Happy Birthday! (again!)

OK... there was a little glitch in the birthday calendar, but I believe all is well now. (Thanks, Becki, for letting me know.)

I should also note that the dates were posted "quick-entry style," so if the date had already passed, it sometimes wouldn't show up until 2009. For example, Mary Powell's birthday was earlier this month, so it won't necessarily show up in the August 2008 calendar, but she's there for 2009. Ben Harless' birthday is Thursday, so his shows up as the first entry since it's after the date I put them all into the calendar.

This calendar is very interactive. Click on the arrows to flip between months, or click on the date and you can flip forward or back to a specific date and it will give you all the calendar listings closest to then.

If anyone else encounters any problems, or if there's corrections to be made, just post a comment on this entry, and I'll get it taken care of ASAP.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

Wow. Two weeks from my last post? Pretty sad. To make up for it, I offer you a couple of new features:

1. A label cloud. This just gives you a quick look at the topics covered in the blog as well as how often: The bigger the point size, the more entries we have on that topic.

2. The self-updating Wilson Family Birthdays calendar, nestled in the rail. You can scroll forward and back, and even print.

I'm guessing the lot of you will be more excited about the second item. As you recall, Kelli brought a big laminated calendar for everyone to mark their family's dates on. She passed it along to me this last weekend, and I told her I'd figure out a way to make it useful for the blog.

As it turned out, it wasn't that hard, at least not in this basic form. If another better format comes along, I'll be sure to update it.

And speaking of updating, please don't hesitate to let me know if there are any errors. I did my best to check myself, but even editors need editors sometimes.

Enjoy the new features. And don't say I never gave ya anything. ;-)

Thanks, Cuz!

Robert and Jack made sure Glenn had his hands full, and Kevin Kelly clicked through it all. Thanks to Kevin, there's lots of cool series shots like these in Slideshow Bob.

—

I got Kevin's DVD of pics a couple days ago and finally got all the Ft. Rob ones loaded into Slideshow Bob. I MIGHT get them captioned someday. Or not. But they're there for your viewing pleasure.

These are fun to watch in slideshow format (third link on the right, if you clicked the above link), given a lot of the pics are consecutive shots — like those above of Glenn getting mauled by a ferocious Jack and Joe-Bob. You'll definitely pick up the expressive nuances that way.

Again, a big thanks to Kevin Kelly. That guy's got talent. Must be related. ;-)

Killer Bunnies, Chapter 1: Delay of Game

Kim, Evan and I were the last to arrive at Ft. Rob, rolling into the park around midnight (local time) July 28.

Much to the shagrin of Dryden, who had managed to hold off the big Killer Bunnies match in my absence, according to the Twitter feed.

DrydenTheMeints: "Dryden is making it so that gina gets to be in on the first killer bunnies game. Mental note: make sure she thanks me. Hehe" (10:02 PM July 28, 2008)

As it turned out, thanks weren't entirely necessary as I staved off later games until Dryden could return from consecutive nights spent attending the Fort's musical productions of "Guys & Dolls" and "South Pacific."

designerGina: "Eric [Reed] wants a practice round before dryden gets here.... i smell fear." (09:22 PM July 30, 2008)

And this was only the beginning.

—

NEXT UP:
Killer Bunnies, Chapter 2: Enter the Spatula

CHEEEEEEEEESE!

I'm sure all of you recognize the above image...
HI KEVIN!

—

I exchanged e-mails with Kevin Kelly earlier this week, wherefore he informed me he had dropped a DVD in the mail for me. So as we speak, a plethora of Kevin's Ft. Rob '08 pics are making their way to my mailbox. Yay!

I believe he extended the same offer to the lot of you, but I'll still put some up here on the blog for all to see.

Thanks, Cuz!

-G

OLÉ!

No two words get this family's taste buds kicked into overdrive like...
TACO TOWN!

The Powell family generously imported Taco Town enchiladas to go with our tacos for the first night's supper. YUM. The leftovers helped Jeff truly appreciate the power of Twitter when he received immediate responses to his txt:

JeffWils: "Leftover enchiladas still good. What do they put in these things?" (01:04 PM July 30, 2008)

That powerful message got Dryden out of bed —
DrydenTheMeints: "Omg! I'm awake!" (01:09 PM July 30, 2008)
— and I heard Paula reported immediately to the main house.

I put Jeff's Twitter name in wrong, so I didn't receive that message in a timely fashion. Boo. But there were lots left over so I did get one of the leftover enchiladas. Yay!

