Hi, everyone--Dad and I had better get into the groove and join the kids and grandkids. We have both been doing some reading since Christmas, and I decided to get away from politics for a while and read some fiction not that politics isn't akin to fiction these days. What in the world is going to happen to the world as we know it? At any rate, our library seems pretty dry - everyone else seems to be looking for the same books. Dad has ordered several, one that looks pretty good arrived today - it is called A THOUSAND PIECES OF PARADISE about the Kickapoo valley. Sounds and looks interesting.
we have both been doing chores getting ready for the westward trip - hope that the weather clears up out there soon. Ann and Ed stll don't know if they are going to try again - I think she is a little concerned about what she can do, although her therapist says she has made great progress. Ed is having problems with one eye, too, so we shall see what develops.
Congratulations to you, David, for undertaking such a big project. Good luck.
Everyone sounds very busy==i picked up a medical mystery by Robin Cook that looks pretty good. Send some more titles if you can. Time to get dinner on the table -Great picture of Freya, again. love to all, Mom
Before we conclude I will say that I have read Jimmy Carter's new book about thee inaction on Holy Land peace -- no doubt, you've heard about his use of the "A" word related to the Palestinians plight, as he sees it.
Currently in the middle of Cobra II, the code word for the 2003-2007 Iraqi war. Frightening! Awaiting "Fiasco" Thomas Ricks--another
Iraq book. Hope to get to "A Crack in the Edge of the World"--San Francisco earthquake of 1906. This is by Simon Winchester who wrote
"Krakatoa" a few years ago. Both were read on Chapter a day, but we always miss a few chapters. Supper bell is ringing. Love Dad
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A Big Bend first??
Apparently, we have been able to jump thru all the Google hoops correctly and can get on with this family Blog project. Hope this will result in the presence of an icon or folder that we can find on the screen somewhere so that we don't have to come back thru a maze to find all the gems the rest of you will have composed. More when we are sure we are on the correct path!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
??
Dave, you're cleaning dog poop out of your closet?? Is the poop in your closet frozen, too?
The kitchen sounds very cool! Maybe you'll inspire me to go down and finally finish the basement once and for all...
I like Domi's idea of getting more cousins represented here. Any chance we can get more of them invited? Or maybe they should get their own cousin blog, so they can talk about whatever kids talk about online without parental & grandparental supervision and interference.
Mark
The kitchen sounds very cool! Maybe you'll inspire me to go down and finally finish the basement once and for all...
I like Domi's idea of getting more cousins represented here. Any chance we can get more of them invited? Or maybe they should get their own cousin blog, so they can talk about whatever kids talk about online without parental & grandparental supervision and interference.
Mark
first blog
Hi everybody. This is the first chance I've had to noodle with this and get myself set up- It looks like no one else was in the remedial class! Oh well. better late than never.
Things are quiet up here. I was cleaning the yard of frozen dog poop and am now cleaning out my closet. Yee ha! I have a bunch of old instruments in various states of disrepair that i decided to get out of my closet and hang on the wall as impressionistic art or just a acollection of old musty junk. Anyway it looks kinda cool.
In the next couple fo weeks I'm going to start redoing the kitchen. I was able to snag a photo set kitchen from our new catalog- showed some if you at Christmas I think. It's shaker style door in a hand painted matte olive green. really a beautiful kitchen. many components fit 1 for 1 but some will have to be altered a bit. I should have enough extra for a desk in the back dining area and a window box in the main dining room. I've got to get it out of the photo studio next week and into mini storage for staging and then start makin' dust. should be pretty fun and should look great when done. This kitchen was pretty tired looking.
anyway everyone is off on the four winds and I'm going to get back to my closet and Speed network.
I've got a conference in Orlando in 2 weeks and we're flying Chaz, Elly and Finn down for a couple of days in Disneyworld!
Things are quiet up here. I was cleaning the yard of frozen dog poop and am now cleaning out my closet. Yee ha! I have a bunch of old instruments in various states of disrepair that i decided to get out of my closet and hang on the wall as impressionistic art or just a acollection of old musty junk. Anyway it looks kinda cool.
In the next couple fo weeks I'm going to start redoing the kitchen. I was able to snag a photo set kitchen from our new catalog- showed some if you at Christmas I think. It's shaker style door in a hand painted matte olive green. really a beautiful kitchen. many components fit 1 for 1 but some will have to be altered a bit. I should have enough extra for a desk in the back dining area and a window box in the main dining room. I've got to get it out of the photo studio next week and into mini storage for staging and then start makin' dust. should be pretty fun and should look great when done. This kitchen was pretty tired looking.
anyway everyone is off on the four winds and I'm going to get back to my closet and Speed network.
