The Week After Christmas

We had a good Christmas. We both received something we really wanted. Pam has stained and oiled her new (antique) drop-leaf table, an acquisition that moves along the “fall upgrade” home project. I installed and used my new ATV grip and throttle warmers.  Pam also bought me a heated seat pad for the Honda and I must say it works quite well. A few smaller gifts for each other rounded out the gift-giving.

Food always plays a part in holidays and this Christmas was no exception. Pam baked another rhubarb custard pie and, as usual, it was delicious. Our main meal was provided by Mary and Jeff Hayes who surprised us with a box of goodies from Omaha Steak Company. Those steaks and stuffed potatoes and chocolate cake sure were good!

We hope everyone had a good holiday and offer our best wishes for the coming new year.

In the garage, I need to work on the Honda’s brakes and will get to that later this weekend. At the computer, I spent a few hours learning how to put captions under photos and links – not as easy as you might suspect – and re-built my Galleries web page. Where there used to be just text links there are now thumbnail photos with captions. Clicking on either the thumbnail or caption will take you to that gallery. Trick was to align the photos and captions to each other and get the spacing set. Pam laughs at me for all the time I spend doing this, but it is a learning process and I am satisfied with the progress I’ve made.

While I was at it I added a new gallery, Alpine Loop, which includes a set of photos from that September ATV trip. This gallery is a combination of photos from Engineer and Cinnamon Passes which comprise the Alpine Loop trail. The last entry is the video  I had previously published in one of my posts but the collection also includes the bull moose photo taken along a side trip up Cuba Gulch.

Weather Update:  We have not had any new snow in the last week or so but did get a dusting on the 24th. Temps remain below average and it looks like it will be a record cold December for the 2nd year in a row. (Last year set a record for the number of days in a row it stayed below freezing.) But at least we have not had the (ice) storms that have created havoc in other parts of the country.  In preparation for the inevitable, I did get my Gilson tractor repaired — installed a new starter and cleaned the carburetor — so it is back in commission (I hope).

In cat news, Ebony’s 4 kittens have had their spay and neuter operations and will soon be surrendered to the shelter and put up for adoption. Ebony will follow after being spayed – she currently appears to be in heat again. While the kittens have developed some endearing personality traits (they love to be petted and purr up a storm) they are still  average black kittens. Hopefully they will appeal to folks looking for kittens this time of year, people who are seeking well-adjusted house cats fond of human interaction.

Next week is New Years, and after that it will get really busy for both of us. Pam has a backlog of transcripts to evaluate [per usual for the start of the Spring Semester at the community college], and my fiscal year begins which means a kick-off to my 2014 project agenda. I have only one major project  planned for this year but, as is the nature of Information Technology, there will be numerous smaller projects to work on.

Pam had asked me if I plan to include any “end of year” musings, but I will save that for my next post.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

So long as Jer continues outside projects and doesn’t stay in the house under foot during the winter break, we will survive another week without a homicide.  Since apparently we are saving our 2013 reflections and 2014 resolutions/dreams for the next post, I have nothing further to add at present.

Happy Trails.