In Like a Lion...

Wow, it's already March of 2008!

What a dereliction of duties. I finally managed to sit down, as the scrolling Flickr! photos to the right indicate, and have added some new photos to view. Click the photo to the right or the Family Photos link (or that one right here) further down at the right to view.

Nothing too crazy has been happening, so we're just waiting out the winter for Spring to arrive. A few bits, though:

Mandy - we've added a dog to our household, so the urban farm continues to take shape. A bit too rambunctious for John & Judy, she now lives with us. Gabriel loves it, but even he gets a bit run over by her every now and then.

Gabriel Activities - He's been enjoying painting/art classes and now a toddler tumbling/bouncing class over at the Hillsboro SHARC. He's also a regular in the Turtles Sunday School class at Summit View Covenant Church.. see below.

SVCC.org - We've become regular attendees at Summit View Covenant Church in Beaverton.. located ever so temptingly near Monteaux's and Popeye's Fried Chicken. I don't know how to describe it other than to say that it's what you would get if a moderate Baptist church, an espresso/cafe, and a maternity ward were plopped into a blender. Once nice feature is that their sermons are in podcasts.. take a peak if you care to. Kurt Carlson is a good teacher.

Happy Thanksgiving

At least there's going to be nice weather in Hillsboro for the rest of the week. We'll be spending Thanksgiving with Gramma and Grampa, the Sacramento Reids and four of the Gallup Proffitts. Gabriel's had a hoot playing with cousins. There is a Wachdorf gathering in Seattle this weekend that Jill and Gabriel might make for a day or two, but looks like he's beginning to feel kinda yucky.

So a Happy Turkey Day to everyone and their families. Oh, and on a related note, if you've lately been wondering how Rick is doing, there's actually a video of him to watch.

Cheers!

New Website Additions

You'll notice that in the right-hand margin, there are a couple of additions to the page. First, the obvious one is the new Flickr slideshow of our family photos. They change automatically, but you can pause on one you like, move forward or backward, or just click the photo and you'll be taken to the larger version at the Flickr website.

Second, I've added a link under Family Links, to the Wachdorf geneology website, Wachdorf Connect. You can learn all about the Wachdorf, Pfleger, Hardison, and Plaehn families over there at your leisure. It's well done, with lots of photos, family letters, and other information scanned and meticulously organized.

Happy surfing!

D'Oh!

Bill Simpsonized, originally uploaded by korynasz.

Hmm.. this character must be Montgomery Burns' land use consultant.

Try it out for yourself.. you have to have a headshot to upload to that website. Maybe I can use this on my passport renewal?

Thomas & Friends Recall

I just realized I hadn't posted to here in a while. It's been a incredibly busy few weeks.

But the topic of this post is a Thomas & Friends wooden railway toy recall announced yesterday. Apparently, a whole line of wooden train toys, largely with the color red, has been identified by the Federal Government as having lead paint risk.

We are not unaffected. My Easter gift to Gabriel, the Deluxe Fire Station Set, was included in the recall, including the whole station and two red-painted fire train and fire engine vehicles. We'll be contacting the store we purchased them from to get more details for return/replacement.

Below is a photo of the various wooden toys that have been recalled. Grandparents, relatives, friends that have Thomas & Friends wooden toys of their own or for Gabriel's amusement should look at the photo and then click the link above for further information.

Update: Fair Oaks Illness

Yikes - someone in Fair Oaks, CA is reporting on Who is Sick? a scary combination of symptoms include burning sensations in the eyes. Specifically, a 16 year-old girl is reporting:

Runny nose Stuffy nose Sneeze,Head ache Dizzy Muscle ache Body ache Tired itchy burning eyes

Not only that, but Folsom looks like a hotbed of flu symptoms/illness right now! Quick: Tom get Kate and Hayes out of there!

Promising Website

With Gabriel battling a cold, we're not going to be able to go to Sacramento until after this weekend sometime unfortunately. There's no sense in others, particularly the baby, catching what he's dealing with right now.

But today, I stumbled upon what looks to be a promising website for parents of little ones and other germaphobes.

Who is Sick? utilizes Google Maps functionality and lets the user look up self-reported illnesses within a zipcode and the surrounding metro area. A large map on the screen shows little pie-chart icons that represent reported illnesses and each pie wedge color, if present, represents the symptom reported. If you click on any particular pie chart, a box of details about the person (age, gender, etc.) and all of their symptoms plus other comments appears.

One can also anonymously report your own illness or that of a family member to add to the data and information available.

To take it for a test run, I searched our zip code and found that runny noses/congestion seem to be happening a bit in the Hillsboro/Washington County area. Now keep in mind these are self-reported illnesses by people who have found this new/relatively unknown website. But as it grows, it'll be quite fascinating as one can watch for outbreaks of specific illnesses, by age and location. So you can rule out taking the toddler to the park if there are a lot of cold symptoms being reported in a short amount of time.