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September 26, 2009
Hello all and welcome back. I know it's been a while since my last update but I assure you that it's because we've been extremely busy.
I must start this update on a sour note, unfortunately. A few weeks ago our dear friend Trampus Bailey killed himself. He didn't leave a note or a reason why but he did leave a hole in the heart of all those that knew and loved him. So Bonnie and I would like to take a minute and tell everyone whose reading this that we will ALWAYS answer the phone (or at least call you back) if you ever need to talk to us. It almost hurts more to know that Trampus didn't think that he could call us. So please call one of us before making the same decision that Trampus made. On a lighter note, Bonnie and I recently went to New England for a cousins reunion. We saw a Phish show and ran all around Portland, Maine. You can see pictures and read all about it on the Trips Page. Also, last weekend we went camping with our friends Steve and Claudia Jordan (they are our former bosses at the real estate company we both worked for when we moved to Arizona). They own some land at the base of Kendrick Mountain north of Flagstaff and invited us to camp out there with them. It was really awesome and they've done a lot of work to the place. They've built a playground for the kids, a boat house for the lake, and begun the foundation work for the cabin they'll eventually build out there. Really impressive stuff! Don't forget to check out the Trips Page and we'll "talk" to you next time!BACK TO TOP
June 7, 2009
Hello all and welcome back! Bonnie and I went to Mesa Verde, CO over the Memorial Day weekend. I've updated the Trips Page and you can read all about it there. I hope everyone is doing well! See ya!
BACK TO TOP
April 5, 2009
Wow! This year is really zipping by!
Bonnie and I have been really busy so far this year and fortunately it's not been all business. In March we went to San Diego, CA to spend a day chilling on the beach. We got a room on Hotels.com and left after lunch on Friday. Here's Bonnie collecting shells on the beach.
Also, we bought two new laptops as our old desktop was dying. The new ones are great and Bonnie's been able to do all kinds of school work. Unfortunately none of my old bootlegged software would work on my computer so it's been a challenge to learn new software in order to update this page. Apparently Microsoft has dumped the FrontPage program and I'm now working on MS Visual Web Developer 2008. We'll see how 2009 goes....
Speaking of '09, we've begun planning our next big trip. We're going to New England in August to visit friends and family. The only date set so far is Friday, August 14th as we'll be at the Phish show in Hartford, CT. The tickets and the room are paid for thus the only date set in stone. The plan right now is to fly into Boston on Thursday and stay in Worcester(?). Then head to CT for Friday night. Saturday and Sunday nights in Worcester, then Acadia in Maine for two nights, then Portland for a couple of nights, then to Boston and home. If anyone would like to put us up for a night or two we'd readily accept the invitation. And if anyone wants to be included in our visit, please email me at quinnsgate@hotmail.com to let us know.
BACK TO TOP
January 10, 2009
Happy New Year!
Wow! So much to catch up on! We survived our great Grand Canyon adventure (although turns out that Bonnie caught a nasty chest cold while climbing out of the Canyon). The trip and all the pictures are now up on the Trips Page so check that out when you have time.
Christmas and New Years were very quiet for us. No one came into town and we didn't go out of town -- it was sooo nice. After the year of wedding planning, training for the Canyon, etc., etc. it was nice to have a relaxing few weeks with nothing going on. Also, we did not send out Christmas cards this year -- just too busy -- so please don't feel slighted or ignored. Hopefully 2009 will be just as adventurous but maybe not so stressful!
So far we have managed to fit in one camping trip this year. We took our friend Anthony and his girlfriend, Ashley, to the McDowell Mountain Park on the weekend of the 5th. We took a short hike on Saturday and stumbled on some wild horses! We couldn't believe it! Bonnie and I had to get a picture with one (they were a bit camera shy). There were about 10 in all; mostly chestnut in color. But there was a really pretty grey mare and two or three foals. This foal was very protective of his mother (stomping his feet and blowing through his nose) but she didn't seem to care about us at all.
So far 2009 is starting on the right foot (or hoof).....
BACK TO TOP
November 17, 2008
Hello and welcome back! November has been a busy month for us but not all of it has been work.
We went camping for my birthday and took our friend Anthony along.
Maricopa County was having a camp one night and get the second night free deal
so we camped in the McDowell Mountain Preserve Park. It was pretty chilly
(finally!) and we had a nice roaring fire.
Since the wedding, Bonnie and I have been training for our hike into the Grand
Canyon. We're going to spend three nights camping and hiking below the
rim. There are strict guidelines to follow when you're down there so we're
having to hike all our gear in and hike it all out on our own. This is the
first time we've done something this rigorous and we've been preparing. We
hike one of the local mountains every weekend and we're now up to carrying our
packs completely full. We think we're ready. We'll see in just a
week and a half!
I'll post pictures of the trip when we get back.
BACK TO TOP
October 19, 2008
Whew! I've finally finished the Wedding Page. All the pictures worth sharing and a complete rundown of the days events. Also, if anyone who attended has any pictures to share then pass them on to me
(quinnsgate@hotmail.com) and I'll post them on the site.
I hope everyone had a great time and enjoy the pictures!
BACK TO TOP
October 18, 2008
Hello! A quick update to let everyone know that the wedding went great! I'm working on the wedding page with all the pictures right now. If you should have any pictures of the event please feel free to email them directly to me at
quinnsgate@hotmail.com.
BACK TO TOP
June 29, 2008
Hello and welcome back! We survived the Yellowstone Trip and I FINALLY got it's page all up and running. Ordinarily, the Yellowstone
trip would appear in the Trips Page but as it's a bit
longer than other trips I've given it its own page
here. You can get to it through
the Trips Page so feel free to browse there, too.
Otherwise, not too much to announce. Wedding preparations are moving along
and it looks like we might be ready by December for an October wedding. Oh
well!! We're also taking our friend Anthony camping at the Grand Canyon
this coming weekend so look for another update to the Trips
Page soon after.
I hope all is well in your world!!
BACK TO TOP
May 12, 2008
Big news! Bonnie has graduated with a Bachelor's in Linguistics from Arizona State University! Whoo-hoo! But wait! There's more: she's been offered a T.A. position for the fall! There was only one position open to a Master's Student and Bonnie was the one! To celebrate we took a 7 hour inner-tube ride
down the Salt River. This time we were prepared and escaped with only minor
sunburns! We went with two friends of ours and if they email the pics,
I'll post them on the site soon.
We're going to Yellowstone National Park in less than two weeks. We've
been ready for a couple of months now. We pretty-much packed our gear when
we bought the tickets back in March. So I guess you could say we're
psyched about going.
Also, the Wedding Page has
been updated and has almost all the info we could think of. I'll let you
know if/when I add more to it.
BACK TO TOP
March 29, 2008
Wow! Sorry it's taken so long to update the site but we've been really busy with a variety of projects. The wedding planning is still proceeding along. Invitations have not gone out yet so don't worry if you haven't received one.
Also, I wanted to congratulate my Uncle Tommy and Cousin Conner in their recent meeting of
Barack Obama.
BACK TO TOP
January 20, 2008
Hello! Happy New Year and all that! So I've got some good news and some
bad news for you this time. I'll start with the good. I've updated
the Trips Page with our last trip of 2007. We
went to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico for Thanksgiving and it was awesome!
You can read all about it there. I've also created a Wedding Info page
that I hope I can use to keep everyone informed. Right now there's not
much to report so it's pretty dull at the moment but you can see it
here. I hope to add more soon but this
week we were unable to do much wedding planning because (and here's the bad
news) our house was broken into on Monday afternoon and we lost a bunch of
things. So most of the week we've been dealing with contractors about
replacing the broken backdoor or playing phone tag with the rental-insurance
company. I think we're pretty much done with it but last week was mostly a
daze.
