Category Archives: Friends & Family

Today is my dear wife Arlene‘s birthday! Today, like every day, I’m reminded of how lucky the boys and I are to have her. Many happy returns (and let there be gluten-free cake!)

Wow, it’s been nearly two weeks since my last blog post, and longer than that if you count the time since I actually posted anything interesting. Consider this a catch-up post for all the stuff that’s happened since the beginning of April or thereabouts.

Family reunion: after the New York roadshow event, I flew down to Jackson and met up with the rest of the family; we drove down to Alexandria for a day and thence to Houma. We had a wonderful time seeing both halves of the family and eating some amazing food. (I still haven’t unloaded my pictures from my camera, but I’ll try to get that done in the next few days.) It was especially good to see some of the Houma relatives whom I’d never met (like Jody & Eric’s kids) or hadn’t seen in a long time (pretty much everyone else!) Disclaimer: I still haven’t unloaded my camera pictures or photocopied the 1″ stack of family history data that Aunt Debby gave me. Yes, I’m behind.

Exchange Connections: we left New Orleans on April Fool’s Day and headed to Orlando for Exchange Connections. Great show, although I didn’t see as much of it as usual. Arlene and the boys came with me, and we spent a fair amount of time at Disney. I’d stacked all my sessions on one day, so apart from a few breakfast and dinner meetings with people I didn’t get out and about as much as I usually do.

Disney World: wow. We’ll never go during spring break again, I hope. It was insanely crowded. David and I rode the new Expedition Everest ride, and someone was kind enough to hook us up with some Dream FastPass tickets at MGM so we could get in to some of the more crowded rides (like Lights, Motors, Action!) The “Finding Nemo” musical at Animal Kingdom was excellent, and we enjoyed the dining as well. A special treat: we stayed at the Renaissance Orlando near Sea World for two nights. It’s undergoing renovation, but the guest rooms had already been redone, and they were superb! (Arlene and the boys made a side trip to Sea World one day. Their verdict: not worth the money or bother.)

Tons of work: where to begin?! Recounting all the things I’ve been doing would be too much like actual work. I can say that the Data Encryption Toolkit is in the bag and will be launched very soon (good thing, given that even companies that should know better sometimes lose data). The Exchange roadshow is nearly done (tomorrow, it’s DC; yesterday it was Phoenix), and I have a few other things in work that are keeping me maxed out until about the end of June.

Everything else: of course, there’s ongoing family life too. Tom’s baseball season officially kicked off, Matt’s soccer season is in full swing (or full kick, or whatever), and karate continues apace.

This weekend, we had several firsts:

• Tom had his first baseball practice. The league he’s in now allows stealing, bunts, and some other subtleties that they don’t use in the 8-and-under league. He and his teammates have a fair amount to learn (as do I). The only mar on an otherwise perfect practice was the fact that it was 40° and blustery. Hopefully the weather will improve soon!
• David had his first young men’s campout. The Scouts went to the church granary, had an overnight campout, and did some service work around the granary and grounds. He came home happy but tired, because he stayed up all night (“most of the night”, in his words) talking to his pals.
• David gave his first talk in church, on honesty. He’d prepared a talk, but (true to his genetics) he started extemporizing about halfway through. He did a great job, and I know he was relieved to have it out of the way.
• Arlene made her first trip out of the house since her foot surgery– first to Meijer with Mom, then to church. She was getting a little stir crazy, so both excursions were welcome.

What a busy day! Here’s a partial list of the things we did:

• Cleaned most of the house. This is a big deal since we stopped using a housekeeper, but the boys did a good job of their assigned task with (miracle of miracles!) zero complaining.
• Went to karate class. This is a big production, because it requires getting all 3 of them into their uniforms, but it’s fun to go with them. Last time David was my partner; this time, it was Thomas.
• Went to Radio Shack (iPod cables for the gym TV) and the bank.
• Installed Arlene’s Valentine’s Day present. Yes, that’s right. I bought my wife a toilet for Valentine’s Day. Not every husband can pull that off, let me tell you right now.
• Helped Dad remotely troubleshoot his balky printer. We didn’t figure out exactly what was wrong with it, but at some point it decided to start working on its own (probably from sheer terror at the thought of more troubleshooting!)
• Unpacked and tested the copy of Dance Dance Revolution Universe for the Xbox 360 that I bought Thursday. This game might as well be titled “Hey, Paul, Your Dancing Sucks,” but we had a good time playing it with the kids.
• Watched Facing the Giants. Wow. Amazing movie; I’ll write a more detailed review soon. We had a great family discussion afterwords; the movie touched on a lot of important spiritual principles.

