Thursday, December 30, 2010

Evey, Adro, Baby Dexter


If we don't chat again before then... HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let's make 2011 the best year ever!!!

Photo of Evey, Adro, and Dexter, Rosalina and Brent's baby boy.

Side note: I bought three CDs from Love Garden today... new Kings of Leon ($7), old school Kill Creek ($5) and a live Radiohead ($7) CD. Oh yeah!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

We're saying "butt" a lot



Evey is saying a lot of nonsense lately, and she seems to drop a lot of "butt"s in there, and then giggles. Once in a while she'll also say, "You're dead!" and we're like, "What? Don't say that, that's not nice."

Some of the nonsense will be like, "I'm going to call you cherry burrito." And then she'll laugh. Or she'll string random words together, like, "I'm going to sing and pretend that you're a banana and we're going to ESCAPE taco balloon BUTT tomatoes!!!"

I'm sure it's just a kid thing, a stage. I need to remember she's 4, and the word "butt" is really funny to her, and she probably just wants to speak more like an adult, but she's not well versed in stringing together complex sentences of more than a few words.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Boom-shaka-laka!



-- Evey has been saying "Boom-shaka-laka!" a lot lately after I said it once the other day.
-- I've got a new work computer, it's a MacBook Pro. I'm still trying to learn my way around it. There are fundamental differences that I'm struggling with, like the lack of a "home" key and an "end" key. Overall pretty awesome computer, though.
-- Adro is going to love these photos. You know how I know? Natural light. She loves pics of Evey from my Fujifilm Finepix when Evey's in natural light. Sadly, I haven't found a way to trick the camera into more photos like this unless the lighting is just perfect.
-- Week three of the new job started today. We celebrated by having "jeans and a ball cap" day.
-- Just sent an email to myself. Turns out "jeans and a ball cap" day has been extended to all of 2011. Man, I love my boss.
-- It's unbelievable to me that 2010 is days away from being over.
-- Grandma Judy took Evey swimming today. Evey was WORE OUT. She slammed a chocolate milk after waking up from her late afternoon nap. That's a 4-year-old's idea of refreshment, right there. That much chocolate milk after a day of swimming would have made me throw up.
-- $1 for a year of ESPN the Magazine? I don't love that magazine, I barely like it, but at 4 cents an issue, how can I say no?
-- Movies Evey got for Christmas: Toy Story 3, Star Wars, The Swan Princess, Lilo and Stitch, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Her favorite so far? Lilo and Stitch.
--
-- Adro was right. Sometimes, it's hard to say why it was a good day... but it just was a good day.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

HO HO at iHOp



I hope you'll forgive me, we didn't get a Christmas card out this year. It's just been abnormally busy, with me changing jobs. Heck, you can tell my mind is elsewhere, I've barely been blogging here lately... Also, I haven't been updating my fantasy NBA team (gasp!) I used to HATE IT when people did that, now I'm doing it.

Here is a photo we could have maybe used for a Christmas card though. I like it, except that Evey is a bit out-of-focus and Santa has a tatt. I took it with my new cell phone (a Samsung Epic that I love, but that might have to be returned soon -- sorry, Hendo!)

But this was awesome... it was two Fridays before Christmas, and we stopped in to grab breakfast at IHOP. Santa was sitting in the back of the place having a cup of coffee. Evey sat by him and was shy, but clearly happy to see him.

It was a great Christmas for us. Evey got a new pink bike from Santa, and she's thrilled. We got to have my Mom over, which was great. We hosted Christmas Eve (my family, my Mom, and the Johnsons) and Adro simply nailed the dinner, and everyone had a great time.

We hope you had a great Christmas (or whatever you celebrate) as well. I'll try to get better at updating Evey's (and my) blog as I get a grasp on my new job.

My brother-in-law, MJ, said on Christmas Eve, "it's going to be a great 2011." I agree, don't you?

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Best color man in the business?


Evey took this photo of us with her "black grandma," or, as we call it, her "black camera."

We had another awkward moment at our house this weekend, where one person didn't know what the others were talking about... and that one person was momentarily appalled.

The conversation went like this (while watching college basketball):

Seth: I like Fran Fraschilla. He's one of the best color guys out there.
Hendren: Yeah... he's one of the only good ones.
Erica: ...what... are you guys... talking about?!?
Seth: Fran Fraschilla -- the color guy.
Erica: (upset now) WHAT?!?
Seth: Wait, wait, wait... the COLOR COMMENTATOR... you know, not the play-by-play man, but the color man... the color commentator?
Hendren: What did you think we were talking about?
Erica: Well, I heard Seth said he thought this one guy was the best 'colored guy,' and then you chimed in and said, 'yeah, well there aren't many of 'em...'

