Rob and Carla .net

A month later and I'm finally going through my photos from Thanksgiving. I've created one album so far of Thanksgiving Day at the Diehl's. Follow the link .

Sorry it took so long. It's been a real busy few weeks. I'm going to try and get updated pictures soon.

I took this video with my phone. The carpeted area is our family room, the tile is the start of the dining / living room. Apparently, Calli decided that Bluebell shouldn't be allowed in the dining room. The dog is nearly twice the size of the cat now, but you wouldn't know it looking at this video.

Friday we brought home our new puppy. What a joyous sleepless time it's been. Our cat Calli Mari is finally getting used to having her around. She spent the first two days under the bed. Now she ventures out but is still a little wary, as shown in this picture. I'm hoping to get more pictures available soon. We've been taking a lot, but they're a lot to sift through. Puppies don't stand still for long.

Carla and I went back to the breeder's on Saturday to see Bluebell. This was the last "visit." The next time we go back will be to pick her up. We're soooo excited.

The breeder is awesome at keeping us updated with how she's doing. We hope to get back and visit her again this coming weekend.

On August 4th, Carla and I went to the breeder's to look at our new puppy. She's still too young to come home, not until September.

I've tried to say this myself on several occasions: If you really think about it, the fact that anything on a computer works is amazing. At a low level, magnets read and write ones and zeros on ridiculously fast rotating platters, and then are assembled into files, which then is stored in memory, which is then passed through a video card and converted into some format that can be displayed on a screen. Throw in networked computers and the potential for signal loss over long distances and the probability that something at some point in the process will fail, and the potential for failure increases exponentially. Maybe I'm alone, but I'm in awe of the fact that my computer doesn't just randomly catch fire and explode.       - Jake Vinson I came across this today on one of my favorite sites: Worse Than Failure . A geeky site that essentially pokes fun of the mistakes other programmers make. It's good to keep for programmers because they never want to see their code fea

I'm getting a dog! I've wanted a dog every since we moved to Florida, but I had to "get off the road" and then we wanted to wait for the house. Well, for my birthday this year, we put down a deposit on a new dog. Her name will be Bluebell - after the flower, not the ice cream. After months of talking about it and debating the merits of different breeds, I finally decided to get an American Boxer. We debated getting a Black Mouth Cur or an Akita, but I think the Boxer has the playfulness and energy level I was hoping for. They stay puppy-like for a long time, which I think is perfect for us (we love to baby our pets).

Sunday was Mother's Day. And Mom visited. We went to Busch Gardens and took one of their safari tours. We were loaded on a big open bed on the back of a truck and driven through the animal park. It was truly an experience. A little too much time was spent with the giraffes, but I guess that's because the rhinos are too dangerous - or endangered. Anyway, we were able to feed the giraffe a lot. And the giraffe loved it. Four words of caution though: Giraffes drool - a lot!

Carla and I went to Myrtle Beach for vacation this past week. What a relaxing time. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot to do or to take pictures of. We did bring back this real neat statue of an elephant. Just thought it was wonderful. Currently, it's in my office.      

We picked up a new desk at CostCo. It sat in the garage for a couple weeks, but finally Carla and I built it yesterday. It's so big, but the side that sticks out from the wall can be moved around, so it's still possible to put in a sleeper sofa someday - in case we have more than one set of house guests.

We bought some patio furniture this weekend. Here are the pictures. When putting it together, we realized a lot of bugs were coming through the open spaces of the screened in porch framing. Carla and I spent all day Saturday caulking the seams.

I'm home. Next project for me: clean / organize my home office.... Then again, maybe not: http://tinyurl.com/3xbh5x .

Until 3/15/2007.

Yippee! We finished the screening of the lanai. A lot of hard work, and Carla and I really pushed it at the end. But it looks great! It looks like an amateur did it, but it's one of those things that make you go: "Wow! I did that." Here are some pictures of it. There's still some things to do - add a closing mechanism to the door and caulk all the seams, but I'd say the hardest parts are done. P.S. It wasn't supposed to be pictures of the cat, but she's a little diva sometimes.

Here is a list of all the things I am allergic to: Trees : Cedar, Cypress, Box Elder, Pepper Tree, Australian Pine, Oak Live, Sweet Gum, Bayberry, American Sycamore, Black Willow, American Elm, and Hackberry. Grasses : Perennial Rye, Timothy, and Bermuda. Weeds : Lambs Quarter, Pigweed, Nettle, Short Ragweed, Marsh Elder, Sage Brush, English Plantain, and Dock Sorrel. Animals : Cat Hair, Dog, and Horse. Others : Penicillium, Dust Mites. So, if you see me sniffle or cough, it's unlikely that I'm sick. I'm probably just suffering from one of my 28 known allergies. ;)

A project my dad and I started Thanksgiving weekend got a big boost this weekend. Carla and I are screening in our lanai (it's a porch in the back of the house for those not familiar.) After the holidays I took kind of a long break. I'm sure the neighbors weren't too happy. Last weekend my neighbor came over to help and we put up the horizontal frames and this weekend Carla and I put up the door and the first four panels of screen. Here's a picture of the first one in.

Calli added some pictures to her blog. She's enjoying one of her Christmas presents. >  Calli's blog

The weekend after we got back from Ohio, Rob and I went to Apopka, Florida to have Christmas with my mom. She had already cooked once for the holiday so I took over the making of dinner. She says it was very delicious! After dinner, we opened presents and had lots of fun. I've uploaded the pictures we took that evening.

After two months our new kitchen table finally arrived!