I was working on another Wordpress site today and had a need for a feedback form. Since I’m not one for reinventing the wheel, I googled it. I found a great plugin at Ryan Duff’s site. Setup was easy and the documentation was good.

It integrates well into the administration panels, and adding a form to a post or a page is as easy as clicking a button.  The only issue I had was a PEBKAC issue where I didn’t have sendmail running. Oops.

One of my favorite lunch stops is Chilitos in Kennesaw. They make these monster burrito things that are just amazing. I’m there at least once a week, and most of the staff knows me now.

Recently, Aaron went there with some friends and began griping and moaning about how he found mold on their chips. I had the same experience last night. That’s right, I found what looked like mold on their chips. Except it wasn’t mold.

The owner of Chilitos had commented on Aaron’s blog about how the chips are made at a facility that also makes black chips. He said that the color sometimes spills over. Last night, I picked up a chip and saw exactly what Aaron described. It looked exactly like mold, but on closer inspection I found that it was just black coloring on the chip. My wife looked at the chip and agreed.

So if you’re in Kennesaw, you should stop in at Chilitos for lunch. And if you think you see mold on chips, just keep eating and enjoy your awesome lunch. There’s nothing at Chilito’s but awesome food and friendly faces (and probably me).

I’d like to know why it is that all the idiots in Georgia like to drive their cars near where I drive mine.

I guess the Braves (3-20 in their last 23 games) have figured out what it takes to win…invite Jesus!

They sent me an email announcing “Faith Days” that are coming soon.  On 3 different days, they’ll have some crazy CCM (blah) concert and have one of the Braves talking about their faith.  John Smoltz and Sid Bream (2 really great guys) will be speaking on two of the dates (Smoltz on 7/27 and Bream on 8/13).

I think it’s a great idea (minus the whole crappy music thing), but there’s humor in it when they’ve been playing so poorly around the time they invite churches down to the stadium.  At this point, I’d say they need some divine intervention.

Though I won’t be able to make either of these local shows, if you’re in/around Atlanta, you should go hear my friend Greg Adkins play this weekend.  He’ll be in Conyers one night and in Duluth another.  He’s a great guy with good songs and a killer CD.

And if you get to go, you should request “The Talking Tom Cruise Scientology Blues.”  Yeah, it’s as good as it sounds.

I’m exhausted today, but I don’t care. Last night I went up to Nashville to help celebrate the release of Andrew Osenga’s “The Morning.” I don’t have a set list from the show, but I imagine Geof will, so I’ll link to him when he gets around to posting it somewhere.

Andy played some “Photographs” stuff (Kara, Kankakee, When Will I Run?), The Normals stuff (Black Dress), and a bunch from the new CD. Watching them play “Santa Barbara” was probably the best 4 minutes in my recent history. The sound was good, the crowd was good, the venue was good (though it was hot in there), and Andy and the band were having a really good night.

I got to see a few friends that I don’t get to run into nearly often enough. Ben Shive told me his CD is about halfway done. Andrew Peterson told me the children’s CD that he and Randall Goodgame are recording will be in the mail today so the guy who will do the mixing can do it next week. (Still no release date on the kids CD though.) Matthew Perryman Jones told me that he’ll be in Atlanta at Eddie’s Attic in July (18th, I think). Jeremy Casella says he is working hard on a new CD as well.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on with the folks in the Square Peg Alliance. You can bookmark squarepegalliance.net for all the updates on them.

It’s tonight!  If you’re in Nashville (or if you’re crazy like I am), I’ll see you there.

My son Brett brought me a baseball from his room this morning - not a football, soccer ball, tennis ball, or a basketball. He chose the baseball.

A custom wallpaper border made from baseball cards circles his room. He was even named after a former MLB all-star. He is only 2 and can already recognize the Yankees logo (the “NY” and the top hat). He knows he doesn’t like the Red Sox. He’ll sit and watch a game with me and add play-by-play commentary like “the man hit the ball” and “he missed it!”

In my bedroom on top of the TV is a baseball Brooks Robinson autographed for me this past March. In the closet, I have dozens of baseballs autographed from various trips to MLB games or spring training. In the kitchen, you’ll find a magnetic Braves schedule on the refrigerator. On any night during baseball season, I can tune to as many as 15 different baseball games on TV.