I think that's all the news that fits for now. I promise I'll have more
wedding info soon -- we can't send out invites until we know more!
BACK TO TOP
December 1, 2007
Whew! December is already here! I know that my year has flown by and I can't believe all the changes that have
occurred here over the last 12 months. One big news event is that Bonnie
and I have officially gotten engaged. I asked her in October as that was
our 5 year anniversary. We'd always joked that if we stayed together for
five years we'd get married. So no date set yet. It'll probably be
in the spring here when the heat's not so bad. But I'll keep you posted.
November was pretty busy (what's new, right?) and I'm a little behind in my
updates. Bonnie and I went with a friend to Tucson on the 10th.
That's been updated to the Trips page. But Bonnie
and I also went camping in Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico for Thanksgiving and
that adventure is not on the Trips page -- yet! It will
be soon I promise. We took a lot of pictures and picking out the best will
take a little time. Until then, read about our trip to the
Titan Missile Museum in Tucson.
December looks to be pretty busy as well. Bonnie's finishing out her
semester at school, there's still Christmas shopping to do, and we're planning a
camping trip to the California coast for Christmas. So if I don't say it
later, I'll say it now: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!
BACK TO TOP
October 21, 2007
Hello again! Bonnie and I went camping with some friends at the Grand Canyon a few weeks back. We
didn't take any pics this time so there's no entry into the Trips page -- oh well!
Our awesome neighbors gave us fourth row seats to a Broadway musical named
Avenue Q. Bonnie and
I and a friend from work drove down to Tucson Friday night to see the play.
I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was done with Sesame Street
style puppets (that were not authorized by Jim Henson or Children's Workshop)
and it was pretty raunchy. Picture an "R" rated Sesame Street. It
was REALLY funny. I wish we could afford to see it again!
The holidays are coming up and I think Bonnie and I managed to do most of our
shopping online this weekend. Thank god! I hate the mess of fighting
crowds and early morning sales. How did people shop before the internet?
We hope that everyone is well and safe!
BACK TO TOP
August 19, 2007
Hello all and welcome back! I had a little scare a few weeks back while I was on a delivery for work.
Some of you may have heard about two local news helicopters that collided in
mid-air. Well, they landed about a hundred yards from me and my van.
I heard the collision and the subsequent explosion shook the van. It was
really crazy as people were running out of the surrounding buildings to see what
had happened. The two helicopters were covering a police chase and it
appears that there was a miscommunication between the two pilots and one crashed
into the other. Pretty scary!
Bonnie and I have been plugging along on our various projects but we've managed
to squeeze in a few camping trips. I've updated the
Trips Page with our hike up Thumb Butte in Prescott but we also watched the
Perseids meteor shower from the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. We saw about
100 "shooting stars" in about 3 hours of watching. It was a good show!
We've got a few more camping trips planned for the rest of this year and we're
still planning our Peru trip, though there was an earthquake there this week so
we may have to adjust our plans. I hope everyone is doing well!
Whew! I've finally finished the Wedding Page. All the pictures worth sharing and a complete rundown of the days events. Also, if anyone who attended has any pictures to share then pass them on to me (quinnsgate@hotmail.com) and I'll post them on the site. I hope everyone had a great time and enjoy the pictures!
BACK TO TOP
October 18, 2008
Hello! A quick update to let everyone know that the wedding went great! I'm working on the wedding page with all the pictures right now. If you should have any pictures of the event please feel free to email them directly to me at
quinnsgate@hotmail.com.
BACK TO TOP
June 29, 2008
Hello and welcome back! We survived the Yellowstone Trip and I FINALLY got it's page all up and running. Ordinarily, the Yellowstone
trip would appear in the Trips Page but as it's a bit
longer than other trips I've given it its own page
here. You can get to it through
the Trips Page so feel free to browse there, too.
Otherwise, not too much to announce. Wedding preparations are moving along
and it looks like we might be ready by December for an October wedding. Oh
well!! We're also taking our friend Anthony camping at the Grand Canyon
this coming weekend so look for another update to the Trips
Page soon after.
I hope all is well in your world!!
BACK TO TOP
May 12, 2008
Big news! Bonnie has graduated with a Bachelor's in Linguistics from Arizona State University! Whoo-hoo! But wait! There's more: she's been offered a T.A. position for the fall! There was only one position open to a Master's Student and Bonnie was the one! To celebrate we took a 7 hour inner-tube ride
down the Salt River. This time we were prepared and escaped with only minor
sunburns! We went with two friends of ours and if they email the pics,
I'll post them on the site soon.
We're going to Yellowstone National Park in less than two weeks. We've
been ready for a couple of months now. We pretty-much packed our gear when
we bought the tickets back in March. So I guess you could say we're
psyched about going.
Also, the Wedding Page has
been updated and has almost all the info we could think of. I'll let you
know if/when I add more to it.
BACK TO TOP
March 29, 2008
Wow! Sorry it's taken so long to update the site but we've been really busy with a variety of projects. The wedding planning is still proceeding along. Invitations have not gone out yet so don't worry if you haven't received one.
Also, I wanted to congratulate my Uncle Tommy and Cousin Conner in their recent meeting of
Barack Obama.
BACK TO TOP
January 20, 2008
Hello! Happy New Year and all that! So I've got some good news and some
bad news for you this time. I'll start with the good. I've updated
the Trips Page with our last trip of 2007. We
went to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico for Thanksgiving and it was awesome!
You can read all about it there. I've also created a Wedding Info page
that I hope I can use to keep everyone informed. Right now there's not
much to report so it's pretty dull at the moment but you can see it
here. I hope to add more soon but this
week we were unable to do much wedding planning because (and here's the bad
news) our house was broken into on Monday afternoon and we lost a bunch of
things. So most of the week we've been dealing with contractors about
replacing the broken backdoor or playing phone tag with the rental-insurance
company. I think we're pretty much done with it but last week was mostly a
daze.
I think that's all the news that fits for now. I promise I'll have more
wedding info soon -- we can't send out invites until we know more!
BACK TO TOP
December 1, 2007
Whew! December is already here! I know that my year has flown by and I can't believe all the changes that have
occurred here over the last 12 months. One big news event is that Bonnie
and I have officially gotten engaged. I asked her in October as that was
our 5 year anniversary. We'd always joked that if we stayed together for
five years we'd get married. So no date set yet. It'll probably be
in the spring here when the heat's not so bad. But I'll keep you posted.
November was pretty busy (what's new, right?) and I'm a little behind in my
updates. Bonnie and I went with a friend to Tucson on the 10th.
That's been updated to the Trips page. But Bonnie
and I also went camping in Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico for Thanksgiving and
that adventure is not on the Trips page -- yet! It will
be soon I promise. We took a lot of pictures and picking out the best will
take a little time. Until then, read about our trip to the
Titan Missile Museum in Tucson.
December looks to be pretty busy as well. Bonnie's finishing out her
semester at school, there's still Christmas shopping to do, and we're planning a
camping trip to the California coast for Christmas. So if I don't say it
later, I'll say it now: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!
BACK TO TOP
October 21, 2007
Hello again! Bonnie and I went camping with some friends at the Grand Canyon a few weeks back. We didn't take any pics this time so there's no entry into the Trips page -- oh well!
Our awesome neighbors gave us fourth row seats to a Broadway musical named
Avenue Q. Bonnie and
I and a friend from work drove down to Tucson Friday night to see the play.
