Jesus Saves

I was in East Lansing for meetings this morning and ended up having lunch with Bill, Will and Noel. Afterwards I went over to Noel's to get the tour of their new home. The place is beautiful and still new enough that they're now getting to decorating. They have a beautiful stone fireplace, and the one decoration is this bobble-head Jesus piggy bank labeled, 'Jesus Saves'.

Jon?

Apparently, a woman is running around posting comments in my brother Jon's name on Dana's blog.

Nigerian Scam

Everyone has gotten an e-mail from someone in Nigeria that claims to want to transfer millions of dollars into your account. I decided one time to mess with the guy and corresponded back and forth for a while. This guy has a site (not suitable for kids) devoted to his stories to messing with these guys, and getting them to confirm their authenticity by sending pictures of themselves, like the above. There's another very interesting article that describes how these scams are conducted and who is involved.

Johnny Cash - Help Me Video

Cool semi-new Johnny Cash video from the album, American V, A Hundred Highways:

Happy Birthday Ed

My brother-in-law Ed turned 33 (um, about two weeks ago). Due to my extensive travel and forgetfulness, I'm just now getting this on here. Here are ten things you probably don't know about Ed:

1. Ed loves nipple clamps. He's currently training to qualify for the olympic "Diving with nipple clamps" event in the 2008 games.
   
2. Ed's sister, Cathie, lovingly used to refer to him as "Stink Bomb Eddie", "Edwina the Ballernia" and "Sped".
   
3. One time Ed got so mad at Cathie for locking him out, he punched a hole through the back door's glass window- After that, nether one of them saw the outside of their rooms for a very long time.
   
4. When I was in college, Cathie and her parents were out of town and I stayed with Ed for a weekend. He and I made these liquid drano bombs out of 2 liter bottles. Ed later jokingly pretended to drink out of one of these and burned the skin off of his lips.
   
5. Ed set a record in high school cross-country. He later quit running because it got in the way of his smoking.
6. Ed has worked in the roofing industry almost half his life-with only a couple of trips to the ER.
   
7. Ed and Stacy got married in Vegas....and they're still married.
   
8. If Stacy and Justice (their black Lab) were both at risk of getting run over by a semi...there's question as to which one he'd save.
   
9. When Ed was in high school, he actually believed that he was a "gangsta" and knew the words to every rap song out there.
   
10. Ed patiently supported his wife while she went through law school-He's hoping to reap the benefits and retire soon.
    

Bahama Bob's Party

We had an amazing time last night. We went to the Ray's for their annual Bahama Bob's bash. It was done up in a huge way with awesome food, bartender and steel drum Caribbean band. We got there around 7:30 and cleared out around 1:30. The cops were called twice for noise and never gave a ticket.
It was so much fun. Words are tough to describe it.. Bob and Anne have a huge group of friends and family, and over the years we've gotten to know quite a few of them, which makes these parties even more fun. Bob also has a taste for top-shelf tequila - the best you've ever had., and Bob is always very generous with making sure everyone has their fill. Anne was running around taking some great pictures all night, so there's a great scrap book of the party on her page as well as a subset here.


We had a pretty lazy day today recuperating from yesterday's Bahama Bob's party. It started rough after getting to bed around 3 and getting up at 7:30 to meet up with Mark, Brad and Eli to do load-up and take-down at church. At least they were in equal pain.

Ginormous Dragon Fly

Cat Bird Seat

I have no idea where this little finch came from, but he seemed to have a great time teasing my cat.

Parachuting Bear

The girls and I got to talking about why jumping out the window would be a bad idea, when the obvious question we've all asked came up: "What if we jumped with a parachute?" Comon, we've all thought it. I started explaining, and decided it'd be better for us to give it a try. We built a parachute out of ribbon, an old hospital blanket and used a stuffed animal as our test pilot.

On our test-flight, I figured I chuck up it up far and high to give maximum time for the chute to open. I threw it a little too far apparently, and ended up sticking it about 30 feet up in this tree. Apparently, this was very obvious to my wife as she was watching, but I hadn't really taken into consideration.



We (ok, it was all me) devised an ingenious grappling hook out of one of Cathie's decorative candle holders and we proceeded to chuck it out the window and try and hook it on the bear, the tree or parachute. After a few throws, we got the bear back and we revised our trajectory.

If the bear had been real, it would have died many, many times as we tested our the chute. In the end, it worked pretty well. In the beginning it was fun for Emily to run down and retrieve it, but she soon (soon for a third child, that is - about 5 times) learned it was a lot of work. We then began to use our same grappling hook to pick it up off the ground, which became as much fun as throwing the bear out the window.

In the end, I'm not sure if they really learned that they shouldn't jump out the window, even with a parachute. When I was a kid, I tried to repel out my window using a harness I'd built out of belts and rope, tied to my dresser. In the end, I racked myself something fierce as my belt loops gave way and the dresser fell over. I ended up suspended about half way down the side of our house without a way to get up or down.

Maddie and I watching Man vs. Wild

Maddie and I have our favorite show together that we never miss: Man vs. Wild. We're constantly amazed and grossed out as Bear Grylls finds various sources of water, such as his own urine and damp elephant poo. Mostly, it's a chance for Maddie and I to cuddle and do something together.

Pre-Season

Nate and I went up yesterday to pick up all his of his gear. We decided to practice throwing and catching in pads to get him used to it. As he was getting his gear on, his little sister Em proclaimed, "Nate - you look cool."

