We've Moved to Facebook!

Shannon, Robin, and I are now using Facebook extensively. We will be posting our blog, new photos, and other information there. You do have to join and add us as a friend, but its free and has a lot more functionality than a static website like this one.

Here is Tim's Facebook profile. Once you add me as a friend, you can easily add Robin and Shannon as well. Justin and Paul don't have one setup yet, but I still post news and pictures for them on a regular basis.

Update: Here are all of our profiles...

• Tim's Facebook
• Shannon's Facebook
• Robin's Facebook
• Paul's Myspace
• Justin's Myspace
• Dad's Facebook
• Mom's Facebook

Paul Homecoming

Here is a picture of Paul and the folks he went to Marcus homecoming with. This was his first high school dance. Paul is the one in the middle in the black shirt and his date, Lauren, is the one to the left of him in the green dress.

Paul on Marcus Football Team

Paul is now officially a Marcus High School football player. He's on the freshman team and so far after 3 games they are undefeated. Look to see more photos and maybe even some video soon.

New Casio Exilim EX-S10 Camera

Well, I've been wanting a new camera for a long time and finally got one. I wanted one that had at least 3x zoom, could record movies, and had other modern features like blur control, but I wanted it so small I would hardly notice it in my pocket. The EX-S10 was designed just for this.

The camera has several rapid-shot modes and this is an absolute must, in my opinion, for a digital camera. That's because the one downside to digital cameras is that the auto-focus, etc. takes some time and then saving the picture (especially very high-resolution pictures) takes a while as well. So you have a delay after pressing the button and another delay before being able to snap another shot.

This camera has a fast-mode, which sets the resolution to only 2Mpx (good enough for 3x5 prints), but fires off shots in rapid succession as long as you hold down the button. So Shannon snapped a good dozen or so shots of me walking up and diving into our pool. Then you can just chose to keep the couple of shots that are the best or you can keep them all to show the whole scene during a slideshow.

There is one thing that is a bit of a pain, which is that it doesn't come with a doc and you can't charge the battery while its in the camera. So you have to take it out and put it in the charger. I guess making this camera the worlds smallest 10 Mpx camera required them to leave out the charging circuitry from the phone itself.

One thing to note about the attached picture is that I'm sure its resolution has been significantly reduced when it was uploaded into this post. I've found the pictures are great on it as long as there is plenty of light or you photographing something close enough to use the flash. In low light, even indoors with the lights on, the pictures appear a bit yellow and grainy. So I guess that's another big downside to digital cameras. Cleaning them up on a computer doesn't help either because a grainy photo just gets worse when you attempt to touch it up.

Another Day at the Pool

Here is Justin and I at our community pool. We've all been spending a lot of time up there this Summer!

Playstation 3 for My Birthday

Well, I got a very special gift this year for my birthday. I got a Sony Playstation 3. Recently we upgraded our DirecTV service to high definition and I initially wanted the PS3 to play HD Blue Ray movies. A nice bonus is the new Guitar Hero III and a bunch of other great games. The best part is the PS3 is *mine* and no one's allowed to use it except if they are playing a game with me.

What a Great Trip to Mexico!

Here is a little collage I created with a few pictures from our trip to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico this Summer. We all had a great time, although we did get hit with rain. More pictures are in our 2008 Favorites photo album.

We're Going to Puerto Vallarta!

Our whole family is going to Puerto Vallarta June 5th through 12th. We are staying at the Marival Resort & Suites in Nuevo Vallarta, which is the newer area. Its an all-inclusive hotel with tons of activities for the kids (and us).

Click here to watch a video about the hotel. The Marival hotel website is here.

My Shiny but Unusable Motorcycle

Well, this Summer I finally got a new battery for the motorcycle, pumped up the tires, gave her a good polishing and found out my transmission is slipping. Ugh! That's not going to be cheap to fix, I don't figure. :-(

Robin's Junior Prom

Robin had her junior prom and here is a picture of her and her friend and their dates. They all looked great and had a real good time. Interestingly, prom wasn't held in the high school gym but was actually at a nice hotel in one of the nearby suburbs.

Parents vs. Kids Hockey

At the end of Justin's hockey season with the Dallas Stars Select, we had a parent vs. child hockey game. The kids were whipping us pretty bad until Ulf Dahlen, Stars assistant coach, hit the ice and posted double-digit goals. The game ended in a tie, but then we had a shoot-out.

Trip to Venice (Kind of)

Shannon and I standing in Venice, Italy watching a gondola on the Grand Canal. Well, not really... we're at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas.

Besides several thousand rooms, a huge casino, dozens of restaurants, a big conference center, and several theaters, they have a huge section of well over 100 high-end stores with a canal running through it all.

Notice how even the ceiling is painted to look like a partly-cloudy blue sky. Its not near as bright indoors as it would be outside, of course, but its amazing how realistic everything looks.

I was at this hotel in Vegas for our annual Lawson Conference and User Exchange for work.