I can’t help it…I like change. Leave something alone for too long and it kinda drives me crazy. So…I gave my blog a little facelift yesterday…a new style…a new look. I liked the last one, but I like this one too. And it won’t be the last one.

So come check it out…especially if your reading this on Facebook. The web address is: www.dbaumgartner.com

And while you’re there, feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

With the Olympics in full swing I got to thinking about some of the ridiculous events that they include for some unknown reason. Which got me to thinking about what I would replace them with.

First, here’s my list of the top three (in order) events I would can…

1. Ice Dancing…no explanation needed.
2. Men’s Figure Skating…not even gonna go there.
3. Curling…looks like fun to play, but in the Olympics??

And here’s what I would replace them with…

1. Snowball Fighting…both individual and team.
2. Snow Angel Making…would give some creative outlets.
3. Downhill Tubing…would be some awesome wipe-outs here!

How about you? What would you get rid of and what you you replace it with??

(BTW, if you’re reading this as a note on Facebook, come check out the real thing here).

This morning I had an interesting thought come to mind about my interactions with others. I’m sure it was a gentle reminder from the Holy Spirit and hopefully it’s a lesson I am learning more quickly than slowly.

I want to be a blessing to others—not a burden.

There is often a fine line between the two. Don’t misunderstand me…we are supposed to share our burdens with one another (that part of living in community with other people). But there is a difference between sharing my burden and being a burden.

As I go about my daily life I want to be a blessing to other people (even as I share my life and burdens with them) rather than being a drag on them (people already have enough to worry about). Perhaps the difference is in sharing my burden rather than simply dumping my burden(s) other people…it’s a two-way street, I share mine and help carry another’s.

So that’s my prayer today…that I will be more of a blessing than a burden. I’ll let you now how that goes.

On the floor. Dead center. 18 rows back.

I’m no concert expert, but we have been to a few this year and the Foreigner concert last night was hands down the best concert I have ever been to…ever! I’m typically fairly reserved when it comes to an event like this, but I couldn’t help but clap…shout…raise a fist…and sing along at the top of my lungs.

It certainly helps that I knew all but maybe two of the songs (and one of them was brand new), including: Feels Like the first Time; Cold as Ice; Hot Blooded; Double Vision; Blue Morning, Blue Day; Dirty White Boy; Urgent; I Want to Know What Love Is; and the best rendition of Juke Box Hero I’ve ever heard.

It. Was. Awesome.

And best of all, I got to share it with my best friend in the whole world. Only thing that might have made it better is if we’d had some friends to share it with. If you like Foreigner and ever get the chance…go to the concert. You won’t be disappointed.

There’s an old joke by Steven Wright that goes something like this: “Why do people drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” While this is largely a question for English majors, it does beg a question that came up last night as we drove up to some friends’ house for dinner.

Why don’t people park in driveways? Why is it socially “taboo”?

Anita and I got in a little “discussion” about this as she parked on the street while there was a perfectly good parking spot on the driveway. And we have people over all the time…with a huge driveway…and they park on the street about 90% of the time.

Now, I can understand it if your car leaks oil like a sieve, but not many of the people I know anymore have cars that do that (we aren’t driving clunkers like we used to). I know our car doesn’t leak, but there we were parked on the street.

What gives? I don’t get it. Please…shed the light on my perplexity…and for goodness sakes, park on my driveway…

It has been almost a year since I got my very first tattoo (you can read about it here). They say you never get one…that you get hooked and end up with several tattoos. I think they are right (and I don’t even know who “they” are). So while Anita was in China I took the plunge on my second tattoo. It was supposed to be a surprise even though we’d been talking about it for awhile.

