Over the years I've mentioned  that I grew up on an island in Washington. I don't think that I've ever shown anyone what the ferry boats look like.  Here's a great shot of one of the boats taking a wave over the bow.  The weather is not normally this stormy but on occasion it gets nuts like this.  So here you go.  This is how we made it off the island.  Pretty funny experience when I was 15 and in drivers ed training.  Most people didn't hear the phrase "Ok now don't drive off the end of the boat" from their driving instructors.

Since I posted many times in the past bunch of years about my D.Min program I should give an update here.   Yesterday I had my oral defense and my dissertation was accepted with no content revisions and only a few minor formatting changes.   This means I am officially done and my son said "goodbye Dr. Daddy" when I dropped him off at school this morning.

Thanks for letting me pour out my thoughts in the blog world these last few years.  I'm hoping that I can get back to posting some real stuff now that I'm done with this big project.

Ok so I admit that I don't know everything.  Sometimes though I'm so blown away by something it puts me in at a new low for my intelligence.  Last night I was involved in a conversation like this "My house seems to be tilting a little in the back and our back door isn't setting straight.  Well have you watered your foundation in a while."    I almost didn't know how to respond.  "Watered my foundation"  this is apparently something that we don't have to do on the West Coast because I've never heard of it.  Apparently though here in Texas with the clay composition of the soil it tends to dry out in the winter months.  So sticking a hose under your foudation to give your house a drink is an important thing to do.

Open up and say ahh house.  You're getting a big gulp today.

Went on a cubscout campout with Soren this weekend. It was great.  The camp had better stuff than any camp I've ever been at.  Castles, pirate ships, forts, caves, arrows, bbguns and mazes.  Pretty much everything an 8 year old would want and more.  For me I enjoyed the steak we cooked last night and the chance to go to bed at the same time as my boy and have him use my arm as a pillow.  There's not much else that I need in life than knowing that for this weekend t I was a great dad.

One of my best friends has a son named Joel  who has deschenes muscular dystrophy.  It's a tough problem with no apparent cure right now.   This weekend is a big one for an organization called Coach to Cure. They are partnering with college football coaches all over the country to get the awareness out about this problem on October 25th, 2008

The AFCA has paired with Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy to lead the fight to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). On game day, college football coaches and their staff across the country will wear armband patches with the Coach To Cure Logo on them. Their goal is to raise awareness of DMD via the armband patch, as well as during interviews, radio shows, in-stadium announcements, etc. In addition, people interested in joining the fight against DMD can donate money via text messaging or online giving. It's time to get in the game, because every young man deserves a chance to win in life!

Please forward this information to others and if you could repost it on your blogs. 

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I'm taking a short break from my blog for about a week.  This is a busy time for me as I have a dissertation defense next week.  So instead of reading my blog go for a run.

Tonight we went to the Bradfield elementary carnival.  Each elementary school in our district (4) have a carnival during the year.  It's a fun way to raise money for the school.  We went at 4:30 and left at 7pm.  The kids had a great time with all the blow up stuff and buying eggs filled with confetti to crack on their friends.  It's an interesting thing in our district to have all these fundraisers for schools.  Texas has a law which I'm not sure about yet that the wealthy school districts don't get all the property tax dollars from the communities where they live.  That means in our area that a huge percentage of property tax money is sent to other districts who need it.  We live in a great district and I love my boys teachers and school so I don't have a lot of complaints.  It was fun to be at the carnival for the 2nd year in a row because I knew a lot more parents.  The dads club of which I'm a part was in charge of the jail.  For only $2 you could send your friends to jail.  It was a lot of fun.

This weekend I have nothing going on.  I know I probably mention that a lot on this blog but it is something that I think is a big deal.  Nothing to do all weekend long except church on Sunday.  So stoked.