So, no excuses now.  Angus is off to dagis (dahgiss) which is day care essentially. He will be in three days a week (Tues, Wed, Thurs) and Oliver is well settled into skolan.

I would like to say that I have a ton of exciting things to report on since my last post in September, but it is surprising how day and weeks and months go by, without any really notable adventures!

So Oliver started school at the begining of Ocotber, the day after we moved into our permanent housing.  The poor kid was really needing a challenge in his days - and he got it!  His transition into swedish school was extremely smooth, he started in a "special" class with other children new to Sweden. This is basically just to get their chops down and begining to think in another language.  Also, there are children who have never experienced school before as there is a large refugee and immigrant population. I have been told that even the parents do not know how to read or write in their own languages before coming here.  Needless to say that Oliver flourished quickly and really embraced the language.  Only 4 months really and he now only spends one morning per week in his special class and is now in his regular class the rest of the time.  I am so proud of him and his ability to pick up a language so quickly.  I know, I know - you say "But Holly, all children pick up new things quickly, they are little sponges" and I say, but yeah, I am actually experiencing it with my won child and I am astounded!  I really know that we did a good thing by taking this opportunity.  I understand fully the desire to want more for our children than we had ourselves.  And I had it pretty good.

Oliver has made great friends quickly and everyone naturally lives in this area - so there is a lot of play happening out of school time out in the neighbourhood. The beauty of living here, is that Oliver has a very large range of places to play and has the run of several small parks near our home.  I don't have to go out with him - he is safe everywhere around here.  Imagine a time when we were just 7 years old and playing in our neighbourhoods and walking to and rom school on our own.  It was really hard for me to get used to, but now it feels natural.

One of many Oliver stories:
The school nurse met with me to talk about Oliver's immunizations and general health, etc.  The school has a pediatrician assigned to it. The school books an appointment for you to go and see this doctor where they do a more thorough "inspection". Oliver's appointment was for last week. The doctor was a wonderful man, asked lots of questions and spoke to me in English and Oliver in Swedish.  Oliver understood every word and responded appropriately to the questions about school and his life - IN SWEDISH. Remember this is only 4 months from starting to learn...the we were off to the lab to give samples (not the kind you like getting in the mail).  Oliver, who has historically been and amazing little man and not afraid to get blood work done, decided that it was all too much for him and was not happy to have his arm poked.  The nurse explained to him that there are special patches that he could put on his arm ahead of time that would numb his skin and then he wouldn't feel the needle at all.  Would he be interested? Yes, of course he would.  So, she put these patches on BOTH arms - just in case one did not work as well as the other and we waited for an hour to let the patches do their thing.  The nurse spoke entirely in Swedish with Oliver.  He understood EVERYTHING, yet again.  Proud momma moments, it was truly an amazing thing to be witness to.

Before Christmas, we spent most of our time getting settled into our new home and area.  Figuring out the best places for groceries, getting Oliver settled onto school and day to day living. A couple of trips to IKEA, and one trip at the beginning of October to a ridiculous outlet mall about 1 and a half hours drive from the city. This I did with some other ladies and absolutely no children. I wish I could convey to you in descriptive detail what it was like - but I can't. it is something like 5 football fields large, a few levels, everything you could image - like a Wallmart Supercentre times a bazillion or so.  Seeing is believing. People come from all over with their motorhomes,  camp for a week, shop EVERYDAY to load up said camper vans, etc and then go.  The deals are amazing - the lineups horrendous and there is absolutely NO WHERE to go to get away from carts and people.  After one day and only 5 hours at that I decided that I really didn't need to go back...ever. But, time is forgiving and I think we are planning another excursion again soon...sigh. Here is a link to the website - if you are brave enough...open it up in google Chrome and it will translate the page for you. 

                       http://www.gekas.se/shoppa/karta-varuhuset

We had a brilliant Christmas - very quiet, and had some friends for a bit of a post Christmas party on boxing day.  Next year, I think we will be better at understanding what Christmas is all about here - the Swedes really do do Christmas well. It was beautifully lit up everywhere.