I've got a conference in Orlando in 2 weeks and we're flying Chaz, Elly and Finn down for a couple of days in Disneyworld!
Brrrr!!!!!!!!
Hey, Casey--thanks for bringing me in from out in the cold. Our old laptop bit the dust and took with it the invitation to get signed up on the family blogspot. Thanks to you and Kevin, who also provided some assistance, I was able to get on and get going. I appreciate it.
I am sitting here watching the Badgers take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. It's been a real good game so far--just about when Wisconsin was gonna run away and hide Iowa came back to make it a 4-pt game at halftime. It's been so much fun watching Wisconsin basketball this year. It brings me back to the mid- to late-seventies when Marquette was so dominant. It's also great to know that the UW should continue to be a powerhouse and get even stronger in the years to come.
By now, hopefully everybody has recovered from our Christmas visits and the colds we likely passed back and forth from all the smooching and hugging we all did. It was just so great to see everyone (excepy David and Michele who were dearly missed), and to catch up with one and all, and the mere inconvenience of a minor respiratory hacking fit was worth the effort..
It's hard to believe that the Superbowl is already only a week away! We are planning to have a low-key Sunday next weekend; no parties, no fuss, no muss. It works for me!
We are all doing well. Steve is back into the swing of his graduate program; Maura has picked up about 30 new cases this month alone, which translates into about 3 to 4 months of added backlog; Alex has decided to not pursue culinary school after being disillusioned over the past several months by working in various kitchens from the Dells to Devil's Head Ski Resort; I have had a rough month as the weather continues to swing all over the map with warm to cold and clear to lots of snow. So I am hoping that Jimmy the groundhog comes out on a cloudy day so we can end this nonsense early this year. Maura and I are currently planning to take an extra-long weekend in late February to head down to Carbondale and spend some time with Steve. Hopefully it will be warmer there than here.
Well, halftime is over and I need to get back to the b'ball game. I hope all are well and making it through the winter in good shape. I am looking forward to making good use of this communication vehicle. A big thanks to Casey for setting this whole shee-bang up!
Love to all, per usual.
--Tim--
I am sitting here watching the Badgers take on the Iowa Hawkeyes. It's been a real good game so far--just about when Wisconsin was gonna run away and hide Iowa came back to make it a 4-pt game at halftime. It's been so much fun watching Wisconsin basketball this year. It brings me back to the mid- to late-seventies when Marquette was so dominant. It's also great to know that the UW should continue to be a powerhouse and get even stronger in the years to come.
By now, hopefully everybody has recovered from our Christmas visits and the colds we likely passed back and forth from all the smooching and hugging we all did. It was just so great to see everyone (excepy David and Michele who were dearly missed), and to catch up with one and all, and the mere inconvenience of a minor respiratory hacking fit was worth the effort..
It's hard to believe that the Superbowl is already only a week away! We are planning to have a low-key Sunday next weekend; no parties, no fuss, no muss. It works for me!
We are all doing well. Steve is back into the swing of his graduate program; Maura has picked up about 30 new cases this month alone, which translates into about 3 to 4 months of added backlog; Alex has decided to not pursue culinary school after being disillusioned over the past several months by working in various kitchens from the Dells to Devil's Head Ski Resort; I have had a rough month as the weather continues to swing all over the map with warm to cold and clear to lots of snow. So I am hoping that Jimmy the groundhog comes out on a cloudy day so we can end this nonsense early this year. Maura and I are currently planning to take an extra-long weekend in late February to head down to Carbondale and spend some time with Steve. Hopefully it will be warmer there than here.
Well, halftime is over and I need to get back to the b'ball game. I hope all are well and making it through the winter in good shape. I am looking forward to making good use of this communication vehicle. A big thanks to Casey for setting this whole shee-bang up!
Love to all, per usual.
--Tim--
can we get more cousins on the blog?
as much as i enjoy hearing from all the aunts and uncles, i wonder, is there any interest either from cousins to join this blog, or to start our own?
i would ask them myself, but i have no one's email.
so, if you think of it, would you ask? and let me know. i'd be willing to start it if there was interest in our own, separate blog.
thanks!
domino
i would ask them myself, but i have no one's email.
so, if you think of it, would you ask? and let me know. i'd be willing to start it if there was interest in our own, separate blog.
thanks!
domino
Hi Everyone-Thanks for reminding me of this Mark-I had read it, not gotten an account and figured I would get back to it. Never happened. Busy month-Colin is back in school, Bridget is over her virus and back at school, work and snowboarding. We decided to go to Denver for Easter and maybe a bigger vacation this summer. Lets hope. All is well so far for 2007. Great picture of Freya.Always happy to hear stories about her, too. Can't believe its almost a year. Love, Susan
Saturday, January 27, 2007
the lonely blogger
I just checked the family blog and saw that Casey, the lonely blogger, has been holding down the fort pretty much on her own, with some really sweet updates on the life and times of Freya. Thanks, Casey, for putting in the effort.