About 250 miles away, my dad can tune into most of those baseball games. His truck is adorned with Yankees logos. His office, though it has to keep a “professional” feel to it, has become home to various pieces of baseball memorabilia. My old bedroom has become a shrine to all things baseball, specifically Yankees. They even call it “the Yankee room.” Dad will pay at least $5 for anything on eBay with that sacred NY logo on it, and he’ll go out of his way to talk baseball with a total stranger wearing a Yankees hat.

On any given night, my almost-80 year-old grandpa will stay up late and fall asleep watching the Braves on TV. He reads the newspaper’s sports section religiously and follows the transactions of the Braves and Yankees very closely. He sees the little things in a game that so many people don’t have the patience to look for. On the table next to his recliner is this picture of him, Dad, and me at a Braves game last summer.

On those Sunday afternoons when we’re all gathered at my grandparents’ house for a big meal, you can be certain that right in the middle of the uncles and cousins and dads and sons is a conversation about baseball. After the meal, when we all gather in the living room to talk and loosen our belts, there is a baseball game on TV; and no matter how interesting the conversation in the room, there’s always at least one set of eyes watching the game.

For some, baseball is just another means of entertainment. For us, it is the family member that everybody loves to be around. We live, eat, and breathe baseball. Some of the best memories of my life involve baseball. I vividly remember sitting in the living room when I was young as Dad taught me how to read a box score. I remember those Sundays we rushed home from church, breathed in a plate of lasagna, and rushed off to the ball field where Dad would throw me curve balls until his arm wouldn’t throw another. Then he’d hit me ground balls until it was time to go get ready for the Sunday evening service.

Today during the kids’ nap time, I’m sitting quietly in the living room and watching our beloved Yankees on the TV. And then tonight I’ll probably take the kids out into the yard for a little batting practice. After the kids are in bed, I’ll catch the last half of the evening Braves game and then the first several innings of some random west coast game before heading to bed.

It’s nothing short of magical how that one little white ball with red stitches can link generations of a family together. It only seems fitting that Fathers Day comes in the middle of baseball season. In this family, when we think about our dads, we are thinking about baseball; and when we’re thinking about baseball, we’re thinking about our dads.

Happy Fathers Day. (and go Yanks!)

An update for all the geeks out there…

I had mentioned in a previous post about testing the new Windows Vista operating system here in the office. And, if you recall, (or if you just go read it) the testing wasn’t going so well. We had to trick the OS into installing, and even after getting it installed, the box was useless for just about everything other than internet access.

We recently got the newer version of the beta release, and this time things are going much better. The install works fine (without any rigging to get it working), and programs install and actually run. We’re a Lotus shop (unfortunately), and now that we’ve got the Notes client working on Vista, we’ll probably have a few users who will be using the new OS regularly. I’m not going to be one of those people…I barely like using a production version of Windows. Using a beta version would be torture.

Schadenfreude is some German word that means you take joy in the misfortune of others. We’ve got some serious schadenfreude going on in my house these days.

Last month, I asked the good people with the Paulding County Department of Public Safety to come do something about my idiot neighbor that refuses to mow his lawn. They wrote him a ticket. He had until Monday the 12th to either pay the fine or appear in court before a judge. He paid the fine. $202.50! How awesome!

So on Tuesday I called the courthouse to make sure that this issue was resolved (because you have to wait until one ticket is resolved before you can file another complaint). Once the nice lady told me it was completed, I called the Department of Public Safety again. They went out to his house and issued another ticket.

The lady who called me about it said the neighbor was furious and demanded to know who was complaining against him. She wouldn’t tell him, but she said that it is something he can lookup at the courthouse. He’s too lazy to mow his lawn, so I know he isn’t going to go through the red tape at the courthouse to get this information.

So now he has to pay another fine. It would be safe to assume that this ticket will be at least another $200 for him, and, if it’s like other government fines, it would double to $400. How awesome.

Then, if he gets another ticket, he has to go before a judge. There’d be no paying fines at that point. Wonderful!

So we’ll see if this will finally get that idiot to mow his lawn. You, of course, will get updates on the situation as updates become available.