It's our Anniversary!

Cathey and I were married 22 years ago today. I can't imagine life without her and I wouldn't want to. Man did I luck out or what?!

She's the beautiful one in this picture, smiling with pride and enjoying quality time with 'her babies'.

Here's to 22 more. At least!!

Great Picture

Dave Lamarsh had a birthday baseball gathering this weekend. Much fun. Thanks to Anne for arranging the event and putting up with us.

The big pic is a Mouldy Oldie from a few years ago when we had a 25th reunion of high school graduation. It was a great time, for sure. It included a volleyball get-together in the school gym in the afternoon of. From left to right are Dave Garlick, me, Graham White and Dave Lamarsh.

John's Blog is now available as a news feed

Depending on how savvy you are with the Internet you may have heard about News Readers, also known as 'RSS readers', 'Atom readers' or aggregators.

Many web sites also make their information available in XML format, which allows you to use News Reader software to subscribe to their site and receive the content as a news feed. You can subscribe to multiple sites and eventually you'll have your own electronic newspaper that only contains content you chose. This isn't the easiest thing on the Internet but it's not impossible and it is pretty neat. It also allows for feeds to hand-held devices like PDA's and cell phones.

Anyway, John's Blog now offers an XML feed. If you have a news reader and you want to subscribe, the link is http://ojpager.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

Passings

Bob Vandervaart passed away this past week after years of illness. Bob taught me French in high school in '75 & '77. He always had a smile and interesting, engaging conversation... and he made learning fun. I remember one year that he had a map of France on the wall and would bring in cheese from a different region of the country on Fridays for us to experience. I also remember once making too much noise while building a set for the school play just outside his classroom. To this day I try to hammer one nail in only 3 strikes, as he challenged me to do. My kids have both been taught in the French system, partly motivated by who Bob was. I wish for my children the kind of happiness, worldliness and fulfillment that Bob exhibited. I had the chance to introduce them to him on a bicycle outing a few years ago. I was happy to run into him occasionally over the past couple of years at the Windsor Folk Society. The sadness of his passing is offset by the positive memories and impact he leaves behind.

Back to School

After 3 years apart Derek and Janet are attending the same school again. Derek's in Gr. 12 and Janet's just starting high school, in Gr. 9.

The slates are cleaned for a new year. (In 2006 we don't clean slates, we "empty cache" but it's roughly the same).

Here's to a productive, educational year filled with challenges, opportunities and satisfaction! I think they're going to have a little fun this year too.