The Tassle Man

How do you get one of these robes and flat top hats? After getting the easy ones from High School, you go for these.

Generally, it takes a few years of difficult, demanding and disciplined study, as well as several thousand dollars.

Well, congratulations to Jamie. He's done it. This month he graduated from Bethel University with a degree in Theology and Biblical Studies.

Of the six of us in our family, Jamie is the youngest. He is also the first one to graduate from college. I never did, but Cathy will graduate in the Spring. Dylan will also be graduating and plans to immediately go on to pursue his doctorate. Chelsea earned straight A's this semester and is continuing to work toward her degree.

If this sounds like I'm bragging - that's because I am.

This also reads like one of those cheesy Christmas letters (which we never send)..

Anyway, Jamie did it in only 3 1/2 years.

Way to go. We're all proud of you.

Is it live or is it _________?

Last year I set up an artificial Christmas tree in our house for the first time. It wasn't planned. It was more or less the only option, since it was Christmas Eve and I couldn't find a real tree anywhere that night. I ended up borrowing an artificial tree that I knew was not being used.

After Christmas, there was a great deal on artificial trees at Lowe's, so I bought one. After figuring out how to store it all year, it was finally time to break it out for this year.

Those of you who use these trees understand the tedious process of bending out each wire branch after everything was scrunched flat in storage. That's what I'm doing here.

Some people say, "I only want a live tree". Nobody has a live tree. They either have an artificial tree or a dead one.

So whether you go artificial or unartificial, I hope your Christmas was genuinely as great as ours was here in Wisconsin.

Troast and Jam?

You know how it is when you run into a celebrity and you have a camera... you can't resist having your picture taken together.

So, I told Jon Troast it would be fine to have his picture taken with me. As you can see, he looks pretty excited. ( No. I'm not wearing a silly hat. Those are books behind me.)

But seriously, it was a fun evening listening to Jon play in someone's living room in Gilbert, Arizona.If you check Jon's website, you should find a photo of everyone in the living room tonight. There I am next to my brother (next to Jon), and my niece Kelly and her husband, Pete.

Bugs?

I saw this guy carrying his laptop over his shoulder wearing casual leather loafers while riding a Harley. Then I saw this guy sitting in an office at a desk working back and forth between two laptop computers. Who are these Arizona geeks?

Oh, wait a minute... that was me I saw.

Yes, things are a bit different out here now that my only set of wheels is 2.

When I arrived here a couple of weeks ago, I cleaned all of those dead Wisconsin bugs off of my motorcycle windshield. I noticed while riding today that it remains bug free.

One of the nice things about the desert. I guess the scorpions eat them all.

Browser Humor

I liked this and cut it out of the paper. Later, my brother told me this strip (F Minus) is done by a local guy that he knows from his church or something.