St. Louis

I was in St. Louis for the past 5 days. I had a wonderful time, mostly because Purina paid for everything and really took care of us. I was very sad that Megan was not able to go with me, as she would have had a great time. Other then attending meetings and a few guest lectures we were able to go and explore a little. The Arch was of course at the top of the list. I also went to the zoo, which was just down the street from the Hotel (a free zoo!). I took the picture of the snake at the Herpeterium at the zoo.

Dad's 81st Birthday

Dad turned 81 years old today. Larry and Susan Marino dropped in from across the street, Marshall Jackman dropped in from Burlington, Iowa and Shing dropped in from the aerobics class. . .we had a Mexican food feast, with Dad's favorites of enchiladas, tacos and chili beans. 

Optical Illusion

So I haven't posted anything new on the Blog for a little while so I thought I would entertain you all with this litter gem that I found online. I am not sure exactly how it works, though I am sure I have learn the reason why at some point in my life. You stare at a picture for about 30 seconds then move your mouse over it and you will see the picture in color, despite the picture actually being black and white. Give it a try here!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation!

This is a picture of Jeannie doing her watch on the lookout aboard the cutter Boutwell. It looks to be a might chilly and windy there! Her cutter docked in Alameda on Sunday, June 11 and we were there to greet it. Jeannie took us on a tour of the cutter and we were able to have lunch on board too. Natalie joined us and enjoyed the experience. The crew thought it was cool to see Allison and even stood at attention when they saw her, thinking it was Jeannie! On June 16, Jeannie leaves for 6 weeks aboard Eagle, the 300 ft. sailing ship along the East Coast. Fair winds and seas, Jeannie!
 

Trip to D.C., Annapolis, and Greenbelt, MD

Alana and I went to Washington D.C., Annapolis and Greenbelt, Maryland for the National League of Cities Board Meeting and the Small Cities Council. We toured the oldest airport in the world at Greenbelt, where the Wright Brothers flew their airplane in 1908 (to get the U.S. military to order a contract from them). We also toured Greenbelt, which was the first planned community in the U.S., under FDR (Small Cities people on the steps of the museum). We also went down to Chesapeake Bay, had more crabs for dinner than I have ever eaten, and toured the old capital building in Annapolis. It was great for us to be with all of the Small Cities people again.

 

Birthday Bash and Fashion Show

Last weekend, we were able to get together at Grammy and Grampie's house to celebrate Jeannie and Allison's birthday (minus Allison because she was at SLO studying for finals). It was great fun to see everyone and to surprise Jeannie and Erin - they didn't know I was coming! Grammy made Jeannie's favorite dinner - TACOS! Erin, Alana, and Jeannie found some dresses that Grammy had worn to college friends' weddings a "few years ago". The girls enjoyed playing "dress up" with the gowns and the adults loved seeing the beautiful styles on them. Mom, you must have turned quite a few heads when you wore those gowns at the weddings. The weekend was fun - just wish we could have had the entire family together!
 

Weekend Getaway - $24,250

Thought this would be a pretty cool trip, and then I realized that it is just a little bit outside my price range. Anyway, check out this website for a pretty hardcore vacation. Seven course meals, rental cars in the form a Ferrari and Bentley, etc...

Click here to check it out.

It could be a sweet honeymoon huh?

G'Day Mate

Brad, Shirley and I just got back from Australia about 7 a.m. this morning. The speech in Melbourne went well but I am glad that it is over. These are some of the pictures that we took. ..saw the penguin migration to their nests one night near Melbourne, walked around the Sydney harbor (cleanest harbor I have ever seen), saw a lot of kangaroos (this one with a baby in her pouch), and then went scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef. The people were very friendly. . .I would really like to go back again to see this country that is about the same land mass as the continental U.S. but only has 20 million people.


 

Yard Work

Now that we are back in town for a while and the weather is getting warmer (a little too warm at times) we have been doing tons of yard work. Megan planted a garden next to the deck with strawberries, squash, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers and a few other veggies. We hope that we can put our green thumbs to work and that it will pay off. I mowed a lawn for the first time in my life. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. We decided to settle on a regular push mower since a ride on mower was a little out of the question :)

The Revenge is Still On

Two weeks after returning from Guatemala, some of us are still fighting off some sort of sickness. I am not really sure why I am quite the lucky one, but everyone else claims that these pictures explain why.












Did you know that termites taste a lot like carrots? Neither did we until we found ourselves on the location of SURVIVOR GUATEMALA. We voted our guide off the island to say the least.

Guatemala 2006

Ok folks... here is a quick video that I made of the trip. I didn't have any Mayan music, so that will come in the next one. Enjoy!

