G-20 and Federated Investors!

Besides the fact that the Steelers stank (?) yesterday, Pittsburgh faired pretty well with the G-20 Summit last week.  Some of you have asked me where I work and what I do for a living.  I have a pretty good "elevator speech" to answer this question; however, I'm embedding a video here of our CEO, Chris Donahue, in an interview from last Friday.  Chris is describing the economy and talking about the recovery along with his sales pitch. 

As a business architect at the company, I work with the business people who are trying to read these tea leaves and plan for the future growth of the company.  Once we get a picture of where they want to take the business, I team up with a technical architect to align the technology to make these things possible operationally.

Enjoy!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1275534459

Weekend with Katy & David

This weekend Opa and I stayed with Katy and David while Mommy and Daddy went to Chicago for Cindy and Chan's wedding.  We got to Columbus on Thursday night, and it was a wild and crazy time on Friday and Saturday and most of Sunday.

On Saturday morning, I French-braided Katy's hair.  It looked really pretty . . . for about a half an hour.  Oh, well!

We started planning a party for Mary and Matthew and Aunt Mel for Saturday night when we got there.  The party was actually dinner on Saturday night, which Opa cooked.  It was pork loin and baked potato and glazed carrots and bread.  YUMMY!  However, Katy was in charge of DESSERT.  We went to Kroger on Saturday morning to get food; and Katy picked out a marvelous Funfetti cake mix and white frosting and M&M's for decoration on our cake.  When we returned to the house, the baking and fun began!

Here Katy wears her apron and helps crack eggs and add ingredients to make the cake.  She is such a good helper!

Licking the spatula after you get the batter into the pan is part of the bakling process.  Katy particularly like this part of the process.  :-)

David was extremely helpful in the icing process.  He really likes almost anything that has to do with food.  His favorite part is eating, but he also likes to help.

After all that cooking, it was time for some romping and playing with Opa in the living room.  Nothing makes you feel better like a game of being tossed in the air or turned upside down!

Finally, the party started when Mary and Matthew arrived.  They showed Katy the pictures that Oma had brought and told her who all the people were in the pictures!  Cool!

After the party started, Katy put a bazillion M&M's on the cake for decoration.  It was a perfect party, and a perfect dessert, too!

On Sunday, we went walking with Aunt Mel in the morning, and then Katy and Opa made a run to Half Price Books.  When they came back, it was a perfect time for some Hopscotch on the driveway.  Katy is getting really good at this game!

LOOKING FOR A NEW DO?


I ran across this video while watching a spoof on Barack Obama and the economy (believe it or not).  I think it is a scream!  This is definitely something you should plan ahead for if you want to wear this hairstyle out for the evening.  Enjoy!

LIBERTY SPIKES HAIR STYLE INSTRUCTIONS!!

Catch Up on Melanie . . . and the Renaissance Festival

Melanie has been busy this summer, and she moved to a new apartment with her own room and just two room-mates instead of 5 over the weekend of August 22-23.  Last weekend she was a bridesmaid in her friend, Abby's, wedding.  Below is a picture of Melanie with Jonna (on the left) and Beth and Natalie; all of these girls were part of the group of six that lived together all last year.  Right now Melanie is working really hard to raise the last of her support for Great Commission Ministries by the end of September.  The students will be back on campus before you know it!

Today Greg and I drove down to the New Stanton area to visit the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival.   It was a beautiful day, and we got there around lunchtime and saw a mime show and then wandered around the festival.  Here are a few memorable moments.

 

Jousting was the order of the day.  The actors were good, but the horses were the real stars in my opinion.  They were amazingly well-behaved with so many people around.  Still it was a good show with Henry VIII and his court on the daise.

There were a lot of people wandering around in costumes.  Some of the men wore armour and chainmaille suits.  Not everyone had a lance, however.  (Thankfully.)

 

There were sword fights.

And more sword fights.

And the court processed in and out of the arena around every show!

There were Mad Mechanical players doing a bad job with Shakespeare.

And there were people acting as villagers and street people all throughout the festival.

I really liked the glass blowing demonstration.  This glass blower was making a vase shaped like a fish.  I would have bought one, but it was $63.  Uh, I don't think so.

Anyway, it was a lovely way to spend Sunday . . . even if some of the stuff was kind of bawdy.  But, in Henry VIII's day, it was AT LEAST bawdy and probably much worse.  Definitely a PG kind of time period.