I was going through all of my pictures looking for a particular photo and I noticed just how many pictures I have like this - pictures of all of the Grandkids and my parents. These would never happen without my Mom being the family-picture-nazi. I love looking at these after the fact, but most of these would never happen without my Mom organizing the pictures, coordinating the outfits and even providing bribes for the kids after the fact. The more grandkids we get, the less the chances we have of actually getting a picture where they're all looking at the same time. These shots will be hilarious to look at in 10 years, let alone now.

Holloween 2006

Nate was Anakin Skywalker (complete with scar), Maddie was a Rock Star, and Emily was a fairy princess from some TV show (she even applied her own Makeup, if you couldn't tell).

Mark Kohne and I took our two Madeline's out, Cathie took Emily out for a half hour and Nate and his buddy Austin went out together. So that we wouldn't have to do the sucker move of leaving a big bowl out and expecting people to take only one, our friends Joe and Joanne came over and handed out candy to the munchkins for us until Cathie and Emily got back. The kids hit every house in the neighborhood before the night was capped off with rain.

The kids took in quite a haul. As South Lyon builds up with newer homes, there's less and less demand for our neighborhood, while all the kids go to the newer more expensive homes. This translate into people giving out a lot more candy. In our neighborhood, Holloween is as much about the parents as it is the kids. There are a lot of houses that have beer or jello shots for the parents and candy for the kids. It's pretty common to see the adults walking around with a beverage of choice. Between the left-over candy we have, plus the kids candy, I'm going to be in a sugar haze for a while to come.

I have been so humbled recently by how people have cared for my famliy and for my Mom over the past three weeks since we found out about her cancer and through her surgery. This has probably never happened to you, but there are way too many times where someone has told me what's going on in their world and I've come back with the standard "I'll pray for you" answer and never actually done it. Or even worse, heard about something like this happening in someone elses world and then gotten caught up in the trivial junk in my own world and made their pain an afterthought. The thing is, my Mom is one of those people who when they hear about something going on in someone's world, gives the 'ol "I'll pray for you" response, but then follows up by actually praying - for months and years to come. She does so believing that without a doubt God will do something huge. She does it with this huge heart and compassion for others. I remember when a girl in my youth group was going through her umteenth bout with cancer and my Mom would call regularly to get updates, even give us gifts to give to her - this girl she'd never met, but had a heart for and prayed for.

In my world - my church, my job, my friends and neighbors - I've had so many people - some of whom know my Mom, some who just know us, take such an interest and have such compassion for the whole situation, and diligently praying for her. I went to church on Sunday and was blown away by how many people knew about my Mom and how many asked how she was doing and to tell me exactly how they've been praying for her. Same with my friends at work. Most of my friends around here have met my Mom and probably been made an honorary son by her - friends like Noel, Mike and Will - all praying for her and encouraging others to do the same.

Mom Update

Here's the latest on my Mom:

Since her surgery on Friday, the doctors are very pleased with my Mom's progress. On Saturday, she was up walking four times. Sunday, she was on a liquid clear diet with green Jell-O for breakfast, red for lunch and orange for dinner. Today she is on soft foods. She went walking six times on Sunday and learned that it hurts to laugh.

The care she is getting is superb. The nurses are readily available to care for her. As complications develop, they know how to deal with it, with confidence. Her surgeon was in this morning and was most pleased with her progress. An oncologist will be in today to discuss the next steps for radiation and chemotherapy, which will be done in Michigan. There has been no discussion about when she will be released from the hospital.

The hospital has wireless Internet service, so she is able to read our Blogs and receive e-mails. Last night she was able to see the pictures of her grandkids posted on their Blogs in their Halloween costumes! If you wish to send her an e-mail, this is her address lynnkurt@comcast.net

Letter to the Church

There are times that I love my church, and times when I'm frustrated by "it' - really the people who make up the church. I'm ashamed to admit that there are moments whether I question if it's worth it, or if I should run off to another church that's "more perfect" than mine. Cathie has been dealing with some crap being thrown at her by a couple of leaders in our church recently and in that context she shared with me this letter to a church that she found in Ronald Rolheiser's book, Forgotten Among the Lillies:

How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you!
You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false,yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous, or more beautiful. Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face, and yet, every night I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms! No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you. Then to where would I go? To build another church? But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church. No, I am old enough. I know better.

