Mike Jones

My video has arrived!

2010-07-05T17:34:45Z

My Richard Petty Driving Experience at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 20th 2010. It's hard to tell from this video that we turned a lap at 105 MPH. I wish the instructor would have gone faster! I'd like to try it on a bigger, faster track sometime. All in all though, it was AWESOME! It was SO much fun!

An Amazing Father's Day

2010-06-21T14:57:24Z

I had the most Amazing day yesterday. For Christmas, my Beautiful, Loving Wife gave me a gift certificate to a driving experience with the Richard Petty Driving Experience. I used that gift card up on Father's Day! While I've done a ride along with them before, this was my first time driving. It was AWESOME. It took a bit of time to get used to the fact that you have to steer right in order to go straight as the cars are set up to turn left. As we left the pits, the instructor driving the car in front of me was telling me to go faster. By the time we reached the flag stand on the front stretch, he was telling me to back off :)

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is only a mile long track with a little banking so it wasn't super speedway speeds but my top speed for the day was 105 MPH.

It was a great day out with my wife and daughter. My mom, Mary Lou and Linda all came to watch too.

After we were done at the track, we stopped for a quick bite to eat and then headed home to grab a few things. We were off to a cook out to visit with friends, many of whom were in town for their high school reunion. It was great to see some friends that are usually so far away.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better Father's Day.

Stellar Customer Service

2009-11-21T19:01:37Z

  Last Christmas, my wife gave me an automatic car starter for my truck. The truck is outside all winter and it's very nice to be able to warm it up without ever going outside. She purchased it from Boomer McLoud in Nashua, NH. We took the truck in and had it installed there as well. Everything worked great all winter long. Then, over the summer, I took Lauren to the pool. I went swimming with her, forgetting that my keys were in my pocket. So much for that remote starter remote control. Oh well, I thought, I have another one. Well, the second one didn't work at all either. I changed the batteries and it would work for a day or two and then stop again.
  With winter coming, I decided it was time to resolve the problem. I assumed I would have to spend a fortune to purchase a new remote. I went in to Boomer McLoud and told them about the problem I was having and even told them I took one of them swimming with me. The answer was "No Problem"! He took out two new remotes, went out to my truck and within about 2 minutes had them programmed. When I asked how much I owed him, the answer was "Nothing". "Seriously?" I asked and he said :Yes. All of our remote starters have a lifetime guarantee with no questions asked." And on top of all of that, he was friendly and took the time to show me how the remotes are programmed to the truck! I thanked him and was on my way.
  It's nice to see that customer service is not dead and that some companies stand behind their guarantee. I'd just like to say, Boomer McLoud, YOU ROCK!

Recovering pictures from a corrupt SD Card

2009-08-19T12:24:21Z

I was having a great weekend with my Family. I'm happily snapping pictures of everyone enjoying the lake. Then, I looked down to see "Memory Card Error" on the screen of my camera! So I took the card out and put it in a computer where it said the card needed to be formatted before I could use it. I said "No" to that and put the card away until I got home.
I own R-Studio data recovery software that I have used several times to recover deleted files. I ran it against the SD card but everything it recovered was corrupt. So I started searching for other data recovery software. I downloaded several different programs. Many did nothing because it couldn't find the file allocation table. One, Stellar Phoenix, was able to see all of my pictures but it required payment before it would recover them. I wasn't sure I was willing to pay $39.95 for a few weekend photos. So I continued searching. Then I found ZAR. ZAR stands for Zero Assumption Recovery. ZAR allows photo recovery with their free version. I ran it and it took a while but it successfully recovered all but two of my pictures. Those two were corrupted. The videos that it recovered were corrupt but that's ok. In the end, I got my pictures back and I didn't have to pay to do it!

Finding a little enjoyment

2009-04-21T12:29:07Z

As of April 16, 2009 I am officially unemployed. I haven't been unemployed since I was 12 and started working at my parents rental store. It's definitely a bummer. However, it has given me a little extra time to do things I enjoy. I've had the chance to do a little geocaching and found some incredible water falls right in Wilton, NH. I lived in Wilton for quite a few years and never knew the falls were there.
So, while the economy stinks I'm still trying to find a little enjoyment day to day...

