Bad Son...

So a buddy sends me pics of a buck he killed. I forward them to my Dad. He replies:

Nice to have pictures of your deer hunt! I wish I had some of mine!

Sorry, Dad! I'll get them to you any day now...

Queen of Cakes

My wife is an excellent all around chef. She doesn't have a restaurant, she doesn't work in a restaurant, but she serves the five of us some of the best meals on the planet. And I'm not just bragging!

But she also likes to bake cakes. She has a ritual of asking each of us what kind of cake we want for our birthday and this year our youngest chose Dora the Explorer. Not one to get one of those screened cakes, my wife hand crafted and hand painted a special cake for our little one.

So here is this year's first in the series of the summer birthday cakes:

And that made for one happy birthday girl:

Killer Chihuahua

What happens when a 3lb Chihuahua attacks a 120lb Argentine Dogo?

The Chihuahua has the upperhand!

OK, Drake has had enough:

No dogs were harmed during the making of these pictures!

News Article

I'm not used to being published, but this article has me quoted towards the end. Hurray for me.

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

So, I've been with the company that I am at now for about seven years. I'm fairly happy there, but recently, the opportunity came up to jump on a differen ship. When faced with tough decisions, my Dad always recommends doing a "Ben Franklin", which is where you write the pros and cons down next to each other and see which list is longer.

I don't know why I'm putting that list here, but it just feels appropriate to get it out.

So, here we go. The pros are for staying where I am.

Pros	Cons
I've built a great team The product I've built for my company is my baby Crime is low where we live Everything here is a "known" I will miss my co-workers, especially my counterpart in Germany	Pennsylvania is no longer attractive to me or the family I don't trust my boss anymore There is little more growth opportunity I have no mentors left at my current company The opportunity company seems more professional: I could learn more from their staff

That is what I was afraid of... they are pretty even...

Time Management

"After much prayer and careful consideration, I have decided to resign..." were the first words of my email. No, it wasn't from my job, it was from one of my positions at church. Unfortunately, I'm finding that I have less and less time to do the things that I love.

One of the only way to win time back, is to say "no". So I have started finding things in my life that I can start saying "no" to. Some of these things are going to cost me money. Others will hurt friendships that I have developed over years. Some of them are things that I like to do personally, but take away from the family. Unfortunately, sacrifice must be made as I attempt to reclaim my life.

Hopefully, I will have more time to blog! But one thing is for sure, some of the things that I am giving up that I actually like to do, will be replaced by things that I don't like to do. Such as working on the house... I don't like to do carpentry, and I'm terrible at plumbing, but these things need to be done. And so I will finally have to do them. I will miss my friends from growth group... sigh.

Hey Microsoft, I'll Take One!

According to news.com, Microsoft has been giving away laptops with Windows Vista on them to bloggers that they hope will evaluate the product. Many people are upset and call this bribery.

I think it is great!

In fact, Microsoft, if you send me one, I will evaluate Vista and post about it here. I'll even promise to make the reviews quite positive. In fact, I will promiste to make a new post about it every day for 2 months.

Until then, you might not see any posts... I'll be waiting at the mailbox.