Our Lives

Okay, first things first.  You have to take a look at these photos that Matt took of Jen.  They are REALLY good!  It helps to have a good looking wife, hey Matt?

Also, I have to upgrade my WordPress software, and am not quite sure what I am doing, so the site may be down for awhile while I muddle my way through.  I am going to work on it later today.  The only thing I am worried about by upgrading is that I won’t be able to use this theme and I haven’t seen one that I liked as well, but we’ll see.

I have to upgrade this software so that I can learn how to do it on a non-business site so I can upgrade my Real Estate Tool Shop software so I can add a plugin that I really want to add.  (SEO)

I have to quote this article that was in the Arizona Republic Sunday buried on page A18 in the Weekly Review section of health and science news.

Scientists at Stemagen, a California company, reported Thursday that they had created the first mature cloned human embryos from single skin cells taken from adults, a significant advance toward the goal of growing personalized stem cells for patients suffering from various diseases.

Creation of the embryos, grown from cells taken from the company’s chief executive and one of its investors, also offered sobering evidence that few, if any, technical barriers may remain to the creation of cloned babies.

Five of the new embryos grew in laboratory dishes to the stage that fertility doctors consider ready for transfer to a woman’s womb - a degree of development that clones of adult humans have never achieved before.

Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem with this?

I found a new Google toy.  It is Picasa.  It allows you to create slideshows online and embed them into your site or blog.  Check out the one I created for Vulture Mine and let me know if you like the old way or this new way better.

I nearly forgot to continue with the Apache Trail journey and photos.  This section is Canyon Lake into Tortilla Flats.  Canyon Lake is obviously down several feet.  This was from them doing a “drawdown” on the lake to make some repairs to a dam somewhere along the chain of lakes.

Tortilla Flats is actually a town with a population of 4.  It used to be a bustling metropolis?  : )   This is where the workers would stop on their 3 day journey to build the dams along the Salt River.  There was a school house, the resturant, a postoffice, a livery and I think that’s about it!  The resturant features an excellent burger.  There is also a “hanging tree”.

Tortilla Flats got it’s name because the surronding rock formations looked like stacked tortillas to someone.  (personally, I don’t see it)

We just got back from San Jose.  We had a great trip even though we drowned.  It rained, was cold and foggy the whole time we were there until about 2 hours before we had to leave for the airport.  (of course)

But we had a great time anyway.  Wed. we went to downtown Los Gatos, which is where Ambers dad lives.  We did some looking around at the shops then we went and looked at an apartment nearby the kids are looking at.  It was pretty nice!  Then we went to Ambers Dad’s house and had dinner and “met the parents”.  It went much better than the movie!  : )

Actually, Amber’s Dad and Cindy are very warm and friendly people - not to mention what a great cook Cindy is!  Very impressive.

We drove into San Fransisco Thursday and went over the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito.  I have always wanted to do that, but every time we have ever been to the city we haven’t rented a car, so were limited to what we could do.  It was beautiful even though visibility was about 20 feet.  Sausalito is a great little town.  We ate lunch at a very charming resturant right on the water.  (Photos)  Then we tooled around town a little then went back into the city (it was really raining after lunch)

Once in San Fransisco, we went to Union Square and did some shopping.  Amber had a gift card for Christmas that she got to use and bought a really cute outfit and great coat.

Then we went down to Fishermans Wharf.  We checked out Ghirardelli Square.  Most of it was under construction, so there wasn’t much to see, but the Ghirardelli store was open.  We bought the best malted milk balls I have ever tasted.   I can’t wait until they are gone.  Then we went down to Pier 39 which is very cool.  We looked around and did some shopping, checked out the sea lions that hang out on the docks, and had dinner.  It was fun, even with the rain and cold.

Friday, we went with Amber to try on some wedding dresses.  Cindy (Ambers stepmom) was able to take an hour off work and met us too.  Beautiful.  I took some photos but can’t share them.  Sorry.  Caleb had to go to work so we took Amber to lunch at a place called Santana Row which is like a city within a city.  It has shopping, with apartments and condos above, great resturants etc.  Pretty neat.

We had a great time and it was good to see the kids again.  We have really missed them.

Shower Photos

Well, we had a great time at the shower.  I certainly hope all the guests did too.  The food was great (in my opinion) and the company was good.  We painted onsies, played the “baby” and the beads game - I lost mine right away, so did Jen.  We did the Baby bingo when we opened gifts, had cake (yum) and that was it.  Short sweet and to the point - perfect!  (almost 3 hours)

 Jen got some great gifts and is looking as though she may have dropped a bit.  I don’t think Gracie has any intention of waiting until Feb. 20!  Wish you all could have been there, we were thinking about you.