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Below are the 25 most recent journal entries.

	2009.12.02  20.58 My Day Today I assembled a computer desk, played with a security camera which i finally got to work

	2009.12.01  19.00 My Day Today Nat took the day off. we have been married 11 months. We went into Rockford to get some tablets I needed then we walked through a forest preserve and Nat took some snaps. After that we stopped a supermarket called 'Valli produce' they had a lot of stuff from all over the world but no vegemite, a pity coz I am out. I bought some wasabi peas that where great and also got some tarelli but they tasted nothing like i expected or am used to, very disappointing. Next we stopped at Hachi hachi and had sushi for lunch. We spent a quiet afternoon at home before the kids came home then it was homework, shopping for shoes picking up a computer desk from Nat's mum's and hamburgers for dinner. All in all a great day

	2009.11.30  22.41 My Day Well things are back to normal after thanks giving. The kids went to school and Nat went to work and had a quiet day catching up on correspondence. Funny how much a mail now and again means.

	2009.11.29  18.38 My Day they are trying to get on the top shelf, this guy thought climbing down was the go but he gave up. Soon after one got brave enough to climb from the bottom to the top shelf. It was not long after that they where going top to bottom and bottom to top no worries. We went shopping today. Dennis came up to the cart and says "Here's the peanut paste and the jam" I smiled as he did not say peanut butter and jelly like an American, he is learning. When we got home we walked the dog. Sumo Yokozuna Hakuho took the top division championship with a 15-0 record for his 12th Makuuchi Division title!!

	2009.11.28  19.36 our turkey our turkey Originally uploaded by ynot0901 here is Nat carving up our turkey. Today was another good day of squirrel watching and relaxing. Sumo Incredibly asashoryu lost again. I am thinking it is the first time he has lost three in a row. Kotooshu defeated. This the undefeated Hakuho a certain winner.

	2009.11.27  19.21 My Day Today i have a pic of a guest enjoying his thanks giving dinner. It took them 2 days to figure how to get on to the swing. It is taking longer still for them to work out how to get to the top shelf. Today was a good day. It is Black Friday here. No that does not mean Friday 13th it is supposed to be the day that retailers get out of the red and into the black. Seems it takes from Jan 1st till the day after Thanks giving till retail stores start making a profit. It is the BIGGEST shopping day of the year, like the traditional after Christmas sales in Adelaide. We did a little shopping but spent a lot of the afternoon getting everyone haircuts. I have gone to cost cutters at Wallmart in the past but today we went to Nat's hairdresser. I got the only hair cut i have had so far in the USA that I am happy with and it was the same price. Naturally we are eating Thank giving leftovers - YUM Sumo Well asashoryu lost to kotomitsuki leaving him back with also rans 2 wins behind undefeated hakuho. It is hard to see hakuho losing from here.

	2009.11.26  20.02 My Day Had a great day, it snowed over night, not much but there was definitely snow on the ground when we got up though it did not last long. I spent a lot of time watching squirrels work out how to get on the hanging shelves I put on the squirrel pole. we had 3 squirrels hanging around and in out most of the day, they are great to watch. Nat's mum came over at 3:00pm and we had turkey and trappings for thanks giving dinner, Nat's brother Matt was working so he was a no show. The meal was very good and we topped it off with pumpkin pie and whipped cream about 6:00pm. It was a good day. It is a day to reflect on your blessing and thank God for his grace and providence. I thank God for my wife, my family here and my family in Australia who are very dear to me, and together with my many good friends are a great source of strength to me, for health and our daily bread and for you my friends who read this entry On the whole I am very fortunate to have lived in 3 countries, made such good friends, have a loving family and found a beautiful caring wife and a home here. I hope that you might know Gods blessings too. Thanks Giving is a good idea I thank God every day but it is nice to think there is a special day for it. Sumo Asashoryu lost to harumafuji leaving hakuho the only undefeated rekishi.

	2009.11.25  19.33 My Day Great day today we slept in a bit and then did a bit of Thanksgiving preparation and squirrel watching, I will post some pics tomorrow perhaps. We went searching for some suitable bubbly for thanks giving yesterday and I happened across some "Zipang" sparkling sake so I bought a small bottle, it 7'5 % alcohol. I openned my little bottle today and it was pretty good. My friend David directed me to a Japanese Drama called Rookies. IT is pretty good and worth a look if you don't mind subtitles. I enjoyed it because the story and characters are good and it reminded me of my time in a Japanese school. It is a bit over dramatic at times and I recommend "Rookies special episode" over the series (It is a condensed version of the series) http://www.mysoju.com/rookies/ Sumo the yokozunas are undefeated with the nearest rivals on 2 losses. Looks like one of them will win my guess asashoryu.

