Photo of the day, Saturday, 10/11/08

We had an awesome time up at our shooting day. It was great weather, great food and the boys were in pretty good spirits. Of course, not without some disconcert, they are teens after all.


Friday night was awesome. We got there in time to set up our tents in the daylight, and yet by the time we finished dinner it was full dark We could see Venus rising and since we were so far north, we could see tons of other stars. One of the guys brought out a telescope and we all had a chance to look at the moon. It was so bright that it almost hurt my eye.


The night was one of those really quickly cooling deals that led to a very heavy dew at full dark. You know, the kind where you wonder if it's raining. One of the other boys was so distracted with the events of the day that he lost his coat. He was pretty chilly and I don't think he warmed up until mid afternoon the next day.


Here's my youngest shooter, Spencer. He did a great job he boldly went to the rifle range, not once, but twice. As you can see, he's got a good eye for shooting.





Have a great day!


Pat

Archive PotD, Wednesday, 7/10/2002

The boys and I are heading up north for a boy scout overnight and shooting day. So I am posting an Archive again. Let me know if you get too tired of them, for now, I am intrigued with them. This one was from July 10th, 2002. I was still working for Delco Remy at that time and one of the factories was in a prison. Mom was really kind of freaked out by the fact that I was working in a prison, even though I was a "non-resident" team member. Anyway, enjoy this and if you are interested in Boy Scout Popcorn, please let us know.

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Wednesday, 7/10/2002

Another uneventful day in the prison. I did manage to leave for lunch today, which was a good thing. This place gives institutional food a bad name. We are making progress, though it is really slow. Oh well, dinner was pretty good. We went to a Pizza shop called Uno’s. It’s a Chicago style pizzeria and it was pretty good.

As hot as it’s been I thought that this looked pretty good. This was from one of our last good snow storms of the winter.

Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Thursday, 10/9/08

This has been a crazy busy week and it's been hard to get here to post my blog.
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Last night our CFO was invited to a dinner function by one of our bankers. It was for two seats and a speech by the CEO of Haworth. She asked the boss who should go with her. Since the function was at one of our larger customer's new headquarters in Holland Michigan it was recommended that I go to "network". As an engineer, I hate "networking", everyone is making nice talk, all the while scanning the crowd for a "better" network opportunity. I endure it as a course of business when the events are ones that I must attend, but this was one that I thought I should duck. Oh well, I went.
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As we wandered around, all the while people are scanning our name tags, trying to see if we were worthy of speaking to, I actually, and quite literally, bumped into the President and CEO of Haworth. I quickly apologized and introduced myself and my company. He was blank on my name, but the company name, he knew well, we were bailing them out of a bad situation. The good Lord only knows how, but a bad situation turned out pretty positive.
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One of the advantages of this new posting system is that I think I can post more photos without causing anyone trouble. Let me know if you have issues, because I am loading up 2 shots tonight. And they are both Christmas shots that came from Aunt Betty.
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First up is The Gang of Four, Jack, Dave, me and Maureen. This shot I would say is Christmas in the late 60's. But I can't get much closer. We're at Dad and Pat's house, note that 2 of the stockings say Pat. How they got Jack to hold that reindeer I'll never know. And how the heck did they get us in those suits? And me in a red one, Good Grief. As for Maureen, I am pretty sure that she was the only one that was allowed to retain her dignity. Look at Dave, he's obviously going to be running to student body president.


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Now, this next one is it the same year or the next one? Same house, but, is it a different day though? Note that we are now joined by cousin John Sipley, Aunt Betty's son. It is the same day, but we were allowed to drop our ties and jackets after the previous shot. Jack, being really cool and hip, left his sweater vest on. I am certain that he still wears them, they're just camouflaged now. David is still holding that "interested to hear your opinion"look. John S., well let's see, I'd say he was relieved that he wasn't in the Christmas program this year. I notice that I have my smirk on, it still serves me well. Where's Maureen you ask? I have to think that she's where she usually was, on the short side of the table with the Aunt Betty.




