Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there (you pet dads count too)!

Looks like the Stuckey’s had fun with their celebrations.

Sherry shares a touching article she wrote about her dad.

Usually I post only light-hearted stuff, but today is Father’s Day, so I’m doing something a little different. It has been just over 8 years since my dad died. The following is what I wrote that appeared on the op/ed page of Charleston’s “Post and Courier” on my first Father’s Day without Dad

Syd posted a letter he wrote to his dad a few years ago

I think about you often and over the past year have come to love you more than I believe I ever did. I have thought and spoken of all the things that you taught me. I wouldn’t have learned to love the water as I do if it hadn’t been for you. And because of what you taught me about boats, I’ve made a career of not only doing my work from boats but seeing many things in the ocean that few have ever seen. I am grateful for what I learned from you.

Francis gives us his memories of fatherhood

When our family was growing up my two oldest sons would sit at the supper table and swear on their mother’s cheeseburgers and coke they would never be like their father and wear a blue pin-striped suit and wing-tips to work every day. Fast forward a decade or better and one of them met his brother at work one day and said, “Christ, look at us. We’ve become Dad – pin stripes and wing-tips.”

While Heather is recovering from her weekend and Dan is out of town, I figured I’d sneak in a round up today (and hopefully not stepping on anybody else’s toes).

Hey teachers! Drayton Hall is giving you free admission for the summer!

Paul gives us a few thoughts on Memorial Day

It’s Spoleto for the next couple of weeks.  Get your fill of Spoleto-y things you might have missed at Spoleto Today.

Adventures in Ko Samhet from Liz.

Kristin is gearing up for another marathon and is trying to raise some money for the Leukuemia & Lymphoma Society in the process.  Help her out with a donation!

Eugene’s random thoughts and observations can be found at Imablog.

It’s been a while since I last did a roundup, so I’m a little bit out of practice.  Let’s go for a walk.

I think I need to start hanging out with Joan more.  She gets to do all the cool stuff like hobnobbing with Tom Brokaw.

The staff at Richard Bell Photography went out to Frankie’s Fun Park for a staff meeting.  If all of their staff meetings are like this, it seems like it would be a cool place to work.

For you tea drinkers out there, Uniquely Tea offers some storage tips for loose leaf tea.

Becky has a plea for drug companies to test their packaging too.

Try out your directions and packaging as well. And don’t try out directions and packaging on people who are not in pain – that is not really testing it’s effectiveness. Pain tends to dull the ability to read and analyze directions and get into annoying packaging.

Al Forno gives us a history lesson on Kansas City BBQ.

The #meatwaffles phenomenon is spreading.  Here’s Ian’s take on #meatwaffles.

And don’t forget the meetup Thursday at Sesame Burgers and Beer.  Afterwards we can all go crash Digitel’s party.

In Canada, it’s Remembrance Day.  Typically a very solemn day filled with tributes and remembrances of those who gave their lives in battle.  This year it also happens to be 90 years since the Armistice ending the Great War, also known as World War I, was signed.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, hostilities formally ceased between the two sides.

In the US, it’s Veterans Day, a much lower key day to remember and honour past veterans than its much more grandiose cousin, Memorial Day.  Across the Lowcountry blogs, people are sharing their thanks for veterans.

Heidi says Thank you.  So do Vera and Michael.

MojoSteve shares a poem, Soldier.

Denise at Uniquely Tea puts a tea perspective on her remembrance.

And here’s mine.

With most of my fellow round-uppers all geeking out at ConvergeSouth 2008 this week, the task falls on me to root out the interesting things going on in the Lowcountry blog-o-sphere for the next few days.  If you want to know what’s going on at Converge South, follow the #convergesouth twitter stream.

Michael‘s got it bad.

I am hopeless, I admit it. I am glued to my iPhone and my laptop. So when I head out to eat, especially for lunch during the work week, I often judge where I am going by the availability of free wi-fi.

Weatherman Bill says fall is on the way with cooler temperatures (cooler being a relative term…these are late summer temps where I’m from)

Once the front moves east, we’ll see the cool down with highs only in the upper 60’s Saturday and lows by Sunday morning in the upper 40’s well inland.

Robert at Blue Ion introduces his new friend: a new MacBook.  Colour me green.

Everything you wanted to know about turkey vultures, but were afraid to ask.

Did you know there’s polo action in Charleston?  I didn’t.  The Charleston Polo Club is working to bring polo back.

For you outdoorsy types, Green Drinks Charleston notes that Half Moon Outfitters’ newest location in South Windermere is having a soft opening this weekend.

‘Tis the season.  Untamed Beer takes a look at a couple of pumpkin ales.

I’m giddy when September arrives. Cooler temperatures and autumn colors indicate its that time again: time for liquid pumpkin pies.

Mmmm, beer.

With October just around the corner, that means pleasantly cooler weather and most importantly, the third annual Blognic!  Last year’s blognic was a fun-filled day for the whole family over at Wannamaker County Park in North Charleston, which turned out to be a pretty good place for a picnic.  It will be pot-luck as usual and everybody’s invited (you too, Tweeters/FriendFeeders/Denters).

For the date, I’m thinking either the weekend of the 11th or the 18th (although I’m busy on the 11th).  I think Wannamaker would be a fine place to have the blognic again, although other family/kid friendly suggestions are welcome.  Leave a comment with your date/location suggestions, if you’re coming or not and what you want to bring to share.

