January 20, 2009:  Happy Inauguration Day!!!  Without getting too into all that political stuff, let's just say it's the beginning of a new era for this country and we're anxious to see how it goes.  As for things around here, they've been busy to say the least.  I've been working insane hours, often all day and all night to get a very large upgrade completed here for northwest core network.  We're about 80% finished and have a couple more nights of work to do this week to be completely done.  As soon as we finish we have to pack up the old equipment and get it shipped to Philadelphia in time for us to fly in the first week of February and upgrade the core network there with three days and nights of nonstop work.  Things will hopefully start to slow down toward the middle of next month, which will be much needed.  We haven't been doing much other than work but we did get to go to the Rose City Classic dog show in Portland this past weekend.  This was the second show that Isabela's friend Jeanette was showing Stella for us and as we watched her in the ring on Sunday morning it was clear that she was starting to figure out how this show thing works.  She stayed stacked (standing in the perfect position to show her confirmation) almost the entire time the judge was checking her teeth, bone structure and muscles.  As an example the last time I saw her do that she licked the judges hands when she tried to look at her teeth and wiggled out of the way when she touched her back and legs.  After having her brother Leroy around for her to play with it really got us excited about getting another puppy, hopefully the breeding they are planning for this Winter goes well and we have another furry ball of fun running around in the Spring.  When we got home we finally picked up a pet divider for the Element and got it installed so now we can feel better leaving her alone.  I guess that's about it for now, I'm working late tomorrow, my hip is killing me, and the hot tub is calling my name. 

January 9, 2009:  Hey everyone, just a quick update tonight, it's been a long week.  Things are starting to get back to normal around here again.  Stella is her old self again and starting to go to the dog park when we have time to take her.  My work is starting to get as busy as it was last year about this time, probably worse actually.  Lisa's store is almost finished so they will be moving out of the temporary pharmacy and into the permanent space soon.  The weather has warmed up but is very wet so we haven't spent much time outside at all.  I've been meaning to send out the Lefty fork off of my mountain bike for a rebuild but kept putting it off because our weather was staying so nice.  Now that it's so lousy outside I packed it up and sent it out this week, it should be back by the end of the month, hopefully the weather improves.  We're off to Portland next weekend for the Rose City Classic dog show with Stella and some friends, it will be a good time no matter how well she does.  The cool part is that this show will be on Animal Planet sometime in March.  If any of the dogs we know do well I'll be sure to let you all know in time to check it out on TV.  Well that's about it for me, I worked until about 230am on Tuesday and didn't get home until just before 7am this morning after working all of last night.  The worst part is that our work failed so we had to back out our changes and will need to reschedule for Monday night.  We figured out the problem but didn't have enough time left in our maintenance window to finish it.  Lisa is due home soon, Stella is passed out on the floor from too much running at the park today, and I'm about ready to pass out myself.  Have a great week. 

January 2, 2009:  We hope you all had a Merry Christmas, ours was great, nothing special but great.  The rest of last week and beginning of this week was really just more of the same with the snow and insane traffic every where we went.  Overall we got near two feet of snow at our house over a little more than a week, from what the weather guy on the news says, this is the most snow we've had at this time of year since 1861, figures because we moved here to get away from the snow!  I shoveled the driveway and walk and part of the sidewalk a few times over the last few days and was really one of the only people in the neighborhood to do even bother.  The funny part is that we have no trouble getting in and out of our driveway both on foot and in the cars when everyone else is still struggling to come and go.  They complain that shoveling it hard and it's too cold but honestly I enjoy it, fresh clean air and a little exercise during the time of year that I get very little.  It's supposed to start raining tonight and be in the mid to high 40's all weekend so now flooding is a concern, I need to get out front and clean out the storm drain before everything starts to back up.  Our street hasn't been plowed and probably has six to ten inches of packed snow and ice on it which is going to be a huge mess when it starts to melt.  Other than the weather nonsense not much else is new.  We made a nice Christmas dinner with ham and all kinds of yummy side dishes, that was fun because we never really cook.  Stella is doing well, she's getting the cabin fever as well but should be able to go to the park again real soon.  I found a few pictures that we took but never uploaded and put them on her page, check them out if you're bored.  Enjoy the weekend and we'll hook up next week.