Happy New Year !

Be safe out there tonight.

Fireworks explode over the London Eye in the annual display to celebrate the New Year in central London. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) (December 31, 2007)

Today would have been my Dad's 70th birthday. I miss him a lot. Happy Birthday Dad !

Back from the East...

We made it back safely from the East Coast late Friday night. (Jet Blue rocks) We had a great time and it was so nice to be with Dan's family again. Our neice and nephew are the coolest kids - we wish we lived closer so we could see them more often. Here are some pics from the week...

Happy Holidays

We'll be without easy internet access for the next several days, so an early Merry Christmas to everyone !

Happy Birthday James !

Our nephew turned 2 today - what a cutie !

Christmas craziness = lack of posts...

No time for anything creative...just a clip from my favorite Christmas movie.

at least you don't have to shovel rain...

Say what you want about rain; I'll take it any day over snow and the cold. Both our families have been hit with good amounts of snow this weekend. I'm just hoping for some good weather this coming weekend as we travel back east for the holiday.

(photo from the Chicago Tribune)

(photo from the Hartford Courant)

blast from the past...

One of my favorite TV shows from my 70's childhood was "Land of the Lost". Here's the episode that started it all...

The song "Guaranteed", from the Into the Wild soundtrack by Eddie Vedder, has been nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media" category. Although not my favorite track from the album, it is a beautiful song.

A short clip from YouTube.com about the collaboration between Eddie and the film's Director, Sean Penn...

(some of) the lights are up...

Even though I-5 reopened to all traffic late Friday, we ended up staying in town for the weekend. We'll venture down next weekend when we know all is well with the roadway. So we got a bunch done at home instead. I started putting up the lights outside:

Half of our strands of lights were burned out. So my display is much smaller than I was hoping for. I'll buy more tomorrow.

we need to get to Portland this weekend, but...

photo courtesy of WSDOT flickr page

...this is what 20 miles of the interstate between Seattle and Portland looks like. We're keeping our fingers crossed for the possibility of it reopening this weekend, but things aren't looking good.


Update: It's looking a bit more positive as of Friday morning - still keeping our fingers crossed.

the last year I'll be counting...

It's the big 3-9 for me today. I've decided this is where I'll stop counting birthdays. Some other notable things that happened on this date:

On Dec. 4, 1783, Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

In 1816, James Monroe of Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States.

In 1875, William Marcy Tweed, the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled the country.

In 1918, President Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.

In 1942, U.S. bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time in World War II.

In 1942, President Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.

In 1965, the United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Commander James A. Lovell aboard.

In 1977, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself emperor in a lavish ceremony. (Bokassa was deposed in 1979; he died in 1996 at age 75.)

In 1978, San Francisco got its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.

In 1991, the original Pan American World Airways ceased operations.

In 1996, the Mars Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral and began speeding toward Mars on an odyssey of 310 million miles. (It arrived on Mars in July 1997.)

Ten years ago: The NBA suspended All-Star Latrell Spreewell of the Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, three days earlier. (An arbitrator later reduced the suspension and reinstated Sprewell to the Warriors, which had terminated his contract.)

Five years ago: United Airlines lost its bid for $1.8 billion in federal loan guarantees, a major setback to the nation's second-largest air carrier in its efforts to avoid bankruptcy. Supreme Court justices heard arguments on whether federal laws intended to combat organized crime and corruption could be used against anti-abortion demonstrators. (The court later ruled that such laws were improperly used to punish abortion opponents.)

One year ago: Lacking the Senate votes to keep his job, embattled U.N. Ambassador John Bolton offered his resignation to President Bush, who accepted it. Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted in the Philippines of raping a Filipino woman and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Truck driver Tyrone Williams was convicted in Houston of the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into a sweltering tractor-trailer. NASA announced plans to build an international base camp on the moon.

early birthday gift for me...

I've been wanting a digital SLR for a long time. And even though my birthday isn't until tomorrow, Dan gave me my gift a bit early. All my cameras since 8th grade have been Pentax. I was SO excited to get this one - the K10D. I've only taken a few shots - Jake was my model:


This was also his first experience with snow. Looks a bit perplexed, doesn't he ?

snow for a day...

It started snowing Saturday morning and kept up until Sunday afternoon. Then it turned to rain. Today, it's dumping buckets and is supposed to be close to 60 degrees. I still prefer rain to snow, anyday.