I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was done with Sesame Street
style puppets (that were not authorized by Jim Henson or Children's Workshop)
and it was pretty raunchy. Picture an "R" rated Sesame Street. It
was REALLY funny. I wish we could afford to see it again!
The holidays are coming up and I think Bonnie and I managed to do most of our
shopping online this weekend. Thank god! I hate the mess of fighting
crowds and early morning sales. How did people shop before the internet?
We hope that everyone is well and safe!
BACK TO TOP
August 19, 2007
Hello all and welcome back! I had a little scare a few weeks back while I was on a delivery for work.
Some of you may have heard about two local news helicopters that collided in
mid-air. Well, they landed about a hundred yards from me and my van.
I heard the collision and the subsequent explosion shook the van. It was
really crazy as people were running out of the surrounding buildings to see what
had happened. The two helicopters were covering a police chase and it
appears that there was a miscommunication between the two pilots and one crashed
into the other. Pretty scary!
Bonnie and I have been plugging along on our various projects but we've managed
to squeeze in a few camping trips. I've updated the
Trips Page with our hike up Thumb Butte in Prescott but we also watched the
Perseids meteor shower from the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. We saw about
100 "shooting stars" in about 3 hours of watching. It was a good show!
We've got a few more camping trips planned for the rest of this year and we're
still planning our Peru trip, though there was an earthquake there this week so
we may have to adjust our plans. I hope everyone is doing well!
Hello and welcome back! We survived the Yellowstone Trip and I FINALLY got it's page all up and running. Ordinarily, the Yellowstone trip would appear in the Trips Page but as it's a bit longer than other trips I've given it its own page here. You can get to it through the Trips Page so feel free to browse there, too. Otherwise, not too much to announce. Wedding preparations are moving along and it looks like we might be ready by December for an October wedding. Oh well!! We're also taking our friend Anthony camping at the Grand Canyon this coming weekend so look for another update to the Trips Page soon after.
I hope all is well in your world!!
BACK TO TOP
May 12, 2008
Big news! Bonnie has graduated with a Bachelor's in Linguistics from Arizona State University! Whoo-hoo! But wait! There's more: she's been offered a T.A. position for the fall! There was only one position open to a Master's Student and Bonnie was the one! To celebrate we took a 7 hour inner-tube ride
down the Salt River. This time we were prepared and escaped with only minor
sunburns! We went with two friends of ours and if they email the pics,
I'll post them on the site soon.
We're going to Yellowstone National Park in less than two weeks. We've
been ready for a couple of months now. We pretty-much packed our gear when
we bought the tickets back in March. So I guess you could say we're
psyched about going.
Also, the Wedding Page has
been updated and has almost all the info we could think of. I'll let you
know if/when I add more to it.
BACK TO TOP
March 29, 2008
Wow! Sorry it's taken so long to update the site but we've been really busy with a variety of projects. The wedding planning is still proceeding along. Invitations have not gone out yet so don't worry if you haven't received one.
Also, I wanted to congratulate my Uncle Tommy and Cousin Conner in their recent meeting of
Barack Obama.
BACK TO TOP
January 20, 2008
Hello! Happy New Year and all that! So I've got some good news and some
bad news for you this time. I'll start with the good. I've updated
the Trips Page with our last trip of 2007. We
went to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico for Thanksgiving and it was awesome!
You can read all about it there. I've also created a Wedding Info page
that I hope I can use to keep everyone informed. Right now there's not
much to report so it's pretty dull at the moment but you can see it
here. I hope to add more soon but this
week we were unable to do much wedding planning because (and here's the bad
news) our house was broken into on Monday afternoon and we lost a bunch of
things. So most of the week we've been dealing with contractors about
replacing the broken backdoor or playing phone tag with the rental-insurance
company. I think we're pretty much done with it but last week was mostly a
daze.
I think that's all the news that fits for now. I promise I'll have more
wedding info soon -- we can't send out invites until we know more!
BACK TO TOP
December 1, 2007
Whew! December is already here! I know that my year has flown by and I can't believe all the changes that have
occurred here over the last 12 months. One big news event is that Bonnie
and I have officially gotten engaged. I asked her in October as that was
our 5 year anniversary. We'd always joked that if we stayed together for
five years we'd get married. So no date set yet. It'll probably be
in the spring here when the heat's not so bad. But I'll keep you posted.
November was pretty busy (what's new, right?) and I'm a little behind in my
updates. Bonnie and I went with a friend to Tucson on the 10th.
That's been updated to the Trips page. But Bonnie
and I also went camping in Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico for Thanksgiving and
that adventure is not on the Trips page -- yet! It will
be soon I promise. We took a lot of pictures and picking out the best will
take a little time. Until then, read about our trip to the
Titan Missile Museum in Tucson.
December looks to be pretty busy as well. Bonnie's finishing out her
semester at school, there's still Christmas shopping to do, and we're planning a
camping trip to the California coast for Christmas. So if I don't say it
later, I'll say it now: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!
BACK TO TOP
October 21, 2007
Hello again! Bonnie and I went camping with some friends at the Grand Canyon a few weeks back. We didn't take any pics this time so there's no entry into the Trips page -- oh well!
Our awesome neighbors gave us fourth row seats to a Broadway musical named
Avenue Q. Bonnie and
I and a friend from work drove down to Tucson Friday night to see the play.
I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was done with Sesame Street
style puppets (that were not authorized by Jim Henson or Children's Workshop)
and it was pretty raunchy. Picture an "R" rated Sesame Street. It
was REALLY funny. I wish we could afford to see it again!
The holidays are coming up and I think Bonnie and I managed to do most of our
shopping online this weekend. Thank god! I hate the mess of fighting
crowds and early morning sales. How did people shop before the internet?
We hope that everyone is well and safe!
BACK TO TOP
August 19, 2007
Hello all and welcome back! I had a little scare a few weeks back while I was on a delivery for work.
Some of you may have heard about two local news helicopters that collided in
mid-air. Well, they landed about a hundred yards from me and my van.
I heard the collision and the subsequent explosion shook the van. It was
really crazy as people were running out of the surrounding buildings to see what
had happened. The two helicopters were covering a police chase and it
appears that there was a miscommunication between the two pilots and one crashed
into the other. Pretty scary!
Bonnie and I have been plugging along on our various projects but we've managed
to squeeze in a few camping trips. I've updated the
Trips Page with our hike up Thumb Butte in Prescott but we also watched the
Perseids meteor shower from the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. We saw about
100 "shooting stars" in about 3 hours of watching. It was a good show!
We've got a few more camping trips planned for the rest of this year and we're
still planning our Peru trip, though there was an earthquake there this week so
we may have to adjust our plans. I hope everyone is doing well!
Wow! Sorry it's taken so long to update the site but we've been really busy with a variety of projects. The wedding planning is still proceeding along. Invitations have not gone out yet so don't worry if you haven't received one. Also, I wanted to congratulate my Uncle Tommy and Cousin Conner in their recent meeting of Barack Obama.
BACK TO TOP
January 20, 2008
Hello! Happy New Year and all that! So I've got some good news and some
bad news for you this time. I'll start with the good. I've updated
the Trips Page with our last trip of 2007. We
went to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico for Thanksgiving and it was awesome!
You can read all about it there. I've also created a Wedding Info page
that I hope I can use to keep everyone informed. Right now there's not
much to report so it's pretty dull at the moment but you can see it
here. I hope to add more soon but this
week we were unable to do much wedding planning because (and here's the bad
news) our house was broken into on Monday afternoon and we lost a bunch of
things. So most of the week we've been dealing with contractors about
replacing the broken backdoor or playing phone tag with the rental-insurance
company. I think we're pretty much done with it but last week was mostly a
daze.