With all the hullaballo over Hanna last week, thoughts of planning a September meetup slipped out of my mind.

Anybody interested in getting together some time this week?  I think Thursday or Friday would be good candidates for a meetup day.  Or we could all crash Chuck‘s Photo group meetup on Wednesday.  After reading Al Forno‘s latest post on Palmetto Pit BBQ on Daniel Island, it occurred to me that we haven’t met at a BBQ place yet so I thought we could try Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ in West Ashley.  As always the floor is open to suggestions so if you have another BBQ (or any other) place in mind, just leave them in the comments.

Wendy from Well Mannered Frivolity shares a painful story from her past

I have been putting off blogging because I didn’t want write this post. God has been prompting me for some time, but I kept putting Him off. I hope you don’t think any less of me. You can’t think any less of me than I already think of myself.

The Farscape geek in me is screaming “Must! Have!” at Newki‘s latest acquisition.

Gustav, Gustav and more Gustav. If you want the latest on Gustav, Hanna and what’s to come, be sure to tune into Jared‘s Serious Business broadcast tonight at 8:30PM.

Speaking of hurricanes, Katherine from Paint Charleston Daily shows off some of her hurricane art.

7 storm damaged zinc etching plates I discovered in a Charleston, SC art store after Hurricane Hugo became the inspiration for a series of large etchings of impressions from that “Storm of the Century”.

One of the Blue Ion guys had an encounter with a bat in the house, and now has to deal with a series of rabies shots as a result.

Apparently, 5% of bats have rabies and if you or others were sleeping you can’t always tell if you’ve been bitten or scratched. So, you have to assume the worst (rabies) and start up the shots….today was the first of 6 part series. Feels like someone kicked me right in the butt.

What happens when you don’t use your front door? Other critters start using it.

I’ve had a few pickled nom noms before, but I can’t say as I’ve ever run across pickled shrimp before. Looks tasty. I may have to try it out some day.

Taking a stroll through random blogs in the blogroll because I’m a physicist, and random walks are my kind of thing.

Beth offers some advice for forming/joining a co-op for you home-schooler types

By combining efforts, we found a way to improve the quality of education for our boys, give them time to interact with other boys their age in a meaningful way and also share the burdens with one another, making them easier to bear. Not all co-ops will be developed with the same thinking. Some families do co-ops for social reasons while others really want to focus on academics. No matter what the reason, establishing firm goals from the beginning offers a greater opportunity for success.

As another school year begins, a couple of bloggers are reaching the end of one phase in their education.

Jared

it’s my last semester as an undergraduate. This day’s come about two or three years later than I would have liked, but it’s here and I’m happy. Needless to say, I’m ready to be done; the proverbial light at the end of the proverbial tunnel is increasing in brightness, etc. I could throw a thousand cliches at you — and in fact, I had several queued up here — but I’ll spare you.

Student Nurse Nancy is on her last semester of nursing school

I just cannot believe it! Seems like it was a few weeks ago that I was stressed beyond belief about the first day of nursing school. I can vividly remember the feeling of wanting to vomit as i sat in the auditorium as the instructors went over pages after pages of things we needed to do by the end of the first week. The PANIC that would set in the night before clinical.

The crew at McCrady’s did some disassembly

Nothing went into the garbage…nothing…this is why pigs are the greatest animals alive.

Larry reflects on Ted Kennedy’s impact on his life

We finished up the interview and he shook my hand and told me “good job… good questions.” My life as a reporter changed in that moment. Ted made himself available and taught me that he was just like me — human. He was willing to stop his entrance to talk to the young reporter who was shy and a little out of place. In that moment he gave me permission to be bold — to make moves.

Uncle Z kicks of his birthday week with a list of 48 songs

Gamers, Heartless_Gamer provides some of his thoughts on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

It was so grand that I spent Sunday giving our pet rabbit a beauty day instead of playing. No, it wasn’t because the game wasn’t playable. It was because WAR is fun, no matter how little or how much time you spend in game. Actually, I had a metric ton of fun, but that doesn’t mean the game was perfect. Far from it, but I learned a very valuable lesson: having fun in a game trumps many flaws

That’s all the random walking I have time for right now. Try your own random walking through the blogroll and see what you find. You might be surprised!

Late August/September/October brings us into the statistical peak of the hurricane season. The System Formerly Known as Invest 92L has been confounding resident and ex-pat weather bloggers for the past few days, but was finally designated Tropical Storm Fay yesterday evening.

Ex-pat Brian Goode:

Yes, this new system is very frustrating. In fact, I have not see the models more confused on a system in a long time. This is not reassuring for those that live along the coast I know.

Chad Watson from Live 5:

The general consensus is that it’s a good time to keep tuned to the forecast. There may be no threat to us but the setup bears close watching…which we will do. Make sure that if you have a generator, it is working and you have all the necessary supples [sic] you need to protect your home if that becomes the case.

The latest on Fay from Bill Walsh:

This all comes down to timing. The trough moving off the east coast will help turn the storm north, then a ridge builds as it exits, perhaps forcing the storm more west at the end of the period.

With the 5AM update, it looks like Fay will cross Cuba as a hurricane and keep on going along the western coast of Florida. Still an outside chance it will stay in the Atlantic, but either way it looks like there may be some tropical weather related rain for SC in about a week or so.