An email from Sam

JEN ASKED ME TO POST THIS. THEY WANT TO BE BLOGGERS TOO, BUT CANNOT REMEMBER THEIR USER NAME AND PASSWORD. THEY PROMISED TO WORK ON THAT AND GET ON BOARD!
THE GIRLS SAID ON-LINE TIME COST MONEY, WHICH THEY HAVE LITTLE OF, SO THEY DON'T WANT TO SPEND THE TIME TO LEARN TO BLOG YET, BUT WILL SOON. IN THE MEAN TIME THEY ASKED US TO COPY THEIR EMAILS TO THE BLOG.

hi mom, well i have a job here in dahab, so i don't think i am going to leave. ever. it is paradise. we met some guys who own a stable full of arabians. there are two babies. they said if i stayed that they would give me a baby to have and train and love. so i think i will. they are also going to open a riding school here, and i told them that i would work for the school. they said that they would give me a place to stay if i did. so thats what i want to do. they also have resturuants and a dive shop, so jaime will work there.
seriously though...i think i will do that next summer...and i promise i will write more detailed emails later. hope everything is going well. love you! sam

Aussieland

Ok. I have not had much time here and will be spending more time in the near future to stay tuned. My opinion is for the time it takes, and the value for the dollar, Thailand and China blows this place away. Maybe because it is "winter" here. It actually feels like the holidays. I get the feeling that I do when it is winter back home. Kinda strange considering it is the end of May. Perhaps it is much better in the summer but to me, kind of boring compared to Bangkok. Was really tired as I missed Monday alltogether, flew in at 6 AM, went to my hotel, took a shower, and went to work all day, I struggled to not go to sleep to early so went waling around town and ended up at a German bar. It was fun and then had to struggle to leave because they were having a blast.

Hey, Its me, i guess i am a blogger now.

NEWEST UPDATE FROM THE NOMADS.

hi
we are in dahab now, we all survived the camel trekking. we were full of bug bites and dirty and we had sand everywhere from rolling down and jumping off the sand dunes, but it was awesome! we slept under the stars after dancing to bedouin drum party around a campfire. we must have seen 15 shooting stars. the sky was so clear and we couldnt see lights of the town at all. the camels were fun but slow, sams was pregnant and refused to run so she set the pace. sam got to milk a baby camel anna would have been jealous. dahab is like paradise on earth! we are both drawn to it, so quiet and everyone so helpful and kind. there are so many people that we've met that have come here on vacation and ended up staying here for years. sam and i are going to just stay here for the summer and sam is going to work in the stables and help mohamed start a riding school and i am going to do diving lessons! we have it all planned out. jk. kind of, we want to come back next summer and do this. BE AUTIFUL!!!! water is soooo crystal clear. tomorrow we are snorkeling in the blue hole and then hiking up to st. catherines to see the sunrise! i dont want to leave yet! sam ran out of money cause a loan didnt go through yet so i have been covering both of us, but that happens on every trip. we are going to go watch the stars from the beach now. we dont have time to blog but you can copy and paste this on if you want. we have to pay by minute. ps what is going on with new york now? i have two bags, but one is full of sams and my suvineers that we want to pass out so i will bring them both to new york. how do i get to the hotel?
love
jaime

Jaime and Sam's camels, worn out.

I don't know where he gets these things, but dad sent this to me today. I hope the girls are checking the blog. It is so funny.

Skype Ad Featuring Anna and Pals

This ad is running in "Hoop Magazine, an NBA publication.

ANOTHER UPDATE ON JAIME AND SAM

I GOT ANOTHER EMAIL TODAY FROM JAIME, I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE IT. HERE IT IS:
hi,
we are at the oasis now. this is a small town literally in the middle of the desert and we really feel like we are in africa now. we are about to take showers and go to sleep, and tomorrow we wake up early to take jeeps to cold water springs in the desert that are small pools surrounded by palm trees. then we sleep at a bedouin camp and sing and dance around the fire they make and then we sleep under the stars and pick up our camels the next day to explore the sand dunes! i am so excited. even julie is loving this despite our bug bites and dirty feet. i will not smell fresh when i come off the airplane, thats for sure! everyone is very friendly. i have to run now. are these racoons a good idea? i guess that means you found my luggage too, thats good.
love
jaime

Jawbreaker

I heard that Jenna (the dog) picked up a one of Anna's Jawbreakers, and after slobbering all over it, spit it out on the floor. Daphne picked it up and put it in a small tin box. Later on, Nancy saw the box, opened it and popped the (now dry) jawbreaker in her mouth. Karen told of the jawbreaker's recent history, and Grandma disgustedly spit it out.

Shrimp on the Barbie.

Off to Australia this weekend. I cannot wait to dive there. Perhaps the next trip.

Janet's Overnight Guests

Janet's friend's son was cutting Janet's grass and he discovered 2 baby raccoons. Janet made a shelter for them, on her back porch, for the night of thunderstorms. A neighbor will take care of them.

