I've missed reading the blog lately, so nearly overwhelmed with all the news I've been missing. Love the drawings by Nina. She's obviously very talented, creative little girl!! And sausages again--if you ever come to visit Sid and Sandra, I hope you'll bring some sample's of Joe's fixings. They sure LOOK good anyway!! We were late getting a gift off for sister Kay's birthday but managed to call on the right day. Hopefully I'll do better with Judi's birthday. It's getting the package to the post office that usually defeats me. Tom's neck is getting worse and worse. He's finally seen a neurosurgeon who says its urgent he get it fixed ASAP. Surgery scheduled for 11 Feb. Gulp. Meanwhile, here's the link to the video from an English news station Bop. Folks there are remorseful they didn't fight for their freedoms while they still had them (with respect to owning guns in this instance, but presumably true for many other principals as well). Interesting anyway. Love from Colorado on a brilliantly sunny warm not too windy with many hints of spring in the air but evidence of winter still on the ground day. Love, KC
Opps - almost forgot the link!! Here tis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTq2NEUlhDE
I don't know how Sid managed to make the link to that lovely pianist "clickable" from the blog. I'm afraid to see this one, people will have to copy it for pasting into the web browser.
But Ginger was one of my favorites! Nina certainly will not be happy. I guess I will deliver the news to her soon. Nina so tenderly tried to give Ginger "medical attention" this summer when he was hurt.
That is very sad news indeed. Sorry to hear that Bopcha.
Diana, your case with the criminal sounds challenging indeed. I hope there is a certain level of challenge and excitment in handling such charged cases. Otherwise I suppose it is just very stressful.
Kay, so glad to hear about your nice birthday, you so deserve it. As for news here on the East Coast, Sid and I are just having coffee, breakfast, etc.... at 5:30am - not the usual time we start our day.
Unfortunately, I have a very important early morning meeting to attend in which the Dean will address the Vet Community about the "state of affairs." I guess all I can really say on this blog is that people are feeling anxious about it. I suppose that at this point, almost everyone is accustomed to hearing anxiety producing news. I am just holding on to the news about the CEO's who are getting "retention bonuses" and such assorted rewards. The part I am tyring to piece together is how do you get a retention bonus to stay in an organization that going out of business. I want to work for a company that is going to be out of existance soon because obviously the compensation is better in those places. I am just kidding --sort of.
Boo Hoo - I hate it when chickens that have names get eaten.
Bill and I are headed to CVO early this coming Saturday morning. There is a basketball game on Friday night - Mercer Island High School bb. We are going to borrow Mother's Gator to chop up our fallen tree.
Jess went to Canada for a "meeting" (actually a party). Once again, the attendees were put up at the Four Seasons. Jessica's store got nominated for best store but did not win. She was disgruntled.
Noah and his buddies from high school are going to Arizona and L.A. over spring break (March) to visit two of their other high school buddies. Nice.
JB and Gavin are going to Palm Springs for a week in March to go to a wedding. Gavin's parents are going also and are renting a house, so Gavin and JB only have to pay air fare and misc. expenses. Nice.
Bill and I are going to keep the home fires burning and the cats fed. Very, very nice.
SAN DIEGO -- A mistrial was declared Monday when a home-invasion robbery suspect smeared human feces on his attorney's face then threw more at the jury.
Weusi McGowan, 37, was upset because San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser refused to remove Deputy Alternate Public Defender Jeffrey Martin from the case, prosecutor Christopher Lawson said.
At the mid-morning break, McGowan produced a plastic baggie filled with fecal matter and spread it on Martin's hair and face, then flung the excrement toward the jury box, hitting the briefcase of juror No. 9 but missing the juror himself.
"That juror didn't even see it coming," Lawson said.
Thank you everyone for the birthday songs, gifts and wishes. I had a wonderful time in Salem and Crystal and Steph are both doing great. If all goes well, Steph will get her bachelors degree in 2010 and walk in the graduation ceremony at Corban college. Judi came up and joined us for my birthday dinner which was really great.
I am supposed to work two days in accounting and 2 in a secretarial position but because they are so busy in accounting, I will be working 3 days a week in accounting for 3 weeks or so and 2 in secretarial (yep 5 days a week).
