BobBlog

Today is my mom's birthday and tomorrow is my sister, Becky's, birthday and tomorrow is my 9th wedding anniversary. Boy, do we know how to bunch 'em up or what?

Fever Again

I'm staying home with Elizabeth today. It's raining and she's been fighting a fever for about a week. It seems to come and go, but got worse last night. We prayed for her yesterday and put her to bed and she had no fever throughout the night.

She's in better spirits today. Just made her lunch. She loves Pea Soup, so that's what she got. Soups good when you're sick on a rainy day.

That's about all for today.

Bob

Update

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've been very busy getting my website up. It is up and running and I'm very excited about it. This is the forums board I have had since 1986. It's been renovated throughout the years in many forms, but this is my favorite version. The address is Maclectic

Since I last wrote, ScooterPie, who I now call StupidPie, broke his leg again. Or, more correctly, he chewed off his entire cast and we had to get the whole thing set all over. Luckily, this time it was during the day and I was able to take him to see my regular vet and was charged much less than the first time.

Also, some rather exciting news for me. One of our city councilman, Steve Jones, who I used to work with at the Adult School when I taught high school subjects, called me to ask if I would be interested in serving on the Community Services Foundation. It works within the city helping non-profits raise money and I believe also dispurses money to them. I'm very interested, but I have to find out more about it, what night it meets etc.

School is going pretty well. We're about to add some new playground equipment. I'm very happy about that.

Well, that's all for now.

Bob

Broken Puppy

To add to our hectic couple of weeks, last Friday night, we heard the dog crying very loudly in the backyard. That's ScooterPie, the little guy. Everyone went to the back patio door and there was ScooterPie sitting, holding up a broken front paw. It had a clean break above his 'wrist' and was just dangling there. It was horrible. We found a local Vet who would come back and open up his clinic for us and he set it.

We went back on Sat. morning and picked him up. He had on the weirdest contraption I had ever seen. Here's a picture.

Update

I haven't blogged here for almost 20 days! But things have been hectic. We have rotated some kind of virus throughout the family for a couple of weeks. First I got it and missed 3 days of work. Then Elizabeth got it bad with high fevers, but just for 24 hours and then Connie got it bad and she's been sick since Sunday night. So, we just stayed home yesterday and Connie isn't working today. She'll probably be fine by Wed. we're hoping.

BobBlog

Well, I'm working from work on Windoze, so I guess that's why it's not working. You'll have to cut and paste, I guess.

www.maclectic.com

BobBlog

Link didn't show up in last post. Hopefully, this one does.

Bob

BobBlog

A friend of mine, Rich, and I have been working hard on getting Maclectic back up. For those who have known me a long time, you'll know I had a website called Maclectic BBS in the 1980s. It's still going. It has been reinvented many times and in many forms.

My friend and I are getting it back up in a new format that I think people will really like. The front page is similar to what I had last time, but there will be more features. We hope to have a shoutbox, where people can carry on conversations in real time with each other. Also, we're trying to get a Wiki on line, which will allow us to store important information alphabetically, like Wikipedia. One of the things we've not liked in the past has been losing important and informative posts that help people out with their computers.

I'm also very excited about the wordprocessing features of this system. Users have really great abilities to modify and structure their posts, inserting links and pictures quite easily.

You can view Maclectic right now and read up on Mac information. But the forums are not yet open, neither is registration. We have more work to do.

Maclectic is not limited to Macintosh. We cover many other areas such as humor, entertainment, politics, religion and much more. Here's the site to look at so far:

I Wonder if Jonah Knew About This?

Blog: Beachcombers strike gold with whale 'vomit'
January 24, 2006 11:15 AM PST
They say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. But in this case, one whale's bile is man's perfume.

Ambergris is a fatty excrement spewed by whales, and it can float for years in the ocean before washing ashore. The foul-smelling bile can solidify over years, soaking up the sun and ocean breeze to eventually turn into a sweet, smooth lump of perfume. In fact, it is used as an ingredient for perfumes and medicines.

