Burning The Stripes

When the weather heats up, so does my desire to be outside and work in the yard. I've developed a slight obsession with turf maintenance. Burning designs into my backyard makes the task of mowing a lot more fun. Last year was the first year of experimenting. Today marked the first step towards achieving the same result this year. Maybe I'll burn in a star for the 4th of July?


As a bonus, I thought I would share a photo of Jade playing in the color book application I have for my Treo. She has figured out how to change colors and get a new "page" already....crazy.

Another Nice Day

While Roanoke doesn't have all of life's cool and exciting activities to offer those that grace its streets, it does offer visitors a nice peaceful place to simply exist. Jade loves walking to town and is starting to act like she owns the place.

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Sent from my Treo smartphone

Soccer and Spaghetti

I rushed home today so Jadyn and I could play outside. Today I was going to teach Jade the basics of soccer. I'll post some video later. After soccer practice, my beautiful wife made a pasta dinner for us all and we ate it outside on our new patio furniture. A nice end to a day tht already had me having lunch with the President of our parent company, Brown & Brown. I love warm weather!!!

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Sent from my Treo smartphone

Here Comes The Sun...

...too bad it came as it was setting....

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Sent from my Treo smartphone

Downtown On A Sunday

Check out all the traffic!!!

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Sent from my Treo smartphone

First Car Wash

Today was the first outdoor car wash at our house. Since I live so close to work, I don't really have time to unplug from work like most do. When the weather is nice, I'm able to unplug while working outside. The past few months have not granted me that pleasure. Thank God for warm weather!

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Sent from my Treo(r) smartphone

What A Week

The weather has sucked the last few days.  Three inches of melted snow along with 2 days of rain causes some serious issues.  As I drove into work on Wednesday, I ran to the local coffee hut to grab a quick drink and noticed that one of the roads was barricaded off.  I didn't even notice why as I tried to navigate a different route (not hard in a small town, but hey, it was early).  As I finally made way to my parking space, I noticed water rushing through the once quiet "stream" next to the lot.  I instantly pulled up the weather on my phone and realized it was going to be a long day for some families in the area.  

Later in the afternoon, I received a call from our Director of Loss control asking that I be "on call" in case we needed to sandbag the office.  Fortunately, the rising tide subsided and I was never called to duty, but it made me think briefly of the madness of Katrina.  I watched a LOT of news coverage of that event as it happened a little before Jadyn was born.  I found myself glued to the TV in the birthing room I was stationed in for the weekend.  I couldn't believe the destruction created from Mother Nature.  While the high waters in small town Indiana came no where near the destruction of Katrina, I was still reminded of how small I really am in this powerful world.

Top photo of CR 1100N (Herald-Press/Ben Hopper)

Bottom photo of Katrina Destruction (New York Times)