Saw this Amazing T-Shirt from despair.com

Ken Buck had this on his shirt today from the web site despair.com. Hilarious, and way too true.

Annual Velocity late night Wal-Mart Run

Love, Reign O'er Me

A bunch of us got up early this morning at camp to go running, lead by the infamous Ms. Jessica Shinn. Jess took a group and did a three mile run and I took a group and we did a six mile run (yes, Dan, I know my runkeeper showed only 4.8. I forgot to start it until part-way through). What I didn't realize was that I was running with a couple of cross-country runners. I hung with them at their pace (I swear it was a 6 minute miles place) for first few miles and then decided I'd go my own pace (or die trying to keep up with them).

As I ran, it started to lightly rain. Just at that moment, the song Love, Reign O'er Me by the Who came on my iPhone. It was as if God was reminding me of his all encompassing love for me. I needed to hear that right at that moment.

Here's an exceprt of the lyrics:

Love, Reign o'er me
Love, Reign o'er me, rain on me

Only love
Can bring the rain
That makes you yearn to the sky
Only love
Can bring the rain
That falls like tears from on high

Love Reign O'er me

On the dry and dusty road
The nights we spend apart alone
I need to get back home to cool cool rain
I can't sleep and I lay and I think
The night is hot and black as ink
Oh God, I need a drink of cool cool rain

Why my friend Brad will miss Ed McMahon

Bobby and Sarah's Wedding

Cathie and I headed down to Ohio on Saturday morning for Bobby (Rays) and Sarah (Burk)'s wedding. It was in the middle of nowhere in Van Wert, OH. We stopped by our hotel to get ready and found that we couldn't get into our room. By the time we did, we were rushing. My wife being one of the few woman who doesn't respond well to a husband saying, "Are you read to go yet!? We're late!", I kept my mouth shut and we left a few minutes behind schedule, and ten minutes behind Brad. We made it there with a few minutes to spare, but no Brad was to be found. They'd gotten lost and made it there just in the nick of time.

Bobby and Sarah met at Velocity (Drew takes the credit for introducing them). It was a great wedding - my favorite part being watching the smile on Bobby's face at the from of the altar as he saw Sarah at the end of the aisle.

The reception was a lot of fun, we were at a table with the Jeffrey's and Jay and Jess Shinn. At one point, Brad left his tin of chew on the table and Cathie took it upon herself to pour a huge amount of black pepper in the tin and mix it up. He continued dipping throughout the night and the next day I received a text message from Brad that simply said, "In the hospital. Pepper allergy. I'll be fine."

I have confirmed that Bobby is not actually taking Sarah's name as Brad told me. Drew and I discussed this and agree that pretty much the only reason to take your wife's name is if it's something really cool like, "Terminator" or "Wang".

During the Bridal dance, Bobby and Sarah begun with a slow dance to a Rascal Flatts song, I think. Midway through the music stopped and they busted into a great dance routine, part of which I caught here, before jumping back into the slow dance again. You can see part of the video here:


Bobby and Sarah are an awesome couple who dated in high school and college, and are now getting married young, a lot like Cathie and I did. I wouldn't change that for the world, and we wish them both the best!

Maddie and Em's Father's Day Dance

The girls have worked over the past few months on this dance that was performed on Father's Day. Cathie and I made it back from the Wedding just in time to see them perform it at the 11:00 service. Jen Niemi worked her tail off to choreograph this and teach it to the girls, with the patience of a saint:

Father's Day 2009 Pics!

We celebrated Father's Day on Friday for my Dad. My Dad has a tradition where he likes to spend Father's Day first with his two favorite children (Dan and I) followed by the lesser children (Susan and Dan, which he was with on Sunday). Much like Joseph with his coat of many colors in the bible, my Dad asked Dan and I to both wear green shirts to show his favoritism over us. (He should have asked Dan to get a haircut as well).

On Sunday, we celebrated my father's day. The kids got me a new coffee maker and a couple of very nice airsoft guns. Em and Maddie made me some special cards. Em's had this great message from her heart, "If all of the Dad's were lined up in a row for me to choose a Dad, I would choose you."

I spent the day hanging out in the hammock reading, enjoying the weather. At one point I was foolish enough to go for a run in the stupid humidity about passed out. We finished the evening with pizza and margaritas (for Cathie and I).

I have an amazing Dad who has been a fantastic role model for me in terms of what it means to be a man and a Dad. I also have the best father-in-law a guy could ask for! He's a great Dad and and grandpa as well.

Chilling out on Fathers Day in the hammock

My brother Dan is sweaty and needs a haircut

At least Em isn't making Lola wear her peracripton glasses any more

A bigger version of Bahama Bobs

Why are people sitting in Times Square in green lawn chairs

Maybe not the best shirt to wear on a flight into NYC

The best part about the Delta/NWA Merger: Urinal Splash Guards

Our newest Pet: Hannah the Snake

So Emily has a new pet - a gardener snake that I found when I was running. I figured I'd given it brain damage after carrying it a little mile, not to mention me looking a little strange running with a pet snake. She named the snake Hannah. No idea how that came about.

She's wanted a pet snake for a while, but Cathie's laid down the law on this one. I had a pet ball python in college and it was a great pet. It grew from a tiny little hatchling to about a 3 foot snake before it escaped in my apartment somewhere. Thankfully, it didn't eat the kitten.

We've been feeding it worms and slugs and it seems to be enjoying it - best I can tell (I'm not from the house of Slytherin after all). Yesterday, Emily's teacher let her bring it into school. As she walked down the hallway holding the snake's terrarium, she had the biggest smile on her place. Kids would come up to her and ask what was in the container and she would proudly answer, "My pet snake."

Em has started a dog walking business in the neighborhood. She's charging $1 for a 30 minute dog walk. Yesterday she took Alex and Andrea's dog Maggie for a walk, brought it into our back yard, played fetch with it and then fed it water, because it looked thirsty. She wants to make flyers and make enough money to buy herself a sugar glider.

My quest for the backflip

We got a trampoline from our neighbors. It cost me a case of beer and took about 2 minutes to carry from his yard. Worked out pretty well for all of us.

Apparently all of Maddie's time in gymnastics paid off. She can do a back flip like you wouldn't believe on our trampoline.. I can kind of land a front flip, and want badly to be able to do a back flip. Maddie's got it down pat. Most of it is mental, 20% is sheer knowing how to do it. The mental side is brutal, just havin the guts to do it.

I couldn't get it, even though Maddie makes it look so easy. I settled for jumping really, really high on the trampoline and sending Maddie even higher.

Random Pictures from this week

Nate, Maddie and I hanging out watching Wife Swap.


Maddie, Nate and Austin playing Airsoft.

Maddie's not too much of a girly-girl to go out and shoot and get shot at.

Apparently there was a hostage situation at one point...


Maddie, Maddie and Julie hung out all weekend... Emily used her puppy dog eyes - and started a dog walking business in the neighborhood.

After seeing hte movie Up, we started using the cone of shame on Maddie as a punishment. Very effective.

I hope to be as smart as Nate

We went to Nate's awards banquet this morning. Nate was one of only a couple kids to receive all three awards:
1. The Principal's Award (Straight A's for all marking periods)
2. The Honor Roll (B Average or Above)
3. Perfect Attendance all year

This has been a great year for Nate. The sixth grade transition can be kind of a funky one and he's done really well with it. A big part has been getting his ADD under control. Conferences this year went from "He has great potential if he could just focus and not be distracting" to "He's a great student, who participates well". Nate was moved into honors math this year after really showing some great aptitude in his current math class.

Here's the video of Nate receiving his award (thank you iPhone):

Lola in the Car