Month: May 2008   (from newest to oldest)

Holly is Inducted into the National Junior Honor Society

There’s been tons of stuff on this site about Holly’s athletic accomplishments, but she is also a very good student. On Friday she was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society. Because of the lighting, we couldn’t get good photos of the ceremony itself, but we’ve got some gorgeous photos of Holly both before and after. Click here for the gallery.

Holly NJHS Induction Day - In front of the flower garden-6 Holly NJHS Induction Day - In front of the flower garden-5 Holly NJHS Induction Day - Michelle, Holly, Bruce

We’ve got a Puppy

We’ve been promising the kids for several years that we would get a dog. Andrew’s 16th birthday turned out to be the occasion for finally making it happen. Michelle and Andrew drove over two hours into East Texas to pick up “Scout”, a pure-bred Border Collie. We’re looking forward to years of fun with him. More photos are in the Scout gallery.

Andrew with his birthday puppy, Scout Scout loves his water dish Scout the Border Collie - One of the best photos I've ever taken

Huge Landscaping Project

This is a project we’ve planned for years. There is an area in the front yard where several trees produce enough shade that bermuda grass won’t grow. Whenever I mow the weeds and undesirable grass that does grow there, it is always a dust storm. Finally we have gotten this project underway. We have created a stone border around the shaded area (Thanks for the help, Bobby!), placed several limestone boulders about (Thanks TJ!), and planted several dozen decorative plants (Thanks Tristan, Junior, Leigh, and Dave’s tractor!). Finally we covered the whole thing in with red mulch to match the landscaping in front of the house (Thanks Erick!). More photos are available in the gallery.

Another angle of the new bordered area, after the Roundup has started killing everything View of the new flower garden from the dry creek bed-1 View of the new flower garden from the existing flower garden

Hail Storm

A lower shot across the groundWe had a hail storm roll through this afternoon and I was able to snap some photos and get a short video. The hail stones were between “quarter sized” and “pingpong ball sized”. The storm was quite loud, but didn’t seem to do any damage. There’s a small album with a few photos and a low-quality video on YouTube.

New Golf Bag and Irons

Close up of my new TaylorMade R7 Draw ironsFor my birthday, I got a new bag and more importantly, some new clubs: The TaylorMade R7 Draw irons (4-SW), and a TaylorMade R7 Draw Rescue 3 Hybrid club. I’m finally done with my 13 year-old “free” White Bluff irons! I’m really digging the new irons. Definitely easier to hit and more forgiving of off-center strikes. My next purchase will probably be a R7 Draw Rescue 4 Hybrid to replace the 4 iron that came with the set. My full kit is now as follows:

*aka the “Beer Smuggling System”

The Science and Fun of Boomerangs

For a 3rd grade science project, Holly had the choice of doing a video demonstration or an in-class demonstration of anything at all “scientific”. I’m so glad she chose to do a video, because it is so much fun to watch, even four years later. Some of you may already have seen it on boomsmith.com, but I just now uploaded it to YouTube and it is being well-received. Here’s the description:

This is a “How Boomerangs Work” video from the perspective of a 3rd grader. The video discusses some boomerang flight science, shows construction, throwing, and catching.

This video was done for Holly’s 3rd grade science class and was so well-received that it was shown to all the other classes as well.

And here’s the video: