We're All Going on a Summer Holiday

Well, it is summer in South Africa after all :) We mannaged to find tickets for Danny and Inna at a reasonable price considering the time of year but had to extend our return date until January 11th (darn it - a whole extra week of sun and warmth ;). I'm just glad that one of my superiors is very understanding about the whole situation and let me take some more time off from work (I don't suppose that has anything to with the fact that today, I guess, we are now Lehman employees?). The best news of all though (in addition to going with the wife and kid) is that we *should* be there in time for Christmas (man am I looking forward to that maple turkey).

Chestnut Mountain - My New Favorite (Midwest) Ski Spot

Gena helped me kick off the ski season yesterday with a trip to Galena's Chestnut Mountain. A really beautiful Midwest ski resort overlooking the Mississippi River almost at the Northwest tip of Illinois. About three hours drive from our home and considering the slopes, it's the perfect destination for a day of skiing. Unfortunately we just missed out on their "Dollar Days" special and had to fork over the full fare for the lift tickers :( The beautiful weather and excellent conditions made it all very much worth it. Also demoed Rozi's current season ski's and realized just how bad my skis really are. Too bad, they'll have to last a couple more seasons before we consider upgrading them. I've got to say that Innochka was just an angel letting me go off and have fun while she was stuck at home taking care of the little guy. I guess I owe her :|

Up and Running again

A new video card and new dimms later and we now have a functional computer again (whoopeee). Amazing, the cheapo ATI card that replaces my NVidia GeForce4 Ti 4600 is actually much better. It pays to be a few generations behind the curve (except that I didn't wait with the GeForce, oh well). This means we'll have to get our photo album up-to-date with shots of our recent trip to San Diego. Look forward to that coming up soon. One things for sure. I'm not turning off this machine (if I can help it).

Of course, Christmas is approaching faster than toro down a cobbled street in Spain. And when you are as unprepared as we are, you're bound to get trodden on or worse. But then again, all those prepared folks standing in line after Thanksgiving demostrated that you're bound to get trodden on regardless.

We're still on the lookout for some air-tickets to SA for Inna and Danny (that would be a lovely Christmas presentSanta, if you're ... reading). Sadly, everything affordable is already taken. Hopefully something will turn up soon but we'll wait until the last minute if necessary.

Here's an enjoyable link of Jon Stewart quotes if you're interested.

Roll over, Roll over, And they all rolled over...

Danny hit the "roll-over" milestone yesterday, a little-bit later than the books suggested he would hit it. Nevertheless we were thrilled to see him perform this feat. I never would have believed something like this would get me so excited!

What's been happenin'

It's been a tough week for us after our return from San Diego. Inna and I have been fighting something that turned out to be a sinus infection. Took the day off on Thursday in order to see the quack and get my prescription of antibiotics. Inna though has opted for the more daring, medication-free route, and seems to be doing pretty well. Gratefully, the drugs are beginning to take a noticable effect as today I'm feeling almost like new, with just a hint of a sore throat remaining. Sadly, the transformation didn't occur in time for Gena's birthday bash on Saturday which we were forced to miss :( In fact, Saturday was pretty much a sh!tty day for the both of us, bunged up and overdosing on hot-toddies to overcome the congestion and frustration with being sick.

Gratefully, we were able to squeeze in a short visit to Leane & William on Friday before their departure to Mexico for the holidays. Leane amazed us all with her ability to relate to little'n's having little Danny in hysterics for most of the evening. The ordered in curry was very much appreciated considering our state of health.

On Sunday, we spent a few hours at the in-laws toasting to the good fortune of Papa/Dedushka who enjoyed his birthday last week. This essentially serves as the anniversary of our meeting. I met Inna at the small birthday bash thrown for Alexander Gorbikov back in 1998, and well, the rest is history :)

As far as my computer goes, we've established that the memory and video card are dead. New items are being shipped and hopefully it will be back up and running by the end of the week. In the mean time there is a mad panic rush to find tickets for Inna and Danny who've decided to join me on my trip to South Africa at the end of the year. Not a good time to start looking for flights for the week over Christmas and New Year!!!

Mark & Danny @ 1 Month (Mark's Mini-Me)

Mark & Danny @ 1 Month (Mark's Mini-Me)
Originally uploaded by kmcnally.

Karl took this picture when he was over in July. My goodness, compared to how Daniel is now, this seems like yonks ago!