I still can't believe it!

Considering a merge

My Daughter is a Wildly Famous Recording Artist Now

I like the songs about Michael Phelps and Jay Karolenko best and find myself adding more to the letter B.

So Excited !

Election Day - and there is so much to hope for. Jim worked the polls this morning and I plan to do so after work.
Vote!
(For Obama)

Cathy's Attempts to Help Me With Ceramics Class

FYI,

The Today Show featured "Top 5 Websites" which were very interesting.

Here is a FREE site - How to's on video:

www.expertvillage.com - how to site on how to...play the sitar to care of hermit crabs to gravel roads to body wraps and more.

Give this one a try! I highly recommend that this be added to our site.

http://www.expertvillage.com/video/23100_pottery-making-advanced-prep-wheel.htm

How pitiful to have not posted for so long

What have I been doing lo these many months? Work, Summer Reading Program - Very Ladybug-like, Cooking up a Storm, then off to France for two weeks with a side trip to Spain and then back to Build Your Own Fairy House and then prep for the new school year. We hosted a Spanish Exchange student for three weeks and Cathy and I are taking a ceramic class - throwing on the wheel. Next week we are off to Jonesborough, TN for the National Storytelling Festival.

All of these topics ought to have a separate entry but for now this will have to do.

Happy Fall.

I Write Things Down...

on scraps of paper, envelopes, post-its and I find them at random times and sometimes I can barely remember why the quote appealed to me and what I was thinking at the time that I felt compelled to scribble it down while driving on I 95 or cleaning or walking the track...

Here are a few examples:

Are you an IDIOT?
No, sir, I'm a dreamer.
-Scrubs

Small dog licking your face
-B. Dylan

Stupid's supposed to hurt
-Kid in the library who's friend fell off skateboard


i been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror
and bendin over backwards just to try to see it clearer
my breath fogged up the glass
so i drew a new face and laughed
i guess what i'm sayin is there ain't no better reason
to rid yourself of vanity and just go with the seasons

-Jason Mraz

For the cake lovers out there

The Public Library Association (PLA) recently held a conference called Turning the Page: Building Your Library Community, a unique, online professional development opportunity for public librarians, trustees and library supporters. At that event they had a most appropriate cake made on the Food Network's Ace of Cakes program.

Is the end ever in sight?

Our house project is almost complete. The addition is beautiful and needs only a few little tweaks. It's a little too soon to re-grade the lawn, so Marvel tore down the garage and we will soon have a new one in a slightly different location. Maggie needn't worry that her new best bud and lunch-time companion will be gone soon.

Spring Break in NYC

We had a whirlwind tour of New York City. Hannah and I have been there several times but it has been years since Reene or I visited a NYC museum and Hannah has never gone to any in New York. This was Rachel's first trip to the Big Apple. So we bought the City Pass and managed to visit five of the six attractions: The Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Empire State Building and we took the circle Line cruise around the Statue of Liberty. Add to that, Greenwich Village, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Saint Peter's, Times Square, and Young Frankenstein.

Letterpop

I experimented with Letterpop. It was easy to upload my photos and to work with the stock photos. There's a wonderful assortment of templates from which to choose. These are divided into catagories such as holidays, birthdays, journals, etc.

Here's the message that comes up after you have e-mailed your newsletter:

Yay! Wasn't that easy?
Your newsletter has been queued for sending. What does that mean, exactly? It means that your newsletter will be sent as quickly as possible, if not at this precise moment. It depends on how much mail is being sent right now but usually newsletters are delivered very quickly. You will receive a confirmation email as soon as it has been sent.

What next?
Well, you could send another one, of course. Or you could turn off the computer, put your feet up, and bask in the glory of all the time you just saved.

Whatever you do next, we hope it's something that makes you happy.


http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=82206-01b03e

Thing 25: Newsletters in a Pop!

The first thing one must do to use this is to register. It is free and very easy to use. But you can't try it out without signing up. I created an Easter newsletter/invitation but I will be working on another newsletter to post here.
Stay tuned.

Waiting for conversion...

I quickly typed a short document to experiment with Zamzar free online conversion. It loaded quickly but now I must wait for them to send me an e-mail. After that, I will have 24 hours in which to complete the download of my newly created PDF file.

I haven't had any reason to convert files but I can see that this would be useful if I needed to send files out to people who required a different format or if I dealt with HTML files regularly.

The process was incredibly easy and took only minutes to complete. Hopefully the outcome will be as successful.

