This was too good not to share:

They said on the news tonight that the political campaign has only a hundred days left. Only! I don’t know what’s less likely, Barack Obama getting enough experience in 100 days, or John McCain living another 100 days.

Thanks to the terrific and blazingly fast support of the plugin author I was able to get the “gallery in a post” thingie working. See the post below this one.
If you click on one of the pics it will come up larger on the screen as a layer on top of what you were viewing. Underneath this larger pic is a more detailed description of it. When you hover your mouse cursor over the larger picture right and left arrows appear near the edges of the picture. This allows you to click on the arrows to go forward and backwards in the group of pictures. When you reach either end the arrow for that direction does not appear. It’s really simple.

Tech stuff – the two WordPress plugins it takes to make this work are:
PhotoJAR and Lightbox
Thanks again to the PhotoJAR author for the quick and accurate help.

Let’s see what this thing will do . . . .

Hmmmmm . . . leaving here in hopes of getting help.

All fixed!
Let me know if it is too slow to load.

Yesterday we celebrated the fact that Fran has grown wiser by another year. We started off with lunch at the only Romano’s Macaroni Grill in Taiwan. She had a create your own pasta dish and I had a calzone. After we stuffed ourselves, the Chinese speaking Taiwanese wait staff sang an Italian song to these two English speaking Americans . . . .

and treated us to a chocolate birthday cake – FUN!

Then we were off to a theater in a different mall to see "Journey To The Center of the Earth" in 3-D. We both enjoyed the very realistic effects. After the movie we went exploring at a riverside park and took a few pics. We then capped off the night with a snack of Double Stacked Quesidias TGIFriday’s (after cooling off with a Starbuck’s Mocha Frappuccino). It was a very fun day of celebrating Fran’s increasing wisdom!

Well things have been a bit crazy for a while but I think I see light at the end of the tunnel.
There are a couple of additions to the blog that I wanted you to notice.
First, on the left – over there, I added a C.S. Lewis quote about making a choice along with a link to a website that you might want to check out. Click HERE to download a pdf of the article that explains it better than the link on the left. 
Second, I put up 8 or 10 pictures from a short outing on Flicker.

Thursday, after working a half day, Fran and I went up on Yang Ming Shan. It is a big mountain that is in the outskirts of Taipei county. As promised yesterday here are a few pictures from the drive.

We hope that you and your family can get together and have some fun this weekend. I’ve taken a little time off work and we are doing some exploring. Yesterday it was Yang Ming Shan – today it was Neidong National Forest. I’ve put a few of the pictures from today up on Flicker. Tomorrow I  will try to put up some of the Yang Ming Shan pictures. Here is one from today to wet your appetite

After an afternoon of play Fran and I stopped at an "International" store and found a few of the comfort foods we sometimes splurge on. I’m curious about whether I’ve just lost touch with the cost of things or are the cost of western goods just really ridiculously high here in Taipei. Look at this picture and try to add up what they would cost at your neighborhood grocery store. You might not recognize the cans in front. They are l to r: pork & beans, refried beans, and pinto beans? Also pictured are two 15 oz. boxes of cereal, a pint (smallest size) of Miracle Whip, and a bottle of Soft Scrub. So, how much would you pay at the check out?

Our bill came to US $28.50!