Our low will be higher than our high yesterday
12/22/05 5:32 A.M.
16 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 7 mph.
Good morning,
We have a tree. It isn't decorated yet, but it is in the house and will be dressed today. It ain't big, but cute. The tree is the same height at Margriet, so she should be able to put the star at the top. :-) When I lifted the tree after cutting it from the stump, I noticed an orange marking tape on it. I put it on the tree the first summer here with the intent of eventually moving it and clearing the patch for a strawberry bed. At the time, the tree was about 8-10" tall, now about 5'-0"! Time flies. I think we will be not using most of the tree decorations.
We went over to Otto's Meats in Luxemburg yesterday to pick up the meat for Christmas. We got a Roulade roast. It is a combination of pork and beef. I have never tasted it, but Margriet assured me it is almost as good as Lutefisk. I am looking forward to it. Of course it really brings back memories and extends the tastebuds for Margriet. The owner, Otto, waited on us. Margriet really enjoys him as he is from Germany and the two of them talk in German the entire time. They have a good time too. I only hear "what is necessary"! Actually I get a charge out of it, watching and listening to the laughter in Margriet's voice.
We took another step into the 21st century yesterday. Brenda has been after us to download Skype so we can talk on the "telephone" using our computers. She mentioned it first, a day or so before the hard-drive on this died. Then had more important things to load again onto this. Yesterday was the day! Shortly after downloading, we discovered that Brenda was online, so did the necessary steps to contact her and connect. It worked! Fairly well too. Margriet and Brenda talked for about 20-30 minutes. Of course it was all in Dutch, so all I had to do was to monitor the volume control. I am sure the conversation would have lasted longer, except Kalle apparently was on her lap and all of a sudden became rather odoriferous. It really was good to actually hear Brenda's voice. Kalle's too!
The cool thing about Skype is it uses normal computer web rather than phone company equipment. The cost is nothing - the part I like - and the system works fairly well. We use a microphone and the computer's speakers so we both can listen and talk. Apparently a headset with attached microphone is better for quality, but will sacrifice that for the ability to both listen at the same time. I was surprised at how good the quality is. I had purchased the microphone several years ago to use with a different program to talk with Margriet before she moved, but she kept saying the quality was so poor she didn't want to. It just sat on the shelf until now. I can really see the value of the system, not only in saving money. It also will be a lot more convenient to use than the phone system we have available to us.
While setting up the program, it searched for people with the same names as those in my address book who also have the service. It came up with several. They all turned out to be folks in other parts of the world, except one. My sister-in-law, Mary, was listed, but she must have moved to England! Also very close to the same age as Mary. A couple of others also were located in England and another in Germany. Small world - even though we drove to Luxemburg yesterday!
Margriet delivered the Christmas breads yesterday on our way to doing the errands. One of the errands was to pick up some stamps. The post office was out of Christmas stamps, so had to settle for other patterns. I did forget to pick up some for the letters to the Netherlands, so still have them to pick up.
With the warming weather, the light fluffy snow has changed more to a consistency of sugar. Not as east to walk through. I did find a "highway" of sorts going between two bushes about 30' apart in the woods. The highway was formed by mice (or mouse) taveling between them. All kinds of tracks going back and forth. Also noticed a lot of pine cone parts laying on top of the snow, where the squirrels dropped them after eating the pine nuts while sitting in the tree above. Cool! There are a lot of critter tracks all over the place.
Looking at the news on the web this morning, I came across a cool website dealing with various vehicles in South Africa ( http://www.motoring.co.za/ ). It list a lot of vehicles I have never heard of before and are interesting to look at. Guess there are other parts of the world that build cars and motorcycles than the U.S. and Europe! Some are interesting and different.
Guess it is time to get to other things this day.
16 F, Cloudy, SSW wind 7 mph.
Good morning,
We have a tree. It isn't decorated yet, but it is in the house and will be dressed today. It ain't big, but cute. The tree is the same height at Margriet, so she should be able to put the star at the top. :-) When I lifted the tree after cutting it from the stump, I noticed an orange marking tape on it. I put it on the tree the first summer here with the intent of eventually moving it and clearing the patch for a strawberry bed. At the time, the tree was about 8-10" tall, now about 5'-0"! Time flies. I think we will be not using most of the tree decorations.
We went over to Otto's Meats in Luxemburg yesterday to pick up the meat for Christmas. We got a Roulade roast. It is a combination of pork and beef. I have never tasted it, but Margriet assured me it is almost as good as Lutefisk. I am looking forward to it. Of course it really brings back memories and extends the tastebuds for Margriet. The owner, Otto, waited on us. Margriet really enjoys him as he is from Germany and the two of them talk in German the entire time. They have a good time too. I only hear "what is necessary"! Actually I get a charge out of it, watching and listening to the laughter in Margriet's voice.
We took another step into the 21st century yesterday. Brenda has been after us to download Skype so we can talk on the "telephone" using our computers. She mentioned it first, a day or so before the hard-drive on this died. Then had more important things to load again onto this. Yesterday was the day! Shortly after downloading, we discovered that Brenda was online, so did the necessary steps to contact her and connect. It worked! Fairly well too. Margriet and Brenda talked for about 20-30 minutes. Of course it was all in Dutch, so all I had to do was to monitor the volume control. I am sure the conversation would have lasted longer, except Kalle apparently was on her lap and all of a sudden became rather odoriferous. It really was good to actually hear Brenda's voice. Kalle's too!
The cool thing about Skype is it uses normal computer web rather than phone company equipment. The cost is nothing - the part I like - and the system works fairly well. We use a microphone and the computer's speakers so we both can listen and talk. Apparently a headset with attached microphone is better for quality, but will sacrifice that for the ability to both listen at the same time. I was surprised at how good the quality is. I had purchased the microphone several years ago to use with a different program to talk with Margriet before she moved, but she kept saying the quality was so poor she didn't want to. It just sat on the shelf until now. I can really see the value of the system, not only in saving money. It also will be a lot more convenient to use than the phone system we have available to us.
While setting up the program, it searched for people with the same names as those in my address book who also have the service. It came up with several. They all turned out to be folks in other parts of the world, except one. My sister-in-law, Mary, was listed, but she must have moved to England! Also very close to the same age as Mary. A couple of others also were located in England and another in Germany. Small world - even though we drove to Luxemburg yesterday!
Margriet delivered the Christmas breads yesterday on our way to doing the errands. One of the errands was to pick up some stamps. The post office was out of Christmas stamps, so had to settle for other patterns. I did forget to pick up some for the letters to the Netherlands, so still have them to pick up.
With the warming weather, the light fluffy snow has changed more to a consistency of sugar. Not as east to walk through. I did find a "highway" of sorts going between two bushes about 30' apart in the woods. The highway was formed by mice (or mouse) taveling between them. All kinds of tracks going back and forth. Also noticed a lot of pine cone parts laying on top of the snow, where the squirrels dropped them after eating the pine nuts while sitting in the tree above. Cool! There are a lot of critter tracks all over the place.
Looking at the news on the web this morning, I came across a cool website dealing with various vehicles in South Africa ( http://www.motoring.co.za/ ). It list a lot of vehicles I have never heard of before and are interesting to look at. Guess there are other parts of the world that build cars and motorcycles than the U.S. and Europe! Some are interesting and different.
Guess it is time to get to other things this day.
posted by Fisk | 6:13 AM
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