Bug Catching with my dad, niece, and nephew

Flash Slideshow

Testing Cool Flickr Flash Slideshow

Found some code to put on a Flickr flash slideshow... then the slideshow was too wide for my template so I got a new template. I want to get my own webspace, use wordpress and design my own blog... but no time... so for now... blogger templates.

Flash Slideshow

Practical Machinery

I've started reading a fascinating book called "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" recommended on a blog I read by Harold Burson. The book is about Lincoln's relationship with his cabinet during the Civil War... and interestingly how three of his top cabinet members were three of the men who had contended with Lincoln for the Republican party's presidential nomination.

So far in the reading, the author has been giving great background about the men who would vie for the nomination.

The background on Lincoln is fascinating. One thing that sticks out to me is that it is very hard - it requires intense engagement and discipline - to do something great. The author writes, "Lincoln engaged in every aspect of the political process, from the most visionary to the most mundane... The practical machinery of the party organization - the distribution of ballots, the checklists, the rounding up of voters - was as crucial as the broad ideology laid out in the platform."

I think it's easy to neglect the "practical machinery" or at least to question the need to spend a lot of energy on it. The vision guy may not have to attend to the practical machinery himself. But, without someone attending to it, the vision won't be realized.

This weekend

Couple of things today...

1) This weekend I'm running sound for a conference at our church by Growing Families International. These are the people who put out the "Growing Kids God's Way" material and the Baby Wise, Child Wise, etc books which are popular. Deb and I went through "Growing Kids" years ago when Emmaleigh was one. It's been good to be at this conference and hear some of the material again. One interesting talk was about the temperaments of us as parents and the temperaments of our children. They did some role playing about the interaction between different temperaments. It made me realize that I should look further into the temperaments of my family.

2) We went as a whole family to take Deb's mom to her doctor appointment and then we went to lunch. My friend, Doug, had told me about a year ago that Potbelly Subs is a good place. Today we saw one and decided to try it. Very good! I love crispy toasted bread on a sandwich. This place is like Firehouse subs but is run much better (I'm always aware of whether things are clear and easy for first time customers). There was a musician playing guitar and singing at the lunch hour. Cool... fun... kids were dancing and enjoying themselves. Highly recommend Potbelly!

Gazebo Blend

I don't go to Starbucks much anymore these days. If I do it's just for drip coffee. The days of white mochas everyday are over... ($4 a day -- what were we thinking Sharon?) Anyway... I went in for drip coffee the other day and saw a new blend called "Gazebo". If you know me you know that I don't try new foods or drinks often. The coffee blend tag line "bold and citrusy" almost scared me away but I was brave and tried it. I loved it. Now I go everyday hoping they'll have Gazebo on tap. Here's something funny... today I actually (briefly) considered calling my two starbucks near work to see which one was serving Gazebo today. I didn't call but I went to one of my Starbucks... and they were serving it. Yea! Then... I heard the bad news... Gazebo is only a seasonal offering.

Call your Starbucks... heck call your congressman... we need Gazebo to stay!

Played tennis today (well sort of)

I've played tennis on and off most of my life. Since we've had kids, it's been mostly "off", but today instead of just working out at the boring gym I decided to go hit balls against the wall at the tennis center. (OK some might say that's boring too, but I think it's more fun). It was good to hit balls again. I'll switch up the workout... sometimes I'll hit at the wall in such a way as to purposefully alternate forehand and backhand shots. At other times I'll hit balls purposefully angled away from reach so that I have to run make the shot.

Man... this is a really boring post... but I'm trying to post more... so there you go!

Emmaleigh turns 8

Emmy turns 8 tomorrow. Today we went for our traditional dad/child birthday lunch-- this year to Fuddrucker's. Great place... they bake their own buns... yum

It's amazing how conversation with our kids changes over the years. On the way to lunch I was telling Em some things that have been happening to show me that God is taking care of us even though these are crazy times...... on the way home we were being really silly. She's big enough to have some mature conversation...but small enough to still giggle uncontrollably at Dad's silliness.

