Friday!

How great is Friday? I mean, isn't Friday great?

I mean, Friday is GREAT!

Look, it's been a hard day. I've worked my brain so hard today that I almost can't think anymore.

I didn't get to e-mail the guys, I barely had time to eat lunch (but I did, thanks to Big Dog) and despite the fact that everyone seemed to be out of the office enjoying a beautiful Friday, I was at work until almost 5:00.

But now! Now! Now it's the weekend! And I went for a 2-mile run! And I get to eat fried chicken wings -- Sherry makes the best!

I vow not to think about going back to work on Teusday for the rest of the day!

Time for a Great Friday Night!

Enjoy, all!



(P.S. Sign the guest book, if you would, please.)

In Some Small Way

I haven't written about it yet, but there was another disaster in Minnesota in August. While the bridge collapse was certainly more widely publicized, the floods of August 19 killed as many people (roughly -- I don't think I ever saw the final totals for either event) and will end up costing society as much or more.

The floods also hit closer to home, literally and figuratively, as they happened in my area and several relatives were affected.

Saturday, Sherry and I will head to an area town and do our small part to help those relatives. We'll hear stories, bring some food, carry some items -- do whatever is needed. In the end, we'll feel even more glad that our house was not hit, and even worse that so many homes were.

And so, we'll help out.

May you find a way to help someone.

I'm a Munchkin

So, we did it. We played "Munchkin ^TM" the game from Steve Jackson Games.

It was a hoot!

As with other SJG products, the biggest selling point is the fun. SJG (and, I gather, SJ himself) really understands how to use humor and the culture of the audience to feed the game experience. To that end, Munchkin ^TM has lots of cards that make you laugh, and when they interact with other cards, you laugh harder.

This also means, however, that the game generates queer questions -- cards which seem to contradict one another; imprecise definitions of "death" and "defeat;" arguments (fun arguments, but arguments nonetheless) about what the rules really mean.

And in Munchkin ^TM, that's not bad! In fact, it's part of the fun. I'm glad to know, now that I've played once, that there is a FAQ on the SJG Munchkin ^TM site. But even so, I know there are questions we had during our first game which are not yet answered. And that's OK!

A SJG product is about having fun! You can get 95% of the rules figured out after one session, and if you learn another 2 or 3% before your next time, then you can have impassioned arguments about how things should work, until house rules fill in the rest.

So, Munchkin ^TM was a hit. I'll gladly play it again. Mike and Paul and Pete will get a real kick out of it. Anyone who has even been tangentially associated with fantasy role-playing will "get" the jokes on the cards, and other people will enjoy the nonsensical word play and ludicrous situations.

And, for posterity, Big Dog and Pieman shared the first-ever victory when the Dudes played. They did it with Divine Intervention. And, they did, in fact, make fun of the rest of us. It was great!












Can I just say it's amazing to me that "Munchkin" was not somehow trademarked or copyright protected by the L. Frank Baum estate?

Dude Night

I had a serious post all planned for today. I started writing it a day or two ago. But I have had zero time to think today. So I will wait.

Instead, I will say that tonight is a Dude Night.

Think back on the archetype of the 50's or 60's male. He and his wife had 2.5 kids. He got home from work, read the paper, ate dinner, and then, once a week, went bowling or out to play poker or something.

Dude night.

So, tonight is Dude night. Last time we played "Ticket to Ride: Europe" and "Family Business." Tonight? Not sure -- maybe "Settlers of Catan," maybe "Munchkin" (I just bought it, so we need to try it out,) maybe Mille Bourne (I've never played this, but I'm assured it's simple and fun.)

And there will be some "Guitar Hero." I stink at that game.

"All you need is rhythm," Big Dog says.

HAH!

Let the fun begin.

Civilization - the Game

Those silly Chinese.

For hundreds of years, we got along swimmingly, sharing a continent, trading with one another. I even granted them a gift of gold when they had none, just to help them out and engender some good will.

And how do they repay me? Declare war and attack!

Yet, silly as they are, they attacked over the narrow mountainous region which joined our two halves of the continent.

Do they not know how adept Carthaginians are at defending such an attack? We learned the value of such defense from the Spartans!

