I'm going to have to get the girls little digital cameras of their own. They've been snatching my cell phone and using it to take pics for quite a while now. Even Katie Jo is getting good at it - picture at left is evidence. I'd appreciate a recommendation for a good, cheap digital camera if you have one!You just have to watch this video of driving in India. I'll never complain about drivers in Huntsville, AL again (for at least a little while).http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2519892298681325903Cheers,-Kev … [Read more...]

Whenever Emily and Bailey got too much sun when they were out on the beach or at the pool on our trip to Orange Beach, they'd do their best to cover up. I was reminded of nuns in their habits, for some strange reason, so I started calling them the "beach nuns" whenever they'd wrap up to get away from the sun.Another part of the Orange Beach trip was that folks had brought along a few "adult" beverages. So even though I hadn't brought any and didn't really drink much, there was plenty to be had and it sure did help me relax on the nights when I had some.In some ways, it was a little more … [Read more...]

Y'all know that I love to garden. I love both vegetable gardening and flower gardening. I also like trees a lot, but I'm not sure if that's gardening or something else (arborist?).Anyway, I was never able to get in any new flowers into the flower beds nor was I able to till up any ground for a vegie garden. In fact, I've barely had time to keep the flower beds weeded. However, I'm happy to say that the old owners did a half-decent job of putting flowers in the beds. So we've had a few bright spots in the gardening world. For example, the daylilies bloomed just a few days ago and looked really … [Read more...]

Emily had a friend spend the night last week and, after many hours of fun, we needed to drop her off in our old neighborhood, Hunter's Crossing. So we were passed by an ambulance and a fire truck, with lights flashing and sirens blaring, as we drove way to the back of the neighbor hood to drop Deanna off. (Note to self: don't go down into a no outlet street without knowing where emergency vehicles are going!)Sure enough there was a fire at the old McNamie place and, because there were now so many emergency vehicles there, we couldn't get past them. We were stuck until the fire trucks and fire … [Read more...]

TechEd is Microsoft's biggest technical conference of the year. It's an educational conference for programmers (a.k.a. developers) and administrators (a.k.a. IT pro's) to learn about the newest software and techniques for keeping their IT organizations running at top efficiency.This year is sold out, as have the last couple years, which means there are about 8,000 paying attendees and a few thousand more non-paying attendees such as exhibitors, speakers, Microsoft staff, etc. It is big! With such a large event, there are only a few venues big enough to hold the crowds - LA, Dallas, New … [Read more...]

When you're out there in the sun for long periods of time, you simply MUST take shelter occassionally and chill. Here are some cute pics when we decided to get out of the sun. We had SO MUCH FUN! The girls just loved for me to tuck them in for a snuggle in the shade. And next year, assuming that we have a trip like this, we will definitely get a huge beach umbrella. We had a great balcony where we kept the pool toys and inflatables. The girls were always such a lift! Emily was such a help. She made dinner for us on at least two different nights. She babysat for me and for others. She did … [Read more...]

We spent more time in the pool than on the beach. That was because we were better able to deal with sunburn in the pool and could even skip to the indoor pool to completely avoid the sun when we wanted to.For some reason, Dylan was a real pill this trip. While Emily could be pretty darn grouchy at times, she was generally great to be with. Dylan, on the other hand, was generally unpleasant to be with while occassionally shifting into a good mood. The above picture, taken in the indoor pool area, shows Dylan and Emily bickering - as usual. (sigh)On the other hand, Katie Jo and Anna Lynn were … [Read more...]

Naturally, when you go to the beach you, well, go to the beach! We spent so much time on the beach that I thought we were going to grow gills.The little girls especially enjoyed digging up the little clams that lived in the surf and watching them dig back down into the sand. Oh, you can also see that Anna Lynn practically LIVED with her goggles on. For some reason, the goggles reminded me of that kid in the "Christmas Story" movie who was in the line to see Santa and wore the bi-wing pilot goggles and leather cap. Teehee! The second picture was taken by Emily with my Treo 650.Emily found a … [Read more...]

We took a full week, from Saturday May 27th all the way to the next Saturday June 3rd, to enjoy some fun in the sun down in Orange Beach, Alabama. Even though I brought my laptop down to the condo, I hardly ever cracked it open. In fact, I think the kids used it more to check their accounts than I did. AND THAT'S A GOOD THING!The condo company, Brett-Robinson, put us up in a fantastic condo up on the twelveth floor. And I knew that the condo was perfect for us when I saw the safari decorating theme and all of the ZEBRAS!The kids were into the pool almost immediately and soon we were down at … [Read more...]

The last time I went to Philadelphia was probably around 1973. I was in first or second grade and my parents decided to take my brother and I up to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and whatnot. It wasn't that tough of a trip since we lived in south Jersey on the shore in a little town called Barnaget Bay.Fast-forward twenty-three years. I flew in to Philly for meetings with one of Quest's potential clients just over the state line in New Jersey. I rented a car and hopped onto the interstate and made it out to the customer site with plenty of time to spare.After spending the afternoon … [Read more...]