Just got some cool news earlier today. My friend Michelle in Atlanta forwarded me a link several months back to a cover photo contest for Professional Photographer Magazine. Well, I got an email from their DIrector of Publications today telling me I was receiving an Honorable Mention Award. Honestly, when I was reading the email I was thinking to myself, 'Okay, Self.... Honorable Mention. That's probably what everyone who enters and doesn't place 1st, 2nd or 3rd receives.' But then me and Self were pleasantly surprised [read: totally excited] to read on to find out that only 18 people were awarded Honorable Mentions out of 50,000 image entries. So cool, and such a blessing. The image below of beautiful Emily and her Super Dad, Brent, will be featured in the November issue of Professional Photographer Magazine. Congrats to you both, and thanks for allowing me to capture this fun father-daughter moment!

So I'm posting about a blog with big pictures without actually showing a picture at all. The irony is palatable, isn't it? I love big dramatic news photos that tell stories. If you do, too (and I know you do), check out and bookmark The Big Picture.

Hey, so I just noticed that Blog celebrated a little milestone over the weekend surpassing the 50,000 visitor mark. Granted, about a thousand of those visits, maybe fifteen hundred, were probably me visiting my own blog, and I know 50k is small potatoes compared to some blogs out there, but Blog was pretty excited since she's only been around since mid-May. So, Happy 50,000th Visitor Day, Blog. And thanks to all of you who take the time to drop in every once in a while. I know we're all crazy busy these days, and we put a premium on our time, so I'm humbled, excited and sometimes bewildered that some of you have become regular visitors, kinda like Norm ("Norm!") from Cheers. It's much more fun to post when you know there's actually a couple people reading the stuff I'm throwing out there. In the early days on my old blog, I think I seriously had, like, 9 visitors in the first two months. I don't think anybody but my friend Tina and I were stopping by the blog and I think she was stopping by to proof read and report typos. It was still fun, though... and it still is today. Hey, whaddya say we give away something cool to the 100,000th visitor, Blog?

Found this fun little productivity diversion today. Go to wordle.net and click on the create tab near the top. Just follow the instructions and enter your blog address or any site with an RSS feed and viola. Instant art showing you the words most commonly used on the first page of your blog. I have my blog currently set-up to show only 5 posts per page, so my resulting masterpiece is really just a reflection of what's been on my blog's mind for the last 5 posts (the last couple days). With the new house, it's no surprise that "fixing" is the word of the week on the blog. Really crafty site because you can customize just about anything with your word map including fonts, colors, word orientation, word cloud shape, etc. Too much fun for one little site. Give it a try. And just for bonus fun, I took the speeches of each of the presidential candidates during their respective conventions and plugged them into Wordle to see which buzz words they used most. Some surprising and not-so-surprising contrasts. First up, Senator Obama.

And finally, Senator McCain.

Last weekend Kylie's mom and dad drove into town for the long holiday weekend all the way from Indiana. They made the trip down to see the new house and Kylie and her mom spent much of the weekend shopping for wedding day things while her dad schooled me in home improvement projects.

How is it that I'm in my mid-30's I have the aptitude of a 9 year-old when it comes to fixing things around the house? I can hear Kylie now... Nine year old?? Try 5 year old.. Sad, but true. I don't get it. I thought it's pretty much an unwritten rule that a man should know the difference between a scroll saw and a a mitre saw before earning the right to be, well, a man. I haven't met a dad yet that couldn't fix a dripping faucet in MacGyver style with nothing more than a string, a piece of gum, and his bare hands... and the gum's just for his chewing pleasure while he's fixing the faucet... with one hand... blindfolded. Then there's me. What's more baffling is that my dad did contract remodeling/home improvement work for several years, and I'd be hard pressed to find anything he couldn't fix or build. Apparently I was absent the day/month/years those skills were supposed to be magically downloaded from father to son. Guess I thought I could just pick up his craft through osmosis or that I simply inherited them with no effort needed on my part. How boldly naive I was. Garry (Kylie's dad), in traditional dad fashion, is also a handy man's man. So most of the weekend we spent fixing - and when I say "we spent fixing" I mean Garry did the fixing while I held the tools and watched - the laundry list of things Kylie and I had on our fix-it list.

On a related note, I also learned that apparently if you hammer crooked nails - the one thing I found I'm very good at - it means something. Thanks for enlightening me, Garry. Hopefully I'll be able to pass on that nugget of knowledge to my son(s) someday. Thanks so much, Garry and Tina, for making the trip to Dallas and for all your help The weekend went by waaay too fast, but both Kylie and I were glad we got to spend a little time with you, and we look forward to seeing you again in a couple months in Indiana!!