The "Man Trip"

What Happens in Nashville...DOESN'T stay in Nashville...

Cameron the Environmentalist...

Cameron was selected to be the lead in a recycling commercial for Mashburn Elementary...I asked Cam why he was selected to be the lead...he told me, "Dad...it's because of my good looks...' I think he was selected for his humbleness...

Update to the flooding in my basement...The Weekend in Review Part II

I mentioned in an earlier post that I heard water gushing in my basement when I was walking upstairs to go to bed. Here is a picture I took when I reached the bottom of my basement steps. A lot has happened since this time...the Water Restoration Company (aka Water Sucker Uppers) was here...the Insurance Adjuster (aka Money Sucker Outers)...and the Carpet Cleaner Uppers have been at my house more than I have been over the past 2 weeks...



But they're finally gone. This weekend Cameron and I spent a lot of time putting all the furniture back in place...and it's just in time...we're getting ready for a visit from the Jensen/Murrey Clan.

Here's the Rec Room in the basement...looks pretty good if I do say so myself...



Since I had to take all my books off the shelves for the Water Sucker Uppers I decided to put the books back in a neater, more organized way...if you can zoom in you'll notice a section for the classics; Tom Sawyer, The Grapes of Wrath, etc. There's a section for my favorite Political Books; The Tempting of America, The Tragedy of American Compassion, The Road to Serfdom, Free to Choose, etc. I also have a section for my text books, DVD's, and records. You know how it feels good when you organize things...I "pity the fool" who moves these books - even a inch - they will die a slow painful death :)

I even cleaned up my Cave...aka the Storage Room...aka the Workout Room...aka the Cat Room. I used some of the extra carpeting from one of the rooms upstairs...it looks pretty good...

I put the furniture back in the guest room...hmmm...looks good...a little moldy...but good :)

I even cleaned up the room where the flood started...this is the room with the furnace, water heater, and various other pipes, wires, nobs, valves...doodads...thing-a-ma-jiggers...you know...the stuff that a guy who grew up in an apartment has no idea what they do. Well, I might not know what these things do...BUT...the room is SO clean it will be easy for one of those smart, handy guys (you know the guys who look at me like I'm an idiot when I can't answer questions like, "Where's your main water shut off?") to find the broken twisty, valvy, what-cha-ma-call-it, doodads, thingys...so they can fix it...

The Weekend in Review...Part I

This weekend got off to a bad start. We all had plans to go to Kelsie's Horse Show in South Carolina but on Thursday we found out Cameron had a pre-season baseball game and so we had to change our plans. We had to decide how to cover the game and the horse show. I asked Kelsie if she would like me or mommy to take her to her show. She looked at me and said, "Uhhhh...uhhh...uhhhh...I don't know." That was enough to tell me my little girl...didn't want me to take her...sniff, sniff...whatever happened to that little girl who used to love spending time with her daddy???

Friday morning started off even worse. When Kelsie woke up she "broke her toe". - She didn't want me to drive her to her horse show - she breaks a toe...a coincidence...I think not :) - I'm sure she broke her toe because she told me she did and when I looked at her toe I agreed, "Yes Kels it does look swollen. It might be broken." She looked up at me and said, "Aaa...Daddy, It's the other foot...." Luckily for Kelsie her bones heal very quickly...it appears her broken toe healed in just under 1.5 hours...maybe sooner.

When Cameron woke up on Friday he felt a little weak and shaky but he thought he felt good enough to go to school. He made it through about 4 hours of school before he had to come home. I had to leave work early to go home and take care of him because Kelsie and Sheri had to leave at 4:30 p.m. to drive to South Carolina. Here he is recovering in the Intensive Care Unit at the Hand Memorial Hospital.
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On Saturday Cameron woke up feeling a little weak but strong enough for his game. Around 2:00 p.m. we drove to Central Park fields in Cumming for the big game. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication between our coaches and the park staff. The game had to be cancelled because the fields were all being used by several traveling teams who were having an all day tournament at the park. Cam did get a little batting practice in so the trip to the park wasn't a total waste. Plus we watched some of the tournament while enjoying the 75 degree weather.




