Setting goals

Yesterday, I ran in my first 5k. I've never run (a distance) before. I trained for a couple weeks with the goals of simply finishing under 35 minutes and changing my health and lifestyle for the better.

My official time blew away my goals. I finished in 29:49. Mile-marker splits were 11.09, 20.27, and 28:40.

Some great friends were at the finish line to cheer me in.

(Photo by Kirk Wagner, The Post-Crescent)

Snoopy One

Scott Flannery, a crewman for MetLife's Snoopy One climbs down off a mast after attaching a pennant line to the blimp's nose cone before take-off from Austin Straubel International Airport in Ashwaubenon, Wis., bound for an event in Prairie du Sac, Wis., Friday morning, Sept. 18, 2009. The blimp is in the Green Bay-area for televised coverage of Sunday's NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeau Field.

Duck hunting and river dredging

The Fox River is being dredged to clean up the PCBs that were dumped over the course of decades by the region's paper companies.

The gist of the story: Ducks Unlimited and the Fox River Cleanup Project are working together to make sure that no dredging workers get shot. It's unlikely it would happen, since the hunters are using pellet guns and the dredgers are probably out of range... but better safe than sorry, I suppose.

Tom Olejniczak, right, his black lab Bronko, 12, and friend John Gray pose for a photo by their duck blind at Olejniczak's home along the Fox River in De Pere, Wis., Thursday evening, Sept. 17, 2009.

Unclaimed cremains

A sad story about unclaimed cremated remains... they're not unidentified. They're unclaimed – unwanted or forgotten.

Allouez Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum provides storage and safekeeping of the remains. Very rarely, though, does anybody come looking.

Steve Gooding, administrator at the Allouez Catholic Cemetery in Allouez, Wis., holds a bag of unclaimed cremated remains, Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 16, 2009. The remains are those of Albert Dremel who died in February 1986 of lung cancer. The unclaimed cremated remains of about 70 people are held at the cemetery.

The collection of about 70 sets of unclaimed cremains, above, will soon be moved from a utility room to one of the cemetery's crypts.

An alternate photo of Gooding with one of the bags of unclaimed cremains.

African dance

April Turner of Life As Art Productions of Charlotte, N.C., leads an African dance and drumming workshop in Theatre Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., Tuesday evening, Sept. 15, 2009.

Lambeau Field line painting

This could be a pretty cool video story. A day or two before every home game, the packers field managers drop about 170 gallons of paint on the field in lines and logos. It's an all-day job making the playing surface accurate and beautiful for fans and television audiences.

I was happy with this assignment and really tried to work it well.

Green Bay Packers Field Manager Allen Johnson, left, and volunteer Mike Schoeller, right, refill a paint sprayer while painting the lines and logos on the playing surface at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., Saturday afternoon, Sept. 12, 2009. The Packers play host to the Chicago Bears in their home opener Sunday night.

Johnson paints the sidelines on the playing surface at Lambeau Field, Saturday afternoon.

With another coat of paint, Johnson boldens the white outlines of lettering in an endzone at Lambeau Field, Saturday afternoon.

Green Bay Packers Assistant Field Managers, clockwise from bottom left, Joel Hunt, Bart Bartelme, and Derek Paris paint hash marks on the playing surface at Lambeau Field, Saturday afternoon.

Corn silage dry-down day

Proved I was a city boy today while covering corn silage dry-down day in Greenleaf. I asked a lot of questions asking about the "thingies" on the "thingies" on the corn "plants". This is an annual event that lets farmers bring in corn plant samples for testing to determine when their crop will eventually be ready for harvest.

The photos for the story were pretty standard, but I was happy with a frame I was able to make of one of the agronomists.

Agronomist Steve Keil at Agri-Partners Cooperative waits for corn samples to arrive from area farming operations during one of two corn silage dry down days in Greenleaf, Wis., Tuesday morning, Sept. 8, 2009.

Green trays

Yep... a story about lunch trays...

Reusable lunch trays are new at Green Bay Preble High School shown during a lunch period on the first day of school in Green Bay, Wis., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009.

Freshman move-in day

Jessica Baumann of De Pere carries a tall load while helping boyfriend Daniel Potts move-in to Roy Downham Hall during freshman move-in day at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., Monday, Aug. 31, 2009.

Christian Hampton, a freshman from Neenah, left, gives his father Sheldon a hug after setting up his dorm room.