I think that's all the news that fits for now. I promise I'll have more
wedding info soon -- we can't send out invites until we know more!
BACK TO TOP
December 1, 2007
Whew! December is already here! I know that my year has flown by and I can't believe all the changes that have
occurred here over the last 12 months. One big news event is that Bonnie
and I have officially gotten engaged. I asked her in October as that was
our 5 year anniversary. We'd always joked that if we stayed together for
five years we'd get married. So no date set yet. It'll probably be
in the spring here when the heat's not so bad. But I'll keep you posted.
November was pretty busy (what's new, right?) and I'm a little behind in my
updates. Bonnie and I went with a friend to Tucson on the 10th.
That's been updated to the Trips page. But Bonnie
and I also went camping in Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico for Thanksgiving and
that adventure is not on the Trips page -- yet! It will
be soon I promise. We took a lot of pictures and picking out the best will
take a little time. Until then, read about our trip to the
Titan Missile Museum in Tucson.
December looks to be pretty busy as well. Bonnie's finishing out her
semester at school, there's still Christmas shopping to do, and we're planning a
camping trip to the California coast for Christmas. So if I don't say it
later, I'll say it now: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!
BACK TO TOP
October 21, 2007
Hello again! Bonnie and I went camping with some friends at the Grand Canyon a few weeks back. We didn't take any pics this time so there's no entry into the Trips page -- oh well!
Our awesome neighbors gave us fourth row seats to a Broadway musical named
Avenue Q. Bonnie and
I and a friend from work drove down to Tucson Friday night to see the play.
I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was done with Sesame Street
style puppets (that were not authorized by Jim Henson or Children's Workshop)
and it was pretty raunchy. Picture an "R" rated Sesame Street. It
was REALLY funny. I wish we could afford to see it again!
The holidays are coming up and I think Bonnie and I managed to do most of our
shopping online this weekend. Thank god! I hate the mess of fighting
crowds and early morning sales. How did people shop before the internet?
We hope that everyone is well and safe!
BACK TO TOP
August 19, 2007
Hello all and welcome back! I had a little scare a few weeks back while I was on a delivery for work.
Some of you may have heard about two local news helicopters that collided in
mid-air. Well, they landed about a hundred yards from me and my van.
I heard the collision and the subsequent explosion shook the van. It was
really crazy as people were running out of the surrounding buildings to see what
had happened. The two helicopters were covering a police chase and it
appears that there was a miscommunication between the two pilots and one crashed
into the other. Pretty scary!
Bonnie and I have been plugging along on our various projects but we've managed
to squeeze in a few camping trips. I've updated the
Trips Page with our hike up Thumb Butte in Prescott but we also watched the
Perseids meteor shower from the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. We saw about
100 "shooting stars" in about 3 hours of watching. It was a good show!
We've got a few more camping trips planned for the rest of this year and we're
still planning our Peru trip, though there was an earthquake there this week so
we may have to adjust our plans. I hope everyone is doing well!
Whew! December is already here! I know that my year has flown by and I can't believe all the changes that have occurred here over the last 12 months. One big news event is that Bonnie and I have officially gotten engaged. I asked her in October as that was our 5 year anniversary. We'd always joked that if we stayed together for five years we'd get married. So no date set yet. It'll probably be in the spring here when the heat's not so bad. But I'll keep you posted.
November was pretty busy (what's new, right?) and I'm a little behind in my updates. Bonnie and I went with a friend to Tucson on the 10th. That's been updated to the Trips page. But Bonnie and I also went camping in Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico for Thanksgiving and that adventure is not on the Trips page -- yet! It will be soon I promise. We took a lot of pictures and picking out the best will take a little time. Until then, read about our trip to the Titan Missile Museum in Tucson.
December looks to be pretty busy as well. Bonnie's finishing out her semester at school, there's still Christmas shopping to do, and we're planning a camping trip to the California coast for Christmas. So if I don't say it later, I'll say it now: Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!
BACK TO TOP
October 21, 2007
Hello again! Bonnie and I went camping with some friends at the Grand Canyon a few weeks back. We didn't take any pics this time so there's no entry into the Trips page -- oh well!
Our awesome neighbors gave us fourth row seats to a Broadway musical named
Avenue Q. Bonnie and
I and a friend from work drove down to Tucson Friday night to see the play.
I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. It was done with Sesame Street
style puppets (that were not authorized by Jim Henson or Children's Workshop)
and it was pretty raunchy. Picture an "R" rated Sesame Street. It
was REALLY funny. I wish we could afford to see it again!
The holidays are coming up and I think Bonnie and I managed to do most of our
shopping online this weekend. Thank god! I hate the mess of fighting
crowds and early morning sales. How did people shop before the internet?
We hope that everyone is well and safe!
BACK TO TOP
August 19, 2007
Hello all and welcome back! I had a little scare a few weeks back while I was on a delivery for work.
Some of you may have heard about two local news helicopters that collided in
mid-air. Well, they landed about a hundred yards from me and my van.
I heard the collision and the subsequent explosion shook the van. It was
really crazy as people were running out of the surrounding buildings to see what
had happened. The two helicopters were covering a police chase and it
appears that there was a miscommunication between the two pilots and one crashed
into the other. Pretty scary!
Bonnie and I have been plugging along on our various projects but we've managed
to squeeze in a few camping trips. I've updated the
Trips Page with our hike up Thumb Butte in Prescott but we also watched the
Perseids meteor shower from the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site. We saw about
100 "shooting stars" in about 3 hours of watching. It was a good show!
We've got a few more camping trips planned for the rest of this year and we're
still planning our Peru trip, though there was an earthquake there this week so
we may have to adjust our plans. I hope everyone is doing well!
didn't take any pics this time so there's no entry into the Trips page -- oh well!June 3, 2007
Whew! May was a whirl-wind month for us! A trip to Georgia and two separate camping trips means that I had a lot to update!
First off I'd like to thank my buddy Darren for making the trek to see us while we were in Valdosta. I also want to thank my parents for their visit (and not to mention dinner!). Trampus' wedding was really nice and the reception was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we forgot our camera for the wedding so I'm still waiting on Trampus to post his wedding pics so I can share them with you.
Now, I mentioned two other camping trips and they are both posted on the Trips Page so check that out. It's really cool, we went to Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Park in New Mexico.
Otherwise B. and I are still doing the work and school thing. I think we've decided on where we're going for next Summer's "Out of Country" experience: Peru. Machu Picchu sounds like something we'd like to explore.
I hope all is well with you! Take care!
March 29, 2007
Finally! I'm updating the website! Sorry for the delay but Bonnie and I have been pretty busy. Our neighbor's daughter is in town visiting her parents but since she used to live in Germany she's been helping Bonnie practice her German. I guess Bonnie gets about of two hours of practice time when they get together so that should help her in class!
We went camping this past weekend and I've updated the Trips page with all the stories and pictures.
Speaking of Trips, B. and I are still planning our "One Night Only!" appearance in May so we hope to see all of those who plan to come out.
February 10, 2007
Hello all! Bonnie and I took a trip up to Sedona and hiked Boynton Canyon last weekend. I've updated the Trips page so you can check out the pics there.
Not too much else to report. We're both digging in to our new schedules so there's not a whole lot of time left for fun stuff.
But mark your calendars, Bonnie and I will be making a one night appearance in Valdosta, GA on Saturday, May 5th. Those of you who live nearby and want to see us, just email me at quinnsgate@hotmail.com and I'll email you the details of where/when we'll be staying. Looking to get a hotel room for Saturday night and having everyone meet there for the evening.
Hope everyone is doing well!