My little guy is growing up. He's almost 5 foot tall now and every day I'm amazed by him in a new way. With this pre-season workout he's been doing, I've been so impressed to watch him push himself beyond where I thought he could go and beyond where he thought he could go. He can have such a single minded focus when he wants to really pursue something. I'm a proud Dad. I tell Nate all the time, "If God lined up every boy in the world to pick out a son, I'd pick you." and I mean it.

Freakin Northwest and OHare

For the third time in a month, Northwest cancelled my flight home. Six of us were on the same flight, three of us got on. Two other guys and I contemplated driving, but decided to hang out in the Northwest World Club and have a few drinks. The last time this happened in Chicago, I ended up driving back with two flight attendants for an 8 hour ride. We're on a 6:00 flight and based on Northwests record watch it be cancelled. Freakin Nortthwest.

10 Year Award

I'm in Chicago for a team get together for my line of business. It's a virtual organization, with people working all around the country, some of whom I only get to see once or twice a year. We had a team dinner after our meetings tonight, and in front of the whole group, my boss Andrea presented me with my ten year Xerox pin. After Andrea shared a few thoughts, one of my co-workers spontaneously shared a few kind words about my contribution to the organization, which turned the event into a kind of roast. When you travel and work with people in intense situations, deep bonds are formed. Some of these people I've worked with since i was fresh out of college at a previous company, and others have worked for me for four years or more. A number of people, including our line-of-business VB (who i was his first employee) followed on and shared there own thoughts about me and my contribution to the team. it was one of the first times in a while that I was without words. They asked for a speech and I had nothing at the end, and my eyes were pretty tear-filled. It was a great night. One of many reasons I work for Xerox.

Flight into Chicago

I've never been happy to have a flight delayed, but the hour our plane spent on the tarmac was enough to ALMOST finish the new Harry Potter book. Twenty more minutes and I'd of had it done. All I can say is Wow!

Greatest Mom in the world

With my increased travel, Cathie ends up carrying most of the load around the house to not only be be both a Mom and Dad, but also to be a chauffeur, handy-woman and troubleshooter. She's helps me pack my clothes (only one time packing two different shoes for me), makes sure I've got the right clothes cleaned and the right stuff in my travel kit. They might sound like little things, but they're huge to me. Being away is tough, but knowing she's at home taking care of everything makes all the difference in the world. I also get all sorts of nice little text messages and pictures via cell phone.

Cathie gets that i don't like being away, but my job requires it and I work hard to travel as little as possible. The travel I do is offset by the fact i get to work at home, work for a great company with great people and have huge flexibility in my schedule, generous holidays and vacation.

On the flip side, i learned a long time ago to try not to call home and rave about the beauty of the hotels I'm at or the amazing meal I just got done having - as Cathie is sitting at home having macaroni and cheese.

Cathie is my best friend in the whole world and one of the big reasons I've been able to be successful in my job.

Daddy Daughter Lunch Date

With my new job within Xerox I'm started traveling a lot more. In order to keep some balance in my life with my family, I've got to be a lot more intentional about my time at home. Maddie and I went to our favorite Chinese place in town for lunch, both getting our favorite, General Tso's Chicken.



I leave for Chicago this afternoon, back Friday.

Em

Rushing out the door to take Emily to animal camp this morning, Em announced to Cathie:

Mom, I put rubber bands on my feet. They felt good.

Cathie proceeded to take Emily's shoes and socks off to find two rubber bands tightly wrapped around each foot. Ahh, the third child.

Rick Warren, Bono and Bob Dylan

I met an interesting guy today who had some great stories. Phil is the
president of a company that does consulting and training work with
Xerox. During one of his presentations, he got on the subject of
authenticity and being other-centered. On this subject, he told a story
about having lunch with Rick Warren and what a great, authentic guy he
was. During a break, I asked him how he'd hooked up with Rick Warren,
and Phil shared with me that he heads up a National Prayer Breakfast for
Fortune 500 CEO's, and as a result of that, has gotten to meet some
pretty fascinating people, including Presidents, Bono and Bob Dylan, all
of whom were speakers at the breakfasts.

He shared with me the time he spent with Bono, and their conversation
about why Bono does what he does for the poor in Africa. It was
interesting hearing it in the context of a business discussion, that
Bono's goal is basically to re-brand the way people see Africa, and to
make it into something that's not just a problem too big to overcome,
but something that can be healed. He shared with me some great stories,
including going to Bono's house in Ireland and getting a tour of it. He
had about a half hour of time to hang out with Bob Dylan as well, and
after sharing what a tiny little fella Bob is, he told me some great
stories about hanging with Bob, listening to him talk in his famous
inflection and what a down-to-earth guy he is.

I think there's a part of me that's just fascinated by people like Bono
and Dylan because of their fame, but I also love hearing good stories,
and Phil related a number of great ones. Interesting guy. I could have
spent hours talking to him. He also looks just like B movie cult actor,
Bruce Cambell. Same chin and everything.

Emily's Animal Camp

Emily came home from animal camp today super excited, with a giant smile explaining:

I had so much fun today. Guess what I got to do? I got to clean the horses poop out of the barn. I got lamb slobber all over me, because all the lamb did was chew my shirt. I should probably change my shirt, because it's pretty yucky right now.

Em's Second Tooth

They just keep falling out.... Em called me last night, very excited, to tell me all about her second lost tooth. She starts her farm day camp today, where she gets to work on a farm, feeding and caring for animals.