I have lost the last 2 messages I tried to post - so will try again.
I must have missed something, Sid where were you making sausge?
I spoke to her just now and she is headed to Salem to visit with Steph, Crystal and, hopefully, Judi. What a fabulous way to turn 66! She feels very loved she said.
I am at work. I will be working this weekend - John is going to trial on a police misconduct case and I am doing his jury instructions. It is a very interesting case - the plaintiff is a bad, bad, guy and he was doing bad, bad, things at his arrest. But, one officer, in an attempt to subdue and arrest him, put his foot on the guy's head (or stomped on it, depending on who you believe). They guy suffered minimal injuries from that (if any), and is now sitting in prison where he will be for a long long time. Nevertheless, he would like to get a nest egg for when he gets out, I guess.
What fun! I love America (no sarcasm in that statement). Where else are civil rights so important that we allow a bad guy to have his day in court under these circumstances? It speaks very well for us, I think. It will be VERY interesting to see what a jury will do with this. We offered $$, but the plaintiff wouldn't take it. Heck, he has nothing to lose, so he may as well roll the dice.
At least I have a job I like (even if it isn't one of the 10 best). Now I'm trying to figure out when to come down to Corvallis.
Kay is headed to Salem because Stephanie and Crystal (?) are going to Crystal's old university to enroll Steph in some course ... or course of study or something. Anyway, she will get to spend her birthday with Steph, and that will be very special.
I'm so disoriented. I think I was supposed to have Bill deliver Kay's present today, because she will be gone Th and Fri. Eeeek! I'm running a day behind!
Sid, that photo of you making sausage was quite handsome!
I am continually inundated with HR related articles and "studies" at work, without even looking very far. Here is another one for 2009. Parts of it just look like data that we've been told for the past 25 years. I mean isn't accountant/computer programmer etc... always among the best jobs???? And do we need a study to let us know that "trash collector" is among the worst jobs? Anyway, enjoy the list.
A new report identifies the best and worst jobs for 2009.
The “2009 Jobs Rated Report†by CareerCast.com, a new job portal, factored the environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands, security and stress of 200 occupations. In compiling its rankings, CareerCast.com used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau among other sources
CareerCast.com found that many of the “best†jobs were “well-paying office jobs†while many that were rated the “worst†were “physically demanding, high-risk†occupations.
Here are the 10 best jobs of 2009 as rated by CareerCast.com:
Mathematician
Actuary
Statistician
Biologist
Software Engineer
Computer Systems Analyst
Historian
Sociologist
Industrial Designer
Accountant
Here are the 10 worst jobs according to the report:
Bill really enjoyed listening to the birthday songs on his return. Sid and Bopcha's was first, and so we started laughing because Bopcha was laughing. Somehow that set the tone, so we really had fun hearing the variety that followed. Thank you for ushering in his 60th with such fanfair!
Nina's art is delightful, and it sounds like Alex is turning out a bit like Noah. I think the younger brother pecking order works quite well. Sandra, we love Nina and Alex stories. It's perfectly OK to brag to relatives!
We had a great time in the San Juans. We had a whole house to ourselves! On Saturday, we took a whale watching boat out for about 4 hours. We had a captain, of course, and it was a small boat with only six paying passengers. It isn't whale season, so we didn't see any, but we saw HUGE SEA LIONS and seals and deer and goats (the last two on islands that we passed) and lots of fancy summer houses owned by fancy people. John Wayne used to own one of the little islands. We also saw three or four eagles keeping their beedie eyes on the sound, looking for salmon.
On Sunday we went to a park, took a hike, and walked along the beach. It was bright and sunny, but chilly. The San Juans are in a rain shadow, so they get half the rain Seattle gets.
As kids get older, it is hard to pull off vacations together. This one was great - just spending time with our beautiful children. They were fun, and didn't once act impatient or bored. Bless their little hearts.
Back to reality - we are happy to be home and happy to have been able to get away.
Sorry about the Eagles. We saw the second half and were really disappointed that they lost after such an exciting come back.
