House pictures from last Friday, when my parents were in town. Dry walling continued, with them at the taping and mudding stage at that point. We close on Dec. 5!

• Front
  
• Living room
  
• Kitchen
  
• Master
  
• Third bedroom
  

House pictures from today. They started the dry wall, and have made great progress. We should get a closing date very soon here.

• Front
  
• Porch
  
• Front walkway
  
• Living room
  
• Kitchen nook
  
• Loft from below
  
• Front entryway
  
• Master bedroom
  
• Loft
  
• Neighbors - One is getting framed, the other their foundation
  

More house pix, from Saturday. Electrical and plumbing look pretty close to being done. Next up will be insulation and drywall, we believe.

• House front
  
• Outside meter box
  
• Front entryway - Getting ready to put in porch and walkway
  
• Main bath tub in
  
• Water heater in
  
• Circuit breaker box
  

Well, the house keeps being built. Here are some pix as of Wednesday. We just got a 1% discount on total purchase price because I work for CSU!

• Ashley in front
  
• Another front view - Brick and roof in
  
• Exterior faucets added
  
• Neighbor house foundation in and backfilled - They have a walkout basement
  
• Interior wiring going in
  
• More wiring
  
• Plumbing going in too - Laundry room
  
• Furnace is in
  
• Upstairs master shower going in
  

More house pics. Interior design items have been chosen and the final price determined. Wiring should commence next week and we should have a closing date for late November/early December soon. All pictures were taken yesterday. Our garage door was added as of today.

• Master bath and powder faucets
  
• Main bath faucets
  
• Flooring and laminate
  
  
  
  • Left - Laundry and powder; Middle - Main and master baths; Right - Kitchen
    
  
  
• Carpet and entryway tile - Plus laminate for upstairs hallway cabinets
  
• House front - Windows and siding in
  
• More house front - Not painted yet
  
• Interior archways are framed
  
• Back of house
  
• Family room fireplace is in
  
• Other side of house back
  
• Neighbor house going in - Garage on our side, so close together there!
  
• Brick for garage front - A bit of a purplish hue!
  

More house pics. By now it is pretty much framed inside and out, and siding and ducting are being placed. Our neighbors have closed on their house and moved in. We've met them and they are quite friendly, close to our age with two Rottweilers and a cat, no kids. The other neighbor's house has started, with their initial hole dug out. Another house on our block was started this week as well. Some miscellaneous cat pix in here too.

• House on 9/23 - Pic 1
  
• House on 9/23 - Pic 2
  
• House on 9/23 - Pic 3
  
• House on 9/23 - Pic 4
  
• Minette is hiding ...
  
• Can you spot her?
  
• Sunshine
  
• Getting the brush
  
• Feels so good!
  
• House on 9/26 - They move fast! - rest are from 9/26 too
  
• Another front view
  
• Ducts are starting to go in - garage
  
• Ashley climbs our stairs
  
• Ashley in the master bedroom
  
• Ashley in the loft
  
• In the basement
  
• Ashley looking out our one finished window
  
• View from the formal living room
  
• Back view - siding is starting!
  
• Other back view
  
• House at sunset
  
• Sunset
  

Here are some new photos, some of Hannah Port and her dog Esther during their visit here, plus house photos from last Friday. Framing is proceeding rapidly, and Ashley and I meet with the design center person on Tuesday to pick out interior design stuff like carpet. Hannah is working at a Fort Collins practice for a couple weeks. She stayed with us for a few days, and now is staying with others. She may stay with us again sometime next week before returning to her veterinary internship in New Mexico.

• Ashley and Hannah by "White Trash Lake"
  
• Esther fetches
  
• Esther returning with her prey
  
• Esther at attention
  
• Esther's all wet!
  
• Esther retrieves another drowning stick
  
• Esther gets the shakes
  
• Minette rests on our new ottoman-style stool
  
• House from the NW
  
• From the front
  
• Another view of our front bay window
  
• Garage and driveway concrete is in
  
• From the east side
  
• Looking inside the house
  
• Basement is poured as well
  
• Ashley in her kitchen pantry
  
• Looking out the family room window at Horsetooth
  

Lot is graded, and foundation is backfilled. Our yards will be a lot bigger than previously thought. They start framing on Monday!

• Pic 1
  
• Pic 2
  
• Pic 3
  
• Pic 4
  

More house pictures, as the basement walls go up. These were taken last weekend.

• Pic 1
  
• Pic 2
  
• Pic 3
  
• Pic 4
  

Ground has been broken on our house! The hole for the basement was dug, and they started putting in the concrete for the basement. So things are moving along! Looks like our garage will be on the right as you look at the house. Our backyard definitely will be shallow, but our side yards will be decent size, judging from how the hole was dug. We think they started last Thursday, but we have some pictures from Friday. Enjoy!

