I have all of our articles moved over to the new system (powered by WordPress). I was using MovableType. I don’t think any of the movie clips work and the layout is a little disorganized. But, the content is all there.
Today was our 6th Wedding Anniversary! Mike and Eileen offerred to look after Megan and Bridgette while we went out for a nice quiet lunch. We were hoping to have tea and cucumber sandwiches at this what appears to be a really lovely old house. Since they were closed for the day we went to a lovely little restaurant in Woodbury. We thank God for blessing us and providing for us over the past six years. We’ve really come a long way, and we’re very thankful!
I suppose you’ve all been wondering where all the Fall pictures are this year. Well, Fall supposedly snuck up on us and overtook us. We got to see some really amazing scenery on our usual drives, but no special outings this year. It’s getting a little colder now and was around freezing today. The kids were all suited up. We’re very thankful for central air, it’s like Summer all year round. We’ve just booked our tickets for our trip to Texas. This coming weekend we’re going to visit Oom Bridgedee (Uncle Richard) and Tannie Karen and their new little baby girl, Alison. Should be fun!!! They have somewhat warmer weather than we do.
Today’s church service was presented by Mark Hankins, and it was awesome. I couldn’t write fast enough to take notes, but I might get something up for everyone soon. He was so funny too. We also had a really great Christian band from Uganda sing a song. Very nice, they entire church was very impressed.
Megan had to say bye-bye to her friend, Erika. They’have had lots of fun together but Ben, Kirsten and Erica are moving to Florida. We did try to explain things to Megan, but we’re not quite sure if really understands. Erica also used to go to gymnastics with Megan.
Hello, for a long time I’ve been keeping up with the articles (to some extent), but I have entually fallen a month and a half behind. Perhaps I’ll have time to catch up in the winter :smile:. Everyone is doing well, and we’re enjoying the almost perfect summer weather. We’ve been getting in a lot of kayaking too. Megan just loves kayaking and on one occasion slept for about an hour with all the splashes which occasionaly landed on her. Bridgette is getting used to the idea slowly. Sitting still and watching the sceneray is not Bridgettes idea of a fun time, but we’ll get there.
No too much cycling has been going down, but I did manage to build a little train table for Megan and Bridgette for their wooden train set. They’re having lots of fun with the trains.
Megan’s speech is becoming so clear that phone conversations are fun and lengthy. Bridgette is uttering a few syllables and has started to link sounds to Mommy and Daddy and some other objects. She can stand on her own for a few seconds and is very cute.
Hopefully I’ll have some more articles up soon. Thanks for stopping by our site!
What a monday… I usually don’t even drive fast. Nevertheless Ramsey County is under a budget crunch and their boys in blue are everywhere. This guy wasn’t at all friendly either, just shoved the ticket in my window, says “Have a nice day” and cruises off. Didn’t even give me a chance to respond. Anyway, so it’s my first (and hopefully last) speeding ticket. Brian who works with me on the SSIS project at the State received his speeding ticket only minutes after me, same place, same speed and same price. We were not very impressed with this road-cop, he seems to have a liking for two door cars. After expressing our disgust we found others that had all been stopped by this same guy. One for inattentative driving. So, we’re all driving really slow on the way to work.
I did call to dispute the ticket, since I was passing another vehicle and slowed down once I had passed, but I have to wait ten days… we’ll have to see how that goes. 43mph in a 30 zone.
Firstly, what an interesting week we have had. The “shock-and-awe” campaign seems to have been successful thus far. We’re all safe and there doesn’t seem to be any sense of fear or anxiety. The stock market is doing exceedingly well and has had it’s best one week gains since 1982. The economy seems to be strengthening (all except for the airline industries). Minnesota’s Northwest airlines is cutting back 12% of it’s flights and laying off around 4900. Today in the office many of the us were huddled around a small black and white 4″ TV, watching a live broadcast from Baghdad. The weapons available to the US military seem to be very impressive. I quite liked the MOAB (Mother Of All Bombs) which is some 21000 pound bomb that has the effects close to that of a small nuclear bomb. It doesn’t seem that they’ve used any of these yet. Reliable sources seem to indicate that Sadam was carried out of his palace on a stretcher and is either dead or injured. There has been little communication to any of his top officials. Many are surrendering and some in South Iraq have been quoted as saying they are very happy and have embraced the American soldiers. on the arrival in Southern Iraq. I suppose the perspectives and media coverage would be quite different in South Africa and other countries. I have been very impressed with the media or “embedded reporters” who have been very thorough and “brave” in order to report the events live. We continue to keep the US troops in our prayers…
Yesterday evening we played sequence with Johan and Gina and here Megan was looking for a good place to put her chip.