An Australian couple walking on the beach found the rare substance recently, and not knowing what it was, turned to the Internet to investigate. An ecologist finally deemed the rock to be ambergris, or what some scientists and scavengers call "floating gold." According to a report from the BBC, the couple will net $295,000 from the discovery.

Still, ambergris is banned in the United States under endangered species legislation. Wouldn't it be great if cat's vomit was worth the same?

Posted by Stefanie Olsen

Our La Mirada

Here's Debbie's La Mirada site address. Have fun exploring.

Bob

http://www.ourlamirada.com/

La Mirada - My Town

Believe it or not I've started yet another website. In conjunction with a dear old friend, I'm now working on documenting the history of the City of La Mirada, where I live. La Mirada is a wonderful place to live. Just 17 miles from Los Angeles, out at the farthest edge of L.A. county, lies La Mirada. It's a quite town with little crime, friendly people, and a true community spirit. I've lived here since 1963.

My friend Debbie has started a website called Our La Mirada. She is posting some great pictures of times past. In fact, if you have any pictures that reflect La Mirada's past, even if they are just your kids playing in the park, let Debbie see them. Email them to her or at least tell her about them and she just might add them to her collection.

I've been taking pictures for her of places that have remained the same in our fair city. However, it became obvious that we were really creating a lot of work for ourselves, so we decided that I would cover more current events and post pictures of what La Mirada looks like now, while continuing to try and find new resources for Debbie. She now lives in Indiana, so it's a bit tough for her to scrounge around down here.

I've even talked to the city proper and they've been very supportive so far and seem glad this is happening. It appears that they are also in the midst of collecting photos for a new book, so perhaps we can all help each other out.

I'll post the websites here soon for you to look at. I'm at work right now, waiting for the last child to be picked up, so I don't have access to the URL at this moment. Debbie even has some old pictures of me on her website. You'll have to see if you can find me.

Have a great day.

Bob

Rain

It's really raining today. First time in 50 years it has rained on the Rose Parade. Glad I wasn't there. Most people just go once to that parade. It is SOOOO cold, standing there in the morning, waiting for it to start.

I was coming home from Sam's Club. I had just bought food for the school's snacks and a tree had fallen over from Creek Park on Santa Gertudes and was blocking 2 lanes of traffic. Luckily, hardly anyone was dumb enough to be driving in the storm. Except me, of course.

Cell phone lodged in woman's throat

If you can't say something nice....

The Kansas City Star

A Blue Springs woman was taken to a hospital emergency room early today after a cell phone became lodged in her throat.

The woman was in an argument with a boyfriend when the incident occurred, said Sgt. Steve Decker of the Blue Springs Police Department.

Decker said police were told that the woman tried to swallow the telephone because she didn't want the boyfriend to have it. However the case is under investigation.

Police responded to a call about a non-breathing person about 4:50 a.m. in the 3000 block of Southwest U.S. 40, Decker said. Police arrived and found that the 24-year-old woman was having trouble breathing. Her identity was not released.

The woman was taken to the emergency room at St. Mary's Hospital in Blue Springs. She still had the telephone in her throat upon arrival at the hospital, Decker said.

A condition report was not available.

ScooterPie

We got Elizabeth a dog for Christmas. She has had him a few weeks. This is the year for early Christmas presents for some reason. The kids computer died, so Connie and I got them a new Mac Mini for Christmas, but gave it to them early so they could use it in the meantime. Zack needs it for school work and Elizabeth has quite a few fun sites she like to work on.

My sister, Robin, had two dogs a neighbor was trying to give away. Mom took one and we took the other, which is the runt. He's a cutie and doing pretty well. I always forget how much work it takes to train a dog, but Connie and I are both pretty good with animals. He's going to do fine. We finally let him meet Aslan, our Golden Retriever. He acts like his regal self and pretty much ignores Scooter, who is jumping all over him most of the time. But at least he is kind to Scooter. Could easily have him for lunch if he wanted to!

