The Long Week Edition

As most of you know this was quite a long week for us. Grandpa Snyder passed away this week and we spent a fair portion of it with the Snyder family in Waterloo, sharing memories, tears, laughter, and songs with each other. I've said it before, but it bears repeating- I married into an amazing family. I've never seen such a big family be such a close family. That of course all starts with Grandpa and Grandma Snyder. School continues of course as my year winds down toward summer break. A few papers left to finish and then finals to study for. I've been reading a good (if somewhat flawed) book by Fawaz Gerges called America and Political Islam. It is interesting and well worth the read. As you can see from the little gator ticker, Shell has crossed into week 15. Tuesday we have another appointment with the midwife. It continues to snow here. Frankly it is starting to take on Biblical proportions of snowfall, which in my imagination is only helped by the fact that Shell and I watched The Day After Tomorrow again last night, so I'm prepared to wait until Dennis Quaid rescues us. We have plenty of can goods. The snowfall doesn't mean we can't take the dogs to the park (or more pointedly it doesn't mean that I can't take pictures of the dogs and feed them to you like you aren't already tired of them...well Tara at least isn't so here's a few) I'm continuing to slowly scan in some old photos. It's a nice project because we've got tons of photos and since my web space recently quadrupled I've got the room. (Plus this allows me to post pictures NOT necessarily of Dixie and Willow!) Here's two of my favorites from the last batch I scanned in. The first is a famous mansion in Salt Lake- The McCune Mansion. It sits near Temple Square and was restored several years ago. It's quite spectacular. [As with all pictures here, just click to see the larger version.] This is one of my favorite pictures of Shell. This is from my birthday in 2001. Shell got all dolled up for me and took me to dinner at this virtually empty restaurant in San Francisco. The only other people there at the time were a Jewish wedding party. We had the entire wait staff at our disposal (or so it seemed). There will be lots more strolls down memory lane as I scan more in. I also want to wish James a belated Happy Birthday. James is responsible for introducing me to Shelley and for that I'll always be grateful (except when she makes me do laundry at which point I hate him!!) James is a really great person and is blazing the trail for me as an older dad. So here's a picture of the birthday boy (and his lovely wife): Also there's a special congrats that goes out to Miss Susan who was just accepted into a PhD program this week. So hopefully one day soon I can call her Dr. Susan (that just sounds great doesn't it?) We love you Susan. Well that's it for this week. Here's hoping for some sunshine for everyone. Cheers.