Say What?

Rachel and I went skiing at Afton Alps last Friday. She played hooky from school to go but I cleared it with her teacher first. I thought it was nice that just the two of us could get out and spend the day together. She had never skied until a few weeks ago when she went with her class so Friday was her 2nd time. I couldn't believe how well she did. I was reluctant to take her earlier in the year because I selfishly didn't want to spend a day on the bunny hill but my worries were for naught. She has no fear and the bunny hill didn't fit into her plans. I couldn't believe that was my daughter going down those hills at the speed she was going. I'm behind her, praying that she stays in control and doesn't end up and out of control into somebody or something. She never fell once. She went again last night with her friend, Katrina, to Buck Hill. It's pretty expensive when you have to rent equipment and I'm not sure I want to get her a season pass because I do...

It’s been so long since I’ve been here to jot anything down. It’s been snowing for nearly two days as I write this but I think the end is near. We’ll have added 15” to our snow depth…bummer. I used to enjoy the snow but now that I’m no longer a kid out sledding or playing in it I’m not all that thrilled to see it. Okay, well maybe when I can plan to be home with a glass of wine, a fire in the fireplace and a movie to watch with my family…then I don’t mind so much. Speaking of watching a movie…I put in a surround sound system in our family room last week. It’s very nice. My brother Keith who has a cabinet shop made an entertainment center for all the components. He did a super job on it too. I went to Best Buy and bought the Klipsch Quintet system with a Yamaha receiver. I can now find another home for my ever faithful Bose 501 speakers which I got in ’79 while in the Navy. Time to pack up my stuff and get my butt home to clear some snow.

Happy birthday, Jesus! I worked the morning shift yesterday and got to work at 4:30am. It was nice to get off early as I had some last-minute running around to do before getting some steaks on the grill and getting to church for the 3:00pm service. I couldn't believe the traffic in Apple Valley...it was nuts! Total gridlock like I've never seen in that city before. For the most part, people were being very courteous and where traffic was merging together, drivers were taking turns and meshing lanes nicely. I was in a long line of traffic trying to get out of the Target, Best Buy parking lot onto the main road. The traffic on the main road was relentless and people in front of me weren't being given much chance to pull out. When they did go they had to be aggressive. So this guy a couple cars in front of me pulls out and in the process, the oncoming traffic has to brake so this guy can get out and merge into a lane which is stopped. It doesn't matter that all the traff...

Thanks be to God that my headaches are over...for the most part. I went to bed last night believing I'd make it through the night without being awoken by a stabbing pain in my left eye...and I did. I had a couple of much smaller cluster h/a during the day but nothing like I'd been experiencing. It's time to get back on my bike and get some miles into my legs so I'm ready to hit the roads as soon as they're ready. I was even thinking today about putting my running on hold for a year so I can really focus on my bike. I'd like to ride 6000 road miles this year and if I'm trying to run also it's going to make it difficult. I won't run and ride on the same day. I used to but not anymore. Anyway, I'm excited to be on the mend again and looking forward to getting on my new wheels, too—my Mavic Ksyriums. I even had my bike into the shop a couple weeks ago to have the headset and bottom bracket overhauled as well as the usual stuff they do in a tune-up....

Tammy and Rachel just got back from violin class and dance class. Tammy said they had 30 minutes to kill downtown before the lesson so they stopped into a courtyard restaurant to get a bite. They noticed a homeless man in his 50s trying to get some warmth inside from out of the windy cold. Tammy approached him and asked if he would like a sandwich. He said he'd like that. She brought him to the register and had him pick out whatever he wanted. He ordered a turkey sandwich with apple pie and a drink. She asked him if he wanted some fruit to put in his pocket for later on but he declined. She said goodbye in the name of Christ and they went to class. I love that she will do this sort of thing. When we were in San Francisco a couple years ago we encountered so many homeless people begging for money...most likely for their next drink. We bought a bunch of cheese and cracker snacks and packages of peanuts to pass out instead of money. They were always glad and never disappointed or a...

Tammy, Rachel and I are down here in the shop, each on our own computers. They're playing Minesweeper through MSN messenger. I'm obviously typing in my blog. Had an overtime shift today and that was good because I had nothing pressing to be done today...except for Christmas shopping which I have yet to start. Tammy's given me a couple ideas for her and Rachel put together a well thought out list of stuff...she always makes it so easy for us. I only have one request...an mp3 player for my workouts. I should get online and narrow it down to one or two.

But that's okay because I've gotten so much done on my website. I've been at work all night and rather than try and catch some sleep on my break time I stayed awake and went through the pages inserting the new menu. I'm not using a CSS template so I'm doing each one individually. I'm into the site too deep now to back out but the next one I make will be done quite a bit differently. Anyway, I've got this site about how I want it for uploading more photos to it. It was cluttered with nav buttons until the new menu. It's not totally how I'd like it but it's much better than it was. I've still got a couple dozen pages to modify. I got an email back from Carol Conti at ASGLA They liked the photos of the Laburnum lamp and wanted more information about its base. I think the shade photographed very well but I wasn't happy with the base and cap. They seemed pleased with the results. I noticed last week that the Google search bots have finall...