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I am certain that I have missed the boat, so, if you have input, post a comment. If you get this by email, please click on the header and go to the website to post publicly. I can take the lumps in public, really I can. Once you are at the site, please go to the bottom of the post and click on "Post a comment" and there you have it. Please be polite, I don't want to moderate because some can't type cleanly.
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Have a great day,
Pat

Archive PotD, Wednesday, 1/29/03

Today is going to be a blast from the past but first:



Click on Holly's blog to see the project that Spencer and Holly have been working on. Holly's blog


From January 29th, 2003:

Another hard day at the office! I spent quite a bit of time in meetings. I hate it when days go like that. Looking ahead though, I am clear now of meetings until next week, for now that is! With the bosses out of town, it should hold and maybe I can get some things done!

Here’s a shot of the family that we took tonight for a project for Spencer. He is making a poster of him and his likes and his family. We like to be current and we don’t have that many of all four of us, so I set up the timer and here’s the result, not bad for the pain that was involved!

Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Monday, October 6, 2008

This weekend we are heading up north for another Boy Scout Campout. This time it's even better, there is a shooting aspect to the event. Every year the troop goes to a farm up north and the boys are allowed to shoot the firearms that the adults bring. It's a good way to get the boys familar with fire arms in a very controlled method, and to have some fun too.



Anyway, any of you that knows Spencer also know that he is not a fan of loud noises. But he and his brother are tied in their quest to reach first class rank. The only thing holding them back is attending 2 scouting events, like campouts. Since Spencer knew his brother would be going it's only natural that he'd be wanting to keep up with Ian. In fact, Spencer asked the Scoutmaster if they could get the Scoutmaster review over with in advance, knowing that the events were soon to be done. I was really proud of Spencer for pushing himself, I guess this scouting stuff really is good for the boys. ( Actually, I knew that it is good for them)



In preparation for the shooting day we had a Major from the Michigan State University ROTC come in and give the boys a gun safety class. If the boys wanted to go to the shooting event, they had to attend the training session tonight. My philosophy has always been that everyone needs to be exposed to guns in a safe, training type environment that is led by an actual gun user, because guns are out there, and I'd rather we were all careful with them.




Here is another shameless attempt to sell popcorn. Those that have already purchased, thank you.


Have a great day!
Pat

Photo of the day, Sunday, 10/05/08

Happy Sunday! Today was a really cool day for a number of reasons;

1. On the drive to church we were at a high spot, it's actually at one of my favorite spots where we can see for miles to the south and as we crested the hill, in the sun, and could see a cloud ahead of us. I told Spencer to wait, when we got to the Grand River, we'd be in that cloud. Sure enough, Dad was right and as we were crossing the Grand River, we were in the cloud, but it seemed like fog to us then and we couldn't even see the river right below us.


2. The quietest boy in my Sunday school class spoke up in class and actually raised his hand when I was taking prayer requests. When I called on him he wouldn't speak at first and so I tried to guess, with grandparents, parents, brothers... Nothing. Finally he said he wanted us to pray for his Aunt's new nose ring. I was cool with that, last year he never said a word in class and only spoke to me when we were alone. I had to tell his mother the great news. His mom is the Pastor's wife, so I also wanted to see her reaction to the prayer request. She took it well and explained that her sister was much younger than her and she could use the prayer since the parents weren't too happy about the nose ring thing.


3. It was a cold crisp morning and Holly loaded up the infamous blue roaster with a pork loin and we came home from church to an awesome meal. The infamous part is that that roaster has never let us down with a meal. It just does a phenomenal job for us, no matter what we are cooking and no matter what spices we use. The only drawback is that a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, it all tastes kind of the same when it's done if you know what I mean.


4. Holly's out mowing the lawn this afternoon and as I hear the mower go, I am reminded that this is the first year since I left college that I haven't' mown at least once. What a bum.

What we have here is the "Fruit of the gardener's Labor". These were the first of the green beans that came out of Holly's and Spencer's garden. To bad about that heavy frost that has now wiped it all out.

Have a great day!

Pat