Rolheiser Continues:

What a magnificent description of the church - flawed yet divine, meditating God's presence even as it obstructs it. What is to be said in the face of the fact that the institutional church is flawed, compromised, corrupted by power, fraught with human weakness and pettiness?
What is to be said in the face of the fact that the church has never lived radically and fully the Gospel it preaches?
What is to be said in the face of the fact that, in its darker moments, the church has hurt, and continues to hurt, countless persons? How can it claim credibility and how can it claim to mediate God's presence in the light of this?

When we are born into a family we bear its birthmark. We can dislike it, we can get angry with it, we can stay away from family celebrations for long periods, we can rage against its faults, and we can fill with bitterness and protest that it should be more loving, more understanding, less quick to judge and assign guilt - but in the end it is our family and we want to die reconciled with it.
It is the same with the institutional church. It is not God. The institutional church is no more identifiable with God than my historical father is identifiable with God the Father. But, like our historical parents, it is real, it is what we actually meet on earth. As with our real family, we can dislike it, rage at its faults, and be bitter about its imperfections . We can wish for another family. We can fight with it and stay away for long periods, but in the end we bear its mark on our skin, it is ours, it is the actual and only place in history where we contact the historical Christ.
It is because of this, its inexorable reality, that we have such strong feelings about it. There are times when we fell like slamming the door of our soul into its face, and yet, daily, we pray somehow to die in its arms. It is because of this that we too ultimately realize that we can never really leave the church.

I'm constantly amazed by my wife. She is a woman who has such an amazing compassion and wisdom on things. Here's the difference: I'm the kind of guy who finds anger and comtempt a very easy place to live in as I look at people around me. There's a part of me that loves indulging the vanity and self-righteousness of comtempt. My wife, on the other hand, is someone who constantly looks to the best in others and works hard to see both sides of where a person is coming from. She's got this huge heart that pours out compassion in a way that's rubbed off on me and softened my edges. As I'm stomping around in my self-righteous anger, she gently helps me see both sides and provides perspectives about people that I'm pretty sure are unredeemable. Her heart is so tender on this stuff, that it sometimes frustrates her how the stuff affects her. What an amazing woman.

Sick Little Fairy

Emily's big pre-school Holloween party is today. She woke me up at 5:30 this morning telling me that she had a sore throat. She had a fever and was pretty bummed to miss her party today. We debated "adviling"Emily up and sending her, but figured she should stay home. Cathie made a deal with her and let her wear her costume all day. That's got to be one of the saddest pictures ever.

We carved pumpkins last night. Normally, we just do horribly disjointed faces that come out pretty akward. This year, Cathie picked up a book of intricate designs, which the kids traced on and then we helped them carve. I'm not sure a high power laser could do the kind of detail that this thing took. At the end, they looked almost nothing like the designs, but when we threw a candle in it, the designs were almost recognizable.

Detroit v. Chicago

I went to the Lions game with Mark today. Great day for it and Mark has great season tickets on the 15 yard line, 15th row, 30 feet from the field. Great time but beers cost $8 each or $4 for a nasty hot dog. There were a ton of Bears fans there, every single one of them having a #54 Urlacher jersey. We sat right next to one Bears fan who looked like Ditka and had a good time busting his chops and making side bets throughout the game. The game went into overtime and was a heartbreaker when Garcia through the stinkin interception on the final drive.

Kid's School Pictures

The kids got their school pictures back and I was trying to figure out how to make a copy of them to send to my Mom. The pictures turned out nice(except for the photographer buttoning up Nate's shirt):

Football Fall Day

What a great day to play outside. I love these fall days. I got home about 10:30 from Minneapolis and met Cathie, the kids and her folks for breakfast following Nate's football game today (they won 19-6, in case you were betting on the game). Ron and I watched some of the MSU vs. Indiana game while the girls hung out and talked. Pretty lazy day overall. Big Ted's in from California, so Will, Ted, Brad and I are going to try and get together tonight and hang out.

