it's not mars, nor poland... it's home.

I spent this past Memorial Day weekend with the kids in my home town of Tarkio, Missouri.

While "city folk" might compare visiting Tarkio to an experience in a foriegn land or on different planet, I couldn't think of a much better place to call home. We had a great time with family and friends. My sister has several fantastic pictures to prove it. While Tarkio isn't quite what it once was, there still is a wonderful Alumni party each May. This year it brought together Tarkio's first 3 bloggers. With a little brainwork from the briefcase you might actually find something of substance(s).

this could be trouble....

Last week, I received one of those letters no one ever wants to see in their mailbox. The Internal Revenue Service was making a case for some back taxes they felt were owed to them.

I wasn't pleased about it, but in usual fashion was confident things would be resolved without much trouble. I sent the letter over to my tax man and until today hadn't thought much about it. Turns out the IRS is taking things much more seriously than I. Below is yesterday's detail for one specific visitor to my site:

IP Address: 152.216.7.# (INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE)
ISP: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
City: District of Columbia
State: Washington
Time of Visit: May 19 2006 10:33:38 am
Referring URL: http://blogsearch.go...author:Brett
Search Engine: blogsearch.google.com
Search Words: inpostauthor:brett smith

Come on Uncle Sam. If you are so concerned, pick up the phone and give me a call. I wonder if they use Google to catch all the bad guys?

Traffic doesn't equal revenue....flirting might.

MySpace is killing Amazon in traffic, getting 4 times the number of web page views a day. Should Amazon be worried? Nope. Seth Godin tell us why in simple terms.

Amazon users visit to buy stuff, and MySpace users visit to flirt.

Last time I checked, flirting was a fairly unprofitable activity.

I've got an exception to that rule Seth, there are several saleswomen that can turn a nice profit flirting.

A Big Adventure

Isn't it funny how the littlest of things can take a turn for a big new experience. Back at the beginning of the year, I signed Savanna up for her second year of soccer. I was ready for several weekends of watching games but that changed with this email:

Dear Parents -

I have been working on forming teams for the U5 girls division and I still have 12 girls without a coach. This means I am forming 2 teams of 6 girls and I need two volunteers to coach.

Please let me know if you can coach this season, because if not, these 12 girls will not be able to play and I do not want that to happen.

Thanks,
Karen Baird
U5 Girls Commissioner

I have very little soccer experience and even less skill but after two days without a volunteer stepping up I decided I would coach the team.

It's been a fantastic experience. While we've yet to win a game we've all had a ton of fun. Saturday's game was worth writing about. It was a game of many first. Savanna scored her 1st goal, which gave us our 1st lead of the season. And after falling behind 5-2 we came back and had our 1st tie game late in the 4th quarter before losing 5-6. The girls have made SO much improvement in a short amount of time. They've done almost all of it on their own.

The Explorers play their final game of the year this Saturday. Savanna, Tori (who won't play unless it's a blue ball), Kaylie, Camryn and Elizabeth (didn't make the picture) take the field at 10:30.

a not so extraordinary collection

my new medium to communicate

I recently received my Verizon cell phone bill and for the second consecutive month I've exceed 1,100 text messages. Do the math, that's just a shade over 36 messages a day, every day.

For a select few of you, I can see the wheels turning in your head. That's just ridiculous. I ensure you, texting is not for school days alone. A few benefits:

There are no uncomfortable silences or talking over each other.
No answers and voicemails are not an option.
Grammatical errors are not only accepted they are encouraged!

the evolution of dance

This one was sent to me today. It is a rare display of ingenuity combined with phenomenal talent. It's six minutes of entertainment. Enjoy.

i've got a great memory it's just short

There was a third, short topic I had hoped to blog about but I've forgotten it. It was there when I started writing but it's gone now.

Buyers Market at Boston Market

Some mornings I wake up feeling great. I roll out of bed with anticipation of what the day will bring. Today was one of those mornings. I mean WOW! Something good was bound to happen today. Luckily for me I only had to wait for lunch to find out what it was.

I made the short trip from my office to the Boston Market (BTW when looking up the link, I found coupons! I could have saved a buck.) just down the road. I entered the restaurant with a pretty good feel for what I wanted. I was distracted initially by the new menu that had been placed above the order station. Following a brief re-acclamation to my choices I placed the order. Immediately, I noticed the employees had new hats. These weren't your typical chain food hats, these hats had style. I had to have one.

Time to start selling. Even when you are buying you should sell.

"Are those hats for sell?" I asked. Now the two employees behind the counter thought this was a real funny question. "No, they aren't for sell."

Pay them a compliment, this get's them to drop there guard.

"Well the should be, those are sharp hats." "Can you get me one?" At this point they have no idea what to do. Apparently such a request had never been made. Several more employees were starting to find humor in our conversation. Then much like John Wayne would ride in to town, here came the store manager out of the back office. She stared right though me.

I wasn't sure what to do.... "I'm free advertising for you." I was in! "Are you going to wear it at the Byron Nelson?" she asked. "Absolutely." She had one last question, "Are you going to act like a fool?"

Here I made a common sales mistake. I assumed I knew the answer for which she was looking. Thank goodness it didn't kill the deal.

"Me? No I won't act like a fool." I was smiling ear to ear. "Well then you can't have it." All her employees thought she was hilarious.


Hat and a great meal, $8.99.

Parenting is easy.

Any parent looking for a weekend full of kids activities in the DFW area should look no further than Dallas' GuideLive.com. Now granted, Saturday afternoon was already filled up with a soccer game and birthday party but other open times filled up quickly.

Friday's plans were made easy when I heard that Brian Fields, a member of our Covad team, and his band were playing a youth concert not to far from Mansfield. The evening was a big hit with Savanna as she broke into her own dance routine several times.

Saturday we got up early to catch a (free) kids magic show in Fort Worth. After grabbing a quick bit to eat we got ready for our second to last soccer game. The team put together it's best game of the year. Still losing in excess of 10 goals but scoring a season high 5 goals. I can promise you, compared to our other games this one felt like a win. On a side note Savanna is really aggressive. Had this been real soccer she certainly would have been red carded. The post game birthday party wore out Savanna as I had hoped so we stayed in Saturday evening.

Sunday, following church we headed north to Willow Bend Mall for a butterfly exhibit. On the way to the event I made a failed attempt to teach Savanna about a Toll Road. I ran into such objections as "This road is mean!" or "Don't let it take my dimes Dad!". Anyway, we burned a good part of the afternoon and both kids had a nice time.

Savanna took this one.



Beck didn't take this one.

Better than the real thing...

A short time back I spent a few days in the "city" visiting my good friend Jason Ratliff.

On Saturday afternoon, right in the middle of a great weekend, Jason and I took a trip to Shea Stadium; to catch my first Mets game. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great, we got on the "jumbotron" and I saw the infamous Mets fan wearing a Red Sox jersey that read Buckner 86 on the back.

If the jersey doesn't make any sense to you watch this great replay of Game 6. It's a bit long but well worth it. Click on the play button, it will load.