clanMcGraw.com

Some pictures that I’d taken, for eventual posting here:

For Wes, who’s been obsessing over bathroom hygiene lately:

This is a paper towel dispenser from the outlet mall in Foley, Alabama. I took this picture while on vacation. It’s the first time I’ve seen something with explicit instructions not to touch it with your hands.

Next - I brought one of my Birthday gifts to work and set it on my monitor:

Yep, Paul Sr.’s watching me at work now.

And finally, a co-worker gave me this yesterday. Can you guess what it is?

While I’m babysitting a database duplication, I thought I’d take the opportunity to update the Running page.

Let me start by saying that I love my new Saucony shoes. I was foolish to run the 5K in my old shoes. These new Jazz are absolutely incredible. I wish that I’d bought 2 pair at the beach, instead of just 1.

I’m on the week 2 training schedule right now. It’s a 2-mile run/walk combination. During week 1 I kept pushing myself to do more than what was scheduled, even though the program frowns upon it. I think it really helped me get ready for the jump from 1 mile to 2 miles. I’ll probably try to ramp up to week three as well.

It’s been extremly hot here, so most of my running has been done indoors on either the treadmill or the indoor track at Church. I’d like to get outside again, but I may wait until it gets a little cooler.

I’m also trying to eat better in an effort to drop some weight before the race. I think that dropping 15-20 lbs. before the race would do wonders for my time, but I’m not sure that’s an attainable goal.

Now on Flickr: The McGraw’s 2005 Beach Trip.

I put notes on a few of the pictures. My favorites are, of course, the Brian meets Cindy pictures.

It’s too late for this year, but I know what I want next year:

Matt’s 13lb. Gummy Bear.

Google Moon - In celebration of the anniversary Apollo 11’s Moon Landing, Google has applied the same technology found at Google Maps and Google Earth, and applied it to the Moon.

Note: Be sure you zoom all the way in.

Yesterday was better for me. My headache finally went away around 3:00, I picked up pizza for supper, and then we took the kids to Evangel for their ‘Popsicles On The Playground’. It was a time where the kids got to meet each other and their teachers, while Moms and Dads met and looked through uniforms in their consignment sale. We got 2 shirts for Brandon, and I *think* we scored a great deal at Land’s End online last night. We’ll see.

I also fixed the digital camera, which is great, because we have house-guests. Amanda’s friend Michelle, and her son, John, are staying with us for 2 nights. Brandon has known John pretty much his entire life. Kids are pretty funny - even though they haven’t seen each other for at least 9 months, they all picked up right where they left off. Amanda and Michelle had to go into their room a couple of times last night to get them quiet enough to go to sleep. Reminds me of when I had sleepovers as a kid.

Special moment of the night for me - I’m working in my office, when both boys come in to say good night. They do, and both leave the room. Then about 10 seconds later, 1 of them runs back, to come and gives me a goodnight kiss. He doesn’t say anything, just does it, smiles, and runs off to bed. Sweet.

I got 2 things that I did not want nor need for my Birthday: A broken digital camera, and a migraine headache. Ugh.

…Who have sent me the kind words and wishes today… Thank you.

I’ve finally found an RSS reader that I like, by Attensa. I like it because it interfaces seamlessly into Microsoft Outlook. I don’t pull a lot of RSS feeds, but this has been the simplest thing to use that I’ve found so far.

If you’re new to RSS and want to give it a try, you can download it from Attensa’s Web Site.

As always, if anyone else has any suggestions for a good RSS reader (other than Thunderbird), please let me know!

Well, apparently I didn’t look closely enough yesterday… There is a picture of a Merlin handheld game in the Electronic Games slideshow I stumbled upon yesterday.

And, for those truly nostalgic for the Merlin system, there’s a Virtual Merlin game that you can download and play. I’ll have to check that out later, for sure.