It was just amazing to see how my Mom was doing after her surgery yesterday. We finally got to see her about 5PM (12 hours after hour day had started) and she awake, aware and talking. I figured she wouldn't be talking until Saturday sometime, but she was feeling pretty good. We came back in around 7:30 and hung out some more with her. As of this morning, my Mom was up and walking and she'd had a bunch of tubes pulled from her, doing very well.

Dan put together this collage of the kids (yes, Dan is now BIG into creative memories)

and Susan put together this collage of pictures of the grandkids:

I ran the numbers and here's the breakdown of pictures on this sheet:
1. Jon/Beth Kids - 8 Showing - 1 Kid - 8 pictures/kid
2. Kevin/Susan Kids - 23 showings/3 kids - 7.6 pictures/kid
3. Dave/Cathie Kids - 18 Showings/3 kids - 6 pictures/kid
4. Dan/Kris Kids - 16 showings/3 kids - 5.3 pictures/kid

One positive thing that has

One positive thing that has come from this trip is that Dan and I have taught my Dad the shotgun rules for riding in a car. If you're not familiar them, here's the definition:

The term "Shotgun" refers to the front passenger seat of an automobile. "Calling Shotgun" is the act of claiming the position of Shotgun for one's self. As this position is the most coveted of all positions when riding in a car, the following list of rules has been created to ensure that Shotgun can be acquired in a fair and equitable manner by any passenger of an automobile.

Sure he messed the calls up to begin with, but eventually, he made his first authentic and correct shotgun call to earn himself the front seat.

Dead iPod

For the past few days, my iPod had been skipping to the next song randomly and then I heard a nasty clicking sound coming from the hard drive. I tried to restart it and got the sad iPod image. Luckily, I bought the 3 year extended warranty at Best Buy. It'd be a shame if I had to buy the new 60GB Video iPod.

I just figured out that I left the charger for my phone at my hotel in Kansas City.

We just met with the

My Dad, Dan and I met with the surgeon after the surgery was over. He shared with us that the surgery went well. He said that the cancer had in fact started in the pancreas and then spread up through one of the lymph nodes. They removed about 40% of her pancreas and the cancerous lymph node, getting all of the cancer. What sucks with pancreatic cancer is that it typically comes back, so she'll begin chemotherapy about 6 weeks out. She'll be in the hospital for about seven to ten days before she heads home. We were just notifed that she was just moved to the recovery room and will be in her room at 3:15 for us to see her.

Lactation Room at the Mayo

My brother Jon, who likes to be referred to as a Man-Mom, is coming to visit my Mom next week for a few days and he's bringing his new born baby Libby. As Dan and I were scouting out the hospital, we came across this room that Jon can use while he's here to feed Libby with his Oprah approved Male Nursing Harness, pictured below:

Video iPod

Interesting article on the price point for iPod video.

Mom Update

Just got an update on Mom: Things are going well in her surgery. They'll let us know more in the next couple of hours how the surgery's going. The whole thing will take around 6 hours.

A response to the charge that YS is embracing eastern religion

A while back, I posted an article that really annoyed me, maligning Youth Specialties. Here's a great response to that by Mark O, the president of YS.

My brother Dan has been wearing turtle necks both days. If you're not familar with Dan, Kris and family, they believe that turtle necks have medicinal qualities. Dan suggested that Mom wear one, but the Doctor's explained that this is bunk. Dan is also wearing this orange jacket. Crossing the street, traffic seems to stop, as people confuse him with either a large, walking pumpkin or else a crossing guard.

Student of the Month

My nephew Stephen was selected as the student of the month at his school. My sister-in-law lobbied hard for this since he was slightly deficient in his scissor skills. Rumor has it that my sister has pictures of a number of the teachers that she uses very strategically.

We're sitting here bored, so I was showing my Dad how to text-message people with his Treo phone. As an example, I selected Dan's cell # out of Dad's address book and sent a message from Dad's phone telling Dan that he wasn't really my Dad's son. My dad got a call a few minutes later from someone, telling him that he was sending them text messages. Apparently, my Dad had the wrong number for Dan in his address book.

You can send him a text message, letting him know you're praying for him and my Mom at 517-256-8400.

