A man was riding in the back of his limousine when he saw a man eating grass by the roadside. He ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.

“Why are you eating grass?” he asked the man.

“I don’t have any money for food,” the poor man replied.

“Oh, please come to my house!”

“But sir, I have a wife and four children…”

“Bring them along!” the rich man said.

They all climbed into the limo. Once underway, the poor fellow said, “Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us in.”

The rich man replied, “No, you don’t understand. The grass at my house is over three feet tall!”

Source: Comedy Central

20 years ago today in Michigan’s UP, a young couple very much in love got married.  That couple was Mona and I.  September 3, 1988 was the day that began a journey of partnership and friendship that has grown into a life relationship that simply couldn’t be any better.

9 months and 5 days after being wed, Anna Hutton was born.  I’ll never forget sitting in our bedroom on the bed matress, which was on the floor because we had no real bedroom furniture at the time, and contemplating the reality of parenthood within our first year of marriage.  I thought Mona must surely be better prepared for being a mother than I was for being a father.  I hoped she was, because I was clueless.  We were thrilled and scared at the same time.  Fortunately for me and our kids, Mona quickly proved that she got it.

Over the course of the next 20 years, God revealed His plan day-by-day.  The condensed version of the story looks something like this…

1988 Get married.
1988 Move to Brainerd, MN and rent an apartment
1989 Buy a house in Brainerd, MN
1989 Have a baby girl (Anna)
1990 Ron changes job and we move to Port Orange, FL
1991 Ron changes job and we move to McHenry, IL
1992 Move from McHenry to Crystal Lake, IL
1992 Have a baby boy (Ben)
1993 Ron changes job and we move to Ormond Beach, FL
1995 Have a baby girl (Emily)
1999 Ron changes job and we move to Farmington, MN
2001 Ron changes job and we move to Ormond Beach, FL
2007 Anna graduates from high school and moves to Tallahassee, FL to attend FSU
(next?)

20 years condensed into 13 lines?  That’s not right.  Why’d I do that?  The gaps in between the lines span month and years.  It’s the everyday things that make up life and form bonds that no man can break.  It’s knowing that your mate knows you better than any other human on earth, and yet would do anything for you.  While only God’s love is perfect and unconditional, I don’t think there’s anything closer here on earth than what Mona and I have together.  I adore her, and she likes me pretty good too.

Mona… thank you.  I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years hold in store for us.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Satisfaction lies in the effort not the attainment. Full effort is full victory”.

While that’s true, it does feel very, very good to bring a large project to its successful completion.

After seven solid months of work, we finally launched the new Get Etched website this past weekend.  This is undoubtedly the largest website project I’ve ever tackled.  It wasn’t the number of products that made the project big… or the number of pages… or the complexity of the scripts that run the site.  It was mainly the fact that I created every flash banner, photo gallery and image on the site pretty much from scratch.

Get Etched is a company, based out of Brunswick, Maine, that manufactures personalized gifts and awards.  Their main product line is custom laser etched granite photogift plaques and coasters.  They will take any photo and laser etch the image in polished black granite to produce beautiful keepsakes and awards.  They also offer custom laser etched products in black marble and crystal.

Go have a look around the site, http://www.getetched.com.  If you buy something, make sure you include a comment with your order that “Ron Hutton sent you”.

I don’t know if this would be called a “stupid people stunt” or a “stupid animal stunt”, but it will make you laugh…

Or in Italian, “Felice Diciannovesimo Annivsary”.  We love you guys and we miss you.  I’ve included a special anniversary message for you.  Just click the Play button to listen…

I’d like to introduce you to the new teen Hutton webmaster, Chris Hutton.  Chris has taken an interest in learning how to build websites, and he’s doing wonderfully.  Chris’ first website, http://www.huttonhomeschool.com, was built in the beginning of 2007; and since then Chris has expanded his knowledge by working with a blog platform called WordPress to create http://www.teenmilitarynetwork.com.

The image below is also a creation of Chris’.  Keep up the great work, Chris, you’ve got a bright future.

