thebolens.com

We've used our new internet access to upload some more of our backlog of pictures from this summer. First, there are some new ones in the Gatlinburg album. We've also added some new pictures:

• June boat trip
• A trip to Muskallonge Lake
• Rainbow that appeared over our house
• This year's trip to Thompsonville
• A recent poker night

...or at least from our house, with a brief layover in space. In other words, we finally broke down and got a satellite dish. Two of them really: one for internet, and one for TV. Of course, tonight would be the night we get a big storm that messes up the signal. Now that I've gotten this through the storm, though, I'm heading to bed.

We spent another couple hours at Panara, and Heidi has posted some more pictures. First, are most of the pictures from our trip to Gatlinburg, Tennesee back in June. Next, we have a couple from the Kent Cottage. Finally, we have some from the Bolen Cottage. We're not caught up yet, but we're getting there.

We finally were able to post some more pictures. The new album has pictures from some of the nephews' spring soccer games. They were posted from Panera, and it took over an hour to get them uploaded. At that rate, it's going to take us a while to get summer pictures up until we get some broadband at home.

Nobody likes the gas price trends, but heres a paper that points out a possible good side. It links low gas prices and obesity. The idea is that higher prices make people drive less, walk more, and eat less unhealthy restaurant food. This assumes that people cook more healthy meals than restaurants, I guess.

I know, "correlation is not causation", but it's interesting anyway. In that spirit, (and in celebration of International Talk like a Pirate Day) here's another one showing a relationship between lack of pirates and global warming.

We've had a deluge of comments lately with the subject "people", which are nothing but spam ads. I just changed the site so that they will now only be posted with our approval. With this change, you won't immediately see your comment after you hit the "submit" button. It will show up once one of us okays it. It's a pain, but it's better than eliminating comments altogether.

We're nearing our second week in the house, and I'm just starting to learn where light switches are. Still no internet, and after years of having it on demand it feels like loosing a sense. Unfortunately, we're too far out for cable or DSL, so we're looking into satellite. We looked into access through the cell phone network, but they charge over $50 a month per device. If Heidi and I both wanted our laptops online, we'd be paying over $100 per month.

I spent my morning digging a hole for (and assembling) our mailbox. Since I had to get to work, Heidi then had her first experience with cement. It sounds like she didn't enjoy it much, but the mailbox is up.

We're both glad to be out of the apartment:

• No more upstairs neighbors with elephant feet and loud arguments.
• We have fireflies instead of headlights in our windows at night.
• There's always a parking spot right by the door.
• If there's loud music playing, its mine.
• No more neighbors dumping rotten food on the lawn (seriously: red meat, vegetable peelings, whole fish, etc).
• When the wind blows the rustling sound comes from trees instead of litter.

We've returned from back-to-back trips to the U.P. and Tennessee. More on that in future posts. The two days since we got back have been spent moving into the house, after which I think we're both ready for another vacation. Big thanks to everybody who helped us with cleaning and moving this weekend. We would never be in now if it weren't for your help.

Our first evening in the house went well, though I think we spent most of it trying to find where we had packed various things. Mitch, never a fan of change, is in hiding except for jumping on me in the middle of the night. Sam has spent the last week boarded at his usual doggie daycare place, which reduced the stress of the move on all involved.

We still have a lot of work to do in unpacking and landscaping, but we're hoping to avoid moving again for a very long time. Pictures will have to wait, since we don't yet have internet access there. Until then, we hope everybody has a nice 4th of July.

We put some new house pictures up today. A few of the counters and newer ones of stone and siding. Our guess for a move-in date is sometime in June.

Also, this is apparently how Sam and Mitch act when they think we're not looking: