Snow Gone!

Our beautiful snow is gone! All that is left is the piles of pushed aside dirty stuff. At least the drive is clear and I can take my car out again to work tomorrow. Not that the weather is improving. Tonight is a 50% chance of rain/snow same with tomorrow. Temps are up! Both outside rabbits got a little close to their light and singed the hair on their backs. Spice has quite a large singed area. Shadow's is just about quarter size. Neither got their skin burned, but it was enough that I raised their light farther above them so they can't get right up to the bulb. Although with the above freezing temps they really don't need the light.

Its back to work tomorrow. I've been doing the never ending laundry today. My usual Sunday activity. Todd and Elin headed out to Grammy & Papa's today. It sure has been nice and quiet without her "I'm bored".

We had a nice Christmas. Was good to see Tammi and Guy, Todd's brother and his wife. They arrived Christmas day just in time for dinner. They took off Friday morning to head back to Chiloquin.

Below is Elin, 5'1" taller than Grandma Norma, she is ready for her concert last Dec 7th.

Dec 23rd

Elin has already started on "can I open a present?" No, she has to wait till Christmas morning at Grandma Norma's then again in the evening at Grammy & Pappa's.
So, this is what the house looks like with 4 inches and counting. I started cleaning the drive, but it has been driven on several times so it is hard to get it all up.
So, I worked harder on my side of the drive than I did Todd's, but that is his problem. I had to move my car in order to get mom's out to take her on errands this afternoon. I've been putting the dog into the garage at night due to the cold, cold weather. She seems to wake up happier in the morning having the heat.

Well, along with the bomb that went off in a bank killing 2 police officers over in the valley, Prineville had it's own version. A call was made to the Mental Health office, and caused about 6 blocks to be evacuated for the day. This happened last Friday. It turned out that the call was traced and a suspect arrested. It closed the Mental Health building, several business across the street, US Bank and across third street (state hwy), Radio Shack and the barbershop. By the time I got home from work 3rd was back open, along with 7-11 and some others, but the bank and mental health, meat market and one or two couldn't reopen until Saturday.

So, I hope every one has a good holiday. We are double dipping again this year. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Talk about getting into the Christmas Spirit! How about -7 degrees last night with a wind chill making it -21 degrees. Thank goodness that was in Burns and not here, we only got to -14 degrees last night. Todd turned on the heat in the garage for poor Sasha. She didn't seem as stiff and cold this morning. Rabbit water takes about an hour to freeze even under the 100 watt light bulb.

So, I've survived 4 school concerts. Friday last was the best! However, last nights concert wasn't bad... Can you pick out Elin? She's the first one on the bottom row in a red shirt and black scarf.

SNOW IS COMING!

Every other news item this morning on KTVZ News 21 is on a big storm that is coming in today. Guess what, I wanted to go to Salem tomorrow. Now the weather is heavy snow tonight with near whiteout/blizzard conditions tonight and into tomorrow.
www.tripcheck.com
for current road conditions for central Oregon. They are saying that snow levels will be down to 500 feet here. This ought to be interesting.

I'm taking mom to Redmond this morning, going to drop her at Walmart Superstore on the north side of town then go to work.

Last night was Todd's office Christmas party. It was at the office this year and VERY fun. Got to visit with wives and employees that I don't normally get to visit with. Elin went to the bowling alley with Grandma. She seemed to have a lot of fun bowling with another child who got stuck there. Luckily they caught the kids before they started their 4th game (Elin got a strike) and only had to pay for 3 games.

I better get her up so that I can listen to her whine about how tired she is. She has her first Christmas concert tonight at the highschool. It is a fundraiser for the highschool choir. I hope to have pictures to post tomorrow.

Its already DECEMBER!

I just can't get over how fast this year has gone, just last week Elin started 6th grade and now, her first trimester is over. She is getting mostly A's & B's in school. This trimester she starts P.E. and is NOT happy about it.

Today is Yule log making for the PEO Bazaar. Saturday is the bazaar at the Christian Church. They let us use their Fireplace room with its kitchen and seating area. Hope we have a good turnout of goodies to sell. Its a fun thing to work, as I get to see people I haven't seen for a while. Old family friends & new friends made over the years. I sure don't think I've made enough. All those beads I have and only have a few items to go in the sale. I made lots of Christmas cards and generic all occasion cards. Guess I should clean off the table again and get some more done.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was emailing back and forth with a gal that went to Jr. High (middle school these days). She told me that her parents sold her off at age 15 to get married, just like her mom had been. She said it was a family tradition until her. How sad. She doesn't plan on ever coming back to town as she has very few happy memories here.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving weekend!

Nov 29, 2008

Saturday after Thanksgiving;

I went to work yesterday at the Madras Library. When I got there, they were closed, so I was able to just set up and get to work. I was home by 7pm and got a great deal done. Today I'm going to meet with one of my AYSO board members and see if I can fix her computer. Have a feeling its just viruses and bugs.