	2009.11.24  20.35 My Day today i needed to get some more tablets. the doc prescribed cholesterol tablets. The procedure is interesting. In Australia I would have paid for a doctors visit to ask for a cholesterol test then got the test done then paid for another visit to the doc to get the results, which he would keep and then when my prescription ran out I would have to pay for another doctors visit to get a new one. Here I pay to go to the doc and then i go and have the test. The lab passes the results to the doctor and then I am rung by the doctors office and told the results and told that the doctor is recommending the tablets would I like to take them. I say yes and then the doctor's office rings a pharmacy of my choice and arranges the prescription and I go and get it. (incidentally this medication is free due to Nats insurance arranged through her work as this particular medication is classified as 'preventative' and the insurance company covers the total cost). When my tablets run out I go back the pharmacy and they arrange for more, no doctors visit is necessary.

	2009.11.23  18.51 my day i have been having trouble with bit defender and they arranged to have an online session this morning to sort it out. The session went from 6:30 till 9:30 and the problem was solved. But I still have a few other issues with this beast, the major one being it drops off the net at times. I am tossing and turning about reformatting. This conference meant Dennis had to get himself off to the bus he managed ok coming down to give me a hug before he left. We had pizza for tea as Nat took her mum to the hospital again. Nat's mum's friend took 'a turn' (sounds like a stroke)yesterday night and was rushed to hospital. She is a critical condition and not expected to live long. Sumo (after the 9th day) 0L Asashoryu, Hakuho 1L Kotooshu, Yoshikaze 2L Toyonoshima, Tochinoshin, Miyabiyama, Takamisakari

	2009.11.22  19.17 my day the quest for a turkey was concluded today. After deciding all the Rockton wallmart birds where too small we went to Aldis and found a 13lb bird but it was not really big enough. We took it to the cash register and discovered, as it was being taken out of the trolley, that the packaging was damaged so we did not get. We went to Walmart Beloit and found a 20lb turkey, just about perfect so we have our Thanksgiving dinner. Cass went to church this morning with a friend. It was church in Rockford, she said it was more like a concert than church. Sounded pentecostal to me. I'm glad she went hopefully she will go again. Sumo The yokozunas are still undefeated

	2009.11.21  20.42 my day well we went to get a turkey today for thanksgiving on Thursday but wallmart did not have a suitable bird so we will try Aldis tomorrow. We had dinner at Nat's mum's tonight. Matt made chili and as usual it was great.

	2009.11.20  22.53 my day Well both yokazunas are still undefeated, followed by kootoshu with one loss. Today we went to see New Moon. We went to a 6:00pm session and left home about 5:30. It was pitch dark. It is certainly getting dark early here. Civil war alert One of my Favorite Union Generals is Phillip Sheridan. He was a short (5ft 2in)and of irish decent and very hot tempered. His favorite tactic was to "Smash em up". I am not sure he was nice guy though, but then successful commanders of troops are rarely nice guys. it is looked on as a weakness in R E Lee but that is for another occasion. Sheridan is the guiy who said "The only good indian is a dead indian." He also said "If I owned hell and texas I would live in hell and rent out texas" Some who obviously did not like Sheridan have said that he should be dug up from his Arlington resting place and buried in Texas then he could be in hell and texas at the same time.

	2009.11.19  20.42 my day I tidied a part of the shed today. When dennis got home we went for a walk with dog. We saw a chubby little squirrel sitting on his nest. I took out the camera and snapped a shot, expecting him to dash off. He did not he sat there I got closer and got some good shots - at least I thought i did for I discovered there was no card in the camera what a pain. Nat saw a deer in our front yard when she came home. I did not get to see it, it moved off quickly up the street Nat followed it a ways until it was no longer possible. We had Dennis; parent teacher interview tonight, he is not doing as good as he should, we will have to work on it. After the interview Nat went off for margarita with her friend Jean, Cass went to stay at a friends place and I am home looking after Dennis. The yokazunas are 5-0 so far.