• Pic 1
  
• Pic 2
  
• Pic 3
  
• Pic 4
  

I've added two new sets of pictures to our home page. One set is from my cousin Mary's wedding in Minnesota, and the second is from my recent conference trip to Seattle. They are listed toward the top of the pictures links. Things are going well on the house front. We've signed the contract and filled out the loan forms. Now they just gotta start building!

Ashley and I are going to build a new house! Read all about it here. Pictures from my cousin Mary's wedding will be posted later this weekend. Take care!

Finally got the last two rolls from the underwater cameras developed, so we've added 30 new pictures from the Great Barrier Reef snorkeling adventure to the Australia and New Zealand picture page. Ashley started her new vet job after we returned from our trip, and is enjoying it so far. She is commuting to Boulder for the summer, and will move to a Fort Collins clinic in a couple months. We're starting the house-buying process, much to Ashley's delight! We spent the 4th in Brush, Colorado, with the Browns, Kay, and Tom and Amy Murphy (plus their kids). Was a lot of fun! Brush, which is out on the eastern plains, has one of the better 4th of July celebrations around, with a big parade, a rodeo, and some great fireworks. We were so close to the fireworks that it shook our bodies!

Well, Ashley and I returned from Australia and New Zealand last week, and I finally was able to post all of our pictures. You can find the picture page, along with some description of what we did, here. The trip was fabulous, and we got to see and do quite a lot. So head on over and enjoy the pictures!

Well, Ashley's brother Mat was married last weekend in Las Vegas. You can see pictures by following this link. Was a fun time catching up with friends and family, as well as gambling and seeing the Vegas sites! Also added a few pictures courtesy of Barbara Calvin to Ashley's graduation pictures. We leave tomorrow for Australia and New Zealand, so this site won't be updated until mid-to-late June, but I promise to get pictures from the trip up right after that!

Ashley graduated from Tufts Veterinary School last Sunday. Ashley's parents and cousins, as well as my parents and Uncle John and Aunt Rosemary Lang, were all able to attend. Pictures from the festivities can be found on our main web site, just follow this link. We leave for Las Vegas and Ashley's brother's wedding this Friday. Then we're headed to Australia the first weekend in June, for a two week vacation with Ashley's parents. The traveling never stops!

Ashley left for Massachusetts today. She is very ready to graduate but hasn't resolved her job hunt yet, though she may do so soon. Stay tuned. I follow her out to MA on Thursday. Her parents and cousins and my parents will all be there. Should be quite the party!

On Thursday I give a seminar on my Nepal research to the CSU Department of Atmospheric Science. Ashley is nearing the end of her rotation schedule, with only two weeks left to go! After that, graduation is on 18 May and her brother, Mat, gets married the following weekend in Las Vegas. We'll be staying at the Bellagio for that event!

Been a while, sorry about that ... links to some interesting recent satellite photos of Baghdad can be found here. Resolution is as good as 1 meter and the oil fire smoke plumes and some bomb damage can be seen clearly. Ashley is back in town for the time being. She is studying for the vet board exam as well as interviewing at several different practices along the Front Range. Me, I'm just cruisin' along at work. :)

Well, the weather service didn't lie. We got slammed by the biggest snowfall in recent history. Bigger than the October 1997 blizzard, probably. Storm totals as of this morning can be found here. Winter Park got 5 feet! But you can't get there because Berthoud Pass is closed. Heh. Breckenridge got about 2 feet, with resorts further west getting less. Classic upslope snowstorm pattern, with the foothill regions getting really slammed. (Check out the 74 inches in Clear Creek County!) They claim 28 inches in Fort Collins, and based on my survey outside the apartment this morning, I believe them. Plus we're due another 3-6 inches today. Have a look at some digital pix I just snapped:

• Some person managed to clean off their car recently. But they ain't driving it very soon. :)
  
• The Calvin Durango's on the right. It got driven yesterday. (What fun!) Ashley's Saturn is somewhere in there.
  
• My Chevrolet's in the left foreground, not that you can see it. :)
  
• A whole suite of snowed-in vehicles
  
• The poor trees! This is really heavy snow for CO, but not quite classic Sierra Cement.
  
• Believe it or not, these actually are stairs.
  
• Even our protected deck got hit. Check out the snow "wall" made by the sliding door. Good thing Ashley brought those bikes back from MA. Heh.
  
• Sunshine checks out the snow: Pic 1 - Pic 2 - Pic 3
  

Needless to say, CSU is closed. But the CSU-CHILL radar has been running and taking observations for the last few days, and is still going strong. Check out some real-time radar images here.