(sigh)

Sorry, I have nothing interesting to talk about today, not even what I had for lunch or how many times I coughed or sneezed. Maybe later.

Fully electric vehicle debuted October 1, 2007

LEI Global has publicly tested its EV with variable speed transmission.  The prototype is fully electric (no gas!) and made its debut at the Ozark International Raceway in Rogersville, MO.  This link leads to the video of a late 2006 test drive.  After revamping the prototype because the system was too powerful for the Dodge minivan, the new one looks quite different but is still fast and efficient.  Here are some recent news articles about the unveiling:

Local inventor's electric van demonstrated

Local inventor displays totally electric car

Electric car built from scratch

Link to interview with inventor Daren Luedtke (click "VIDEO" link to see the interview with KY3's Maria Neider)

Let's face it: high fuel prices are here to stay.  The oil companies got us used to paying those high prices per gallon and they're not about to drop them any more than a few cents at a time.  Mass production of these EV's would only be good for us all, forcing fuel prices down because of oversupply and offering 500 miles of driving for an overnight charge at home (about $2.50).  Contact LEI Global today to see how you can help.

Harmony All Over The Place

Wow, it's been quite a while since the last post!  You can probably imagine how important this blogging thing is to me.

I was a member of the Music City Chorus for three years back home in Nashville and lately have a renewed interest in all things harmonic.  Having been on YouTube quite a bit lately and discovering some very talented individuals and groups in the field of 4+ part harmony, I decided to share a few of them here.

'FineyLeee' is a very talented young man from Sweden.  When I came across his 8-part tag of  "Scarborough Fair" (all eight parts performed on video by himself), I just watched in disbelief again and again.  Once you're there, also check out the rest of his posts.

One Thursday night in late 1995 or early 1996,  Four Voices dropped by our chorus practice session.  They stood outside the door of the West End Church of Christ basement and sang "Bright Was The Night" and the tag for Class of '94's arrangement of "Blackbird Medley."  We were very impressed to say the least.  Who knew they would go on to win International in 2002?  Watch them perform in the 2002 Semi-Finals round, singing "Lazy Bones" and "The Charleston."

Unless I'm mistaken, all four gentlemen were members of Voices of Lee. You can see the group perform "All Rise" here, a beautiful arrangement that glorifies the Lord and Savior.

Those are my picks for a while.  Browse around YouTube and other sites to find tons of barbershop and choral numbers just waiting to be enjoyed!

Look What We're Learning!

A Musical Informance

On the night of February 22, 2007, Anna performed with her 2nd grade schoolmates in a showcase of what the students are learning with their music teacher, Mrs. Burwick. We documented the whole event and decided to upload four wonderful songs by extremely talented girls and boys. Please excuse the hand-held camera shakes and enjoy the show!

UPDATE: The videos have been removed. I hope you got a chance to see them!

Little Einstein!

We're very proud of Anna here at Miller Manor. She recently won an "Einstein Award" in her KITES class for solving the problem of keeping turkeys out of a pond while still allowing ducks to enter the pond. She had to create a continuous fence line to keep them separated. She talks about it on her blog so be sure to check it out!

Stuffed Animal Mountain!

Throughout her eight years, Anna has amassed quite a collection of stuffing: animals, dolls, and toys. She has loved stuffed toys since she was born, practically, so you can probably guess that she still has every one of them...If you look carefully, you can find Anna in one of those piles of animals. The fun part was knocking over the mountain!


Build-a-Bear Workshop became a favorite stomping ground for Anna in the summer of 2004, when she first acquired Ashley. Ashley is a pretty pink poodle that has a little toy poodle of her own.

The collection just continued to grow larger from that point. There are also Charlie the Bear, Becca the Unicorn, Anna B. the Bunny, Flower the pink Bear, Gabriella the white Bear and Elmo the...Elmo!

Crater of Diamonds

This is the trip we had anticipated for many months. Anna was excited about the prospect of finding a diamond among the clods of dirt. My goal was just to enjoy the time together with my family. Even at home we often find ourselves doing our own things that keep us apart much of the time.

We left Sunday morning, March 18, 2007, and headed south on Highway 65, passing Branson and Hollister before crossing over the Arkansas state line. We passed Harrison on our way to Little Rock, where we picked up I-30 which took us to Murfreesboro, home of the Crater of Diamonds State Park!






The Queen of Diamonds is a nice little inn that has a turn-of-the-20th century Victorian home on the property. The beautiful home was built in 1903(?) and is used as the Inn's office and breakfast area, complete with furniture of the same Victorian style. The place is constantly booked as it just a mere two miles from the diamond field.

After paying our admission, meandering through the visitors' center with our tools took a few minutes before we got to the field, all 37.5 acres of it potentially holding that one stone that starts an early retirement or instantly fills a college fund. We had hopes of finding something out there. Possible finds include various kinds of quartz and jasper and yellow, brown or white diamonds.

We didn't find any diamonds.