Here’s a few video clips to clear the deck:
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Packers fans aren’t the only ones unhappy with the way Ted Thompson is managing the team:
It is disappointing. It was a done deal and the stories of how we lost him because he didn’t want to restructure his contract were not true.
He was going to wipe his contract clean and sign for $3 million guaranteed, plus a fourth-round draft pick. That would have been a steal. But we were not willing to guarantee part of that $3 million. I even had (agent) Bus (Cook) call up there and tell them I would give up part of my salary to guarantee that part of the money. Apparently that wasn’t enough either.
I just want to win; maybe I see things the wrong way. I don’t want to ruffle any feathers and I want people to respect me. Sometimes I think it’s hard for them to let Brett go. They might think that we pay him a lot of money, but he still gives us the best chance to win. I’ve never been told that, but there are times when I wonder if I’m the odd man out here and they just don’t know how to tell me.
This is a first-class organization that wants to win. I want to win now.
I told Donald to imagine a one-back set with a three-man rotation. Who would they (opposing defenses) cover? If they double Randy, Donald would be in single coverage. Last year, he caught 92 balls in double and triple coverage and made the Pro Bowl.
Our offense struggled last season. If it were not for our defense, we would not have won eight games. Right now, it’s hard to be optimistic. I’m not getting any younger and I think everyone knows that. I don’t have five years to rebuild. No one in Green Bay is saying rebuild but it’s hard to look at where we are going and say, ‘How can they not be rebuilding?’
I don’t know if I’ve lost faith, and I think everyone in the organization wants to win. I just don’t know if it includes me. If it’s going to be five years from now, I’m not going to be here. This is 17 years for me and I want to win.
As a result, Favre asked to be traded after the NFL draft. It seems that his temper has cooled in the last two weeks. I don’t want to see him go to another team, but I can certainly undersand why he’d want to.
Here’s a video of Esther, about a month old, practicing holding her head up. She’s even better at it now.
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/04041725-Neck%20Exercises.flv 320 212]
Our weekend story starts on Thursday evening. That’s when I took Christine out to get her birthday ice-cream cone: mint oreo from Broux Nellie’s. (We had to get birthday ice-cream on the day after the birthday because Broux Nellie’s closed before we could get there on Wednesday.) After eating our ice-cream cones, we decided that the night really needed some more excitement. So we grabbed the baby, piled into the car, and burnt rubber for the Verona Public Library — a brand-new multi-million dollar edifice to books. We browsed the DVD section.
True confession: I’ve never watched Rocky. I’ve never watched any of the Rocky movies. Ever. Really. It was in the Verona DVD section. I checked it out. Christine checked out some episodes of Little House on the Prairie. So it goes. Daughter was getting a bit cranky, so we brought her home.
Friday night I started watching Rocky.
The real excitement happened Saturday. Around about 11:30, I left home and took the new Camry to get its first oil change. Truly a big moment in the life of our car. While I was overseeing this import milestone, Christine was at home frosting a cake (and decorating it with frosting flowers) for Katherine’s bridal shower. Around 13:30 I brought our car home with a shiny new oil filter and fresh clean oil. Christine fed Esther while I prepared lunch for the two of us. Christine continued frosting the cake while I took a nap.
Around 16:30, we left home for Esther’s first ever baseball game. The Pittsburgh Pirates were in town to play the major-league (and NL Central Division) leading Milwaukee Brewers. Christine and I enjoyed each other’s conversation during the 80 minute drive to the stadium. We parked at Miller Park as the first pitch was being thrown. We changed Esther in the back-seat of the Camry before walking into the stadium.
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Esther was mesmerized by the events of the evening. We enjoyed watching Mark Suppan control the Pirates and J. J. Hardy cement the victory with a three run homer. We enjoyed the promotional $1.00 hotdogs and a $3.00 hot, soft pretzel. We also saw a Pirates pitcher earn himself an ejection:
The game got chippy after Hardy socked his three-run homer off Pittsburgh reliever Matt Capps in the seventh. Capps threw a 0-1 pitch toward the head of the next hitter, Prince Fielder, who managed to lift his shoulder at the last second and deflect the ball.