I had been building a small armada in preparation for launching an offensive against the Celts, who had bullied my two small towns off of the gods-forsaken continent on which they are minority territory-holders. So, naturally, when Mao attacked, the vessels were redirected.

Soon, I will have all of the old Chinese cities paying homage to Carthage. As a bonus, I will take control of the saltpeter near Beijing. I would have gladly traded for it, but, no, Mao decided that expansion was worth the risk.

It was a bad time to bluff, Mao. Now, I will be "doubling through" and then the world will recognize that Hannibal is, indeed, the World Conqueror.

Congratulations, Lucas!

Lucas completed his co-op this morning. He will be excited to get back to school, I know, but he did a great job during his time at work. I know this because I've been told by people who worked with him.

And, since I'm pretty sure he's told everyone who might read my blog, or he wouldn't mind me telling you, I will pass along the news that he has received a job offer!

I'm happy and proud and -- wow!

It's amazing to think that he and I will be colleagues if he accepts!

My 40's are certainly an age of transition!

Congratulations, Son!

"She's Leaving Home"

I delivered Sarah back to college today. The trip went well. She was well-packed, the minivan had lots of spare room. Her room is up a few short flights of stairs, but everything was easily managed.

She's very excited to be back at school. Her friends will be surrounding her again. Her boyfriend, in particular. She had a good summer, worked with some good people, earned some money, and spent some time with us. But she's ready to be back. She has a great smile, and it was quite evident today.

I'm happy for her, of course. I remember how great college was. I can tell she's thriving.

But I will miss her, once more. Thankfully, the baby bird likes flying back to her nest now and again.

The Beatles' song is much more melancholy than our situation. The daughter in that song might never return. Sarah will always stay in touch.

There should be a song about this feeling. If you know of one, tell me about it.

Until then, my soul will sing it, and I'll try to listen closely enough to bring it out someday.

Mike on TV

If you read my blog, and you like TV, you should read Mike's blog entry for today. Astute, concise, considered and well written (as always.)

X Marks the Start

For two years, whenever I would exercise on the treadmill, I'd watch "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Earlier this summer, I finished the series, so I knew I would have to choose a replacement show for my exercise viewing.

My options were:

• Farscape -- I have two seasons of this purchased, but I've only watched one. Since it's sometimes hard to concentrate fully on the story (and especially the dialog) when I'm running, I really don't want to short-change an episode I've never seen, so watching this show was pretty much out of consideration.
• Stargate: Atlantis -- I only have one season of this, and I'm likely to watch it again sometime with Sherry.
• Stargate: SG1 -- I've watched these with Sherry recently enough that I figured I'd better let them age a bit.
• Star Trek: Voyager -- Very tempting, since I just finished a Star Trek. But I think Sherry might want to see them again. And I do have a series that she doesn't want to see again...
• X-Files -- Yes. This is it. Sherry won't want to view them again, so since I've seen most episodes only once (when Paul lent us the seasons on tape) I'll be seeing something that feels pretty new, but won't require complete attention.
  

So, that's that. On Monday, August 20, I saw the pilot. Yesterday, "Deep Throat." Two episodes, both in the major arc. I'm sure I'll get to a "monster" show soon, but I'll probably enjoy the arc stories most.

Almost missed it

Work has been so busy that I almost missed my chance to blog today. I was even working in my La-Z-Boy while some home decorating show and "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" was on.

Fortunately, a check of my e-mail showed that Mike had commented on a couple of my entries. This reminded me to post something.

The result of the Superworld auction: I got it! I paid a premium, but not what I would have paid at a convention. It is in the mail and I should receive it this week. I'm quite pumped! The game has sentimental value.

The seller tried to interest me in a sealed copy of PsiWorld, but I never played that game, so it's not even tempting.

Speaking of tempting: I finally broke down and bought "Tiger Woods PGA Golf 07" for the Wii. It was marked down, and my in-laws had given me money for my birthday. I've only played a few holes on it, but it's excellent so far. Tiger can hit the ball a LONG way; even with me swinging the remote.