January 27, 2007
Hello all! Glad you've all come back for another year of Quinnsgate! Our new year has started out with a bang once again. Bonnie and I have changed jobs and Bonnie's also switched to day classes.
I've started work full-time with Big Fun Balloons. I deliver helium tanks and boxes of balloons to store accounts around the Phoenix area. There's a good group of co-workers there and the driving is the best part. Plus, I'll get health insurance and a retirement savings-type plan in 6 months and I'll get a performance review in 30 days which will determine my raise. So far so good!
Bonnie's working part-time at the Basha's grocery store around the corner from us. She's cashiering there after school and she likes it so far. She got an offer from Safeway in the deli for less pay, which was not what Bonnie wanted, but she got the offer nearly a week before the Basha's offer. Basha's offers better pay, flexible hours, cashiering, and health insurance for the part-time employee.
Still lovin' our new car! We took it camping over Christmas and it performed great! We've been consistently getting about 400 miles per 11 gal. tank. But with our new work/school schedules, we hardly ever drive our own car anymore and our last tank of gas lasted over two weeks. Bonnie bikes to school and soon I'll be driving the work van home at night so we won't ever get to drive the Yaris!
Hope everyone's new year is going well so far! Talk to you later!
December 27, 2006
Bonnie and I have had pretty hectic holiday season. After flying to Georgia, picking up a car, driving back to Arizona and trading it in on a new car, we still had all our Christmas stuff to deal with.
Well it took a bunch of attempts and rough tries but we managed to get our Christmas postcard out. If you're reading this and you didn't get a post card, then you need to sign the guestbook located on the signpost to the left. Next we were able to get all our shopping done (most of which was done online during lunch breaks), shipped, wrapped, and under the tree just days before the big day.
We went camping at the Grand Canyon for Christmas and I've updated the Trips Page so you can read all about it there.
I hope that everyone has had a great Christmas and here's to a healthy and happy new year!!
December 10, 2006
Well we're in full Christmas swing here at Quinnsgate! All our shopping is done, the house is decorated and now we're just waiting on St. Nick.
There's also been a lot of non-Christmas activity going on in our world. I recently flew back to Georgia to pick-up a Cadillac in Valdosta. Long story short: the Caddy was in Bonnie's name and was being taken care of in Valdosta but we needed to get rid of it none-the-less. So, I flew out there on Wednesday, my buddy Chuck drove me to Valdosta on Thursday and I left for Arizona on Friday. I actually made the drive in three days (including time in Texas where I was stopped and searched by the K-9 unit!). So this week Bonnie and I traded in the 2002 Cadillac Deville and our 1994 Infiniti J30 for a 2007 Blazing Blue Toyota Yaris. MSRP says it'll get 40 mpg on the highway! So far we've put just over 350 miles on it with the first and only gas tank so far. I'm sure we'll hit 400 before the next fill-up.
Also, we went up to Arcosanti which is an ecological/architectural experiment. It's a community built using green techniques to lessen man's impact on the planet. Right now it houses about 65 people but the plan is to eventually house and employ 5000. A part of their income stems from the sale of bronze bells designed by the artist who created Arcosanti: Paolo Soleri. While we were there, we got to see a group of artists pouring bronze into the bell molds. Once they were done the excess was poured into a dirt mound to be recycled in the next batch.
All-in-all it was a very interesting place to visit (though I don't know if I could live there). Plus, we got to take our Yaris on its very first road trip!
November 14, 2006
Hello all! Bonnie and I had a great trip to Las Vegas this past weekend. We didn't hit it big but otherwise everything went great! I've updated the Trips page so check it out!
November 2, 2006
Whew! I think I've got the entire Quinnsgate.com site back up and running! There's a LOT on this site that I'd forgotten about and though it was a bit of a pain, it was nice to go back down memory lane.
So before I forget it all, I'd like to get everyone caught up on the past few weeks since the site went down.
Each weekend, since the weather has cooled to the 90's and 80's, Bonnie and I have been riding our bikes on longer and longer treks around the city. One weekend we biked to Hayden Butte which has a big, yellow "A" on it. We climbed to the top to take in the view of Tempe Town Lake and ASU. From here, we had a good view of Sky Harbor airport. Another weekend we biked to Papago Park, which is made up of smaller mountains and trails. Here's a panoramic picture of Phoenix from one of the rest points.
Each weekend, Tempe Town Lake has something booked and one weekend was the Oktoberfest. It was great fun and there were a couple of polka bands at a side stage. We watched this one band from Germany and another band from Colorado named the Dummkopf's (which is a German insult literally meaning "dumb head").
We're going to Vegas for my birthday this year. We got a good deal online so we'll spend the weekend there, see Hoover Dam, and unwind in preparation for the holiday rush. I've got more glass projects on the horizon and Bonnie's latest semester is almost over, so that means the workload doubles.
Now that I'm back online, look for more postcards in the mail. I'm gearing up for the holidays so I'll be sending out more Glassworks ads. We celebrated Glassworks' one year anniversary this past October and we're hoping to grow even more over the next year. So wish us luck!
Hope everyone is doing well!
October 29, 2006
Ok folks. I've signed up with a new host provider that will hopefully keep the site up permanently. Please bear with me as I rebuild both the Friends and Family site and the Glassworks site.
August 26, 2006
I've finally been able to update the site again. Two weeks ago, Bonnie and I went to Fort Bowie and camped in the Chiricahua Mountains. I've updated the Trips Page so you can check out all the pics and stories there.
Not too much else to report. Bonnie has started her fall semester and I've been making glass. On Monday I will have two windows displayed at a restaurant in Tempe called the Plaid Eatery. The owner encourages local artists to display and sell their work in his restaurant and he doesn't even charge a fee! Sweet!
I hope everyone is well!
August 8, 2006
Hello! Welcome back!
Bonnie and went to Kartchner Caverns State Park this past weekend. It was really great to escape the heat of Phoenix if only for a night! Anyway, I've update the Trips Page with all the details and pics.
Hope everyone is doing well!
July 5, 2006
Hello again!
Well, the world woke up to some very sad news today. Ken Lay died in his sleep of a heart attack last night. It's sad because we've lost the opportunity to do to Ken what he did to his employees. So, I encourage everyone to say a prayer in hopes that Ken Lay is burning in Hell..
On a lighter note, Bonnie and I went out to Tempe's Fourth of July Festival. As always Tempe put on a great fireworks show but the "free" busses left a little to be desired. Today, Bonnie and I are very sore from all the walking we did yesterday. But I'm including a short video of the show -- just mouse-over the black box to enjoy!
May 21, 2006
Hello! We made it back from Cancun sunburned but otherwise unharmed. We had a blast and we took lots of pictures. I've created a new section for the Cancun trip which you can see here. But first, I'd like you to note the sign post on the left has changed. Instead of Europe '04, there's now an International sign which will take you to the international gate. Right now there's the Europe '04 trip and Cancun '06. Of course, more destinations should come in the future. I hope you enjoy the Cancun site!
May 1, 2006
Oh hi! Glad you're back! Bonnie and I went to the Red Bull Flugtag held at the Tempe Beach Park. If you don't know what the Flugtag is, it's a competition for amateur teams to make their own "flying" aircraft that they'll push off a huge ramp into the Tempe Town Lake. Two of our favorites were the Screaming Eagles and, well, I don't remember their name but they dressed-up as toilet cleaning products and flew a toilet bowl. Anyway, the competition is judged on distance, air-time, and costume. It was pretty funny to watch these flightless birds drop off the edge of the ramp. It drew a huge crowd and I'm pretty sure ESPN was there so you might catch it on TV locally. It was a great day for it too. We rode our bikes to the event, then walked around downtown and stopped for lunch in an Irish place called the Rula-Bula.
