One Year

[Click to enlarge]

I met Sarah in Kansas almost seven years ago.

We have been together since.

We were in no hurry to get married.

When the moment came, we did it.

One Year Later...

Some of the things people told me about marriage were wrong.

I did not know that my wife would want to trim my ear hair. I did not know we would argue about whether the dishwasher was ready to run or not.

Today we start our 24 hours of celebration. We got a nice, romantic place to relax, swim, and enjoy each other's company.

Cheers to our first year and to many more with the love of my life.

Have some champagne tomorrow, July 28th, and celebrate with us.

Whales, again

From a fishing pier near Avila Beach, California, we saw whales feeding. These were very close! (click on pictures to see larger view)

[Whale photos by Nicki Fratus]

The sunset...

Come on By!

Here on the beautiful coast of California, people seem to want to visit us more. This confirms that we are not as interesting as the places we may live. It seems that if you want to see your family and friends more often, remember the old business adage, "Location, Location, Location."

We are near the beach, have vineyards very near, and the high temperatures in the middle of the summer average 80 degrees.

We welcome all who venture near to stop by and have a visit.

Our latest visitors were our friends Nicki and Steve from Walnut Creek. They brought along their new born baby, Tony. He was not as ugly as many newborns, even a bit likable and cute. Here's a pic of the little guy:

Zoe checked him out...

Blackberry liked to play on the baby related items...

Here I am with Tony.

Ok, enough about the baby...

We went wine tasting as well.

93 Years

The year: 1916, the middle of World War 1 and Germany is at war with everyone.

• Monet was still painting
• German's were dropping bombs from blimps on Paris
• A woman was arrested for talking about birth control
• Pancho Villa and 1500 Mexicans attacks New Mexico! (Yes the one here in the USA)
• The light switch is invented
• William Boeing starts Pacific Aero Products (Which later becomes Boeing)

In the midst of all this my Grandmother was born. 93 years later, I went to church and lunch with her! She still has a great witty sense of humor.

I.T.

So you're new on the job. You are given an office with a nice view of a brick wall with trash cans scattered beside it. The only thing in the office is an old desk chair and a dusty computer. You sit down in the squeaky chair at your desk, turn on the computer and wait for it to boot up. Five minutes later, the outdated computer has loaded Windows 95 and now wants a password to login.

You know this could be trouble, but optimism is still high on your first day. You look around for a company phone directory. Posted on the wall is a notice, "If you need I.T. help with your computer, just login and go to..."

Damn!

Oh, you better watch it, think positive, you just have to call IT. It shouldn't be a problem. The phone list shows a person name Chris in the IT dept. You look around for a phone. "Why would there no be a phone in here?" You may ask. Well, IT has control of the phones as well and you have to talk to them about getting a phone.

You walk out of your office into a foreign maze of cubicles. You stop and ask the first person who makes eye contact how to find the IT department. They call the IT tech and they say to wait in your office and they'll take care of you. So you walk back to your office and wait. All your work is of course on the company server you can not access.

An hour goes by and you are about to go find someone when a small man with thick glasses walks in. He says, "move" and sits in your chair. He types in some stuff, makes some noises, then stands up and says "You're all set" and walks out.

You are into the company network now. You must create a password that is 44 symbols long using no letters in the English language, must have 2 Chinese characters, and you must change it every week. The computer you use gets slower everyday and shuts down randomly. But, hey, you don't want to have to call IT now do you?

At every job, I have had some issues with the IT dept. Sometimes it actually works out well, but so often it does not. The computer is slower after they "clean" it out and my email receives emails only on Tuesdays. It some cases I have had the IT tech say he would be back with my wireless router, then two months later I just get another job because its easier than getting IT to finish a job.

If you want to see a funny British comedy called IT Crowd go here :

http://www.dailymotion.com/related/xzwlv/video/xzwml_the-it-crowd-episode1_family?hmz=746162