Enough for today. If I do miss a day of posting in the next few, I will blame it on work. But employment keeps kids in school, food on the table, and the fireplace lit in the winter.

Latest Micro-Reviews - Edition 2

Here's what we've seen recently. When we re-view something I've already reviewed, I'll probably not re-review.

Live Free or Die Hard	81	A fun, action-filled movie. It’s not as good as “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” but I had fun, and there were some spectacular stunts. When we saw "16 Blocks" this is sort of what we were expecting.
Ghost Rider	41	Well, for completeness sake, I’m glad I saw it. And the chains were cool. But the story was weak, it was hard to follow, and the logic didn’t work.
Superman: the Movie	74 88	Another movie that was significantly better originally, but it’s still quite good. Reeve really had the best feel for what Superman was like (though I still prefer Dean Cain’s Clark Kent, Reeve had a good take on him too.) And the romance scenes were great. Add the comedy of Hackman as Luthor (which was an interesting way to go, but it worked) and you have a fun film, even 29 years later.
Die Hard	87	Excellent comic-book-like action film. Smart. You can clearly see why people wanted more installments.
Dr. Strangelove	66	Sorry – it didn’t hold up over time. It was worth seeing again, once. Wish I hadn’t bought it.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi	99	Triumphant, heroic, hopeful – and fun! [I still miss the original celebration music at the end of the film.]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	92	An excellent adaptation of a very long book. I really liked the relationship emphasis for Hermione and Ron. They got the critical story elements right. The challenges were particularly well done – dragons, merfolk, maze – and OH that confrontation at the end!
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	93	Yes, we saw this again.

These were not all viewed this weekend. But I think I have most of the movies we've seen since the last time I posted micro-reviews.

Best Summer

Someone asked me yesterday how my summer was going, and without even thinking about it I said:

"It's been one of the best summers of my life."

And, it's true. With all the celebrating we've done around the 25th anniversary, with all the time I've gotten to spend with my kids, with all the "firsts" I've experienced, it's been an amazing summer.

Over the next couple of weeks, it will draw to a close. Sarah, and then Lucas, will go back to college. Leah will get into full gear preparing for three nights of performances a week at Bluff Valley. Church activities will resume. And work will intensify.

But I will look back on this summer as one of the truly best periods of my life.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Just One More Turn --- or Back Off the Wagon

I finished my most recent game of Civilization III Complete in April. Since then, I had not put the CD into a computer. I decided to take a break, because the game is so addictive! It's so easy to convince myself I can just take one more turn, or just play until the Pyramids are complete, or until I finally have access to horses, or whatever. And then, lo and behold, it's four hours later and I'm going to bed too late.

So, for four months, I went without Civ III. But last night, while everyone was watching Harry Potter 4, I decided I'd be better off playing Civ III than spending $20 to play Magic: Online.

And now, it's started again. I want to play Just One More Turn!

Yet, I know, it's not going anywhere. I could take a break for days or weeks (theoretically) and the game would still be there, in exactly the same spot, when I picked it up again.

Somehow, it still feels like the game is going on without me, and I'm missing something!

Definitely a great game. Definitely addictive.

The Pharisee

The Jester, thinking himself hidden
In his cashmere dark olive single-breasted Ralph Lauren,
Dipped a fresh strawberry tart into a cup of rancid sour cream.
He intoned with studied compassion
"Hate the sin.
Love the sinner."
After the wry pause, allowing fragile hope to bloom,
"But for God's sake, don't let him in."

How much is it worth?

I use eBay. These days, if you're reading a blog, it's likely you have, too, so I won't bother to explain the concept.

A couple years back, I decided to start buying copies of Superworld ^[1] for my kids, so that I could give them each a copy of the game. During that time, an unopened copy of the game came up for bid, and I did not win the auction. It ended up selling for just over $50. I've kicked myself (metaphorically) since then. The game cost $30 when it was first released. It has a special place in my heart, and I do collect things, so why not spend another $20-30 on a fresh, unopened copy?

That may not make sense to you, if you're not a collector, or if you don't have a piece of nostalgia for which you'd be willing to pay a premium. Perhaps you can better understand it with another snippet of information: At gaming conventions [for geeks like me who like games; new, old, whatever] retailers of games would sell some unopened games from the 1980's for anywhere from $50 to $250. Maybe more, these days.

