Christmas Past
|Becky and I had a terrific time in sunny rainy California. Got there on Stephen’s birthday, Dec. 23, stayed at his and Kathie’s place a couple days, then Kim’s place, then Kathie’s parents’ place, then a final night at Kim’s before flying home on New Year’s day. A trip to Tahoe was delayed on account of blizzard conditions, resulting in our stay with Doug and Carla, terrific hosts. Stephen and Kathie went ahead to Tahoe on Friday. California was cold and rainy pretty much the whole visit, while Kansas enjoyed balmy 60’s and 70’s. That changed when we got back to Kansas. We now have a winter storm warning, with prediction of an inch of ice overnight Tuesday, to be topped with 4 to 7 inches of snow Wednesday. They figure a few (understatement) trees and power lines will go down. Being armed with my laptop in California, I got started on Stephen and Kathie’s wedding website. You can check its progress at steveandkathie.chappells.us. |
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|I decided to buckle (knuckle?) down and put the new brake pads on the Miata this morning. Pulled off the wheel that was making the noise and the pad was nowhere near worn down. Still at least 50% pad left. Truly amazing, these are original pads after 13 years and 75,000 miles. Put the wheel back on and drove to work, with no unusual noises. So, maybe it was some dust, after all. I don’t really think so, but I couldn’t find anything else. |
|After work I picked up Cinnamon at the vet’s where she was boarded during our trip. She was happy to get home, I think. Actually, she zonked out and has been sleeping all evening. She got to give Santa her Christmas list. They got a slightly blurry picture, but it’s still kinda cute. I’ve offloaded the Christgmas pics from camera but haven’t sorted for upload to album yet. Will try to get to that within a few days. |
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kim says:
Well I hope that Cinnamon’s Christmas wish came true. Since it was spent at the vet, maybe her wish was that Mom and Dad would get her the heck outa there asap. And they did.
Had a great time with you two out here. Miss you a whole lot already though.
Try to stay warm on the ice.
I’ll try to stay dry. It’s definitely still raining.
kathie says:
Yay! Safely home and thoroughly rested from the trip. My parents were delighted to have you visit and welcome you back anytime…especially if Becky is going to cook and clean!! Hope you enjoyed your whirlwind trip and that we didn’t scare you too much. Also, hopefully Becky has recovered from the cats…sorry about that.
Saw the web page…I suppose Stephen and I should send you some text to fill in about the who-what-when-where stuff….
Cheers
John says:
I keep fiddling with the wedding site. One of these days maybe I’ll think it’s presentable, and maybe you guys will, too. Yeah, somewhere along the line we should probably have some actual information and stuff.
I think Becky’s recovered from the cats. My folks have always had at least one cat, so she’s been though it nearly every Christmas since we met. She’s a trooper.
We felt as at ease with your folks as we felt when we met you, and there was nothing scary about it. We enjoyed your siblings, as well. Looking forward to seeing them all again. I’m sorry us old folks were such wet blankets about Tahoe, but glad you and Stephen got to go. Wish you could’ve had another day or two, though.
Anyway, I hope you and Stephen won’t hesitate to criticize the website and express your wishes. I’m inclined to think our tastes won’t be too divergent, but in the event of any difference of opinion, I’m confident everyone will nevertheless concur that I’m right. 🙂
kathie says:
LOVE the new purple color scheme! Perfect! Why didn’t we start with that in the first place? SUPERB!! You’re hired!!
John says:
Oh boy! A real job doing honest work! Um, you’re referring to the “plain” version, I assume? I wasn’t sure how it actually looked. On one of my desktops, the main center section looks almost white, but on laptop it has more hue. Was trying to decide whether the background colors all needed to be darkened a bit. If it looks good to you the way it is, though, I’ll leave it alone. Gotta leave the style switcher in there, though — it’s just too cool to drop. Could change the design of the alternative styles, though. Actually, you’ll notice I did change the “red” version a bit. The hearts aren’t all that bad and overall it’s less overwhelming than the earlier version. I should get some more input from Kim about design and colors.