Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We all have lots to be thankful for.

Wow, time flies. I have meant to update the blog several times and have pushed it aside.

I have kept up on pictures and the slideshow of Christina is current. And the latest pictures and videos have been uploaded and I stay not more than half a week behind. The cron job does not like creating the thumbnails so I run it manually, frustrating. I think it is timing out, but no error is given. Oh well.

Christina was sick and had an ear infection. Being a good princess she shared with me. I am shaking the last of it still. Started in the sinuses, moved to the chest, and now chest and throat. With a headache. Yuck.

What else is new. Snow snow snow, tis the towing season coming upon us.

Crap, I just realized I need a refill of coffee and I need to continue the podcast I was listening to. Coffee pot is not within reach and the remote is not either. Curses I have to get out of the chair.

Momentary lull........

OK, have coffee and the podcast started again. Maybe I should put a coffee pot in my room. And I need a remote for the iPod. Not a remote for the dock, 'cuz I switch rooms.

A reminder to back up your stuff. And check for updates. This last round of Windows updates needed a restart, plan accordingly.

Activities definately do not slow down when school starts. Let's see where to start.

Christina is continuing speech therapy through the UW system. The student this semester is Evan and Christina really likes interacting with him. They play music, read, play board games. I am pleased watching Evan's methods of therapy.

Christina was sick and had an ear infection. All better now after a round of antibiotics and some mellow days.

As the days have gotten shorter and cooler we have shortened our wagon rides. With daylight savings ending and it getting so dark so early I was leary how Christina would do. I told Christina it was dark out and cold. She clued me in that she wanted to go anyway. After some disagreement on how warm of a jacket and hat to wear we headed on our walk. Christina is a HUGE fan of the dark walks. With a smile for the whole walk, Christina was super giggly when we got back. She has her flashlight that she carries and helps to light the way.

Christina recently had an appointment with the eye doctor. Again, it is very difficult to tell what the princess can see. The eye doctor thinks it will help the right eye to patch Christina's left eye. We found some eye patches and we play pirates. Arrh.

I have been doing well keeping up on pictures of the princess. Enjoy, the slideshow will be very close to current.

It has been way too warm for this time of year. Not a fan.

What's been going on. Let's see where to start.

Loads of pictures.
Running a backup, hint hint. Reorganized the pictures of friends and family. Made a page for us to preview the family pics. The most recent pics of Christina are also in the queue.

The file with the list of the pictures has grown to an unreasonable amount. I don't want to compress/uncompress the file when needed. I would rather find a better way to accomplish the task. Maybe a db.

Been doing laundry while doing the computer stuff and found myself tired of multiple floors. And I lost track of time. Does that mean I'm busy. Hmm.

Also cleaning house of all the software CDs. Wow, there is a lot of stuff. I tossed better than a dozen so far. I think I will also verify the DVD backup of pictures.

Christina was walking very well this weekend in her braces. I am so proud of her. She didn't want to go to school today. Seemed odd. Maybe she just wanted to hang with dad. I think I like that thought best.

Christina has been super vocal and super loud. The princess has found it fun to scream and the bust out laughing. I am not sure if she is laughing at herself or laughing at me look at her wide eyed trying to figure out what is wrong.

Halloween is getting closer. We had to pick up a pumpkin for school so we picked one up for home and carved it right away. Christina loves to help and I talked her into feeling the pile of pumpkin insides. She smiled as she grabbed a handful and slid it onto the ground. I caught her grin when she grabbed a handful and squished it between her fingers.

Christina also surprised me this weekend as she was ready to walk walk walk with her braces on. She did absolutely wonderful. Her steps were beautiful with the braces on.
Christina with her pumpkin.

I started saving the various labels/tops to raise money for schools. I found it seems like a long time to get any saved. Anyway, if you save them and don't take the time to drop them off then you just wasted your time.

I also volunteered to help count them. I was surprised how many I picked up so far. If you want to help out send them my way and I'll get them to school.

Also been working on sorting the pictures of family and friends. Wow what a task. I started uploading the sorted files. Yuk.

Oh fiddle sticks, I just remembered I need to update the slideshow of Christina pictures.

There has been lots of stuff going on yet around town. We have been going all summer and it has continued since school started. We are definitely taking advantage of any and all the nice weather we can playing outside.

Christina enjoys going for walks in her gait trainer. We often have a rough start as she wants me to 'help' more than she really needs. Once we get going she really goes. It is a little tough, but there is nothing better than going for a walk holding your child's hand.

The slideshow is only a few weeks behind. And the page of pictures is staying up-to-date. The videos are up-to-date also, but the file sizes seem to get bigger. I'm impatient when trying to download and it appears to take extra long. Please enjoy.

Now that school is back in swing I have been reminded of the various programs for money for school. Things like milk tops, box tops, points for school, etc. I am still not familiar with all of them. Please save them for us. I know it is extra work and often seems like a pain. Also save the pop can tabs. If you prefer you can send them here and I will turn them in. You can contact me via the contact page if you do not have my email.

Yup, it has been awhile since I posted. The first reason... I have been lazy. The second, I had a hdd crash and needed to start from scratch with software.

Now would be a good time to reinforce the importance of backups. I lost no data. Items I did not lose: pictures, videos, music, documents, email, etc. Backup, backup, backup!!! Make sure you have two. That means there are at a minimum three copies of a single piece of information. I'll list them original, backup number 1 which is stored locally like on a external drive or CD/DVD, backup number 2 which is off site like at a family members house or a lock-box or a third-party service.

Christina has been loving school. The princess is growing up so fast. The pictures lately have really shown the older features in her face.

We've been going going going most of the summer so I think it is a good time for a weekend at home. With lots of play time.

Crap realized the time, gotta get ready for work and finish up the cooking.

Christina loves going to school, but it really wears her out. By afternoon she is starting to get cranky. The little princess enjoys school so much that she wants to go go go and pushes herself. And nap time is not on her list of things to do, she may miss something.

This past weekend was the International Fall Festival. Christina was in the parade to show support for the local Children's Museum. I opted to pull Christina in the instead of pushing her in her chair since she enjoys her wagon rides so much. Christina did very well waving to the onlookers.

With Christina in school today I find myself wondering what to do and the list of chores swirling in my head.

I figured I would start 'ripping' my cd collection. I knew it would be quite the undertaking, but it isn't going to bad so far.

I am debating what method to use to make a backup of pictures and video onto DVDs. After going through the software list already installed everything I found uses a proprietary format. Not too sure I want to go that route. I also need to use some sort of compression, or at least I should. Doing some quick math there should be about 15 DVDs of uncompressed so far. Maybe that is the way to go, just start burning and if it takes a lot so be it.

Christina really enjoys school; however, it has been wearing her out. She is so tired in the evening and wants to keep going. The princess does not want to go to bed early. Probably figures she may miss something.