We have had a quiet beginning to the new year as well.  I had signed up months ago to begin swedish classes but first had to get Angus into his daycare - so I could go to school.  He started on Thursday last week.  I wish I could say that I am happy for the time to myself before I start school - but really, I miss him!  I am sure I will get used to this alone time.  But for now, I pace and bake/cook and clean and watch the time.  I know he is having fun "playing" with his friends and new toys - but he is not with me! I am missing his cute little face and voice. I will say though, that I appreciate the time I do have with him all the more.  Such a precious little morsel :)

I don't know yet when I actually get to start my lessons - but it had better be soon!  I will be going nuts at home soon! I do have some great friends here now and we do go out as often as possible as we are mostly moms and stay at home wives/partners. I have more of a social life here than I ever had back in Canada.  I have joined a Professional Women's Group that meet once a month with a new topic, also a group of Electronic Arts ladies (mostly spouses) meets once a month for drinks/dinner or whatever we feel like doing. And then we are ofte meeting with other families and friends to do things like outdoor skating, park picnics, etc. Busy busy busy and yet - not.  It is all very calm and peaceful.  I could get used to this lifestyle.

Tim has been working away - he had plenty of time off at Christmas and also a week off last week while Oliver was on his "Sportlov" (winter break).  We had planned to go on a wee adventure out of the city - but wound up all getting quite ill.  Them's the breaks!

Otherwise we are all doing very well - I still don't know how to post pics - but I know most of you are on Facebook and have seen more than you want, likely!

Until next time!
puss och kramar (kisses and hugs!)

Our days...

Sorry for the delay in posting - we have been sort of busy...I could have made the time to send an update - but I chose sleep instead!

We are doing well here.  We have finally found our permanent housing and on October 1 we will be moving into our apartment! We are VERY happy about this, as you can imagine as all of our shipped goods are arriving on the same day :) I can't wait for MY kitchen, MY bed, MY everything!!! It is a 3 bedroom apartment with 1 1/2 baths and is about 100 sq meters.  This is a much bigger size than the apartment we are currently in, and it has a proper bathtub.  You don't realize how nice a bathtub is to have, until you don't have one for a couple of weeks....

I am waiting for a phone call from Oliver's new school that is in the neighbourhood we will be moving to.  Oliver has not started school at all yet, as he had to wait for his personnummer from the Swedish government which he now has.  They are supposed to call today, hopefully we will get him registered soon as he is going a bit crazy hanging around the house all day.

Tim is settling in at work, the first week or so was a bit harried with new people starting all over the place and a project in the process of being started, etc. The company has hired a private Swedish language teacher for us. There are 7 of us in the class 2 nights per week. We found a lovely sitter for the boys, she is a University student from Germany studying primary education. She was an Au Pair in Canada and in Australia, so her English is quite good (although she thinks it is not great).  She also does not charge an arm and a leg to watch the boys, the Swedes are VERY expensive.  She charges 80 SEK / hour (about 12/hour CAD) while others where up to 200 SEK/hour (30/hour CAD!!!) ridiculous!

Our day typically consists of relaxing mornings until Gus goes down for a nap around 11AM. Then Oliver gets hard to work on his home-school work and I try and work on my Swedish or tidy up the house.  We have to be VERY quiet, because this place is so small - Gus would wake up if we talked in normal tones.  Oliver and I sometimes do some yoga- but haven't made it part of our routine yet.  When Gus wakes up from his sleep, we have some lunch and go get groceries - always, our fridge is TINY and so we buy what we need for supper each day. It gets us out of the house!  We try to play outside on our way to the stores.  There are lots of parks nearby and a HUGE forest just behind our house.  There are 4 grocery stores near us and so we change it up each day depending on where we want to walk.  The Coop (said cooop, like mooo not co.op) is along a regular road, the Hemköp is very close to us but does not offer as much - it is more of a convenience store.  The Willys is through the forrest which we like, but is uphill most of the way there and last is the ICA (said EEKA, not I.C.A.) which is a 25 minute walk - but a full on grocery store.

We reserve the weekends for fun family stuff like IKEA, Universeum (like Telus World of Science), hikes, and more exploring.  There are plenty of things to do.

I have also found an English speaking moms group in town. It takes 30 minutes to get there on the tram, but it is totally worth it, just to visit with other moms, compare stories of living in Sweden and giving the kids a chance to play with other kids (and toys) for a couple of hours.  An absolute God-send!  I am grateful for it - no question.  I will start Angus in a Swedish playgroup when we move (preschool starts at the age of 1 here as most parents both work here) and start looking for a job myself.  You will not believe the cost for childcare here.  The absolute maximum you will pay for a child is 185 CAD per month....Unbelievable!  and that is if you are making over the maximum income amount.  They also feed your kid, real meals too - not PB and Jam sandwiches!  no more packing lunches as Oliver will also have a hot lunch every day in public school as well.

