Thursday, August 30, 2007

Bugs Galore

AP, California - Mother Nature has settled a class action lawsuit brought by the ALCU for drivers world wide. The ACLU claims bugs are too hard to see to be able to avoid and the result car-bug collisions infringe on the driver's right to choose not to hit them. Mrs. Nature has agreed to mark bugs more clearly.---
We were at home depot recently when we saw this enormous yellow and black grasshopper. Isaac and I were both pretty impressed. Isaac has been quite the bug-wrangler lately! He has really started to get a big kick out of picking them up (much to Cheryl's chagrin!) The interest has extended to frogs as well and momma REALLY doesn't get much out of that. So for now, we'll just be keeping the pictures!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Julia's Promotion

Julia moved up this Sunday to the next class ... for bigger kiddos! Our little girl is growing up. True to form we were ready with the camera phone to document this momentous occasion. Julia was pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. As is often the case, this was probably much more of a big deal to her parents than it was to her. In fact I know it is the case.

I'm constantly amazed at every milestone. I'm caught off-guard at how fast they are growing up. They on the other hand take it all in stride, no doubt their overall demeanor buoyed by the constant air of achievement and sometimes frustrated when achievement tarries. In thinking about this odd dichotomy, it strikes me that this has likely been a part of life for all of history. Its an odd connection to thinking of my parents ogling my every change. It's even more awesome to think of Mary and Joseph watching Jesus grow like this.

Julia handled the promotion well, though. She was a happy camper most of the morning and topped it off by falling asleep on the changing table! The nursury workers placed her on a bean bag, and she snoozed the rest of her big event away right there.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

So Many Blogs

It all started out with one little blog. Maybe this one. Then you started one. And so did your brother/sister/-in-law. Then they all started putting up link to their favorite blogs and you started finding your own. You might have even started returning a particular website to read their headlines! The number of articles and blogs to read just keeps on growing. If this keeps up you'll end up going nuts! We'll find you huddled in a corner of your closet with a laptop you stole from Best Buy strung out on caffine pills mumbling and typing what you mumble into a series of increasingly incoherentblogsthatyoujUSTCAN'TSTOP!!!!! DO YOU WANT THAT?! DO YOU, PUNK!? ...sorry, i think i need a time out from blogs!

Wouldn't it be great if you could go to ONE website and have all the articles and blogs you like to follow posted right there? You can! Recently a friend put me onto a cool service by (who else?) Google ... the Google Reader. It can take all the blogs you read and combine them into one list of articles. (The techie name for this is a "Feed Aggregator".)

If you don't already have a google account (your "blogger" account is one) you can start by setting that up. Then go to http://reader.google.com and start adding subscriptions - click "Add Subscription" and type or paste in the address of a blog you like. Most of the time this works with out a hitch. Give it a shot - you'll be glad you did!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A Little Quiet Time

I'm not the most disciplined man in the world in any realm of my life. Spiritual disciplines included, I have to confess to a high degree of 'flux' in all of my routines. Still I know the value of quiet time and try to get some in before leaving for work as often as possible.

Coincidentally, Isaac often gets up early. We normally send him back to his room to lay down. But, recently I've started letting him come into the living room with me. The understanding, though, that I try to make with him is that mornings are for Quiet Time. I'll let him come out 15 mins early, but he has to spend that time looking through his picture Bible. Somewhat to my surprise he has accepted it readily. The photo was one I snapped just before sitting down with him at the end to pray. We pray together on these mornings.

If my greatest fear is that I'll not lead him properly, somehow cripple him emotionally or, worse, spiritually, my greatest joy is when I see him growing, maturing and best of all moving toward a spiritual life.

Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

The Joys of Home Maintenance

Cheryl and I have been putting off some home improvements and maintenance for quite some time now but this weekend we got started in earnest! We recently had the siding replaced and need to get the painting finished but that meant power washing some parts of our house. So we borrowed a pressure washer and got to it. While we had the machine we decided we might as well wash the brick ... and the walk ... and the driveway, patios, etc. What began simply enough turned into an entire day of pressure washing just about everything! I have to admit though, it is pretty cool to see the concrete gleaming now. It is rather noticeable - so much so that we had fun 'writing' with the washer!

