Moritz Life

Saturday evening we went to the Hanford High School Presentation Center to watch the various school choirs (including Andrew) in the musical presentation of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was an enjoyable time as it was one of the best presentations that we have seen at the school.
Andrew played Joseph's brother Reuben.

During the recent Homecoming parade here in Hanford, Andrew marched with his drum ensemble/marching band in the parade. Here is a short video of that portion of the parade.

Please note, neither Andrew nor any other person at the parade was injured during the filming of this video.

Watch for more videos of other interesting events coming soon!


(Click on the picture to download - 4.8mb - 00:38)

Well I am back in the valley after my wonderful trip to Lake Tahoe these past few days. It was a really great trip and I was able to relax a lot, and get a fairly nice tan from laying out in the sun and playing frisbee on the beach. As promised, here are pictures from my trip. (Click on the pictures to see larger views.)

This is the five-star resort we stayed at, the Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe, CA


This picture probably best shows Lake Tahoe how I experienced it. Sunny and warm beach by the lake, surrounded with snow-capped mountains.


One of the best things to do with a beach and warm weather, play frisbee.


There are two parts to where I was. South Lake Tahoe, which is a town in California, and then across the state border into Nevada is Lake Tahoe. You know when you get into Lake Tahoe (and the state of Nevada) because there are huge casinos right at the border line.


This is the casino/hotel we visited. I wanted to say I did some gambling on the trip, so I played $5 in a quarter machine. I wrote it off as money spent on entertainment, I wasn't planning on winning anything, so even when I was up $0.50 I still just played until I lost the $5. (If I had won two or three times as much as I started with I would have quit, but I didn't)


Here is a view from the top floor of the casino/hotel. It is a great view of the city and the lake. The top floor is also where the buffet is located.


We had a barbecue by the lake our last night of the trip, we fed some of the geese with our leftover bread during the sunset.


Here is a picture showing the beautiful sunsets we got to see over the lake.

As Kathy already posted, her brother and sister-in-law visited with us for a few days. Here are a few photos, including evidence of their love for ice cream!

Click here for photos.

Sorry for the delay in reporting this, but last week I had the opportunity to fly to Edmonton (May 15-21). It was a great time to visit family, and also to conduct some business. I stayed with my Dad, but also visited some other family including several cousins from Detroit who were in Edmonton at the beginning of the week. I also made a quick trip to Camrose.

Click here for some photos from my trip.

In addition to spending meaningful times with family, it was good to be in Edmonton again. The city has sure grown in the last three years, now with over 1 million people in the metro area. It is still "home" and a comfortable place to be, although I'm not in any hurry to move back. I was quickly reminded of some drawbacks: The weather was less than stellar, and the Canadian political scene last week made my head shake (The handwriting is on the wall: Quebec will separate within in the next five years if Canadians insist on political status quo as they seem bent to).

Well it's been an exciting week. Last Sunday, Lloyd left for Edmonton for a week of relaxation and time with his dad and this past Friday, Ken & Ginny arrived in sunny Hanford. We had a whirlwind tour with them this weekend taking in our fine Mexican cuisine, touring the countryside and eating ice cream. You'll have to ask Ken about that. Saturday we went to Fresno to check things out there and also to pick Lloyd up from the airport. Friday night I got to bed at 12:30 and up at 5:30 am (my body clock kicked in) and Saturday night at 12:30 and I got to sleep till 7:00 am this morning. Then we did our regular Sunday morning thing at church. We came home made escargots, garlic bread, greek salad and pizza to celebrate Lloyd's 44th birthday (which was yesterday). We had a wonderful visit with them and were sad to see them go. We're looking forward to seeing them and the rest of the family, next month in Ontario! I'm tired and going to bed! G'nite.

Well, here I am, finished with school for another year. I am not at home right now though, nor am I at school anymore. In fact, I am sitting in a large plush chair in front of a fireplace in the lobby of the Embassy Vacation Resort in Lake Tahoe, California. My friends and I took a short road trip up to Lake Tahoe for almost a week. Today is our first full day and I am really enjoying myself so far. I will be taking lots of pictures, and will post those probably later on in the trip or when I get back. If you click here though, you will be able to see a map of where Lake Tahoe is, and here to see an even less zoomed view. In both pictures Lake Tahoe should be right at the top of the map. The drive from Fresno is about 4 1/2 to 5 hours. The weather is not too bad, around 60-70 degrees fahrenheit (about 15-20 celsius). We might go swimming in the lake today, but whatever I do it will be a lot of relaxing.

Well, tonight is the eve of my first final. Which puts my first final tomorrow. I have been studying, not too hard though. I think I will do good. My first final is Business Writing and Communication, then in the evening I have my second final of Managerial Information Systems, which is the class I have been taking online.