Well, pardon the ramble. It has been a long time since I gave you an update! 

I am waiting for Tim to show me how to include pictures on this blog, we have taken a few since we got here :)

Dirty Laundry...

...I mean literally!  So, I am in the process of doing laundry and Tim is out at the park with the boys - perfect time for an update!

Doing laundry here is quite a challenge. I found myself googling how to do laundry in Sweden as I try to streamline the process.  There is a normal front load washer - with a zillion different options for washing.  Cotton - hygiene, 30 degree, 40 degree, 60 degree temp, rinse, etc... It is enough to blow my mind!  The dryer looks like it should be normal, but it is not, not really.  It doesn't seem to dry clothes.  BUT there is this room, just off the laundry room that dries clothes - there are cables that run from one end of the room to another and a big ass industrial size box that blows (and I do mean blows) warm air into the room.  This room is a cement walled, windowless room with a heavy door and it works so much faster than a drier - even by north american standards!  I am in love, and assuming I am using it correctly (who really knows) I love the crisp clean clothes and bedding.  It's like pulling clothes off the line, without the bugs or the sun bleach...pretty neat! A couple of people have also blogged about their laundry experiences as well, idiot is one word that is used to describe how they felt when figuring out the system :o)

Looking for a home...

So we looked at our first potential home on Friday. The appointment was booked for the afternoon, so Tim was at work and I trekked off with the kids. Location barely known, those of you who know me, know that I am directionally challenged, and was a bit anxious about this trek.  The traditional Swedish row house community was out in the sticks of Gothenburg. It actually took about an hour by tram and bus to get out there on the highway from where we are currently living. Tim works about half that distance, so for him the commute would have been about 30 - 45 minutes depending on traffic. The rooms were smaller than any I have seen so far - I know this may be typical, but there is absolutely NO WAY our queen bed would have fit anywhere in that house.  Also, the wall coverings (wallpaper everywhere, yikes!!) were sketchy at best.  The room they were not going to recover was an entire room (not a feature wall, mind) of purple, lavender and black "paint splotches" all over - the owner really liked it - I tried VERY hard not to make a funny face.

Needless to say, this one was a no. We will keep on looking!

I know you all are doing well - I would love for you to keep in touch, often...

xox

  

Yikes...this surely is a test of patience!

We arrived safely in our "flat" rented to us by Tim's work. We get this place for about a month until we find a home of our own.  We cannot be too choosey in this however, as rentals are really few and far between here.  We hope to have enough room to invite our friends and families overseas for visits - or as Oliver prefers, sleepovers :)

It is very hard for me not to hit the ground running, language classes, look for a job, apartment, etc. I have to constantly remind myself to take it easy, we have only been here since Friday, and today was the first day we could do anything at all! We went to the immigration office, yippee! It was long, but not too long. I met a woman who is an american and has been living in the UK for seven years and now Sweden for one year.  She has not bothered to / or  had need to learn any Swedish at all.  While this is comforting, it does not really appeal to me, and from the feeling I get, I think the Swedes probably do not appreciate this either. It is now my goal to get going on the Swedish learnin' sooner rather than later.  Integration is important to me, I do not want to feel like this for long.  Also, I really had a time of it trying to figure out how to do laundry today!

Our discussion with the fellow at the immigration office today suggested that we wait until we have our personnumbers before getting Oliver registered for school.  We will check with the school tomorrow, just to be sure - but Oliver will have to do some home schooling in the mean time - thrilled :(

A couple of things I have noticed over the last couple of days:

• After searching high and low for plugins (a girl has GOT to dry her hair) I decided I would have to dry my hair in the hallway at the entrance to our place, low and behold - Tim found a plugin for me in the bathroom cleverly disguising itself with a covered plate over it. Hard to explain really, but does make us open our eyes a bit more!
• Also, IKEA, IKEA everywhere...our entire flat kitchen to living room - who knows, maybe even the TV and appliances...
• Many, many more things, really i should start writing them down, as I forget at this hour of the night :)

Swedish word for the day: Ko (kind of sounds like kooa) means Cow.  Angus discovered a cow stuffy in someones car window, I thought it a great time to learn my first on the fly word!

