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Saturday, January 4, 2014

"NoStorm" Here, Some Snow Elsewhere . . .

What a week! Over with the year and 2014 is here. The weather here is beautiful -- cold at night but up in the 70s during the day. There is definitely a positive feeling about calendar changes. Some people (without mentioning names) have been fortunate to have had careers that over the years had defined starting and ending times within the year, so a feeling of completion came often.


This is the current banner we are flying from the front deck and will be up for a few more days after which it may be replaced by another suitable seasonal or gaming banner.

Inside Blooming

While it is pleasant outside during the sunlight hours, the overnight temperatures caught us napping so-to-speak, and we have lost some of our plants due to the 20° temperatures. On the inside though we have maintained a constant temp, mostly:


The orchid on the top left (a drawing of Dino below it) was a gift this year and is spectacular. The carnations on the right are from an arrangement that we received a couple of weeks ago and are now standing in the "white-elephant" frog that we snagged at the Christmas Eve celebration.
The Orchid on the bottom however is one that we have had for some time. Most of the year it looks totally bare and just this last week it bloomed in the state seen above. It amazes us each year when it shows off again. We suspect that the new orchid will behave in the same manner -- but in the meantime we enjoy.

Birthdates & Anniversary for Next Week

The births keep showing up in the first weeks of January, but there is a noticeable decline in the number of wedding anniversaries and in the case of next week -- only one (there probably is more that we did not spot):


So "Best Wishes & Congrats" go to Amy and Mark on their anniversary next week!

New Year's Projects

One thing the new year brings for us in the chance to "start something new" for a new outlook. There will be several other projects along the way but so far we are currently working on the following:


On the left is the current puzzle that Gail is working on -- in between needle pointing and sudoku, i.e. The puzzle has been challenging and several times I heard "I'm sure that there are pieces missing". This said so far with respect to the "edge" pieces -- but now finally has been resolved. All edge pieces are accounted for, and finally the dimensions are in tact.

The puzzle is a topographical map showing our present house location and the surrounding region -- some four to six miles worth. It promises to keep Gail busy for several more weeks . . . though I have managed to find maybe one to two of the in-place pieces so far.

On the far right is my new puzzle -- a fresh-water fish aquarium. I have actually gotten some "stuff" into the tank and am awaiting one more piece of equipment (a water heater) before filling the tank to the top and running the filter and making sure that the water is "just right" to add fish . . .

It is all a slow & steady process, but we do see progress probably more-so with the puzzle and we have two more new puzzles after the above one is finished . . .

The project in the middle above is the new Schwinn AD2 exercise cycle. We just received that on Thursday of this week, and already we can ride it for maybe 3 to 4 minutes before tiring . . . we do not want to over do it in the beginning.

We have to thank my brother and his wife who have an identical one that they let us ride before ordering one of our own. We put ours in the living room where it is easily ridden and is out of the way since we hardly use that room for much anyway. And we took their advice and ordered a gel seat . . . whew, nice!

It is Webinar Friday

Legacy family tree started out their year of webinars yesterday. This webinar, hosted and presented by Geoff Rasmussen went into the details of their Legacy 8 software just released. I have that program and it is really quite sophisticated. I use it, and Family Tree Make as well as RootsMagic . . .


And Legacy has listed all 52 of their upcoming webinars (they usually add more as well) for 2014 AND a nice feature is that you can sign up easily for several or all at one time.

The webinars are a great way to keep genealogy focused during the week, and I have always learned from each one. They are free (something that other sites charge for) and are addictive.

Rounding Out the Week-End

While most of the NFL games that we have watched this year have been "fun", we are really looking forward to the games later today and tomorrow. We have them all scheduled to be recorded and then we time delay our viewing by about an hour so we can bypass many of the areas that we want to skip . . . (repeated commercials, mostly)



The above shows the schedules for the upcoming series of games. We are less than one month until the Super Bowl on 2 February 2014 in New Jersey.

We will enjoy the games today but really look forward to the one tomorrow late with the San Francisco Forty Niners visiting the Green Bay Packers. We'll be sure to have a warm bag of 'dem cheese curds ready for snacking during that one . . .

The Big News for our Family

The other reason that this week was so eventful is because after 32 years of working in the seasonal occupation of tax preparation -- Gail has decided to RETIRE form that job -- as of NOW.


It is interesting too that Gail retired from her teaching career also after 32 years . . . hmm . . . 32 years plus 32 years, oh well some of those years overlapped of course.

She has many fond memories of working and being associated with Block and will always "feel drawn" to thinking about the January to April time frame. But all of that can be substituted with genealogical pursuits possibly -- including conferences, cruises and just plain everyday genealogy . . . NOT -- she has other pursuits in mind.


So that was a peek into our week. It is burgers tonight. See you all in a few!

Happy New Year!










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