A friend of mine at work (Christina Phillips) had gotten some work re-done by a guy (Rusty) up in Arvada and I liked the work…so on July 22nd I headed north and got the work done. And once again…I love it! Here is the inspiration for the design I ended up getting:

It’s called a “Chi-Rho” and is one of the earliest Christian symbols known. Here is Wikipedia’s description…

The Chi Rho is one of the earliest christograms used by Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word Christ: chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce the monogram ?. The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the combined letters Chi and Rho standing for chr?ston, meaning “good.” (Wikipedia)

I love the symbolism and the meaning behind this symbol, and it isn’t very common. Christina had also gotten some UV ink on her tattoo and I liked that idea–specifically for the Alpha and Omega symbols in the artwork above. Here are the pictures from the event (taken by Christina)…

The tattoo in progress.

Yes…it hurts!

The tattoo right after the sitting (wrapped in plastic even).
You’ll notice that the Alpha and Omega will “disappear” as it heals.

Here are a couple of photos from the tattoo today. It’s not completely healed, but it’s well on it’s way…

Here it is in broad daylight…see, the symbols are fading nicely.

Here it is under a blacklight…cool huh?

I love this tattoo almost as much as the first one (just something about that first tattoo though). And I can safely say it will not likely be my last…but that’s down the road. For now, I’ll enjoy what I’ve got. =0)

I got an email yesterday that is either funny or not funny at all…I am pretty sure that I am not the intended target market for this product.

Here’s the subject line of the email: “You may qualify for an electric wheelchair at little or no cost.”

Here’s the body of the email:

There are two things wrong with this ad:

1. I am not the right target market (at least I hope I’m not…maybe they know something I don’t know?). I have no idea how they got my email address…first time something like this has come to my inbox.
2. Ed McMahon passed away over a month ago (June 23rd to be exact). Is he really the spokesperson you want for the actual intended target market? you’d think you wouldn’t want that kind of reminder going out in your marketing campaign. I’m just sayin’.

This did serve as a reminder for me that we need to ensure that our message is reaching the intended market in a way that they will understand and relate to. Otherwise we simply miss the mark and go unheard..right into the recycle bin like this email is headed towards.

Anita has now officially been gone for three days. I think most betting people had the over/under for me taking care of the kids without losing my mind at about 3 days…so the rest of this week will really tell tale, but so far we’ve managed just fine.

The house is in working order…even managed to vacuum, mop, and do some dishes. The kids haven’ been bored yet, but that’s because I’ve kept them so busy they haven’t had time to think much: The pool, movies (thank Beth!), a car race, fixing my brakes, and hanging out together. Again, next week will be the real test since I will be working from home and not able to do all the “fun stuff”.

They also haven’t missed Anita too badly yet. Skype has helped that a lot…and staying busy. This is one I know will change. The longer  she’s gone the worse it will get. The more bored they get. The more “mean” I get (a.k.a.: The less new I am). I miss her already and wonder how she does this “job” so well. It’s a lot of work…God Bless all those single mom’s out there. They are a miracle!

So…next week here we come…more to report as the week goes on. Pray for me…pray for Anita…but mostly pray for my kids.

Someone sent me a link to a funny website a few weeks ago and I need to share. I actually visit this site first thing in the morning to get my day started at work on the right foot. The site is called:

Awkward Family Photos

People post family photos and candids and share awkward family stories. The photos are sometimes scary and often hilarious. We can all relate. We’ve all taken photos we wish had never been taken. We all have people in our families that look and act like these people. This is simply a reminder that we are part of one big happy family. We’re all a little weird. We’re all a little awkward. Welcome to the human race. Enjoy the website…

I upgraded my blog to the latest and greatest version of Wordpress today (version 2.8 for those of you keeping track), and it has been nothing short of a royal pain in the back side. I somehow even managed to create some massive error condition that prevented the site from loading at all. I couldn’t even get into the admin page to fix anything…ended up reverting back to an older version and re-installing once again.

As a result, my sidebar isn’t fully up-to-date yet, but it’s in progress. This is the first time I’ve had these types of issues attempting an upgrade and I am reasonably sure that all of the customizations I’ve done played a key role in the issues I had today…but I can’t help the tinkering. And I do like this new version. The readers may not see much difference, but I can see a difference on my side of the website.

Heading off to campi this weekend so there should be plenty of pictures when we get back. Five families. 10 adults. 14 kids. We’ll see how many kids make it home!