Gotta love the fact that the Mayo Clinic has free high speed wireless internet service in the waiting room. The bad news: Having to constantly support Dan with his computer problems. I'm trying to ignore him by keeping my iPod in, but it doesn't work.

Another update on my Mom:
They began with an initial scoping to check the stage of the cancer to understand if it was too far progressed to proceed with the Whipple procedure. They went in, things looked operable, so they've proceeded with the full surgery. This is good news. The nurse communicator let us know this 3 minutes after they found this out, which amazes me. Keep praying.

This made me smile thinking about this today. Check this out on Susan's blog:

I was trying to explain the whole "prayer pager" thing to Gabe today. As soon as I told him about it, he started to pray, "Dear God, please be with my Grandma......etc" (although he didn't say etc...) As soon as he said 'Amen' he looked at the pager and said, "Did it go off?" I don't think he gets it......I told him that if it did, then I think I would be considered God.

We wheeled Mom across the street to the St. Mary's/Mayo around 5:30 this morning. The whole intake process this morning was really impressive how efficient everything is. You have a nurse communicator assgined to your family who makes sure you know what's going on throughout the day. We left Mom about 7 for her to go and get prepped for surgery. We asked my Dad where he wanted to go for breakfast and he explained that the breakfast at the hotel was "Very, Very Good". After eating the breakfast, he later conceded that it didn't deserve the two Verys and maybe not even the good.


Mom's surgery began at 8:15AM CST. The nurse communicator let us know something in two hours. Please be praying for her. I talked to Cathie this morning and Nate's prayer was "God, please help Grandma not be scared, because this is going to be scary for her." Emliy's was "God, please help Grandma have a great day in the hospital."

We just found out that we're wheeling my Mom across the street to the hospital around 5:30AM. Surgery is around 11AM or so.

My Mom's pretty sick right now and pretty weak. It sucks seeing her like this. She's tough and stubborn, so I know she'll push hard through all of this. Surgery is tomorrow around 11. The Mayo clinic is very impressive. The building is awesome, but the logistics are even cooler. When you arrive, they give you a complete itinerary showing you all of the times and places you have to be. Everything's on time and the people are great.

It doesn't look like I'll be helping in the surgery tomorrow. No one has been impressed with how much i've learned online and from watching TV shows. People don't seem interested in hearing about the episode where Kramer and Jerry drop a Junior Mint into a surgical patient and how that eventually saves his life (Who's gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It's chocolate, It's peppermint... It's delicious!! It's very refreshing!). Why don't people want to know this kind of stuff? This is gold Jerry, gold! This is also why it's good to hang with family during these times. They get this kind of stuff.

Dan gets in shortly and we're going out to grab something to eat at Bilotti's Pizza Place, which Chris turned me onto from when he used to live out here.

I lose more crap when I travel. Today I lost the SD Card out of my phone. In the past 6 months, I've lost shoes, coats, a portable wireless router, shirts, socks and underwear in hotels and airports. On the bright side, I've never lost my cell phone.

Sm

Small world. Just got off of a conference call with a co-worker, Erik, who's going to be here in Rochester, MN tomorrow night.

I flew in this morning to Minneapolis to head over to the Mayo clinic to hang out with my Mom during her surgery, which hopefully will be tomorrow. They're doing a bunch of intake and testing stuff today, we'll know tonight when the surgery is going to be.

My Dad was able to save $23 and not rent a car while he's out here, so he and my Mom took a shuttle for the 90 minute drive to Rochester when they came in last night. I rented a car to get here, so I'm driving them around while I'm here, each time reminding my Dad how nice it is to have a car. My brother Dan gets in tonight. I leave Saturday morning. I figure I have to leave my hotel about 4:30AM to get to the airport in time to make my flight and get back in time for Nate's football game.

Just read this great inteview with Bono by Jann Wenner, the editor and founder of Rolling Stone Magazine. He talks a lot about his childhood, his dad and his faith. First Question: "Where do you get those glasses and why do you wear them?"
His take on music and religion:

Look at the people who have formed my imagination. Bob Dylan. Nineteen seventy-six -- he's going through similar stuff. You buy Patti Smith: Horses -- "Jesus died for somebody's sins/But not mine . . ." And she turns Van Morrison's "Gloria" into liturgy. She's wrestling with these demons -- Catholicism in her case. Right the way through to Wave, where she's talking to the pope.

