12-25-10 Another year is about to close. Sharon smiled and gave me a big hug this evening and said "this is our third Christmas, we have another year of "history" together. She is such a precious cutie, she knows how to make my heart smile. (smile) We just finished one of the best Christmas's yet. We spent the most fantastic day with her dad. I prepared a boneless rib roast for lunch (my second attempt) and it turned out perfect. Sharon's dad arrived around 10:30am and we had a nice visit before lunch. We got to talking about radio controlled airplanes so I dug out a video tape of my R/C flying days. We sent a couple hours chatting about construction and flying radio controlled airplanes while the roast cooked.
About the roast. I experimented a little more this time. I brought the meat out of the fridge early and let the meat rise in temperature to about 50 degrees. I placed crushed garlic cloves in the center and also poked whole cloves in the meat at various places, added seasoning, tied up the roast at the ends and three strings in the center then buttered the ends, added more seasoning to the outside and then poked in a digital thermometer and placed the roast on the roaster rack and added about 1in. of water in the bottom of the roaster pan. I preheated the oven to 500 degrees, and cooked at this temperature for 20 minutes then dropped the temperature down to 350 and then monitored the digital readout. I set the temperature alarm for 130 degrees. When the alarm went off, I removed the roast from the oven, covered it and watched the digital readout. When the temperature hit 140 degrees... dinner was ready. WOW! It was FANTASTIC!! It had a gorgeous pink in the center and was "mouth watering" juicy! YUM!! (smile)
After the three of us stuffed ourselves, we retired to the living room. Originally we were planning on a good game of bowling on the Wii. Sharon's dad loves to bowl on the Wii. However, Sharon suggested I show her dad my John Deere toy collection. Well, needless to say, that took up the remainder of the afternoon. (smile) Sharon's dad is a farmer so many of the Ertl John Deere toys he was very familiar with. I couldn't resist the moment. I surrounded him with the toys as I brought them out to show him... then I snapped this photo. Her dad is so cool! (smile) The photo turned out fantastic so we printed it out on photo paper so her dad could show what Santa brought him. (chuckling) It was a SUPER WONERFUL day.

12-10-10 Mike and Robert (my two boys) brought their families for a weekend visit. Melody, Mike, Sierra, Katie and Ali arrived Friday afternoon and Robert, Alex and Lea arrived Saturday morning. Without question, everyone endured some pretty tight but fairly reasonable accommodations. (smile) At least no one had to sleep on the floor... least that I was aware of. The Wii got a pretty good workout over the weekend. I seen the kids play games on it that I did not even realize it had. Leave it to the younguns to discover the nooks and crannies of any game machine. (chuckling) We all got our fair dosage of bowling which was a lot of fun. Saturday afternoon it was my task to prepare a 7lb boneless rib roast. (my first attempt). It turned out wonderful! It was just a tad rarer than I personally prefer but there were plenty of well done portions that everyone got a large chuck to their liking. It sure disappeared in a hurry. (smile) Sharon prepared the salad and other fixings for the meal. It was really a lot of fun for Sharon and I putting the meal together. She is super fun to work in the kitchen with. Awesome cook she is! (smile)
Sunday morning, before heading out to return home, everyone hit the ice skating rink in the park. I did not dare to get on ice skates, but it sure was tempting. At my age and frail body, I just cannot take a chance on getting hurt. Mike and his family, Robert and his family "all" got on skates! They had the whole skating rink to themselves. Apparently, we got there early enough that no one else was skating. I used Sharon's camera to take short video clips which I later selected multiple images to create this composite photo of everyone skating. The skating party was a wonderful way to put the finishing touches to a fantastic visit with the boys and their families. Sharon and I were tickled to see all the kids together this trip. The kids are now reaching the ages to where they are starting to spread their wings out, eager to discover the world of their own accord. This will probably be their last visit with them all together. Children grow up so fast! (sigh) I'm very proud of Mike and Robert. They both have wonderful families. They are doing alright.