Learning 2.1 - 24 - 47

Just in time - I feel like I am getting rusty. Some of the things I once felt comfortable doing, I know longer do. I hope to try some of the new things while brushing off the older ones.
I found this list at http://explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com

Learning 2.1: A Master List of Things

Here is a master list* of discovery explorations for Learning 2.1:




47. For the Musically Inclined: JamStudio
46. Updates
45. Go With the Flow: Flowcharts & Mindmaps
44. Nag Yourself/Jott.com
43. Midi files
42. Google Groups/Usenet
41. Live Mocha
40. Retroland
39. Animoto
38. Comic Relief (Self Check)
37: Music to your ears ( Pandora & LastFM)
36: Dressing up your photos
35: Mini or micro blogging (Twitter, Jiaku & others)
34: USing the web for better health (FitDay & Nutridiary)
33: Express yourself through online art
32: Online file storage with OmniDrive
31: Get organized with Plaxo
30: I'm in UR Libary, Readin UR b00ks (LOLCats)
29: Scrapblog: I'm in love
28: Well we're big rock singers ... (magazine cover fun)
27: Photobucket
26: Little bits of the Internet, on your desktop (Yourminis)
25: Newsletters in a pop! (Letterpop)
24: Got file conversion issues? (Zamzar)
If you're interested in where the first 23 things are, check out Learning 2.0. The Learning 2.1 program is a continuation of this program which is open for anyone to follow and/or help lead the way by being a Discovery Guide.

* The master list is updated monthly. For the newest discovery suggestions be sure to check the most recent entries.

Before I forget...

New New Year traditions:
A toast to Phil and Annette to honor their wedding day on the steps of Old St. James, a very Provincial dinner, and a Good Shepherd reunion on New Year's Day.

Update from Spain

I spoke to Hannah for a really long time last night. She visited Madrid, as I mentioned earlier but she also was able to attend a real football game in Madrid yesterday. Carnaval was celebrated this past weekend, as well. Hannah and her friends wore costumes.
Here's a photo from the airport while they were waiting to depart - H,a girl whose name I forget and Phillippe. Hard to believe she'll be home next week!

House Update

Well, lots happening - the siding is almost complete. Here, you can see old and new siding on the front of the house. Others photos show really old wallpaper, new kitchen cabinets and our shocking pear green laundry/pantry.

Plaza Mayor and Puerto del Sol

Hannah will visit Madrid tomorrow and visit these two sites as well as tour the city with her group. Here's a photo of the Puerto del Sol.

Wikipedia says:

The Plaza Puerta del Sol is the perfect starting point to explore Madrid. This bustling, centrally located square is one of the city's most lively places.

The Plaza Mayor, a grand arcaded square in the center of Madrid is very popular with tourists and locals alike. The symmetrical rectangular square features a uniform architecture, very similar to the contemporary Place des Vosges in Paris.

Follow the link below to view a live webcam view of the Plaza Mayor.

http://www.multimadrid.com/hogar.htm

Sunday in Spain

We heard from H on Sunday. They went to several sites. H told us that the area is beautiful and the weather has been fantastic with day time highs in the mid 60s. Apparently people dress up a little more when they go out at night and t-shirts and jeans are not doing it for H. She did buy a new top on sale!

They toured

El Valle De Los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen, a monument built by prisoners from both sides in the Civil War under orders from Franco.

Felipe II’s monastery- palace of El Escorial, one of Spain’s most famous sights.

The Alcázar,a fortress, a royal palace, the site of Philip II's wedding to his fourth wife, Anne of Austria, and more recently a military academy. In the upper part of the city, the oldest foundations have been identified as Roman. Documents indicate that a fortress existed on this site by the early 12th century known as the Alcázar, an Arabic word for a royal residence. The palace was enlarged in the 13th and 14th centuries and again during the reign of King John II (1405-1454) when towers were added and the East Tower and moat were enlarged. Under Philip II (1558-1598) major alterations were made; slate roofs and spires on towers were added. From 1764-1862 the Royal Artillery College was housed here. A fire in 1862 destroyed most of the structure, which was rebuilt about two decades later in a more romantic style than the original building.

The Roman Aqueduct, one of the greatest surviving monuments of Roman engineering, is about 2950 feet long although the section where the arches are divided in two levels is about 900 feet. It is made of rough-hewn massive granite blocks, joined without mortar or clamps.

Spain update

this weekend there is no itinerary
but i will tell you when we start doing stuff
we wont see mrs michael till monday

anyways i slept for 13 hours last night
fell asleep before dinner!

haha anyways elena whats to go so i will write more later
plus i'm buying a calling card today

H

Friday, 1/25/08 Spain!

Hey guys!!
its one thirty here in spain. got here about an hour and a half ago. I love it here this city is absolutely gorgeous, as is the entire country. Elena is very very sweet and her mom is also a lawyer! their apartment building is so cute i will be sure to take pictures, though i havent found out where my camera card would go yet......

anyways, got here safe, didnt lose anything yet so things seem to be going good.

talk again soon!

Hannah

Such Possibilities

As our addition nears completion and the weather skirts in and out of warm and cold,I get a yearning for spring and the special color of green seen in the tips of leaf buds and the tops of crocus and tulips breaking through a hard crust of dirt.

I came across this blog today and loved reading it. When is the last time we sang out loud - 80 some rounds of hungry like the wolf? Well probably never, as that wouldn't be my first choice but you get the idea. http://orangette.blogspot.com/

Why don't my links work?

I remember driving all over Harford being goofy and laughing and saying Jim Beam me up, Scottie. It was when we were handling great personal tragedy with a little hair of the dog. A brother was missing and we were all filling in the gap. Everyone really tried to get along then.

A visiting priest last Sunday quoted from three of the four Star Trek series in his homily and brazenly used one of Eddie Izzard's routines without crediting him. H called him on it, though and he admitted being busted.