Goodnight all, I hope my posts get more entertaining as time goes on! I also hope Tim pops on once in a while with his observations - he is a fabulous writer!

We're heeeEEEeeere...(the journey)

Wow, I can't believe it, but the Gibson's have landed in SWEDEN!!!

It is thrilling to be here, Tim and I remember a lot of what we saw when we were here, sans kidlettes in June, so really, it already feels homey in that I have already been here kinda way.

The journey getting here started when Tim and I said goodbye to Vancouver and our home in Cloverdale on Thursday, August 9 at around 4PM (the times become important later :)), we stayed in Kelowna (the kiddies had already spent the better part of the week with granny and poppa) with Don and Joan until early Monday morning (the 13th) with an 0850 flight time. We flew from there to Toronto, Gus' first flight and it showed. 4.5 hours of trying to keep a little mover still; he did finally crash for the last hour of the flight and was wicked good during take off and landing. Oliver was, as usual, a travelling dream.  I swear that kid should consider travel for a living.  Barely a peep from him! Of course, I am sure the unlimited TV on the plane was a help...our arrival time in Toronto was around 6PM TO time (goodbye three perfectly good hours!).  We made it to Burlington to Tim's Grandma and Pa's house by 730PM after a challenge in car rentals and one navigational oops.  A couple of days of R&R and visits with my sister Victoria and Tim's grandparents and Great Aunt Norma and we were finally on our way to Sweden.

Our flight from TO to London, Heathrow was actually really great.  We were on the overnighter leaving at around 930PM on Thursday (16th) and arriving in London at 9AM London time (that flight is only around 7 hours long, so again, some fabulous hours I will never get back!) Angus slept 90% of the way there in one of those funky little "sleep beds" they have and hello bulkhead seats!!! Both I recommend when travelling with babies.  The only drawbacks to the bed is that if there is any turbulence when the seatbelt sign goes on, you have to transfer baby back ontl your lap and strap him onto you with the seatbelt extender thingy.  This happened four times, ask me how much sleep I got...go on, ask! Oliver decided to watch a movie or two before tossing and turning and finally resting.  He claims to not have slept, but there was the thing about the drool spot :P

Okay, the flight was smooth, however - I do NOT recommend having a 7 hour layover in Heathrow airport, especially with three other cranky, tired, hungry - but not so hungry people.  It was LOOOONNNGGG - but we did it!  And at a quarter to 4 (PM) off we were, finally to Gothenburg. We got into town at 530PM, got through customs and immigration in a snap - they were not really as excited as we were about us living in Sweden - hopped into a cab and made our way to our flat.  (pics to come soon - there are some on Tim's Facebook).

Will post again soon with what's been going on in and around Gothenburg!

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back

What's 4 years between friends, anyways?

We've decided to resurrect the blog and use it for journalling our new life in Sweden. Last time I posted here, Facebook was barely a "thing", and Twitter was for hipsters and geeks. Now, almost 4 years later, Facebook's IPO shows that it's barely a "thing", and Twitter's still for hipsters and geeks.

We'll be leaving Vancouver in about a week. We've been here for almost 6 years, and hope to be back... someday. We should be in Sweden by the end of August, and are planning to be there at least two years - the same plan we had when we came here!

Holly wants to use this more than I do, so it's her fault if we go four more years without an update!

We've moved.

Did you even notice? Our blog is now located at blog.yumnuska.net. We're mainstream now, baby.

Update - after 3 years without a post, I let the registration die. We're back to yumnuska.blogspot.com again.

Oregon Trip Pics

Yes, I know I haven't blogged in a while. No, I probably won't get better anytime soon. But Oregon pics are here.

Cypress Falls

It was really blustery today, so we went for a walk at Cypress Falls because I'd heard that it was beautiful and pretty sheltered. Correct on both counts; pictures start here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Soooo... yah. I've managed to neglect this blog for some time now. The good news is that it isn't due to working to much, instead I've just been lazy.

We're obviously back from Europe (old news). The trip was fantastic, and having had some time to digest the experience, I can say that I can't wait to return to some of the places we saw. Barcelona is now on my List of Top 10 Cities in the World. Rome, not so much. I've actually found myself wishing that we were back there, even if just for a few days. I think we only saw the "Readers Digest" version, and I'd love to spend more time there to see more.

