Our Wedding Approaches

Allie and I seem to be thinking about and doing wedding preps constantly. It is going to be an amazing time. I've always loved going to weddings, but had no clue what it takes. All my married buddies (which are most) warned me of the final weeks, so no comment there.

For more fun info on Allie & I's day, please visit our wedding site.

I also made a neat little program to manage wedding invite lists which I will post soon.

Go Ghana!

New ParaPlan Install for the City of Ashland, Kentucky

I will be visiting with Mike Rogers and the Transportation Department staff for the City of Ashland, KY next week. We will be installing ParaPlan and training our new users. We are very excited to welcome Kentucky to the ParaPlan Family. The City of Henderson, KY is also coming soon!

ParaPlan will now be helping our clients serve their clients better in 22 states!

Where's Tim On Demand

EnGraph is launching Where's Tim On Demand, a new service that will provide temporary GPS tracking for $10 / day. We will provide the phone. We will provide the website. You can even choose to be listed on Where's Tim!

This is a great way to get yourself or your company up and running immediately with GPS tracking online. Tim came up with this idea based on the incredible response and buzz surrounding our GPS innovation. Please let us know if this is something you are interested in.

PennDOT Reporting in ParaPlan

We are very excited to soon be offering our Pennsylvania clients some nice enhancements to the PennDOT reports provided by ParaPlan. The following reports will soon allow our users to exclude rides based on program, or funding source:

• Shared Ride Fare Structure Reports
• Revenue Replacement A and B Reports
• Part II Sample Data Report

I would like to thank Gary Eby of Perry County Transportation for helping us with the rules and requirements.

The US Open, Phil and Johnny Miller

We all know what happened to Phil and it was painful to watch, but several other guys did the same thing. My hat is off to Geoff Ogilvy for playing the last 4 holes at even par and winning the Open. My hat is not off to Phil, Monte, Furyk and Padraig. These guys just let the pressure and the tough course get the better of them. Monte was in perfect position on 18 after a birdie at 17, then missed the green in the worst spot from 170 yds. Furyk missed a 3' putt to send him into a playoff on the final hole. Phil and Padraig played the last 4 holes at +3, while Geoff did it at even par.

I really wish Phil would have one this one because it truly would have put him on a new pedestal near Tiger. Now, however, he is going to have this monkey on his back coming down the stretch of any future major and that will be perhaps tougher than his first monkey :)

I would like to take some time to express my best friend Matt and I's disgust for Johnny Miller as a commentator. He is a cocky, know-it-all, washed-up, has-been jerk. I didn't watch golf in the 70's and I am glad I missed it. I know he has one some big ones, but let it go man. He talks about himself more than the players on the course and it makes me sick. As Phil was messing up the final hole, Johnny Miller said, "Ben Hogan must be turning over in his grave right now." Well Johnny, you have no idea what it is like to be Ben Hogan, nor can you speak for him. He was a true legend and an amazing story of coming back after a tragic accident and you are whiny glory-day washout. Whew...sorry about that.

Anyway, here are some comments from my buddy Matt:

"If I had to listen to Johnny Miller say one more time about how Phil blew it, should not have used the driver, blah, blah, blah......the guy is Venturi re-incarnated. But WORSE!"

"I almost dread when a big tourney like this is on NBC. Give me Nantz and the somewhat more tolerable Lanny on CBS. Miller keeps trying to resurrect his glory years (he spent a couple of minutes yesterday talking about how in 1974 he knew he was the best player in the world, was much better than Jack, and Winged Foot was not a true measure of who the best player was) -- well if you were so good buddy, why are you not out there on the Champions Tour? Or if you think you're THAT good, try playing in a PGA event once in a while. At least McCord gets out on the Champions circuit every once in a while. Maybe I should start my own blog -- I could go on for hours about this topic."

*and yes Matt, you should start blogging!