Winter 2003 arrives, the temperatures are slowly falling (as well as the leaves I might add). This Sunday is a lovely 36 degrees (3 Celcius).
Family update: Bridgette is growing fast and is now 3 months and two days old. She’s very lively, and interacts somewhat with coo’s and smiles. She has a very cute smile (she’s a cute baby of course). Megan is busy getting three or four new teeth and boy does she talk. She is only able to construct 3-4 word sentances (predominatly three word sentances such as, “Daddy, sit down!”; “Jaques, eat up”). With her fairly limited vocabulary she will still talk for twenty minutes straight in the car. She loves music and often requests her favorites (especially in the car).
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Olive Garden: We heard a lot about this restaurant, so we thought we’d give it a try after being here for just over eight months. We’ve even got a picture!
What makes the place really nice is the average wait seems to be 15-30 minutes vs 30-45 for Don Pablo’s. The food was good, the wine was good. Naomi wasn’t to pleased with the waiter - there seemed to be two reasons for this: (a) She was called “miss” - Can’t they see there’s a bun in the oven? and a ring on the finger? Where do they raise these waiters? (b) She had to get permission and show id to have a glass of wine. We’ve just found a new favorite. I think they should just warn us before pouring a $4.95 glass of wine - that’s a R34.00 glass of wine!!! The food was fantastic - lovely Caesar salad, and scrumptious garlic bread sticks - very fine and thin mini-loaves of bread smothered in garlic. And the usual eat as much as you like bread sticks, salad and coke - and see if you can fit any of the main course in!
The monitor: Then there’s the story about the monitor - Eventually I got tired of working on a 10.1 inch notebook screen, so we went our scouting for a nice screen at a reasonable price. Of course we went to CompUSA, my favorite - fortunately there’s a Jo-Anne’s fabric next door. Firstly the sales person had no idea about monitors - he only knew how to start “a bugs life”. So I ask about the monitors, what’s better and why, then he waffles something about a Mercedes and a Porsche, and something or other while figuring out how to start the movie. Problem is I’m not going to watch movie’s on the screen, and I want to see text and we pages and . . . anyway I give up and select the Viewsonic flat screen, it’s a good make and the flat screen should be cool. Get home after a 2 hour session at Target (Jo-Anne’s fabrics wasn’t enough this time). There’s a long story behind Target and Rainbow - when we first arrived we used to spend about half an hour down each isle and then even repeat some isles. That’s over now, and our shopping is a little more efficient - occasionally, however I end up being suckered into one of these extended play shopping expeditions. And all I want to do is try out this new gadget. You know how it is . . . right? Anyway all the screens looked bad to me in the store, they were all ghosting, blurring, wrong contrasts, wrong sizes, a 17″ screen had the image stretched to 15″ (who sets these things up anyway). All the screens are right next to each other interfering and make my choice so much more difficult, which is what I wanted the sales person for. Anyway I selected the screen, we went to Target (our extended triple play, three lives episode), finally arrived home. set it all up. Looks great, but wait there’s to thin black lines running across the screen - hardly noticeable, but it’s got to be right! This is America! So the next day we drag the box - I forgot to mention the box doesn’t fit in the car! Where’s the Toyota Conquest! That little car could fit anything in the back. So Naomi had to get in the back seat and the monitor sat next to me. So we drag this huge box all the way down twelve stories (okay okay we used the elevator) taking several pit stops along the way. Drive to the store drag it in. The kid at the desk looks casually over at us, “Yeah” “Well, the screens stuffed, it’s got two black lines on the top and bottom” “Is it a flat screen”, “yup” I say, “Oh they all come like that, Isn’t that right Sam?” Sam replies, “Yeah one at the top and one at the bottom - they can’t do it any other way” Hmmm . . . silence . . . I have to decide now - do I want this thing . . . can I put up with those little lines . . . do I want to make a fuss . . . why didn’t they tell me about that? . . . why don’t the magazines say anything . . . what’s the point that a flat screen reduces glare but gives two black lines . . . to tired to care, I said I’d keep the thing and picked up the thing and went back home set it up again . . . you know you can hardly notice those little black lines anymore.
Hope you enjoyed - this kind of thing only happens to us . . . Say did you like our picture, this is the CompUSA we bought the screen from - and yes the people do think we’re nutty taking picture’s of the stores. Actually they turn around and wonder what we’re taking picture’s of, realize there’s nothing and write us off as a lost case.