With Fielder on the ground, keeping his cool but staring at Capps, and the rest of the Brewers poised for action on the top step of the dugout, home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez ejected the pitcher. Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy came out to argue, but Marquez was in no mood to listen after seeing Fielder almost get beaned.
“Capps has got pretty good control,” Yost said. “If you look at his numbers (two walks in 15 1/3 innings), he’s not walking a lot of hitters. It looked a little fishy.
“If you can’t keep your composure and you throw at a guy, there’s a difference in throwing down low and throwing at your head.”
Miller Park has a retractable roof. That came in handy this evening. The temperature was cooling throughout the day as the breeze continued to pick up. By game time, the weather was quite breezy and chilly. The Brewers opted to close the roof, leaving the park warm and pleasant for the game. As we exited the stadium, we were buffeted by a continual wind. Fortunately, Christine had planned ahead: we draped a blanket over Esther and the baby carrier. She never felt a thing.
As we left the stadium parking lot, we listed to a podcast interview between John Piper and Bruce Ware. They covered such topics as particular redemption (about half-way down, under “Limited Atonement”), the New Perspective on Paul, and several of Dr. Piper’s books.
Three of the books that they particularly mentioned were What Jesus Demands from the World, Desiring God, and When I Don’t Desire God. I own the first one and knew it was available to read online. I don’t own the other two (I’d like to), but looked them up this evening and realized that they were also available to read online. I greatly appreciate the ministry of Dr. Piper and am truly thankful that his resources are available for free. Spiritual growth shouldn’t have a cover charge and I treasure the opportunity to learn from him even when I’m on a tight budget.
We arrived home after 2330. Christine decorated the cake some more while I uploaded photos and watched Rocky. Christine fed Esther while I finished Rocky. Christine finished decorating the cake, while I organized photos and typed this brief recounting of the fun we’ve had.
More adventures to come!
We’ve had warm weather before now, but it was interrupted by an unfortunate bout of snow. [fa:p:t=snow,id=461746104,j=l,s=t,l=p] Thankfully, that all melted away fairly quickly and we’ve been enjoying warmer temperatures this past week. We had a high near 80 degrees last Sunday and the high will be around 86 degrees today. In-between we’ve had highs between 60 and 76 degrees.
Last weekend my customer, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, upgraded their Production system from Epic’s Summer 05 release to Epic’s Spring 07 release. They became our first customer to use Spring 07 for billing. Most of my week at work was spent helping them overcome upgrade issues that weren’t identified during their pre-upgrade testing.
Friday night was Epic’s annual anniversary dinner — Epic’s 28th year! Christine and I weren’t able to attend, because we underestimated the difficulty of finding a baby sitter. We won’t make that same mistake next year. We already know that date and we can start planning early!
Saturday we cut our grass for the first time in 2007. All of those months of snow paid off as our grass looks green and healthy. For dinner we invited James and Liz over. Christine marinated chicken in greek seasoning, then I grilled it. I think I’ve finally caught on to the whole “grilling thing” as the chicken was perfectly cooked and nicely browned. Now that I know what I’m doing, I think I’m going to really enjoy grilling this summer.
Mike Ivy wrote a good overview of Epic in the Capital Times, a few years back. If you’ve been wondering about Epic’s culture, history, or philosophy, it’s worth a read. Excerpts:
But precious little is really known about Epic Systems Corp. or its enigmatic founder, Judy Faulkner, a computer mastermind who developed one of the world’s first databases organized around an individual patient.
Launched in 1979 with $70,000 in cash and a $70,000 bank loan, Epic Systems has quietly emerged as one of the leading medical software companies in the world. Its recent growth has been astronomical: from 172 employees in 1996 to over 1,600 today. Sales topped $285 million last year, up 30 percent from 2003.
While many technology companies churn out press releases almost daily touting their latest product or sales deal in an effort to excite investors, Epic has chosen to fly well below the radar screen.