We are down to just under two weeks before we head out to Cancun. The days were dragging for awhile there but both of us have a lot of work to do in the next week and a half so I'm sure the time will fly by.
I hope everyone is well and having a great year!
April 5, 2006
Well, we've hit a bitter-sweet moment here at Quinnsgate. The bitter part is that we've sold our old Casio QV-4000 camera -- the digital workhorse that's been with Bonnie and me through all kinds of adventures and taken just about all the pictures on this site. Sold on eBay to man who's giving it to his daughter so hopefully it'll live on to take hundreds of other pictures. The sweet part to all this is that we've gotten ourselves a snazzy new Casio digital camera: the EX-Z750. It's pretty cool so far. We took a bike ride over to the park by our house to take pictures of the ducks and try out the new camera. We discovered that there are red-eared sliders in the pond there! (Red-eared Sliders are turtles, for those who don't know) Didn't get a picture of it this time because he plopped back into the water as we approached but we'll get one next time. The zoom on the new camera is pretty good -- here's a shot of one of the ducks from about 15 feet. A little grainy but pretty good, I'd say. It's a lot farther than the old one could see.
Also, we've bought our tickets and everything is official now. We'll be going to Cancun, Mexico May 11-16. We're planning to see some Mayan ruins, lay on beaches, and drink a lot of drinks with little umbrellas in them.
March 27, 2006
Welcome back! I hope everyone is well. We've been busy as usual but it's starting to pay off.
Our May travel plans have gone through quite a change. Instead of Europe we're going to climb Mayan ruins and lay on the beaches of Cancun. Looks like we'll be gone May 11 - 16. We'd been tossing around the idea of going to a beach this summer but if we went to Europe, we'd eat-up all of Bonnie's vacation time. So once we saw there were Mayan ruins we could explore there was no decision left to make.
March 13, 2006
Hey all! Just a quick note to say that after 143 official days of no measurable rain, we got a huge down-pour this Saturday. From sun-up til sun-down it rained all day. Some parts of the northern valley got snow and where we camp at the Grand Canyon got almost 3' of snow. So, Bonnie and I didn't do much on Saturday but relax and listen to the sounds of the storm.
March 7, 2006
Hey! Welcome back! Bonnie and I have been pretty busy -- mostly with the usual school and work. But this time, I've actually got some note-worthy news.
We went camping this past weekend for a friend's birthday. Surf on over to the Trips Page and check out the pics.
Also, Bonnie and I are going back to Europe this May for a two-week, whirlwind trek from Amsterdam, through Germany, to Austria and back. We want to re-visit Wolfsburg then see Mad King Ludwig's Castle in Fusson -- both in Germany, then hit Vienna and Salzburg in Austria. Most of the itinerary is NOT laid out at this point but those are the key places we want to visit this time around. Right now we're shooting for May 11 - 25 but I'll let you know once that's set in stone.
February 8, 2006
Hello all! I hope everyone is doing well. Just wanted to tell ya'll about a movie Bonnie and I saw last weekend. It's the sequel to "What The Bleep Do We Know". The sequel is called "What the Bleep: Down the Rabbit Hole". If you haven't seen the first one, I highly recommend that you see this little independent movie. It's about Quantum Physics. Now don't let the subject throw you. It's really, really interesting. "Down the Rabbit Hole" has the same Marlee Matlin scenes but it has new and longer interviews with the scientists and about 20 minutes of new animation that all delve deeper into the Quantum world. See the first one and then watch it again -- it's on DVD; then see the second one. You'll have to look for it locally though because I'm pretty sure it is not being played in the mainstream theaters. We had to see it at the local art house theater in Tempe.
And speaking of local, we're now at 114 consecutive days of no measurable rain. And still none in sight! Though the weather has been really nice, it's been in the 80's most of the week. Bonnie and I bought a couple of used bikes a few weeks ago and last weekend we rode all around our neighborhood and to the grocery store and back. After we got the bikes the first weekend we discovered that our neighborhood has a little park with a pond, ducks, picnic tables and grills! Who knew?! We've been here over two years now and never knew of the park that's on the other side of the middle school next door to us. D'oh!
January 31st, 2006
Well, January has flown right on by! Tomorrow is the first of February already and I'm still getting used to writing 'o6!
We've hit a local record here. We're now at 105 consecutive days with no measurable rain. Friday was the record and Saturday was the day we started the new record. Oh and there's no rain in sight either so the new record will be pretty high!
Other than the usual working, schooling, and glassing Bonnie and I haven't been up to too much. Went to Mexico a weekend or two ago. We're planning a summer road trip but we're both itching to go camping right now! Oh well.
If you haven't looked at the Glassworks site in a while you should click on over there. I've added a few more items in the Decorative and Wearable section and I have some new pics in my Gallery.
See ya!
January 8th, 2006
Hello and happy new year! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday! Bonnie and I had all kinds of things going on. My parents came into town for a few days and we all went up to Sedona to see some old friends. I've updated the Trips Page so you can read about the Sedona and Grand Canyon trip.
Also, I finally finished painting my neighbors' house! Whoo-hoo! Now I'm going to have some more time for Glassworks. I have a couple of new ideas that I can't wait to try out. I'll be adding "momento boxes" to my line soon. I just finished a custom box with a wedding invitation sealed in the lid. I'll have some pictures of it in the Gallery section of Glassworks soon.
December 20, 2005
Well we're in full swing for the holidays here at Quinnsgate. My parents arrived yesterday morning. They'll be here for about 10 days. We're taking them up to Sedona and the Grand Canyon while they're here.
And on top of their arrival, we had a new AC/Heating unit installed which meant repair guys in and out of the house and a
huge crane in our driveway. See, they put those units on the
roofs of houses here so the repair guy had to unhook it, then the crane lifted up
the old unit. After loading the old unit on the truck, they hooked up
the new one and swung it out over the house. A couple of times the unit would swing (what I thought was "wildly") around and I could just see it smashing into a tree. Which would've been appropriate
considering how long it took to just get a repair guy out to look at it.
December 10, 2005
Hello and happy holidays!! Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. We've just about finished all our shopping and now we're waiting on the arrival of my parents from Georgia.
Quinnsgate will be going through some changes at the turn of the new year. This page will no longer have any public links to it. If you're a regular reader of this page you'll want to bookmark this page by hitting CTRL+D. After the new year there will no longer be a link to this page from the Quinnsgate.com page. I'm planning on doing some more marketing next year which includes adding a lot more strangers to my mailing list and I'd rather not have all those people looking into my life.
And now for a special treat, I'm going to take you all down memory lane to two summers ago when Soup and CMOS had a little time together outside in the backyard. Now that I have a new host and more bandwidth available to me, I can share this video of Soup chasing CMOS.
Click this link and download the .avi
file. It will play on RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or QuickTime.
If you watch the beginning carefully you can see Soup demonstrating his athletic
abilities. Enjoy!
November 9, 2005
Hello all! First, I'd like to say "Thank You!" for those of you who have made a glass purchase! My first month of business has been a success so far and my second looks to be good too. Thanks a lot!
So it's been pretty busy for Bonnie and me. I started painting my neighbor's house this week. I put in about 3 1/2 hours each morning. Then I goto work at the Realtor's for a few hours and after all that I finish my evening working on glass. Bonnie's schedule is even worse! Between school, work, and teaching Yang there's not many free minutes in her day.