5-25-10 I almost let two months slip by again. (sigh) Oh well, no one is going to be moved one way or another here if time does sneak away. (smile) A lot has happen in the last two months or so. With respect to our ongoing search for a housing choice of options, Sharon and I have opted out of any notion of moving on or near the ranch. We have discussed the very real possibility of moving out of Eastern Oregon. As much as it would have been a joy for the both us to participate and contribute our collective skills towards the daily and seasonal routines of farming, we have both mutually arrived at the conclusion that our further contribution is neither needed nor wanted. Sharon is happy in heart that she was able to come home and help her father take care of her mother during her time of need. Now that her mother has passed away, her father is quite able and capable of daily work and life such that our continued presence simply is no longer necessary. Myself feeling fortunate and gifted in the knowledge that Sharon is satisfied and confident that she contributed in a significant way towards aiding her father during a very unpleasant and difficult time in his life also that Sharon and her father allowed me to participate in such an "accepting, loving" way. It was a rich experience for me to revisit those wonderful "farming" days of my past. What surprised me was that I had not forgotten all that much. (smile) Sharon is both happy and sad. Happy in the knowledge that she contributed the best way she knew how and sad in the knowledge she will not be able to participate as close in her father's new life. However, life stands still for no one. Sharon's father moves forward with the love of his heart, farming... and we move forward with our current scramble to get on top of Sharon's medical transcription business. Events the last month or so with Sharon's clients has precipitated her into taking on two more permanent clients for a total of five. Then, unknown to Sharon at the time, the medical organization she communicates with instituted a "major" and "totally" different system including a totally new user interface! WOW!! To put it bluntly... WHAT A HORRENDOUS MESS!! Virtually NO ONE in the system is happy. They closed out the old system from being added to and dumped the new system on everyone with little to no training. Sharon and other transcriptionists could not find where to place their work, few had permissions to access different parts of the system... yet doctors continued to see patients. They could not access the necessary patient files so it turned into one vicious circle of confusion. The horrible thing about all this is that this is part the "Obama" medical overhaul. This thing is going nation wide!! It is Microsoft based and is a clear and blatant mission of Microsoft to be smack dab in the middle of the trillions of dollars Obama intends on throwing at this new medical system. Sharon has been utterly and completely snowed under the last four weeks. I have even sat down and typed my fingers to the point of my fingers are getting smaller to the point my wedding ring now just floats on my finger. (grin) Myself discovering the mass confusion and the clinics relying so heavily on Sharon's skills to keep their offices straight that I have put my "programming" hat back on to learn PHP and MYSQL to devise a "logging" database to keep track of all the hundreds and hundreds of chart logs Sharon deals with daily. Sharon is an "AMAZING" lady and individual. She deals and keeps up with all the hourly current confusion on a daily bases with her business and clients half way across the country remotely yet juggles & struggles with issues concerning our daily lives and maintains a relative calm, collected and level head despite it all. It is "truly" a satisfying and heart warming experience to sit "next" to my wife and collectively pool our experience towards this complex issue we face this day. I am truly blessed to experience life (hand in hand) with such a "gifted" heart and soul. Welp! I gotta get back to my typing quota so I can get back to my programming project. Cheers for now! (smile)

4-1-10 Wow! I guess it's time to add to this page. Gee, how time slips away from us when we're have so much fun! (smiling). I trust the year end (2009) was a wonderful event for you as it was for us. I, Sharon and her father shared Thanksgiving with Sharon's cousins in Central Port, OR near Medford. We were invited for Christmas with Sharon's cousins in Lake Oswego, OR. Both events were wonderful!! We enjoyed some wonderful holiday meals then a ton of shopping... (chuckling) and I hate shopping!! Wow! Lake Oswego has some really cool stores, shopping malls and places to eat! Sharon and I had a wonderful time and we thank her cousins for their hospitality. They are really neat folk!! Since the first of the year, we've just been busy doing the hibernation thing... working and staying busy. Myself, I've been helping Sharon's dad with farming chores and tasks. We went through his wheat combine getting it ready for next harvest. Sharon's dad is a pleasure to work with. His mind is so inventive. If it can be built using a torch, welder or metal lathe... it's no challenge for her father. A great many things around the ranch reflect on his amazing ingenuity. On the home front, Sharon and I are still seeking avenues of finding a permanent home to live in. It's been frustrating to say the least. Thankfully we're not pressed for time and we have our current mobile home to live in. We have several options to work with providing events dealing with governmental bodies make their way through the can & can't do system. On a recent trip to Salem to visit my son Mike, Sharon and I stopped in Woodburn, OR and specked out a Palm Harbor, Mount Shasta manufactured home. It was one of those times where you've viewed a hundred homes and found none that really said home. This one we walked through the front door and it hit us. This is the one! We both loved the floor plan right away and we spent three hours with the dealer going through all the details of selecting the custom wants and don't wants. We have the price of this home locked in for four months. Unfortunately it looks like we won't get in on some of the "first time home owner" tax breaks before Apr. 30th due to the slow local governmental processes. That's about if for now. The only other interesting event on the immediate horizon is that Sharon needs to travel to Oklahoma City, OK for systems training. We are debating the merits of me traveling with. Sharon has a mobile home just outside of Oklahoma City that her son is currently living in which is in need of some minor repairs. We've been discussing the merits of loading up some tools in the van, driving there, spend a week doing the fix-it and drive back verses just her flying there. It's over 1700 miles one way! What a way to see that part of the country for the first time!! I'll share next time what our decision eventually was. (smiling)