Friday, January 28, 2011

Not Much Happening, But We’re Busy

Linda is back to her beading club and her Thursday morning classes, in which she learning a lot and getting projects done.  Next month she will be taking a new class on Tuesday morning in Newport where she hopes to learn some advanced techniques.

And she’s doing taxes again this year! After a 4 year vacation, she has volunteered with AARP to help senior citizens in the area file their taxes.  She’s been classes to brush up on what’s new, and then she had to take a test to be certified, which she passed with flying colors.  Her first appointments start on February 9, and she’ll be working every Wednesday until April 18.  Yes, that’s the correct date for the deadline for filing taxes this year.

I’ve got a couple of classes of my beginning Windows 7 class under my belt.  After the first 15 minutes of the first class I knew I had to slow way down and start with the basics.  The class is a real mixture of beginning computer users and people with new computers moving from Windows XP to 7.  Some of them are bored, while others are lost.  Luckily I have 4 good assistants to roam the room and give individual help.  I helped present a program for the PC club on backing up your data from your computer, and it was well received.  It feels good to be back participating in group functions, but it’s taking a lot of time.  We haven’t even been to the beach this year.

We did add a new bike rack to the carport.  This was important because we want to add some additional storage out there for our tools and garden equipment.  These small condos don’t have a lot of storage room.

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We also got the new drapes in the living room and wood blinds in the kitchen.  This finishes off the kitchen nicely as they blend with the cabinets.  The drapes are textured sheers that add a nice airy feel to the room, with a decorative rod.

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That’s about it from “the Village”.  Let us know what you’ve been doing so far this year.

Monday, January 17, 2011

First Post of the New Year

And January is almost over.  We’ve been busy, but for the most part really boring stuff.  I’ll try to give you some of the highlights to bring you up to date with the Huber’s and Pearl.

Yes Pearl is still with us.  Some days are better than other, but we don’t think she’s in a lot of pain.  So we’re continuing to baby her here in Laguna Woods, where she has no steps and nice green grass.

We spent New Years Eve day with Matt, Suzanne, and William Jaxson.  He’s growing so fast.  Here’s a picture from the day.

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Jeni was still visiting from AZ, so she got into the action.  That evening we went to Temecula to celebrate our niece Katie’s 30th birthday.  I can’t remember when I was thirty it was so long ago.

Jeni headed back to AZ, and we settled into a new routine in the Village.  I’m still working at the computer workshop and the Photography lab, but I’ve also added teaching a basic Windows 7 class for 5 weeks.  Linda is still beading twice a week, but she has also volunteered to do income taxes under the AARP umbrella for senior citizens here in the village.

We both celebrated our birthdays during January, and on the weekend Jeni came over to be with us.  Matt, William Jaxson, and Jeni surprised us on Friday, 1/15, here at our place.  The birthday present they shared with us was a special professional photo of Pearl, alone and with us.  She came to our condo with lights, backgrounds and cameras and took a lot of pictures.  We’re anxious to see how they came out.

On Saturday we all headed to San Diego to go to the Zoo.  Linda and I are very fond of zoos, and we hadn’t been to the San Diego Zoo in 30 years.  Here we are getting ready to tour around.

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This is the first big outing for us with William Jaxson and we had a ball.  And he was the best behave 3 month old in the entire zoo.

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They have a lot of new exhibits which was very exciting.  Here’s the Panda’s:

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The new Polar Bear exhibit:

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Here are some good shots of the lions:

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And the Koalas.  This was just before the zoo closed, so the lighting isn’t that good, but they’re so cute:

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Here’s the last picture of the day:

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If you want to look at all of the pictures, they’re on our Picasa Web albums.  Click on the links:

http://picasaweb.google.com/winequest/NewYearSEveWithJaxson#

http://picasaweb.google.com/winequest/SanDiegoZoo#

And all of our pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/home?hl=en&tab=wq

So now you know what’s been going on.  I promise to post at least once a week to keep you up to date.