The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt. So the blues, on one hand -- running away; gospel, the Mighty Clouds of Joy -- running towards. And later you came to analyze it and figure it out.

The blues are like the Psalms of David. Here was this character, living in a cave, whose outbursts were as much criticism as praise. There's David singing, "Oh, God -- where are you when I need you?/You call yourself God?" And you go, this is the blues.

Both deal with the relationship with God. That's really it. I've since realized that anger with God is very valid. We wrote a song about that on the Pop album -- people were confused by it -- "Wake Up Dead Man": "Jesus, help me/I'm alone in this world/And a fucked-up world it is, too/Tell me, tell me the story /The one about eternity/And the way it's all gonna be/Wake up, dead man."

On the question of who is God:

"If I could put it simply, I would say that I believe there's a force of love and logic in the world, a force of love and logic behind the universe. And I believe in the poetic genius of a creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in "straw poverty"; i.e., the story of Christ makes sense to me.

As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It's so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don't use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I'm the worst example of it, so I just kinda keep my mouth shut."

On the Bible:

"It sustains me.

As a belief. These are hard subjects to talk about because you can sound like such a dickhead. I'm the sort of character who's got to have an anchor. I want to be around immovable objects. I want to build my house on a rock, because even if the waters are not high around the house, I'm going to bring back a storm. I have that in me. So it's sort of underpinning for me.

I don't read it as a historical book. I don't read it as, "Well, that's good advice." I let it speak to me in other ways. They call it the rhema. It's a hard word to translate from Greek, but it sort of means it changes in the moment you're in. It seems to do that for me.

It's a plumb line for me. In the Scriptures, it is self-described as a clear pool that you can see yourself in, to see where you're at, if you're still enough. I'm writing a poem at the moment called "The Pilgrim and His Lack of Progress." I'm not sure I'm the best advertisement for this stuff."

The artist M.C. Escher's entire gallery can now be viewed online.

Cool new technology that Xerox has come up with that allows you to use camera phones as document scanners (full disclosure: I work for Xerox).

I just added this new Frappr mapping link to my blog. If you read this thing, click on this link and add yourself to the map. Takes about 10 seconds.

Pull my finger

Got this from Buck today and made the mistake of clicking it around my co-workers.

I was at the library tonight where I came across a flyer for the Diaper Free Baby support group. Strange doesn't even begin to describe this. They're all about "Elimination Communication" which means to train your infant to not use diapers in order to save the environment, bond the baby and caregiver and promote awareness of the babies body. Apparently these people have never actually HAD a baby and this is all theoretical. I think this was on Oprah recently, so my brother Jon will probably be into this soon.

Armpit Farts

Much to the Cathie, Madeline and Emily's dismay, Nate has learned a new art form - The Armpit Fart. He's got all sorts of derivations, including: The Pharoh Dance, the Chicken Wing and the Standard Straight Arm (All names of his creation). He's really proud of his ability with this, and it drives his sisters and Mom nuts. I think it's pretty cool. Click here to watch the here to watch the video.

Holloween Costume

Emily decided this year that she wanted to dress up for Holloween like her Uncle Jon. Apparently the mask was not enough for people to figure out who she is. With the dress, everyone knew exactly who she was. I think it's pretty obvious either way.

Hello World

The Hello World Program in every programming language.

No problem.... Buddy

Cathie and I went on a date last night and ended up at Starbucks for Coffee. We stood there at the counter and waited to order as the dude as the cash register just stared blankly at us. My order ended up at $5.75, so I gave the guy $11 so as not to get any more singles back. The guy couldn't process this, so explained to him what I was doing. He shot back with a "Ok, Chief." As Dane Cook explains - I'm not an Indian Chief, Kansas City Chief, Police Chief, or Chef (which in writing is often confused with chief). With katana like speed, I escalated things and shot back with a "Thanks, buddy." He stepped back with astonishment (at least in my mind he did). After I was done, I asked the same cashier what I should do with my mug and responded back with a "Thanks, Pal." I weighed my options and considering taking this all the way to the top with a "No problem, gaylord" But I asked myself, is it worth it? I re-sheathed my sword and responded with a simple "You're welcome." Love wins.