The Shrimp boil: No pictures for this one. Our company arranged an outing “Cajun style shrimp boil” - sounds good. So Saturday afternoon we . . . say I forgot to mention in the morning I dropped Naomi off at Tammie (one of our friends). And I went to a men’s breakfast at our church, now that was really cool - free breakfast - fit for a king. Eggs, sausage, pancakes, fruit, oatmeal, hash browns, fruit juice and coffee - what more could a guy ask for? There were around 250 of us and boy did we clean up. Apparently they used 1200 eggs, 72 pounds of ham, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember, but the topic was “Purpose driven leadership” - what an awesome topic - Tim Burt was the speaker. I won’t go into too much detail, it’s a mutli-part series one for each breakfast and there’s apparently one every month. The point was getting God’s people to realize that they’re called for such a time as this; that we’re called for leadership - we’re told to make disciples - we can’t make disciples unless we’re one - and if we make other disciples we’re a leader - to the point; another interesting point is that being a leader isn’t being a leader, it’s being a follower, you can’t be a good leader if you’re not a good follower; Another interesting thing: There are two ways to derail leadership (a) Getting offended - a result of pride, which causes unforgiveness and (b) Lack of need for God because we’ve already been blessed with every good thing; It was fantastic, but then you need to have heard the Power Team on Sunday that was awesome. Everyone was speechless. But you can read more about that in the next article. Where were we, yes, the shrimp boil. It was fun - we met Don and Michelle who also work for PSI, what a nice couple they stay just a little further from where we were going to stay (you know, the place on the golf course). The view was wow. The food was good, as much shrimp as we could eat. The one problem was the wind - it was really mean. If our cup was half empty, it was blown clear off the table. We chatted a while, Chuck and Cindy were there (the owners of PSI), it was nice to see them, and we had a nice chat. Chuck has just landed a contract in the Virgin Islands and has been enjoying trips to the beaches of the Pacific every so often. There was also live entertainment, who hung on to their drum sticks for dear life. Just kidding it wasn’t that bad, but close. And that was Saturday - we had just enough time to make it to the Power Team that evening.
The day started off well, for the first time we left home early on Saturday (10AM) on our usual mission, browsing some of the thousands of stores. We first went to Roseville which has grown on us, we enjoy the area, plus they’ve got a really huge Barnes and Noble, and I can find (for the first time) books that I’m interested in. Let me not go off topic, our mission for the morning was to find a new camera since our old one packed up and is only due back from repairs in about two months time, which is too long, because the weather is really looking good, sunny, warm (15 degrees C), it feels like summer, so for the first time we get to test the sun-roof, aahhh, that’s fantastic. So we went to the camera store, and decided we liked the Canon Elan IIE, but we’d shop around first, so we head off to the Mall of America . . . now I recall what our secondary mission was for going to Roseville, my watch, let me back track somewhat.
A week ago we went to JC Penny, it’s an everything store with clothes, jewelry, linen, cutlery, lamps, clocks etc. Now my watches battery was running low and the digital display was flashing, which became annoying, so as we discovered that JC Penny had a watch service department, we figured we’d just take the watch there to get the battery replaced, so the “young” teenager behind the counter casually takes the watch and replaces the battery and sets the time (ever so kindly), later that afternoon I decide to set the date and analog time etc. what a disaster, the analog time is out of sync with the digital time which is out of sync with the second time zone. My booklet is back in South Africa, so I figured I’d just send it off to Rado USA and have them fix it up for me. So during the week, I figured that all they would have to do a t JC Penny is set the analog time to 12:00, quickly remove the battery and then replace it. So they did that, I kept checking that the watch would be water resistant when they’re done. “It should be”, the young man replies, I decided not to comment. THEN, the watch was one minute off, I complain, the teenager looks with this blank face (speechless), which just about said, “What is one minute?”, I decided not to put up a fuss, as I was lucky it still worked (or so I thought), but then it occasionally switched off and on, and reset the digital times, so it’s all out of sync, and now it does so continually. I have given up on JC Penny.