Since Christmas I've been going after books that were recommended by family over the holidays. I started out with "About a Boy" by Nick Hornby, recommended by Lyn. It was a great read, funnier and more clever in some ways than the movie, but I was surprised by how completely different the third act was. Maybe if the whole death of Kurt Cobain meant something to me I would have gotten more involved, but it didn't completely work for me. The last act of the movie is schmaltzy and formula, I know, but I prefer it, because it still packs more of an emotional punch for me.
I just went to the Fort Library to look for Neil Gaiman's "American Gods," recommended by Casey, but before I could even look I found three books that just jumped off the shelves at me. You ever have that experience where you just happen to look at just the right spot on just the right shelf, and just the right book is sitting there for you (even if you never knew until that moment that it was just the right book)? The first two were on documentary filmmaking and starting your own magazine, but the third was the best: "The Beast of Bray Road--Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf," by Linda Godfrey. What a find! Matt was talking about it over Christmas, and Bridget knew exactly what he was talking about, and there it was on the library shelf, waiting for ME! And I just looked at the back cover and saw that one of the blurbs was written by a writer I know in Madison... weirrrrrrrrd.
I have gotten a bonanza of free screener dvds from the studios this year, and I'm getting friends here together for some movie nights. Get this: The Queen; Babel; Flags of our Fathers; Thank You for Smoking; Anatomy of a Scandal; United 93; Little Miss Sunshine; The Departed; World Trade Center; Little Children. All free! Just because they want to buy my vote for a Writers Guild Award! It's almost as much fun as pirating, only legal :)
Keep warm, everybody!
Mark
Since Christmas I've been going after books that were recommended by family over the holidays. I started out with "About a Boy" by Nick Hornby, recommended by Lyn. It was a great read, funnier and more clever in some ways than the movie, but I was surprised by how completely different the third act was. Maybe if the whole death of Kurt Cobain meant something to me I would have gotten more involved, but it didn't completely work for me. The last act of the movie is schmaltzy and formula, I know, but I prefer it, because it still packs more of an emotional punch for me.
I just went to the Fort Library to look for Neil Gaiman's "American Gods," recommended by Casey, but before I could even look I found three books that just jumped off the shelves at me. You ever have that experience where you just happen to look at just the right spot on just the right shelf, and just the right book is sitting there for you (even if you never knew until that moment that it was just the right book)? The first two were on documentary filmmaking and starting your own magazine, but the third was the best: "The Beast of Bray Road--Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf," by Linda Godfrey. What a find! Matt was talking about it over Christmas, and Bridget knew exactly what he was talking about, and there it was on the library shelf, waiting for ME! And I just looked at the back cover and saw that one of the blurbs was written by a writer I know in Madison... weirrrrrrrrd.
I have gotten a bonanza of free screener dvds from the studios this year, and I'm getting friends here together for some movie nights. Get this: The Queen; Babel; Flags of our Fathers; Thank You for Smoking; Anatomy of a Scandal; United 93; Little Miss Sunshine; The Departed; World Trade Center; Little Children. All free! Just because they want to buy my vote for a Writers Guild Award! It's almost as much fun as pirating, only legal :)
Keep warm, everybody!
Mark
Monday, January 22, 2007
Poor Little Freya!
Miss Freya seems to be under the weather. I woke up last night to find she had a fever, so I dosed her with Tylenol and spent the next hour rocking her. The fever has lingered through this afternoon, though she seems better this evening.
She has no other symptoms and several friends have suggested teething. Maybe yes, maybe no. She's kind of a sad sack right now.
Not much else to report in Idaho news. Matt cited a guy yesterday who shot a deer, then told an off-duty Fish & Game biologist that it was a cow elk. Sorry, buddy. Not an elk.
We're planning a very small Freya's First Birthday get-together with my dad and Elaine, plus our neighbors/Freya's care-giver and their son. We'll hopefully get some good pictures to share with you all--that is the main reason for First Birthday Parties, isn't it?
Love to all,
Casey
She has no other symptoms and several friends have suggested teething. Maybe yes, maybe no. She's kind of a sad sack right now.
