The big flip

Sammy found a great way to stay cool during the 100 days of summer H.E.A.T.

Summer H.E.A.T. advisory

From Memorial Day to Presidents Day, the Georgia Governors Office of Highway Safety runs a campaign known as "The 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T." The summer-long campaign is designed to make bad drivers feel the H.E.A.T. on their checkbooks, license points and insurance rates. H.E.A.T. means citations for speeding and aggressive driving.. tickets for failing to buckle-up the kids or wear safety belts.. and jail time for drunk and drugged driving.

H.E.A.T. stands for “Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic.” Other than silly acronyms, the campaign also produces silly visual ad work.

Last day of school

Friday was the last day of school for Greg and Sammy. The Memorial Day weekend is the start of eleven weeks of summer vacation. There were parties in both Greg's and Sam's classes. Sammy's Kindergarten party was Hawaiian themed, while the third graders were dressed up as pirates. Ina catered pop corn and brownies.

2006 Indonesian Banquet

Each year in May, the Indonesian Community Heritage Foundation organizes a Spring Festival in Atlanta. The highlight of the festival is the Indonesian Banquet attended by diplomats, business leaders, and members of the Indonesian community in Georgia. It is an evening with traditional food, music, dance, and lots of friends. Special guest this year was the ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States, Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat. Here's a picture of His Excellency with Ina.

Gregory's site

Ina did some great web work and created a photo site of Greg and Sammy. I added it to the link section on the left hand side of this page.

The tallest tower in the South

What's up with Atlanta? Atlanta has been one of the top four U.S. metro area's in terms of economic growth for 20 years. But there have been some hiccups recently. Delta filed for bancruptcy. Ford and GM are closing major assembly plants. Georgia Pacific, Scientific Atlanta and Bellsouth have been acquired by out of state companies. And now the the tallest tower in the South is proposed to be built in Nashville.

Since 1992, Atlanta's Bank of America Tower has been the tallest Southern skyscraper. Measuring 1023 feet, it is even the tallest U.S. tower outside New York and Chicago, the sixth highest in the nation. The 1047 feet high Signature Tower, if built, will knock down Atlanta a peg. That thought is hard to bear for Atlanta's boosters.

Drowned alive

Greg and Sammy did not want to go to sleep tonight. Instead, they wanted to watch David Blaine. This performance artist and magician has been living underwater for a week in an eight-foot acrylic sphere in New York City's Lincoln Center.

To culminate his stunt, he attempted to break the world record for breath-holding underwater, which was 8 minutes, 58 seconds while trying to escape from 150 pounds of chains and handcuffs during the breath-holding finale.

In the end, he was able to stay under water longer than Greg and Sammy were able to stay awake.

Pan for punks

The steel drum is synonymous with tropical music from the Caribbean. Not so for Tracy Thornton. On his latest CD Pan for Punks, he plays inspired covers of classic tunes by the Ramones. Watch the video of Blitzkrieg Bop.