	2009.11.18  06.06 My Day cold and wet today, not a happy day. some thoughts Senator Baker was a good friend of Abraham Lincoln and has the distinction of being the only US senator ever killed in battle. He was put in charge of troops at place called Balls bluff. It was not a wise move as he had little military experience and as events seem to prove he was not up to it. It is strange how humans work. after a disaster or something there has to be a postmortem and it is probably a wise and sensible thing to do. The problem is that most postmortems are not done in order to establish a cause or find a mistake with the intent of making sure it does not happen again they are rather mostly exercises in scape goating, ass covering and blaming. The Balls Bluff incident is typical, a committee (friends of Baker) conducted an inquiry. A reasonable set of findings would have been that poor communication and Bakers inexperience contributed to the disaster. Baker was probably a good man and a competent politician who was placed in a situation outside his area of expertise and as such did not succeed. HE SHOULD BE FORGIVEN FOR BEING HUMAN and it should have been recommended that officers placed in such situations have battlefield experience if possible. Yet this was not the findings of thew inquiry. Instead General Stone, a loyal and gifted officer was scapegoated and imprisoned to protect the reputation of Baker and further the political agenda of the committee. Stone fought long and hard to have his name cleared but his career was ruined. When he finally got a chance to answer the charges against him, years after he was finally released He was asked why he had not presented his case earlier!!!!!!!! General Stone was the engineer who created the base for the statue of liberty. A symbol of freedom and a fair go, which he never got. Why are we so quick to blame others and scapegoat, why is it so hard to forgive someone for making a mistake and being human Why is so hard to say Colonel Baker was a good politician who meant well but he was placed in an area where he lacked the training to succeed lets try not to do that again. A civil war story you say. well yes it is but it is more. It seems to me whenever things go wrong the scales are balanced solidly in favour of making sure someone else gets the blame, pointing out other peoples short comings and mistakes and very light on forgiveness and problem solving. I think that is one of the big reasons people don't open up and talk through issues, they know if they do they run risk of being blamed and chances are the other people will not participate in any exploration of the issue in the spirit of forgiveness and prevention and problem solving but rather they will be interested in scapegaoting, protecting their ass and not facing any short comings on their part. Can you imagine a group of politicians saying "Well Baker was a good politician but he was not equipped to handle troops?" it would be admitting that they might not be up to it either and it would be seen as tarnishing his name - that i think is very sad, everyone fails at something Why is it so hard to allow people to be human. Thank you for reading this far. BTW The yokazunas are the only undefeated rekishi. Kootoshu was beaten yesterday.

	2009.11.17  19.40 My Day I love this weather it was 45F when I walked to the river with the dog today. On the way back i took a close look at the Christmas decos being put up on the village green near the pool and the ice skating rink, which has no ice yet. There where a few typical things, father Christmas in his sleigh, reindeer though no boomers, a manger scene and Christmas trees but what made me smile was a large pole with a sign on the top that said "North Pole". The thing is the pole was surrounded by about a dozen penguins! Natalie finished painting the bed room (she missed a spot Sshhh!) so we are moving back into our room tonight that means the guest room is ready and available and with the Aussie at 93 cents now is a good time to travel (it was only 66 cents when I came over here.) The basho is heading into day 4, both yokazunas and Kootoshu are undefeated.

	2009.11.16  19.51 My Day A quiet day today. the dog got a walk and I did a few chores. I got a couple of email today, it is nice to get mail from friends. The November basho is underway. Today is day 2 so still early days. I would want my money on Asashoryu. you have to wonder if he is that good or is the standard of competition low. I am thinking i would like to start a web page, any ideas or suggestions for good hosts?

	2009.11.15  20.54 My Day today we went to an old mill site and Nat took a few pics. It was 41F brisk cold and very nice. We then went shopping and got a lot of stuff for thanks giving. Nat's father was in town so we went over to her mums for a visit with him and his wife. Dennis' dad bought him home about 5:30 I was dark by then it is getting dark earlier. The Christmas decorations are beginning to appear and the ice skating rink is set up on the village green waiting for the ice.

	2009.11.14  21.29 My Day The Beloit market is finished for the year but today we went to a market at an agricultural museum. The market was from 10am - 4:00pm. This evening we had Nat's mum and brother over for tea. We had meatball subs and a salad it was very nice.

	2009.11.13  21.39 Both Dennis and Cass where off school today not sure why the closest I could get was something about interviews. I never ever got time off for interviews. We took Dennis to his dads and then picked up Cass from her friends place, she stayed their all day today.