Monday, August 06, 2007

Prayer for a Portal

I'm filing this one in under odd, funny, faith builder. A little backstory: I've been working on the "Topical Memory System" from Nav Press in an effort to grow in the area of scripture memory. Currently I'm working on "Prayer" and the verse that I'm memorizing is Phillipians 4:6&7.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God. And the pease of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NAS)

At work I have a major project - our 'portal' website - to get off ASAP and we're having LOTS of troubles with it. I sat this morning at my desk after a frustrating round of calls and meetings with people trying to get this up and running. I looked at my memory card and read over it a few times when I realized that this is what that verse is talking about. So, I prayed. When I looked up, there was the log on screen where only gray had been before.

God sometime chooses the oddest places to reveal himself to me. I was humbled and yet again in awe of Him.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Little Helper

Isaac is at the age where he is interested in just about everything. I love that. If there is one thing that I really hope I can share with Isaac through our lives (beyond a love our Savior), it is a profound curiosity about the world around us. He has a good start already!

The other day I was changing the oil in my car and you know where Isaac wanted to be - right in the middle of it! ... Literally! I had to warn him a few times to back up or he was going to get oil dumped on him. He wanted to work the jack, turn the plug and filter, pull out the dipstick, ... anything Papa did, Isaac wanted to do. And within reason, I let him. Yes, the job took quite a bit longer, but who cares. I can vividly remember when my dad would let me in on the mechanic-ing. Great times. I hope Isaac has some of those same memories.

Friday, August 03, 2007

Taggin' in the Bloggerhood


Yo dawg! ... hehe Ok, I know you know that I know you know I'm a lot closer to "nerd-core" than "Hard-core" so I'll spare you my lame attempt at ghetto-speak. I'm going to start blogging a wider range of topics and I'm setting my sites on some blogging related topics up front! Today: Tagging.

If you use "blogger", you've seen the "Labels for this post" blank below the editor window. But, do you use it? Uh, no, What's it do? Glad you asked! The labels are stored with your blog as a list of words that you choose to describe the content. Different internet sites have started using this system to give users yet another way to drill through the ba-zillions of giga-bytes of stuff out there to find what interests them. Sounds simple, but is something to consider before you start tagging: what type of style of tagging do you want to use. There are basically 2.

"Cloud Tagging" (my term) involves tagging every key word or idea in a blog. Every blog is different and you'll quickley end up with a LOT of tags across your blog. This can be good if you want to be able to get really specific on a "search" but bad because the list is too long to really browse. Yahoo does a lot with the cloud style to make it easier to use.

Blogger is friendlier to "Category Tagging" where you pick a defined list of tags and limit yourself to those. Because Blogger lists them (with counts) it makes for a manageable list. It also gives you essentially multiple blogs. When people click on, say, your "pets"category (posts that you tagged "pets"), they see only those posts. It's like a mini blog!

Whatever you choose, stick to it! It is hard to change later! I do the second style - categories. Take a look at my "tags" list on the side for an example. Have fun tagging - don't tell the police I told you how!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Has it been 6 years?


Somewhere in the middle of last month's blogging hiatus, I did take a break from work to celebrate our 6th anniversary with Cheryl. What a great time we had.

First, we hoped on a jet and headed for the gay town of Paris! (Not that kind of gay!) Cheryl wanted to see the Eifel tower, so we headed down there for a picture. I kept her entertained with my attempts to speak French that invariably ended in someone giving us directions to a bathroom. I sang her a love song on a bridge and a large crowd of Parisians cheered.

Then it was off to the Bahamas. We've missed the warm tropical sands that we walked on our honeymoon, so what better occasion to visit them, than our anniversary. We were feeling adventurous and had lunch while dangling from a parasail! No one had ever tried that before and our success drew another crowd. I, ever sensitive to my wife decided to find some place quieter. We strolled along this beach and laughed while we made 'sand angels' with noone but the waves to watch.

To wrap up the day, we flew up to New York City for a Broadway Show. Grease was opening with Max and Laura as Danny and Sandy and after watching them all season on "You're the one that I want!", it only made sense to be there. We dined in a small restaurant on the water by the light of the skyline and took this picture.

Alas the night had to end, though. We headed back to San Antonio and our home and our sleeping children. What a great evening!

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Cheryl, I can only hope to give you these things one day for real. Only God knows what fortunes he holds for us. But no matter where he leads us, the greatest fortune he has ever given me is your love. I love you... all the way around the world, to the moon and back!