What a Beautiful Baby Girl!All those years ago, I knew that Emily would grow up to be something special. Smart and observant, she didn't talk much as a baby, preferring instead to let her brother speak for her.She broke hearts everywhere she went - including mine. Maybe it's a dad thing, but the moment she was born, I blurted "Now I've got to worry about her dating!" But I have to say, having a daddy's girl is one of the best things that's ever happened to me.I love you, Emily! Happy sweet sixteen! You've matured so much and filled my heart with pride over the huge strides you've made.You … [Read more...]
Vancouver, BC
July 3, 2009 by 1 Comment
Rachel and I recently had the opportunity to travel to Vancouver, British Columbia where I was speaking at the DevTeach Conference. DevTeach is one of my favorite conferences to speak at and has brought me to Canada many times, though never to the west coast of country. Rachel, on the other hand, hasn't travelled much at all. In fact, this was her third trip by plane and her second out of the country. That passport has really come in handy! In a way though, it's a dream come true for me to be able to take a business trip to a far-away place and to take my lover with me.Things in Vancouver … [Read more...]
Learner’s Permit for Em
June 29, 2009 by 1 Comment
Emily was a tad nervous getting her learner's permit. But she'd had plenty of time to prepare and even one false alarm for the test. The previous week she, Dylan, and I went to renew Dylan's license and have her take the test. But it turned out that the DMV didn't do learner's permit tests at that location. The test allows you to miss up to 6 questions. And that's exactly what she missed - 6. She's been driving me around a lot since then and is doing really well. Now, we need to get the ol' Bonnie cleaned up so that she can drive it after the new year when she gets her full license. … [Read more...]
50 NYT Words
June 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment
The venerable New York Times keeps track of when readers use an on-line service to look up a word in one of their stories. Here are the 50 words most often looked up in 20009. I put the ones that I knew in italics. How's your vocabulary stack up?sui … [Read more...]
Puppy in the house!
June 18, 2009 by 2 Comments
When Rachel and I were trying to figure out which breed of dog to get, we knew that it's personality should match that of our family. When knew a lot about dogs, but we also knew that we wanted a dog who we'd have to vacuum around. I'm just sayin'...Jelly Bean, the 6-week old Basset HoundThese really energetic and athletic dogs - terriers and sight hounds like greyhouds and dalmatians - are great for the right people. We need a dog whose first preference is to lay around, closely followed by taking a nap. You could also reverse that order of priorities and we'd still be happy. Of course, all … [Read more...]
A Painful Month Without My Blog
June 14, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Bloggers beware! Just in case you didn't know it, Goggle/Blogger.com has a policy against spam blogs. Spam blogs, as you might guess, are designed to direct its readers to some kind of commercial and/or scam site. I got snagged by this for the last month because Blogger has an automated method of detecting spam blogs. That is, they look for any blog post with lots and lots of web links. Two posts ago, I put a post with a lot of web links to cool websites. Unfortunately, the automated spam blog blocker isn't too smart and it marked me as spam simply due to the large number of web links in the … [Read more...]
Dylan’s 18!!!
June 5, 2009 by 1 Comment
Eighteen years ago, I couldn't have begun to guess where life would take us today. But as this lil boy grew and developed, I knew that he would be smart and strong and full of life. Even as a little infant, my adult friends remarked about how he seemed to be an "old soul" with deep soulful eyes and intelligent brows.As he aged, his mother and I discovered his zest for life. I find the picture to left curiously prescient about the way Dylan drives cars today. I also love all of those books scattered behind him. We spent countless hours reading those classic children's books to him - Just … [Read more...]
MJHS Class of 2009
June 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment
It's hard to believe that my 18-yr old has finished high school. He did really well on his GPA. He did really well on his SAT and ACT test scores. And he did really well on his scholarships, earning more in funding than his actual hard costs for tuition, room, and board.He's now set for college in the fall at MTSU, where he's planning to study Marketing. He'll be rooming with his best friend, Connor Miller, in Rutledge Hall.The graduation ceremonies were a lot bigger than I expected, with over 400 students and thousands of their closest friends and family members.I hauled the whole family … [Read more...]
Sleep Study
May 14, 2009 by 2 Comments
Both Rachel and I have noticed how I've been unable to get through the day without a nap. We'd also noticed that, even after 10 hours in bed, I was essentially exhausted upon waking up in the morning. What gives? This isn't normal, is it?Well, a night at the local Sleep Study Clinic revealed that I was indeed having a hard time getting any rest, despite the amount of sleep I was getting. The testing showed that I experienced an average of 30-40 apneas per hour and 5-8 restless leg motions per hour. The clinician said it was a wonder I was able to get up in the morning, since a night's … [Read more...]
Great Sites to Add to Your Favorites
May 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Edit, 31-Dec-2019: Removed a few very old references and updated the first site referenced. In no particular order ... Get to a Human Customer Service Rep: Just in time for the post-Christmas gift return season! When you're tired of wasting money and time due to phone systems that require you to press 10 or more options in order to reach a real person and spending many minutes or even hours on hold, consult the website https://www.customer-service-please.com/get-2-human/ database of secret phone numbers and codes that immediately get an actual, live person on the line for customer service at … [Read more...]
