Summers Over

Well the Blog has been very silent since we came back from London and moved out to the river. Ann and I just returned from visiting Megan and Chris in Rome. We had the best time and we did not kill ourselves either. I know Chris and Megan got tired of me always telling them "I'm On Vacation".

So here is a encapsulation of what we did:

Wednesday October 17 Weather warm

Arrived at Rome airport called Chris bought tickets to termini station and hopped on the train. Met Chris at termini and started the trip with our luggage to Megan and Chris apartment. Arrived around 6:00pm had a great time handing out all the loot. Chris made a great dinner of pasta (salsicia - pasta with sausage, onions, peppers, and red sauce) great meal. Went to bed around 9:00 pm.

Thursday October 18 warm

Went to the coliseum bought tickets and toured around the inside. Met up with Megan at the arch of Constantine. Then mom and I went to palatine hill where the imperial palaces used to be. Then we met up with Chris and Megan and toured the Roman Forum. Then we went back to the apartment we went to the grocery store and Chris made a great spaghetti dinner.

Friday October 19 warm

Went to see fontana del tritone. Then down to the trevi fountain. Then to the pantheon the finest roman architecture to remain. Then to the plazza navona original built for chariot races. We did some shopping then headed for the Hard Rock for dinner. On the way we saw a group of protester. They were losing about 1000 jobs. There were many police. We had dinner and by the time we finish the protester were gone. We went back to the trevi fountain and someone had vandalized it and poured red dye in it.

Saturday October 20 cool and windy

Chris made us bacon and eggs this morning. Then we headed out for the Vatican. We spent the day going thru the museum then to the Sistine chapel where we marveled at the frescos on the ceiling. After that we then went into St. Peters which is the largest church in the world. After that we exited onto the plaza of St. Peter where the pope has mass on special occasions. We decided we had enough and we to a small bar (they have coffee, liquor, soft drinks, pastries, and sandwiches. After this we went back to the apartment to map the next four days.

Sunday October 21 cooler and windier

Got up early and went to St Peters to climb the cupola. 7 euros gets you a ride in an elevator so you Only have to climb 320 step to the top. The view was spectacular. After that we went to Castel Sant Angelo and climbed more steps. It was an old roman burial built by Hera and taken over and used for church storage in later years. We then went and had gelato at the Piazza Novona then headed for the Spanish steps where the “rodeo drive” shops are. After that we headed back to Chris and Megan’s.

Monday October 22 cooler and windy

Megan went to class and Chris had taken off Monday from work so Ann, Chris and I started off to see San Clemente Church. This is a perfect example of how the church would build on top of a roman temple to cover it up. This particular church had two levels under ground. That is under the church at ground level was another church converted from a temple and under that an old roman temple. All of the underground structures still had viewable or restored fresco paintings. After that we went to Termini (main train station in Rome) so Chris could help us get our train tickets for Tuesday. We were to hear from Megan around noon after she got out of class. After two hours Chris set off to see if he could find her. We were worried something happened to her. As it turned out Megan had forgotten her phone and her keys to the apartment. Ann and I waited at Termini and Chris and Megan came around the corner. Ann and I were so relieved even now it get emotional. After that we left for the Roman Christians catacombs out side the city at St. Callixtus. The catacombs cover 12 miles over 5 levels at a depth of 65 ft. They were very impressive. Made it home and we were all tired. The cold and wind takes a lot out of you.

Tuesday October 23 warm and partly cloudy

Today Ann and I head for Pompeii. We are taking the Euro star train to Napoli then a commuter train to the Pompeii ruins. Ann and I spent about 4 hours walking the streets of Pompeii Scavi (Pompeii Ruins). We saw some wonderful frescos and tile floors. We visited the oldest coliseum (actually stood inside). We had a sandwich while the local wild dogs watched us. A person next to me threw a piece of bread and the dogs would not eat it they only wanted the meat and cheese. We left there "dog" tired. Got back to termini around 8:00 had dinner and quick caught the subway as the train to Chris and Megan’s ends about 9:00pm.

Wednesday October 24 Rain and cold

Took a train from Rome to Pisa to see the leaning tower of Pisa and the Church we left at 10:15. Arrived at Pisa centrale about 1:00pm. We had some pizza and then headed out for the tower. Well it was raining and we were not sure where we were going so we stopped at the information center and got a map and directions. The tower is at the opposite end of the town as the train station. Of turned out to be about a 25 minute walk. When we got there the sight was incredible. I could not believe a building could lean that much. We bought tickets for the tower and church and the tower has assigned times which happened to be in ten minutes. You had to secure purses and bags in a secure locker as only you and your camera are allowed to walk up the steps. Even though it was raining Ann and I still had a great time. When we arrived back at Chris and Megan’s we were treated to Lasagna what a great meal.