So we head off to the Mall of America with our mission of getting the watch repaired and finding a better price than the $599.00 quoted for the camera. I suppose you’re wondering where the espresso machine fits in, well if you’re really curious you can proceed to the end. Actually it was an interesting day, and it climaxed at the espresso machine. I wish I had taken a photo of this explosion. So we arrive at the mall, apparently it’s the largest mall in the USA, comprising 4 levels of shopping with an indoor amusement park in the center, complete with roller coaster, log rides, Ferris wheel, miniature golf and a snoopy store, not too mention the worlds largest lego shop. This lego shop has huge lego dinosaurs, droids etc, and the kids are free to play with buckets of lego on the tables provided. The most interesting was the Mindstorm lego which comes complete with software to program ones creation, sensors, motors etc. Back to our story, so we stop in at the first jeweler and ask for help, “Sorry, can’t help” is the reply, short and blunt. “Do you perhaps know where I could find a place that could help me?”, “Nope” once again, short and blunt, so we leave, and two shops down from this “short” blunt man was a “watch world” (IMHO it’s pathetic that the shop two stores up is completely oblivious of this watch store. They can’t help, only the manager knows about these watches, and he’ll only be back in 2 hours, so we kill time and end up buying a pound of coffee (espresso grind, yes the one that ends up in the explosion). Why a pound, we don’t drink that much coffee, well, it was on special. Back to the watch, the manager was unfriendly and pathetic (no other word describes his attitude more aptly), he shows me how to sync the analog and digital times (after trying to explain my saga), so granted, he was somewhat useful, but I decided not to let him fix the switching off problem (after half an hour of waiting and pathetic excuses on his part). So we had lunch at Planet Hollywood (it was OK, Naomi didn’t like the Chinese stir fry at all, but my turkey sandwich was nice. Then we popped in at a few more shops (ok, so I was dragged), then we headed back off to Roseville.
Enjoying the lovely weather and sunroof we miss the turnoff from the 494 to the 35E, so we’re heading off to the next state, Wisconsin, about 10 miles before leaving the state of Minnesota we realize, perhaps we’re lost, we just crossed the Mississippi for the second time (and we’re not going in circles). Honestly I find it quite amazing that the Mississippi river extends this far into the US. So Naomi scrambles for the maps, and we’re running low on gas, and this baby is really heavy. I think we get 340 miles on a tank and then it’s completely empty, so we have an emergency situation. We briefly attempt some “shortcuts” which turned out to be scenic routes on the way to nowhere. We then decide to backtrack and back on the 494 we head off to Roseville (once again) to find a substitute for a bedside table (this mission was futile). Our bed is really high, and to find a bedside table that would work is quite a challenge. It’s getting dark, the sunroof is closed (this means that it’s getting cool too), we head off home.
Here it comes, the explosion of the espresso machine. It’s now around 7PM, we’re bushed and are keen to try this new coffee (which they claim to be the best French Vanilla you’ll ever taste), so I switch on the machine, did I mention that this was really fresh coffee, moist and would go down very well as a late. I foam the milk, do the first coffee for Naomi, and I notice that the coffee is battling somewhat to come out, so it takes a short while longer, but I get a cup of espresso and present this to my lovely wife. They were right, it’s really the best French Vanilla, now my turn. I learn from mistakes (or so I like to think), so load the coffee into the filter, it’s a little to much, but I stamp it down anyway, no I know the pressure was too high before, and I know I added a little too much coffee grind. I have two options I can either (a) scrape some of the coffee off, or (b) just not tighten the filter as much, (b) seems much easier, so I tighten the filter on (just slightly), and place the beautiful clear glass cup under the filter, and flick the switch, really eager to have this late. It’s coming our very slowly, something is wrong, I’d better switch it off, BOOM, wife is running to see if I’m alive, and I’m flabbergasted, I’m not even sure what happened, can an espresso machine explode, I’m sure you can picture what the kitchen looks like, glass, water, coffee grind everywhere and I mean everywhere, I’m alive and only have one little drop of coffee on my shirt (I thank God that I wasn’t injured). Some coffee and glass reached the carpet in the living room, so now the 45 minute clean up operation commences. It took me as long to figure out what actually happened. My conclusion (after reading the manual). Ensure that the filter is tightened to the lock position (that’s the first problem). Don’t stamp the coffee down too much (the second problem). I stick to tea for a few days, till I scrape up the courage to attempt this endeavor once more. I would really love to have provided some pictures, next time (not that I’ll be blowing up the espresso machine again).
We heard about these things - “blizards” - sort of scary sounding, but this one wasn’t too bad, or so we thought anyway, it was very windy, very cold, and lots of snow, there was a about a foot of snow where these pictures were taken. 
So here I was running around taking pictures, and trying not to get foot prints in my shots. As I’m running along, I see this slight rise in the snow, but now big deal, keeping running - the running itself is tough in a foot of snow and my sneakers were about soaked. The all of a sudden WHAM, I get face planted in the snow and slammed into a burried wall / table or some ver solid object under the snow. It was a little bit painful, but the fall was soft. Naomi was sitting in the car waiting for and cracked up laughing at my of enthusiastic face plant. I think the temperature (including windchill) was -40 F (darn cold). We took these pictures the afternoon after the blizard, but I don’t think we’d have ventured out the apartment at those temperatures…