My boys are now old enough that I can share the enjoyment of listening to music with them. Of course, this most commmonly happens in the car, so I’ve put together the following list of songs that we listen to most often.

Appropriately enough, I’ve called this list “the Minivan Soundtrack”. It’s mostly an up tempo collection of popular songs from movies, television shows, sporting events, and kid’s radio.

I recommend picking 15 to 20 of these and making your own travel CD. Then all you need to do is flash the vehicle dome light to the beat for an instant, mobile dance party with your family! Keep both hands on the wheel, please!!

Let me know some of your family favorites!



My wife and I were lucky enough to have 2 tickets to the practice round and Par 3 Tournament on Wednesday, April 8, for the 2009 Masters.  After an incredible morning of walking the Augusta National Golf Club, we made our way over to the Par 3 course and settled down on our chairs for the afternoon. We picked a spot where we could watch the Par 3 action on several tee boxes and greens simultaneously. Since golfer pairings and start times were not published we had no idea who we would see. We did not expect to watch anyone we had not already seen on the full course during the morning practice round.

From our spot, we really could not tell who was coming until they reached the tee box of the third hole, and even there I had to zoom in with my camera to recognize players. The third tee box was across a lake and up a hill about 300 yards away from us while the green was about 100 yards closer. When I heard the crowd start to buzz around a corner of trees on Hole 2 I knew somebody special was coming, and when the cheers intensified and the crowd swelled on the green to left of the third tee box I got my camera ready. I must have been grinning from ear to ear as I slowly figured out the threesome that was causing such a stir.

Three icons of Golf. Each a Masters Champion multiple times: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player.

I’ve been to PGA tournaments before and I’ve watched Phil, Tiger, Vijay and the stars of my generation compete. As special as those experiences have been, they now fall short of seeing these three men having fun and enjoying each other’s company on a Wednesday afternoon. To be in the middle of the Augusta tradition, on day I was allowed to take photos, and see these legends together for me made an incredible memory on an amazing day!

I got this picture in an email from a friend. This photo says it all about the wait times at gas stations In metro Atlanta recently.

The photo was taken from a cell phone camera while in line for a station in Marietta, GA.

Lifehacker.com’s Banish telemarketers from your phone is a post that everyone needs to read. If you want to stop telemarketers from calling any of your phone numbers use the National Do Not Call Registry. Here’s some more information from donotcall.gov:

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. Most telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website. You can register your home or mobile phone for free.

Your registration will not expire. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. Read more about it at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/04/dncfyi.shtm.

Computer keyboards can be dirtier than a toilet: study is an article from news.yahoo.com that caught my attention, and will defnitely make me clean my keyboard and mouse more often!

“A study by British consumer magazine “Which? Computing” asked a microbiologist to examine 33 keyboards in a typical London office, a toilet seat and a toilet door handle, for bugs generally found in unhygienic places.

Four keyboards were judged potential health hazards and the microbiologist recommended the removal of one keyboard as it had 150 times the pass limit of bacteria — five times filthier than the swabbed toilet seat.”

More from the article: (more…)

If you have a Nintendo Wii then you know all about creating Mii characters to play in the games like Wii Sports, Wii Play, and even other titles like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Miieditor.com is a website that lets you create or edit a Mii and save it to a .jpg. So you could create your own avatar for other applications, for example. With some additional software and a bluetooth connection to a computer, you can even transfer the Mii you made on-line to your WiiRemote.

Try it for yourself here.

(more…)

As a Falcons season ticket holder I received a letter recently from Arthur Blank.

A quick summary of the letter :

• Appropriately, it is an apology for the past season.
• Announces that ticket prices will remain the same for next year, and in some cases even be reduced.
• The Georgia Dome will get a new exterior paint job and some internal color changes too.
• The hunt for a GM and Coach continues

The entire letter can be read here: (more…)

Welcome to the new treesum.homeip.net!

I have switched to a blog format so I can more easily add content, opinions, and news.