While I can’t say I don’t make them myself (and then subsequently break them) the one I find most humorous is the “I am going to get fit one”. Not because its not a great goal but because everyone starts at the same time in the first week of January and packs the gyms full. My wife and I had the joy of running into this early this morning first starting with having to park about a mile away from the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center which makes for a lovely walk in the lovely 4 degree weather up here. Once inside it wasn’t horrible but I can only imagine its going to get worse. Would make a lot more sense it would seem to outfox the other New Years resolutioners, who’s will if its anything like mine with resolutions only lasts about a month, and actually start in February thus having a nice peaceful and quiet gym all to yourself with a close parking spot.
General Fitness, New Years, Weight Loss
I finally decided to actually consolidate all my different blogs into one single space. This baby will be my main personal one and then I’ll link from here to my racing and also new tech blog middlewareworld.com. It’s amazing how you can sit around for months swearing your going to do something like this but never actually do it and it was easy as hell.
More to come shortly…
General