My friend and co-worker Bill and I went biking last Friday out at Island Lake. The fall colors were awesome and it was a great ride. I showed up in my normal biking gear, while bill decided that he needed to look pretty - wearing a new set of tights that he'd gotten. Apparently, he's got a whole collection of these and feels that they're the new rage. Not so sure I agree.

Cute picture of my new niece Libby. My brother's been doing a lot of introspection on how dull his blog has been lately. If you read his blog, it's understandable.

I've been working on learning this Napoleon Dynamite dance for my wife. There's nothing she finds sexier. Ok, there are lots of things she finds sexier.. Like me wearing my moon boots, orange wig and polyester suit and doing the dance.

My nephew Gabe and his weiner go for a ride.

Classic Will Farrell

Watch this video to understand how to enjoy a kids sporting event, including using the phrase "I WILL CHAIN YOU TO A PIPE IN A CRAWLSPACE, IF YOU DON'T GET ON THE BAG."

Did anyone else find this image on the front page of the Detroit News yesterday of Joey Harrington and Jeff Garcia a little too much information?

I had breakfast with Joe this morning and he was trying to understand what the purpose of my blog is and who it's intended audience is. I never really sat down and wrote out a mission statement on my blog, but as we talked I think I nailed down a few different things:

My Audience:
I write this thing for my friends and family to keep up with my world. Anyone else is just a voyuer. Have you ever had a situation where someone you don't know is easedropping on your conversation and actually interjects their opinion, when you didn't even know they were listening? It's my choice to put this stuff out on the web, accessible to the world, so I'm okay with that for the most part, but at times it can be a little akward, especially when that person has only part of the story, or thinks that you are your blog.

My blog's purpose:
It's my way to communicate my world to a small group of people. The same people who'd I share what's going on in my job, my random thoughts, my family, technology, jokes, my opinons and reviews on stuff, and things in general that I find amusing. Do I try and edit this stuff to make sure it's appropriate? Of course I do. For Pete's sake, my Mom reads it. (Of course having to be a part of this family, my Mom does not have the typical "Mom" sense of humor). Will this stuff probably offend someone? Sure. Take the jokes I make about my brother Jon being a stay-at-home mother or lacking certain mental capacities. Both are true, but to those who don't understand my family or my deep friendship and love for my brother Jon, it could seem mean or insulting to stay-at-home Mom's, my brother or mentally disabled people.

I learned something new today:

Duct tape was originally manufactured for the U.S. military during World War II by the Johnson & Johnson Permacel division, to prevent water from seeping into ammunition boxes. Because "water rolled off it like a duck" (it was waterproof) and because it was made using "cotton duck" (similar to the material in cloth medical tapes), the new invention was originally called "duck tape." In the booming postwar era, its versatility made it a standard component of any handyman's toolkit; however, its most high-profile use was connecting heating and air conditioning ducts. Thus, "duck tape" became "duct tape." Ironically, the tape is now considered ineffective for ductwork and banned by most building codes.

Wow, that's ironic.

Amazing that Einstein could comprehend these two things, but my brother's and sister (not to mention Noel, Mike and Will) just don't get it.

This was the sunset last night in my neighborhood. I was in awe.

Last day for her blanket

Emily came up to me last night with her blanket (pictured above in shreds) telling me that she thinks it's time to put her blanket away in a box. She said she'd given it a hug already and wanted to put it away for her baby once she becomes a mommy. You may not be able to tell, but the blanket pictured above is actually a full blown crib comforter that Jon and Beth got for her four years ago. Since that time, she has had this thing with her everywhere she goes and used it for everything in her world. The blanket is now in shreds with most of what's left being stuffing.

