We arrived back home on Thursday evening from our short trip to San Antonio.  In the above photo you can see my wife and I in front of the Alamo. Between my son and I we took nearly 400 pictures.  Below is a picture of my son standing in front of the Hard Rock Cafe.  I think he had a good time as well and we were glad he was able to come with us.

We went on a temporary duty (TDY) for my work to work out some wrinkles with a contractor down there.  We had a good time but it was a bit warm.  We stayed in a hotel downtown so virtually everything was walking distance.  It was a pretty good trip and not likely to be the last.

This evening my wife and I went for a three and a half mile walk and it was nice to enjoy the evening air.  I love the cool air in the fall.  It was nice to be able to spend some quality time with my wife.  I have had a lot of people giving me advice on how to handle the family issues and I appreciate it.  I think everyone is right about spending more time in prayer.  I think that is good advice to follow so thank you all for.

This weekend I downloaded the new Windows Live Messenger Beta and I have really been impressed with the performance.  This new version has some amazing video and audio quality.  I am just amazed at how good it works.  It is every bit as good as Skype and that is really saying something.  I was able to do video conferencing on a full screen for more than two hours and it was incredibly clear and real time.  I think I found a new toy to play with.  This is great news because many of my friends and family refuse to use anything else.  I think Microsoft has really come a long way with voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

Looks like Obama made a comment yesterday that said something about you being able to put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig.  Everyone is saying it was aimed at Sarah Palin and I do believe it was though you could make the argument that since he paused before saying it, that it was a spontaneous thought with no calculation behind it.  They fired back and said that McCain had made a similar statement in 2007 when referencing Mrs. Clinton.  And the drama continues.  There is a reason that I usually turn the TV volume down the moment theys begin discussing politics.  Oh well, it is the same thing over and over again.  I will certainly be glad when it is over as you know that it will continue after the election regardless of who wins.

I have been attending a class at work and it has two more days.  It is called Item Unique Identification (IUID).  This is an initiative to assign a unique identification number to every piece of equipment that is either $5,000 or more.  Other items can be added if the program manager deems it necessary to keep track of them.  They used our government identification cards called the common access cards (CAC) as an example of how each of us has an unique number and no other person has this number.  This is reminiscent of Revelation chapter 13, versus 15-18.  I know this is not what it is but sure does give you the creeps.  The government has put this program into place that all items acquired by the government will have these scannable marks beginning 1 Jaunuary 2004.  What gives me the creeps is that never before in history has there been the technology for Revelation 13:15-18 to make sense.  The point being is that the technology is here. The next two days of this class we will be doing practical application.  I must say this overview class that I went to was easily the most boring class I have ever been to.  Razor blades should be issued upon entry for those that just want to end the pain .  Other than this and school there has not been too much going on.