Category: news
The Life of a Writer
I’ve been trying to keep up with my New Year’s resolution this year to spend more time writing. That included a commitment to update this blog once a week. I’ve done pretty well so far – I’ve only missed a couple of weeks. But I think I have a good excuse: On June 1 I finished the first draft of...
Progress Check
As I mentioned earlier this year, I am building a scale replica of the Paris Notre Dame cathedral in our Minecraft world. I thought I would provide a little progress check. After five months, and maybe really only 10-12 hours of work, here is a screenshot of where I am. Still a long way to go. But they just released...
Family Visit
Dixie’s grandparents visited us from Orlando this week. We haven’t seen them since 2014 the last time we were down there. They had a good time seeing the kids and how big they’ve grown since then. I wish the weather had not been so darn hot!
Father’s Day Movie
After church, we went to see the updated version of The Jungle Book at the AMC dine-in theater. The story is quite different from the animated classic, but still good, and the CG is amazing.
Mother’s Day Picnic
Dixie wanted to celebrate Mother’s Day this year with a simple picnic at Forest Park, so we happily obliged her. Two ducks also invited themselves to the festivities. Photos are up in my album.
Our Last Piano Recital
Well, okay, it might not be our last one. But our piano teacher is getting married next month and moving away, so it will be the last one with her. The kids both did very well, considering the difficulty of the pieces and the fact that they both memorized them and didn’t use their music while playing. We are going...
Campout at Roaring Springs
We did a overnight campout at Roaring Spring Ranch. The place is beautiful — it’s about 2600 acres that is owned by one of the families in Noah’s Cub Scout Pack. The kids got to ride horses, go on a hayride at night, and hike through the woods. The ticks were unbelievable, but it was still a good trip.
Anyone For A Game of Kubb?
Yeah, I had never heard of it either until last fall when Noah and I went camping with the Boy Scouts. Then Noah told Dixie about it and they bought the game for Noah’s friend Graham for his birthday. At that point, Dixie became obsessed with it, even though she had never played it. Then it turned into a trip...
Don’t Mess With Bitty
I’m proud of my little girl. Her arms aren’t quite long enough to hold the rifle properly, but that hasn’t stopped her from hitting the target. She finished up the requirements for her Shooting Sports badge for AHG by hitting 10 water balloons. Way to go, Josie!
World Eagle Day
If you couldn’t tell, we’ve got a thing for birds around here. For Josie’s birthday, we went to the World Bird Sanctuary to celebrate World Eagle Day. We got to see a Bateleur eagle, which is native to Africa, and this one happens to be the only one of its kind in North America. Pretty awesome creature.
Josie’s Bird Day
We spent today celebrating our little girl turning eight years old. It’s hard to believe she’s eight already. She wanted a bird theme so Dixie decorated the cake with pictures Josie took on her camera, along with several other bird-themed snacks that were all yummy. We spent the morning at the World Bird Sanctuary because today also happened to be...
Conference in San Diego
I headed to San Diego this past week for a two-day conference called the Global Diversity Summit to learn more about how we can use diversity in the workplace to make our business more successful. There were some interesting break-out sessions and a few of the keynote speakers were inspiring. We didn’t get much time to sightsee, but luckily I’ll...
Bye Bye Chickens
It was with a sad heart that we said goodbye to our flock this week. Princess, along with a couple of the others (we suspect) had developed a taste for their own eggs, so we were only getting a couple of eggs per week, and the rest were getting eaten. Couple this with the fact that we plan to be...
Serengeti Steve
At Noah’s Blue & Gold Banquet last night, we had a special presentation from Serengeti Steve. He is a local herpetologist who does shows for birthday parties and other events. We chose to sit right up front, and I’m sure this is a decision that Dixie now regrets. But she stole the show! More photos are in my album.
New Headlights
I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to install a pair of new LED headlights on the car. It involved removing the entire front fascia, but it still didn’t take as long as I thought it would. I’m happy with the results.
