Latest trip

We had a great time while Christine, Nicole, and Red were here.

We did a lot of stuff while they were here. Namely, we stripped wallpaper, spackled/mudded walls and holes, primed walls and texturized some of them. Also, we visited a local hot, hole-in-the-wall restaurant where Mario Batali’s father makes cured meats. We saw some Coho salmon swimming upstream. And, we went to the Fry Art Museum to see somewhat of a up-and-down exhibit by a Northwest artist, William Cummings.

We walked around our majestic Yellow Lake – really a pond. Really not that majestic. But still, we walked around it and did enjoy it. We watched some video of the kids and their school stuff, looked at photos, and even watched a video about Normandy France – we’ll get to that more later.

Plus, Christine helped us with a gingerbread house.

And in between all that, we ate and drank like royalty. Wow! Were there ever some cooks in the hizzy!!

Thanksgiving itself was awesome. Fried turkey and delicious sides. The cranberry sauces/jellies/chutneys alone were worth the price of admission. I’m not a big cranberry lover and I was blown away by them. We even got a mention on a Microsoft blog – thanks to our Irish guest.

Regarding France, I want to re-iterate a plan we floated some time ago. We Issaquah Langloises plan to visit France next summer. Christine, Dad, and Nicole expressed strong interest in this. The basic idea is this. We rent a house or two in Brittany, where a friend of mine lives. From there people can use it as base to visit other areas. It is a longish train ride to Paris so you might want to take a trip to Paris and stay in a hotel for bit. You could do some organized tours for example. I think those are excellent for seeing a lot in a little time, letting someone else do the driving/arranging, and hearing the guide in English.

As we firm some of this up, let us know if you are interested and we can keep you abreast of the planning. Otherwise, I won’t burden you with the email. We can decide to stagger the visits or all meet somewhere too.

Life can be short

Today we got some bad news. One of the moms from our original PEPS group died suddenly yesterday. She was working out at the health club when she collapsed. She was taken to the hospital and sustained on life support until the middle of the night. She had no brain activity due to a brain aneurysm so her family pulled the plug. She was one of the two Theresas.

She leaves a husband Nicholas, and two boys, Logan (Nathalie's age) and Kiran (slightly younger than Marc). The kids go to summer camp with our kids during the summer.

Theresa and Nicholas were in our child birth class. We weren't close but the moms have stayed in touch now for over 11 years. Theresa was probably the closest of all the woman to Amy. She was certainly my favorite. The men have not stayed close but hearing the news made me sick to my stomach. Amy and the other Mom's Night Out women are going to visit the family this weekend. It's a terrible tragedy. She was vibrant, healthy woman. She was in her early forties.

Today, when you get home hug your spouse tight, kiss your kids, call your parents, call or siblings, just do something. Then live life.

Settling in

We are really settling into the house now. We should take some pictures. I've installed a faucet, some shelves; missed several studs when hanging the shelves; installed a toilet valve and flapper (different toilets); mowed the lawn; raked some leaves; re-wired a couple dimmer switches; moved out a washer; and moved several pieces of furniture and electronics more than one time.

It feels good to do that stuff. I'm looking forward to getting some of the interior stuff done so that we can look forward to the external stuff like a garden next year. I don't mind spending the money on the house either. Both of these are minor surprises to me.

We have no boxes in the house as of this week. The garage is a different story but we are making progress there as well.

In fact, I'd love to quit my job and work on the house. I toyed with the idea awhile ago as I thought you could make it so that it would be a financial wash. But I don't have the tools, the space for the tools, nor the know-how to really make that work. But still, I don't mind coming home tired and picking up a tool and doing a little work - for now anyway.

Big Brother

Look at blogs using an aggregator

Update:

(Most are Freeware - Wikipedia keeps an up-to-date list)

Firefox: If you use the Firefox browser on a PC, you can install Sage. It will allow you to type in the RSS or Atom feeds of any blogs you visit so you can quickly look and see if there is anything new.
http://sage.mozdev.org/screenshots/

Moi, I know that you have the Firefox browser on your computer so ask your hubby to install it for you.

Standalone: Sharpreader is still the best on if you want a stand-alone app. I use Sharpreader.

Mac's: I don't know the best. Here is one that Blogger mentions: Shrook

Minor update:
Two other considerations that integrate with Internet Explorer: Pluck (CNET's editor's choice) and Lektora