Mudbowl makes the Herald

Our mudbowl last weekend made the front page of the pretigious South Lyon Herald. Shinn's picture made the front page while Nate's buddy Austin was a part of the half page spread with pictures. The photographer has been to these events over the past five years taking pictures for the paper, even winning a national award one year with them. He's really an amazing photographer -if not only because he got a picture Jason of Jason smiling during the event while crawling through the feezing cold mud with a big kid on his back.

My newphew Ben is not naturally cross-eyed, contrary to what this picture shows. I think this is the craziest picture of a baby ever.... Not to mention he's wearing a turtle neck. The kid fits into the family well.

These four SNL Sketches on Nick Burns - Your Company's Computer Guy are hilarious.

I've been playing around with a potential flickr killer called Shutterbook.com. It's new, in beta and sitll has some rough edges. It's got a great interface, can be accessed via RSS feed and by a simple url (davekurt.shutterbook.com). I put a sample album out there to check it out. Whereas flickr is great for individual pictures, Shutterbook seems to do entire albums best. The album viewer is very fast and slick.

I've been using this fre iTunes Art Importer to add album cover art to all of the tunes in my iTunes library. As you're listening to a song, it will go out and grab the clip art and apply it to the album for you, which iTunes will display as you play the tune, plus it will display it on the iPod as well. I guess I'm doing this in anticipation of migrating to a color/video iPod at some point in the future. Plus, I'm pretty anal about keeping my MP3 library tagged and orderly. Everything else in my life may be a mess, but at least my computer, my document taxonomy and MP3's are well organized.

The best part about this motorcycle jumping video is his buddy's comment after the crash.

100 Oldest .COM Names

Thanks to Erik L for this interesting article. Notice how far in front Xerox was from everyone else?

1.   15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2.   24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3.   24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4.   11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5.   30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6.   07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7.   09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8.   17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9.   03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10.   05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11=   19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
11=   19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13=   25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
13=   25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15.   25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM

How can you not help singing along to this Family Guy clip?

We went to my parent's house in Dewitt yesterday afternoon to hang out for a while. It was a beautiful day out, so the kids and Grandma went for a walk in the woods. It was an especially exciting day for my Dad, who had a really epihany around grilling.

I'll be the first to admit that in the past, I've been no expert in grilling. My old grill had so many hot spots in it that I'd cook chicken half burned and half rare. My dad will also badmouth anything but a charcol grill any chance he gets (although he owns a gas grill now). We'd brought shish-ka-bob's for dinner, so my Dad got his charcol grill ready. Once all the coals were lit up, he figured it was ready to go. The temperature above the grill itself was hot enough to melt metal. If you're actually melting metal, this is great! If you're trying to cook chicken over it, the result, aside from burning the hair off the back of your hands and arms, is to have very dry, charred chicken. Once I explained this to my Dad, he was thrilled at learning something new, and swore that going forward he would do things differently, resulting in moist, tender meat from now on. The whole family is thrilled about this one. To prove the point, I cooked the chicken at the near super-nova temperatures, the result being some high quality, dry and burnt chicken, which my Dad has learned to love.

Part of Noel's "thing" is to go to the hospital, use the really close pastoral parking spots, visit random people in the hospital and leave pictures in their room. My Mom then took the picture home and placed it in an honored position in the den.

Since then, my parents have tried a number of other spots in the house since then:


I can completely understand this one, covering up Jon's picture:

With my Mom's favorite bell collection:

This seemed most appropriate, yet the strangest, because his eyes seem to follow you:

Productivity

It always amazes me how much I can get done when I unplug my phone, IM and e-mail.  I sat down at Starbucks without internet connectivity and cranked through a long list of things that had to be done that I’d had to push to the back burner for weeks.  I’m horrible at dealing with the tyranny of the urgent.  I don’t have the self control to avoid reading new e-mails as they come in, which pulls me down a nasty spiral of non-productivity.  The sad thing is what a feeling of satisfaction I achieve when I’m able to empty my e-mail box from 200 to 10.  That feeling is quickly quelled as soon as I reconnect and find it fills right back up as people reply to everything I just sent out from those original 200.

Fantasy Football Standings

I know these Fantasy Football updates are eagerly awaited by none, but here it is anyways. After 6 weeks, there's a four way tie for first place between Jim Jeffrey, Eli Schultz, Matt Gielow and I while the Rays Boys are sucking it at last place, even being beaten by Ted. Ouch. Next week is the big week for me when I play Jim, who has dominated the league for the past few years. If I can beat Jim, I can end up in last place and still be happy.