Well, anyway, since that time, I did complete buying the copies I needed, and I've given them to my kids. But I still ask eBay to keep sending me notifications whenever a copy of Superworld gets put up for sale or auction.

Finally, it's happened. There is another unopened copy available. And now I have to decide -- just how much is it worth to me? I've had a very expensive summer. I am glad I spent the money I spent, but it's hard to justify spending frivolously now, when we should be building our savings back up. And yet, here is that unopened copy of Superworld again.

I have four days to decide.











^[1] Isn't it amazing how much stuff Wikipedia covers?

Toast

On Saturday, August 11, we held our 25th Anniversary party. It was a delightful time. Most of our extended family was able to join us, and several extended-extended family members came as well. We also had significant representation from our college friends, church friends, and buddies -- and that was really great. I think everyone who came had someone to chat with, when they couldn't be chatting with us.

I wrote a toast for the event, and delivered it at around 7:00. The remainder of this entry will be that toast. If you know us, and you were not at the party, feel free to read it. It was heartfelt.

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We’ve been looking forward to this landmark, this 25^th anniversary year, for a long time. And we’ve been looking forward to this party, this celebration, with all of you, since – well, since Sherry came up with the idea – but certainly for the past several months. I’m glad you could be with us.

You all know me pretty well, so you are probably not surprised that one of the things I wanted to do at this event was to give a toast. You see, I love to speak, but when we first got married, I didn’t realize that the wedding traditions included toasts. You see, we were pretty young. Considering Adam is 23 now, I guess I must have been what - 11 years old? Certainly Sherry couldn’t have been more than eight!

Anyway, here I had had a captive audience, a perfect opportunity to give a speech, and I let it pass without saying anything more than an “I Do.” In the end, of course, that was all I needed to say. And without a doubt, I’m exceptionally glad I said it! But if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to say a little more this time.

When I started thinking about what to put in this toast, I realized I had three topics I wanted to cover: Love, Marriage, and Sherry. For me, of course, they are all related. And for this particular toast, I think they’re all important.

First, let’s talk about Love. At a lot of weddings, here’s what you often hear about Love (from 1 Corinthians 13)

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

It’s hard to improve on that. As I was thinking about it, especially in the context of marriage, my marriage, our marriage, I thought about another way to look at Love. Love is patient and kind, for sure, but it’s also Alive. It has characteristics that make it clear that Love, real Love, is living. All those aspects of love in the verses I read make Love sound alove, but it’s easy to see why. First of all, it Grows. It’s almost trite to say, but it’s true, that on the day we got married, I couldn’t imagine my love being any bigger, deeper or stronger than it was that day. Yet it’s also clearly true that it has grown over time, like a living thing that grows from baby to child to adult; bigger, stronger, wiser. Love is also Alive because it reproduces. It makes new love relationships when children are born, and it causes other love relationships to form, as the people who are loved by the wife become loved by the husband, and vice versa. And, like a living thing, Love sustains and nurtures, helping people live through, or thrive in, circumstances that would be difficult or impossible without it.

Love. The Love we celebrate today has certainly done all those things for me, and for Sherry. It’s Alive.

What about Marriage? What do I want to say about that? For many of you in attendance, you know this stuff, whether you’d say it this way or not, because you’re in a good marriage. But I have an opportunity to talk to my children now, and, with any luck, they won’t interrupt me, since we’re not at the dinner table.

You’ve grown up in the environment of a good marriage, but the culture around you often trivializes marriage, makes it an after-thought, the somewhat natural progression of a romance, as if it just sort of happens. This is not the case. You’ve gotten tired of hearing us say that it requires work, so I won’t talk about that. Instead I’ll talk about ingredients that I hope you’ve seen in our marriage, and that you will be able to bring into yours, whenever they happen.

