<![CDATA[Grant Swaim's Blog]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showforum.php?fid/7/An AutoTech eLearning FeednoneSat, 03 Nov 2007 20:21:56 GMTSat, 03 Nov 2007 20:21:56 GMThttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssFusionBB 2.0.1 (www.fusionbb.com)<![CDATA[Working on the Digital Literacy Project]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/794/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/794/

Working on the Digital Literacy Project


I have not been quite as visible on this site lately because I am pushing hard to finish up a major project I have been working on for about the last couple of years. I am calling it the Digital Literacy Project and my goal is to complete it by the end of 2007.

The mission of The Digital Literacy Project is to educate automotive service personnel about digital technology, which includes:

  • Personal Computer Training
  • Internet Training
  • Subscribing to Multimedia
  • Service Information Systems
  • Shop Management Systems
  • PC Based Diagnostic Tools


The Digital Literacy Project will offer training in many formats with an emphasis in multimedia content and delivering that content online. At present, training will be delivered through two components, which are:

A Printed Book

A book is the printed component of the project. This book can be used as a text book in a course, as a self study resource, or as a reference book.

Online Courses

The website, http://digitalliteracypro ject.com, is the online component of the project. The website can be used as a supplement to the book or an online course is available that includes the contents of the book along with many other multimedia learning tools, such as:

  • Flash Demonstration Movies
  • Audio Summaries of Each Chapter
  • Chapter Assessments
  • Issuance of a Certificate of Completion

I am about 75% finished with the book and hope to have the book and the online version completed by late December 2007.

The best way to keep a close eye on the status of this project is to watch the DLP Blog at http://blog.digitalliteracyprotect.com. You can also subscribe to the blog via RSS and be automatically notified of the project status. ]]>Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:28:19 GMT<![CDATA[Thanks Dad!]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/790/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/790/
My father was a good man. Dad was part of the group recently labeled the "Greatest Generation". He served in the Army at the end of WWII in Germany and then returned to help rebuild this country. Like many others from that era, he worked hard and sacrificed to provide for his family.

Dad and mom both worked hard to make sure we had all that we needed. They planned ahead so that my sister and I could get a college education and they also planned for retirement. Working hard to provide an income was just one part of "the plan". Responsible spending was the second part of the plan.

He didn’t take up any expensive hobbies and he didn’t waste money. He saved a lot of money by doing virtually all the remodeling and upkeep to the house. Dad (with me by his side) seemed to have an ongoing battle with the water pump and heating system of the house.

We often had to make a night trek to the well house with a flashlight, pipe wrench, and a gallon of water. I would follow his instructions to get the pump back in prime. This ritual got even more complicated when we had a deep well dug and a two stage pump was put under the house. Now there were twice as many lines and places to add water when it stopped pumping. To be honest, I don’t think dad fully understood the system, but if we were diligent in our fiddling, the pump would start working again and all was well… until the next time. An equal amount of fiddling was also directed at the fuel oil furnace, also located under the house which was even more complicated than the two stage water pump.

In addition to fixing things we built things. I didn’t have to read from a book that wall studs are on 16”centers, because my father taught me. He also taught me how to dig footings, lay block, erect walls, set roof trusses, roof a house, add electrical outlets, etc.

Looking back, I am glad he didn’t spend the money to have someone else do those things, because it was those early years of learning about pumps, furnaces, and how to build, that provided me with a strong mechanical aptitude that I still use to this day.

When I was young, our house had a large concrete slab on one end that was the width of the house and was about 15’ wide. I had started doing some pretty serious car repair work on the slab and when I overheard talk about making it a screened in porch, no doubt I was concerned. I was glad to hear the plans also included the addition of a 2 car carport and a single car garage.

The garage was built and it quickly became the “gear head” hang out. Dad and mom were extremely tolerant of my car projects which often spilled outside the garage. Those home grown automotive skills that I developed in that shop, have served me my entire career in the automotive industry. In a recent conversation with mother I found out building the garage was mainly her idea. She felt like it would keep me home instead of out getting into trouble. Actually her plan of keeping me at home worked so well that on a few occasions I worked at the shop instead of going to school and that got me into a little bit of trouble.

