Bragging on Gordon

About a week ago Gordon was recognized at The King's Academy awards ceremony for a notable accomplishment and an award. Gordon was one of five seniors at TKA to be named by the National Merit Scholarship Program as a Commended Student. Of the 1.4 million students who took the PSAT exam in 2004 Gordon is one of about 50,000 high school seniors of this rank. And we were surprised and delighted to see Gordon receive the drama department award! If you came to any of the TKA productions you know he was up against stiff competition. Congratulations Gordon! We're very proud of you!

Google Maps from the street!

Now you can walk the streets of Oakland Chinatown without ever leaving your computer! Take a look at this new feature inside of Google Maps called "Street View." The feature is in pilot mode so only a few locations are in Street View. These locations include San Francisco Bay Area (is my house there?), Las Vegas, Miami and New York. Look for the camera icon on the large scale maps, and look for the streets outlined in blue on the small scale maps. Have fun!

Lauren's graduation Friday, 6 PM

Same deal as for Gordon's graduation - same place, same seating arrangements. Note that it's Friday late afternoon, running from 6 PM to about 7:15 PM. Let us know if you're coming and we'll figure out what we'll do for hospitality!

The King's Academy
562 N Britton Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

Gordon's graduation Sat - Y'all come!

Gordon graduates from high school at a ceremony this Saturday morning at 10 AM. Details are below. Please come if you are of a mind.

I had been under the mistaken impression that each The King's Academy graduate was limited to a small number of reserved seating tickets. Turns out that each graduate was limited in the number of seats on the field, but the football stands are open to any and all.

Let us know if you're planning on coming so that we can make arrangements for lunch. It will be an informal affair - maybe a high school boy's favorite lunch - pizza!

The King's Academy
562 N Britton Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

Exit 101 at Fair Oaks. Go west. Turn left on Duane. Look for the school sign at the first intersection on the right.

Memorial Day, 2007

We remember.

This is the division insignia of the 104th Army Infantry Division, the Timberwolf Division. My dad served with this unit during World War II. On this Memorial Day I want to recognize the service and sacrifice of those men and many, many other men and women who served in all our nation's wars.

In addition, I hope you will pause today to remember those who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, including their families. I think that President Bush and his advisers have grossly mismanaged these conflicts. And now we are entangled in a mess that will resolve only at great cost to American lives and Iraqi and Afghani lives. As a result many service people have been asked to make sacrifices in great disproportion to their stations in life. At the least we owe them our deepest thanks.

The cutest food you've ever seen!

Check this out!

Original blog source can be found here.

It's made of "fondant," which as Wikipedia has it:

"Fondant is a confection used as a filling or coating for cakes, pastries, and candies or sweets. In its simplest form, it is sugar and water cooked to a point, specifically soft-ball stage, cooled slightly, and stirred or beaten until it is an opaque mass of creamy consistency....Fondant is commonly used to decorate wedding cakes. This gives the cakes a smooth look."

I'll be looking for someone to make some for the family Christmas party!

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

I think everyone should write to her and wish her a Happy Eeyore Birthday!

Scientific study on the five-second rule

The person arguably the American authority on food science, Harold McGee, writes in the NY Times about the famous five-second rule. Are you listening, young parents?

You Can't Take It with You - but you can video it

For those of you who missed it here's a sample of the chaotic fun of Gordon's play this past weekend. (This is also my first edited movie and my first YouTube upload!)

Happy Birthday Susan!

Happy birthday my dear one, my love. Here's to many more!

Ten Questions with Richard Stearns

Today's notable News and Notes is an interview with Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, the Christian relief and development organization. The interview appeared in Guy Kawasaki's blog, "How to Change the World."

"Today, we live in a world that tolerates extreme poverty much like racism was tolerated fifty-plus years ago. We can all become people determined to do something to change the world. We can speak up, we can volunteer and we can give. Ending extreme poverty will take money, political and moral will, and a shift in our value system. When enough ordinary people embrace these issues, things will begin to change."

I don't mean to point the finger anywhere but at myself. I have a lot of work to do in my life to come to the place where I truly believe this and act on it.

More News and Notes

Two new posts today. The first, "Womb-based SEO" is funny if you know that SEO means "search engine optimized." In other words, picking a name for your kid so that they stand out in a Google search. The other, "Creating Your Own Foolproof Chinese Stir Fry" might be helpful in figuring out what's for dinner. It comes from another food blog I read, Tigers and Strawberries. So, what's for dinner?

You Can't Take It with You - TKA performances

The dates for The King's Academy play have snuck up on me. As far as I know the performances are this week, Wed through Sat. There are 7:30pm performances all four nights and 3 pm performances Thur and Fri. I don't think there's a Sat matinee. Tickets are free!

I don't know which performances I will attend but they'll be toward the end of the week. Susan will probably be helping backstage at most. Let us know if you can come and we'll try to have an escort for you!

New feature: "News and notes"

In the right column you should see a new section, "News and notes." Here you'll find interesting (I hope) bits and pieces from the Web that I come across. The entries might be news, recipes, blog entries from friends, or how-to's about Internet stuff. I'd love to hear what you think!

Today's entry, " A confession for Mother's Day," was written by a long-time friend of mine. Rick Lindholtz is Director of Communications at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Kingwood, TX, a suburb of Houston. You can learn more about Rick at his personal blog. (Hi Rick! With this link I've just boosted your Google-ness an infinitesimally small amount!)

And the answer is... (what was the question?)

My parents are back from Greece and have heard the news about Gordon's college choice. So now I can share the news with you. Gordon picked the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. Freshmen orientation starts August 22 and the first day of school is August 27.

By the way, one distinction of COW (as they like be known and frequently use as the source of school humor) is their men's baseball team. In fact, much of this season they have been ranked the number one Division 3 team. Go Fighting Scots!

Happy Birthday Richie!