I’m just back from the sixth Stupid Guy Trip, an annualish gathering of my brother, me, and a few of our oldest and dearest. This year Chris McMains, Daniel Priest, Mike Brack, Ben Mengden, Ross Richie, Jason Young, and Jonathan Hunter made up the roster. More than ever this year, it was an experience I [...]
Just back from the IT Staff Appreciation Breakfast. A few notable awards: Kathy won a scholarship again this year. Huzzah! Congratulations, my dear! My boss, Mike Farris, won an Excellent Leadership Award, which he richly deserved. Two of the project teams I serve on, TRACS and Gato, won Collaborative Team Excellence Awards. Great job, you [...]
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Posted 21 May 2008
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Work
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On Friday night, Emily disappeared into her room for about 3 hours, only emerging briefly and intermittently, looking increasingly like a chimney-sweep at the end of a hard day each time I saw her. My curiosity was, of course, piqued, but she refused to let me see what she was up to until she finished [...]
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Posted 27 April 2008
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Art
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This year we decided to do Sandfest properly. I went prowling for places to stay a couple months ago, and somehow managed to secure a wonderful house right on the beach, an easy stroll from Sandfest itself. The big, open house with lots of places to sleep worked out great for our mob, which numbered [...]
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Posted 24 April 2008
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Travel
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Sunday, April 20, 2008 This past weekend, the family was down in Port Aransas for Sandfest. As we were leaving town, we decided to stop by Bo Jon’s Surf & Gifts, a big gift shop near one of the central intersections with an entrance made up to look like a shark’s mouth, about 2:00pm. While [...]
Some original jokes to recently come* out of the humor mines where we mercilessly work our children night and day: From Liam: Q: Where do you get cold, hard cash? A: At Frost Bank! (Note: this may be only regionally funny; I’m not sure how far away the aforementioned financial institution has branches.) From Maggie: Q: [...]
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Posted 13 April 2008
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A few goings-on of late that bear mentioning: Liam has started playing Little League baseball. It’s a load of fun, and significantly more action-packed than Major League, since stealing bases is allowed and the boys aren’t so hot at catching the ball. During the last game, which due to time limits was only 4 innings [...]
Last week, Liam brought home a small book that he had created in school. I thought it was great, so am posting its entire text verbatim here. Enjoy! Playdate with my dad pg 1 “OOOOOOH” this is going to be fun I said gleefuly on an early summer morning. I am going on a very [...]
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Posted 09 March 2008
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Books
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For her friend Michael’s birthday, Emily made these casts of her hand spelling out “LOVE”, mounted them on a board, and gave them individual paint jobs. It has now assumed a place of honor in his room next to the audio-animatronic Gene Simmons action figure. Spectacular work, Em!
Happy New Year All! Socrates tells us that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” In this era of YouTube exhibitionism, one could extend his maxim to be “the life unexamined by other people is not worth banner ads.” So, in the spirit of the age, welcome to our annual unsolicited “What the Clan McMains [...]
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Posted 04 January 2008
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Travel
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