We had a great time Thanksgiving day. Todd & I fixed the turkey and I got to baste it. It was even done on time. Mom really did most of the cooking, but I pealed all the potatoes and got them ready to boil, and cut up the great smoked ham that Scott did at his work. I set the tables and Elin folded the napkins in a fancy way. There was 11 for dinner. Zach and Scott were not very happy being put at the card table with Elin, but they survived. It was Zach's second dinner, so he wasn't very hungry.

Had lots of time to visit with Todd & Toni, Mel & Dorene, Linda and the kids. I didn't even take one picture.

Time to turn the laptop over to Elin to play on it for a while. I'm going to have to check this computer for bugs here very soon, some of the places she visits (I do monitor)still have spyware and trojans. Bye for now

Fun daily web site

OK, todays APOD or Astronomy Picture of the Day is a video from the fireball over Edmonton Canada. This is a cool site any day APOD

Another really neat site is the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program


Also, brother Todd has started his site (see last post) at http://picasaweb.google.com/6x6tender
He has posted very nice pictures from fires he has gone out on.

These are ones that I check out almost daily.

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, ended up I have to work tomorrow, but that is OK, I'll pick up a check and a computer for a friend and get her and her girls back on line. I do want to say how thankful I am of all my friends and family who put up with both the blog and web site. Without all of you, this would not be worth it. Bless all of you

Saturday research?

Got an email from my brother this morning asking about sharing photo's. So, here is what I wrote back to him:

"Couple ways, I can set you up with space to upload to on my web server, like I've done with genealogy and Elin's web site, ( http:/www.ochoco.com/~jbony/elin ) but you then need to be able to write some html for them to be viewed.

You can go to someplace that specializes in social photo service. WebShots is one place, Picasa is another. Both have software that you download, which helps organize the photos then you can share them with others. Check out:
http://community.webshots.com/user/jbony?vhost=community Click on either Shoebox or Central Oregon to see my picts.

Picasa is out of google at http://picasa.google.com/ I had it on my other laptop but didn't use it much. I know several people who use it, and really like it."

Pushing Thanksgiving

Elin & I got to see Susan when she came to town to help Grammy Dorene through her surgey. Not enough quality time was spent with her. It seems like our visits are always short and very limited.

Thankgiving is coming up, Todd and I will be doing the dinner for the Jones' and the Bony's. Should be 13 for dinner. Can't wait, I haven't done a full turkey dinner since about 1986 when I was in Corvallis and did a 20 pounder and all the trimmings, only to have it SNOW so no one could come. It was a real bummer on family, but a good time for all the students who were not going home or having a christmas dinner.

ITS FRIDAY AGAIN! I love it when this day rolls by! Once the day is done, I know tomorrow is sleep in day. I've done a lot of work this week at OFCO, today will be a full day, so I won't get home till after 5 again tonight. It is worth it though. It means I get to sleep in tomorrow, at least until 6:30 if the cat has her way. My darling Belle was the alarm clock this morning as I forgot to set the real one.

So today is QuickBooks updates in the finance department. This is really boring work, so I will take my book to read. Install media, wait for it to load, wait for it install, wait for the reboot, hope it opens. Usually its an hour a workstation, and I have 6 workstations and the server.

The good news this week is that we found 14 "new used" computers in Bend that I brought to Redmond on Wednesday. These computers will be replacing the old and broken down computers I've been keeping together with pieces, parts, bailing wire and hope.

Time to go, got to get Elin up. Not my favorite part of the day anymore. She is so grumpy in the mornings this year. I liked it better when she woke with a smile and a very happy "Good Morning".

So, to all of you: GOOD MORNING! Have a great Friday.

So, its 6:20 am on Wed. November 5th. We have a new president. I'm really glad that McCain announced defeat so early and with so much grace. No dragging it out.

I started voting in 1976 after I turned 18. I hardly remember what I felt then, but now, I'm glad to be seeing the country make such a historic choice as Obama. (Yes, I'm a Dem) I talked to Elin about why she has been such a big supporter of Obama and her response surprised me. She doesn't look at it as a black/white issue or experience vs non-experience, she told me that he can overcome all the problems just because he has been called bad names which has given him a different "tilt", and that has made him strong enough to overcome all the biases and do good for this country and the world. She is such a gem. Her Social Studies class did their voting and only one child voted for McCain out of 26.

McKenzie Pass closed this morning for the winter. One of the shortest open seasons it has ever had. Cascade Lakes Loop has also closed. WE GOT SNOW in the mountains! I could hardly believe it on Monday driving home from Bend when the clouds lifted and I could see the white stuff in the Ochoco Mountains. Chains are required on Santiam & Hood this morning!

A few days ago, this little fellow was across the street with her mother and twin. She was eventually chased off the driveway by the Johnson's cat, who was just heading toward the back yard and the food bowl.

Mom and I spent a few hours raking leaves last weekend. I think we got about 15 or 16 bags of leaves out of the front yard. The Johnson's across the street took all of them for their compost pile. That was 1 less trip to the dump!

