I can’t claim this is getting old.  This week brought another quick trip on the corporate jet.

This one was equally as hush-hush as last week’s.  I will say we got some great pics of the plane parked in front of a tiny restaurant in the middle of freakin’ nowhere, complete with a sign, “Friday Night Fish Fry.”  (We were a few days too early for that, sad to say.)

It was humbling to imagine what I would’ve made of “corporate fat-cats” jetting into my little hometown — similar in many ways to the one we visited this week — back in the day, and to realize that it was just little ol’ me getting off that executive transport a couple days ago.  Funny what life brings you — I hope I’m at least reasonably grateful.

A buddy of mine lent me his Garmin Forerunner 405 — training watch, heart rate moniter, GPS, and so on.

Now, I’m an engineer.  I’ve singlehandedly repaired major packaging machinery.

But the Garmin bested me.  I could get parts of it working from time to time.  The watch I figured out in a hurry.  The GPS I got working the first try, but since I hadn’t charged the thing, it died halfway through that run.  I got it to work all the way through on my next try.  The heart rate monitor worked fine, but the strap around my chest drove me nuts, and I never used the data.  Meanwhile, on that run I couldn’t get the GPS to work at all.  Go figure.

In the end, I had to face facts.  I do just fine with my Nike sports watch.  It tells me clock time, date, etc. — but most of all serves as my stopwatch.  That’s all I really need.  Because I’m no elite athlete.

It was really cool, though, to run with more computing power on my wrist than Neil, Buzz and Michael had at their disposal when they went to the moon.

Need I say more?

I learned about the great American architect Louis Sullivan through my readings about Frank Lloyd Wright (he was a mentor to FLW) and by living in Buffalo, where his landmark Guaranty Building stands.

Sullivan was an interesting character — achieving great fame as one of the fathers of the modern skyscraper, then ending his career with a few small commissions, such as small banks in small towns like Owatonna, Minnesota.

Now he’s making a comeback in popular culture, thanks to the new documentary, Louis Sullivan:  The Struggle for American Architecture.

Here’s my other son, Bug.  He’s two.

Bug is our daredevil.  He’s teaching me a few things about risk-taking.

It’s a worthy book for the first book post for sure:  The Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.  It tells the story of a four-man recon/sniper team of Navy SEALs that went on a mission in Afghanistan — and only one came back alive.  Along the way you learn about how these amazing young men become SEALs (hint:  they are freaks of nature, plus they know how to suffer in ways the rest of us can’t even imagine).

You also learn about how our current rules of engagement and the sick glee of our cultural “elites” as they persecute and prosecute our own fine soldiers while ignoring the war crimes of our enemies helped cost us three of the bravest, most accomplished soldiers we’ve ever had.

Our baby boy’s no baby anymore.  In fact, he was upset because all the other kids had their “babies” — little brothers and sisters — at the graduation, and he didn’t.  Bug was at daycare.

But overall it was a big day!  The Reverend Doctor Vinoski Sweetness appreciated the after-party at Perkins.

Okay, we’ll start a bit early.  This is The Reverend Doctor Vinoski Sweetness, a long time before preschool.

By corporate jet again.  Very last-minute, very secret.  So no more on that.

The most important thing is that after another 4,000 or so air miles today, I’m already back home, exactly where I promised my older son The Reverend Doctor Vinoski Sweetness I would be come morning.  That’s when we all go to see him graduate from preschool, which will set me up nicely to finally start posting in my most important category (which I will set up as soon as I finish with you) — Family.

I got word from my buddy Hal today of this new record for snipers:  not just the longest shot on record, but two consecutive kills plus a hit on the machine gun the bad guys were toting.  Score three for the good guys.

I like the weapon, too…