This is a large Baskin-Robbins Caramel Cappuccino Blast. My second one in a week. Unfortunately the shop is about three minutes from my front door. I see more of these in my future.

As I write this it is day two of some of the hardest rain I think I have ever experienced. All I can say is thank God for high ground. Fortunately, our neighborhood is draining into a empty field of many acres that also sits against a small river about two miles away. Unfortunately, that same river comes very close to the homes of many friends just down the road.

This video shows I24, one of three main interstates that run through Nashville under water.

It has been exactly six years ago today that Alex came into our home and never left. He was 18 months old on that day. I still remember his entrance through our front door. Alex had been living with My wife’s mother and Mandi had asked me about Alex living with us a few weeks before that Christmas visit but I really had not given it much thought. If I had, I am not sure he would be with us now. I remember deciding to let God decide.

At that time, I had been going to church on a regular basis for the first time in my life. One of the things that had been coming up on a weekly basis was that I should give my problems to God and he would handle the details. To me, Alex living with us was a potential problem, so I gave the whole issue to God. On that day, when I turned to see Nana and Alex coming through the front door, I knew in my heart that he would never leave.

He didn’t.

Six years later we have almost completed all of the legal requirements to finalize the adoption of Alex. It has taken years and cost greatly but it has been worth every minute and every dime. Alex has made a better man of me than any other person that has ever been in my life. I am sure that will always remain true as we continue through life together.

I have to share this because apparently thousands of people a month search for a solution to this problem.

How to uninstall Microsoft Office 2007!

I tried the uninstaller info on the Microsoft website and it did not work. Approximately five minutes into the Microsoft Office 2007 removal, I would get a message saying the removal was not possible, blah, blah, blah.

I tried to remove Office 2007 several times with the same result. Apparently, without the installation CD, removal is impossible. Or is it?

No it is not. I found a way and I have to share it.

Go to this site: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Remove-Office-2007.shtml

Download the free and safe Microsoft Office 2007 removal tool. Run the program and Office 2007 is removed.

I don’t use Internet Explorer as my Internet browser. That is because Internet Explorer sucks. I have felt this way for years. My distaste for IE started several years ago when I started making a living as a web designer. I am not going to get into all of the details here as I have a more recent example as to why Internet Explorer still sucks.

The image above is a screen shot of my homepage to this site in IE7. Do you know what’s missing? If you are using Internet Explorer to visit my site right now you probably do not know what is missing. I will tell you. My sidebars are not there. They are completely gone. Also, the homepage stops about half way down the page. Now the crazy part is, if you click on any of the posts listed on my homepage and go directly to the post pages, the sidebars are then there, but not  on the homepage.

I tried updating to IE8 hoping that might correct the problem but it did not.

So, Internet Explorer still sucks.

If you want a much better web surfing experience, I recommend you do what I did several years ago and start using the Firefox browser. You can download it here.

Luckily, the majority of my visitors already use Firefox.

The image is a little hard to read. The blue part of the graph is my Firefox visitors and the green part of the graph is my Internet Explorer visitors. The good news is, the majority of my website visitors are seeing my site just as it was designed.

This monster, reported to have grown into a EF4 at this point, crossed one of the busiest four lanes into the Boro and tore across another of the most traveled roads in Murfreesboro Tennessee to completely destroy a two story office complex on it’s way to make over one hundred families homeless before it left town. It is reported to have traveled over 23 miles.

The only deaths were a mother and her 9 week old baby who were trying to cover themselves in their house hall way. Their house was completely leveled. Gone! Nothing left standing.

My home is about 10 minutes from this location.

The middle Tennessee area is visited by tornadoes on a regular basis. None have been so well documented as this one.

I have a son that is adopted. He came to live with us at the age of 18 months. He is now almost 7 years old and he is one of the very few people in my life I love more than anything.

At the age of 4, we took Alex to register him for Smart Start which is a program that prepares little boys to play T-ball. As we were filling out the paperwork to get him into the program one of the coaches suggested that Alex not join the Smart Start program. He said Alex needed to signup for T-ball. He was too big to do Smart Start. So, at the age of 4 years old, Alex became the youngest ball player on his team, the Indians.

He took to T-ball like a pro. He is now starting his fifth “season” which includes spring and fall ball. Alex will move up into the “big boy” league this fall and as a player, he is well prepared and more than able to play with boys older than he is. To me, Heaven would be getting to watch Alex play baseball all day long, everyday.

Alex is a power hitter and a very skilled third base player. This season, he is playing on the pitcher’s mound mainly because he is the most experienced player on his new team. I love to hear the other parents when Alex hits the ball. When Alex runs the bases. Alex is good and it makes me very proud and tremendously happy to watch him play.

I see Alex playing baseball in high school. I see Alex playing baseball in college. I dream of seeing Alex playing baseball in the Major leagues. I would love to spend my retirement sitting in the stands watching my son play professional baseball.

I’m sure I am not the first father to share that dream. It would be sweet if it came true. Time will tell.

The dream did come true for one very proud father. Jim Adenhart flew across country to watch his son pitch for the Los Angeles Angels. The 22-year-old pitcher made his season debut with his father in the stands, throwing six scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics. Just a few short hours later, Nick Adenhart was killed with two other firends by a drunk driver who ran a red light.

The death of that 22 year old young man is tragic.

However, I can’t stop thinking about his father.

“Anything we’re feeling pales in comparison to what the Adenharts are going through. We lost a teammate and a friend. They lost a son. ”

– Angels manager Mike Scioscia

You just can’t trust politicians.

In this video alone Obama states 7 lies and his presidency has only just begun:

1. Make Government Open and Transparent.
2. Make it “Impossible” for Congressmen to slip in Pork Barrel Projects.
3. Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public (republicans shut out).
4. No more secrecy.
5. Public will have 5 days to look at a Bill.
6. You’ll know what’s in it (Republican Senators didn’t know).
7. We will put every pork barrel project online.