Dogs rule the barbeque

So yesterday we enjoyed our second barbecue of the summer at the Longs'. This barbeque's theme was Mexican, but with two entertaining dogs it quickly can become the dog show.

These pictures show Chester, the pug and Bella, the Havanese.

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Phase one Complete

After a month of stripping, sanding and painting, the bottom half of our Hoosier cabinet is finished. Looks pretty good, huh?

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Blue Jean Divas

Jim and Cathy left last night and just before they left I noticed that Sarah and Cathy were dressed similarly. Like they say, the apple does not fall far from the tree, but that is a good thing too.

We'll miss y'all and look forward to seeing you in July for the race.

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Friendly @ Friendly's

Sunday night after Crossroads we grabbed a bit to eat at our local Friendly's with the Milo's. The ice cream sundae was tempting but I needed the roughage and opted for the kickin buffalo salad. Jim and Pedro had the barbecue/cheese sammi.

Overall, a good time was had by all.

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Dinner last night was a feast

Sarah and Cathy went to Trader Joes yesterday and came back with some beautiful shrimp and asparagus, as you can see. This was Sarah's second time to make this dish and it was wonderful. I am so blessed to have a talented chef, amongst other talents, as my wife. Yummo!

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Rolling thunder on a beautiful day

After leaving the airport, we stopped for gas and happened upon this group of two wheelers. It is a beautiful day here in Maryland and I am glad to see that someone is able to enjoy it on two wheels.

Keep the rubber side down...

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Jim and Cathy have arrived

After my creative photo session, Jim and Cathy arrived after a 15 minute delay at their gate.
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Waiting

Here are some random pictures while we were waiting for the arrival of Jim and Cathy today.
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She's Drinking Merlot!

That will be four dollars please.

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Is this mobile blogging?

While I admit that I am new to the world of blogging and even newer to the world of mobile blogging, I couldn't help grabbing an image of Sarah working on her laptop to load images from the camera and type out a blog post. While this has been a standard for mobile workers for years, is it still 'mobile'?

Given the powerful mobile phones and PDAs we have today, how many of us still think our laptops are mobile? I still think twice before bringing my laptop on a trip because it is bulky and the power cable/block are bulky too. The only time I bring them are when I will be gone during normal business days that might require that I use them. I wish my company would be open to the idea of letting us use a vpn connection on our mobile devices. Then I could forgo the laptop on trips and just carry my smartphone and small travel charger.

So let me come full circle and ask, is blogging from a laptop mobile blogging?

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Everything is bigger in Texas

This picture does not do this article's title justice, but my phone was all I had at the time I saw this big snake.

There we were, minding our own business, when out of nowhere a big (at least four foot) snake appeared in the street in front of my sister's house this weekend. I didn't dare go any closer to take the picture because that snake was very quick and seemed to be moving towards me as I got closer to get a better look at it.

My brother in law called his HOA and the City office of code enforcement to see if they could do anthing about it, but they both pointed the finger at each other. The snake probably came from the tall grass next to their house and it turns out that the land is owned by the land developer. It is the responsibility of the land owner and not the HOA or city code enforment to maintain the land and therby not create a haven for snakes. Welcome to home ownership y'all.

Don't let this little story scare you off from visiting the great state of Texas, but just be forwarned. Now you know why cowboys liked to wear tall leather boots in places like Texas.

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No nobody is beyond the reach of the TSA

This is the second time I have witnessed my grandmother being hand checked/frisked by TSA. I know they are just doing their jobs and I don't blame them for doing it, but it still cracks me up. I hope you can get a laugh out of these pictures too. (note: airline security is a serious matter and I don't want to give the impression that it is not important)
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Dinner out

Everyone arrived safely Friday and we all enjoyed dinner out at PF Changs in downtown Fort Worth. Good food and family; you can't go wrong.

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Texas, we have arrived

God bless Texas!

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Sleeping beauty

We just landed in St. Louis to drop off and pick up passengers. The adventure continues...
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The mother's day adventure begins

Here we are waiting for everyone to board and watching our bags get wet outside.
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Testing mobile blogging

So this is a post I am making from my BlackBerry Pearl, via email. The pictures are from dinner last Thursday when we were out with our small group at Famous Dave's. Just an expriment that might enable me to make more frequent postings.
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Blackberry

So I have changed mobile devices yet again, shocker, I know. There actually is a good reason behind this devices change. I have been on quest for the "right" mobile devices for my lifestyle. It needs to not only be a phone with internet access, but it needs to allow me to use my gmail email account and wirelessly keep my google calendar in sync. Most of the devices I have tried have successfully performed the first three requirements, but the wireless calendar sync has been a little more difficult than I thought.

