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Winter 2011
The Headlines du jour...
Holy crap (again)...it's been months since I updated this!
Well, work has been busy, fraternal orgs have been busy and the baby has kept me hopping. The baby...Josette, turned two in December. She's getting big and running around everywhere. Avery is due at the beginning of April, number two...a boy. Not according to plan, but oh well.
I am growing deeply disturbed at the state of the world lately. As if we weren't riding the razor's edge of disaster lately with a fragile world economy, global warming and all that stuff.... people are getting to be quite uncivil. Look at the discussion under any news story online and you see people practically yelling at each other in the comments. The anonymous nature of it all seeming to toss any possible courtesy to the wind. On top of that, less logic is used and more people willing to mindlessly respout whatever talking head's opinion they listened to on the way to work. I don't have a simple solution to offer, but it is spooky.
The Usual...
On the computer lately: Steam had some good sales, I play Borderlands and some others lately. Karen is still hooked on games like Bookworm and Mahjong.
Great story of this month: I can't pick...go to any news page, there's always one good one and three that make you say "WTF?"
On the Wii: Hasn't been used lately with the little one around. Though the Aquarium program and Netflix occasionally come in handy on it.
Latest tunes: A variety of stuff as usual. Mostly Smooth Jazz and a bunch of 80s hard rock during my workouts
Latest books: One Second After by WILLIAM R. FORSTCHEN
Final Bee update of last season below. Bees will return soon I hope! I almost got a swarm last yar, but couldn't convince them to use the hive.
Alternate Realities...
Barely in Second Life lately, but you can still visit the SL Masonic Info Center in Stanlee.
The Recent (and not so recent) past events of note in the past...
In March 2010, I was installed as Worshipful Master in my Masonic Lodge (Jewell Lodge #94 - Pembroke, NH). The link now goes to a web site I put up for us.
Been busy with the fraternal organizations. I am now an officer in two of them and joined a third. Yup, I am now a Shriner...fez and all.
Karen has gone back to working Sundays at JoAnn's so she can have some "adult time"
Karen & I got a visit from Christmas stork on the 18th of December 2008.
The New Beekeeper saga of 2007: I went back to Betterbee April 28th, picked up the package of bees. Got them installed later that day...they were settling in nicely till week 3 when a hungry bear came by and knocked everything all out of whack. Put it back up and it was down again three days later. Some bees still there clinging to the frames, quite annoyed, nothing broken but two plastic frames. So I installed a "critter gitter" motion sensor alarm and electric fence. Left them alone to recover for a week while I was away in London. Checked in and we have another issue: no queen activity. I went over to Linden Apiaries in Charlestown, NH for a new queen (ASAP) and put her in. Final update: they just had too small a population to recover. Looks like ants and yellow jackets finished them off. I'll try again next year.
I also have added "Odd site of the month" to the "blogging" area.
Went to Paris again in February 08 for work, took Karen this time. She enjoyed herself. Here's Karen in Paris.
Two ferrets in the house. Oreo and Toffee. Karen didn't want Puff to get lonely (though she just passed away to illness in February). We had to put Spooky to sleep in the middle of May (had an inoperable growth). We lost Cinnamon the ferret the day before Thanksgiving 2006 (about 10 minutes before guests showed up... not good). He was getting up there in age (over 6 years) but it was still a big bummer. It looks like he somehow made it downstairs to the basement (might have slipped by when Karen was getting something out of the freezer) that's where we found him. We were pretty distressed.
Progress status on the big 2006 "to do list":
1) Raised beds and a small greenhouse in the front yard. Got the lumber for the beds, had the area cleared, graded and gravel laid down. The greenhouse was delivered, construction done, pictures soon (Pictures) (2009 update...the ice storm killed the greenhouse this winter)
2) A shed behind the house (too much stuff in the basement). (Pictures) Mostly Done. Still needs trim, caulk and paint.
3) Emergency generator. Done (very useful). (Pictures)
4) A small patio (8x10) near the walkout. Done (T&J Excavating & Carpentry) (Pictures)
5) Stumping and grading the area we cleared of trees last year (a barn soon?). Done. (T&J Excavating & Carpentry)
6) Tidy up the driveway (after the flooding in October and May, it needs a little touch up). Done. (T&J Excavating & Carpentry)
7) Screen in Porch. Done. (T&J Excavating & Carpentry)(Pictures)
8) Replace some furniture (bedroom and living room). Done.
9) Elliptical machine (done) and carpeting for the downstairs (gym area done with foam squares...works as good as carpet for that application). September 07'?
September 2005 we went on vacation to Arizona was real nice, pictures here. We went to Colorado Springs to visit family for a weekend then over to Phoenix, where we drove to Sedona for a few days. We stayed at a nice B&B, saw the local sites including a jeep tour in the back country. It's really a beautiful area. Then we drove up through Oak Creek Canyon as we headed north. We went through Flagstaff with stops at Walnut Canyon and Lowell Observatory . We ended that day just outside the Grand Canyon park in Tusayan. Thursday morning we headed into the park and met up with our hiking guide at Bright Angel Lodge 8am sharp! We got our equipment loaded up and headed down the South Kaibab trail. Uggh... 7.5 miles of downhill backpacking! We stayed at Bright Angel Campground near the river that night (very nice). Then back up towards the south rim on the Bright Angel trail . We did 4.5 miles to Indian Gardens campground, dumped the packs setup tents and did a hike to Plateau Point for dinner (1.5 miles each way), great views, nice sunset and awesome full moon rise! Our last day finished up the trail around 1pm as we passed all the "hiking tourists" near the rim (they venture down a mile or so...98% of the visitor's to the Canyon never actually enter the canyon itself, how sad!)
Pictures of the trips to Europe 2004 - present (Vienna, Paris, Strasbourg, Baden Baden, Geneva, Windsor and London). Next up...Italy?
Still happy with the house in Sutton, NH. It's about 1500 square feet and it's a log home! Sits on three wooded acres (OK, a little smaller than we originally planned but hey..).
Maybe I can get back to the downstairs project some day, (I keep saying that anyway...photos here) it's 95% done.
My sideline company (M2 Services) is a bit "silent" lately, with the exception of an occasional key dupe or lock replacement at work. Here are the van Pix, (big ones, don't try this with a dial-up!). I'm following my own advice and growing it bit by bit so that some day it'll all be in place.
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This page was last updated on 01/11/11.
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