Solar....so cool it's hot or is it so hot it's cool?

Our latest home improvement project involved going solar. Not totally solar as in 'off the grid' but a little solar. We decided to do solar hot water. Had Dan at G2 Power Technologies put in a couple solar panels on the side of the house and route it to a hot water tank. That tank will heat up from the glycol lines running through the panels.

The new hot water tank will then feed our existing tank, thus the existing gas heated tank won't have to fire up as much since the incoming water is hot! All in all it is pretty cool, and with our tax credit and hopefully a good break on our gas bills from not heating the water...it should pay off..well, someday. Just doing our part to lessen our carbon footprint I suppose.

Here are our panels:

We're home!

Wow...what a trip. We drove to Colorado last week to take care of a long to-do list. We did it all, well not all...we never did make it to Trail Ridge Road to see the 20 foot snow drifts.

We did visit our friends Miriam and John and the kids at their new house in Highlands Ranch, what a great house!! It was a fun night grilling burgers and watching the Redwings win.

Then on to Boulder to do the Bolder Boulder 10k which was a blast... painful after a few miles, but fun!!

Spent time with Ginny in Longmont, met up with friends at their new house in Estes Park and did a short hike in the snow up to Bear and Nymph Lake. Shopped at all the trash and trinket shops in Estes...what fun!!

We managed to stop in Lawrence KS on our way out to visit the Kansas hall of fame to see pictures of Steve's grand-dad...

So...whew!! We are home now...ready to mow, shop, do laundry and all the other fun post-vacation stuff we need to do..

I need a vacation!! :)

Keith Olberman

Wow...my hero. He says what's on his mind, and means it and people listen. Well, I listen. I think he is awesome... Here is his latest commentary, and I hope you all read it...not like I get that much traffic on my blog, but in some small way I hope I can contribute a bit to show the world that Bush is an idiot....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24632990/

May update

So things haven't been too exciting around here. This past week Travis had a banquet to attend. His stock picking team in his gifted class scored 2nd in the elementary region that their school falls into. Pretty impressive for 9 and 10 year olds. So, we went downtown to the big banquet where they received medals! Photos are on Snapfish, send a note if you want me to send you the link.

Travis had his first visit to the ER last weekend. Not sure it was entirely necessary, but there is a certain piece of mind having professionals look at a cut and tell you how bad it is. He sliced his thumb while cutting a bagel. They said it didn't need stictches, so that was good. He got a really spiffy bandage that kept it clean and dry and I think, in the end, made it heal way better than what we would have done at home.

Steve is mowing...again. It has been raining on and off for the last 3 days..or more..heck, maybe the last week. Well, a lot more rain than sun lets just put it that way. So the lawn is out of control.. it may even get mowed again on Monday at this rate.

Tomorrow we go to the symphony for Carmina Burana. It will be a great performance including the St. Louis Children's choir. How cool is that?

School will be done in 2 weeks, and it is hard to comprehend! This year has just flown by. I suppose me getting the new job has made it go faster also.

More updates as stuff happens I guess.

Earthquake!!!

Yes, you heard me....earthquake!! Here in the middle of the country, pretty amazing. It was my first earthquake, and I'm not sure I was all that thrilled with it. Steve was pretty excited, saying we need more...lots of little ones are good... he says.

Earthquake map

So, yes... 5.4 in southern IN and we felt it all the way to St. Louis. The shower door was rattling, the glasses rattled...and just felt the house move in a way it just shouldn't move. As far as we figure, there is no damage to our place.

Hopefully we are done with earthquakes for awhile. There are reasons we don't live in CA, and that is one of them!

Nudgy in Mexico

Yes, my mom in Mexico. Caught this on a web cam at Cafe Roma...Sr. Fox put the "I'm Single" on her table!! Hilarious! I think she was having a fabulous time! Another picture of her is on the Cafe Roma website...in the April album..famous!


Picture of mom and her 2 new friends!

Piano Recital

Just had a piano recital last weekend, and Travis had a great performance of The Black Rider from Lord of the Rings. I am once again attempting to load it into YouTube so I can put the link here. It didn't work last time, and I don't have a ton of confidence that this time will be any better!

Will give it a try though soon!

If I can't get it to work, and you want to see it...let me know. It isn't that difficult to burn a dvd and mail it.

It is April?

I'm still trying to figure this whole spring thing out... frankly, I think we should just forget about spring and go straight from winter to summer... Spring pretty much sucks. I like fall, fall should be longer than it is, but that has nothing to do with spring.

It gets warm for a day, the sun pops out... then wham, it's 35 and cloudy again, then it rains for 3 days, and then it is just mud puddles and nastiness. Yes, some flowers bloom, and that is good. But, they can do that in the summer too. Overall, this spring just sucks.

I've been very busy at my new job, and not able to work on things like my blog at work. Frankly, I'm lucky if I notice it is noon and eat some lunch! I wish my stomach wouldn't remind me of lunch, but it does...I rarely go a few hours without eating.

So, yes I am busy, but I like my job so far..it has been almost a month since I started!! Wow, time sure flies!

The school year will be winding down soon enough, also can't believe how fast that has zipped by!

I suppose then, the point of this post is that there is nothing happening around here any more exciting than the weather, and the adjustment of working more...

Time to go tuck Travis in for the night!