WebWalker's Blog

Many of you already know that Scott enlisted in the Marines. Well, "Recruit Tate, Scott" shipped out to Boot Camp on December 6th. PLEASE EVERYONE WRITE TO HIM , he will be there till March and needs support from all of us! If you need his address, let me know by email and I'll send it to you. The Marines is just about the most difficult boot camp of them all. When he first left, he was full of bravado and said he wouldn't want or expect any letters... less than 3 weeks later he contacted his mom and requested that any and all of the relatives that can please write him, he needs the encouragement. And any of you who have been thru boot camp know exactly how he feels and why.

Mark Thomas (David Whetstone's stepbrother) was in Iraq for some months, serving with the U. S. Army. He recently was rotated back to the States (YAAAAY) and so we are all celebrating his safe return. Talk about having a great Thanksgiving!! For his part, he's celebrating by sleeping for "approximately a week" at home in Marysville, WA, and then he plans on visiting David for a couple of weeks in North Carolina. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SERVICE, SPC THOMAS!

While Tom/Emily and Loni/Dave will be enjoying the Opera next weekend, Susan/Jimmy and Tom/Jan will be trading spaces of a sort. Jimmy and I will be going to NC to visit (son)David for a few weeks. While we are gone, Tom/Jan will be leaving the cold mountains and coming down to Phoenix to enjoy a little warmth and turkey with the rest of the AZ family. They'll stay at our place while in the Valley of the Sun, but it's costly: they have to feed, water, and walk our dog while they are here!!

Loni, as most of you know, works at the AZ Opera, and in her generosity has offered tickets to some of this season's operas to family members.... Tom and Emily will be recipients of her kindness once again on November 20th when they will attend an operatic offering of Cinderella at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix. They were totally "wowed" at the performances of Il Tabarro and Pagliacci a few weeks ago, and Emily is chomping at the bit for next Saturday to get here.

Some have called and asked me, "Just what IS a blog anyway?" Okay, in the purest of definitions, a blog is a publication of content and web links, sorted in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. The content reflects personal or corporate interests, and is almost always written by an individual. Blogs were originally called web logs or weblogs. However, as "web log" can also mean a server's log files, the term was confusing. To avoid this confusion, the abbreviation "blog" was coined, and became the common term. Blog content varies dramatically. While often it reflects what is happening in a person's life, there are many blogs used by companies to distribute content. THIS particular blog is intended to give info on what's happening in our extended family, but (at this point at least) it also seems to be home for my various ramblings. . .

Well Mr. Bush won the election... now I have to live up to my promises and listen to any griping, that is, if the gripee (is that a real word?) actually voted . June and I have been having a fun and lively discourse on some of the possible actions of the Administration's next term. Keep those emails coming, June!

Election Day. If you're in the U.S., that is. Did you vote? If not, don't ever complain to me about anything in this great country of ours! Did I vote? Of course! By mail, weeks ago. How did I vote? Anyone who knows me knows the answer to that one... anybody else, it's none of your business. That's why it's a sealed ballot system. You vote your choice, I vote mine. Whoever gets the most votes rules for the next 4 years, then we try it all over again. Now, get out of your chair and GO VOTE . Thanks for helping make our country great!

AAAh, the Opera. It was Wonderful. The music was fantastic (we were in the third row from the orchestra pit) and the sets were absolutely beautiful. The performers were dressed perfectly for the parts, and their voices were... well, heavenly. There were a few scenes where the whole cast was singing, an outstanding choir. And the solo scenes by the main players were nothing short of passionate, beautiful, and flawlessly sung, every note a pleasure to hear. The two stories of Il Tabarro and Pagliacci are very similar -- and very dark (love triangle, hubby is outraged and murders wife and/or lover). I used to think all the unfaithful wives and aggressive women portrayed by Hollywood was just Hollywood male writers with wishful thinking, but these are not new operas. I see that Hollywood didn't start the trend of entertainment being love triangles and blaming it all on the woman. Perhaps I led an extremely sheltered life, but all the women I have ever known never behaved this w...

Tomorrow we go to the opera. Il Tabarro. Pagliacci. It started out because Aunt Mary came to town and told Loni (who works at the opera) that she's never been to an opera, in all her 90 years. Boom. Next thing you know, Loni's got it all arranged for us all to go to the opera, even brought Nick down from Utah to join in the fun. (Coincidentally, Nick hasn't seen an opera either in all his 10 years.) So watch out Tempe, nearly the whole dang AZ tribe is coming to the Gammage Auditorium! Tomorrow is also Halloween, so I've gotta get home in time to dispense goodies. Tomorrow is also the last day of the month, the dreaded "Billing Day" for my business, meaning I have to produce a couple of tons worth of reports and paperwork as well as all the month's invoices. Boy oh boy is it going to be a fun day... On a brighter note, June came over today and finished the testing server for my office. YAAAAY!!!! Now I can leave a live website alone till I'm ...

Can't believe it's been so long since I posted the first message here! So much has happened... where to start... My mom's sister Mary came to town for a month's visit, and I took the two of them up to Flagstaff for a week. It was great, we stayed at mom's condo and made daily trips to outlying areas. The best part was witnessing the changing of the seasons as evidenced by the oak and aspen leaves changing colors. There were yellow, golden and red leaves eveywhere. Awesome. Came back home to a very hectic time trying to get caught up on work, though. Have been at it almost non-stop, pausing only to eat and sleep (not necessarily in that order). It didn't help that the company I use to host the majority of my websites was hit by a Denial of Service attack by some lowlife, and so we've had a host of problems trying to get everyone back on line and all the websites working properly again. AAAaaaargh. I am looking forward to next week, though. 11th anniver...

Gulp This is the first post to my new Blog, and I'm still learning how to use it. I plan on using this area to post family news items, so check back often!