After we left the park we went home and took care of some things around the house. As you know from my previous post we had a flood last week. We had to put all our furniture in the basement back in position...

After a movie (Zzz) and dinner (burp) we went to my office to pickup a few things I left when I ran out of the office on Friday to take care of Cam. Here's Cameron pulling into the visitor parking space in the UPS parking lot...


I gave Cam a quick tour. In our lobby we have a small model of the UPS Corporate Offices...

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Here's Cam riding in my own private elevator...


Here's Cam chilling in my chair...


Here' Cam watching me chill in my chair...


Here's Cam waiting to get on my private elevator to go home...in case someone from UPS reads this...I know it's not exactly my own private elevator but I'm trying to impress the people who read my blog...

In the lobby we have a replica of the first package car UPS ever used.

The weekend's not over so there might be more to come...

Weekend Update...

Friday started out with my daughter, Kelsie Lyn Gardner Collins Hand having six, YES six, baby teeth pulled out by an Oral Surgeon. Lucky for Kelsie, President Obama included $750,000,000 in his budget for the Tooth Fairy. Apparently, the Tooth Fairy overextended herself and was on the verge of bankruptsy. I'm not sure how it happened but I'm sure it was George Bush's fault. There were a few stipulations to this bailout. The Tooth Fairy will no longer be able to give money to children of parents who earn more than $250,000 per year. There will be an Earned Income Tooth Credit for children whose teeth don't fall out. And finally rich kids have to give 50% of their teeth to poor kids because on average rich children have more teeth then poor kids and that gives rich kids an unfair advantage over poor kids. Based on Obama's plan Kelsie will receive $5 per tooth but only if she commits to 5 years in the Peace Corp, promises to recycle, "volunteers" to help the needy, and donates $24 to the DNC.

As of Sunday, Kelsie is doing extremely well - all things considered. With only 2 teeth remaining in her mouth...all she needs to do is go to school without shoes on and she'll fits in perfectly with all her other Southern Redneck friends.

Here are the teeth Kelsie had pulled...one tooth below is not actually one of Kelsie's teeth...can you guess which one?

On Saturday Kelsie, Cameron, and I went to McDonald's for our weekly Daddy/Daughter/Son time. We had a great time but we were there for 4 hours because Kelsie had no teeth to chew her Hot Cakes and Cinnamon Melt so we had to wait for the food to dissolve in her mouth.

After McDonald's Cameron had an indoor baseball practice. I am very impressed with Cameron's coaches and his teammates. They are all very nice and the coaches do an excellent job running their baseball practices. They are excellent teachers of the game and they run a very efficient, effective practice. Cameron will be playing 2nd base and he'll do some pitching this year. He is having his best spring training ever - I am expecting great things again from him this year!

I spent Saturday night as Kelsie's chauffeur. I took her and her friends to the AMC Movie Theater at The Avenue to see the Pink Panther. After the movie I took them to "Seussical" a musical about Dr. Seuss stuff. They loved it. What did I do while they were at the movie and musical? I sat in my car reading an Accounting Book...brushing up on accruals, deferrals, owner's equity, assets, liabilities, income statements, cash flow statements, treasury stock, par value, contributed capital - I can't wait to get to the end of the book to see how it ends. I'm guessing it ends with a banking crises and a deep recession which is solved by doing more of the same that got us into this mess...

Sunday has been a strange day. Global Warming is hitting Georgia hard! It looks like we're going to get a couple of inches of snow. I'm so thankful Al Gore brought the danger of Global Warming to our attention. If we act soon we might be able to turn this warming trend around before it's too late. Maybe if we all stop driving cars and passing gas, like Al Gore suggested, this global warming trend will end...