http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/jul/14/allen-resident-competes-free-trip-coldest-continen/?refscroll=339

News article about my push to Antaractica ... please spread the word!

I smell a cheater

So the leader for the Antarctica contest has somehow managed to gain almost 500 votes today, literally every time i hit refresh he has one more vote...even at 3am his time...so i did some research, turns out he is a IT Programmer ...funny how that works, let's just say Quark Expeditions got a phone call from me this afternoon.

http://www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com/blogs/view/269

Please still vote for me! Currently 14 votes out of 5th place!

HELP SEND ME TO ANTARCTICA!!!

Okay bloggers! I NEED your help! I have entered a contest in where, if I win, I win a FREE trip to Antarctica!!! All I have to do is receive the highest amount of votes by Sept 30 @ noon. Right now, I'm a tad behind, I have 272 votes, and the leader is at over 800!!! I need your guys help, please blog and tell people to vote!!! Here's how the competition works! You get one vote per email address, if you have more then one email, you can vote more then once! You do have to register, but it only takes literally 2 minutes, and is completely SPAM FREE!!! Ready to help me out!? (PS I promise a TON of pictures and blogging updates if I win!)

Here's how to vote:

Step 1: Follow this link - http://www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com/users/register_voter

Step 2: Register on the right hand side of the page (this is a legit site, and NO you will not receive SPAM nor will any of your information be released)

Step 3: Retrieve your confirmation e-mail

Step 4: Click the link inside your confirmation e-mail

Step 5: Login

Step 6: Click View Entries on the right hand side of the page

Step 7: Find “Mike Mezeul II” and click

Step 8: Place your vote on the right hand side of the page

PLEASEEEEE help! Send this to friends, family, fellow bloggers, Twitter...anything!

Thank you guys so much in advance!!!

Well what was supposed to be a fun filled weekend, has begun with a horrible start. This morning my dog Sadie passed away. She was 11 years old and had been struggling to fight off bronchitis for the past week or so. It looks like she died from choking and not being able to breath, although yesterday the vet said she should be fine, I don't get it. She was a great dog, although she gave my family a hard time sometimes, I can't remember a time that I was truly mad at her. Sure she did the everyday dog things, like take forever to find that one perfect blade of grass to pee on, or bark...forever....when someone walked by the front door, but all in all, if you think about it, she was just being a dog. She leaves us with some great memories, some in particular are the time that we got her a huge 3' long bone for Christmas, and she couldn't walk around with it, although she sure did try. Or the many truck rides she came on in my old truck, just jumped right on up in the bed and stuck her face into the wind, she absolutely loved that. She wanted to be nothing but a kind, loving dog. Never bit anyone, never growled, you were usually treated with a constant push and shove from her until you pet her...and I mean petttt her, for like 10 minutes, then she would leave you alone lol. She's the only dog that I know that would offer to shake your hand everytime she saw you, that's all she wanted, she'd sit right there and lift her paw up until you shook it, then she'd do the other paw lol. I sure am going to miss that dog, I wonder if it really was her time, but I do know that she's in a better place now where everyone will shake her paw and a place where all the blade's of grass, are the perfect one. Rest in Peace Sadie, my Lady. I love you.

Alright, so here we go, I joined the wonderful world of blogging. I don't think I've blogged since the good ol' days of Xanga, yeah remember that wonderful site? Lol. Okay so a quick update before I post some photos from the past week. The 2009 storm season has finally gotten it's act together...mid June none-the-less, but after a very crummy May, there have been a few nice chase opp's this past week or so. I had the opportunity to chase on June 9 in southern Kansas, June 10 in north Texas, June 12 in central north Texas, and this past Monday, June 15 in southwest Kansas. Those four days were quite fun.

On June 9, I chased with good friends Paul Stofer and Amos Magliocco. We targeted the Wichita, KS area, but had to re-position ourselves south as the day went on due to the outflow boundary dropping southward. We finally had convection initiate around 3Pm. Our storm looked good for a good 20 minutes or so but then became quite HP'ish. At times it did seem as if it could get it's act together, it even went tornado warned for a bit, but 50mph kept undercutting the storm and quickly killed it's potential. The storm then went to an outflow crapfest. Wrapped up the night in Independence, KS having Pizza Hut with Amos, Paul, and Scott Blair.

Our storm when it looked most promising - June 9, 2009.

Outflow dominant - west of Independence, KS - June 9, 2009.

On June 10, I chased 5 minutes from home and positioned myself in front of a massive bow echo that was barrelling through DFW. The bow echo apex seemed to be riding right along George Bush highway, so I positioned myself about 3/4 mile north of it near 15th Street & Hwy 75 in Plano. I observed numerous power flashes as well as plenty of debris in the air as the storm overtook my position, I also measured a 74mph wind gust.

The apex of the bow echo as it approaches Hwy 75 & 15th Street - Plano, TX - June 10, 2009.

Friday, June 12, was a nice impromptu chase just west of the DFW Metroplex. I was trying my hardest to off work early, fail, but was able to get off around 4PM. Ran by the apt and grabbed my gear and then hauled west were I met up with Scott Peake in Denton. We continued to blast west as a storm in Jack County became tornado warned. We kept hearing reports of a nice cone tornado on the ground just south east of Jacksboro...meanwhile we were stuck in traffic on 380. We managed to meet up with the storm just north of Weatherford were we observed a nice wall cloud that wrapped up nicely and produced a brief funnel that came about 1/4 way to the ground, but then got wrapped up in rain. We blast south through Weatherford were the sirens were sounding and then positioned ourselves south of I-20 to get run over, once the storm became outflow dominant. We measured 54mph winds and golfball sized hail. Once the storm passed we were treated to a nice rainbow and a gorgeous sunset. Stopped at the Dairy Queen in Rhome on the way back for a great M&M Blizzard...nothing better.

Wall cloud north west of Weatherford - June 12, 2009.

Small funnel decends - June 12, 2009.

On Monday, June 15, I chased with Scott Peake, Katrina Gutierrez, and Tiffany Pritchett. We targeted the Dodge City to Pratt, KS area. We ended up with a nice treat just south of Dodge City, one supercell to our north, one to our west. We sat south of Dodge City, waiting and observing both cells trying to make a decision. After a few phone calls back and forth with Tim Marshall, we decided to stick with the storm to our west. We witnessed the storm trying to get it's act together and produce several wall clouds, but none-the-less, fail. We headed north as the storm progressed eastward, jumped on the highway and headed east into Dodge City. Literally in downtown Dodge City, our storm put down a brief 4-5 minute tornado on the south side of town. We were north of the tornado and only had a few minutes to observe it, also dealing with buildings downtown obstructing our view, but looking through the rain and hail curtains it was quite obvious it was on the ground doing damage. Continuing east we encountered golfballs, mixed with a few larger stones. The storm eventually turned outflow dominant spitting out some good 50-60mph gusts near Greensburg. We headed home for the night and we're treated to a gorgeous LP storm moving out of the Texas Panhandle. The sky was filled with beautiful blue and white mammatus. What a fantastic chase day.

Supercell development near Dodge City, KS - June 15, 2009

Nice structure as our storm nears Dodge City, KS - June 15, 2009

Beautiful mammatus at sunset near Woodward, OK - June 15, 2009

Yesterday was a great day for those who got to chase up along the KS/NE border. A classic supercell produces probably some of the most photogenic tornadoes of this season so far, unfortunatily I was stuck at work and my lear jet was in the shop...so I couldn't make it. Today and tomorrow look nice for those chasing in Illinois, Iowa, and south Minnesota, but too far for my likings.