Could it be? It is! 4 in a row

Sure is easier to come up with a title lately, but I'm sure it's not too interesting. Maybe you guys could help me with the titles?

Anyway, another shot from our Supplier Day, "Collaborate or Get Crushed" was the theme. Warm and inviting slogan isn't it?!? Anyway, here I am leaning up against the monster truck, FullBoar. Pretty cool. If you haven't see the video from before, you should check it out. I'm not a monster truck kind of guy, but it was awesome.


Tonight Holly and I went to the West Michigan White Caps Baseball game. Couple of interesting stories:

Never actually sat in our seats. We located where you could order a 5th/3rd burger, it's 5 quarter pounder burgers on a bun with chili, nachos and other stuff. Not bad, but the challenge is to eat it all yourself. We didn't try, 4 of us split it. Two table over in this dining area a gentleman took the challenge and won. It wasn't a comfortable looking win, but he won. The next table a kid took the challenge and lost in the most colorful way imaginable, nuff said.

On the way out a guy walks up to us and asks where the nearest "Gentleman's Club" was. That was a weird conversation, we Googled one on my Blackberry, gave them directions and sent them on their way.

Driving out of the parking lot were these guys with the illuminated flashlights. Our guides and problem solvers? Anyway. As we're slowly rolling by one of these guys I point to him and say; "Thanks for coming out tonight!" He was so blown away that he snorted, then he recovered and said the same thing back to us. Holly and I thought it was hilarious and chuckled for about a mile.

Here's a shot of Holly and the field behind her. Our seats were actually on the side of the field in the photo, but you couldn't get the big burger on our side, so we wandered over and sat in a party area that was unoccupied for the night. Fair seats and easier for a conversation.


Have a great Memorial Weekend!
Pat

Hah! 3rd day, I knew I could do it!

OK, now that I've done it, what to say?

Work today was pretty good. We had a recap of our supplier day. If you follow this link to Youtube you can watch the Monster Truck video that was taken in back of the manufacturing plant. It was awesome! Watch the volume for the first minute, it's pretty loud.

Here's a shot from our trip to Haiti in April. Ian's in the back of the truck and from the looks of him, we're on our way back to the compound after a hard day. Totally cool trip.


The momentum continues! See you tomorrow!

Have a great day!
Pat

On a 2 day roll!

Thanks to Cindy, Dave and Larry for the encouragement. It meant a lot.

Interesting day here today. We had our annual supplier day at the company. The theme this year was collaborate or get crushed. I gave a short presentation on some projects that I was involved with and then bailed out to get some work done. I came back at 3:30 for the main event. We hired Ed Ekert, owner operator of Fullboar, a Monster Truck, to come out and show us how a truck worked. He put on a pretty short show, but it was very cool making some jumps over a small pile of dirt and ending with him doing a donut that tore the lawn up something terrible. Here's a stock photo of the truck and Ed, not sure who the kid is, but I liked the haircut so there you go. Someone took a photo of me standing next to the truck, so if that turns out I'll share that one too.



Here's a shot of a dog playing with Ian. We're doggie sitting for a few months for Mallory, the lady that runs the place that we went to in Haiti. She appears to be about 4 or 5 months old, fairly well behaved and Ian's digging it. Spencer isn't quite as keen, but I think he'll warm up to her.


That's the news that's fit print,
Have a great day!
Pat

Long time, no chat

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I last posted something? Brother David, you have encouraged me to try again.

Well, let's see. Did you know that I went to Haiti on a mission trip? I guess I'll try to tell a few stories from that and see if I can get some momentum going again.

Trip done was pretty uneventful, we flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago to Miami to Port Au Prince. It was once we got to Port Au Prince that things got interesting. They have Porters that work inside the customs area and want to "help" you with your luggage for a small fee. With 9 of us we felt that we would be better off taking care of it ourselves. I stood next to the conveyor and caught the luggage as it went by. We each brought two carry on bags and two 50 pound bags with food, clothes and other stuff. So we rented those luggage carts and stacked it up. The heat was really extreme and the porters were really pushy, but we just muscled our way out, located our hostess, Mallory Thurlow, founder of Haiti Foundation Against Poverty. She had help with her and we were hustled out to the trucks. All the luggage went into one truck and all of us, into the other. It was almost a fight with the porter over if we needed to pay, but we held our ground and didn't, tense, but OK. Most of us had to sit in the back of the truck. What a wonderful way to see the city of Port Au Prince. Out in the sun and the air, seeing the sights, smelling the smells, hearing the sounds. Ah, international travel to a third world country, wonderful.

Truck load in front of Hope House.


Have a great day,
Pat