Impressive

You have to see this video.

My Work makes the News

My work has made the news (in a good way). The month of May I was terribly busy working on a team with a special project for the Governor of Alabama. We were charged with creating a plan for using the public, two-year colleges in the state as hurricane evacuation shelters. We created a 150+ page plan that we presented to the Governor on June 1. This week he released that plan to the media.

In the video, you will see a close-up shot of map. That is the work of my network administrator. He spent a lot of time creating a single pictorial representation of the entire plan that was simple and easy to read. He knocked it out of the park. It was so good that the governor's staff actually confiscated the map for their own use.

Communion Thought: Family Dinner

I was responsible for leading the communion thought at church this week. The theme of the service centered around the concept of family, especially the role of children. I tied the Lord's Supper to the family dinner. Here is the text of my thoughts.

Magnificent Hotel

Erin and I dropped the children off yesterday to spend the week with Mam-maw, Pap-paw, and Aunt Summer. We left the house about 7:15 AM. We had to run by the library and return some books before we left on our trip. We actually hit the interstate about 7:30. However, before we got to the next exit (9 miles away), Erin realized that I had forgotten to pack the diaper bag. DOH!!! So, we turned around and went back home and got the diaper bag. We finally actually got on the road about 8:15 AM.

We had a safe and uneventful trip from Millbrook, AL to Clarksville, TN. We put Mihaela in a diaper for the trip, but stopped everytime she said she needed to go potty...which was four or five times. We got to Clarksville about 12:45 and met Mom and Summer at a McDonald's. We ate lunch and then I moved the stuff over to the van and off the kids went away. Erin and I misted up a bit...

However, we drove back to Florence, AL and to our hotel, the Marriott Grand. I can not tell you what a great hotel this is. It rocks. We had dinner at the hotel's Bronzeback restaurant and then crashed. This morning we got up when woke up (i.e., no alarm clocks or hungry babies awakened us). We drove over to a riverfront park where an antique fair was being held. We walked around and purchased some small antiques. Then, we drove over to Tuscumbia (the birth place of Helen Keller) and found a small local "meat-and-three" for lunch. It was fabulous. After lunch we came back to the hotel and laid out by the pool for several hours. It was great! I read the entire book "The Magician's Nephew."

Tonight we had a reception for the conference. I networked a little bit. Very uncomfortable for me. Anyway, tomorrow we start the conference in full swing. I speak on Tuesday morning and don't have my stuff ready yet. I guess I will work on it tomorrow....tonight, I am just relaxing and having fun. This has been my first day of just goofing off in a long time and I have enjoyed it.

Playgrounds Are So Safe...they are boring

DUH!!!

CBBC Newsround | UK | Playgrounds 'need more adventure': "he Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) says worries about making equipment safe to play on has led to play areas becoming boring"

Back in my day, we didn't have soft rubber pieces in our playground. We had asphalt. If you fell, you busted your head and we liked it. We loved it. (~SNL)