Wii Golf

As you can see, I have a new record in nine holes of golf. A new personal record, that is. I was able to get 5 under par! I have included a layout of each hole in the above pics, and instead of putting up 9 more pics to show the yardage, I will list it below, along with the par for each hole:

HOLE.... PAR.....YARDS
1 ......... 4 ........ 381
2 ......... 3 ........ 136
3 ......... 5 ........ 461
4 ......... 3 ........ 146
5 ......... 5 ........ 365
6 ......... 4 ........ 345
7 ......... 4 ........ 258
8 ......... 3 ........ 219
9 ......... 5 ........ 455

I hope y'all will enjoy the links!

Mission Impossible

And here is another one of my favorites...and I am sure it is one of yours as well.

Olympic Torch

I would bet (figuratively speaking) that there a number of you folks who didn't know where the Olympic Torch for the 1996 Games (which were held in Altanta) is currently. I will tell you. It is in a showcase in the lobby of Emory Hospital! That is correct. I didn't know that myself until I saw it this past week. I have always said you learn something new every day.

James Bond Theme

I can't believe I didn't post this for my first song on my blog. Here is a very cool instrumental by the Royal Philharmonic in London.

Radio Blog Club

I failed to mention in my last post that you can listen to almost any song you want at
http://www.radioblogclub.com/
Check it out. You can also embed any song to your website as I did.

Peter Gunn Theme

Here is the Peter Gunn theme, a show from back in the day. It sounds pretty cool if you don't listen to it too much. What do you guys think?

Emory

Here are a few shots from the area where we spent the last couple days. I was at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for a medical study. I had been to Atlanta a couple or three times before but had never spent any time around Emory. The family had been to see the Coca Cola museum, some Braves games and to Stone Mountain, but hadn't ever taken the opportunity to learn about this university which has a well-known medical facility. You would think that here in NC there are plenty of such places that would be able to provide the opportunity of such a study (Duke, UNC, Wake Forest) but none of these offered a chance to participate in a Halt PKD study as I am doing at Emory. I won't go into too much detail, but just say that PKD stands for Polycystic Kidney Disease which is not too well-known considering how many lives are affected by it. The hope for me is to extend the time that I have before I will need dialysis or a kidney transplant. It is good to be around a medical staff who are concerned and committed to limiting the effects of this disease.

Cats in the Cradle

I was listening to Ravi Z. just the other day, and he quoted the song, Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin. In fact, I will post it below, just in case some of you haven't heard it. This song struck a nerve in me long before Pat and I were married, and I determined that I would not be one of those kinda dads... Here are the words to the song:

A child arrived just the other day,
He came to the world in the usual way.
But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay.
He learned to walk while I was away.
And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew,
He'd say, "I'm gonna be like you, dad.
You know I'm gonna be like you."

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."

My son turned ten just the other day.
He said, "Thanks for the ball, dad, come on let's play.
Can you teach me to throw?" I said, "Not today,
I got a lot to do." He said, "That's ok."
And he walked away, but his smile never dimmed,
Said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah.
You know I'm gonna be like him."

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."

Well, he came from college just the other day,
So much like a man I just had to say,
"Son, I'm proud of you. Can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head, and he said with a smile,
"What I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys.
See you later. Can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

I've long since retired and my son's moved away.
I called him up just the other day.
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind."
He said, "I'd love to, dad, if I could find the time.
You see, my new job's a hassle, and the kid's got the flu,
But it's sure nice talking to you, dad.
It's been sure nice talking to you."
And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me,
He'd grown up just like me.
My boy was just like me.

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, son?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then, dad.
You know we'll have a good time then."

But what I had never heard, was what Ravi said after quoting the song. He said that Harry's wife asked him, "When are you going to believe the words to your own song, and come home and spend time with me and the kids?" Harry said, "I have a busy summer, but when its over I will be home then and spend time with you and the kids." Harry never made it home. He was killed in an automobile accident that summer. We can all do well to pay attention and learn from other's mistakes.

Wii Fitness

Well, I have to say that I feel pretty good about myself today, seeing how I reduced my age by 33 years! According to today's fitness test, I am as fit as a 24 year-old! That is younger than my baby Ben! The skills involved were putting (from the green,) power bowling (which involves starting with 10 pins and working your way up to 91 pins in a single frame) and boxing. The boxing skill involves punching a bag until you knock it off its chains. The skill that I seem to have the most trouble with is baseball. The one where you try to hit the ball over the fence for a home run. (Although I did get 3 homers the other night.) As we can all see from the chart, I have been a bit up and down in my fitness. Now I need to concentrate on keeping fit, even when I'm tested in baseball.

Memory

Watching CBS News Sunday Morning can be very educational. Take this past Sunday. In one segment they were talking about memory. They show you parts of the brain that is responsible for our memory. (I was a bit fearful that I wouldn't remember enough to write about it here, but maybe I will do OK.) They talked about the hippocampus, which after reading a bit more about it, I have learned that everybody has two of these, one on each side of the brain, and they are located in the temporal lobes. In Alzheimer's Disease, the hippocampus is the first area of the brain to suffer damage. Damage to this can also be caused by oxygen starvation--see the Wikipedia text. Sorry if I got a bit too technical here, but I thought this was interesting. It is good to know what part of the brain gives us our memories. As they said on the CBS show, you are your memories.

Mindbenders

What you see here are three puzzles I was given for Christmas. I was able to master all of them, however the one with the square edges in the foreground gave me quite a fit for a bit. The simple one is the star-shaped on on the left. And the one one the right, just has a lot of pieces and once you figure out the basic premise, you can tackle it given enough time. The real problem with the one in the foreground is that there are interlocking parts, and you have to figure out how the next-to-last piece goes in, and then you can figure how the last piece goes in. If anyone wants to give these a try, just come on by.

Kids were home

I have been negligent in saying what a joy it was to have our children home for Christmas. David came from California to spend a good long visit with us. Ben and Sarah had the whole month of December off from seminary, and came for two visits, one early in Dec. and the other one right at Christmas and the week following. I put the manger scene up here so we would all remember the true meaning of Christmas: God's gift of his only son, Jesus to come to this earth to die on the cross for our sins, so that we might trust Him as Saviour and Lord, and have eternal life .

Wii Sports

At first, I didn't think that this toy would be this much fun. I am speaking of the Wii Nintendo game. I had turned pro in golf earlier, and last night with a score of 224, it threw me into the pro status in bowling. At the very least, this game (or these games) will get you off of the couch, and moving about a bit. You aren't just sitting there pushing buttons on the controller.