As I look back and reflect, I can truly appreciate how much support I got from both my parents. While they were prepared to provide me with a 4-year college education, I never felt pressured not to follow my love of cars. More than once, mother would come home from work and couldn't pull into the carport because I had a small block Chevy engine swinging on the carport beam.

So thanks dad for teaching me how to do things with my hands and when I wanted to know more than you could teach, you provided me the resources and support ]]>Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:14:47 GMT<![CDATA[Need an Automotive Department Website? Google to the Rescue]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/660/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/660/
Google has put all its' key online communication and collaboration tools into a service called Google Apps. While Google Apps is available for businesses for a charge, they offer an educational version of this service to all accredited not-for-profit K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and registered US nonprofits for free.

Google services are hosted on Google servers which are secure and are backed up every night. This also means the site is administered and accessed with a standard web browser. There is no need to install any software on your local computer. All the Google applications are maintained and upgraded by Google. This means you don't have to worry about paying upgrade fees for software.

Your site will have a Start Page, a central place for your users to preview their in boxes and calendars, access your essential content, and search the web. You can also obtain custom domain names for your site. As the administrator, you use a web interface to activate the following online applications as needed. You can also build individual web pages to display content using a what-you-see-is-what-you- get (WYSIWYG) web page editor.

Online Tools to Communicate and Connect

Gmail
Offer custom email addresses to your students and fellow instructors with up to 2 gigabytes of storage for each account, search tools to help people find information fast, plus instant messaging and calendar tools built right into the email interface.

Google Talk
Your users can call or send instant messages to their contacts for free -- anytime, anywhere in the world. File sharing and voicemail is included, too.

Google Calendar
Your students can organize their personal schedules and share events, meetings and entire calendars with others. Your department can also publish calendars and events on the web. An instructor could use their calendar to publish important events to the students by marking the events as "public"

Online Tools to Collaborate and Publish Content

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Your users can create documents and spreadsheets and collaborate with each other in real-time right inside a web browser window. Wouldn't this be a great tool for your students to use to produce a group report.

To read more about Google Apps for Education, click here.

To view a 12-minute online tutorial on Google Apps, click here.

To see an example of Sonny Reeve's Google Apps site, click here. ]]>Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:41:57 GMT<![CDATA[BLOG - "Shift Happens" Mania]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/551/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/551/Whenever I do a technology presentation, I usually start off with an eight minute PowerPoint show called "Did You Know" or "Shift Happens". It is a neat presentation put together by Karl Fisch of Arapaho High School in Arapaho, CO. Karl got some of his inspiration from David Warlick, a technology in education expert from Raleigh, NC.

The presentation draws a clear picture about the rapid changes in technology, information, population bases, etc. The original "Did You Know" presentation can be found on the Internet in many formats, including a movie on YouTube. A new and spiffier version is now available called "Shift Happens 2.0"

Karl's presentation and all its' variations have grow to the point that there is now a wiki dedicated to it at, Shift Happens wiki.

Download links to both version follow; however, you can find both presentations in many different formats from the Shift Happens wiki.

Did You Know / Shift Happens PowerPoint
Audio File for the Did you Know / Shift Happens PowerPoint

Shift Happens 2.0 - Windows Media Player ]]>Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:13:04 GMT<![CDATA[A Mc What?]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/549/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/549/About 3:00 this afternoon I had just posted grades for the summer semester I had finished up yesterday. Getting the grades posted and attendance reports turned in gets me current with administration but I still have to get my door schedule and syllabi turned in before I can officially start on my three week break before the fall semester starts.

While walking through the shop to go to lunch I discovered we had a neat custom built roadster on the alignment rack. I was built by Dick Bear, a friend of Steve Trivette, an instructor at GTCC. Steve and Dick were doing an alignment on the car which was driven about 25 miles to the shop.

