After church today, we ran some errands which took us by the mall. There was a clear booth which purported to expose those inside to Category 1 hurricane force winds of 78 miles per hour. Well now, how could we pass that up?! Will was a little hesitant so Drew and I went first. Afterward, Drew assured Will it was not scary and that it was fun!

The second time, all the three of us together stood up to the hurricane force winds. Despite Will's face to the contrary, he loved it as much as his older brother. Landon opted to sit this little adventure out.

Our Little Business Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are doing awesome this year. Lots of blooms, lots of buds, great color. The weather has been perfect with good intermittent rain and reasonable temperatures...at least until lately.

I'm walking along a pristine beach, sand between my toes, cool salt breeze against my skin, not a care in the world...I lied...it's from the Lighthouse Shopping Center, 71st & Yale in Tulsa, which I walked by when getting lunch today...a guy can dream can't he?

Today the five of us went to see the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Greatest Show on Earth! There are several Ringling Bros. shows that tour the country at the same time and we got to see Zing Zang Zoom (the Red tour). (Close up family photo after the jump.)

There were plenty of well-trained elephants.

The tigers performed with amazing precision and cooperation.

The show featured two human cannonballs simultaneously shot from a double barrel cannon who flew about 65 feet across the arena landing on two parallel airbags. (Vimeo version after the jump.)

Even after a few Google searches I'm not sure if there is a special name for the acrobats that perform high in the air while holding on to, or wound up in, the long silk scarves.

The high wire act walked, danced, jumped rope and rode across the tight wire better than I can walk down the street. I can remember that I used to think that using a safety line took away from the show. Now that I'm older, it actually allows me to enjoy the performance more since I don't have to worry--as much--about the performer's safety.

Finally, a close up of one of the performing elephants. There were tons of other acts, illusions, clowns, performers and music. We all had a really great time. (Just try not to think about the $12 cotton candy.)

Drew finished up his first T-Ball season tonight with his team taking first place in the Tulsa Kids Baseball City Wide Kindergarten Tournament. (Add, this championship to his team's first place finish in the Union Kids Baseball Kindergarten regular season and third place in the UKB Kindergarten post-season tournament.)

Landon and Will were real troopers going to every game and cheering on their brother.

This is Steve Jobs at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) held today in which the new iPhone 4 was announced. Jobs' personal net worth is about $5.5 billion dollars right now as he heads up and is the driving force behind Apple, Inc., which exceeded Microsoft in market capitalization in May of this year and currently stands at about $230 billion.

And, this is what Steve Jobs does when he actually has to look at the infinitesimally small print on an iPhone.

Steve Jobs again, speaking to the audience about the new iPhone 4.

But, when he actually has to use his new toy...off come the glasses! What is the point of this post? If a billionaire, tech-savvy, corporate head needs to flip up his glasses to look at his iPhone, then I don't want to hear any comments from my family, friends and workmates when I do the same thing!

I'm sitting under a tropical palm tree, staring out into the Caribbean, drinking something cold and fruity with a swirl in it.

This past week I was contacted by a representative of RedEnvelope and asked if I would write a review of a product from their Father's Day gift collection. In exchange I would get to keep the gift along with other compensation. After reviewing a list of potential products, I chose the baseball cuff links from their Sports Collection Cuff Links.

The day after making my selection, I received a FedEx envelope containing the trademark RedEnvelope box with the cuff links nicely packaged inside.

The cuff links are made from an actual baseball used in a major league game and are officially licensed by MLB (Major League Baseball). The hologram on the back of each cuff link can be authenticated through the MLB Authentication website which will tell you the exact game the ball was used in.

Both of mine came from one baseball used in the September 4, 2007, Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Further proof of their authenticity...the Cubbies lost 6 to 2.

I've got say, I'm very impressed with the quality of the cuff links. The piece of the baseball used is flawlessly cut and nicely mounted with a convex curve greater than an actual baseball but perfectly proportioned for the size of the cuff link.

The backing is sterling silver and everything feels and functions just like you would expect a high-end piece of jewelry would. Ignore the brass/gold looking color of the cuff link in this picture, the metal is all polished sterling silver.

The cuff links look good on white, light blue and especially on dark or french blue which highlights the contrast of the red and white baseball.

A co-worker who is more GQ than me, graciously allowed me to borrow a fancy weave french cuff dress shirt of his. We both agreed, the cuff links looked terrible against the patterned material.

Conclusion: I would highly recommend these cuff links. They could not be any higher in quality and would add a bit of style and whimsy on an appropriate occasion. They are a bit pricey, but quality always is. No doubt, the official MLB licensing adds significantly to the price, but I think it is well worth it to know the baseball the cuff links are made from is genuine and to be able to trace it back to an specific game. The only caveat to my recommendation would be to think about the weave of any shirt you might be planning to wear the cuff links with; a plain weave is strongly preferred and a darker blue color really highlights the cuff links best.

Discount Code: If you are interested in the cuff links or any other items, RedEnvelope has provided the following discount code to receive 10% off of your order: 10offred

Finally, I just wanted to mention that If I didn't truly like the cuff links, I would not hesitate to criticize them which I've done before with compensated reviews I was asked to write. In this instance I really love the cuff links! I, also, think it would be worth your time to check out some of the other Father's Day gifts that are available at RedEnvelope (I spent a bit of time there myself clicking around).

Today Will and Drew assembled some of Daddy and Aunt Donelda's old Lego sets.

Will created his own original interpretation of Lego set 540 Swiss Villa from 1973.

Drew flawlessly put together Lego Set 555 Hospital from 1976.