Day: January 13, 2008

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The last couple of days we’ve had a few rain showers which is always a real treat here. There is something about rain in the desert that makes it a lot more fun. Maybe it is that it so rare that it can be enjoyed and it is gone before it gets bothersome. At any rate, Kai had been itching to get outside with his umbrella and we let Nora try hers as well. Kai had great fun running around the yard again and again (in his pajamas of course) but Nora didn’t really get it. She just dragged the umbrella behind her and was impervious to coaching on proper use. She was very impressed with the rain falling from the spout on the roof though; that was a big hit.

I’ve decided to switch the interface for our family website to a blog format powered by WordPress. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons, one of which is that it is much easier to manage and update. This new format is web-based and so I can work on updates from most any computer and I won’t have to come up with new procedures and software every time Microsoft upgrades their operating system and my current software won’t work. The second reason is that I think that there is a lot of potential to this kind of website management in education and I’m eager to play around and explore the possibilities. I hope you like the new format and I will continue to link in material and content from the old website(s) so that material won’t just go away.

By the way, the theme for this site was developed by Viktor Persson and was modified with permission. I changed a couple of colors and added the sand dune background. Also, the palm tree silhouette in the banner is from a palm tree caught at sunset not far from our old house in Udhailiyah. Crystal thinks that is it a bit scraggly looking and suggested I might look for a more idealized palm tree outline. On the other hand, sometimes life is scraggly and doesn’t approach the ideal so I think I’m keeping the current palm tree just for the metaphor (and because I’m stubborn).