Hi all! Well I suppose after almost two weeks of not blogging there’s bound to be SOME new news, but today it seems that there’s a lot of little extras to enjoy I put some new photos online tonight, tho actually the pictures themselves are almost a year old. They are shots taken with my film camera (thanks again Grandpa & Grandma Brunk!) last year during a nice snow we had.

At work we’ve got plenty of new stuff going on. It’s been fun getting visitors to haiku from around the globe (including a few from Perú ) and yesterday alone we had more than a dozen new people sign up for accounts. This past week Reynard & I got a break from coding & worked on skins instead. Basically, a way to let teachers make their websites look really and unique without all the work. So if you have an account definitely check out the new skins. And if you don’t have an account, what are you waiting for?? you can sign up for free!

On an unrelated note, I just got Lord of the Rings: Two Towers today in the mail! It was a late Christmas present from my parents. So now I’ve got four new DVDs of fun to keep me busy for a while. hehehe. Speaking of movies & video, if you enjoyed the Sony Bravia bouncy ball commercial I pointed out a while back, you’ve gotta check out the latest Bravia ad, featuring a “fireworks show” of paint! And last but not least, as I’ve been writing this up I’ve been listening to Stephen Colbert’s address at the Presidential Correspondents Dinner. Holy cow, who’s idea was it to invite that guy! I mean, he’s amazingly funny, but Bush sure didn’t seem to be enjoying the entertainment much. Oh man. Alright, I’m off to watch some LOTR Take care!

Before I expound on the title of this post I want to report the important news. Beth is back in town!! I just picked her up tuesday morning from South Bend. It sure is good to have college people around again… especially the one that I’m going to marry!

Alright, so with the important stuff out of the way, there is no company in the world that can give me gadget lust like Apple. For those who don’t know (where have you been the past 48 hours?? ) Apple just announced the iPhone. I don’t know if you remember or not, but almost a year ago I posted about some rumors of a “touch sensitive” iPod. At the time I was thinking that sort of thing would come 5 years in the future or something, but Apple got impatient and decided to invent the thing now! Anway, I could go into a ton of details about the iPhone’s infinite flexibility or proximity sensors or built-in web browser or amazing iTunes functionality but you should check out the demos on Apple’s website instead. They speak for themselves Now it’s a matter of waiting until June when they go on sale! (and saving $998 for two of them and somehow convincing myself to stay with Cingular. Why oh why couldn’t they support Verizon!)

How many of you know of André Rieu? Anybody, anybody? For those who don’t, he’s a violin player and the conductor of the “Johann Strauss Orchestra.” He became famous playing classical waltzes and now gets standing ovations (not to mention people dancing in the isles) at his sold-out concerts around the globe. I actually didn’t know about him either until this past summer on SST, but it just so happened that my host family on service absolutely loved his music. They even had a collection of his performances on DVD. Anyway, in my wanderings around the internet I discovered that he was going to have concert in Chicago this year! Unfortunately he caters to a slightly older and more financially established segment of society. Tickets are $100 a pop for the “cheap” seats So, let me know if you would like to donate to the “help Marcos and Beth go to an André Rieu concert this May” fund Oh, and if you want to see/hear him in action look around youtube they’ve got quite a few clips from his concerts online there.

Happy New Year! Ok, so I’m a few days late but I it’s the thought that counts right? lol. Life here in Goshen is starting to settle back into a normal rythm, being back at work and such, tho I still feel like I’m running behind after Christmas break, for some reason. Regardless, one of the things I have wanted to do was put some more photos online since I’ve been so bad at getting Goshen photos up so far. So head on over to the Photos page to enjoy the highlights of my short but sweet Christmas Break. No worries, there are plenty of photos of all of my neices & nephews.

As you look through the photos you may wonder “where is Beth? I haven’t seen her in a shot yet!” Well fear not. She’s safe and sound… on the other side of the Atlantic! Yup, after heading home for a week Beth is now celebrating new year in London and Scotland with Sharon. Despite a little dreary weather they’ve been having a blast. And she’s actually headed back to the states tomorrow so keep her in your prayers as she travels. Anyway, I hope you all had good breaks (or still are for the lucky ones among you). Ciao!

P.S. Over the break I was asked why I sometimes link to seemingly random definitions. I’m just fascinated by the most random things… like which words and phrases I find defined by Google. So please don’t take offense if your find me defining jumping the shark or something. I know you aren’t dense