Thursday October 25 Cool

Got up at 3:30 am Got ourselves dressed and went down to catch a shuttle for the Airport. The Shuttle never came and Chris called a Taxi company and we were on our way in about 10 minutes.

Ann and I are home now and yes I caught a good cold and I don't feel that great. I had tickets to a Gopher Volleyball game tonight but I just don't feel that great so I'm staying home.

Can anyone say Jet Lag

Yes we are back to our home and just slogging through the day. We spent a great 6 days in London with Chris and Megan and I fell we all made the most out of those days. I've traveled many time to Europe and I always have had a tough time when getting home. You feel tired and just can't seam to catch up on sleep. Also you are waking up at 4:30 in the morning. Its 6:56 Friday morning and I've had breakfast, Feed the dogs, watched the weather, and I'm writing this blog.

Plane ride was uneventful. We were all in different seats. I was in row 44 which happens to be the last row. They always seam to be the noisiest seats. We landed in Minneapolis and it was 90 degrees. We were used to the mid 60's from London so we were in shock and perspiring.

We had a great time. Ann and I really liked having the apartment. We had two bedrooms and two baths with a full kitchen and a living room. Chris and Megan made us dinner two nights there and it was great. The stories then next day from Megan on the ride home were great.

I took some videos and look like I will have to buy some new software to create and edit the movies. As soon as I'm done I'll start to put them on the server.


It was tough for Ann and myself to say goodbye to the kids again because we love them and we had so much fun.

Thanks for taking us around Megan and Chris it was great to have our own tour guides.

On Our Way Again

Well that old song did not work on Tuesday. Turns out a Continental Flight was canceled and the plane filled up in a matter of minutes. So we are heading back to the airport this afternoon hoping that our luck holds out.

So far traveling as a family we are 0 and 2 the first day.

Here is our obligatory rejection picture.

We are 1 and 1 on the second day try so lets hope we are 2 and 2 after today.

On Our Way

Well as the song goes ;

All my bags are packed

I'm ready to go ...

But, I'm leavin on a jet plane

Don't know when Ill be back again...

Well I really do know when I'll be back. Ann, Kate , Pete and I are ready and very anxious to Megan and Chris after a 6 month drought. We will leave for the airport in about 30 minutes. Ann's has all kinds of treats packed for the Londoners. So I will give you a call when we are on the ground at Gatwick. See you Wednesday.

May Birthdays

Well it has been a long time since I've written. Lots of stuff has happened around the house and the river. I spent several weeks putting a new chain link fence in the side yard between the house and the garage along the alley. Chris remember last year Mom was just out of the hospital and we all put up the privacy fence in the back yard over Memorial day? We'll the chain link fence completes the whole backyard.

Sophie got her summer clip.

Ann Got her summer hair color.

We Celebrated Moms and Grandpas birthdays on Sunday and I have attached a few pictures. Just to let you know Mom, Kate, and I have mowed grandpas yard at the river twice so far. We are thinking you can take it next year to make up. He! He!

We also began the screen porch.

I have train tickets from Gatwick airport to Victoria station bought. The Apartment is taken care of and paid. Only thing is to pack and get over there. We will keep you posted.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Its about 25 degrees here today. Yesterday it made it above freezing for the first time in several days. We were at Sue and Chads house for Easter with my family, got there about 12:00pm. We had a great time Mom, Pete, Kate, Holly, Diane, and I spent till 5:00pm there just talking. Later today is Easter dinner with the Lockwood's at Helen and Dave's. We ate and ate - ham, potato casserole, egg dish, sweet roll pull aparts, bunny cake that had fallen over the first time so Liz had to make another one, smokey bacon links, lemon meringue pie, coconut cream pie, rolls, etc., etc., etc. Jenny brought a battery operated train for Cole and so all of us spent the whole afternoon putting the engine and the car back together for him. Caleb spent the afternoon with Laura and Katie and being passed from new person to new person - he thought it was great! Dylan is having his tonsils taken out as soon as school gets out in June - he's had strep throat 7 times this winter.

View the Video from Sue and Chads.

Video






Went to Helen and Dave's for Easter dinner. We had Pork tenderloin's Mom and I made a two kinds of potatoes and a jello salad (green, you know Helen). Everyone from our family on Saturday was there today. We talked about opening the cabin. I would like to get going early so I can start on the screen porch. I would like to have it cleaned by the end of April or the first week in May.

I also took two photos on the way to pick up grandma and grandpa on whats happining to the last three house that were left in the corner of Macalesters field. Remember when they closed Macalaster street and moved or torn down the house on the block to make a baseball field (by the way Sue and Chad's house on Holly was one of those moved). Well the college is in a major renovation and the pictures attached will show you to of the houses are ON the move. I'm not sure what the other house is doing, could be there are just going to tear it down.