An hour or so later, I was across the way sitting in the "Barista Kitchen" with Kelli, waiting for my latte to brew (thanks, Michelle!), when Ben Harless came in, a paper-towel-wrapped enchilada in each hand.

"Where's the microwave?" he asked. (Yeeeah... it's OK. Kelli and I both laughed, too.) He resigned himself to just eating them cold until I told him he could have a hot one (OK... well... fairly warm, anyway) in about seven minutes. Patience is a virtue, but leftover Taco Town enchiladas are a gift.

—

MUCH GRAS
While I'm thinking about it, a big thanks to Generation Three for providing the evening meals. That's a mighty big task, preparing a meal for 70ish people, so thanks for all your hard work.

Box hockey drama

Evan Johnson really got into the box hockey. Actually, he liked the sticks a lot better. Carried them around for hours whenever he could.

—

MONDAY JULY 28 — There were cheers to the east as Paula's Twitter reported the box hockey was loaded and ready for travel, followed shortly by an update that it might have fallen off. Such a scare prompted a call for prayer, Twittered immediately by Dryden:

DrydenTheMeints: "Dear lord, please protect and keep our sweet sweet wooden playing field..." (04:40 PM July 28, 2008)

BEHOLD, THE POWER OF PRAYER: The box hockey arrived safe and sound, and was a source of great fun for all, as expected.

All a-Twitter

Despite a few snags, I have to say that I was pretty pleased with the overall Twitter experience at Ft. Rob. I myself didn't get the mobile Twitter nuances quite right and so ended up out of the loop during the last leg of my journey, sending in a message or two here and there along the way that led some to believe I was receiving every one of their messages.

(A special thanks to Dryden for postponing the official Killer Bunnies rematch until Gina's arrival.)

Anyway, I'm sure some of you found the Twittering slightly annoying, but hopefully more of you found it to be a boatload of fun. (I know I did.)

I'm guessing so since I think some must have gone into Twitter shock... My notice about some new blog postings stirred up more than a couple of responses — followed by two notifications indicating Glenn Harless was no longer into it. Heh... teen-agers...

So the Twitters continued sporadically days after we'd all parted ways as a few participants checked in along their journeys home... with the rest of us jumping in. Fantastico!

I'll be pulling some Twitter gems out in future postings for those of you who might have missed out...

Feed the beast! (or, "A surprising lack of photos")

Where were stayed... a full house and a half. :-)

—

I was shocked to find out how few photos I actually took at Ft. Rob. Felt like I was always shooting, but my stockpile indicates otherwise. So I updated Slideshow Bob with what I've got, but...

I NEED MORE!

Kevin Kelly has my address and is sending me a CD of his pics. Until then, if anyone would like to contribute to the album, don't hesitate to e-mail me your pics: a1warlord@gmail.com.

Aaaaaand... WE'RE BACK!!! (or "WEBFAIL!")

Ahhhh.... air-conditioning and fresh towels. All the fresh towels I want, even. No charge. (Thanks, Kim and Craig!)

It was really great seeing everyone, and I look forward to combing through my photos and video clips. Probably not quite the selection Kevin Kelly has (I hear he's promised to send CDs...), but we'll see what turns up.

Even with all the pre-Ft. Rob scheming I did, I was still thwarted by limited access. I don't think it due to lack of signal, which I had. Therefore, I'll be doing some retro-posting in the coming days, so check back again soon. You'll all be traveling and unable to look at the blog anyway, right? Close enough.

My brother blamed the webfail on me having a Mac, given that he had no trouble getting his IBM Thinkpad fired up and working just fine. I think it was my Internet provider — rather, it's partner in coverage (or lack thereof), Alltel — unwilling to allow me to access the web outside of California. I will be seeking a refund of equipment AND access charges upon my return.

I guess I could have used Chris' set-up, but all my editing software was on my laptop. Plus, I decided I'd be better off focusing on collecting all the footage and photos and experiences AND THEN posting them up here. Or, at least, that's what I'm telling myself to keep the journalist in me from being outraged about the inability to do live updates. *sigh*

But all is well. I have lots of photos. Not as many as Kevin Kelly, I'm sure, but still a lot. I also have quite a bit of video footage to sort through and/or compile. Look for those in coming days... I know there's some good stuff in there.

Also, I'd encourage any of you to e-mail me photos or video clips that you want posted here. I'd be happy to get them up. Comment postings are encouraged as well.

Check back soon...