Happy New Year

Here is a warm toast to a Happy New Year. Beth and I are off to spend the evening with her partner in crime at Placerville Elementary School District. Good italian food and some new party games ahead. Both of us are hoping we will make it to midnight before falling asleep. We will see.
May this new year bring growth, blessings, and opportunities for all the members of this blog.

Peter Tan in Malasia

has some first hand experience of the earthquake and tsunami here. Peter lives in Malasia, felt the earthquake in his wheel chair while he was getting ready for church on the 20th floor of his apartment. He has cousins in a fishng village at the coast who survived the event.

"I Will" wristband

For those of you who received a green wristband. Here is the URL for the research foundation that sells them.
http://www.parentprojectmd.org

A quick run to Home Depot . .

. . . to rent a sewer snake to clean out the sewer. It's always best just go get the equipment, use and put it away. Other, seemingly easier ways of dealing with it just don't work and add uneccessary steps. I got to Home Depot as they were closing, but I had called ahead and the guy in the rental department was waiting for me at the back rental door.

There were some small roots in the line. This, combined with the interesting way that our sewer main goes to the alley that is uphill from the house, makes a buildup of sludge that contributes to the way that the waste from the washing machine backs up into the shower and makes the toilet bubble--that is actually a funny noise.

Everything was fixed and the sewer machine in in the garage in under an hour.

Thanks to everyone who came for Christmas. [Dave and Rob: the stuff that Grandma gave you is still here somewhere. Come and get it soon!]

Happy Boxing Day to all!

Chistmas in two houses

Because we split out holidays. I need to post pictures from both of our holiday gatherings.

My father and Brianna reading a magazine.

Here is a picture of Beth, David and Rob.

Here is the Peterson, Weaver, Wilson, Remington, Curtin family.

Blogging from the Apple Store at the Grove

Cindi and I are here with the Barnesons: Jeff and Tara; Don and Marianne and Kurt with Amie Schultz. Went to dinner, shopped for Santa. Saw the "snow."

Now we are waiting to meet everyone for the drive home.

Merry Christmas!

Cindi and I went to Yellowstone . . .

this last fall. Here, Cindi, and all the tourists are looking for wild life. Our tour bus leader, Patrick, was great for pulling to the side of the road whenever anyone saw something to look at.


Later, I think it was October, Cindi flew out to Atlanta to join me for a week end. We had the opportunity to go to the Carter Presidential library. Jimmy Carter is the only president who I have met personally. I now work with someone whe was an intern in the Carter administration. This photo is taken in Atlanta at the library in a replica of the Oval Office.

Search terms

935 is the number of hits for our family blog. I don't know what people think when the look at our humble family blog, but some of them have used search engines to find us. Here is a sample of some of the search terms they have used:

Beth and Steve Curtin
speedy gonzalez dear santa
kirsten gum
Lance Armstrong yellow wrist bands
www.stevecurtin.com
Muumu
Sociology: Mystic River
Polar Express ticket punching
pottery barn sierra madre


So, that is an interesting feature of the site meter that appears at the bottom of the page.

UPDATE: more terms

dear santa
peppermint bark williams sonoma
Ikea gift certificates in England

Cross Country

The word will get out about it, and you'll be asking me questions about it anyway, so here it is. I ran for my school twice in cross country running races because I am one of the faster runners at school. There were one or two hundred runners in the boys' race both times. I really wasn't sure what to expect because I had never done anything like this before, but I guess I didn't do too bad. The record was something like 11:37 and the slowest ones did it in about 20 minutes. It's two miles in La Mirada Regional Park with hills. I placed 23rd at 13:05 the first time, which was about 30 seconds better than when I practiced with the school. The whole school was expecting Mitchell Moore, the fastest kid at school, to win because he won last year, but a new record was set by someone else (who beat him in 800-meter run last year), and there was about 20 seconds in between the two, so of course the whole school was disappointed.

The second run was definitely harder in terms of the competition. I improved maybe a second or two, but I still only got 48th. Mitchell "Big Mitch" Moore lost again to the same guy (who was a second off his record he set the Friday before).

Just wanted to let you study up on things so I get all your questions asked.

Steve's Christmas List

Not very long or creative. A gift certificate to book stores, record stores, or Fry's works for me.
My favorite gift is sharing the holidays with others. Kyle, Beth and I are looking forward to being in Whittier for Christmas Eve and Day.
We will also have time during the holidays for my family and our friends.
Nothing better than that.

Happy Blogday

I want to acknowledge the 1 year anniversary of this family blog. Glen got us started on this last December. I have enjoyed it and the opportunity to keep connected to family in a new way. Thanks, Glen. And happy birthday to the blog! Or happy anniversary to the bloggers. Anyway, cheers.