April Fools

So April 1, 2007 my 5 year old hard drive crashes. Yes I know I just rebuilt it two weeks ago and I've been hearing the thing trash it's self for the past 7 days. I knew it was going and I had very little on it so I removed the data I had then I was going to ghost it so I did not have to reinstall from scratch and "BAM" the drive went dead. Doesn't owe me anything but I'll have several days of reloading things from scratch again!

Installed a new PC for Grandma and Grandpa several weeks ago. I bought them a DSL modem with Wireless. I moved there old machine (I think Chris installed that for them) in Grandmas sowing room. She was getting tired of Grandpa spending all his time on it and she could never play her stuff (Puzzles online etc.) I set up the DSL modem and got the Wireless going so the two computers could talk to each other. Then we ordered DSL and I went down the next Monday and spent two hours on the phone with QWEST trying to get the modem working. We could get connected to the DSL Server but could not get out to the Internet. Then technician and I decided we needed to fill out a problem ticket and have someone come out and check the lines to the house(In the house was $100 and I said NO). Here the kicker, you can't fill out a ticket for 24 hr after the DSL is turned because that the time needed for all the connections to complete.

Wait QWEST said it would be ready on Monday at 5:00pm so why do they need another 24 hrs??? Don't understand but that's what happened.

Call about 36 hrs later and said I DON"T WANT TO TROUBLESHOOT AGAIN JUST FILL OUT THE TICKET. NOOOO.... try one more thing. Well I was at Amherst on a three way call with Grandpa and QWEST sooo.... down I went to Grandpas to check a few more things.

Nope still did not work.

Called again and SAID I JUST WANT A TICKET TO CHECK THE LINE. Well that person was not as determined to run me through the ringer or maybe because I that them check the log. Anyways the technician came out and checked the line and said it was fine.

Oh!

He also brought his own modem so he asked if he could come in and Grandpa said fine. They checked all the phones because you know they all must have filters on them to block the high speed modulation from the increased bandwidth. He replaced at least two of them with better units to decrease the load on the house wiring. He proceeded to spend an hour and a half troubleshooting also. After thirty minutes the first conclusion we had bought a bad modem. So he hooked up the one he brought with him.

HMMMM!!! That doesn't work either.

Second conclusion bad wiring in the house. Tested that.

HMMMM!!! That's not it either wiring looks good.

Well he is going to have to get down and dirty. Gets out his cell phone and begins to start tracing where the heck these signals are going. Final conclusion after 5 Phone calls from Minnesota to Colorado is the DSL servers they had Grandpa hooked up to did not have any DSL connections left

sooo... they connected him to another Server.

OH! That one doesn't work either.

Try a third but gee that one doesn't work and a fourth, what going on, but wait the fifth one works. Great system there is NO WAY to tell if the server has connections left so they just move them till they work. HUH!

End result is they have High speed Internet now and it wasn't easy.

I'm not a fast typer but the dang hardrive is only 38% formatted. Guess I'll go play xbox.

Good Bye and Good Riddens

Good Bye and Good Riddens. I final could not stand my PC anymore. I moved all data to my server and ran the recovery to replace the original 2002 programs and windows. Well that did not work. there seams to be some errors on the recovery partition. So I had a copy of windows 2000 professional and I loaded that. Next I loaded Window XP professional. I wanted to load Vista but my VPN software for work and my virus program do not work with Vista. So as I'm typing I'm rolling over to my machine loading software. I have windows, Office, Now I'm loading virus scan and next will be VPN. When I get done with those I will load my outlook accounts and get email up and running. I'll load software as I need it in the future.

Mom and I are going to try to make it to the Auto show this week. I haven't followed cars much these days and I would like to see whats out there.

It's about 4:45 and I should get down stairs to start dinner. Kate's coming I don't know about any one else. We are trying a new beef stir fry should be interesting got it out of the 30 minute cook book. Also made a apple crisp out of the same cook book and it uses cinnamon pop-tarts as the topping. Does not take long to make. I'll let you know how it is.

Winter Finally Comes again

Our second winter storm of the season hit last Thursday and Friday (we got about 12 inches) and the roads are not all that good still today. The yard stick shows how much total on the ground we have now. The icicle picture we figure was due to the wind. It was cold and windy yesterday but Peter and I went snowmobiling in Rosemount. The old snowmobile broke about a mile into the ride but through my great engineering genius, we jerry-rigged up a fix and continued on. It's a good thing because he and Diane tried to go today and the new snowmobile won't start. We did some troubleshooting over the phone but it's still a no go when we last heard from him. It's been an expensive snowmobile weekend all in all considering I broke the trailer wheel jack before I even started. I'm going to wait until it's warm to work on the sleds. It looks like now I have to fix both of them. Tonight we'll have Sunday family dinner. Holly might come because she didn't get to go home to a family baby shower this weekend because a lot of Iowa is without power and 35 is shut down for part of the way. Paul Douglas says this much snow should last about 2 weeks. We'll see. FYI - all Minnesota Comp USA stores are closing. We were there yesterday and the deals aren't all that great yet but maybe that will change.

