The kid and I spent the 3rd of July in South Burlington at my cousin's house. It's big enough to qualify as a mansion. Bigger than our house. He could sleep 8 guests the night we were there without breaking a sweat. We were there for his 4ht of July party. It was huge. At least a couple hundred people. Complete with a bouncy castle for the kids, open bar for the grown-ups, all-you-can-eat barbeque, strawberry shortcake (or chocolate birthday cake for the weirdos who don't like strawberry shortcake), and culminating in fireworks.

The kid was impressed with the vast display of wealth on parade. ...

Summer finally arrived in the North Country this week, just in time for the first full week of school vacation. The kid celebrated by sleeping in most days until nearly noon.

I, on the other hand, tend to wake up with the sun, which rises between 5 and 5:30. If only it rose that early in the winter when we are required to be up for an obscenely early school start time, life would be so much easier. Instead, getting up early in mid-winter when sunrise isn't until 9 leaves me dog tired.

On these summer mornings I get up and look at the news feeds, start the coffee, walk the dog around the block ...

We took this picture of Silas in April 2006. He was 3. This week, at 14, he "graduated" from 8th grade. Brooke got him a new sport coat and pants for the occasion. Now he looks all grown up:

He finished school with his hightest grades ever and made the high honor roll. Friday night we celebrated with dinner out at Maxfield's. He got his favorite: lobster ravioli.

I spent a lot of the week programming a customized wish list for a client website. I learned a lot in doing it; I got some practice in with JavaScript -- something I need to do more of, but don't often get to do. Next week I'll be s...

Somehow or another, probably because I've been a pastor and have a degree in "divinity", I've been assigned the chairperson's seat on the Ethics Committee of our county Hospice. It happened, and I was informed of it in May. Last Monday was the first meeting of the committee since.

There were a lot of new committee members. So the first order of business was bringing the non-initiated up to speed with various ethical frameworks. That took most of the hour.

On Tuesday my friend and mentor, Tonya Mork, gave a talk for the WPSessions webinar series for WordPress Developers. I attended. She did gre...

I launched a new website this week. Sandstone Family Dentistry went live on Tuesday. The Potsdam Chamber of Commerce had also tentatively scheduled the launch of their new site last week, but the launch was contingent on having an intern who could continue to update it. The plans for the intern fell through, so the launch for that site is again delayed for at least another couple weeks.

Another project I've been working on (with a small team of others) over the past few months is nearing completion: The Beans Theme Framework for WordPress is getting close to a new release. I've written softwar...

The last 2 weeks of May had something either going on or about to. Track season came to an end. My parents came in from Ohio for the last meet of the season. We had a good visit. It was the first time my father had ever been to a track meet. Ever. So, that's why I can't remember him being at any track meets when I was in 8th grade. I'm sure my mother must have come to a few, but my recollection of it is not clear. We took pictures this time. So there will be photographic evidence of their being at Silas's meet, if anyone ever will have the time and patience to sift through the thousands of dig...

We're nearing the end of the track season already. Grandma and Grandpa are coming up this week to see the last of them this Wednesday.

The kid came in 2nd in the 100m dash a week ago, Friday. Monday he came in 4th. This past Friday the coach switched him into the 200m. He's been the anchor for the 4x200m relay all season, where he made up for lost time in several races to bring the team into 2nd place finishes. I think she wanted him to have his own 200m time on the record books for next year in case he gets to the varsity team.

The kid has also started his new session of Taikwondo as a blue ...

Last week we finally got to pull out the grill. We've had a couple days in the 60s and nighttime temperatures mostly in the 40s and 50s. It's come with a lot of rain, but we'll take it. Now that it's May, we're finally getting some April weather!

We had our first thunderstorm of the year on Friday, which cancelled the season's first track meet. We haven't had any word yet about it's being rescheduled. I suspect it will be a washout. (Ba-dum-bump!)

The previous week, school break week, we spent a couple days downstate in Old Chatham, NY visiting our old friend, Regina. Her son, Andy, was home a...

Today looks like it might finally be the first sign of spring here in the north country. It's also my mother's birthday. So, as one of the only readers -- and actually one of the intended readers -- of this blog: Happy Birthday, Mom!

It's been a week of electronics glitches here.

On Monday one of the cars had an electrical glitch -- which seems a few days later to have cleared itself up. But it got us thinking that it may be time to start looking for a new -- or at least new-to-us car.

Also on Monday, my computer started having a glitch that locked it up every time I tried to disconnect any of...

It's been one of those weeks that seems like there's been a lot of activity but not much got done.

The kid posted a 7-minute mile at track practice on Monday. On Tuesday, during sprint practice, it was confirmed that the Kid is the fastest sprinter on the team. Granted, it's not a very large team, but he was pleased to feel like there is finally something he is the best at.

We had a parent meeting with the track coach on Friday. We were told that if he wears underarmor for a meet, depending on the referee, he may be asked to take it off. I'm not sure what underarmor is. When I ran track in 8th...