I was pretty tired after all that fun; let’s just say I welcomed a quiet Sunday as an antidote!

I’m not sure which surprised me more: a new blog post from John, or that he didn’t know about the Outlook date control’s mad interpretative skillz.

Big day today.

First, we got about 6″ of snow last night. No big deal, except that the steady wind drifted it to 12-15″ in spots… like all along our front sidewalk and 2/3 of our driveway. David, Thomas, and I went over to Mom’s to clear her driveway, which went fine until the ancientvenerable snowblower conked out. I then used our small blower to clear our driveway and sidewalks; that only took about an hour.

Second, today is my dear sister’s birthday! Happy birthday, Julie! Enjoy your Wii!

Third, Arlene and I have a saying: “every day is Valentine’s Day”. While it helps to think of it that way, given that today really is Valentine’s Day, I just want her to know how much I love and treasure her. Thanks, darling, for 15 great years… and counting!

The latest craze sweeping the series of tubes is “5 Things”, a sort of chain letter in which victims participants are supposed to list 5 things that others may not know about them, then pass the baton on to some other people. Thanks to Charles Robinson, I got tagged. Without further ado, five things you probably didn’t know about me:

1. My first “real” job was at L & N Photo, working for a man named Harry Green. I was 10, and earned the princely sum of $1/hr for doing odd jobs. I usually spent the money on superballs from the Winn Dixie next door, since I couldn’t actually afford any of the equipment there. Thus began my lifelong interest in photography, sadly unmatched by any actual talent.
2. My 10th grade English teacher once wrote on my report card that if I would only get over my fascination with technology I might someday make a good writer. Perhaps he was right 🙂
3. As a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, I once had to give an impromptu brief to General Al Gray, who was then Commandant of the Marine Corps. Fortunately my nervousness didn’t show, the brief went well, and I got a meritorious promotion to corporal out of the deal.
4. I’ve never been snow skiing, snowboarding, or anything related. In fact, the first time I saw snow (that I can remember) was at age 15 at the YMCA of the Rockies with Aunt Betty.
5. I love fixing mechanical things like engines. In high school, my dad and I rebuilt a VW Super Beetle, a ’73 Chevy pickup, a ’57 Chevy Bel Air coupe, a ’64 Corvette, and a Cessna 210 (OK, we didn’t rebuild it, but we worked on it a lot.) My favorite part of being in the Marines was learning to fix helicopters, and I’m eagerly looking forward to helping my sons learn some of the same skills.

Now, the fun part: I get to pick the next set of victims. I nominate Tim (whose new blog I can’t find), Jim, Devin, Arlene, John (but first he’ll have to fix his blog), and Jonathan.

This may be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen: an old-school classroom instructional video on how to properly talk like a pirate.

Yes, it’s true: 15 years ago today, Arlene and I were in Atlanta getting ready to get married. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed! Since then we’ve moved from Atlanta to Huntsville to Perrysburg, had three sons, gone to a lot of fascinating places together, and– most importantly– grown in our love for one another.
So, a big shout out on the off chance she’s reading this: I am so very thankful to have you for my wife. Every day I thank God for sending you to me, and I look forward to many more years together. I love you, and I always will. (And I promise never to introduce you as my first wife, like John does.)

Attention Arlene: Stampin’ Up had its annual convention this past week in Salt Lake City. This writeup from the Salt Lake Tribune blames energy and travel costs for lower attendance. Personally, I didn’t attend because I don’t own any stamps, but that’s just me. (See also this article from the Deseret News.)