Dick owns a company, MarketPoint Productions, that designs and manufactures custom displays; however, this was his first venture into car building. It is a Honda powered mid-engine 2-seater that is based on a McLaren model. So Dick took his last name, Bear and McLaren and came up with McBearen.

You cannot really appreciate the amount of work put into this car until you understand that there is no fiberglass in the body. The body was fabricated from flat aluminum sheets. The nose piece alone is made up of close to 150 formed pieces.

It wasn't long before Steve, myself, and another instructor, Dwayne Washburn, were huddling at the alignment rack discussing what the alignment settings should be. Remember, this is a custom car, no published specs for this ride.

We got it knocked out and it was neat to get involved in a small way in a project of this caliber.

For more information about the build, check this link.





]]>Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:34:11 GMT<![CDATA[Sitting By The Bay in Long Beach, CA]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/509/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/509/
While I learned a lot from the workshops and meetings, I also enjoyed just sitting by the bay in the evenings. The conference was held on the historic Queen Mary and my lodging was also aboard the ship.

I arrived a full day before the conference to work on two presentations I would be delivering during the conference. After just a couple of hours on the ship I had to get out. I found the low ceilings, poor air conditioning, strange smells and sounds and red ants to not be an environment conducive to working. I took off looking for a road warrior's dream... a Kinkos.

After the last workshop each day I was off to my oasis, Kinko's. I could stay there until about 10:00 at night and still catch shuttle buses back to the Queen Mary. The Kinko was in downtown Long Beach a nd the Queen Mary was on the other side off the bay. It took about 30-45 minutes to ride shuttle buses between the two. All the downtown shuttle buses were free to ride.

The downtown side of the bay (across from the Queen Mary) also had a nice bay side village called Shoreline Village. It was very therapeutic to sit there at night and watch the sun set and to watch all the activities along the shore.

One evening, just before sunset, two Coast Guard boats came through the bay.

]]>Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:06:47 GMT<![CDATA[BLOG - Now That's a Tool Box!]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/480/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/480/

Now That's a Tool Box!


This week I did an evening of training at an independent Honda repair shop. Before taking a full time teaching position at Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) I specialized in Honda training. I don't do much Honda training anymore, but this shop was one I had known for many years and I admire their commitment to training.

I usually do not travel with a camera, but on this trip I had taken along a camera. I had just bought a digital camera for my wife and was somewhat anxious to try it out and I just had a feeling that there would be a need to take a picture.

When I walked into the shop I saw unquestionably the biggest tool box I have ever seen and it was clear to me that was why I brought the camera along.

It is a custom toolbox built by Matco and it stands close to 8 feet tall (the guy in the picture is over 6 feet tall). That means the top of the tool box would hit the ceiling in most houses. Let that sink in... You would have to use a ladder to reach the top third of the tool box.

As I thought about this tool box, I couldn't help but think about another Honda tech about 100 miles away, Ray Elliott. Ray works out of an unimpressive, modest Mac Tools tool box. While all of Ray's tools would likely fit in this box's side hang-on cabinet, don't let that fool you. Sometimes bigger is not better. My money is on Ray.

Actually Ray is a little more than a tech. He is co-owner of Triad Auto Specialty, one of the most successful independent Honda shops in the USA (my old shop). Why doesn't Ray have a huge box? Simple, Ray has what he needs to service Hondas, nothing more and nothing less. There are some logistical factors too such as all the shops special tools are stored in a tool room and not in Ray's tool box. ]]>Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:49:05 GMT<![CDATA[BLOG - The New Theory of Learning... by Click, or was that Clack?]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/474/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/474/

The New Theory of Learning... by Click, or was that Clack?


You are probably familiar with "Car Talk" the NPR radio show hosted by the Magliozzi brothers, Tom and Ray. They also answer to Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers. I have heard them on occasion and they are entertaining. I have never been a fan of anything that implies that a car problem can be diagnosed on the phone; therefore, I have never been a real fan of the show. I think I got this way from spending too many hours in service drives educating car owners on the necessity of following a diagnostic process instead of speculating.