	2009.11.11  21.08 My Day We call it Remembrance day In the USA it is Veterans day. I checked the village web page but there was no notice of any ceremony, a pity I would have liked to have gone. There where adds on TV offering veterans and those in the military free meals at some local restaurants and other businesses offering special deals today to veterans and those in the military. I don't recall anything like that in Australia. It is a nice gesture though. I had a nice phone call from a friend in Adelaide the other day. It is nice to talk to people. Though YIM chats are good (and you can carry on a YIM chat via the keyboard and still be in the room with everyone watching TV. Still it is nice to hear a voice at times. I stayed home today and did a few chores. This is a squirrel I managed to get a pic of. It is taken with the little camera as the battery was being charged on the big one. Civil War (well historical actually) Alert ladies in the USA around the time of the civil war where weight conscious. No surprises there, but interestingly enough they where not trying to lose weight... rather young ladies where pleased to put on weight. A source I came across quotes an example of a young lady who was visiting friends and she was asked how she was enjoying her stay she replied that it was wonderful because she had put on 15lbs. Quite different from today. Makes me wonder when it changed and why..any ideas?

	2009.11.10  17.59 My Day close encounters Originally uploaded by ynot0901 I took a few squirrel photos today, Cass was home today and stayed in her rooom most of the day. She goes back to school tomorrow Civil War Alert It is interesting that the top two union Generals where failures in earlier times. Sherman had a nervous breakdown and was labelled mad by the press early in the war. Before the war he had a checkered career dabbling in business without any real and at the start of the war he was working at a college in the South. Grant was forced to leave the army over an issue with alcohol. He was then very unsuccessful at all he tried. In contrast to this likes George McClellen who was a spectacular success in business before the war making a fortune in railroads. It is an interesting speculation that Grant and Sherman where successful ( and McClellen not) because they knew how to take a risk. They had no reputation to protect and therefore where not scared to have a go as they had no reputation to tarnish with failure (unlike McClellen who did have a reputation to protect. Confederate general Joseph Johnson had a big reputation prewar but during the war he seemed reluctant to engage the enemy and to take risks. There is a story about Johnson. Seems he had a big reputation as duck hunter. He was invited to spend a weekend hunting and despite his reputation he never fired a shot, the ducks where too high or too low or the dogs weren't ready he never actually took a shot. The implication was he was afraid to shoot lest he miss and ruin his reputation.

	2009.11.09  21.57 my day Well the good news is Cassandra does not have swine flu, again a diagnosis over the phone. She has a bit of a wog as we would say. Today I drove to wallmart and when I got back I noticed a squirrel at the open door of the shed. As I pulled into the shed I watched it scamper out and I closed the door to keep out any other adventurous squirrels. I went inside and was telling Nat "There was a squirrel in the car shed." Cass pricked up her ears and says "Really a squirrel in the shed?" Nat says to Cass "What did you say? Did you just say shed?" They call it a garage and Cassandra has got into me in the past trying to get me to say garage.

	2009.11.08  18.08 My Day squirrel in pumpkin 2, originally uploaded by ynot0901. Dennis has been crook and off school all week. This weekend he was supposed to go to his fathers but because he was sick it was changed. Nat rang his dad to tell him and Dennis spoke to his dad: Dennis " so how is David going?" (David is his dads other son) Dennis' Dad "He is not going anywhere he is only 2 years old" Seems Dennis is more Aussie everyday, the Americans say "How is David doing"... I am having an impact on him. :) Yesterday we went to the apple orchard. It was a nice day and we saw lots of Harleys out cruising, Some where alone and some in groups, some had pillion passengers some solo but what was very rare was a helmet. We passed a place called the Hog Bar. It was a log cabin like building in a car park filled with Harleys, like you see in the movies. Seems Cassandra does not want to be left out, she has decided to get crook and has a temperature. Its looking like she will be home next week, at least Dennis is back to school. The video is a squirrel at the base of the new feeder pole stealing pumpkin seeds. There is a video of his second attempt to get up the pole on my face book, he made it half way. I am backing up a few photos, It seems I have 7.5 G of squirrel photos by far my biggest folder.

	2009.11.07  21.25 My Day It was a great day today around 70F. Nat finished painting the bedroom and to celebrate we went to the apple shed, an apple orchard that sells apple products and also doughnuts. We walked through the apple orchard and picked a few apples while Nat snapped a few pics. Then we went into the shed and bought a few of their tasty doughnuts. They where pretty good.