Here are some pix...

Ups and downs

These days are such roller coasters with my job transition. I'll be depressed or discouraged or lazy... but then something will happen to turn the day around.

Today I got connected with some pastors that I hope to seek some wisdom from.

Also, a bizarre thing happened today. If we end up moving far from Dallas I'll probably sell my car that I just bought in February. When I bought it, the dealer guy said he'd have bought my car for himself if I hadn't decided to buy it. Today, I saw that guy in the grocery store. I was surprised to see him since I've just been wondering if he would still like to buy my car. But it was even weirder than that... he told me that earlier today he'd seen a car just like mine (but black) at Sam's Club and he'd been thinking of ME. I told him I might want to sell him my car... he gave me his card.

Not trying to make too much of that... but it sure was nice to have that guy come across my path again if he'd be a quick and easy sale of my car soon.

Cool thing last week

I wanted to tell you a cool thing that happened to me last week.

The used car I bought in February came up for safety inspection recently. Since it is a 1998 model, I figured that the emissions might be a problem. The check engine light was on and it turned out to need work on the EGR valve (emissions related). I had that repair done. Drove the car around for a day and then went to have safety inspection. The car computer was showing another emissions related failure -- one that doesn't cause the "check engine" light to burn. Back to car repair shop. They told me the repair related to this other failure code in the car computer would run about $650. I had them just clear the computer codes again to see if maybe the failure was just a residual problem from the prior repair. They cleared the codes and I drove the car around town all day to see if the code would come back.

The next morning I was heading toward the car repair shop to have them read the computer (and probably, I figured, do the needed repair to a faulty sensor). But.. on the way, I was sitting at a certain intersection. One way was the direction to the car repair shop... the other was the direction to the shop that does safety inspections. I quickly thought about how I'd been praying that God would take care of this car problem so that I wouldn't need to spend over $600 on a repair. I had a decision to make. I could either take the low-faith path toward the car repair shop, or I could trust God with the problem and turn right toward the safety inspection shop. I decided to have faith. I turned right toward the inspection shop. The car passed!

I know this is a small thing and maybe not worthy of prayer or much rejoicing. However, the big thing for me in this was sitting at that intersection. When we pray, do we really believe God will do something, or do we (in the back of our minds) assume that we'll still have to take care of things ourselves?

God may not always answer things just as we'd like. This was, though, a good reminder to believe Him for our requests.

Each Day a Step Forward

First... our computer is fixed! Apple's free repair of the video/power defect did the trick.

In our household these days we are trying to make a step forward each day. This goes for my job search and for getting our household ready to move wherever God takes us. Last week we were working on the downstairs... this weekend the upstairs... garage cleanup and house repairs will follow until we are ready to move.

On another note... I took Alex out with me this morning. We got donuts and Starbucks. Then, we went to look at motorcycles (we both like them and want one someday). Last time we went to the Yamaha store, but this time it was the Harley store. Man, that is a culture within itself... the customers mostly drove their Harleys there. The customers are all wearing Harley clothes and looking at more Harley clothes to buy. One guy was pushing a baby in a stroller. Sure nuf, the baby was wearing Harley overalls. Loads of cool motorcycles.

Alex sat on several bikes and then tried on some helmets and two size 5 leather motorcycle jackets.

On the way out of the Harley store we saw that next door was a brand new Honda motorcycle store. We'll have to visit that one next time.

After the Harley store we weren't quite done hanging out so we just had to go to Sonic for a slush and Coke.

Proud of my boy... he's growing up.

eMac Problems

We took our eMac into the store where we bought it for repairs under warranty. Of course... it came back doing exactly the same thing it had been doing before.

This time we'll be going to the Apple store and hopefully this will help.

Thanks Steve for keeping up with this mac geekery and for sending me the info.

