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Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Test
testing A Little Housecleaning
I have been doing a little cleaning up on the website in order to free up space on the server that was clogged with 30mb of old pictures and stuff. This will give me room for future picture galleries and videos. You might find that links to pictures in older posts are now broken as the pictures have been removed from the server. In a short while I will remove the Wedding Album from the site as that is taking up the bulk of the space at the moment. A Little Mac Attack?
I heard recently that the Apple computer is now susceptible to not one but two viruses/trojans, but Mac users should not be too alarmed as the hoops you would have to jump through to nudge these viri onto your system would make PT Barnum dizzy. Instead, Apple users should be more concerned over the assertion that John C. Dvorak makes that Apple will switch over to Windows as it's operating system. John makes some pretty convincing points but does he have an inside track on this or is he just crazy? Are we about to see the world run by one giant company, finally? Next: Disney buys Microsoft. Monday, February 20, 2006
Chipmunk Cheeks
I actually had to go out and shovel some snow today. We have had a constant snowfall all morning with enough accumulation to require about 10 minutes worth of work. It is quite mild out and is melting right away so the snow was a bit heavy, but not enough to even work up a sweat. There's a few more flurries forecast towards the end of the week so I may be out there again. Last Tuesday, on Valentine's Day, Nikki had her wisdom teeth extracted. It did not make for a very pleasant Valentine's Day for her as she was quite sore and unable to eat anything solid. Here are a few shots of her after the surgery. The swelling has since gone down and she is back to eating solids again and overall I think the ordeal was not too bad for her. Saturday, February 18, 2006
Chills In The Bones
We had a brief brush with winter this week as temperatures plummeted to the double digits below zero. As we all braced ourselves for a continuing cold snap that would see -40 degree temperatures with the wind chill, it suddenly turned mild again and today the coldest it got was around -4. Have we been spared or is there more cold weather around the corner? And will we get the much needed snow that we seem to have been deprived of? With only two weeks left in February, it seems like this is going to be one of the warmest and brownest winters on record. I can't help but feel sorry for Dick Cheney. It's bad enough to shoot your best friend in the face but to have to be hounded all week by a vicious press corp doesn't help. And keeping his yap shut about the incident didn't help either. Now it looks like he was hiding something. Of course when he did open his mouth he admitted he was drinking. Smart move. At least his victim was able to go on air and say that he was alright and didn't bear any grudges against Cheney. Now Dick just wants the incident to go away. And finally congrats to all the Mac users who finally got their own virus/trojan. Didn't want you guys to feel left out. Sunday, February 12, 2006
It's Cupid Time
Our houseguest has headed home after a week and a half of visiting and hanging out with Nikki and the rest of the Hilton clan. Chris decided to extend his visit by one day so that he could play soccer with the guys on Friday night and head out Saturday morning. So we all got up early on Saturday to drive him out to the airport by 6:30 am. We all then came home and went back to bed until 12:00 noon as we had only had about three hours sleep. After several layovers Chris arrived home and called to say he was home safe. The house is now back to normal...sort of. I read with some astonishment about all the winter storms happening in the east and marvel at the weather we continue to have here which rivals some of the better weather we get during the summer. Most days it is sunny and mild (today it got to +11) with a bit of wind now and again. People are raking their lawns and driving around with their convertible tops down. Can't help thinking we are going to wake up to a gigantic shock one morning and find five feet of snow out the back door. Then you will see some freaking out. It would be nice to get through an entire winter this way but this can't be good for the farmers. So, a couple of projects are in the works. I'm planning to renovate my shop to make it more accessible for doing work in it, ie: getting rid of piles of junk everywhere that hinder the work flow. I also want to wallboard a few places and paint the floor to try and control dust and sawdust a little better. Once all that is done I have a couple of desks to build...still. I'm getting a little tired of trying to work on a TV tray. Things are still in the design stage. Hopefully I can get them rolling soon. And of course everyone's favourite time of year is just around the corner. I downloaded this year's tax software last week and I am now just waiting for the T4's and other receipts to come rolling in. We finally got our new toaster from Club Z This little baby is quite a high tech and needs a PHD to run it but it does toast bread! And bagels too! Now I just have to figure out how to get it to do my taxes. Happy Valentine's day, everyone! Monday, February 06, 2006
Ski Weekend
We've had a rather busy weekend here at the Hilton Homestead. The bulk of the weekend was spent on the Hilton Family Jasper Ski trip. On Friday afternoon we rented an eight passenger van and after everyone came home from work/school we loaded up and headed for Jasper in the beautiful Rocky mountains of Alberta. After staying the night in the not-so-beautiful Amethyst Lodge we headed up the mountain the next morning to Marmot Basin where we dropped off the kids for a day of snowboarding and skiing. With us were Chris, Angie and husband Lee, Sandi, Nikki and her boyfriend from Florida, Chris, who we credit with the idea of this trip in the first place. While the kids were off snowboarding, Dianne and I took a stroll around the Jasper townsite looking for souvenirs and then went for a hike up a rather steep hill for a spectacular view of Jasper and the surrounding panorama of mountains. Here is a little photo album of the trip. The kids were exhausted at the end of the day and hungry too so after driving to Hinton we stopped at a Boston Pizza for supper before heading home. Then on Sunday after coming home from church, we barbecued some juicy steaks and had a fine feast. Everyone was feeling rather stuffed as they went off for some Sunday evening activities including a memorial service for Lee's grandfather who passed away last week. Chris has had a very enjoyable stay with us so far and has a few days left before heading back to Florida on Friday. It's been great having him here and we having been getting to know him better. Nikki has plans to head back to Florida herself at the beginning of March. Wednesday, February 01, 2006
It's Working
The video has been re-edited and posted and now works. You can also click on the picture below to view the video.
I guess there is a problem with the video in the previous post and it will not play properly. I have to re-edit the video but it will be up shortly. Please stand by. Surprise, Surprise!!
I've been reading with some amusement about the non-trial of Saddam Hussein and the recent events where the judge even stepped down and was replaced and now Saddam and all his lawyers are boycotting the trial. What the...? Is it just me or does this smack of judicial mockery. I can't believe they will ever succeed in bringing this trial to an end before the guy croaks. This would never happen in the US, or would it? Seems the OJ trial hit marathon levels during it's circus days. But at least the defendant was in the courtroom for most of it and not ranting like a preschooler every minute.  The bedroom was completed over the weekend and Dianne outfitted it with a new headboard, sheets, comforter and cover on the bed. It now looks very posh. And just in time too. On Monday night Nikki's boyfriend Chris arrived, much to Nikki's surprise as she didn't know exactly when he was coming. Her reaction was caught on this video. Nikki will enjoy Chris' company for next 8 days or so before he has to fly back to Florida. We are planning a family trip to Jasper for snowboarding and skiing on the weekend so stay tuned for pictures of that. With our warm, snowless weather here it has hardly been a shock for the guy to see what a usual Alberta winter is like. However, he is no stranger to adverse weather as he lived in Alaska for a year. In fact, it was Chris' idea to go snowboarding.
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