The first is Commitment and Constancy. Though they are often said in a kind of rote, mechanical, scripted way, the vows that are part of the marriage sacrament are all about commitment and constancy. Life is full of changes, highs, lows, happiness and worry. During the bad times, it’s important to know that the person you’re married to is committed to you. I know, without asking, that your mom is there to support me when I’m having a tough time. And I know that, no matter how tough a time I am having, I will be there for her when she needs me, whether we’re happy with each other or not. It’s a promise I made, a commitment, a covenant. Just as important, I am there for her, and she is there for me during the good times! People so often overlook this! I know that when I have good news, Sherry will be there to celebrate. And I know that my good news is not mine alone – I can’t hoard it selfishly – it belongs to her, too.

The second aspect of our marriage I hope you can have is Trust and Respect. This certainly includes trusting your mom to follow through on promises, and to not do things to harm me, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. I trust her to back me up, even when she doesn’t completely agree with me, and she can trust me to do the same for her. This is very big when you’re a parent. I doubt any married couple ever existed who both wanted to raise kids exactly the same way; your mom and I certainly have had different ideas from one another, but we respect each other. I trust, without any doubt at all, that the decisions she makes are with the best intentions. She respects my judgment, and I hers. We are truly partners, and we don’t ever have to worry about whether the other one respects us, because we constantly demonstrate it, and when we’re apart, we trust implicitly that the respect continues.

But of course, the final aspect I will mention is Love and Faith. I’ve already talked about it before, so let me just say this. I once heard that the greatest gift a father can give his children is to love their mother. Kids, if that’s true, it hasn’t been hard to give you that gift. I am confident that you’ve seen the love in both directions. And, obviously, being in our home all these years, you know that our Faith and our Love are inextricably linked.

Twenty-five years in this wonderful marriage, and the rest of our lives to come, it’s that constant commitment, trusting respect, and faithful love that sustain us.

And finally, I could not give this toast without talking about my wonderful wife, Sherry. After twenty-five years, it’s impossible to explain all the reasons I love her so much. Fortunately for all of you, I’ve built this toast around threes – three topics, three aspects of each – so I will talk about three things that make Sherry perfect for me.

First of all, she is different from me, but in ways that complement me. I am even-keeled; she is high and low. Without her, I could not have enjoyed life as fully as I have, because she has such high highs! And when she is in a Low Low, I know she can use my help finding her way back up. When I would just sit in an airport in Oahu for hours, waiting for our delayed plane to finally take off, she persuades me to go out and DO something, so we get to see Waikiki. Oh, and let’s never forget – she always wanted four kids, whereas I entered the marriage figuring on three. I suspect everyone here is glad she was able to “complement” me in that way! Hurray for Leah!

Secondly, though we are definitely different, Sherry is very much like me, in some ways. I can’t tell you how often we’ve marveled at how great it is that we both like Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Babylon 5, Lord of the Rings, and Ender’s Game. And I know from many friendships with many men that I am truly blessed to have a wife who likes to – gasp – watch me – wait for it! – play video games! Folks, these are the kinds of things you will not get with eHarmony.com. There has to be divine intervention involved!

And finally, Sherry is loving, and willing to be loved. She gives of herself, she reaches out to people who others would ignore, and she still has plenty of love to give to her family, and always to me. And she’s appreciative of the ways I show her my love; the words I say, the cards I send – though they might be less frequent than the every-Monday pattern I started while we were dating – the gifts I give, the calls I make. She loves me, she shows her love to me and to others, and she makes it easy to love her in return.

She’s different, in exactly the right way. She’s similar, in exactly the right way. And I love her, exactly as I was meant to.

That passage in 1 Corinthians ends like this:

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

And so, my friends, my family, loved ones all, thank you again for joining us in this celebration of love. Let’s lift our glasses and toast, to Sherry, to Marriage, and to the greatest of these – To Love!

Picture Perfect

Slightly over a week ago, Sherry and I were in the Iao Valley State Park.

Tomorrow, we host our anniversary party.

With solitude, and with crowds, we rejoice and give thanks for our 25 years together.

I wish you all a wonderful, picture perfect weekend.

Until Monday, stay safe, be well, find joy, live love.

Doing Your Business

Have things really gotten to this point?

Sherry was in a women's restroom today, at a restaurant. In the stall next to hers, a woman was clearly doing business while doing her business.