Things have been pretty mellow around here since then. I'm signed up to take a sailing course in February, and Holly's taking a pottery course through January to March. Oliver's doing fantastically. He's into everything now, and has become quite the chatterbox.

Christmas was pleasant, although we didn't make it back to Edmonton. Instead, we went to Vancouver Island, and spent Christmas with Holly's dad, aunt, and uncle in Victoria. That was fun; Rob and I did most of the cooking, which suits both of us just fine. Oliver finally gets the concept of "opening presents", so he was into the gifts like a dirty shirt. Pictures start here.

Oliver's insisting that I draw him a happy face, so ttfn.

Fantastic Barcelona

We're 3/4 through our European vacation (updated pictures). We started out in Frankfurt for one night to see Holly's youngest sister, then on to Rome to meet her other sister (who's living in Barcelona). We've been their mom joined us en route in Toronto, so it's really been a family vacation.

Rome is lovely, but dirty and overrun with tourists. Still, the sights are incredible, and photos and postcards don't even begin to show the soul of the city if you haven't seen it first hand. We spent 9 days in Rome, and after a couple of days getting settled and over some minor jet lag, we hit the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Circo Massimus (where the Chariots used to run). The Colosseum and the Forum (along with Palatine Hill) were truly breathtaking. Circo Massimus is now just a flat field with litter and gravel, and was truly disappointing.

From Rome, we took a day trip to Florence. If Rome is overcrowded, Florence is bursting at the seams. Some people had told me that if we went to Florence, we would never want to leave; we couldn't get out of there fast enough, in fact. We did see Michaelangelo's David, which was awe inspiring, and made the trip somewhat worthwhile, but the rest of the city is such a dung-heap that we just wanted to leave afterwards, and were happy to do so.

Back in Rome, we spent a day at Vatican City. The sights there are, again, just incredible, and we got there early enough that the crowds weren't too bad, but they were getting unpleasant towards the end. We went to the top of St. Peter's cathedral to look out over Rome. After the elevator, we had to walk up 300+ stairs to reach the top. Oliver did around 250 by himself, and was so proud! The view from the top was awesome, but there were too many people for the tiny space so it wasn't worth staying up too long.

From Rome, we went to Barcelona, where we are now. We're staying in Holly's sister's flat, which is fantastic. We're just a short walk from the Metro, and the city is just beautiful (especially contrasted with Rome). We'd love to come back here to spend more time. We've been to the old city, to La Sangria Familia (unbelievable), and done some walking in some of the most pleasant areas. Today, the girls went shopping and Oliver and I went down to the waterfront to wander and look at the boats. That's a guaranteed good day in my books, and I wasn't disappointed. There were some tall ships in the harbor, and O just loved looking at them. We're back home now, O's having a nap, and I'm trying to come to terms with the whirlwind vacation this has been so far. We've only a couple more days before the long haul home, and I can't say I'm looking forward to leaving, flying, or returning to work next week.

Hello, World

The past two months have been one of the most incredible, amazing, depressing, satisfying, upsetting, enlightening, and wild experiences of my life. Why, you ask? I can't tell you... but I will anyways, and you can fill in the blanks for yourself.

I've just spent the better portion of two months (which you can interpret to mean, nearly all my waking hours, and a many of the sleeping hours, too) working on my first video game, and it's something unlike anything I've ever been involved with. I've just recently become reacquainted with my family, have seen the sunlight from somewhere besides the office, and have actually had time to (omigod) go shopping, go to the beach, and mow the lawn. (Our landlord pointed out that I hadn't cut the grass, and it was starting to look "a little shaggy". He was politely understating the obvious.)

So. What do I think about this? In short, it sucked. But it was my first, so I had no idea what to expect. On the upside, I've done something that I've dreamed about for years, and I'm actually looking forward to doing it again. And if things improve (as they appear to be doing), then I may just keep at this for a while. I truly love what I'm doing right now, I just need to figure out how to keep reality (and my family) within reach.

Pandora's Box is Closed :(

Thanks to recent changes in the US, Pandora is not longer available to users outside of the US, including Canada. Holly and I were addicts, so we're pretty disappointed.

Luckily, there's last.fm!! I'm a member, and so far, I like it.

Plugging a Friend

You probably know him, and if you don't, Holly or I have probably told you all about him. Our friend Dave has a couple of projects on the go that are worth checking out.

