Life on the High Plains

 Silly Dana 1980   Mary as Pocahontas 1984  Our little pumpkin, Jillian 1988  Jillian as Minnie Mouse 1989  Look what we did to Jillian 1987   Princess Jillian   Halloween in Germany 1990  Princess Dana 1984  Dorothy and the Wicked Witch 1991  Alabama Belly Dancers 1987  Jillian as Pocahontas 1995 This is the closest thing I have to a halloween picture from my childhood.  This photo was taken in 1962, I was two years old in Payson, Arizona.  I don't have many halloween memories from my youth.  Notice my brother on the right side of the picture -- priceless! Happy Halloween everyone!

Last year when Irv and I went to Australia one of things we wanted to do was to go on the Sydney Harbor Brige Climb.  Here we are all suited up and ready to go.  We had to wear these suits and we couldn't carry anything with us including a camera. Aren't we attractive? After walking to the bridge we had to put on safety straps and be clipped to the safety lines that go the length of the bridge.  Then we had to climb up, and up, and up to get to the top of the bridge.  We did this on vertical ladders that are between lanes of traffic on the bridge.  We went up about four stories on vertical ladders.  I think the scariest part for me was having the traffic zoom by below us. Now like I said, we were all strapped in meaning we had to stay in our place in line.  I have some advice for anyone who doesn't want to get behind a "slow poke" on the bridge climb...don't let someone who is afraid of heights get in front of you because you can't pass them....

Garlic hummus and garlic pita chips for dinner.  Irv must be out of town on his super secret, incognito, nobody can know where he's going trip. Guess what the girls and I did last night...Sound of Music Sing Along Event at the theatre.  210 minutes of singing along to the songs from the best muscial movie ever made in the company of an entire theatre full of Sound of Music nerds.  We've even been on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg.  Great fun (even if Mary wouldn't sing)! When you know the notes to sing You can sing most anything Do, a deer, a female deer. Re, a drop of golden sun. Mi, a name I call myself. Fa, a long, long way to run. So, a needle pulling thread. La, a note to follow So. Ti, a drink with jam and bread. That will bring us back to do...oh oh oh

I was looking through some photo albums trying to find a specific picture (that I never found), but I did find these pictures that brought back some memories.  Luckily, my dad writes good notes on the back of photos or I wouldn't have been able to pinpoint the year that these were taken. We lived in Germany from 1989 to 1992.  During that time my mom and dad came to visit twice and we had some great adventures. In June 1990 we took them to Berlin.  It was one of our more interesting trips.  The wall wasn't completely down by then and to drive to Berlin from West Germany we had to drive through a section of East Germany.  Since Irv was in the army then we had to be "briefed" on our expected behavior while in East Germany.  Our drive started at Checkpoint Alpha where the Russian guards examined our passports.  We then had to drive to Checkpoint Bravo without a certain timeframe.  We couldn't go too fast or too slow and no pictures or video could...

I have to apologize for not keeping my blog updated last week.  I went to Wichita for a techie conference  and decided to not take my computer with me. It was a little strange and I felt like something was missing, but I survived.  When I got home late Thursday night I was sick with a bad cold and I haven't felt to inspired to blog since then.  (I promise to one day soon fill you in on social engineering, virtual desktops, and the Next Generation Solution, but for now you'll have to read more about Mr. Beans.) The last football update.   :( Mr. Beans ended his first football season with a tie game ending their season with a 4-2-1 record.  Mr. Beans only got to play in four of the plays, but he got a tackle in one of them.  He has greatly improved since August.  I really think the Broncos ought to consider hiring Mr. Beans' coach.  Here's a short video of one of Mr. Beans' plays this week.  Watch for #94....

The Browns played a good game on Saturday.  Once again I arrived late and missed a conflict between a parent, the referee and the coach.  I'm never there when the good stuff goes on.  Unfortunately, the kids are there and it's too bad they have to witness such immaturity amongst the adults. Anyway, #94 played really well.  I wish I had video to share, but I had my new camera set at too high a resolution and the short video clips are too large to upload to Blogspot.  Next week I'll try to do better. It's a big week for Mr. Beans' team.  On Thursday evening they get to go to the Air Force Academy and practice with the Air Force team.  How exciting!  I'm going to be out of town, but I know Irv will take pictures for me to share on the blog. Saturday is the last game of the season (thank the Lord).  The game will be followed by a celebration at Pizza Hut.  Mr. Beans says he has grown to like football, but he will be playing soccer...

I got new Yokohama tires on my Rogue this week so I'm ready for the S-word.  There's only one problem--see Pikes Peak in the backgroud of this picture?  There isn't any of the S-word on top of the peak.  It's October 16th and 75 degrees.  What is going on? There may be some of the S-word in this week's weather forecast, but that's okay.  I'm going back to Wichita for a conference this week. Any by the way, have you ever seen a cuter, I mean tougher, football player?