Happy Birthday James & Christine!

Last Saturday night was spent at our friend Houston's house with her family and friends. Her husband, James, turned 40 this past week and her daughter, Christine, 21. With two major birthdays in one family, you have to throw a bash for that! So, they set the date and time, and we were there. Here are a few pics of the band, Fun With Lips, formally Paradigm Shift with James, Andrew, Jason and Dan. Depo couldn't make it so that's a stand in (I can't remember his name).

It was a blast. Lot's of fun, music and drinking. Quite the successful party! :)

Today's Favorite Quote

Thanks to Terrance's reflecting I've got myself a sweet quote. I think it's my favorite for the day, maybe longer...

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection.
Excellence, I can reach for;
perfection is God's business.
-Michael J. Fox

It's bought!

And moments later...she has it!

Harry Potter Book 7

This is Susan waiting in line to get the final installment of the Harry Potter Series. Can you tell she's excited? Are you an HP fan?

Home with the Puppies

Another day off with just me and the pups. We've taken it easy so far today. As you can tell they're not letting anything stress them out. Must be nice. :-)

Cuddle Buddies

These two are suckers for going to bed with Mom. It never fails if Mom (either one, they're not picky) is in bed, they're either destroying the place or in bed too. The couch, floor or their beds are no good in comparison. In fact Kodiak doesn't even need a mom in there; he'll climb on any bed when he finds a bedroom door left open. :-) Do you have a pet who prefers your bed over theirs?

One More Addition

What I really want is someone to be able to look at my blog, read a few posts and have a glimpse into who I am. For that reason I'm adding one more thing to my sidebars. Now yes, a lot of people have so much stuff in their sidebars you start to lose track of what is about them and what is just an add for something else. Then, you end up not looking at any of it. I don't want that. To be honest if you think my site has gotten to cluttered and "commercial," please let me know.

As I mentioned I'm adding one more bit. You'll soon see a Last.FM widget in my sidebar. What a person listens to in music can be so insightful as to who they are, how they think and how they're feeling. I'm hoping Last.FM does that for my readers.

It'll probably be a few days before you see it up, but please feel free to comment about it. I'm new to their service and everything, so this may take some time. I'd expect a few growing pains as you often see when I mess with the css and html on this page.

Again, let me know what you think.

Feedburner & Jaiku

Well, as you may or may not have noticed, I added Jaiku to my left sidebar. I recently joined Jaiku for a few reasons. First, I'm always trying out the different things available to Nokia users, especially the N95, so I'm prepared for questions at work. Oh, and I want to have those cool things on my phone too. Second, the idea of Jaiku intrigues me. The idea behind "micro-blogging" fits my lifestyle very well. Maybe I don't have time or ideas to blog about more than once or twice a week. With Jaiku I can give mini updates all the time with only the time of a text message. Finally, Jaiku is another community that I can network, socialize, and drive more traffic back here to my blog.

So, interestingly enough I added Jaiku to my sidebar and within 48 hours my blog subscriptions shot through the roof from 1 to 12. What a high! I thought it was great. Sadly enough this afternoon I checked my stats again and the subscriptions have dropped to 6 already. What did I do or not do to lose them so quickly?

Oh well, life and blogging and now micro-blogging must go on. If you have ideas as to what happened with those crazy stats jumping up and then dropping down right away again, let me know.

What communities other than Blogger are you a part of to cross-drive traffic? Do you add widgets to your blog? How has that affected your traffic? I'm interested in what your opinions are and your experiences. Thanks for sharing!

Oh, one more thing...do you like the Jaiku widget on the side? Thoughts?

Bella versus Kodiak

Okay, I had to post one more. This is another I've been holding onto and forgetting to post. Bella and Kodiak were fighting over a stuffed pheasant. Much to Bella's disappointment, it's really Kodiak's toy. Eventually she realized him fighting for it was half the fun.

Enjoy!

EC Rumble

I've been dying to post this for a while. No, they are not pointing out their waistline but demonstrating where their "champion belt" would go.

This is what happens when the boys get bored at work...they start ripping eachother apart and bragging about themselves. You have got to love it! I call this one "Jay and Mike Throwdown."

Enjoy :)

Test Post for Feed Footer

I just need to see how the feed comes out. I've added a footer to my feeds promoting my Jaiku feed. Thanks for understanding. Oh, feel free to subscribe to the blog or Jaiku. :)

New Phones for the Boys - Updated

Mike, Jay and Bruce got their new phones at work. All of them got the N80i, which is a pretty sweet device. I didn't get one due to a shipping mistake; I already have an N73 from a while ago that I gave to Suz. She loves it; I just wish I could get her to trust the camera more. But, she is a camera addict. You can't blame her for having high expectations and favorite devices. How about you? Are you into cameras and photography? Do you have a favorite device, if so, what is it?

Update: I reposted this so the photo was the right direction. Sorry about the mix-up.

Movie Rating = G

I'm not usually one for forwards, games, polls, and tests online or via email. But, while surfing through BlogMad I came across a blog that had this posted. I wish I noted the blog I was on before following the link (you can't click "back" while using BlogMad), otherwise I'd post a link.

Anyways, here is my rating. I can't complain. It's always best to be available to all audiences, right?

Mingle²

If you follow the link, let me know your site and what it ranks at!

Adding to Blogroll

I'm adding a little to my blogroll. I have to admit I don't have people beating down my door to be added. But, that doesn't mean I can't list some of my favorite blogs. Now yes, the two I've added today are work related. Besides writing about mobile technology, they are great writers and have intriguing personalities.

Stefan just joined IntoMobile after successfully launching blog for 6 months in his free time. Now the lucky sucker gets paid to do it. You should check out his latest posting; he hopped a plane to Finland for personal and professional reasons. I wish him the best.

Darla has been writing about Nokia, phones, S60 and everything else mobile for going on 3 years. She has her own pizzazz that she adds to the mix. One of my favorite things about her is the fact that she's a woman. In fact she posts links to a blog about women in mobile. I won't rant now, but it drives me nuts that people assume technology needs a man. I can't even count how many times people have disregarded me at work to talk to one of the guys just because I'm female.

Okay, this was supposed to be about Stefan and Darla not me. :) Now, you may notice that I'm writing about them like I know them. I wish I could say I do, but I don't. What is important though is that they're honest and intriguing in their writing, so you're able to get to know a bit of them right away.

Well, enjoy! Let me know if you read either blog and what you think. Also, the invite still stands...if you'd like to be linked, let me know your site. I'll check it out, add it, and talk about the addition in my next post.

Fourth of July in Chicago

Here is a short clip of the fireworks put on by Macy's in downtown Chicago on July 3rd. Yes, that is the wrong date, but that's how we roll in Chi-town. :) Enjoy!

I need to work on editing videos so you can have some tunes when viewing. I'll work on that next.

What did you do to celebrate Independence Day?

Last couple of the trail

More of the trail

Constituion Trail

This is in Bloomington-Normal and runs behind Susan's parent's house. Too bad it was so hot!

Should I be worried?

Now, I couldn't seem to edit this photo in Picasa the way I wanted, so you'll have it unedited. Why do I think I should be worried? Because I'm penned in by TWO student drivers. What are the odds? Aren't they supposed to stay away from eachother on the road? I just kept my distance and gunned it when given the chance.

What would you have done? Oh, and I was going to work, so I couldn't really just turn off and go somewhere else.

Hot Damn!

Check out this price of gas. I filled up. Wouldn't you? Oh, and this low on the Fourth of July. I thought they hiked up the prices for holidays. Not for me! :-)