First, Dave's own website -- http://www.david-scott.com/ -- has his own music and writing. I'm listening to Empty Spaces as I write this. As we would expect from him, it's awesome, and deserves notice. I hope you enjoy it.

Once you finish there, take a trip and enjoy even more great music at http://www.johnnyfeelgood.net/. This is Dave's new band, and if you ever heard Resonance, well, this is slightly different. We heard Chemical Wonderland at a show in Edmonton not too long ago, and it immediately became our favorite. Unfortunately, we've had to wait until now to hear it again, but thanks to a little cloak-and-dagger, we've been able to listen to our second-favorite -- That Money -- in the meantime.

What are you still reading this for? Go, go!

We've moved!

On Friday, while I was at work, 3 large men showed up and moved all of our stuff from our old main floor to our new house! We've mostly settled, and love our new digs. Oliver really enjoys the playground out back, and there's another one that's a bit bigger and not too far away that he enjoys also. I'm hoping to check out the biking around here next week.

Happy Easter

This was Oliver's first "real" Easter, since he was still a lump of infant last year. The Easter Bunny left a few treats for him, and I caught some of it on video (click here).

Family Tree

The other day, I stumbled upon an interesting Family Tree "manager" at geni.com. I've added our family tree and started to fill in the details, but we're going to need help to fill it up! If any family members are interested, drop me a line and I'll send you an invite. Also, for anyone already added, feel free to invite others to see it.

We're moving again!

After searching for three months for the "right" home, we've found it! We're still renting, but in a months time we'll have a whole house all to ourselves. It's a 900 sf house with a semi-finished basement, so there's more functional space, plus decent storage to boot. Plus, there's a tree house in the yard and a playground just out the back yard for O. It'll about double my commute (to 15 minutes), but hopefully will cut a few minutes off Holly's.

Pictures here.

I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to not hearing neighbors carrying on till well past *our* bedtime, or winding down to "The Sounds of Silence" at full volume all weekend.

Boundary Bay

Last weekend was supposed to be rainy, but we lucked out! We spent Saturday walking on the beach at Boundary Bay (near the Tsawwassen ferries); here's a video.

Sunday, I took advantage of the weather and mowed the lawn (in February... that's a first for me!!).

Where have we been?

Good Question. I've been having all kinds of computer troubles lately, so please forgive my lack of everything.

Oliver:
Man oh man! He never ceases to amaze me. He's started to say what could be considered "words", and I swear he has Daddy and Mommy down (although he calls mommy, "monny"). He also says, on occasion, "mo" (more), "jushe" (juice), "doon" (down), "ep" (up), "no" (no), "dowantoo" (don't want to), "nana" (banana), and "dobibiwissmelibabawe" (?????).

He's eating on his own, and is usually really good at restaurants -- he'll eat almost anything, and makes faces at the girls (any girls; he's not picky) while Holly and I eat. He loves going out, as long as he can ride my shoulders, although sometimes he NEEDS to walk on his own. And once his mind is made up, it takes a minor miracle or major distraction to change it.

All in all, I think he's doing just fine. And he's a ton of fun!

Christmas:
My mom and dad came out here for a few days. Unfortunately, they arrived on the day that Holly and I were sicker than I'm comfortable describing, and Mom was unlucky enough to catch whatever fluish bug we had. On Christmas Day. Yay. Luckily, Dad managed to stay healthy, so Christmas Dinner went as planned (sortof), and Mom was mostly better the next day. We spent the rest of their time here enjoying Vancouver.

New Years:
We went to Kewlona with my parents, and hooked up with Holly's dad for an evening. My dad and I took the Mission Hill tour, and tasted some nice wines at their counter. I managed to bring back a case of wine (I know, I can buy them all in Vancouver, but it's so much more fun to buy from the wineries).

Work:
EA is great. I've adjusted to the different environment, and to having gourmet lunches most days. I can't say much about the job, except that I'm incredibly happy to be programming again.

Holly starts work in the pharmacy at the hospital in New West tomorrow. (yay!)

Also, just a bit of a heads-up. I'm changing over from flickr to Google Web Albums for posting pictures. At the moment, they are both linked to from the sidebar. Once I get most of the pictures transferred over, I'll remove the flicker links. Since Google owns Picassa, and that's what I use to manage photos, the change will make my life easier. Hopefully, it'll also mean that I can post more pictures.

Cheerio!