Adrenaline Rush!

2008-12-22T13:35:51Z

A friend of mine posted this on his facebook page and I thought I would post it here to share with all of you. This is the most insane adrenaline rush I've even seen but it is SO COOL! Check it out!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Soccer

2008-11-22T12:36:53Z

The cold weather has definitely arrived. Soccer is now down to 1 hour a week inside the Hampshire Dome. So, it's fun to reminisce over our fall season. The coach, Chris Hall, set up a team site with pictures over at http://svujaguars.shutterfly.com. Go check it out. There are some great pictures of the girls having a lot of fun!

Ben is home

2008-11-04T16:59:40Z

Ben is home. He had run away. He called his parents and had them come get him yesterday.

Have you seen Ben?

2008-11-03T00:43:36Z

Our friends, the Thomson's, 15 year old son Ben has gone missing. He was last seen yesterday at the skate park in Merrimack. He was last seen riding a blue Trek mountain bike. If you have any information, please call 673-0409 or 566-3292.

Thieves...

2008-10-31T15:14:35Z

The other night, I was checking my credit card charges online when I noticed a charge for over $400 at a stop & Shop in New York. As I live in NH and I haven't been traveling I knew this wasn't my charge. The next charge was over $100 at a Spencers in NY. I immediately called my credit card company who looked up my account and responded with "Your card number is one on a list that was possibly stolen from an online merchant. Do we have your permission to close the account". Um.. YES! Close it NOW. So, now I am waiting for my new card to come in the mail. Then I will have to deal with changing it in all those places that automatically billed that card every month. What a pain!

IWON comes through!

2008-10-14T21:03:07Z

I received a check from IWON today for $1000. It's nice to know that they really do pay out the winnings! Thanks IWON!

Soccer Tournament

2008-10-14T20:48:23Z

We went to Falmouth Maine for a soccer tournament last weekend. Lauren played in three games. They lost all three but the other teams were much larger. Lauren is 9 but she plays on a U11 team. One of the opposing teams players (#27) was taller than I am. She must have been over 6 feet tall! All in all, though, it was a great weekend. The weather was perfect and the girls had a blast!

Catching up...

2008-10-10T14:17:45Z

Time just seems to get away from me sometimes. I don't get in here to blog often enough. It's hard to keep up with a nine year old!

My friend Lynn was in town for the first time in 8 years. We had a chance to meet up for dinner. It was nice to see her. It has been far too long! It was also great to meet her husband Gary. He seems like a great guy! Unfortunately, Lynn's son Tanner decided to stay with his Grandparents so I didn't to see him.

I also won again on IWON. This time it was a $10 gift certificate to gifts.com. I have received this one but I need to write to them about the $5 gift certificate that I won a while ago and never received. It probably got caught up in my Spam email.
IWON also confirmed that they have received my paperwork and it's now in the hands of their accounting department to cut the check.

Yet another IWON win

2008-09-13T11:27:36Z

Well, this time IWON a little bigger prize. While playing on IWON last night I won $1000. However, it seems odd to me that it didn't show up on the "winners" page. So we'll see if it ever actually shows up. So far I have won:
$5 Amazon Gift Certificate - received
$5 Gifts.com Gift Certificate - waiting to receive it
$1000 - waiting to receive it

Our First Anniversary

2008-09-09T21:37:03Z

We went away last weekend to celebrate both Marianne's birthday and our anniversary. We stayed at Dockside Guest Quarters in York, ME. Our room had a sliding glass door that led out to a small deck. From the deck, it was less than 30 feet to the water. It was GREAT! Here are a couple of pictures from our weekend.

I also went back to Works of Heart and asked her to make a bouquet of flowers that was like the ones we had at our wedding. I gave them to Marianne today to celebrate our anniversary.

It's been a fantastic first year! I'm looking forward to Many Many More!