I had a pretty good birthday. Actually, I had to buy a new tire for the car. Bonnie got a flat on Sunday night so on Monday I had to find a deal on one tire (until we can pay for the other three!) But Bonnie's got one more thing planned for my birthday. We're going to the local drive-in this weekend and enjoy a few unhurried hours.
Oh we did get to go see the B-52's for free on Saturday night. The husband of a co-worker was playing in the opening band so Bonnie and I got the scoop on some free tix. It was pretty fun but I guess the girls in the B-52's don't wear the bee-hive hairdos anymore. Oh well!
Alright, I suppose that's all for now. I'll be sending out some postcards advertising my new T-shirts for Quinnsgate sometime soon so keep an eye out!
October 11, 2005
Alright, brochures have been sent out so check your mail often!
I took a fall in a dark movie theater on Tuesday. Bounced off the cup holder/arm rest and ended up breaking a rib. Pretty painful
but it's already starting to heal and I've actually been able to get up and walk
around on my own again.
October 10, 2005
Hello! Welcome to the new home for Quinnsgate. Please change your bookmarks to www.quinnsgate.com as I will no longer be updating the geocities.com page.
Please explore the Glassworks pages and tell your friends! The Glassworks
brochures will be mailed out Tuesday since today is a holiday for the USPS.
Also, my Uncle Tommy came into town this weekend. Bonnie and I took him hiking to the Sears-Kay ruins.
I've updated the Trips Page so you can read all about
it.
September 28, 2005
Bonnie's birthday was this past weekend. We went up to the Grand Canyon for the weekend with another friend of ours. I've updated the Trips Page so click on over and read all about it.
Oh and I finished my latest glass piece: Cat Dreams.
September 18, 2005
I've been thinking about updating my passport picture. Let me know what you think.
Bonnie and I have been plugging away at our various projects. She's still schooling it and recently got an "A" on her first German test. Last Friday I was able to get the name "Quinnsgate Glassworks" trade marked. I would've had my logo done too but I got my instructions off the internet and when I got to the office, they told me I had to submit my logo in a different way. So, I now have sample business cards, letterhead, envelopes, receipts, and brochures with my new snazzy logo and Monday I'll get a trade mark for it.
Everyone who has signed my guest book will be receiving a brochure for my new stained-glass business: Quinnsgate Glassworks. So if you haven't signed the guestbook, you can do it here. Bonnie and I have set a deadline and we plan on the new website to go live the same day we ship out the brochures. I've been making an inventory of suncatchers, windows, and other decorative glass treats so I don't get too swamped with orders.
Oh, and we found a home for K-os, the kitten that had shown-up on our backdoor. A woman with two little girls adopted him about a week ago and this weekend she talked to Bonnie and said that they'd renamed him Max and he's fitting-in nicely. That's great because we just couldn't keep him.
One last thing: I've gotten a lot of feedback about my Wal-Mart Manifesto. Some in favor, some in anger, and some on the fence. First, I'd like to point out that I'm not asking anyone else to boycott Wal-Mart. It's up to you to make that decision. Bonnie and I feel Wal-Mart is not a company we want to support. I would suggest that if you're on the fence about what to think, watch PBS's Frontline. They did an expose about Wal-Mart last year. You can watch it online here. It's only an hour and it's broken into 4 or 5 parts so you can watch it whenever.
But keep your thoughts coming in, I've enjoyed hearing everyone's ideas.
September 5, 2005
Well, a kitten showed up at our house this week. We named him K-os for obvious reasons. We put up some signs around the neighborhood to see if someone lost him but no response so far. He's really affectionate, nice and house-broken. This week we're going to try and find him a nice home instead of the pound. We set him up with a bed, food, and a box in the garage but we're hoping it's not permanent.
Oh, and if you haven't read about Bonnie and I boycotting Wal-Mart, scroll down or click here.
September 3, 2005
Bonnie and I are boycotting Wal-Mart. We can’t spend our money on that company after its recent actions both here in Phoenix and in Alabama. Also, we feel that the spin Wal-Mart uses to make itself seem so good is a direct insult to the American people. Since there are a hundred other sources for the same goods we’ve decided that we’re going to speak through our wallets.
A few weeks ago there was a random and senseless shooting in a Wal-Mart parking lot that killed two Wal-Mart employees. In its quest for profits the company decided that the store would re-open the next day rather than letting the horrified survivors take a day off. We just don’t believe that asking those people to come to work the next day was the right choice. It shows a lack of compassion that speaks much louder than their “We’re family” commercials.
Today on C-SPAN Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Michigan) announced that three Wal-Marts in Alabama were not accepting the FEMA and Salvation Army vouchers while accepting the Red Cross vouchers. Are the people at Wal-Mart not watching the same news as the rest of us? Are they so out of touch that they don’t know how much trouble our “American refugees” are in? For a company that so promotes itself as a pro-American company, it doesn’t seem to be stepping up to the plate when Americans need its help.
Wal-Mart advertises itself as a patriotic, home town company though more than half the products they sell are from foreign markets, such as China. What’s all-American about spending their money on foreign suppliers at the sake of the local people they call neighbors. Sure, the people who work the stores here are Americans but that’s only because Wal-Mart hasn’t figured out how to bring in the cheap foreign labor, yet. But ask someone who works in Wal-Mart about their job or about their health insurance (if they have any). I think the positives stories would be outnumbered by the bad.
The greatest part of Democracy and Capitalism is the power to vote. In a Democracy the voting is done in a booth and it chooses the fate of your leaders. But capitalism lets us vote with our wallets and it determines the fate of a business. If a person disagrees with the policies or actions of a company then that person can choose to spend his money elsewhere. Bonnie and I are choosing not to give anymore of our money to Wal-Mart.
Oh, and I got a letter to the editor published in Sunday's Arizona Republic. You can read it here. It's not about Wal-Mart, I promise.
August 29, 2005
I know, I know, it's been tooo long since I updated the site. Sorry.
We've been really busy. Our neighbors went out of town for eight weeks (lucky!) and we took care of their yard while they were gone. Bonnie has started back to school for a new semester. She's taking German this semester so we've got German words and phrases posted all over the house to help us practice.
A few weeks ago, we went Salt River Tubing. It was very relaxing! We took the four hour trip down the river and it was great. We rented three inner tubes (one each for us and one for the cooler) and spent the next few hours floating down the river. I got a terrible sunburn but Bonnie made sure she was not getting burned this time and lathered up on sun block. During the last hour we got hit by a Monsoon storm complete with high winds and lightning which is a little scary when you're in the water! One exciting thing was as we were loading our inner tubes on the shuttle, there was a storm burst where a wind gust threatened to blow me away. It knocked down a huge tree behind me and I thought I was a goner (so did the shuttle driver). Fortunately I held onto one end of an inner tube, Bonnie held the other end, and the shuttle driver held her. It was really heart-stopping for a second. The wind actually sucked the air out of the shuttle's engine and killed it. We didn't mind sitting in the bus and waiting out the storm, though; at least we were out of the wind and rain.
My brother, Paddy, and his wife, Libuse, had a baby girl on the 13th. Megan Sara Quinn was 4lbs 6oz at birth. Both mother and baby are doing fine. Congrats to them! Though I'm not sure I'm used to being called Uncle Buba.
Well, I think that's it for now. I'll try to be more diligent in keeping up with the updates!
July 27, 2005
Ok, Doonesbury has once again been pulled from a number of newspapers around the country. I guess they don't want you to know the truth about the Turd Blossom. Anyway, as promised, here's the censored strip:
July 26, 2005
Well it looks as though censorship and idiocy is running rampant in our national media. Once again, someone who speaks against our current President and his cabinet has been censored. So for those of you out there who were unable to read today's Doonesbury, I present the Turd Blossom:
So if Doonesbury gets pulled again tomorrow, then check here.