Winter Finally Comes

Well Old man winter is finally here. I took a picture at 5:00 pm Saturday of the backyard. Took another picture a 7:17 am Sunday before 2 hours of snow blowing and shoveling. Third picture is the street in front of the house at 2:00pm Sunday. They aren't going to plow until 9:00pm Sunday night. Snows fairly heavy it's around 30 degrees here and it's going to snow all week. I went out and .measured the snow before I started and it was 9 inches. I did my house and Dick's house. Went down the side walks and did driveways. I should go out with the snowmobile but I may do that later in the week if it keeps on snowing

February Birthdays

We celebrated February Birthdays on Sunday February 18. Kate,Pete, Diane, Grandma, Grandpa, Dave, Helen, Brooke, Derick, Cody, and Us at 151 Amherst st where in attendance. Dinner was Ham, New potatoes (Cheesy garlic and herb), salad, vegetable, cake, and ice cream. I have attached some pictures for your enjoyment. I also took a brief video and will try it out on this site. Use the link below to view the video.

Video

You've heard about Grandpa Vitko. We moved him into Lakeview homes on February 12th and all the reports i heard were great for that week. Then on Monday February 19 we got a call the Dad was having trouble on the weekend.

1. Had to be redirected all the time.

2. Brushes his hair with the tooth brush.

3. Demanded his medications when he did not need them

4. Touched someone in the dinning hall and would not let go

5. Could not follow direction like get dressed.

So we decided to move him into the Memory Care unit. This is a locked down facility with much more supervision. Kate, Pete, Myself, Jim, Liz, Jenny, and Sue all moved him from the 1st floor to the second floor by 6:00pm. I thought that was great. Dad has no idea the he was moved. The nurse from the insurance company came on Wednesday to evaluate him and said he was where he needed to be. Dad has a long term policy that will pay some expenses for a few years. Liz and Jenny are taking him to the doctors over the next two months. We all talked and maybe there is something physically wrong that causing his memory problems. I still have to finish cleaning the apartment and have to dispose of his car.

Cody

Sorry Megan don't mean to make you sad but Kate wanted you to see her new boy. Here are a couple of pictures.

From Kate:

I've learned that Cody can fit through the smallest hole possible to escape his enclosure and then have some fun while nobody is home. Nothing was chewed up but slippers, Christmas presents and trash were all dragged from seperate rooms to one central location. The best part is trying to find where he had hid himself in anticipation of my arrival home.

Super Bowl

Here are a couple of pictures from Kate during the super bowl.

Kate's Vacation

Hi everyone. Kate wanted me to post these pictures so everyone could enjoy. These are from her vacation in Hawaii. She has some incredible sunset and sunrise pictures.

Top picture is a Honolulu Beach. Next Picture is the beach at sunset. Next Picture Jason and Kate got up at 3:00am to drive to the top of the mountain on Maui to get this stunning picture of a sunrise above the clouds. The last picture is a black sand beach on Maui.

ENJOY!

New Mom

So I came home and started dinner tonight and Ann asks me if we have any of our old dog kennels around. Sure I climb in the attic of the garage and find our original Cat carrier and the kennel we bought when we got Dusty and Riley. Brought them in to show Ann that I found them (Pretty dirty) and Ann calls Kate to say we have one. I guess Kate and Holly have been talking about a dog since last Thanksgiving. Anyway Kate announces that they have the dog and are coming over. Dinner was not ready yet so I went down to the wash tubs and begin to clean the Kennel. The I proceed to think "Heh! This is a good time to start getting rid of stuff I don't need any more." So I gave the new Puppy a Ball and a double bowl to go with the Dog Kennel. After Visiting with the little one (Really Cute and Really Black) Kate and Holly left to begin the trials of a Parent. One good thing the "Cody" is paper trained so half the work is done. Cody's 8 weeks old and is a Schipperke. Wow go Kate and Holly! Oh we can eat dinner now.

Super bowl

Well we cleaned and polished the basement so we could enjoy the evening watching the Super Bowl. Pete, Diane, Kate, Holly, Ann, and Myself watched as the Chicago bears looked like they we going to kick some Colts butt. As it turned out the bears could only get going in the first half and the Colts finsihed out the rest of the game in fine style. We ordered pizza and

wings from Rocco's, made some munchies and Diane, Kate, and Holly brought cookies and brownies for dessert. We had a great time I ate to much and couldn't sleep so I recon it was a success.