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Here are some pics I have recently taken. Kids are into the "take
lots of pictures" mode, and I can't afford all the film processing
charges (spent over $100 last month -- no more!), so out of survival,
I went to the local military exchange and thanks to the exchange
credit card, picked up an Epson Photo PC 700 -- works great as
you can see.......
Well, this morning, the local weather service said we would get about 1-2" of snow today. All was well until about 9:00am, when the Pentagon which we can normally see from some of the offices kinda sorta vanished! Pentagon not! (391K) This was taken at 11:16am. After the local goverment decided to shut down (our customers are going home), we decide to bail out. Unfortunately by this time, the Pentagon parking lot has emptied its thousands of cars out, along with all the govt folks from DC, and there is total gridlock (372K) by 3pm! This is a pic of Route 1 in Arlington, VA, just south of the Potomac River. At least the snow let up a bit so we could see the all the traffic (the Pentagon is the faintly visible flat building in the background). As you can imagine, our nice 25~30 minute commute home will be slightly extended. It took 2-1/2 hours! Oh well, along the way got a nice shot of the Arlington Cemetary (349K) in the winter. Winter????? It's supposed to be spring!
After arriving home, started clearing off the snow from the driveway. Wife brought out a 2-inch ruler she somehow managed to find! I didn't know they made 2-inch long foot-rulers, but since the weather man said 1-2 inches, it must be true! Here she is with the 2-inch ruler (391K) measuring the snowfall on top of the car that sat home all day and collected the snowfall!!!! By the way, the car looked like this yesterday (64K).
By this time, Kimberly (367K) is falling out in the snow. Tough getting out of school 2 hours early, and knowing that tomorrow probably means no school at all as well!
Well, by this time, I'm hungry and ready to grill (362K), just one small problem -- the snow covering the little grill, the smoker, table, ice chest, etc, etc, etc......
Well, the sun has reappeared! Snow is melting. Pentagon is back where it should be!
And speaking of the sun shining -- It shone on the HOGS
today!!!!! Me chillin' out after rooting the hogs to victory today
in the first round.
And here's Kim and her friend Jessica........twice
<G>!
And of course, here's Sean on the computer (again!), and a little help from sis....
Lovely day with song in the air -- daughter Kim had her Fairfax
County Middle School Orchestra competition today! They were amazing!
Here's a couple of pics taken before the program began, cause
didn't want to startle them during the performance. BTW, a couple
of wav files will be up in a couple of weeks on the pieces they
played...... The group was huge
and played some very difficult pieces. A close-up
and even closer. And a couple
of pics after the show.
ADDENDUM: They received the HIGHEST score
of all schools partipating!!!!!
Now for a couple of special photos, here's one for Lou in Texas -- this is Sean's NORMAL dress everyday (yes he changes, he's just got enough Cowboy shirts for every day of the week!!!) And Nick (from Montreal) is over tonight......
And for Brenda A, who mentioned the moose on the wall, well it
ain't no damn moose!!! It's my son's mule deer
and (what she didn't see) is the pronghorn
on the other wall! hehehehehe
Well, had some festivities in the office today! Bunch of us made
some food and we dined in the office today to honor St. Patricks
Day. Deb & I brought some very hearty beef & vegetable
stew, and some 15-bean soup with copious amounts of Poblano Chiles.
Don brought Chicken Noodle and Ted brought some really green Split
Pea and Ham; of course today wouldn't be complete without the
(American started) corned beef and cabbage courtesy of Coleen.
There were a few problems. Our lovely receptionist Debra (not
Deb) had a small problem -- "Please call back later, I'm
tied up right now". It is
obvious, that whenever Don is around,
problems soon follow. It is also assumed that Ted
is around, there is even more devilishment to be found. Not sure
what he is trying to do here <G>!
Rose swore that she was indeed wearing green,
although it was not readily apparent. And the gawkers
were around to witness all the goings on......at least they were
munching on green cookies!
Daughter Joanne took a very nice trip to American University in
DC for the "Space 2000" exibition with her Astronomy
class from NOVA. Got the pics in
a separate file........
Here we are at work just piggin out
and having fun. Someone actually found Pat
actually doing some work -- unbelievable. Well, that's not quite
as unbelievable as having this character as a Security Manager
-- can you believe it?????
Well, Kim was really happy about her "Dalmation Cake"
that she made!! But then, I was more impressed with Nick and him
going through all the BBQd chicken I made! Whooooo! Can you guess
which plate was Nicks? Well, speaking
about cakes, seems that Don had a birthday on the 5th. Well, the
most, number one practical jokester in the whole area, managed
to change the combination lock on his room door to keep everyone
out. Hmmmmm, oh well, we still had a cake for him! So, here's
a little look at the nice "Cindarella Cake" that we
got Don for his B-day: Cake1 Cake2
Cake3 -- And here's Wilbur and Geri
laughing about what we gonna do to Don for his day! Oh well, Don
managed to keep us out of his office today, so he got an award
from "Big John" our big boss,
and John even managed to get Don to cut the cake!
WOW!
Well, Don managed to make it almost through the week--hehehehhehe,
seems that Friday morning we had a big infestation of bugs
eating the cake! Jeez, seems that someone managed to get the combo
to Don's room, and snuck in and unplugged his keyboard
-- and if that wasn't bad enough, they even stuck up some ugly
"No Birthday" banners. Well,
Don doesn't like to use normal doors, and normally sneaks in from
the back, so.....someone stacked up a bunch of paper
behind the door, so he couldn't get in that way! Ouch!!!! There's
Don wiping off the Vaseline from
his combo lock -- guess that'll teach him not to change the combination!
