Author: Rene

Well, the big guy came and left again. Lots of new toys left behind here. Me and Siobhan woke up at four am and couldn’t get back to sleep anymore so at five we finally got up and started ripping open our gifts. Max had a little fun with his as well. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like next year with a little one crawling around!

We had a wonderful white Christmas with lots of snow to plow and shovel. You wouldn’t say it now though. Just two days ago my family was at our house and my nephews and nieces (and me) were out sliding on the hill behind the house. Since late that night the snow we had has become non-existant. We went from having four nights during Christmas where the temperature got below -10 and even went so low as -14.3 Celsius. Yesterday it was back up to 10 degrees.

Tonight is another celebration so we just want to wish everyone a wonderful Happy New Year.

Later now, time to start celebrating.

Rene and Siobhan

The temperature started dropping pretty quickly last evening. When I went to bed it was at -11 C. I checked the memory this morning and it had hit -14.1 C sometime during the night! The bay totally froze over right up to St. Alban’s and across to Morrisville. I hope this is a sign of things to come. It also looks like we won’t be having rain on Christmas day now…. keeping my fingers crossed that we have somewhat of a white Christmas!

We’re all off work now. Marshall and Gertie are here for Christmas and Dana and Steve will be home by tomorrow. Just waiting for the big guy now and taking it easy for a bit.

Later

Rene

Merry Christmas everybody!

It’s getting close now and we are all excited about the visit from the big guy in just a few more days.

Siobhan’s belly is growing uncontrollably and we can even see it move at times. Kinda scary knowing something is growing inside of her!

We had a big snowfall a couple of weeks ago. Nearly a foot of the fluff fell. I got to take my snowmobile for a little ride around the house. Then it rained for a week. Oh well, can’t win them all. The weather is nice and crisp again now and looks like it might hold through until Christmas Day.

Gotta run now, and if I don’t get a chance to say it again, Merry Christmas!!!

Rene and Siobhan

What a busy month this has been. It started with a trip to Daniel’s Harbour where Siobhan finally became a godmother. She was quite excited to have a godson finally and we made a good weekend trip out of it. We drove through Gros Morne National Park and saw our first snowfall of the year. No Moose on the trip though, just 50+ caribou in Daniel’s Harbour! We also checked out “The Arches” near Daniel’s Harbour and a few other sights in the area.

Then next weekend we went to Ottawa to visit our friends and do a little Christmas shopping. That was a good weekend, Mark and Annette threw a little dinner party one night for us to meet up with some of the people we met this past summer at their wedding and I found a wonderful new beer. The sticker on the side of the box proudly announced “Buck a Beer”! 🙂

In between all that we have torn up our basement, finished putting up drywall. gotten some plastering done and painted the inside of two closets and a bedroom. Now it’s time to finish up all of that and clean up the rec room which has everything from the rest of the basement tossed into it.

Finally yesterday we were in Grand Falls Hospital to get Siobhan’s ultrasound done. Yup, you read that right, she’s pregnant again. Right now she’s about 20 weeks along. We got to see the legs, arms, stomach, ribs and spine and the face of the baby. Looks a lot like… a little face. Hopefully we’ll have a copy of the pic next week and I can make a good post showing it off to the world.

Gone now!
Rene

P.S. We also got our camper back yesterday… things haven’t been taken care of like they were supposed to be. Not happy, but we are working on that again now. 🙁

I don’t know the exact date, but on a cold, wet day in November 1995 I got out of a Physics test at MUN and I didn’t feel too good about it. I went into one of the Computer Labs on campus around 11am and decided to play around a bit. After asking a few people for some help getting started I managed to find the AltaVista search engine (then www.digital.com/altavista as far as I remember) and started doing some searching. I was amazed at what I could find. It was 9pm before I got up again. I never ate, drank or used the washroom in the time I spent discovering the Internet. I guess you could say I was hooked!

From there I proceeded to call home. I found out my father’s email address. He was a bit of a pioneer in those times. He was using a dial-up, long-distance, SLIP account. His web browser was SlipKnot (???) and allowed him to view webpages. I don’t remember what he was using for his email client (Eudora maybe??) but I was using some terminal based text application at MUN.

Dad had a website up already and I had actually scanned some pictures for him while I was in Grade 12. Why I didn’t see the light then is beyond me! I had also been active on a few Dial-Up BBS’ during my teenage years. The adult folders on those were a godsend for me and my buddies. In November 1995 I put my first website online at www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2772. It was very rough. I only had 200 kilobytes of space and each file had to be individually uploaded using email.

Things changed then. I became very interested in the Internet… I eventually got into computer networks in general and have since completed my CNE (Novell) and MCSE (Microsoft) certifications along with my A+ and loads of experience building and maintaining networks and computer systems.

I find it even harder to believe that I started with computers at the ripe old age of 5. When, back in 1982 or thereabouts, Dad brought home our first computer. A Tandy TRS-80. I guess I should thank my Father for the way my life has turned out. If he had not introduced me to computers way back when I was just a boy I might be where I am now… and I like where I am now. 🙂 Thanks Dad.

Enough writing for me now. Gotta get to work!

Rene

Looks like our favourites to win have gotten themselves eliminated. We were rooting for the Gaghan Family since day 1, and they were always able to hang on. Unfortunately last night night they never overcame the bad luck that seemed to follow them around.

Who to root for now… the Linz Family or the Bransen Family???

Can’t wait for next weeks episode!

Rene

Hey all,

I got a bunch of new pictures online in my Gallery. Check them out here.

There’s some pictures of us getting ready for the Bar on Saturday night as well as a bunch taken at the bar. I also have some pictures of our house and some of the Trick or Treaters that came to get some candy!

It was a good party at the bar and the kids had an excellent starry night for roaming the streets in the search for candy!

Later
Rene