More photos of my nephew.

See him in action at neckthai.smugmug.com

I'm A Monkey's Uncle!!!!

Welcome to the world Rohan Taft Bhuket.

The latest and automatically cutest member of our family arrived at 10:46 a.m. Saturday, and
was 6 pounds, 11 ounces. I can't wait to see him!

Sorry Ryan, Chris and Arun. I get to be the cool uncle. I called dibs and Taft and Indhu said I could be.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

I'd like to welcome my cousin (essentially my sister) Amanda to the ranks of being 30. To celebrate, I'm going to escape this brutally cold weather here in Indiana and go to Florida for the rest of the week.

A note from Iraq

I'm not an overly political person. I don't care why we're at war with Iraq, but I do care that people I know are involved in it.

My friend Mark and his wife are in the Air Force, and occasionally, I'll get notes from Mark from "somewhere in the sand." My friend Jack was in the special forces and was disabled in an attack. His brother Damon was killed.

And my friend Andy is in Baghdad right now. He's a banker by trade, but also a member of the reserves. He was activated and has spent most of his time there serving as an advisor for the new Iraqi border patrols.

When Jack went over to Iraq, I wrote a note to his son calling him my hero. But in truth, any soldier out there, is my hero. And I hope all my heroes, including the ones I am able to call friend, stay safe and come home soon.

A Little Quiz

I don't know who really stumbles across my little spot on the web. I think most of you are either my friends or some family members. But I can just picture someone coming across something like "My Week in Haikus" or some of the other crap and think:

A: Is this guy for real?
B: Does this guy have a life?
C: Would someone pull the trigger, please.
D: All of the above

Thankfully, I think most of my readers know at least a little about me. (And they know the real answer)

The Things I Say...

Everyone has a safety in their mind that prevents them from saying the wrong things at the wrong time. Every so often, mine switches off and my mouth gets me in trouble.

Like the other day, I was talking to one of my bosses at the end of the day about my plans for the weekend. A co-worker and I were planning on going out, and my boss was living vicariously though us. When he gave us a warning about one place we were going to visit, and how I could end up getting hit on by other men, I said too much information.

What can I say? I sometimes speak just to hear me say stupid things.

It's strange to know the things we say can be easily misinterepted.

A snide comment to yourself, can be repeated by others and set off a major family drama.

A smartass retort can be turned against you one day.

A tongue-tied uttering about your feelings can make you feel like your drowning in a sea of "what the hell am I saying?"

Sometime I wonder if I should ever bother speaking again. But then what fun would that be?

The Week That Was....

I'm back in Indianapolis, where I've seen every kind of precipitation since getting back in town last Sunday. It rained an awful lot this week -- so much I considered gathering two of everything and some wood for an Extreme Makeover: Ark Edition. Thursday, the rain turned to snow flurries, but since it was so wet, it wasn't that bad. Friday night, it started to sleet, and then SNOW. There's 2 inches on the ground now.

Other than that, found some new places to hang out. Worked a lot on things that will slow other work down. And oh yeah, I'm going to scout neighborhoods this weekend.

Happy New Year!

It's 2005. Now go eat some black-eyed peas, cornbread and collard greens.