Yesterday, Connie went to get Scooter to bring him back in the house and he was all wet! he had fallen into our pool. Poor thing. Good thing I run 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the world. I cuddled him and got him warm again. See, I'm good for something!

Christmas Show Pictures

Here a few pictures I promised from yesterday's Children's Christmas Program at my church.

In the first picture you see our choir. The children did great. They sang 6 songs. The little girl in the front by the mic stand, the blond, is my daughter, Elizabeth.

The second picture is my son, Zachary, who was narrating the story of the shepherds.

The third picture is my daughter, Elizabeth, performing her first piano solo in church, The Waltz of the Christmas Toys.

Christmas Sunday

This morning we had our Christmas program with the school children. I was rather disappointed as 5 of our students were no shows. That was about 1/3 of our choir. But the remaining students did a great job. They sang 6 songs. We had 3 instrumental solos by the children and a narration by my son, Zachary. Had a pretty good crowd as well.

The program was followed by refreshments. All in all a very nice day. I'll post pictures when I get them loaded onto my computer.

Christmas Stuff

Christmas is close at hand and I haven't bought one present, haven't decorated, haven't bought a tree and that's just okay with me. Been so busy lately. Made several presents and I'm pleased how they've turned out so far. Hope the recipients are pleased as well. That's the hard thing about making gifts. They can't take them back for refunds!

Our Christmas program for the school is on Dec. 18 @ 9:30 a.m. if anyone wants to attend. It will be the school children performing for the church and their parents. That usually gets us a good sized crowd.

I've taught the children 6 Christmas songs. Some of them are not as popular as what you usually hear on the radio, but I like them. The kids liked them and that's what's important. I think it will be a nice program.

How I did

I didn't realized I never posted about the ceramics show after the fact. First of all, I am glad I did it. I got to see reactions to the type of things I made. I learned that people liked my regular stuff much more than they did my Christmas stuff. (Sure glad I crammed in so much Christmas stuff the last few weeks.)

People liked my ceramic roses the most. They also seemed to like my handmade stuff better than the molded stuff I just buy and glaze. I sold more of my vases etc. than any premade things I just glazed. So, that made me happy too.

I made enough to pay for my space and buy a few dinners. I guess I can't complain about that. I had a nice gal next to me and we were both first timers, so we had an interesting time figuring out what sold and why. A ceramic instructer next to me sold nothing. I felt kind of bad because she does this for a living and I sold more than she did.

Anyway, it was a good experience. I'll do it again next year and I'll start looking for other shows. I heard that there's a very good show in Lakewood. I'll have to try to find out about it.

Ceramics Show Tomorrow

Wow! I can't believe how much stuff I have made for tomorrow's show. I hope it isn't a bust. I must have 6 large boxes of stuff. Lots of stocking stuffers, plus some good sized vases and bowls and much more. The hardest thing is selling pieces I really like, but I can't keep it all and I can't give it all away, either. I've spent a lot of money buying the kiln and slab roller and potter's wheel. (Well, my dear wife bought me the slab roller.)

Some of my newest work is pictured below. That juicer has been popular in that color. I suppose yellow is a kitchen color. The head started out to be Santa Clause, but then it didn't look like him to me and I decided it was Jack Frost. Then when I put the glaze on it and fired it, as I was taking it out of the kiln, I decided it was my friend, Wayne, from church! (Don't know if he'll think that is a complement or not, but I really like it.)

The slab vase is an experiment using stains instead of glazes. It's very rustic and I'm pleased with it.

I love the last one. It's much more organic than most of my work. It sort of looks like a lava flow if the lava was guacamole! :-) Anyway, it's a very different candle holder and I'm very pleased with how it came out.

Samples

Here are some samples of some of my work I fired yesterday. Most of this will be at my shown on Saturday.