September 28, 2005
Wild Thunderstorms Hit Sacramento Valley
Had a some really wild thunderstorms hit the Sacramento Valley region on Monday... Scared the heck out of the animals at home. Quite an awesome light show though... I managed to hit the storm square on when I drove home, which on the one hand was cool because I got a "front row" view of the lightning, but on the other hand was not so neat because, being in the front row, I got pretty soaked despite having my rain gear with me.
A story from News 10: First Thunderstorm of Fall Rumbles Through Region
Posted by Michael at 07:47 PM | Comments (0) | Family
September 23, 2005
More about a great couple
I briefly mentioned my cousin in a previous post, but I think that both he and his wife deserve a lot more than a brief mention.
When I was quite young, I lived with my cousin Christoph and my aunt Uta. About 30 years ago, we moved apart, and about 20 years ago I basically lost touch with him... I only kept track through my Mom.
The past few years, I've started getting back in touch, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we have a lot in common with respect to beliefs and philosophy. I made it a point to visit him on my trip to Europe with my motorbike.
Now, visiting my cousin would have been pretty easy if he had been living somewhere in the neighborhood of where we grew up, which was Krofdorf, Germany. But no, he had to move all the way out to Havsnas, Sweden, some 1000 miles away as the crow flies, and about 1300 miles driving.
However, the extra driving was definitely worth it! Not only was the scenery quite something on the way up there and downright incredible on the way back (I went through Norway), but I was also treated like a brother while I was there. Both Christoph and his beautiful and talented wife Nicole managed to make my visit one of the most memorable portions of my trip. The landscape was quite incredible and the pace of life very relaxing. It was great getting caught up on the last ~20 years with Christoph; I was often amazed how very similar he and I are. Much more similar than I am to my brother, who I also love dearly.
You can see some wonderful photos of Christoph, Nicole, their animals, their home, and their neighborhood at their web site, www.havsnas720.com. You can also check out some of Nicole's excellent art work at www.arsnowak.net.
My love to both of you, Christoph & Nicole!
Posted by Michael at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | Family
April 15, 2005
Taxes finally done!!
Well, phew!
Finally got all the taxes done and the appropriate paperwork put into the mail. Goodness, what a chore it is each time! And it's not the filling out of the forms that takes so much work... that part is really easy. I use TurboTax which greatly simplifies the paperwork. The chore is finding and collecting all of the paperwork that I need in order to fill the blanks in the program! For example, if I sold stock, I have to go back and find detailed information about when I bought the stock. And since that's typically several years ago, I have to find the right folder with the right paperwork. If I donated items, I have to figure out how to value the items; if I purchased things for work, I have to find the receipts and see if I was reimbursed or not; if I have child care expenses, I have to find amounts I wrote the checks for and I have to find the care taker's tax ID number; etc., etc... all tedious work! It's all finally done now, so I can "relax" for another year...
Phew!
Posted by Michael at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | Family
January 24, 2005
A perfect weekend... almost!
What a beautiful weekend it was... painfully beautiful! We had sunshine from glorious sunrise to gorgeous sunset. Temperatures were in the mid-60s and there was just enough breeze to jingle the wind chimes. I would have felt sorry for the poor folks in the valley that were in the cold, clammy grips of that nasty seasonal fog, but it was much too nice up here to think about it. I had other things to worry about, like making sure I didn't get sunburned... 8^)
The only thing I didn't do, which would have put the icing on cake, is go for a long motorcycle ride. Instead, I spent most of Saturday doing outdoor cleanup kind of stuff, and most of Sunday doing taxes... you might think I'm starting early, but actually I'm rather late; I was finishing my 2003 taxes since I never did get them done last year.
Sherri and young Sean enjoyed themselves as well; Sean went to a school friend's party on Saturday. It wasn't quite clear what the party was for until Sherri dropped him off (Sean said it wasn't a birthday party), and it turned out that his parents were throwing a party to celebrate his good grades. What a neat idea!
After dropping off Sean, Sherri descended into the icy depths of the valley to do some shopping for the art class she's taking. She said it was a depressing trip, going from sunny clear skies to dank greyness. However, that's where the good shopping is.
As she picked Sean up on the way back, she started talking to the mom of one of the other boys invited to the party and found out not only that they lived quite close to us, but also that her husband was looking for a 240Z project car. By happy coincidence, I have a 240Z project car that I wouldn't mind getting rid of.
Sunday, Sherri spent the day trying to fashion noses out of various materials (her assignment from her art class) with varying degrees of success. One was to be made of wire, which absolutely did not want to cooperate with Sherri and yielded some frightening expletives from her. Another was to be made of aluminum foil, which was also difficult to work with though she tried her best to form it around her nose... at times she looked like someone trying to shield brain waves from aliens with a foil hat, only she had a strip of foil running vertically from the top of her head to below her chin. The final nose was made of clay, and that was more her element. She formed it and then baked it; now it looks like something that is meant to be used as the original for a plastic surgeon's mold... very, very good.
The husband of the mom that Sherri met came by with the family to check out the 240Z and he seemed quite interested. He may come by with an expert next weekend to take a closer look. Their son Jonathan stayed to play with young Sean; they spent the rest of the day bicycling, hiking, playing with Sierra, playing with the Xbox, and doing various other things that boys enevitably do (like get dirty and muddy!). I'm really glad to see that Sean is making new friends and enjoying the outdoors up here. He's quite the trooper.
I sure could have used a couple more days off like this past Saturday and Sunday. Sadly, I see that the forecast is rain for the next three days. Oh well, I suppose it's best that I'm working those days...
Posted by Michael at 10:00 PM | Comments (0) | Family
January 13, 2005
Funny web site: Spamusement
Take a look at this web site; those of you that receive spam (who doesn't?!?) will get a laugh out of these "Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!." I had a pretty good laugh at some of them!
Posted by Michael at 07:27 PM | Comments (0) | Family
