Wow! It’s hard to believe we brought this little guy home 14 years ago. He brings so much joy to our family. We love taking him on vacations (when we can), enjoy camping with him, and cherish every moment spent together around the house.
Last night, I took him on a birthday-eve walk, and he had a great time. I’m trying to take him on more walks lately—he gets so excited just to be outside. It’s a simple joy that never gets old.
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| Campsite at Eisenhower State Park |
I was at a conference in Pittsburg, KS, from Tuesday through Thursday, so we planned to start our camping trip Thursday night after I returned. We loaded up the car and arrived at our campsite around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. Erin and Carrie joined us but had to work the next day, so they helped set up the tents and even got the fire started before heading back to Topeka. Greg and I stayed behind to enjoy the evening by the fire.
Carrie and I had picked up Hog Wild BBQ in Topeka before heading out, so we had that for dinner. Erin and Carrie ate with us before leaving. Greg and I spent the night around the campfire, and it turned out to be the best night of the weekend. The sky was clear, and we could see stars all the way down to the horizon. We stayed up late talking, listening to music, and soaking in the camping life.
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| Walking Along the Bank |
We watched Washburn Tennis compete in the Final Four in Florida. They won 4–0, which made for an exciting morning. The afternoon was lazy—reading, checking emails, and listening to music. The Royals were scheduled to play that evening, likely around the time the ladies would arrive.
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| Oliver Relaxing |
Saturday was a day of relaxing, listening to music, and watching/listening the finals of Washburn Tennis and Royals baseball. We took a few walks around the site with Oliver, who loved it and did his best to protect us from other campers. We love our spot because it’s relatively secluded.
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| Carrie and Oliver by the Lake |
Dinner was chicken fajitas—so good! As is often the case with camping, we forgot one important item: the propane connector for the Firedisc. Thankfully, we had our two-burner stove, which we thought we’d use the next morning and night, so we were able to cook the meal. It turned out to be a fun evening!
Our guests left just after sunset, and we gathered around the fire. Rain was in the forecast, and unfortunately, it arrived earlier than expected. We moved everything under the canopy and tried to enjoy the evening there. I ended up falling asleep in a chair holding Oliver. It was an earlier night than planned, with everyone heading to their tents.
It started raining Saturday evening and didn’t stop until Sunday afternoon. Both couples were stuck in their tents through the night as the rain poured. Eventually, we got out when we received a text from Erin and Greg saying they were out for a drive. We joined them and took Oliver along to explore other lakes and campsites.
We decided this would be our last day camping, as more rain was forecast for Sunday night into Monday. After returning from our drive, we slowly began packing up. It was disappointing, but we all agreed it was the right decision. Thankfully, the rain stopped while we packed, which made things easier.
Once the cars were loaded, we headed back to Topeka, a bit down about ending early. We had planned to have pancakes for breakfast and steaks for dinner—neither of which happened. When Carrie, Oliver, and I got home, we unloaded the car into the garage and ended up napping through the afternoon and into the evening.
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| Camp Fire and Laptop |
Despite the early end, it was a great trip. As usual, we were tired from camping, so we spent the day relaxing. Oliver slept wherever he flopped down. He had a great time—he smiled the whole trip. Even during Saturday night’s thunderstorm, he didn’t seem scared, at least not that we could tell. He even tried to protect us from a dog across the way. I’m sure he was dreaming of his camping adventures while he rested.
We’re already thinking about our next trip. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend—and a great week ahead!
As the rain gently falls this Memorial Day, it serves as a quiet reminder of the solemn meaning behind the holiday. While many see today as the unofficial start of summer, it is, above all, a day to honor the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country.
May the weather not dampen your time with loved ones, but instead offer a moment of reflection and gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy.
“Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay.”
— Barack Obama
It’s been a busy week for me with a conference I attended in Pittsburg, KS. I worked on Monday, then drove to Pittsburg on Tuesday. I was there from Tuesday through Thursday with a packed schedule full of meetings and presentations. Everything went really well! By Wednesday night, I was so tired after a full day of meetings that I just lounged in my hotel room watching shows—and I was asleep by 10:30.
While I was away, Carrie sent me a few pictures of Oliver enjoying the backyard. The image to the right shows him soaking up the sun while lounging in the yard. She also sent a picture of him chasing a rabbit—oh, the joys of being a dog!
This was my second conference in just a few short months. At both events, I heard about a site called NoteBookLM from Google. I first came across it at eLive back in April but hadn’t had much time to explore it. After hearing about it again at this conference, I decided to give it a try.
If you haven’t checked out NoteBookLM, I highly recommend it. You can upload a technical manual, notes, or other information, and the site can turn it into a podcast, a FAQ, or even allow you to chat live with an AI about the content. I tested it using my own website (https://blogger.haverty.net/) to see what it would do with my blog content. It turned my site into a podcast summarizing the past few months of posts. You can listen to the podcast generated by NoteBookLM below.