The company remains privately held by its employees - shares are repurchased when anyone leaves - and maintains it has no intention of ever making a public stock offering. The share price has gone from $14 in 1996 to over $100 today, making Faulkner one of the most successful, if not wealthiest, businesswomen in the state.
For snacking, coffee, tea, cocoa, milk, fruit juice, mineral water and microwave popcorn are free. Employees can bring in their pets on weekends. Epic also makes an annual donation in employees’ names to a charity of their choice.
“Culture eats strategy every time,” Faulkner told the Madison Club crowd, in explaining her Zen-tinged business philosophy.
Read the full article for more…
Yesterday was beautiful. The temperature climbed up the mid-60’s and the sun shone all day long. I decided to take a half day and was home by 1:30pm. After eating a quick lunch, Christine, Esther, and I hit the road for the Johnson Creek Premium Outlet Mall. We spent the afternoon browsing through the various stores and walking around the complex. Esther was cheerful the entire time and I enjoyed playing with her while Mommy checked out the merchandise.
We left for Madison around 7pm (driving into the sun the entire way) and had dinner at Abuelo’s around 8pm. The food was delicious and we can both highly recommend the restaurant. Esther wanted to taste the food too, but Mommy said her digestive system wasn’t ready for that yet.
Later that same Sunday, Christine taped Esther playing in her bassinet.
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2007/13-Bassinet%20Fun.flv 320 212]
I taped this early on a Sunday morning, after Esther had eaten. She can be in a really good mood, when she wants to be.
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Esther isn’t able to roll over yet, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying!
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Esther is slowly — but surely! — getting the hang of smiling when she’s happy. Look and see:
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2007/10-Trying%20to%20Smile.flv 320 212]
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2007/05-Getting%20Dressed.flv 320 240]
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2007/06-In%20My%20Chair.flv 320 240]
The first in a series of new videos. Watch as Esther enjoys getting her diaper changed.
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As you may have noticed, we hadn’t yet taken any pictures of the entire “Wisconsin Martins” family. We decided to do a photoshoot today and fix that. We not only got pictures of “The Wisconsin Martins”, but also pictures with Grandma and Grandpa Shearer.
We’ll upload some of the actual photos later. For now, we put together a slideshow of the entire photoshoot. Enjoy.
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2007/03-Photo%20Shoot.flv 320 240]
Music is Lullaby by Don Francisco.
Esther is one week old today. To celebrate, we gave her her first bath. As you’ll see in the video, she can be quite a screamer when she wants to be. Just for the record, she also screams like this every single time she has her diaper changed. You’re welcome to come and help out, anytime.
[flv:http://disk.wordflood.net/public/Esther/2007/02-Esther%27s+First+Bath.flv 320 240]
Christine and I uploaded 7 new photos of Esther this morning.
Enjoy.
We uploaded six new pictures to Esther’s photoset at Flickr.
If you already watched the “Esther at the Hospital” video, you may have noticed that it was pretty quiet. That was a mistake. There should be some sound with the video (although not much. She is a pretty quiet baby). The mistake has been fixed and the video now has sound. Enjoy.
For the video posts, there is a “Download” link beneath the video. To play these video files, you will need a recent version of Quicktime or iTunes. (Download Quicktime or download iTunes.) The iTunes download page asks for an e-mail address, but you don’t have to provide one.
If you decide to download and use iTunes, you will be able to subscribe to our “vodcast” with iTunes. That will let iTunes automatically download and save any new videos we put online. Here’s the link to subscribe to the vodcast (this link will only work with iTunes): subscribe with iTunes.
You don’t have to download and use iTunes. If you’d prefer, you can simply install Quicktime. Quicktime will allow you to watch the saved videos, but it won’t allow you to automatically download new ones.
Hi Everybody! Mom and dad brought me home from the hospital, around 4pm on Saturday. It felt weird — I wasn’t even 48 hours old yet, but I was already home and ready to explore the world. Now that I’ve been released from the hospital, I can’t wait to meet all of ya’ll. (Dad’s teaching me to speak Southern.)
Mom and I are doing fine, but we’d still appreciate your prayers as we get to know each other. Thanks!