Thank God It's Friday: Day after Thanksgiving Edition

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I certainly have a lot to be thankful for. Here's just a little:

• I am loved by God
• He sent His son to die on the cross so that I could have a relationship with him
• The Holy Spirit guides me day-by-day
• I am blessed with a good job that I have been at for almost fourteen years
• I have a wonderful wife to whom I have been married for over twelve years
• I have a nine year old son who has the heart of a servant
• I have a six year old son who has more energy than I know what to do with
• I've got two cars - both of which at the moment have almost full tanks of gas
• I own three electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, a five-string electric bass, an acoustic bass, a mandolin, a banjo, a mountain dulcimer (which I share with my wife), another acoustic guitar (which was bought for my wife but lives in my music room), a clarinet, and perhaps a few other musical instruments that are hiding around here (not to mention my wife's piano and the boys' guitars)
• I could go on, but I'm enjoying a movie with my family at the moment...

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for Elevators

It's true. Sometimes you don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. Well, today as I got to work there were a few things that seemed strange. One set of lights (leading from the garage to the walkway over to my building) were out even though it appeared that the building itself had power. Then I got to the elevator lobby and the elevators weren't working. A gentleman who was waiting in the elevator lobby said that the lights in the stairwell were out too. It seems that building had power but everything thing that would have been on emergency power was out. Ugh! So, as I climb five flights of stairs (from the second floor elevator lobby to my seventh floor office), with the only light coming from the flashlight app on my iPod Touch (yes, there's an app for that!), I want to say, "Thank God for elevators!"

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for Ryan Zimmerman

It was a good week for one of my favorite players. Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. The Gold Glove recognizes excellence on the field. Even though he had 17 errors (mostly throwing errors), Ryan covered more ground than most other third basemen and got to many balls that others wouldn't have gotten to and turned them into outs. The Silver Slugger is given to the best offensive player at each position. Zimmerman had a great season hitting for power, average, and producing runs. The tandem of Zimmerman and Dunn (though sometimes Dunn and Zimmerman) proved to be one of the highlights in a mostly unpleasant season for the Nationals. So, today I say "Thank God for Ryan Zimmerman."

Today's Google Doodle

The Sesame Street tribute is finished. It is appropriate that today's Google doodle celebrates Veterans Day. Thank you to all of the veterans who have served to keep our country safe!

Hail, Hail, the gang's all here!

In what is (IIRC) the final of the series of Sesame Street tribute logos on the Google home page, we find the entire gang (at least the primary Muppets) from Sesame Street.

I wasn't counting on this...

Today's Sesame Street themed Google logo: Count von Count!

Today's Google Sesame Street Logo: Elmo

The tribute to Sesame Street continues. Today's logo is Elmo.

Today's Google Sesame Street Logo

Today, I present to you... Oscar the Grouch!

Thank God It's Friday: Thank God for Sesame Street

As the celebration of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary continues, I want to chime in and say "Thank God for Sesame Street." I have fond memories of watching Sesame Street when I was a kid and even some of watching it with my kids. The other night, I was watching some of the videos up for best clip of the '80s (after my time as a regular Sesame Street watcher) and my top choice was "Put Down The Ducky" featuring Ernie and his rubber ducky. My boys liked the making crayons and making peanut butter best. I am enjoying Google paying tribute with a new Sesame Street logo daily (through the 10th I hear). Who's my favorite Sesame Street character? It's hard to say. If I could choose three, I'd go for Cookie Monster, Grover, and Oscar the Grouch! To pick one favorite, I suppose it would depend on what mood I'm in. I'm a little bit hungry at the moment, so I might have to choose Cookie Monster...

But really, Sesame Street did have an impact on me. I can even remember regularly going over to a neighbor's house to watch it. The few fragments of Spanish that I know were probably learned on Sesame Street. If I could just figure out what the word abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz means, I'd be the smartest bird this world has ever seen. Thank God for Sesame Street.

More Google does Sesame Street

I'm really enjoying Google's tribute to Sesame Street. Today has me wanting cookies!

O is for Ooops

"Oops!" That's what I thought to myself this morning shortly after arriving at the office. What did I do? Well, let me begin back in August...

Prior to my birthday, my wife had placed order through a certain online mega-retailer for Big Country's Greatest 12" hits CD. I had a number of Big Country 12" records back in my college days and really enjoyed the extended remixes of these songs. The CD was not released here in the US, but was being sold as an import. After a short while, my wife got an emailer from the aforementioned mega-retailer that they would ship the CD some time in October (my birthday was in September). OK, whatever... As October puttered on, my wife got another email stating that they hoped to ship the CD sometime in November. OK, I'm getting a little impatient here... I went online to the Big Country official web site went to the contact us page and posted an question of how fast I could get the CD if I ordered through them. After getting a reply, I placed an order through their online store and my wife cancelled the mega-retailer order. Well, yesterday, my CD arrived (still ahead of the latest mega-retailer estimate)! I was excited. We listened to it on the way to (and then home from) Costco. I ripped the CD and created a playlist so that I could put it on my iPod and listen to it at work today. I got to work and was ready to crank up the extended remixes only to find that I had neglected to sync the new playlist to my iPod. OOPS

It's just cool... that's all

Today's Google logo is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street.

If you're in the UK and hitting Google (UK), they're celebrating the 20th anniversary of Wallace and Grommet.