Maybe you had to be there... but we got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Seth Jones named editor-in-chief of Golfdom magazine


It's been a busy week. Here's why:

Seth Jones, a 12-year veteran of the golf industry media, has been named editor-in-chief of Golfdom magazine. He previously served as the senior associate editor of Golf Course Management magazine. Jones officially assumed the role of editor-in-chief of Golfdom on Monday, Dec. 13th.

A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for GCM in 1999 as an intern. Upon graduation he was hired full-time, and quickly moved up the ranks of GCM thanks to his award-winning writing and photography talents. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In his 12-year golf industry media career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few.

"I'm honored to be named editor-in-chief of such a fine publication as Golfdom," Jones says. "Though I'm changing magazines, I'm excited to be covering the same great industry. It's the people who make this industry great, and I look forward to telling even more of their stories."

"I'm very excited about Seth joining our team, and taking the magazine to the next level," says Pat Roberts, Golfdom's longtime publisher. "The Golfdom brand has been serving this market since 1927, and we've been lucky enough to publish it since 1999. The combination of Seth's experience and enthusiasm ensures our readers will continue to enjoy and learn from the industry's leading publication."

Chief among Jones' responsibilities will be to find and write engaging cover stories for Golfdom. Jones will immediately add his editorial voice to the magazine, beginning with the January Golf Industry Show preview issue. Jones also promises to ramp up Golfdom's on-line presence by increasing content on the Golfdom blog and Twitter feed.

Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and TOCA. He can be reached at his office at 785-690-7047 or via e-mail at sjones@questex.com.

Golfdom's primary readership is superintendents -- the people who manage and maintain golf courses. Golfdom, which was founded in 1927, strives to educate and entertain its readers through content that underscores utility and provides practical information to help them in their careers. The original Golfdom magazine was founded in 1927 as the industry's first business journal and was published until 1981 when it was closed due to changes in the market and the original publisher's declining health. In 1999, Questex Media's Landscape Group revived the title to launch a new upscale publication designed to fill the niche between the highly technical association journal and the newsy tabloids.

Thank you.
Pat Roberts, Publisher

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Friday, December 10, 2010

That's my girl!

First photo with her new toy camera… (Grandma Judy took it).

 

Three more hours to go here…

 

Seth Jones

Senior associate editor, Golf Course Management magazine

Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA)

1421 Research Park Dr.

Lawrence, KS 66049

(785) 832-3682 (direct)

(785) 424-4890 (cell)

(785) 832-3665 (fax)

sjones@gcsaa.org (e-mail)

 

Read GCM on the web, www.gcsaa.org

 

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Christmas tree decorating by Evey

I used to hate putting up the Christmas tree when I was a kid.

Watching my own girl put up each ornament and then come running to me for another? Magical.

Even with a level-3 hangover.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Happy 4th birthday big girl!



I can't believe how big you're getting on me! BURRITO!!!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Shake your butt!




That's Evey's new catch-phrase. I should probably tell her to shut it down, but it's so cute when she sings it.

Hosted a Christmas party for my GCM team this weekend. A great time, nice to get together with everyone for a few beers. Of course a few became a lot, and this morning I was dealing with a level-3 hangover. Oh well, worth it.

Too much to do, too little time. This might be a quiet week around the blog. We'll see.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

And here's a photo


Of Bat-Girl. Have I already posted this? I don't even know. It's been a crazy week. I'm going to bed.

Radio song

It's pretty unmistakable, how sorry the radio waves are in northeast Kansas.

In my Camaro the other day, I needed a good song to perk me up. The iPod was stashed away, and i didn't know what cd (rage against the machine's first) was in the cd player. I clicked through my pre-selected choices...

Of the music choices, two stations were playing Def Leppard. Different songs, but... Def Leppard? Who is still into this band? If they played a show in this area tomorrow, how big a venue would they need? (I'm guessing Liberty Hall.) And how much would they have to price their tickets to sell out a place like the Sprint Center? $5?

So why is this band still all over the airwaves? Do Kansas Citians really still clamor for Def Leppard?

My self-imposed boycott of 96.5 is still underway. I take some solace in the thought that I could have clicked over there for something better. But I can't, based on principle.

I know, sattelite radio, cds, iPod, etc., can help calm me down. But it seems to me that Kansas City deserves better radio. I'm just constantly shocled at how bad it is.

A recent issue of Rolling Stone did open my eyes recently, about the death of alternative rock, on the airwaves. There were something like 3,000 country stations nationwide, while there were less than 300 alternative rock stations.

I'm fine with 3,000 country stations... But maybe if rock stations would play a more modern selection, maybe more would survive.