I love the big G (Google that is).  Whenever I run into a problem on my computer that I don’t fully understand, I Google the error message.  Here’s an example…

For the last 24 hours I was getting an error message for one of my (many) email accounts.  18 of 19 email addresses were sending and receiving just fine, but this one problem address kept returning an error message that read something like “…(youremail@example.com – Receiving) reported error 0x800CCC0F. Connection to the server was interrupted…

So, what did I do to fix the problem?  I went to http://www.google.com, entered  the exact error message I saw and clicked “Google Search”.  The #1 result was a page on Microsoft.  Cool.  I figured since they make the software, they’re probably also familiar with error messages and what causes errors.  So, I went there (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813514) and saw a bunch of potential causes to my error, including…

These error messages may occur if Microsoft Outlook or if Microsoft Outlook Express cannot establish a connection with your e-mail server. These error messages are frequently caused by one of the following:

• You are not connected to the Internet or a network
• Incorrect account settings
• Your user profile in Outlook is damaged
• An e-mail item on your POP3 server is damaged
• Incorrect configuration of your AV software
• Outlook Express has been removed from the computer or the installation is damaged
• Incorrect configuration of personal firewall software

So, let’s narrow this down…

• Am I connected to the internet? Yes.
• Are my account settings correct? Yes.
• Is my user profile in Outlook damaged? Don’t know, but will revisit if nothing else works.
• Is an e-mail on my POP3 server damaged?  Possibly.
• Is my AV software configured correctly?  What the heck is AV software?  Maybe I’ll come back to this.
• Has Outlook Express been removed from my computer?  Don’t think so and don’t care.  I use Outlook.
• Is my personal firewall configured incorrectly? No.

Now, what’s the easiest thing to tackle first?  Answer to self: damaged email.

If you have POP3 email, you also have access to your email through a web interface, generally referred to as “webmail”.  You didn’t know that?  Cool.  Now you do.

So, I log on to my webmail account for this “problematic email address”, look at the email messages there, read them, print what needs to be printed, download attachments I need, delete everthing with which I’m finished and log out.

Now back to Outlook… Click the “Send / Receive” button and BINGO!  No more error message.

Takeways…

1. Use Google

2. Be very specific with your search.  For example, don’t do a search for “email problems”.  Use the exact error message in your search.  If it includes some cryptic reference like 0x800CCC0F, include that.

3. When you find possible fixes to your problem, start by tackling the easiest things first.

Lastly, if you ever have a “Microsoft issue” and cannot figure it out, you might consider paying a small fee to get help.  You can call Microsoft’s paid tech support line (800-936-5700); and for a small fee (was $35 last time I used it), they’ll stick with you until your problem is fixed.  I’d rather spend 15 minutes on the phone with an expert and pay them to help me fix a problem than spend (waste) hours trying to fix something on my own.

Sometimes things get lost during transitions.  This website transitioned to its current design a couple of months ago, and I found a short (3:21) audio that I wanted to put back up here.

Listen and, if inspired, visit the site below the audio player.  They have a short but very powerful video on their home page that tells their story.  It’s worth a click.

Click Here to Visit FreeWheelchairMission.org

If you look in the upper right-hand corner of this web page, you’ll see my site’s tag line, “Life reflects your own thoughts back to you”.  It’s an eventual certainty.

My big brother, Dave, in his youth, loved to say “Fishing is for old people”.  Well, that was in the days when he could waterski around Rush Lake more than twice.  According to recent reports, the days of running the boat’s gas tank dry while flying back and forth across the wake on a slalom ski may now only be a memory.  It’s a wonderful memory, for sure; but it’s giving way to fishing.

Included here is a picture of Dave and his trophy catch from a company “offsite” meeting at Eagle Lake in Canada.  After returning from three days of fishing and “meeting/strategizing”, Dave said, “It was the most fun I’ve ever had fishing”.

Hey Dave… “Fishing is for old people”.

Love,
Ron

P.S. I love fishing too.  What does that say about us now?

Actually, as I write this, Tammy is 40 years and 3.5 months old.  She’s a wonderful friend and we love her, Mark and their boys.

I’ve added a photo gallery from the fantastic surprise dinner party that Mark threw.  Enjoy…