Well, about this time, Bruce (our boss)
comes around to make sure that he isn't part of this! HA! Sure.......you
didn't see anything, did you???? DUH!!! Well, my wife really figured
out a good 'un, and suggested that Don would really go bonkers
if the keyboards to his 2 servers were switched!!!
Ted took that one real quick! Here's a bunch of the folks trying
to look not guilty! If this wasn't bad
enuf, someone had some fun with Don's car in the garage!!! Car1
Car2 Car3
Ooops, forgot to mention the rose bushes we planted on April 3rd! When planted they had no growth at all. Gotta keep a check on these beauties! Planted 15 of them!! Here's what they looked like after one week: Rose1 Rose2 Rose3 Rose4 Rose5
NEW FAMILY!!! Also happened to notice that there was a bird's nest in the azalea right next to the steps to the front door -- didn't know what kind of bird it was at first, then found mama Cardinal sitting the nest!!! She's got 3 eggs in the nest! We'll keep up with that! Nest1 Nest2
And, Sean was falling out on the
floor for some reason??????
Kim's school had "Family Day" today, and her strings class put on a performance. It was "International Day" for them, and everyone dressed up in some sort of ethnic dress. Kim was waaaaayyyyyy back in the back, so I don't think you can see her. But here's a few pics from the concert. Check out the NICE Tartan in pic #5!!!
Whooooooooweeeeee -- Chad came in for a visit from Petowsky, Michigan
-- Thank God I had BUD in the box!!!
Wasn't too long before our daughter's birds realized that Chad
was home! They really like him. They know that they are supposed
to stay in their room, but they are checking out
the area by sneaking up on top of the door!!! Soon as they see
Chad, here they come! Pepper is
the sweetheart! She really adores
Chad. Doesn't take Sammy long to
assert himself -- here doing his "eagle act"! He manages
to get into the action as well. Sammy
soon goes off to find his favorite perch
-- on top of one of the computers. All the while, birdies' mamma
Joanne is studying hard for an upcoming test.
Well, at least I got the cook to cut up some pork loins before he left (well, he did volunteer!). Soon after this, Pepper found Chad again! Love! Well, after cutting up those 2 loins, we had a whole bunch of roasts that need some lovin' care, so I smoked 3 roasts. We wouldn't let the natives eat them that night, but we kept them happy with some grilled burgers with a bit of Jalapeno Jack on them! Chad was grillin' and chillin'! About time to get them butts off the fire! Whacked it all up, and had some great BBQ samwiches -- you can tell Sean was doing well with it!
Well, all good things gotta come to an end -- Chad gotta go back
-- Boo hoo! He's getting ready to head out, saying byes to Kim
and Me. BUT!!! We got babies!!!! Here
a pic of 2 baby Cardinals which hatched
out today. One more egg to go!
DAMN! Some critter got to the bird nest last night! Sniff! Found it this morning laying on the ground underneath the bush. All empty. All that's left is an empty nest that Kim is holding.
Roses are really shooting out: here they are after 3 weeks Rose1 Rose2 Rose3 Rose4 Rose5
All the other flowers in the area are blooming as well... white azalea, red azalea, and the yard is full of violets!
Was showing the camera to a friend at work. Deb
isn't really sure what we are up to! And here is another from
the Rogue's Gallery -- Dave works installing
and maintaining the equipment that keeps all of the Pentagon's
secure communications working -- real scary, ain't it!
Sean and Nick had birthday party at UltraZone (laser tag), then
had pizza party at Nicks afterwards. Here's a few from it: Pic1
Pic2 Pic 3
Pic 4
Kim then had a cookout, movies and swimming the next day. Whew,
what a busy weekend. Here's some of Kim's party pics: Pic1
Pic2 Pic3
Pic4 Pic5
Pic6 Pic7
Pic8 Pic9
Pic10 Pic11
Pic12 Pic13
Pic14 Pic15
Pic16 Pic17
Here's one of the folks that Deb works with......
Took a little work trip to Omaha this week. Whew, we are all "full
of bull" by now. One of our favorites is Farmer Brown's,
which is a family type restaurant that specializes in prime rib.
Pat decided he was VERY hungry and went for the 18-oz cut
(he requested an end cut). Pat still can't believe
the size of it! Bruce, being of such small stature, decided he
could only deal with a 14-oz cut.
I wanted a little of everything, so went for a "petite"
filet and 1/2# of king crab legs! YUMMMMM! Somehow, Pat managed
to finish his off! We couldn't believe
it!
Got back and the roses are finally starting to bloom!!! Rose1 Rose2 Rose3 Rose4 -- garden (well peppers and tomatoes) starting to shape up as well. Got some sesame plants growing for use making Korean food too! Even managed to put Kim a hammock up in the yard.
Somehow during all this time, managed to throw a couple of racks
of pork ribs and a rack of beef ribs on the smoker this afternoon.
Sure to be many more to follow -- Deb got me a brand new New Braunfels
Black Diamond for an early Father's Day present! Pics of it firing
up tomorrow......but here's some of the ribs tonight -- Ribs1
Ribs2
Here's New Braunfels Black Diamond, all assembled and fired up. Cooking up a pork shoulder and small brisket -- YUMM! Works like a charm! Nice of the folks who we bought the house from to have a small brick planter next to the backyard patio -- makes a nice fire pit for getting the logs ready to use <G>! Had smoked some ribs on the water smoker the day before and put a whole bunch of habaneros on to make me some spice mix. Smoke them well, then put on dehydrator to make sure they are all dried out before grinding to a fine powder.
Well, while I'm doing all the hard, dirty work, Deb is repairing all the screen segments that the squirrels scratched holes in during the winter so we can let the birds loose on the screen porch for the summer.
More rose pics: Rose1 Rose2
Rose3 Rose4
and Rose5 (for Chuck!).
More to follow.............
