The Fourth of July has always been a special holiday for me. My childhood memories are of going to Fondulac Park in East Peoria, establishing a beachhead with the family, and then racing around the park for hours with friends.Later, when I was able to drive myself around, I started going across the river to the fireworks in Peoria. The Peoria fireworks had live music and grilled bratwursts -- it was big-time compared to running around Fondulac Park.Tonya and I have carried on the tradition with our girls. When the girls were little, we went to Old Navy and bought these matching gray t-shirts that had a flag emblazoned on the front. We put Hope in her stroller and went to the 4th of July parade in Concord, a town just east of San Francisco. I kept that t-shirt until it was almost see-through ... something I didn’t wish to…

Since I'm not all that photogenic, I tend not to go around snapping pictures of myself. But now that I have a new iMac at work with the built-in camera, I really had no excuse. So for those of you who have been wondering what the post-Lasik Ken Hensley looks like, here it is:

Finally someone recognizes true talent. According to ezinearticles.com, I'm an "expert author." You can see for yourself. It didn't involve bribery or extortion ... it didn't involve a whole lot other than uploading some articles. But hey, that's what expert authors do ...