Talking on a cell phone -- with a business colleague -- while sitting on a toilet?

Come on, folks! Let's think about what the person on the other end of the phone thinks of you when they hear the flush!

For the love of numbers

If I'm ever going to address this topic, today is a good day to do it. It's 7-8-9 day.

I like numbers. Sure, lots of people like to notice when their car odometer reaches 20000. But do they look forward to 20002? Or 21012? Or 23581.3? I like noticing patterns in numbers.

Examples:

• There are two towns on the highway between Rochester and my hometown or Decorah, IA that have the same population total (Town A's population = Town B's population.) That's cool. And that population total is palindromic -- it reads the same forward as back. That's even cooler.
  
• My friend John and I used to go to lunch at 11:23:58. Why? Because of the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 (the sum of two adjacent numbers gives you the next number in the sequence.)
• I had a special (surprise) celebration for Sherry when I had known her for exactly as many days in my life as I had lived before I knew her.
• And, so, since I know that the European way of indicating dates is YEar/MOnth/DAy, and since that makes the most sense to me for purposes of sorting things, I'm aware that today is 07/08/09. Which is cool. Of course, since I live in the good ol' USofA, I can also think it's cool again in just under two years. (699 days hence, if you care.)
• My earliest recollection of loving numbers and patterns in them was when I was entering 7th grade and I figured out that the digits of any number which has digits which sum to a number divisible by nine is always divisible by nine. The digits of 54, add to 9, (5+4=9) so 54 is 9*(some integer, in this case 6). And, since the digits of 13545261 add to 27, and 27 is divisible by 9, I know without checking that 13545261 is also divisible by 9.

Sure, I'm no Rainman. And I usually don't bring up my fascination around mixed company. But among other numerophiles, I get a kick out of sharing trivia like this.

Part of what makes numbers cool for me is number theory, which is one of those great mathematics branches that seems to have no use other than in making up puzzles, but is in fact quite cool and useful. I remember enjoying it quite a bit back in college.

So, if you are a lover of numbers, read this link which has a cool number trick at the top of the article. If you want to understand how it works, I'm afraid you'll need some number theory.

Reminiscing with the kids, and moving on

I'm preparing for our anniversary party, and one of the things I'm preparing is a trivia game. The trivia are all related to our family in some way, so I decided to enlist the help of my children. This little assignment has led to some fun discussions as we reminisce about the past and try to recognize things that are part of our family history and our shared experiences. When the party is over, maybe I'll post a few.

It's been a really fun experience, and I hope it gives us all a chance to tell a few stories to the guests at the party. I love these kids, and I feel blessed that we have the kind of relationship that lets us all take the stroll down memory lane together.

I also look forward to the relationships we are still nurturing as the kids become full-fledged adults. As I discussed with them the other night, Sherry and I have had to gradually diminish the "teaching" aspect of parenting, so that the kids don't feel we're always lecturing, and so they can know we are ready for them to make their own decisions. However, we spent a lot of time being teachers and authority figures (years!) so sometimes we slip back into that mode. And at least as often, the kids think we're going to still do it all the time, so they are in defensive justification mode. It's natural. The transition doesn't happen all at once. It wasn't meant to. We all learn as we grow.

The conversations we have these days are getting more and more mature. And when I see things like I did today, with Lucas and his team showing me their project at work, it gets easier and easier to think of him (and by extension all of my children) as fully realized and developed adults. It's just the latest in the series of signposts on the journey to a more complete parent/child relationship.

Guest Book and other sidebar items

One of the benefits of reading other blogs is discovering cool things I can do in my own blog. The latest of these is the "Guest Book." I added the guest book to my blog yesterday, and I hope people will use it. I don't know of any way to monitor who has read my blog (though I think that's possible, based on some comments I've seen elsewhere) but honestly I wouldn't want to monitor that; it smacks too much of Big Brother.

Still, it would be cool to know who is reading and who isn't, so feel free to sign the guest book.

In a couple of days, the survey I started will be complete, and I will remove that from the sidebar. Most people probably didn't know, but you are able to choose more than one answer to the survey question. But it was primarily a test of a new feature, so don't worry if you answered with only one selection and wanted to do more. Again, I'm not tracking who answered, or what their answers were.