Visited Ebenezer's

We're back from vacation. It was a great time. One of the cool things we did was visiting Ebenezer's coffee house in DC. For a while I've read Mark Batterson's e-votional blog. He is pastor of National Community Church. A couple of years ago the church decided to transform an old and very run down building into this great coffee house, the church's only building.

The church meets both at the coffee house and in movie theaters.

While we were there, I was blessed to get to spend some time with Mark. Very cool time.



Check out National Community Church at www.theaterchurch.com.

Going on vacation

We'll be in Virginia, DC and New York the next 10 days. I'm trying to get back to posting here much more often, but for these ten days I'll be pretty unplugged.

Meeting bloggers face to face

Thanks Flowerdust, Chris, Breathefire, Parke, Kris, Tom and Deb for the great conversation tonight. It's always fascinating to meet people in person after lots of online discussion.

Thanks Kris and Tom for your sneaky picking up the tab too.

Journaling

I was reading back through some old journals tonight. I used to write a lot about what was going on in my life, my job, and my family. I have probably 20 notebooks full from about 1992 through 2004. Since 2004 I've done little journaling except what I've done here on my blog. I guess some people have let blogging replace journaling in a notebook, but I think I'd like to regain the art of doing both. Blogging allows for community and idea sharing; journaling is intensely personal as you write your own words for your own reflection and for future remembrance/reference.

For a while after my kids were born I was journaling often... each day I'd write some about what the kids were up to, some about Debbie, and some about me. I think I may try (once again!!) to pick up journaling.

Do you or have you journaled much?

If so, has blogging replaced journalling for you or do you also still like to type/write thoughts just for your own eyes?

What will I do on Monday nights?

Tonight was the finally of The Apprentice on TV.

The final project was especially interesting to me.

Lee was the politician. He picked a team with low potential but people who loved him.
Sean was a smart businessman. He picked a smart, multi-talented team.

Lee's strategy might have worked except that his task was very difficult. No matter how much his team wanted him to win and no matter how hard they worked, Lee's team just did not have what it took to win. Sean was a better leader with a better team and he won.

This last project also had another interesting aspect. The project involved charity fundraiser events. Lee seemed to think that he could wing it on this task. I wonder if he thought it would be a cakewalk since he was working for just a leader of a charity. What he found was just the opposite. This woman who led the charity of Lee's project was tough. She was leading them instead of the other way around.

As Jim Collins says in his new small monograph to "Good to Great" regarding greatness in the social sector, those in social sector leadership have to be better leaders than those in business. This played out right before our eyes on the apprentice.

Incredible!

We planted a small garden this year mainly to show the kids (and see for ourselves) God's amazing creation blossom before our eyes. It's been a lot of fun.

I'm really making a big deal about this to the kids. I've been saying this little deal over and over and always getting an eye roll and an exasperated "Oh Dad"... but I think the kids are starting to get it. I've even caught Alex saying it...

"Hey kids... did you know that ALLLLLLLLLLLL the information for these plants to grow came from the TINNNNNY little seeds we planted? INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!"

Another Zoo Day

You'll see a lot of these zoo days here since we recently got an annual membership to the zoo. For anyone in the Dallas area, the Dallas Zoo continues to improve... lots of fun.



Click the photo for more photos on my flickr.

Planting a garden this year

My grandparents on my dad's side were farmers. In there home on the wall hung a tiny little poem I've remembered for years...

Who plants a seed beneath the sod
and waits to see believes in God.

This year I decided to plant a garden. I love to let the kids see things grow. It's amazing to put seeds in the ground and then see life burst out. We planted just a few of each of these to let the kids experience variety... radishes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, corn, and watermelon. We also planted a couple of beds of flowers... marigolds and impatiens.

Dinner with friends

Last night we had dinner with some good friends, the Vo's. They are new to our area and are planting a church. It was a great time eating (they are great cooks) and talking about inspiring people to own the ministry and advance the kingdom.