Jane Austin . . . who?

Thank you, but I have to agree with Dave. None of that feminine hooey for me.

So I need to apologize that there are no visuals with this my 2nd post. I think our electronics are out to get us. About a month ago my lappy started making weird banshee-like screams of agony, then on came the blue-screen-of-death. So we naturally took it into the guy who made it for us. After he hung out with it for a day or so he said, "Wow! I've never had one do that before!"

Sweeeeeeeeeet. ALL of our photos were on dear lappy. All of our movies (yes, all five of them) were on there. All our music was on there. All my architecture software was there too. As of 5:10 this afternoon the computer guy (who has turned our out-of-body hard drive into a retirement project) has yet to be able to recover any data from lappy.

Two weeks ago, while lappy was at the computer hospital, a boy scout wanted to pass off his art merit badge to me, and wanted to use my computer for one of the merit badge requirements. So I pulled out old faithful, my very first computer. And wouldn't you know it, the little bugger wouldn't even turn on. . . and yes, it was plugged in, power was on and flowing. . . but nothin! I think last time Jonah was at our house he cast an "expeliamus" in the direction of old faithful. From what I understand, when a hard drive dies, you have only so much time before it dumps its memory - SO BACK UP YOUR STUFF!!! By the way, did you know you can get an apple external hard drive that will automatically and wirelessly back up your computer every couple of weeks? It only holds a measley terabyte of memory. Pathetic.

Round 3. . .
Saturday I went down to Ralph's cabin to shovel snow off his roof. I enjoyed listening to my ipod all the way. Wonderful life. Upon arriving to the cabin we suited up and I put my ipod in its appropriate (and designed for the purpose) pocket. As I stooped to adjust my snow shoes, an invisible hand reaches in and deftly pick-pockets my ipod and throws it into the snow! I instantly scrambled to save it, brushing off the few flecks of wet snow, then carefully placed it into a zipping pocket for time-out. I went on with the task at hand, completely forgetting about my ipod until Sunday evening. I pulled it out and tried to turn it on . . . and two clicks (did you know an ipod actually can click?) later it turned back off. It now refuses to cooperate with any coaxing I give it. It's not like I threw it into a bath tub! Understand, I had one hope left of recovering our lost photos and some of our music - it was on the ipod. . . which I could not yet back up for lack of computers.

So yesterday when Diedre opened our freezer to find thawing bread dough, water in place of ice cubes and squishy fruit, I started to wonder. As it turns out, the compressor on our refrigerator has given way, so our food is now spread between three coolers and Ralph's basement freezer as we wait for a new compressor to come in from Connecticut.

Believe it or not, we are doing okay. I still stress about work (especially now that I can begin taking the licensing exams), but everything somehow works out. Peter is getting used to sleeping in his big-boy bed, and Caleb is such a good helper, when he wants to be. We've only had three ear infections one strep throat and four colds this last month, so in reality, we are doing well, if not yet addicted to the pink medicine.

Again, sorry about the lack of photos.
We love you guys!

Rob