We got the final date of my Mom's surgery, which will be next Friday at the Mayo clinic in Minnesota. The procedure that they have to do is pretty intense reconstruction of your intestines, lymph nodes and gall bladder, called The Whipple Procedure:

The Whipple procedure today is very similar to Whipple's original procedure. It consists of removal of the distal half of the stomach (antrectomy), the gall bladder (cholecystectomy), the distal portion of the common bile duct (choledochectomy), the head of the pancreas, duodenum, proximal jejunum, and regional lymph nodes. Reconstruction consists of attaching the pancreas to the jejunum (pancreaticojejunostomy) and attaching the common bile duct to the jejunum (choledochojejunostomy) to allow digestive juices and bile to flow into the gastrointestinal tract and attaching the stomach to the jejunum (gastrojejunostomy) to allow food to pass through.

Contrary to popular belief, this was not created by Mr. Whipple from the Charmin toilet paper commercials.

Dan and I are heading out there to hang out with my Mom and Dad Thursday - Saturday and then Jon is coming down later in the week with Libby. Sooze is hanging back to help take care of my Grandma. Impressively, Jon is bringing Libby, their 2 month old baby, which for a new Dad with a new baby is a pretty impressive solo trick for most, but not for Jon, who is a stay-at-home-Dad, or as he likes to call it a "Man Mom".

Cathie found these at the store today and almost bought them for a friend of ours. I'm sure Ken would like them:

General Blog Disclaimer

As you read this blog, chances are at some point or another you may have been offended. There are times where my statements are intentionally offensive. If that's the case, it's your call to read it or not and disagree with me or not. I'm okay with healthy disagreement. Ultimately, I post the stuff for a very small group of people to read (who for the most part "get me", my sense of humor and my heart) everyone else has the choice to look at this stuff or not. Ocasionally I may post something that is unintentionally offensive to you. Being human, I make bad decisions sometimes and can hurt someone's feelings. Suprisingly enough, it's fairly rare that I set out to offend anyone intentionally - especially the marginalized of the world, other than my younger brother Jon. But of course those of you know me well, know that about me. At this point, you have a choice. You can either:

1. Assume the best about me and lovingly share with me where I've missed it in the hopes that I hear you and learn from my mistake.
   
2. Assume that I'm an ass and blast me with harsh words, flinging a heaping pile of self-righteous crap my way.
   

Since I've been guilty of doing the second way more times than I care to admit, I really don't have much place to talk here, except to say that I strive towards the first. I'm learning how to balance the truth I think that I have with an additude of love and assuming the best about others before I beat them over the head with my truth. I'm a big fan of what Paul says about how we're supposed to work together in Ephesians 4:

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Bottom line is that I somtimes have a tough time receiving a flaming pile of crap being chucked my way. All I'm asking is that if you have a problem with something I wrote, be nice and remember that you're equally imperfect and should be humble and assume the best about me and I'll try and do the same with you. I mistakes all the time, and my friends will tell you that I"m pretty open to admitting when I'm wrong, when approached in the right way.

Footnote: I'm sure someone will be offended by this post.

The kids were making get well cards for their Grandma tonight as Cathie and I watched. Emily looked up and asked why we weren't drawing. "Don't you want Grandma to get better?" she asked. Cathie and I started coloring immediately.

The Saga Continues

My brother Dan was at my parent's house on Saturday and disovered that Noel's picture has migrated to the place of honor next to the cordless phone in their Den. This is a place of honor where my mother used to keep her army of stuffed squirrels (Click here to see a complete photo gallery of Mom's stuffed squirrel pictures).

We've joined the club!

We are now members of the "Families with kids who've gotten stuff stuck up their nose" club. Emily stuck this tiny little conch shell up her nose today and after several unsuccessful tries with tweezers, we resorted to the infamous "snot rocket" technique. After a few good blows, it rocketed it's way out into the tissue. I asked her why she did stuck the shell in her nose and her response was, "I don't know."