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I attended a conference in Las Vegas last week for work, which was very informative. I wanted to share a few of the fun things we did while there. I did do a little gambling at the slot machines, but Lady Luck did not smile on me.
We had fun, but it is nice to be home!

While in Vegas, I stayed in Paris. Let the fun begin!

My co-worker, Liz, and I met many celebraties while we were there.
We had a great time!

Kelly meets Whoopi

Liz and I also enjoyed seeing Patrick Stewart

Liz and George addressed the troops

I couldn't pass up seeing Rev Robert Schuller since my first week of work I
spent at Crystal Cathedral training their staff to use our software.

We also took a gondola ride

And the nightlife never ends! One of the spectaculars is the water show at
the Bellagio, which is choreographed to music.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 06:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Of course, we did attend the conference in Vegas. Although the only evidence I have is a couple pictures from the party Epicor put on Tuesday evening. As you can tell from the photos we had fun! The theme for the conference was 'Play to Win'.

Liz and Mary at the party.

Doug, Mary and Liz at the party. Doug works for Epicor.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Kelly and Mr. Raccoon inspect our progress in painting the baby's room.

The finished product turned out pretty well. We're #5 on the list for an occupant to said room.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

There are many varieties of bottled water on the market. They've got sparkling water, distilled water, french water, spring water, flavored water, and mineral water, just to name a few. But the one thing they have in common is that no matter what kind of water you get, it's still. It's not making anything grow, it's not turning hydroelectric turbines, it's not raising the ambient humidity -- it just sits there in the bottle, refracting light. Once everyone realizes this, it will open the door for my new product idea --

Swirling Water! The High Energy Drink of the MTV Generation!

Posted by Rob(tm) at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

We didn't see any cranberry marshes in Bogot�, but in this picture Annabelle describes her experiences as an adoptee, while Patricia, one of the executives of CRAN, translates into Spanish. Annabelle tells, if I may paraphrase, how adoption is a triangle, with adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents each forming one of the legs, formed by God's creative spirit. (I shamelessy swiped this for my Sunday School lesson for last week for 17 Pentecost. And hey, my cirriculum book even suggested talking about international adoption along with creation.)

We also heard stories from birth parents and adoptive parents. It was an extraordinarily emotional session.

Two more adoptees shared their stories as well. Marisa, left, grew up in the USA and she actually gave her testimonial in Spanish while Patricia translated back into English. She and her brother Mike, who is also adopted from Colombia, are working on a documentary. The woman on the right grew up in the Netherlands, I wish I could remember her name just now.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 03:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hi everyone,

Thought I would finally try to submit something to twdf. Hope it works. Wisconsin has been beautiful this week. 83 degrees today was the best so far for this Indian summer. Enjoy the pics.

Luann

Posted by Luann at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Here is a view from the CRAN facilities in Bogota. At this facility, CRAN takes care of children between 2 and 5. Children younger than 2 stay with foster families.

I wonder how many kids lose their ball down the hill.

Kiana demonstrates proper technique on the playground equipment.

You would have to drive three counties to find this much elevation change in Ohio.

Behind Kelly and Julianne is an arts and crafts building where the children were displaying art projects they've worked on. They were getting impatient for the group to get around to seeing their work.

Further down the hill, some of the newer red-brick buildings are scaled slightly smaller to be more comfortable for kids. I learned a lot about buildings hanging out with George, who is an architect. I was wondering idly if there was Colombian version of "The Fountanhead".

We elected not to crawl through the tires on this trip.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 12:31 AM | Permalink

In September, we played musical chairs at the Tickets.com Wallingford picnic.

We started out with a lot of people,

but I managed to emerge victorious.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 12:02 AM | Permalink

From top to bottom, JJ, Jon, Matt, Krista, Kelly, Rob (Michael on my lap), Mom, Dad and Krissy.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I think the only way to get JJ to sit still for his portrait, was to set Michael on top of him.

Posted by Rob(tm) at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)