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April What !!!

John — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:57:50 +0000

“THEY” say: “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. April SHOWERS??? It is April 8 today and we are blessed with 19 inches of heavy snow. So heavy and slippery that my snow plow can’t handle it and got stuck several times. It is parked and we will have to wait for a bit of a thaw.

Jupiter and Its Moons

John — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:51:12 +0000

Last night, (Friday, August 27) my wife, Carol, and I were looking at the near full moon. There was a bright start to the right and a bit lower than the moon. Carol commented that she doesn’t remember that star being on the right side of the moon. I guessed that maybe it was a planet and then went in and fired up Stellarium, a free planetarium program that I have on my Ubuntu computer. The “bright star” turned out to be Jupiter. I tried looking at it through binoculars, but that didn’t work too well. I also have an ancient telescope that I haven’t had out in years. I brought it out, and after spending some good time trying to locate the moon, then locating Jupiter (As I said, the telescope is very old and the sighting eyepiece has been damaged for years), we focused in on Jupiter. It was very small, but clear. I could see four very tiny dits of light around Jupiter, that could just be reflections of something in the telescope or my eyes. Nevertheless, I went back to Stellarium, and zoomed way in on Jupiter, and lo and behold, there were four moons visible around the large planet. I went back to the telescope, and there were Callisto, Europa, Io, and Ganymede, exactly where they were in real life (except the telescope reversed the image). Europa was right next to Jupiter, but it could clearly be seen in the telescope when it was sharply focused. It was quite exciting to see, even if it was an underpowered old telescope, being used by a very amateur, amateurish astronomer. Click a picture below to see a larger view.

- John

Jupiter taken with digital camera through telescope.

The moon and Jupiter through the naked eye.

Stellarium's view of what we saw.

How we saw Jupiter through the telescope. (this photo is from Stellarium)

Katie’s Artwork

John — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:30:20 +0000

Katie took art class this past semester. She enjoyed it very much; and now that the school year is almost over, the art classes had an art show. Several pieces of Katie’s were proudly displayed. Here are some of them. Click one for a larger view.

Great job Katie!

Katie’s 16th Birthday

John — Tue, 25 May 2010 21:09:51 +0000

Click the photo to see more from Katie's 16th birthday.

We celebrated Katie’s 16th birthday last weekend. We all dressed up and went out to dinner at the Jade Garden. We had a great time. We were put in a back room with a couple of other large parties, and one couple. One of the parties began to sing “Happy Birthday” to someone at their table. As soon as they were done, the next party started singing “Happy Birthday” to someone at their table. Of course, we couldn’t resist, we started sing “Happy Birthday” to Katie. By that time, the entire room was singing “Happy Birthday”, laughing, and having a great time. At home, she opened some presents, which included a nice Hope Chest.

The next day, Katie had a couple of friends over for a small private party. They had a good time too.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera with us when we went out to dinner, but here are some pictures of Katie dressed up, and of her small private party. Click the picture to see more photos.

Happy Birthday Katie,

We Love You!

A Couple of Hours Without … Internet!

John — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:54:40 +0000

On May 3, we lost power for several hours due to a severe wind storm. Power was out in areas from Helena to Basin, MT, in which we are in between. As the evening drew on, we new we needed to make some plans as the kids still had homework to do. We lit some candles, and fired up our oil lamp. The kids mentioned that this is how it must of been in the old days. NOT EVEN!

The worse of all though, was the fact that we had no Internet! Oh My!! Back in the “Old Days,” when we had to do a research project, we hoofed it to the local library and did “research.” Now, it is mostly done on the Internet, and a report was due TOMORROW! It is kind of funny though, as I asked the same questions that were posed to us in the “Old Days.” “When was it assigned?” “How long did you have to work on it?” “When was it due?” And, you know the answers to all of those questions. Some things never change. Click a picture for a larger view.

- John

Missoula Children’s Theatre at Clancy School

John — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:29:31 +0000

Click to see more pictures of Ana in Robinson Crusoe

The Missoula Children’s Theatre, with Clancy School, presented Robinson Crusoe. Or, more like a very loose, funny version of Robinson Crusoe. The team comes in on a Monday, does auditions, and practices with the students Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The students then perform two shows on Friday. They always do a great job. This year, Ana made the part as “Myrtle the Turtle.” Last year, Ana was asked, the day before the performance, if she could play one of the leading supporting roles on their rendition of the “Little Mermaid.” Click the picture to see lots more from Robinson Crusoe.

- John

St. Helena Cathedral

John — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:05:12 +0000

We went to a wedding recently. The wedding ceremony was at the St. Helena Cathedral in Helena, MT. It is such a beautiful building. Afterwards, we went to the reception. Here are a few pictures of how serious we were. Click one to see larger views. No, the bubble eater is not me!

- John

John’s Birthday

John — Thu, 20 May 2010 03:03:40 +0000

Well, it happens to all of us. Another birthday. When we are young, we look forward to our birthdays, as we get older, we don’t really care to be reminded that we are growing older.

This year, though, I was looking forward to my birthday. Look at the pictures, and you will notice that one of the presence I got was a new laptop computer. Yeah! I am using it now to write this up. It is a nice Acer Aspire 7740 laptop with a large 17.3 inch screen. And of course, I promptly put the newest version of Ubuntu Linux on it as I use Linux instead of Windows. Very nice!

- John

Resurrection Sunday

John — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:24:22 +0000

We spent Easter at home this year. Easter is always a good time of the year, as we remember what Jesus did for us. If you don’t know what Jesus did for us, here it is in a nut shell.

God created man in a prefect world
The first man and women rebelled against God and brought sin into the world. All have sinned and rebelled ever since.
The penalty for sin is death – physical and spiritual – eternal separation from God
God loves us so much, that He doesn’t want to be separated from us, though no sin can be in his presence
God took it upon Himself to come to save us from what we are powerless to do.
He was born a man – a sinless man. He was killed for our sin, and suffered the consequence of our sin
It didn’t end there, He also overcame death and rose to new life, so those that believe in Him will also be raised to life after we die.

We will all be resurrected when He comes again. Those who put there trust in Him will be raised to eternal life, those who continue to rebel against Him will be raised to eternal damnation.

He doesn’t desire that ANY should perish. He loves us so much, He wants us all to choose Him and Life.

Click to see more from Easter 2010

What will you choose?

Please, don’t take my word for it, read it your self in the Bible, from the beginning to the end, and …. BELIEVE!

Click on the picture to see a slide show of us coloring eggs and having a good time.

The youth of our church did a small “human video”. Click play and watch the video.

- John

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Who… What???

John — Tue, 18 May 2010 03:43:03 +0000

Ana Being Silly. Click to see a larger view.