The luggage is all Jaime's. She schlepped all of it to Europe, and we dragged it home. Not shown is Jaime's 80lb backpack and camera case. She is now in Egypt on a 4 day camel trek. She is safe for now. Its a good thing she didn't load all her luggage on the camel.

I inserted an e-mail that I just got from Jaime and Sam

THOUGHT YOU ALL WOULD LIKE A QUICK UPDATE FROM OUR WORLD TRAVELERS!!

we are still safe. we are heading to the desert tomorrow so we will not be able to email for a little bit. egypt is great. people are genuinely friendly except for the ones at the market that want our money. the apt. we are in is a typical egyptian apt. but we like it, and her friends are really cool, they took us to their favorite restaurant last night that was an open air restaurant with white linens and arabian music right on the nile river, it was my favorite restaurant ever and we got a 3 course meal with milkshakes and a hooka for 3 dollars each! i am really spoiled on prices now. we saw the pyramids and got to walk around inside them which was awesome! today we are going to sam's park and some mosques. have to run.
love
jaime

Great pics from Norway

Today was Western Day at Olivia's school.

Last Try

Norway Last Two Photos

More Photos from Norway

More Norweigan Photos

Norweigan Trip

A few pictures from Norway.

Norweigan Trip

Oslo is the most expensive city in the world. A McDonald hamburger with fries costs $ 15.00 US. A stein of beer is $ 14.00 I heard that a nice car costs close to $75,000, and if you need seats in the back, it will cost another $25,000 dollars (US). Citizens can retire at age 62 with full pay, if they worked for a certain number of years (I guess 20). The people look very healthy, and many of the younger women look like movie stars. Oe of the pictures in this blog is a young girl, around 18 to 20 working in a fish market.

Boy, does it rain ! around 275 days a year. Waterfalls, wow. We took a train from Oslo to Bergen and saw a few hundred waterfalls over a thousand feet high, many were much higher.
We had to switch to another train for a detour through a gorgeous valley, with huge and deep canyons, waterfalls, fjords and picturesque towns. Then we switched to a Fjord boat for a 2 hour fjord cruise, simply stunning. Then we swqitched again t0o another train to complete the journey to Bergen, reported to be the most beautiful city in the world ... maybe.

Norway has abundent electrical power from hydo sources, and abundent oil from the North Sea site. Wood is plentiful, and heats most family getaway cabins (away from it all) in the hills, valleys and fjords. Fish is readily available from the sea, lakes and streams. Taxes must be huge from high income earners, as health and all medical services are free, as is education and most government services.

On the flight back, from Oslo to the US, two rear toilets were closed because the Norweigans refused to allow the plane that had arrived from the US to empty their waste into their facilities. As a result, the fornt toilet and the first class toilets began to overflow into the cockpit. Janet was talking to a flight attendant and she told Janet that Norweigans drink so much beer on the flights (at $5.00 a beer) because it is so cheap. That accounts for the toilets overflow.

hi everyone back home. we are now in oslo norway. i would post pics, but grandpa and jaime are both out of memory, hundreds of pics from the fjords, we will post them when we can. even my cell phone is out of battery, so i cannot even take a new picture! norway is stunning. we have had a whirlwind trip. no time to breath. it has been rainy in oslo, but bergen was better. we went on a train trip up high in the mountains, then a boat ride,tour of the fjords for two hours, and a beautiful charter ride through very steep 20 percent grade, winding roads in the mountains, then back on a train to bergen. we had some time in cute little towns. bergen is one of the most beautiful cities i have seen. really cute. we have met people from all around the world and they all say this is the most expensive city they have ever been in, so we are glad to have the opportunity to visit for only 5 days. we would go broke. beer is around 10 dollars a glass, mc donalds is around 15 dollars for a meal! thank god for the free breakfast, we fill up there. well, three of us will return stateside tomorrow, and one is on to egypt, after a last minute scare for red tape, sam is on her way to muc. (airport code, get used to it.)
well, more to follow. picture too. on line time is expensive too, so no proof reading and the key board is a little strange, hope i communicated well enough. got to go. clock is running. love to all.

Good Job Sam

Your now a blogger. Don't forget to bring your digital camera (and regular one or Lisa will get mad) and take plenty of pics and post them. Egypt and school in Italy sounds great.

I got word yesterday that I have to go to Australia and Singapore before my trip to Phuket Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong with Karen. I have been told that I will have many trips to Australia. I am working on getting scuba certified so I can enjoy diving in Australia and South East Asia as well as other diving spots around the world.

Sam's First Blog

Ok, so I'm still trying to figure this thing out. It might take me a few times, so be patient. I am leaving on Saturday to go to either Frankfurt or Amsterdam, and then I will meet Jaime in Munich on Monday. From there, we are going to Egypt for 10 days! We will get on sometime and let you know how we are. After Egypt, I am going to spend the summer taking design classes at an art school in Cortona, Italy, which is about an hour or so outside of Florence. I hope everyone is doing well, wherever you guys are! Love you all!