Thursday is the day with my other two finals. Accounting at 6:30am!!!! and then Child and Family Studies at 8:45am. To round off the day, and to celebrate the finality of the school year, I am going to see Star Wars Episode III with my roommates. Should be good.

Well, back to studying! Wish me luck.

Click here for photo

Well here it is ladies and gentlement, my last article of the semester. Not sure if I will be writing again for the collegian next semester, I have no idea who the editor is/will be, I will probably ask whoever it ends up being if they would like me to continue submitting articles.

Anyways, I think this is one of my more creative articles, so enjoy!

http://collegian.csufresno.edu/archive/2005/05/09/opinion/bun.shtml

I woke up to 3 boys in their boxer shorts saying "Happy Mother's Day" around 7:25am. They gave me a book of Mom's Devotions which is really nice and Jonathan bought a beautiful ceramic heart that says "Scatter kindness - Gather love". It's very pretty and I had the perfect place in my bedroom to hang it.

We went to church where I got to watch my 3 boys and my husband play for the worship team and then out for lunch at the Hong Kong Restuarant, one of the great Chinese food restaurants in Hanford. Then it was back home to have a relaxing afternoon while the boys put together a lawn swing for me. I had a nice afternoon just reading and swinging. I also got to talk to my mom. My sister, Lori, called me too. We had a great visit on the phone. All in all, it's been a wonderful day. Thank you to my 3 wonderful sons for making my Mother's Day so very special - they're the best!

(I'll let Kathy report on the day's events as it's her day, but here are some photos of the boys setting up her new swing)

Photo #1
Photo #2
Photo #3

Here's some practical advice on how to effectively read "blogs".
"Blogging" is the hottest trend on the Internet right now because it is a highly effective way to update and transmit information. MoritzOnline.net is set up as a blog in that we regularly post about things happening in our family. But, more significant for this discussion, it is in a standardized format that allows you to access our postings through a "blog reader" (or also known as an "RSS reader", "news aggregator", or some other term).
The advantage of using a blog reader is that you don't have to visit our website to find out whether we have anything new to share. You are busy and don't want to waste time checking our website only to find out that there is nothing new. Or, you might forget to check and miss out on all our exciting news!
Using a blog reader will be especially advantageous once you start checking several blogs. You will save time because a blog reader provides a central location for you to have this information delivered to you automatically. As blogging grows you will find many blogs that you will want to check, including personal sites (like ours), discussions on virtually every topic imaginable, news, etc.
There are a number of blog readers available to use. Some of them cost money, but many are free. Here are our recommendations for free ones.
Bloglines - is a web-based blog reader. It's advantage is that you can check your blogs from any computer in the world.
Rss Bandit - is a Windows-based program that you install. Very powerful.
Thunderbird - is an e-mail client (like Outlook Express) that also reads blogs and puts them into e-mail-like folders, etc. Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. Many people are switching to Thunderbird from Outlook Express just for the e-mail features alone. Blog reading is a great bonus.
Firefox - is the #1 alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, and has blog reading built-in. Easy, automatic blog "subscription" method. Each blog is placed into a convenient pull-down menu. For even more power, a Firefox Extension called Sage is easy to add on.
Hopefully this is helpful (and not too confusing). If you need assistance in choosing or implementing a blog reader please contact us, as either Luke or I could assist you.
Now is the time to take full advantage of blogging. It is a cornerstone of the Internet of the future.

My brother Ken called last night to let me know that he and Ginny are going to be coming to California this month! Ken is being trained on a new "switching system" in San Francisco for his telephone company and they will come for several days after his course is over. They will probably be here for the Memorial Day weekend which will be great fun! I can hardly wait.

As many of you know I love strawberries. Here's my little strawberry patch. This is another reason why this is my favorite time of year!

Latley, I have been in a mood of buying electronics, and I continued that today by buying an iPod. If any of you are unfamiliar with what an iPod is, it is an Mp3 jukebox/player. It stores about 10gigabytes, which is about 2500 songs. I bought it used from a friend who got a new one. It unfortunately is not big enough to put all my songs on (I have more than 5200), it has enough room to play music for almost a week without repeating, so it keeps enough songs on it.

Here is a picture of it.




As you may be able to tell, my iPod matches my iBook (which are both white and Apple products). I am not really an Apple guy, but I guess I kind of am now.

As I mentioned in a previous blog I was thinking about running for a leadership position for the Craig Business Scholars, of which I am a member and current Vice-President. Well last week I put my name in the hat, and today at our meeting the voting took place and I was elected President. So I am now the top dog of the Craig Business Scholars. I am pretty happy.

As another Mother's Day approaches, I am reminded of how lucky I am to have my mother still with us. My mom is a cancer survivor and I'm grateful that she has overcome it. Mom - I love you. I am dropping off a small token of my love in the mail on Monday (May 2). I hope it will get to you by Friday, but if not, you'll know it's coming. With love always, Kathy