A few weeks ago a found the mobile sync application that google has made available to its users. It is a free app that can be found at http://mobile.google.com. As of right now it only syncs wirelessly with blackberry devices. The application from google keeps your google calendar in sync with your blackberry device calendar. Now while I have tried goosync on my nokia 9300, it did not sync correctly all the time. So I tried google's mobile sync on an older blackberry that I had around. It worked and it worked flawlessly! It seems to automatically sync things as they change on either calendar. This is important to me because my wife and I tend to be busy people and have started using a google calendar that we share with each other to keep up with events. Sarah still uses a wall calendar to keep up with her schedule, but I am on the go so much and have an affinity for mobile technology that using my phone's calendar makes the most sense for me.

Having said all that, I have made the move to a blackberry for my personal device. I am using the original blackberry pearl 8100 on the AT&T network and I am enjoying it so far. I would never have thought I would become a blackberry user, but it is fitting my needs so far. I like the form factor and the fact that it has a camera is nice too. I am so committed to giving it a serious yet that I have ordered a case for it, the original lambskin case that will automatically lock the device when holstered.

So far I am running the gmail app and google sync on the device and hope to get a bible on it soon. I think my Laridian license will allow me to move my bibles I purchased for my windows mobile device a few years ago.

More impressions from a relatively new blackberry user to follow ...

Back on my Nokia 9300

I am back on the Nokia 9300 again and have been using it for the past week. I still like the form factor and have gotten over the lack of vibrate notification.

I am finally using a Goosync account to sync my local device calendar with my Google calendar. Sometimes it works, other times it syncs an hour off. Still not sure why. (If you know how to fix that, please leave a comment to this post)

While I use the gmail java client for my main gmail account, I have a secondary account set-up on the communicator's native email client as a pop account. I use it to send/receive file to/from my device. Today I used the device to take notes during the sermon at church. I then emailed the finished document to my main email account for "storage". While I could not view the document in html format from a pc, but it did import properly into Google Docs.

I have to admit that taking notes on a keyboard during a discussion or a presentation, is not natural for me or the others around me, but it is just an experiment for now.

Here is the list of apps loaded on my 9300:

*Gmail client
*EBook reader (no books installed yet)
*S80 bible reader with NIV.pdb
*Widsets

More to follow as I continue to use it.

Treasure the life you have been given

Friends, it is with a heavy heart that I report that my friend Marc Orchant has passed on. Marc passed earlier this week and was laid to rest yesterday. He was surrounded by friends and family to the end. If you feel lead to make a donation to Marc´s family, Oliver Star has created a paypal donation link for that. Matt Miller has also set up an Amazon Affiliate account and everything made in that account will be donated to the Orchantś. So if you are doing any shopping on Amazon, please use affiliate code zdnmobgad20.

I felt like I needed to share that to get some closure on my previous post, but to also take this opportunity to highlight the importance of treasuring the life God has given us. I believe that Marc did that, at least in the short and narrow part of his life that I was able to be a part of through his blogs and podcasts. I have been reading blog posts and comments about Marc this week and I have learned that Marc loved his friends and his family and people knew it. I know that may sound weird to say, but it is important to let those we know and care about that we do indeed love and care about them. Some people call it learning someoneś´love language´, but I think it can be something as simple as showing some kindness and even saying ¨I love you¨. My dad makes a habit of saying ¨I love you¨ at the end of our phone conversations and I appreciate it. My dad did not get the chance to say goodbye to his mother before she passed and I wonder if that plays a part in it because he started saying I love you more after her passing. I have tried to practice the same thing in my conversations also. Some people might think that ´cheapens´ the phrase by saying it so often, but I disagree. I believe that by saying it and we clearly make our feelings known, because if we don´t the other person may not know it. Life it too short for that nonsense.

So make sure that you tell those that you love, ´I love you´ more often and you might be surprised how much better life can be for you both.