What have we been doing?

Well, I am still working at UST and Amy has the summer off from her school. She has been working on her paper for her grad program, and I am not taking a class this summer for mine. I will start my grad classes in the fall. I am signed up for one week night class and one Sat. class that meets one Saturday every two weeks.

I'm keeping busy by working at STEPS camp again this summer at the university. I teach Web design two days each week for four weeks to groups of girls entering the 7th grade.

I decided to pass on the 3M tournament this year because I am so busy and the summer filled up fast. I am saddened by that. Maybe next year.

We have the main walls of the nusery painted and are starting to stick on non-permanent decals around the top of two walls. We are going with a jungle theme. Amy and I already bought a few toy animals that we will put up on a shelf above the closet as a decoration. The baby will be able to play with them later in live, like when he/she reaches 30 years old.

There have been lots of adjustments to our house. First of all, I lost my beloved home office. The computers are now moved out to different corners of the house. Amy and I are no longer to work/play on the computers side by side. We do have a wireless network. Now, ours was secure, and still is, but I suggest to anyone who has a wireless network CHANGE DEFAUT SETTINGS and be ULTRA PARANOID about security. Our settings worked for 2 years, but when we expanded our network bad things happened. We are now secure again, but I had to resort to a 64 character password. (Don't worry, only the computer needs the password, we don't have to enter it in every time).

Our printer is now even wireless on the network that way we don't rely on one computer having to be on before we print from another computer. Getting the right device for that was a challenge too, but we are pretty much finished moving the computers, hooking up to the network and resecuring it.

It's A Baby!

Well, the news is out we are expecting a bundle of joy in January after the new year. We found out a few weeks after Easter and made the wide spread annoucement when Amy hit 13 weeks. We will have the chance to find out the sex of the baby in September, we don't know if we will inquire or if we will just wait to be surprised. We have heard both good and bad stories of either the doctor being right or wong.

For the first baby, I don't mind if it is a boy or a girl. I'd love to have at least one of each, but don't feel presure to have one before the other. If we had two boys or two girls already, and another was on the way, then yes, I would feel pressure. But I don't want to fill this entry with a whole lot of ifs.

So I really suck at updating the web site and keeping my blog up to date. No excuses and no promises, but I hope to provide more info about happenings later this summer and make it easier for me to keep up.

Merry Christmas!

We haven't had time to put a whole bunch of our usual Christmas stuff up here like pictures and the letter. Both Amy and Chad are in graduate programs and with their full time jobs this Web site has been put aside.Merry Christmas, From: Chad, Amy, and Buddy.

It's Apple Orchard Time!

We went to the Pine Tree Apple Orchard near our house today and picked up some Honey Crisp Apples, apple spiced doughnuts, apple turnovers, and caramel apples. We typically go to the orchard six or seven times during the fall (about every weekend) and we even get our pumpkin there. It is a nice drive. Buddy likes a slice now and then too.

School has started

School has started, both in the role of staff and student for us. I’m taking my graduate classes in computer science and Amy is taking courses for her masters degree in education. Though out of college (as a student) for two years, I had already forgotten how hard it is and the number of nightmares generated (going to school without pants, forgetting assignments, etc.). I don’t know if we will be making it up to the cabin again this year with the business of work and school. It took me 3 days to finish a reading assignment for one class.

We re-carpeted Buddy’s cage. She now has a rubber mat and a thick plastic backing around the side and back of her cage. The backing will prevent her from kicking do-dos and other stuff against the walls and into the carpet along the wall. We have a new camera that also takes short video clips, so we may need to take a few new videos of Buddy.

PGA Championship

This summer has gone by so fast, Amy is already getting her classroom ready and I am starting to use up my last few vacation days I set aside.

This weekend I volunteered at the 3M PGA Championship. Because I volunteered to work the weekend, I was able to bring two people for golf earlier in the week. We decided to go to the Pro-Am on Thursday and watch. We watched Tom Kite, our former governor Jesse Ventura, and then Arnold Palmer for 9 holes. I really liked the laid back atmosphere and how the crowds were small. It was almost like having the course alone with the players.

On Saturday and Sunday I worked at the tournament. There was time to walk around and watch some golf so I watched Chi-Chi Rodriguez on hole 7 both days, and then watched Arnold Palmer finish the last day. I really hope to go back and do it again next year, I loved being out there in the sun on the course.

Simpson Safety Posters

I was just contacted by the www.safetyworld.com Web site. They have a line of Simpson safety posters that I think any Simpson fans should check out!