We survived Halloween. Shutdown the lights early because of the amount of teenagers. Elin went Trick-or-treating as a Gypsy. While the little kids are very cute, the big ones are strange. They don't even take the time to dress up anymore, just come out as their weird selves.

Todd's home from his business travels and I've got the laundry done for next week.

One thing I did do last week was purchase a "new" laptop. I found it on Craig's list here in town. Guy purchased it a year ago, spent big $$$ on CPU and memory upgrades and OS upgrade, the turned around and purchased a new one since he could not get the USB ports working. So he sold it to me for $350.00. I've spent most the weekend fighting Elin for it so I can get it set up for work tomorrow. It actually plays some games that we haven't been able to do do to lack of proper hardware. I'm very pleased with it. I'm learning Vista, just not sure I like it, but so far it does every thing I ask it to do.

Its FRIDAY!

Well, Todd left to work in Washington St. this morning for 4 days. It can be lots of fun to be just Elin and I for a weekend. We always do something fun when Dad leaves. Maybe we can go for a drive and hike or go fishing.

I've spent the morning updating the new AYSO web pages. I'll have them worn out before we go live with them November 1st. I swear I've opened each page at least a dozen times and still find errors. I cant wait to get them posted and start trying to raise money for the organization. We are trying to send coaches, referees and board members to Sacramento in February for the Section 2 conferences. They are so fun to go to. Not only do you learn a great deal, but you meet lots of great people who are dedicated to the kids!

When the E. gets out of school, we will take Grandma to Redmond. She's having shopping withdrawls. Oh Boy! We get to go to Walmart. Since it is just the 3 of us, maybe tonight will be a good night to get Grandma to take us to dinner.

OK, so I've had my break, now to get back to fixing typos and link errors in the web pages.

Last Saturday, Elin, my Mom and I drove up the old McKenzie Highway. As you can see from the pictures the fall foliage was fantastic! We had a really nice drive going across the high desert into the mountains climbing from 2900 feet at Prineville to almost 5000 feet in just a matter of 60 miles. It was spectacular!

If you have never been to the Dee Wright Observatory in the Willamete National Forrest, up on the old McKenzie Highway, please, before it closes for the winter, take the trip. It doesn't matter if your from the valley or from central Oregon, just take the drive. It has the most fantastic viewpoints.
That is a wall of lava behind Elin and the sign at the base of the observatory. While we were there, the clouds moved enough to see Mt. Washington through. What an eerie sight. The foreground in lava, then the boiling clouds then the Mt. peakIt was about a 160 mile round trip, with stops at the viewpoints, and at the Sno Cap Inn in Sisters for ice cream. It was a fun day all around!

From Elin

Hi I'm E'lin! Jan is my mom, Todd is my dad & we all have a lot of fun. We go fishing and driving to places to take pictures and study geology around Washington and Oregon and some times California. I am 12 years old, I like to play soccer and softball. I like to study geology and go places to camp. I have 3 rabbits named Spice, Shadow and Energizer Bunny (Ebby to the left).




This is my 2008 soccer team after our first win. Coach Jaun took us to Dairy Queen for icecream

This is FUN

OK, this is my third post today, which means I probably won't do more for weeks. I am having fun playing with the format and gadgets. I still need to figure out the widget that Todd had me download last night to help make posting easier, called Windows Live Writer Beta. I'll figure it out later.

Here is a link to Todd's World blogspot It is full of Microsoft junk and work stuff, visit if you want to become dazed and crazed with that.

Here is a link to my web site, http://www.ochoco.com/~jbony
It has the meat and potatoes of who I am and what I enjoy.

I've published some of my photos at Webshots you can see my shoebox here
The other page I published on Webshots is here

When I had my laptop, I enjoyed changing the background hourly. I thought these were great images so I published them at Webshots to give back to where I took so much. Of course, I can't remember to add any more, so I'll post them here.

Yes, my beloved laptop bit the big one. I haven't had the courage to toss it yet, it just sits forlornly in its briefcase crying everytime I walk by. But the sucker will no longer use the wall plug, so I've had to give it up.

I'm still starting

I have been playing with the tools available for this blog and finding lots of fun stuff. Can't get any of the weather stuff to work, but that is what happens when you live in the middle of nowhere. However, I would not live any where else. Well, lets state that a little differently. I would live somewhere else if the price was right and the schools were good, and the work was fun, and there was plenty of wild life roaming the neighborhood.

Where else can you find buzzards sunning themselves in the sun on a cool fall morning, where else can you find nice bucks hiding among the houses 2 doors down from where you live in hunting season. Prineville! that's where. So, don't ask me to move

The Start

So I started this as a hit to My Space. I just can't figure out the noise, ads and people I don't know or even care to know. I'm a private person to a point... I'm going to start using this blog as a contact point for family & friends who live far away to keep in touch with the Prineville family. Bless my husband Todd for his ability to find me something simple to replace web pages that I have a hard time keeping up with.