Welcome to our Website

Good news from the Meissner's.
David and Beth are engaged!
Date: September 29, 2012.
Place: Mankato, Minnesota
www.weddingwire.com/moemeissner

Family Birthdays this week:
14 - David Meissner
YEAR: 2012
Year of the Veteran
MONTH: May
Date your Mate Month
Foster Care Month
National Barbeque Month
National Bike Month
National Blood Pressure Month
National Hamburger Month
National Photograph Month
National Salad Month
Older Americans Month
WEEK:
National Bike Week
National Police Week
DAY:
13 - Frog Jumping Day
13 - Leprechaun Day
13 - Mother's Day
14 - Dance Like a Chicken Day
15 - National Chocolate Chip Day
15 - Police Officer's Memorial Day
16 - Love a Tree Day
16 - National Sea Monkey Day
16 - Wear Purple for Peace Day
17 - Pack Rat Day
18 - International Museum Day
18 - National Bike to Work Day
18 - No Dirty Dishes Day
18 - Visit your Relatives Day
19 - Armed Force Day
19 - Boy's Club Day
THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
13 - The Rolling Stones record the now infamous song "Satisfaction." (1965)
13 - The Beatles move "Let it Be" premieres. (1970)
13 - "Mr. October," Reggie Jackson becomes the first major league ballplayer to strike out 2,000 times. (1983)
14 - A party of settlers, led by john Smith, establish the first permanent English settlement in the New World at Jamestown, VA (1607)
14 - Vaseline petroleum jelly slides onto store shelves for the first time. (1878)
14 - The first U.S. space station, "Skylab," is launched. (1973)
14 - The last episode of Seinfeld is aired. It's a sad day in May for millions of Seinfeld followers. (1998)
15 - Regular airmail service inaugurated (between New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC). (1918)
15 - Nylon stockings hit the market for the first time (1940)
15 - "If I had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul & Mary wins a Grammy. (1963)
16 - Charles Hires invents root beer. (1866)
17 - "And They're Off!" as the first Kentucky Derby is held at Churchill Downs. (1875)
18 - Napolean Bonaparte becomes Emperor of France. (1804)
19 - Ringling Brothers circus premieres. (1884)
NOTE: my daughter Jeni is a decendant of the Ringling Brothers Circus.

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JOKE OF THE WEEK (taking a week off):
Mother's Day Facts

Mothers' day, as we are all aware of, is one of the largest card-selling holidays celebrated worldwide. It is the day, when children express their love and respect for their moms. The day gives children with the opportunity to let moms know how special and precious they are to them. It's interesting to learn about some mother's day facts. These facts about mother's day will not only enable you to gain some knowledge, but will also astonish you. Read further to explore interesting facts about mothers.

Mothers Day Trivia:

1) In most languages the word for mother starts with the alphabet ‘M".

2) The Chinese family names usually start with signs associated with motherhood.

3) The trend of celebrating mother's day can be attributed to the ancient Greeks, who celebrated this holiday in the spring season to honor Rhea, the mother of the gods.

4) About 500 years ago, there was a prophetess named mother Shipton, who had predicted that queen Elizabeth would be the next to sit on the throne.

5) The meaning of Greek word "meter" and the Sanskrit word "mantra" is both mother and measurement.

6) In the catalog of popular children entertainment, books by Mother Goose are on the top hot list.

7) The ancient Egyptians always had a belief that "Bast" was the mother of all cats on Earth.

8) The Carnation is the flower that is associated with mother's day. The red carnation meant to honor moms who are alive while white carnation is to honor a mom who has deceased.

9) In early Christianity, mother's day was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, to honor Mother Mary.

10) The Bible honors Eve as the "Mother of all Living."

11)  In Ireland and the United Kingdom, mother's day is known as Mothering Sunday which is observed on the fourth Sunday of Lent, or three weeks before Easter Sunday.

12) Elizabeth Ann Buttle holds a record for taking longest interval between the births of two children. Her first child was born in 1956 while her second child was born in 1999.

13) Jayne Bleackley holds a record for the shortest intervals between the births of her two children. Her first baby was born on September 3, 1999 and her second baby was born on March 30, 2000. The two babies were born 208 days apart.

14) Although most of South America celebrates mother's day on the second Sunday in May, Argentina celebrates mother's day on second Sunday of October.

15) The wife of Russian Fedor Vassilyev made it to the Guinness Book of Records in 1997 for giving birth to most children. She delivered 69 children, which included 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets.

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5/18/2012: Janice Braun died this morning.