Just recently I found a redeeming morsel of wisdom from Click and Clack in the way of Tom Magliozzi's article "The New Theory of Learning". I include that article in this post for your reading pleasure. I enjoyed it. You can read the original article at this link.

The New Theory of Learning


by Thomas L. Magliozzi

A few people actually read my bio, in which I refer to the New Theory of Learning. Some people asked, "What is the New Theory of Learning?" Well, here it is.

This is not really a "rant." In fact, it's one of the few topics that I think I actually know something about. And it's not really new. The problem is that it's so old we seem to have forgotten it and been caught up in so-called "modern" methods of teaching.

The theory derives from many years of teaching experience. Nearly all of this teaching has been to MBA candidates. But, since I wrote this (about a year ago) I've been noticing how even little kids learn, and I'm more and more convinced that the New Theory may apply at ALL levels of learning. Let me know what you think.

Premise I: THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE THEORY

I was a college professor for decades, during which time I became convinced that education had not progressed much beyond the Little Red Schoolhouse theory of learning. We put an expert in a roomful of people and the expert proceeds to tell them everything he knows.

A major problem with this approach is that we ask people to sit and listen for long periods of time. Studies indicate that under such circumstances, we have an attention span of 20-30 minutes, and we retain about 20 percent of what we hear. This so-called "teaching" doesn't result in much learning. It results in, maybe, someone remembering enough to pass a test. It's not learning. It's passing a test. You walk away from the test and the valve in your brain opens and POOF--out goes the information to make room for the subject of the next test. An old Chinese proverb offers some guidance here.

Tell me and I will surely forget.
Show me and I might remember.
But make me do it, and I will certainly understand.

Listening does not lead to understanding; doing does lead to understanding. Does the cobbler teach his son how to cobble by telling him about it? Does the doctor learn to perform appendectomies by reading about them? No. They DO IT.

From my own personal experiences, doing something does lead to more learning. Perhaps your experience bears this out as well.

So, the first element of the New Theory is that students must "do" as opposed to sitting and listening.

Premise II: ONLY REAL REALITY IS REALITY

Of course, there are various teaching methods that allow "doing" (for example, in MBA programs we use cases and term projects).

A word about cases (which I have used for nearly all my years of teaching). The MBA case is an attempt to make the student "do it." But it's a somewhat feeble attempt. First of all, because the student very soon learns how to analyze cases and to feed back to the instructor what s/he knows the instructor wants to hear. Secondly, cases very soon get boring. Cases are dead, flat pieces of paper. They are an attempt to bring reality into the classroom, but they fail because they are very poor substitutes for real reality. The medical intern may spend some time on cadavers, but would you want a doctor trained on cadavers to operate on your heart? Me either.

The second element of the New Theory, then, is this: If you're going to DO it, you must do it with real people in real situations.

Some may argue against this part of the theory on the following grounds. "What happens to the syllabus?" "How can one predict that the real situation will offer all the opportunities for subject matter that the expert deems necessary for this course?" The answer is that you can't predict that it will. In fact, you can be pretty damned sure it won't. It will offer far more! One of the benefits of REAL reality teaching is that it becomes--of necessity--multidisciplin ary. You don't encounter issues that all "fit" into one course. In MBA programs, for example, nearly all problems involve everything: marketing, finance, organizational behavior, operations research. You CAN'T isolate anything. Everything depends on everything else.

Premise III: THE BACKWARDS LEARNING THEORY

Here's a critical issue. People in the Little Red Schoolhouse environment have little (or no) idea of why they should want to know what the expert knows. In essence, we give them answers before they can really understand what the questions are. Sometimes, we tell them what the questions are. But mostly, they have no real understanding of the relevance of the questions to their lives. Example: "Now I'm going to teach you how to read financial statements." They ask, "Why would I want to know that?" No matter how we answer, they interpret it as, "Because you will then be able to get a higher-paying job." This is supposed to motivate people to want to learn. It doesn't. Motivation literature is very clear on this point. It tells us that real motivation doesn't derive from external rewards (like money or grades) but from intrinsic rewards (wanting to know and deriving satisfaction from, for example, solving a problem). Our current techniques motivate students to struggle to remember enough to pass an exam.

