Hello from The Vale

You may get different backgrounds when you check the blog.  It is still having problems retaining the background I want to use.  This seems to be an inherent problem in the software.  We are trying to work out the bugs so please keep watching.  Let me know what background you are getting when you check the blog.  It should have a small clover in the top left corner and three columns in the body.

For some reason the old “default” background of a dull blue top and missing right hand column still seems to try to load instead of the one I want.  I would be happy if I could get the teddy-bear one to register.  Anyway we are still working on that part of the problem.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics.  Man, the US women’s gymnastic all-round final last night was riveting.  Congratulations to Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson for their gold and silver medals.

We are spending our evenings watching the Olympics.  We are real fans of the swimming and gymnastics teams so this past 5 days has been a real feast for us.  We wish the diving teams had done better but they were still great to watch and China has definitely got terrific teams.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics along with us.  Once they are over it will be back to our own Olympic sport ….. unpacking the boxes.  We have been in our own apartment since June 28 but with our work schedules (I worked off a full time two weeks notice at one job and changed over to my new full time job in town, Wendy has been working all sorts of shifts at Target and now she has started part time at the same place I am working), it has been very difficult to open up boxes and decide what to do with things.  Especially with all the furniture still up in Port Angeles.

Love to all and drop us a note now and then.

Over the years I have heard many statements about calls to the Help Desk at places of work.  Most of the time they seemed to be very accurate about how instead of being the “Help” desk, it should be called the “helpless” desk.

HOWEVER, this time the report is very positive.  I want to sincerely thank the HELPFUL DESK at my hosting ISP.  In the 5-6 years (possibly more) we have been hosting with them, the technical support people have been extremely helpful, and very responsive to any problems I have experienced.

The Help Desk people at ApolloHosting.com are truly wonderful people who have solved my blog problem.

I should be able to post much more frequently now that the software problem has been fixed.

Wendy has started training at her new job and we will have more to report in the very near future.  I know I love working there and I am sure that Wendy will as well.

Please bear with us.  We have only sporadic contact with our logon link.  There seems to be a problem with my template.  I am working to resolve the issue so please be patient.

In the meantime, Wendy has a second part-time job, working at the same place that I am now at.  She will be working weekends and fill-in for the night receptionist as needed.  I will try to post more again in the near future.  It will depend on the ability to log in and write a note.

What is the world coming too? I figured that since I can still log in I will take advantage to help spread some wonderful news I heard yesterday for all those Harry Potter fans out there. I am sure that most of them received the news the same way I did but here goes.

It was announced yesterday on JK Rowling’s site that the special little book she handwrote last year and gave to 7 people, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, will with the permission of the 6 people who received a handwritten copy and the 7th who bought it at a charity auction, the book will be published and released on December 4. That means that ll the fans can read the book for themselves. For more information you can check out any one of several Harry Potter sites but here is a link directly to the article on The Leaky Cauldron site. http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2008/7/31/j-k-rowling-s-charity-to-publish-beedle-the-bard-in-december

Leaking Cauldron advised that:

According to a post on JKRowling.com, the book will have commentary by Dumbledore (it was “discovered in his papers after his death,” including historical notes, personal reminisces, and insights into the most mysterious branch of magic, wand lore). The tales were “translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger” and have illustrations by J.K. Rowling.

I can hardly wait for December 4th to come. I am going to pre-order our copy as soon as payday rolls around.

I am sorry to be so long between posts. I have been having trouble with this software. It seems to lose the login link so I have not be able to login to make a report until now.

I have a wonderful new full time job as the Business Office Coordinator for an Independent Living Senior Community. The residents are all very patient with me learning their names. The other staff are great, the atmosphere is open, warm and like working from home.

Wendy is still at Target and getting quite a few hours in.

We have a townhouse of our own now. We moved in the end of June and since that was when I started the full time job, we are having a slow time unpacking all the boxes. The townhouse is very low on cupboards in the kitchen so we are having to put together cabinets that can stand alone. Hopefully I will be able to post more often now. I will keep trying to figure out what is wrong with this software so that I can get logged in more often. In the meantime, we are reachable by our email addresses. We would love to hear from all of you.

Well, I see that I have almost missed the month of June with these updates.

Wendy and I have found a place of our own and will be moving in next weekend.  We are both still working our various hours.  Last weekend (over Father’s Day weekend) I spent two days playing with the granddaughters.  We made a trip to the coast to visit the Marine Science Center, have a picnic and just generally play on the beach.  The weather here in the Valley was very clear and warm.  By the time we got to the coast, the weather there was overcast (not the dark overcast of rain storms but lots of clouds) and VERY Windy.  Of course we had dressed for the warm weather of the Valley.  One of the girls had worn jeans and a long sleeved shirt, one had thought to bring a light weight jacket but the third was in shorts and tank top.  We thought we were going to blow away when we got out of the car.

Suffice it to say that it was so cold in the wind that the girls decided to picnic by eating lunch in the car while parked and looking at the water.  After lunch we drove a little bit north along the coast and visited the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  The three girls climbed all the way to the top and listened to the history of the lighthouse from the person at the top.  When they came down we did meander down to the tide pools briefly.  The beach was deeply covered in cobble stones which made for rough walking.   The girls decided that it was time to go back to the car and we got home about 7:00 that night.

On Saturday we made a quick trip to the McDowell Creek Falls and hiked up to the top.  That took about three hours of the day.  When we got back to Albany, I took the girls over to the park near the house and let them ride bikes and play in the sand, building sand castles for another 3 hours.

I guess that is it for right now.  Will try to update again soon.

Well, it is Memorial Day weekend.  Picnics, mini-vacations, trips????????Dans la seconde moiti