Not much else to report in Idaho news. Matt cited a guy yesterday who shot a deer, then told an off-duty Fish & Game biologist that it was a cow elk. Sorry, buddy. Not an elk.
We're planning a very small Freya's First Birthday get-together with my dad and Elaine, plus our neighbors/Freya's care-giver and their son. We'll hopefully get some good pictures to share with you all--that is the main reason for First Birthday Parties, isn't it?
Love to all,
Casey
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Gosh!
Freya now says, "Gosh!" in a tone of astonishment. We aren't positive that she's using it in the right context, but her delivery is great. "Gosh!" could really mean anything. It's awfully cute when she says it, though.
She had a restless night last night. I think her little brain is developing so quickly and she gets so much stimulation that she has little spasms of wakefulness. Kind of like when you're dreaming you're walking along and you stumble, and then you move your legs in real life to catch yourself.
So last night we were snoozing soundly when she stirred, exclaimed, "Gosh!" and then rolled over and went back to sleep. It was so darned cute.
Casey
She had a restless night last night. I think her little brain is developing so quickly and she gets so much stimulation that she has little spasms of wakefulness. Kind of like when you're dreaming you're walking along and you stumble, and then you move your legs in real life to catch yourself.
So last night we were snoozing soundly when she stirred, exclaimed, "Gosh!" and then rolled over and went back to sleep. It was so darned cute.
Casey
Monday, January 8, 2007
Look at All You Bloggers!
I came upstairs tonight, expecting to just see the original blog post and then I could go downstairs and complain about what a bunch of party poopers you all were for not posting to the blog. Well, paint me green and call me Gumby: you're posting! This is exciting!
In case you're wondering how to upload photos, there is an icon right above the box where you type a blog entry: the toolbar has a small letter b, a small letter i, etc., and the last icon looks like a very small picture. You can click on that and will get another window that allows you to browse the files in your own PC. You can click right on a photo file, and the program will upload your photo. I highly recommend resizing the photos down to about 350 pixels wide by 263 across. This keeps huge photos from being too hard to see, and it also makes the page load more quickly.
Well, we're off to Sports Authority in a few minutes to see if Matt can score some major bargains, so I had better sign off. Thanks for the participation!
Casey
In case you're wondering how to upload photos, there is an icon right above the box where you type a blog entry: the toolbar has a small letter b, a small letter i, etc., and the last icon looks like a very small picture. You can click on that and will get another window that allows you to browse the files in your own PC. You can click right on a photo file, and the program will upload your photo. I highly recommend resizing the photos down to about 350 pixels wide by 263 across. This keeps huge photos from being too hard to see, and it also makes the page load more quickly.
Well, we're off to Sports Authority in a few minutes to see if Matt can score some major bargains, so I had better sign off. Thanks for the participation!
Casey
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Sunday night
Hi all,
I just got the kids to sleep and found this supercool new blog! Thanks for taking the bull by the horns, Casey, you rock!
Had a nice weekend and a quiet Sunday night here... decided it had been too long since I did anything on the house, so took advantage of a 2-for-1 sale at kohls (that I didn't even know was going on) and equipped the new bathroom with some new towels, a wastebasket, and a few other accessories that Calvin and Domino have been asking for (ok, they've been complaining for months...). Then tonight the kids and I played Scene-It, one of Domi's presents from Santa, and I whupped the kids' team 3 times in a row. I'm so glad someone invented a fun game that glorifies useless movie trivia :)
Off to bed now... got a busy week a head of me. Love to all!
Mark
I just got the kids to sleep and found this supercool new blog! Thanks for taking the bull by the horns, Casey, you rock!
Had a nice weekend and a quiet Sunday night here... decided it had been too long since I did anything on the house, so took advantage of a 2-for-1 sale at kohls (that I didn't even know was going on) and equipped the new bathroom with some new towels, a wastebasket, and a few other accessories that Calvin and Domino have been asking for (ok, they've been complaining for months...). Then tonight the kids and I played Scene-It, one of Domi's presents from Santa, and I whupped the kids' team 3 times in a row. I'm so glad someone invented a fun game that glorifies useless movie trivia :)
Off to bed now... got a busy week a head of me. Love to all!
Mark
Sunday Dinner
We we're finished with dinner and took a look at email, and suddenly there was a blog! Computer skills come so early now, but Freya's keyboard looks suspiciously like a high chair tray!?
Welcome!
Welcome to the O'Connell family blog! I hope this becomes a place where we can post news about our lives, share photos, and keep in easy touch with one another. I'll do what I can to help you all get started. Have fun!
Casey
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)