Question:
Why are we trying to teach people who don't really want to learn? Motivation is the key. Of course, we know that some people are self-motivated. They have a desire to learn everything and anything. We don't have to worry about them. But others need to know why they should listen to you or me. Most of the problem here is that people are in colleges who don't belong in colleges. How the heck can an 18-year-old kid know anything about anything--or more importantly, care about anything, besides the opposite sex? We fill up schools with kids wasting their parent's money and looking for a place to socialize. There are better, less expensive, and more productive ways to do that. But I digress.

Here's what I've noticed about the relationship between learning and motivation. Maybe you've noticed it, too. Have you ever been faced with a problem like any of the following? Maybe you're trying to decide how to deal with a particularly difficult person. Or maybe you're staring at a pile of numbers and you don't know what the hell it all means. Or, you're trying to decide whether to invest some money in a company and you can't make sense of the financials. Or--whatever. It's a problem for which you WANT an answer.

Let's take the first example--a difficult person--just to follow through on what you might do. You simply don't understand why the person is behaving the way she is behaving. If you understood why, you might be able to figure out what to do. Faced with such a problem you might seek out an expert--someone who understands people's behavior. He might give you some insights. He might suggest that the problem really isn't unique. Lots of people act this way under certain circumstances. YOU MIGHT NOTICE THAT IN SUCH A SITUATION YOU ARE LISTENING VERY INTENTLY. QUITE UNLIKE THE WAY YOU LISTEN IN A CLASSROOM. He, the expert, might even suggest some things you might read to find out more. You can't wait to get to the library. You find books, articles. You read.

Think about HOW you're reading in this situation. Is it the same as the way you read textbooks when you were a student? It sure as hell isn't. The difference is that you're INTERESTED in finding the answer.

Think about it some more. What do you actually do under these situations? Do you read everything? No. You're looking for answers to specific questions. What happens is this. You look at a lot of books and articles until you find something that seems relevant. You read it. Something strikes a chord: maybe a word, maybe a theory, maybe a description of a certain personality type that matches the one you're dealing with. Now you go in search of more info on that personality type. You find more books. They lead you to more. And pretty soon, you know what to do and how to do it.

While all this was happening, how might you have felt? Were you saying to yourself, "God, I wish I didn't have to read all this?" Did you yawn a lot? Did you ask, "Why am I reading this?" Hell no. You probably wished you had more to read. More people to answer your questions. You were--LEARNING!

Notice what happened. You worked backwards. You started with the problem. A problem that you had a need or desire to solve. You started somewhere--either with an expert or a book--and you went whereever it took you. And you went more than willingly; not with someone dragging you, kicking and screaming. You went because you wanted to go. Because you knew it was taking you where you wanted to go.

So here's the third element of the New Theory:

Work backwards. Start with the problem and go wherever it takes you.

That's the theory that's been evolving for me over all my years of teaching. Don't let an "expert" stand in front of people and tell them everything s/he knows. This is mostly just an ego trip for the expert, and a very boring experience for the victims. The overhead projector has done more to destroy learning than any other thing I can think of. ]]>Mon, 09 Apr 2007 19:23:58 GMT<![CDATA[The diagnostic tech of the future... Sam or SAM?]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/469/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/469/Dang, I started writing this blog and have to stop to go get a hair cut I will finish this post in a few hours. So if you see this message check back in a few hours for the completed post

BLOG - The diagnostic tech of the future... Sam or SAM?


So will the diagnostic tech of the future be Sam, as in Sam the technician, or will it be SAM, the Smart Auto Management kiosk out front by the soft drink vending machine?

While information about the SAM project has been swirling around for a while, SAM is now here. As of Feb 2007 some 200 of the units were installed in five cities—Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; and California’s Bay area.

So, what the heck is SAM? Lets start by looking at the sales literature:

  • Quote:

The following text was cut directly from some of SAM's sales literature and webpage:

"Up until today, access to vehicle repair and maintenance information has been in the hands of a select few"

"Complex innovations in technology have made your car more complicated than the computers on the lunar landing module. Has your car's health become a mystery to you? Now more than ever you need a friend on the inside to get you back in touch with your car. SAM is just that friend.

