Picasa 3

Google continues it's march toward world domination. Well, maybe not world domination, but they do have a new version of Picasa out. It's still in beta, but that's not stopping me from giving it a try. I've been using Picasa 3 now for several weeks and my my initial reaction: I really like it. Picasa is Google's free photo software that is simple to use and takes care of all basic photo editing chores you might have. Picasa 3 is not a revolutionary upgrade, but does add several useful new features (see link below for details). If you're not using Picasa yet, I highly recommend it. If you're using Picasa 2, I would encourage you to upgrade if you don't mind running a beta version. See link below for download site.

http://picasa.google.com/

Info on new features in version 3

High School Football

Last night, Macy and I went to a local high school football game - ECS was playing host to Moorehaven. Our nephew, Tyler Leach, plays for ECS and we've been wanting to get to a game to watch him play. We picked a good one - it was homecoming for ECS. Unfortunately, it rained most of the game. But we stuck it out, almost to the very end. It was actually a pretty exciting game, with lots of offense. ECS won with a final score of 50-38. I guess if you're going to sit in the rain watching a high school football game, you at least want some excitement. Congrats to ECS for the victory. And in spite of all the rain, Macy and I had a great time.

Attitudes

Quality of life is greatly determined by my attitude. If my attitude stinks, life doesn't seem so great. But when I have a good attitude, everything seems better. The thing that messes with our attitudes the most is change. Nobody likes change. Yesterday I had to tell some folks about a change that I knew they would not be so crazy about. What was so cool was how they responded. While they didn't like the change, they understood the purpose behind the change and had a great attitude about it. What a great reminder to me how important our attitudes are and how much they impact our lives and especially the lives of those around us.

How's your attitude today?

Off the Ship

We arrived back in Ft Myers yesterday afternoon after a truly relaxing and wonderful cruise to the Caribbean. For me personally, it was a time of needed relaxation and rest. But there is also something wonderful about returning home and to the routine and rhythm of life. I'm looking forward to Monday morning, running early and going into the office. I'm off the ship and back into the real world...and that's a good thing.

Here are some pics from our cruise...

Omar Update

Hurricanes and cruises don't mix well. Fortunately for our cruise we were able to avoid Omar and not experience any negative effects of this storm, other than we were unable to port in San Juan today (not a big deal for me personally).  So if you were worried about how Omar was impacting our cruise, no problem...we're good. BTW, I have never seen a hurricane with this path. Very strange.

Crusin' Day 3

Something about spending 2 days at sea on one of the world’s largest cruise ship that puts one in a relaxed frame of mind. Believe it or not, I didn’t even check my email for 48 hours! We arrived in Philipsburg, St Maarten this morning. We had an great time of worship and Bible study with our group Sunday morning. And yesterday morning (Monday) we had our first marriage seminar session. Other than that I’ve been eating, sunning, chillin, eating, hanging out with Macy and friends, eating, and having a great time. I think I could live on this ship.

Group news: Wayne Woodring won the Belly-flop competition yesterday. He won this same award 2 years ago on Navigator of the Seas.

We had a nice time in St Maarten this morning. Gotta run and get ready to go eat again.

Cruisin

We leave for a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise this morning with a group of couples from our church. I'm so looking forward to the time away and I the time with Macy. I will be leading seminar sessions during the week on marriage, which I love to do. And the rest of the time...I will be relaxing and enjoying the beautiful Caribbean weather and view.

For those wanting a little more detail: We be on Royal Caribbean's "Liberty of the Seas" for a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise. 

I hope to blog and post pictures of our trip.

Back Into the Habit

I know...it's been over a month since I last blogged. I had been consistent for a year and a half, and then I just fell out of the blogosphere. My goal: get back into the swing of posting regularly.

Once I got out of the habit, it was real easy to keep "not posting." But lately I've had quite a few people (Jana, Rob, Gerald, Pamela and a few others I can't think of now) encouraging me to get back to the blog and start posting again. I think that was the encouragement I needed.

So, here I go. Back into the habit.