The Digital Music Age Begins

OK, that title is overstating it.

I've been listening to "digital" music (from CDs) for years. And over the past couple of years, I've been listening to music ripped from my CDs onto my computer(s) at least as often as listening to music on stereos. But, until today, I had not joined the throng of people who own an "MP3 Player." Today, I crossed over.

It was only a matter of time. I love music. I listen to music much more frequently than one would have expected, had one known me in my youth. The availability of music on my computer has been a joy.

Well, my parents gave me a gift certificate to Best Buy for my birthday. As I have mentioned before, this is a really excellent gift for me. I love Best Buy. I love "window shopping" there -- anticipating what I could get if I had the money. So, getting a gift certificate allows me to spend some delicious time savoring the possibilities before I purchase. And then it lets me get the thing I want.

This time, the gift certificate did not sit with me for long, however. When I looked at the Best Buy ad in this weekend's paper, there was a $99 MP3 player on sale, with a free docking station. It was a SanDisk, which I knew as a good brand (if you're not going to buy an iPod, you have many other "off-brand" options.)

So, at lunch today, I stopped and bought it. Thanks to my parents, it cost me just a few dollars more.

I think I'm going to really like it. I find that it has less room than I expected -- I think I save my music at a higher fidelity than the MP3 makers would recommend, so I can't fit as many songs as I hoped. And apparently the software takes nearly a half of the 2 GB -- strange ^[1]. But nevertheless, I will happily load it up with 100 songs and have funny little buds hanging from my ears as I listen to some of my favorite music from this slim solid-state technological marvel.

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^[1] Follow-up: I was able to attach the player (a SanDisk Sansa e250R, by the way) to my computer as if it were removable storage. When I did this, and poked around the folders, I found a large number of .rax files in the system/music/ directory. I didn't know what a .rax file was, so Google helped me find out that it's the proprietary format used by "Real Audio." I happen to use Real Player (not iTunes or Windows Media Player) to listen to and manage my music on my computers, so I understood how to try to play these files. I copied a few to my computer, but Real Player told me I didn't have the rights to the files. "Well," thought I, "if I don't have the rights, and they are essentially random, I will just delete them." So I did, and I got back almost 1 GB of space. Now, after a few fits and starts, I have the player loaded with about 300 songs.

Hawaii Was Great

10 nights, 11 days in Hawaii (or off the coast thereof, on a cruise ship).

That is one way to spend a fantastic, marvelous, spectacular vacation.

I can't possibly detail all the fun things we did, and all the great sights we saw. Perhaps, over time, I will talk about a few of them. Here's just one of the photos of truly beautiful scenery.

One thing I must say, is this: if you're going to spend eleven straight days with one person, and only one person, it's a good idea if that person is your best friend. I could not have had nearly as nice a time without Sherry. What a great way to celebrate our 25th anniversary year.

A Moment of Silence

I have returned from my Hawaiian vacation, and so my daily entries will begin again on Monday. Before they resume, however, I feel it's appropriate to observe a virtual moment of silence for all of those affected by the disastrous collapse of I-35W in Minneapolis on August 1.

We were in our hotel about to receive our "goodbye" leis when someone mentioned the bridge. Over the next few hours, we learned more. Fortunately, none of our family were involved, though my uncle had passed over that bridge a mere five minutes before the collapse.

While national news is probably covering the story pretty well, I've been impressed with the KSTP coverage since I got home. For anyone looking for a local angle (many local angles, really) I suggest you start there. They are doing a great job at providing the latest facts. For example: "The number of dead stands at five, and at least eight victims are believed trapped in the wreckage."

It's quite astonishing that there were so few fatalities, and that none have happened as part of the rescue efforts. In particular, the first couple of hours after the collapse, many "ordinary" people helped get people to safety, and many unpaid first-responders put themselves in dangerous situations to clear people from the debris and the unstable area.

So, let's all pause for a minute and let our thoughts and (if you're so inclined) prayers reach out to the people who are grieving, the people who are injured, and the people who helped and are still helping.


















Thank you.