SAM is the first-ever, self-service diagnostic kiosk that empowers you with vital information about your car—instantly, affordably, and on demand. For just $15 and less than 10 minutes, you can drive up to any SAM location, anytime day or night, and get a comprehensive read-out on your car.

By accessing your car's "brain", the onboard diagnostic (OBD) system, SAM provides you peace of mind by quickly and easily identifying existing and potential safety and drivability problems with your vehicle."

"In about 10 minutes, for $15 (US), most vehicles 1996 or newer can be connected to SAM to pinpoint
existing and pending engine, transmission, safety systems, body, or chassis problems."

"SAM provides consumers the kind of information previously accessible only by auto mechanics, car
dealerships or expensive devices, and presents it in plain language."



OK, you should get the idea by now...

So what do you think? I thought about this one for a while and have some real reservations about this trend. No I am not "afraid" of letting the motoring public have access to information about their car and I do not see this as a threat to the automotive service industry. I base my concerns from my experiences of running a shop for 18 years and my experiences with diagnosing vehicle problems with OBD-II data. ]]>Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:59:20 GMT<![CDATA[BLOG - Living Large, Thanks VisionKC!]]>http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/415/http://autotech-elearning.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/415/It is Friday morning and I am sitting in my plush room at the Sheraton Hotel at Overland Park, KS. I am on the top floor (20th) which is the "Club Suite" floor. That's right under that overhang you see in the picture.

You have to use you room key on the elevator to get to the 20th floor. I have always wanted to be one of those people on the elevator with the coveted key, so I can check that off my to do list.

I am here in Overland Park (in a suburb of Kansas City) to present at the Vision 07 Conference. I present tomorrow afternoon on "Digital Literacy for the Working Technician" and Sunday morning on "Mastering Online Information".

I got in about 1:00 AM this morning after a long day. Yesterday I:
  • Taught my class at GTCC
  • Moderated a meeting from 1:00-3:00
  • Swung by my house to print off my handouts for this show
  • Caught a flight from Greensboro, NC to Houston, TX
  • After a 2 hour layover, flew from Houston, TX to Kansas City, MO
  • Took a shuttle for a 40 minute ride to the Sheraton
  • Checked in at 1:00AM

I am looking at my presentation and see a lot of changes I want to make. I will probably tweak this up to the last minute. Looks like I will have to re-print the handouts... oh well. I went down to the business center in the hotel to check out my options. Since they charge .20 a page I decided to sniff out a Kinkos. So, I went back to my room and searched for the closest Kinkos. Lucky me there is one just a few blocks down the street. So if you see a big beastly man walking down College Boulevard in Overland Park, KS around midnight carrying a laptop, that would be me heading to Kinkos.

Earlier today I went on a reconnaissance stroll to check out the facilities and to see where the training classes would be held. The main classes start up tomorrow, but today there was a pre-conference class offered by Mark Warren and Johnathan Riggle.

On my recon I saw Mark out in the hall. He was engaged in a conversation but I slipped in a hand shake. Mark Warren is definitely on of the more colorful private trainers in the business. I always enjoy chatting with Mark.

From the .20 per page copy charge, to the $15 breakfast, to the lobby (shown to the right), it is plain I am not in Jamestown, NC. Kinda like a Dorothy and Toto moment but in this case I am not in Jamestown, and I am in Kansas.

I guess it is that redneck marker in my DNA, or something, but I am getting the hankering for a chew of Red Man. I don't chew very often. I don't drive a truck with a brown stripe down the side. I don't sit in a tree for hours trying to blow a deers head off. I just like to chew sometime when I have a long project (usually keyboarding) in front of me.

So here I sit in my boxer shorts. I think I will put on that robe in the closet (the one with the Sheraton crest embroidered on it) slip on my work boots and head down to the lobby shop to see what kind of chew they have here... ]]>Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:43:38 GMT