Another reason to love ca. 81 deg on thanksgiving weekend.

Giving thanks...

It's an unusual Thanksgiving at our house.  Usually we watch the parade and spend the day with friends.  Well, for some reason, we couldn't find the parade anywhere online this morning.  And we don't get any "channels", so we couldn't watch it on TV either. This really bummed Michelle out.
Then about 10am, Daughter started throwing up. :-(  She's been sleeping or hugging the toilet for the last few hours and we're not sure if she's getting better or worse.  Michelle and the boys headed over to our friends' house for lunch, but Tiny and I are staying home and resting.  Not a typical Thanksgiving.
So, today as I sit around a quiet house by myself I have the opportunity to think about some of the things that I'm most thankful for:

• my health, and that of my family
• a family that loves me despite my foibles
• An incredible group of friends that magnify the impact of my life and make each day a pleasure
• a job I love in a place I've wanted to live since I was a child
• a faith community that gives meaning to the routines of existence
• a political system that, though imperfect, by in large respects the dignity of life and values of equality.
• the beauty of music, a well-told story, and the earth

How about you?  What are you thankful for this year?

Anybody seen Quantum of Solace?

If so…how does it end? Some buddies and I went to see it tonight in
Malibu. But the projector broke just as Bond and that unnamed girl were
hiding in the dessert waiting to make their move on the old General/new
President.

I guess he gets the bad guy and the girl, but I want to know how! :-(

I didn't like this one as much as Casino Royale, but it was good.  In the next one there needs to be a bit more dialogue.  This one was about a million scenes of Daniel Craig with a tough-guy look and then kicking somebody's butt.  I grew a bit weary of the action without meaningful dialogue.  I know...it's a Bond film, what did I expect?

It's raining again!

It’s finally raining in LA! It seems like it’s been a year, but it’s
only been about six months since we’ve had any measurable rainfall. It
has such a soothing effect on my spirit!

Using micro-blogging as KMS...

A recent article at the NYT describes the increasing utilization of mirco-blogging sites like SocialCast, FriendFeed, Tumblr, and Twitter as KMS systems for the enterprise.  Is this the future of KM?  I'm currently experimenting with each of these plus Yammer.

Busyness and Laziness...

Last week I read "The 4-Hr Work Week" by Robert Ferris.  It's an interesting book.  While some of it is hokey, much of it is self-aggrandizement, and a little of it is actually helpful.  Here are two things I took from it:

1. "Being busy is a form of laziness...lazy thinking and indiscriminate action."  Ouch, that one hurt because it is so true in my own experiences. 
   
2. Every knowledge worker in America can (and should?) have a VA (Virtual Assistant).  Ferris indicates that for $5-$20/hr you can find "YMII" (Your Man In India) to outsource a variety of tasks to.  From simple e-shopping for Christmas, to more complex research and collaboration, you could likely save yourself lots of time and be sure to get the basic stuff done that is over your head.  Check out www.elance.com for a variety of alternatives for YMII.

Now that you've seen that, you don't need to have your VA order the book for you and you can keep from being too busy (or lazy...whatever).

Thanks for a great morning...

There's a big fire in the Valley, so we're staying in the house all day to breathe cleaner air.  It's been nice to have some quiet time at home.  I spent the last two hours catching up on all my friend's blogs!  I've seen more photos, read more stories, and seen more recipes than I have in months.  I feel like I've spent the morning with friends even though I've barely spoken to anyone (except the occasional "Daddy, can you fix this?" plea).

So, thanks for a great day.  Look out...I left lots of comments everywhere! :-)

Waking up to the smell of smoke...

View Larger Map

At about 4:30am on Saturday I awoke to the strong smell of smoke. The winds are blowing really hard this weekend, so we're all on edge anyway. I immediately went to the LATimes.com site and found this story and the map above. As you can see, we're not really in any danger right now, but the smoke and smell is awful. I suspect soccer and other events will be cancelled today and we'll spend the day in the house reading and playing games.

Happy Birthday, Tater Tot

We had a wonderful time celebrating Tater's Sixth Birthday this week.  Chuck E Cheese's and home for presents.  His "friend party" is next week.

The Marching 100

I spent the weekend in Indiana for the Christian Business Faculty Association meeting and to see some old friends. The conference was good and time in Bloomington with CBC & BCW was even better. On Saturday we went to the IU/Wisconsin game. The first half was close, but it was COLD! The second half we didn't really watch, but chose to go visit some friends in the (warm) luxury box.
The game highlight was definitely the Marching 100.  Final score...55-20.

Tiny's Donut Show

Yesterday we made the delicious 500-calorie Apple Strudel.  Before doing so, we watched several YouTube videos about how to prepare Apple Strudel.  Madison loved the shows, and as soon as we had a few minutes she asked if I would help her with something.  So, here is the beginning of the next "Rachel Ray"...

Tater's Theme

We had just seen Rocky 2 a few days earlier when I spied Tater performing this original composition on the stairwell...

Apple Strudel - DELICIOUS!

We had a big "Root Beer & Apple Strudel Festival" today at church as a fundraiser for the youth group's trip to San Felipe.  Well, after 48-straight hours of Halloween parties, birthday parties, and sleepovers, Kids #1 & 2 were too pooped to go.  But I had already bought all the stuff to make the strudel (the recipe is here).  I did make one change though... I soaked the raisins in Bourbon and microwaved the bourbon & Raisins for about a minute to soak up all the juice.

Holy-moly!  It's so good.  The only problem?  As you can see from the recipe...500 calories a slice!