After what seemed to be months of rain we finally had a weekend without it!
Glorious, warm, recharging, SUNSHINE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwsrQ9llgkg

Sunday we went on a bike ride around the area. The weather was perfect. We ate at a new (to us) place called The Magic Bagel. We had a table outside in the shade and it was wonderful.

The only reason we even saw it was because it was next door to “Texas Rangers Fried Chicken

For desert we picked up a fruit tea.

We took it to the park to enjoy before going home.

Every once in a while we go north of town to an area where there are a few stores that carry more products that Americans & European people want. Since we are in the middle of a three day weekend (Monday is a holiday – Taiwan’s independence anniversary) we decided to make a run. Here is a picture of the loot – $53 worth.

bag of 7 limes – 2 bags microwave popcorn – box of 2 pkgs crackers – 10 oz Brown sugar – 2 lbs flour – Lea & Perins Worchester Sauce – Can of lima beans – Can of Chili – Jar of peperoncini peppers – 2 bananas – Ground Nutmeg – Marjoram leaves – Celery powder – can of pinto beans – Can of black beans – Mandarin oranges – Salad dressing – sm bag Cheetos – sm bag Sour Cream & Onion Ruffles.

Here are a couple of things that we did not buy:

Seaweed Wasabi potato chips  yummmmmmm

Noodles Oodles facebook credits  !@#$%^&*???

I am a native Texan and it makes me sick to see what is happening back home.

The ten-month period through July was the driest in Texas state history. Entire lakes have dried up. Since last November, almost 1,500 homes have burned in nearly 21,000 fires across the state.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Check it out at The Big Picture (click link below).
Texas drought and wildfires – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

Last Sunday Fran and I attended the funeral of the wife of one of my cousins. It was an evangelistic service that I felt honored her. We saw family there that I rarely get the chance to see.

While there, we saw something  that we had never seen before . . . .

Where were we?

My daughter, Paige, planned a “Surprise Momma’s Day Brunch” to honor me and the many mommas that influence and care for her while I live overseas. Most of these women I know, and a few I have heard about over the years.  I am so thankful for the many women that influence her in a variety of ways, pointing her towards Christ – to shine for him.  The table setting was beautiful and the food was fantastic!  Her husband, Chris, took her daddy and dad-in- law fishing while we did the girl thing.  It was a very fun day, full of surprises.

Man, it’s been a while since the last post. We’ve been really busy . . . and still are.

We’re getting ready to take a break from our 2nd home and reconnect with folks back in the US. We’ve also been planning a special week for this summer when we will visit here

This photo of Moraine Lake Lodge is courtesy of TripAdvisor

and here

This photo of Jasper National Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Hoping to see you soon,

J and F

During the Christmas break we took a couple of days vacation and did some driving around this beautiful island that we live on. Here are a few of the pictures we took . . .
Click any picture to see a larger version of it. Click HERE to go to Flickr and see a slide show of all the pictures.

I think this is one of the coolist examples of public art / sculpture I’ve run across in a long time. Enjoy!

In loving memory of Barbara Hogue, 1927 – 2010
Fran’s mother went home to be with her Lord last Friday.

Obituary

We’ve been a little busy so I’m just now getting around to posting about our newest gadget.  Two weeks ago we took the plunge and bought a new camera. Our other camera – Canon S3 IS – is 3 years old and kinda bulky. I love it and it’s 12X zoom, but it doesn’t do real well indoors and it sometimes blurs the left side of the picture.

When we were home for vacation this summer I looked at a replacement – a Canon S90 – but I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the bucks. So I just shopped and drooled. A few weeks after returning to Taiwan I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I started looking at it here. Too expensive!

Then one day online I discovered that the S90 (and it’s main 3 flaws) had been upgraded. The Canon S95 had been released. Now I was really obsessed! I started looking around Taipei and learned a couple of things:

Cameras, regardless of price do not come with international warranties. The warranty is only good in the country of purchase.

Some Canon dealers in Taipei get (some of) their cameras through channels other than Canon in Taiwan, outside of the country of Taiwan. Therefore, if you purchase the camera through them and you have a warranty issue, Canon Taiwan will not perform warranty work on it. It is called parallel importing.

So, after all the looking and learning we decided to go for it and saved $70 over the price of the “official” Canon Taiwan product. The shop we used will provide the one year warranty for the camera.

We’ve been busy and haven’t had a chance to really get to know it very but have played around with it a little bit.

It is a very powerful pocket sized camera that we hope will provide us with many memories.

A thorough list of features