What's Happened in January with Chris and the Family

January 20, 2001 - I finally hooked up with my brother, Tim, last night via the WebCam and NetMeeting. It was a lot of fun seeing and talking to you. Tim. I visited Dave at the hospital yesterday. He says he'll be on crutches for 4 months. We're going to see him again today, I just hope he gets a speedy recovery. Work was tough this week (I just gotta win that Lotto, dammit). I've been looking at the tent trailer and I plan to start doing some little repairs over the next few weeks. Hopefully, we'll be ready to go camping by Heather's spring break. Mary Ann stopped by Saltwater City yesterday and picked me up some new live rock, an Arrow crab, and some small Emerald crabs. The Arrow crab is all spindly and looks fragile, but he is just too cool (Heather thinks he looks scary). Mary Ann named him "Jack" after the king of Halloween from the movie, "The Nightmare before Christmas". I'll get a picture of him soon and put him on the page. He has been chowing on the fire worms and we expect he'll get pretty big (lots to eat in our tank).

January 16, 2001 - Thought for the day: In 1555, Nostradamus wrote, "Come the millennium, month 12, in the home of greatest power, the village idiot will come forth to be acclaimed the leader." Funny if true. Mary Ann came home today with some great news. She got a raise of $100 per month!! Woo hoo!! That comes in handy in that my overtime has been curtailed a bit. Back to work tomorrow, Can't wait :^( I got the new light fixture and fan up in the kitchen today. It's really nice (I replaced the fan in the family room with the one from the kitchen as well, so I won't be crashing my head into it anymore). I had a nice visit with Dave yesterday. He's going in this week for surgery and will be hurting a lot. Good luck, my friend.

January 13, 2001 - Mary Ann and Heather joined Nancy and Dave and their family at Snoqualmie to go intertubing today. I had a busy day at work, so I didn't get to join in on the fun :^( Their daughter, Fallon, is having a birthday party tomorrow and so Heather will be spending the night. I'll be picking her up tomorrow after work. Let's hope they have some fun. Unfortunately, one of Mary Ann's 2nd assistants is out sick tomorrow, so she will be opening and closing the store (long day). The tent trailer is in better shape than I thought. When it warms up a bit, I can do a pretty good clean up job in it.

January 11, 2001 - We got the tent trailer Tuesday night. It needs some work, but for $125, I expected it to be in a lot worse shape. Another project to work on. I've been having a lot of fun chatting with everyone via NetMeeting the past week. Jeff got a camera and we've chatted once. Although my mom doesn't have a camera or mike, we've been sending her video and talking to her and she types back. I talked with Dave yesterday, but we really had a lot of chop (he's on AOL). It hooked up well with Marla last week, so I do have confidence it will work with those that don't have broadband. I think the cable only allows me to upload at 156 kps, so It doesn't really take that much to get it to work (that's 3 X faster than a modem, my download speeds are 80-100 X faster than a modem). I got a few days of OT this week. I also went back to the doctor yesterday and we changed my high blood pressure. Hopefully, we can get it under control. I lost a bunch of weight over the summer and got back down to 202#. I'm back up to 208#, but I've vowed to start busting my butt and start working out again. I think if I can get my weight back to 185-190#, I should be able to get the BP under control. I also had a nurse stop by the house today to draw some blood and take some urine (increasing my life insurance, so it was required). I got a card from Susan Boehlke (Carboy) and a card from Steve and Natalia Carboy. They filled me in on a lot of stuff and it was great to see pictures of them and their families. It made me remember and miss the times we spent together years ago. I also wish we were more in touch, but such is life. Take care, guys.

January 10, 2001 - Happy birthday, Steve!!!

January 7, 2001 - I talked with my brother, Jeff, and his family via NetMeeting yesterday. It worked quite well and they were able to see me as I spoke to them. They were thinking of getting a camera that afternoon, so I'll have to wait and see. Marla got on line last night and we confirmed that she could send video as well. So, everyone in Alaska and them there other parts, GET NETMEETING LOADED(and sign up on MSN Messenger). We got some big snails for our saltwater tank yesterday. I'm also going to get some crabs in a few weeks. Our tank is teeming with life (tube worms/feather dusters, shrimp, starfish, fire worms). The new crabs are two varieties, one eats fire worms and the others eat bubble algae (it's overrun my live rock). Our hermit crabs have been feasting on the small shrimp and one of our fish just laid eggs. Heather got back to school last week and has vowed to start working harder. Mary Ann is winding down from the holidays at her work and I've had an influx of a lot of patients at HMC. I got my Digital camera from Walmart.com less than 2 days after I ordered it. It's pretty cool and will take adequate pictures for posting or e-mailing. Mary Ann and I went to a dinner party Friday night with some people from my work and had a great time. I was called in to work today and I'll probably be called in the next 3 days as well (no time off, but lotsa OT).

January 2, 2001 - Happy New Year, everyone!!! We had fun New Years Eve. We spent the evening at our friends' (Nancy and Dave) up in Marysville. We had several families there and we played a few games (darts, Pictionary, etc.). We rang 2001 in with a few fireworks and just had an all round good time. Mary Ann had to get up at 6am to go to work, so it ended up being a long day for us. I stopped at Marla's house last evening and got her WebCam working. Soooo ... she can now video conference and send video mails. Dave had picked up a few digital cameras for Christmas and one was quite inexpensive and pretty cool. As luck would have it, It's on sale at Walmart for $80 and I'm very tempted to go get it. I hope the New Year brings everyone great happiness.

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