Walk it Off

Now that we are into warmer weather (well those in CA never left it) people are spending much more time outside. I for one am feeling the need to get out and get in shape. I have been riding my bike a lot lately and am loving it. I thought it would be nice to have a way to measure how far I was riding each day... the only problem is I don't ride on roads so looking up directions is pretty useless. However, I did stumble across this little tool a while ago and thought I would share. It is a way to track how far you travel, even if it is not on a road. You just draw the route you took and it calculates the distance. This works for any place on the planet so get out and get measuring! Click here to see the tool.

Good times in Michigan

Thanks to James and Megster for their hospitality. It's Spring now and time for backyard barbeques. . .and they are ready to go with their new deck furniture. The yellow tulips are up also in the front yard.

 

Darth Nut Cracker

I saw this at Bronner's Christmas store in Michigan this past weekend. The sticker price on it is $399. I think that is a little steep, but this really would be a one of a kind thing to get out during the holidays.

Greenfield Village

Here are some pictures from our trip to Greenfield Village in Detroit. It is very similar to Williamsburg in VA. It opened by the Ford Motor Company in 1929. Henry Ford basically moved many famous houses and buildings to this 90 acre park. Some of the buildings include the Wright Brother's home and cycle shop, Edison's lab and a court house where Lincoln practiced law. It was very fun and interesting.


Megan, Margaret, Evan and Nantie in front of the Martha-Mary Church (named after Henry Ford's mother and mother-in-law). A popular place to get married.


At the glass blowing shop they were making Christmas Ornaments. The glass is heated up to 2500 degrees F.


This is a picture from the front porch of the house of Henry Ford's childhood. The building in the distance is the front of the park (a train station).


This is Megan at Edison's Lab where he first got the light bulb to work. It lasted all of 40 hours!


James in front of Cotswold house. It is a home all made of stone, even the roof. He was holding the turtle pictured below.


Here is one of the 3 turtles that we rescued (thanks to Nantie's eagle eyes) at the Village. They were about the size of a quarter.


This was a hobo band that played at the village. One guy was playing a saw, but we couldn't hear him.

Michigan Ho!

Here are some of the pictures from the trip across the country to Michigan. The captions for the different pictures are below them. Enjoy!


Grammie and Grampie on the snowmobile after it had snowed 18 inches and we couldn't get off the mountain.


We finally made it. . .Helen, Grammie and Margaret logged their 50th state in North Dakota.


Easter breakfast at the lodge in Montana with Ian, Evan, Helen, Erin, Grammie, Grampie, Alana and Margaret. We stayed in a friend's lodge on top of the mountain outside of Bozeman. We could see 100 miles to the east and also to the west.


Watching the ships sail through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.


Now this is a cow. . .38 feet high and 56 feet long in New Salem, North Dakota.

Not Even Elected and Already Lying

Ok, so this is just about the funniest thing I have seen on the web in a long time. A candidate for the position of Mayor of New Orleans decided to use a fake picture of her in the French Quarter. She did not want to use a picture of the real French Quarter since it is in pretty bad shape. What is a girl to do? We they had the brilliant idea of having her in a picture of Disneyland's French Quarter (pictured here)! The dead give away is the trash can in the background. Have a look here. This in and of itself is very funny, but they took it one step further and digitally took out the trash can and kept the same picture. Have a look. I personally would rather cast my vote into the ocean.

Final Kitchen Video

We finally finished the kitchen... we think. Who knows what the future holds. We still want to get some shelving for the empty place where the fridge was.

Google Calendar

Ok, so I think this is just great. Google launched yesterday a slick web calendar. This is wonderful for families who really have no idea what is going on in each other's lives. So what you do is upload your Microsoft Outlook Calendar (or iCal for those lucky enough to have a Mac). That puts your whole schedule up online. Don't worry it is private by default, unless you want to make it public. Now you can allow certain people access to your calendar. So when they sign in to their account your calendar is overlayed. This is perfect for trying to find a time for everyone to get together. You can know when everyone in the family has vacation/free time. There are some other cool features like inviting people via email and when they respond they are automatically added to an RSVP list. This thing is still in beta (meaning test stage) but I think it has great potential. Some people worry about Google knowing too much about them, but who cares that I am going to the dentist at 3 pm next week??? Have a look here.

Megan & Dan in England

Dan and I used the travel credits he had from the honeymoon he didn't take soon after we were married. We had a wonderful time and would love to go back and see many of the sites we didn't have time to see. Everything was very expensive, almost double. Hope you enjoy this video of our trip.