5/14/2012: Added the Mother's Day 2012 pictures from Kenosha. They are in the Photos-Family page. Two things I noticed is that Andy is almost as tall as Kathy already and Alex is catching up to Andy's height - fast!

5/13/2012: We've both been fighting colds this week, causing Kathy to miss Monday and Thursday from work. Not sure what we have, but it's been lingering for awhile with us.

I got some garden stuff done, but not all that should be. The weekend of the 19th/20th we pick up our pepper and tomato plants from Ebert's Nursery in Ixonia, WI. We've been getting our plants from there for a number of years. Once the tomato plants are in the ground, we get to use our new, heavy duty, cages. If these don't work then I'm going to have to build something from wood or PVC.

Kathy found out she's been approved for a business conference, being held in St. Louis next month. She found a couple of other people going and may hop a ride with them, rather than taking her car. Including the travel time, it'll be a Saturday-Thursday event.

I keep plugging away with job applications. I had two phone interviews this week, but already heard back that I don't qualify. My doctor told me to consider applying for disability as she'll sign off on that.

I met with Dan, Sandy and Jake yesterday at their Parade 2012 Home in Bristol, WI. I found someone through Craigslist who was giving away five boulders from her yard. After Dan and Jake dug them out with the bobcat, they ended up being in the 30" x 24" and bigger range and several hundred pounds. They stuck two in Dan's pickup truck and three on the bobcat trailer. I was pulling my trailer, thinking I could get three on the trailer and two in the back-end of my pickup truck. Dan recommended not that as it would be too much stress on the vehicle, especially since it was a 75 minute ride home. So they loaded up three on the trailer and the two on Dan's pickup truck will be delivered to the house by Dan, possibly on Wednesday. Good sized boulders! I got the three home, but left them on the trailer. Not sure where I want to place them temporarily - maybe on the lower patio area. The fun part will be for me to move them off the trailer and onto the ground. There are some grabbing places on the rocks, but again, they are several hundred pounds each. I'll get a workout, that's for sure.

By the way - getting to see the outside of their Parade 2012 Home - I have to say it looks great. About a month left before the Parade of Homes begins, which will fly by in no time. Then we'll get to see the finished product and inside the home.

Kathy is in Kenosha this weekend, for Mother's Day, and visiting with the Romanowski's. They had some type of event Saturday, through school I think, that required Kathy to take her sewing machine with her. She has the camera and is supposed to take some pictures from the weekend. I'll have those on the website sometime later tonight or tomorrow.

No updates on other pages.

Stay safe and be happy!

3/4/2012: If you don't believe something is going to happen on 12/21/12, then good for you. For those of us who do believe something will happen (end of the world, the Internet crashes, major floods, etc., etc.) here is something that could be construed as a sign that 12/21/12 is coming and that something major could happen to humankind. Check out this article:

2/14/2012: Computer News (IMPORTANT):

Hard-drive shortage may lead to higher PC prices
End users can expect to pay as much as 30% more for a hard drive this year because of damage from flooding in Asia that will cost about $1 billion to fix, research suggests. The increased prices -- expected to persist for the next two years -- are likely to translate into higher computer costs until inventories return to normal, according to a joint study by IHS iSuppli and Coughlin Associates.
--- Computer World (2/13/2012)

If you're thinking of getting a hard drive, internal or external, you might want to do it quick. Prices are already creeping upwards.

8/16/2011: If any of you have seen the reports in the past about the vicious Chupacabra - well, they finally caught one. You tell me if this is the animal capable of bringing down goats and eating them.
http://tinyurl.com/3hlc4nd

6/11/2011: The Madison Area Parade of Homes 2011 started today and runs for 16 days. We visited Dan and the home he built for this year's parade. Very, very nice - as usual. Here is the link for some pictures of his place.

5/14/2011: We went to the Asia concert in Milwaukee. Someone took a video of one of the songs and put it on YouTube. Great concert!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF3PAZsN-TM

3/24/2011: We went to the Yanni concert in Milwaukee. Here a couple of videos from that concert that people put on YouTube. These were tickets Gil won from the local radio station.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWc7vbTJaUQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGv3U0L9BM

Here is "Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Orchestra!" singing a tribute to one of the greatest bands of all time - Queen. Click here.

And finally - some videos of Dan:
4/25/2011 - Business Up But Homebuilders See Slow Recovery (article with video embedded).
Here is a link to the video clip with Dan Duren's televison appearance. Click here.
Here is a more recent video clip of Dan on YouTube - Click here.

Check out the two fox in our yard. They were playing like two cats, rolling around in the grass and chasing one another.
Click here.

Gil (and Kathy)