July 16, 2005
Hello all! Last night was the release of the newest Harry Potter book. Bonnie and I have a friend who works at Barnes and Nobel and he had to work the midnight opening. So we went with his roommates, Greg and Kay, up there to say Hello. Michael is the one in costume.... Anyway, that place was a madhouse with all the kids running around. Plus their coffee shop was doing brisk business so I imagine most of those kids were on a strong sugar high.
Also, I thought everyone might like to see what the temperature on our shaded back porch was today at 6:30.
Hope everyone is doing well and that you're all cooler than us!
July 11, 2005
Well I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! Bonnie and I went to the Tempe Town Lake Fireworks Show. It was awesome! It was one of the best fireworks displays I'd ever seen. Apparently this year's show was twice as big as last year's. Either way, it was great!
This past weekend Bonnie and I went to the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. It was really cool. I've updated the Trips Page so click on over there and read all about it.
July 2, 2005
Well it's been awhile since I've made an update to the site. The good thing is that that gives me time to come up with something to tell ya'll!
My Mum came into town a couple of weeks ago. Bonnie and I took her to Montezuma's Castle where we took a walk in the 100 degree weather. Fortunately we found a shady spot to have lunch and take a break. Once we finished there we headed back to Tempe and had a dinner from Pita Jungle and spent the rest of the evening talking and drinking.
Also, we received a new addition to our back patio. Our boss bought a new swing/chair set and gave us the old one. The cats have been a little freaked out about it but we've already napped in it a couple of times!
This July 4th weekend we're going to see the Tempe Fireworks Show on Monday night. Tempe's busses will be free on the 4th so we're going to pick up dinner and drinks on the way and have a picnic to the fireworks show.
I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!!
June 1, 2005
Bonnie and I had a pretty good weekend and we hope everyone else had a good Memorial Day weekend! We did some yard work on Saturday and went to Casa Grande Ruins on Sunday. I've updated the Trips Page so you can read all about that trip there.
I hope everyone's doing great!
May 19, 2005
Bonnie and I saw Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith last night (or this morning). We got to the theater two hours early and the line to get in wrapped about half way around the mall, though we only had to wait outside for an hour and forty-five minutes. Because the line outside was so long, the show didn't actually start until about 12:30 am. At about ten til midnight a guy in our theater asked everyone to quiet down as he had an announcement to make. Turns out he made a marriage proposal to his girlfriend and she said "yes" to many cheers and whistles. At this point, Bonnie leaned over to me and said, "Please don't do that to me in such a public setting!" I told her not to worry. :)
I won't review the movie for you as there are plenty of reviews to go around online but I will say that it was awesome! Much better than Episodes I and II and possibly better than the original movies.
Bonnie and I have a couple of free passes to AMC so we'll probably go see it again once the crowd dies down a little. Today we're just sleeping in and enjoying a day off (when I interviewed for my job a year ago I told the boss that we'd be taking today off).
Oh, and to top off the day, I won $4 on the Powerball!
May 18, 2005
Ok, tonight is the night. Bonnie and I are going to see the opening of Star Wars at midnight. So for those of you on the east coast, when you wake up for work at 6am, Bonnie and I will on our way home from the theater. Good thing we're off of work tomorrow because I don't think I'll be able to sleep much tonight.
We've had a pretty good few weeks here. We won tickets to see the Bravery a couple of weeks ago and last Monday I won tickets to see the Dead 60s. The Dead 60s are a punk band from Liverpool. They were pretty good and much better than the opening bands.
Anyway, all is well here. Hope everyone else is doing great, too!
May 9, 2005
Alright, Bonnie and I are back online! Whoo-hoo! We've been suffering from a severe case of internet withdrawal. We got a good deal on our new system. New tower with 256mb, 2.9ghz, 40gig hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo, etc. for only $349. When Bonnie placed the order she sweet talked the guy into no taxes and no shipping charge!
Since we haven't had a computer to occupy our time we've gotten a lot of work done around our house. We planted three bougainvilleas along our back wall so when we're sitting on our back porch we're not looking at a blank wall. We added a desert-style rock garden and planted a new "monster cactus" (I call it brain cactus). Also, we added some lantana on one side of our porch because Gypsy needed a place to hide when she's hunting humming birds. We put another type of flower on the left side (I don't remember the name of it right now). And lastly we put down some cat stepping stones.
I've been busy doing glass projects as well. I made a couple of dragonfly suncatchers for Melissa's wedding and I've been steadily plugging along on my cat window.
A few weeks ago I won tickets off the radio (The Edge 103.9 -- see the links section) to see The Bravery play an acoustic set in the studio and to see their show later that night. It was pretty cool. Bonnie and I got to sit in the studio with the band as they played some acoustic versions of their songs for the radio station. Also, we got autographed pictures of the band. I plan on scanning in one of the pictures later. Anyway, it was a cool to get out and see a live band for free.
On Mother's Day (besides call my Mom) we went to the Heard Museum in Phoenix. It showcases the plight of the Native Americans at the hands of our government and it shows off a lot of their artwork. Parts of it was depressing because it really drives home how poorly we treated the Indians when "the white man" came to this continent. But the artwork was amazing! Unfortunately, not all the pictures came out as well as I'd like but I had to show the Vampire Horse by Victor Ortiz and this incredible fish pottery vase made using the same techniques as their ancestors.
So that's pretty much all that we've been up to. We're still planning on seeing the new Star Wars on opening night and next month my Mum will be flying in for a quick day visit.
Hope all is well with everyone out there!!
April 25, 2005
Well, we're still having our computer woes. We've set our sites on a new laptop but it'll take some time still to scrape up the money and get all our lost data.
But I did want to let everyone know that Bonnie and I got our tickets for the opening night of Star Wars: Episode III. It's the midnight showing on Wednesday the 18th. I can't wait!
April 20, 2005
Hello all! Our home computer has crashed big time! Bonnie and I are debating whether to fix the old one or buy a new one. Either way we're going to try and recover our hard drive as it holds the secrets to our lives. What a pain!
I'm still checking my email (either at work or the library) but I won't always have time to respond so please don't take it personally if you've emailed and haven't hard anything back from us.
I will update the site as soon as we get ourselves back online.
Take care!
March 28, 2005
We hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter!
Friday night we colored some Easter eggs using rubber bands to get some cool designs. They came out looking pretty good!
On Saturday Bonnie and I went with our Mormon neighbors to the largest outdoor Easter pageant in the country. There were about 10,000 people there to see the pageant which featured a play of the story of Jesus and we walked around the temple grounds. We were a little apprehensive at first but we weren't pressured too much to join their church and we had a good time looking at all the displays in the temple's visitors center.
On Sunday, we went to the Pueblo Grande Museum and had a picnic. I've updated our Trips page with pictures from the day so check it out!
March 20, 2005
Hope everyone had a great St. Paddy's Day! I think we did; memory is still a little foggy.
This week we got our first regular visitor to our hummingbird feeder. I got the feeder for Bonnie last September but the food we were using apparently wasn't as good as our neighbor's formula. So we mixed up our own sugar water and now the feeder has become very busy.
And speaking of our neighbors, they had their annual carving class this week. Last year they were carving bald eagles and they were able to get someone to bring a live bald eagle out to the house so the carvers could get pictures and inspiration for their works. This year they're carving prairie falcons and they were again able to wrangle up a live example. So, introducing Renegade. Here's his favorite pose. He's got a pretty good wing-span and we got to see him eat a pigeon.
We had a lot of chores this weekend starting with mowing the lawn.
March 14, 2005