Rain glorious rain

We received 1.1 inch of rain this morning and the ground sucked it up like a sponge. This happened between 5:00 and 6:30 AM and I doubt if you would get your feet wet if you went out now at 10:00 AM. Colleen and I did not walk this morning but Butch and I did. It was so so nice to have the rain. I have not checked my rain barrel but it should have a healthy amount in it again. I also had a one day reprieve from watering.

We are so happy for the Leo and Keri Brooker family and their new grandson. I think he looks like his grandpa but I am sure not everyone will agree with me. That always seems to be a big difference of opinion when we are looking on a new little person for the first time.

Brady Scott Westergaard

Leo and Keri's first grandbaby- Let the fun begin!!

Grandpa Leo and Brady

Grandma Keri and Brady

Beautiful Baby Brady

Dad Greg, Mom Erin and Brady

New Daddy

On the Verge

Butch has the electrical done! Whoohoo!! and we are on the verge of some really visible improvements. Butch has help lined up this weekend for windows, exterior doors,pocket doors and solar tubes. Of course it most likely will not all get done this weekend but it will be a great start. Also we are getting an energy audit lined up in preparation for the insulation job. So it has seemed like a long time coming but the puzzle pieces are at least moving a bit and it will not be long now till they are in place.
The pictures below were taken while Butch was wiring. Wiring really does not show up much in pictures but I hope to have some really big change pictures some time next week.

Looking north- Butch is standing in Bathroom door and to his right is the bedroom.

Taken from the far south wall looking at the bedroom

Standing in the bedroom looking toward kitchen/ living room.

Standing in Bedroom. The pocket doors are laying down waiting to be installed

In the bathroom looking toward kitchen

In closet looking at east end

and then looking at west end.

trying to show you wiring...didn't work

Last Pass

I have mentioned Last Pass but have not said much about it. I wanted to learn all I could about it before recommending it to anyone but now I think I am ready. We all need to have passwords and ideally they should all be different. Yeah, right you say and just how are we going to remember all these passwords? That is what Last Pass does. It makes them for you and remembers them. All you have to do is remember your Master Password and that IS important. Last Pass does not have access to your master so if you do not remember it no one can bail you out.
We all tend to use the same password for everything because it is easier and hackers know this so if they can find out one of your passwords they are fairly certain there are lots of other goodies they can get access to as well and they are most likely right.
So not a long preachy thing here but you may want to check out www.lastpass.com and if you have trouble I think I know enough about it now to help you.

Newest Arrival to the Brooker Bunch

Check out the newest arrival at brookerfamilyposts.blogspot.com

Goodbye, iGoogle

iGoogle is going to quit. They are going to give us about a year before they do but I have started my search for a replacement and I have found one!!  It is called www.protopage.com . It has taken me a bit to get used to it and I have had to find a work-around or two but the more I use it the better I like it. I hate to think how many people I have helped set up their iGoogle page. So the good news is that we can get our Proto pages to look, act and feel like what we are used to and we will have plenty of time to do this.
If you have any questions about this, email me.
This only applies to people who are using iGoogle for their home page. Google is not going away, just iGoogle.

Happy Dance

Loved this too and simply had to share

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ab9i0s4WEY0&feature=related

A Different Kind of Morning

When I awoke this morning I could tell it was a cooler day because the AC wasn't humming away at 6:00 A M. Isn't supposed to last long however so we must enjoy it for the bit that it is here. I went out at at 6:00 and watered everything and that is my usual routine unfortunately. I must use the hose to water now because my rain barrel is dry. It takes less time using the hose. It would be so nice to have a break from the daily watering chores. The trees are now becoming stressed.
 At any rate I finished early and had some time before meeting Colleen for our walk so I turned on the computer. It seemed everything I encountered was of interest. Just one of those very different days. Josh Nelson is a grand nephew by marriage of Butch's at least I think that is the way it is. He is the grandson-in-law of Butch's sister Marlene. On Josh's Facebook page he had the post I will place below.

Josh Nelson

If you are a startup tech business or have a business idea and want to test it look into this program. Much like shark tank with local people.

http://www.technologyiowa.org/index.cfm?nodeID=39293&audienceID=1

I know some people who may be very interested in this so I sent it on to them. They are young college grads with lots of neat ideas.

Then I checked my email and Kay Voss, a magnolia park friend had some Junk Art that is really cool so I had to share it on the Magnolia Blog and here it is on this one.

Junk Art has intrigued me lately. Love this, Kay!! She says the body is an ironing board, bowls are on the chest, vacuum hose for arms, coffee pot for a head and a pie pan with flowers for a hat.

The 20 minutes I had on the computer before my walk flew by and I had to finish it up after my walk. 

Also on Facebook from my cousin Sherry's daughter, Joanna. "Forgive or forget, pick one." I loved it! What a great quote.

Cooler

It did feel cooler this morning but I still worked up a sweat on my walk and even more so when I came home and pulled a bunch of weeds taking advantage of cloud cover. The minute the sun came out I was done. Later after Butch played 18 holes of golf we went out to Leo and Keri's for a visit. On the way we noticed how distressed the corn is. I checked the 10 day forecast and there is not a drop of rain in the forecast. I am afraid it is a death sentence for the local corn. I am sure it is spotty but Jefferson has not been lucky this season in the rain lottery. What little rain Iowa has received has not fallen on our little town.
We are looking at cooler temps for the next week or so and this makes the prospect of getting house things done looking like a more pleasant possibility.
One thing I have failed to mention is that we are part of a Neilsen rating this week. Wednesday is our last day. Watching TV is tedious at best and then keeping track of what is being watched is even more tedious. However it does give us the chance to tell them EXACTLY what we think of TV. Butch gets perturbed with it and I get downright livid. I could shut it off and never look back. Butch does not share that feeling and that is why we still turn it on. Anyway, you now know one of the families who have taken part in a Neilsen rating.