Knee Surgery pictures

Ok. Just got back from the Doc. after surgery. The first picture, upper left show what a meniscus is supposed to look like. To the right of that, the pink one, is my ACL. Bottom left is my "badly torn" meniscus.

The next picture shows (lower right) an earlier tear that actually tore away from the meniscus and was free floating inside my knee. He could tell by how smooth it is. It is like a stone in a river and smoothes out over time. There were several pieces floating around. Lower left is another view of the recent tear. Upper left and right are after it was fixed.

Norway Trip

Janet, Anna and Grandpa Mike are leaving for Norway May 17. We all should be home around May 22. Jaime will meet us in Norway and maybe Samantha too. I think Jaime will be coming back to the USA the first week of June. I don't know when Sam will be coming back. THere is too much activity to keep track of. Grandma and Karen will be home, maybe they will be able to get e-mails, but I doubt it, since they are will be running a garage sale. Hopefully they will make some money. See auy all soon. Grandpa Mike

mom talking back

HI FAMILY, just saw your latest blog and am very excited about this. Maybe I'll use the computer more now. J your bike race looked fantastic and like alot of fun. Who won??/ Lisa hope your M day was great. Thanks for the beautiful flowers they make my whole house smell wonderful and add a needed touch of spring that we seem to be missing this year. I guess I have to talk about Gurnee as every one else seems yo be going to fabulous places except me. I am so looking forward to L day weekend and all of us being together for the first time in years. I want to make sure we get Crissy's photographer to get some pictures of all of us together who knows when this will happen again???? Yea gramps is going to Norway and I am helping Barb with her G sale. WE went to a great party last Fri Jerry's 70th . I thought everyone looked great until I saw g'pa's pictures. He needs HELP he seems to include everyones fat and wrinkles in all his pic's

Weekend pics

This weekend, Jordan organized a bike race and took the responsibility seriously. Notice the chalk lines on the street. Each "racer" also had their own dock where they had to park their bike and put all their stuff. They all decorated their little docking areas. We then went swimming at the neighbors. I thought some of you might like these pieces I found in Thailand and Hong Kong.

Home beach.

Bored. No ones blogging.

Answer

The answer to your question is that the content has been cached on your computer. That means even though the site changes, yours will not simply because it is cached. The way around it is to go to the site and push the F5 key on your computer and it will refresh and will be what is really on the site.

a question from Jan

I do not know if you fellow bloggers have the same question or not, but I decided to post the question so we all can learn. I saved the link to my desk top for ease in bringing up the blogspot, but when I access it from that short cut, it seems to be frozen in time, no subsequent postings are on there. Hey Pat, how long can this grow anyway? Do the postings ever fall off? Just curious.
I put a picture on my posting just so mine would not be the most boring blog.

Bulls & Bears Yearbook Models 2006

Daphne on Funnny Hair Day at School

A day at the beach

I took the kids to the beach the weekend before last. The first pic you can only see in California. Ladies doing Yoga on the beach. Notice the kid looking at them. The second is Olivia up to her neck in beach, the third is Jordan looking Stoic.

I put the Continental link in. I am not sure if anyone but the admin (me) can change the HTML which is what you would have to do to post a link in the link area. If you want one there, let me know and I will put it in.

Posting

Don't worry about breaking the blog. I can fix it. Post freely! Just don't edit the HTML unless you know what you are doing.

Norway Trip

Well, I still do not know what I am doing here. I thought maybe a link to coair.com would be a handy link to have on our blog. But I do not know how to do it and I do not want to break our blog. With regards to family/world travels, you may all like to take a look at www.norwaynutshell.com to check out our upcoming trip. Grandpa Mike, Anna, and I will be meeting Jaime in Norway on the 18th of May for a whirlwind 5 day trip. We are doing the Oslo-Bergen round trip with 2 nights in Oslo and 2 in Bergen. Sam and Jaime will then meet each other in Munich to catch a flight to Cairo, Egypt. (Then they can add comments to our blog!) After Egypt, Sam will head to Italy while Jaime flies back home, (after a 2-night stop in New York where she will join Crissy, Grandma, Jen, and me for a pre-wedding shopping weekend.) We will post pictures when we return! Look for those on a future blog posting.

Hello from Jan!

Okay, am I now an official blogger? I guess this is your first response. It should be more interesting than this but I am new!
This is one of my favorite pictures from Jaime's collection from Itatly. I am just playing wiht this. It is cool!

New trip booked!

My sister Karen and I are heading to Phuket Thailand. She will be there for 7 days and I for about 5. I will then head to Singapore for 5 days while she stays behind checking out the local beaches and cultural sights. We will then meet up in Hong Kong for some dining, drinks, shopping and sight seeing. Here is where we are staying in Phuket. The le Meridian Yacht Club.

Seoul Korea at Sunset

Seoul Korea at Sunset

Hong Kong

To start, this is one of my favorite pictures of one of my favortie cities.

The first post of my new Blog Site!

How cool is this. We can now blog each other and post things for others to read. We should keep this about travel, finance, philisophy, staying in touch and discussing our world travels.