It did a great job scanning my site and summarizing what I post about each week. The audio file above was generated by NoteBookLM as if two (fictional) hosts were doing a podcast about my blog. I thought it was really cool and wanted to share it—not just because it was fun, but because it’s amazing how NoteBookLM uses AI to turn content into something so accessible and engaging.
Until next time, have a great week!
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| Oliver in front of Our Tent |
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| Sunset at Our Camp Site |
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| Lights at Night |
Saturday was a lazy day, which was nice. We had cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Most of the day was spent lounging, reading, listening to music, and taking a few naps. We took Oliver on a few walks around the site, which of course got the other dogs—and Oliver—barking and protecting their space. We also walked up to the camp host site to get ice and firewood, which was a nice little stroll.
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| Hanging with Oliver |
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| Our Hammock Set up |
We arrived back home Sunday afternoon, and both Carrie and I slept most of the day and went to bed early that evening. Sitting around and doing nothing sure makes me tired! I think Oliver is still catching up on his sleep a week later.
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| Oliver in Wagon |
Have a great rest of your weekend and a wonderful week!
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| Carrie and me at Wedding Reception |
Carrie and I attended a wedding reception a few weeks ago. The picture to the left is a selfie we took at the reception. We had a great time celebrating and did a lot of dancing too. It was a good party at a cool spot just outside of Topeka. I had never been to or heard of The Brownstone. It's a great spot for a party, and we all had a fantastic time.
Today has been a combination of exercise and getting some things done around the house. This morning at 11 am, I did my weekly bike ride on the Peloton with Ally Love. Following my bike ride, I took Oliver on a mile walk, which is one of his longer walks in a while. He was so excited! I told Carrie I am going to try and take Oliver on a walk following each time I do a bike ride. After the walk with Oliver, I mowed the backyard and did some picking up in the front and back by blowing things off the driveway and back patio. The main reason for doing so is to prevent Oliver from tracking oak tree debris into the house. Finally, after mowing, I took our glass that had been overflowing for a while to the recycling area.
It is beautiful out today, so after I finished my tasks, I told Carrie I was surprised she was not sitting out in the hammock. The next thing I knew, Carrie was headed out to the hammock with Oliver. Meanwhile, I am inside watching the Royals hit a home run franchise record. We are up 11-6 in the bottom of the 9th against the Orioles. Both sides have been hitting a lot of home runs, but in the last inning, the Royals set a franchise record for the most homers in a game.
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| New Work Picture |
About a week ago I had a new profile picture taken for work. I had been using the same picture for I am not sure how long. I am presenting at a conference in May, so I needed to provide a higher resolution picture which prompted me to reach out to our campus photographer who took about two dozen pictures of me. In the end, I picked the one to the right.
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| Old Profile Picture |
Another somewhat rambling post on this Sunday afternoon. I am happy to report that the Royals won 11 - 6 and won the series against the Orioles. For me, I am headed outside to enjoy the weather. Have a great rest of your Sunday and a fantastic week!
To start, we have a few camping trips booked for the year. I'm excited to get out and camp again and hoping to do more than we did last year. If my memory is right, we only camped twice last year. It was one of our lowest times camping since we started in 2021. We have a new spot booked for our first trip this year. More on where we are headed after we go camping. For the first trip, we are not planning to take Oliver as it could still be chilly in the evenings, but for the second trip, we plan to take him with us.
After traveling consecutively for four months, I'm not planning to fly anywhere anytime soon. I will be traveling to Pittsburg, KS in mid-May, but no flights anywhere. I traveled twice for two different conferences (Chicago and Orlando) for work and then twice with Carrie (Austin and Miami) for fun. I must admit that I enjoy flying. I look forward to the whole process, from getting up early to connecting flights. I have some flight watches going to track flights to different places in case a good deal pops up for Carrie and me to make a quick trip to another city.
Changing over to sports, my Royals started off doing well and then stumbled for a few weeks, going on a losing streak. We are back in Kansas City and playing well against the Astros. We are back to .500 at 14-14, which is good. It did not look good a few weeks ago when we could not get a run to save our lives. Hoping this trend continues and having fun doing so against the Astros.
Two weeks ago was, of course, the Masters. Wow! What a fun final day that was, and I'm happy for Rory McIlroy to finally win this one after coming so close for so many years. Yes, I enjoy watching golf, although I no longer play. I like to tune in to watch, and this was a Masters final day not to miss. Back and forth the whole day. It was a lot of fun!
Looking at my reading for the year, I am six books in so far for the reading challenge. I set 20 books as my target to complete for the year, so I am 6 out of 20. Doing pretty good so far, and it helped to finally finish two books while I was traveling for vacations and conferences. I do need to pick up the pace a bit on my current book as I am back to only reading a few pages, sometimes a few sentences, before I go to sleep. I need to bring my book down to the family room and read again while watching shows or sports. I am feeling good about my progress so far and hoping to hit the twenty-book target by the end of the year.
That is all for this rambling post on a Sunday morning. Have a great rest of your Sunday and a wonderful week. I will talk to you again next week.