A while back I mentioned that we had our roof replaced. While our experience with our homeowner's insurance company was quite good, our experience with the roofing company that we went with, Academy Roofing, was not. » read more »

We were at the park today making friends with another mom and her kids. Our kids were playing together when it became evident that my son was in trouble. He was playing in a tree. He was getting down out of the tree and slid down and got his knee wedged in between two trunk limbs of the tree, maybe 18-24 inches off the ground. He got so stuck we women couldn't get him out, so I had to call 911. It took 5 firemen to get him out by prying the limbs apart as much as they could. » read more »

I ran across this blog post a while back (Vox linked to it), and I wanted to pass it along. Too funny.

I believe that this article does an excellent job of summing up society's attitude toward homeschoolers, and why it is under attack. » read more »

Anybody remember the series of storms we had back in March? There were a couple of tornado warnings in the northern Atlanta suburbs. At my house, we had an intense, thrilling hail storm, the likes of which I have never seen.

Well, I didn't realize it at first, but it turns out that the hail did some damage to our roof and other parts of the house. A couple of weeks ago, I called our homeowner's insurance company, which is USAA, to file a claim. Last week, they sent an adjuster out to inspect the damage. Yesterday, we got a check in the mail. » read more »

My sister is in the Air Force. She is currently in Iraq searching people who visit the prisoners with a metal detector. I haven't seen her in about two and a half years.

Her husband is in the Air Force, too. I forget what he does, but he made sure my sister got a safe job. They both help keep America safe. Sometimes, my sister sends me things. It's really cool to see it. » read more »

A tree next to our house was hit by lightning in the storms the other night. It was on the side of the house next to where the cable line comes in. The electricity went thru our cable line and melted the cable modem on the inside. Plus it took out a computer, a small TV, a cell phone charger, and possibly screwed up two cordless phones. My laptop is ok (which is normally where I work from) but I think the broadband router may be toast as well because it's not registering any ethernet connections. Actually, the laptop isn't either so I have to wonder if it's card is fried as well. » read more »

I do some of my best thinking in the shower. Some people sing. Others are still sleeping. Being a morning person and morning shower-er, I most often use my shower time to intellectually explore various and sundry topics. [My wife is fond of saying I always think about cosmology, origins-of-the-universe, black holes, Relativity, and other such spaceborne, far-out concepts, but my shower-thought repertoire is more varied than that.] One such topic is the very process of getting the perfect temperature for the shower water: when the shower starts to cool, which is better, turning the hot up or the cold down? When you're in the shower, and the temperature just isn't quite right, turning which knob is more effective? » read more »

Our daughter, Kristen, just got promoted to Staff Sergeant!

Different people like different kinds of pets. Some people really like cats. Ya, cats are cute. But they tear up your furniture, break valuable things, and their litter box smells! Some other people really like birds. I think they're pretty, but they're really loud! Some really different people like reptiles. They're really fun to learn about, but they're just too gross and slimy for me!

But just because different people like different pets, that doesn't mean you should pick your friends by what kind of pet they have! Stick to the person's personality!