US Soccer Has One Last Chance

If you watched the US v Italy game and were as appalled as I was about the referee, then please post your disgust here. We tied the world famous Italian National Team with one less man in the second half. The World Cup refs have been pretty good, but this guy was amazing. One of their players elbowed Brian McBride and was tossed. We played a man-up for about 15 minutes, then just before halftime, Pablo Mastroeni of the US got an insane red card for a slide tackle. The announcers thought it was terrible and a 'make-up' call. Score was 1-1. Then it got crazy 2 minutes into the second half when Eddie Pope of the US got his second yellow card and ejected for a slide tackle. I was beside myself because now we had to play one of the best teams a man-down for an entire half. We played great and kept them out of the goal and kept our chances alive.

Anyway, the US must beat Ghana on Thursday morning to have ANY chance of advancing to the next round of 16 teams.

Current Point Standings for Group E: (top 2 teams advance)
Italy: 4
Czech Rep: 3
Ghana: 3
USA: 1

If Italy beats the Czech Republic on Thursday and we win, then we are IN!!! If the Czech's win and we win, then it goes to a 'goal differential' between us and Italy. If Italy and Czech tie, then it goes to a 'goal differential' between us and Czech. Therefore, unless we beat Ghana by 3 goals, then we really need Italy to win (in a nutshell of course).

Taylor Hicks Sold Out

I did kinda like the guy after my fiance got me hooked on American Idol, but he has taken it to the next level. He is a 'manufactured' pop star and has already sold out before he has sold anything. He can be seen daily on some tacky car commercial...nice work Taylor.

Father's Day Golf

Played golf with my Dad (Gary), brother (Craig) and buddy Jon this past Sunday. We all had a good time on a beautiful day here in KC. Feeling a little non-sleepy tonight so I am gonna blog a bit. My Dad has been taking lessons from Carl out at Smiley's Golf Complex and they are really paying off. He is hitting the ball much more consistently and finally had fun playing the game. He is taking lessons so he can spend more time with his sons as he gets older, which is awesome.

There were alot of deer out on the course (and other animals of the wild kingdom as Jon pointed out). Anyway, I snapped this shot of Craig on hole #7 which was pretty cool.

World Cup Stage 2 and the USA

I hate to say it, but since Italy beat Ghana in our Group E...its not looking good. Italy and the Czech Rep. were picked to come out of Group E and I now think they are right. After just one game, the USA is in dead last of Group E because they got be 0-3 and Ghana is just above us due to their 0-2 loss. If we beat Italy and Ghana then we have a 'chance', we shall see.

Other notes...
I am so excited about the U.S. Open Golf Championship that I can't stand it.
Every year my best buddy Peez and I pick a player (outside the top 5 World Ranking)
This year he picked Chad Cambell and I picked Stewart Cink.
We shall see...stay posted.

I also have to say that 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol is a beautiful song.
It will be a HUGE hit I think.

USA's First Match

Since I got back from Orlando, I have been catching bits and pieces of various World Cup matches. The Mexico v. Iran game was awesome. Anyway, I am so excited for our Men's National Team...they play today at 11:55 AM ET vs. Czech Republic (ESPN2).

We have our work cut out for us. GO USA USA ! G O A L ! ! !

CTAA Summary from Orlando

Mark and I represented EnGraph at the annual CTAA show in Orlando, FL last week. There were serveral competitors of ours present and it always makes me feel good when people come and talke to us. The best part for me was talking to our existing clients who were there and potential ones we have been talking to recently. The resort (Gaylord Palms) was truly incredible. It was like a maze just trying to find our hotel room aside from the conference center.

My friends from Burns & McDonnell, Mark and Stacy Jansen brought their kids and we had fun at the pool and dinner.

Also..I shot a 71 today!

See EnGraph In Orlando

Mark and I will be in Orlando June 6-8 at the national CTAA trade show. We will have a booth display and various brochures highlighting EnGraph software products. We will also have our laptops ready for anyone who wants a live demo.

Tim just gave another speech on AJAX and Google Maps down in Wichita, read about it here.