Pop’s Page

As mentioned on the home page, our newest grandson, John Leif Dishman (his parents call him “Leif”, I prefer “Johnny Leif”) came to visit along with his parents Superbowl weekend. He actually didn’t come to watch the big game, but it just worked out that way.

Susanna, Lydia and Lukie all have had to endure the rigors of the great flashing and singing mobile. Here is JL getting his turn. He really liked the lights. The adults don’t like the tune it plays so much, because it goes on and on and on….and we’ve heard it a million times before.

“Please Grandpop, let me go back to that keen mobile!”

The cousins present their baby gifts to Aunt Elizabeth.

Kevin’s twin sister, Linda, just retired from American Airlines after a distinguished career as a flight attendant. Her travels took her to just about all continents, with an emphasis in latter years on the DFW to Tokyo run on the Boeing 777. Here she is on her last day of work standing in front of the famous DC-3 at the AA Museum near DFW airport.

400 folks attended the luncheon yesterday for Laura Street (Kevin’s sister). Here’s her photo as found in today’s Amarillo Globe News.

Mr. Chocolate 2Originally uploaded by drinian222.

Top this, Dishgirl!

Gmail (www.gmail.com) seems all the rage these days. Google has so dominated the market as an alternative to Bill Gates, that folks seem to be streaming to it for all sorts of neat stuff, like Google Earth, or Google Desktop. So after seeing family and friends converting to gmail, and after having my Internet service changed for the umpteenth time (TCI, to At Home, to ATTBI, to Comcast, to Time Warner slash RoadRunner to …..) I decided enough was enough. With every new company, I’d have to change my email address. Annoying!

So I duly set up my gmail email to be my permanent email account. Here it is for your reference:

jmdishman@gmail.com

But then I encountered a problem that I never had with any of the other bigname Internet providers. It stems from the fact that I have two computers that I use in parallel. My laptop sits downstairs, and goes with me on consulting gigs. My desktop sits upstairs and is (thus far) stationary. Both use Outlook Express. After dutifully enabling the POP server on Gmail, I found that after I downloaded email on one machine (say the laptop), it would not download that same piece of mail again on the desktop. All other providers gave me ALL pieces of mail no matter what.

I searched Google’s page for a solution to the above, and even found a forum where others complained about the same problem but without finding a solution. Then, from a comment someone made on one of these forums, I had an idea. Google has become so rich and powerful that they give you gobs of server space for email, and they don’t seem to mind your having multiple email accounts. So I set up a second email account (I’m not telling you the name because you might be tempted to email me there which would spoil everything!) So every email that goes to the first account (jmdishman@gmail.com) remains on the server BUT IS ALSO FORWARDED TO THE SECOND ACCOUNT. Brilliant! Now my laptop only downloads from this second account and the desktop only from the first. Thus each incoming email gets sent to each machine once.

I know it sounds like overkill, but it works for me. So happy gmailing.

It’s hard to believe Tori is already nine. What a smile on that gal!

Here’s the Nateman.

And the happy couple…

You don’t usually think of Texas as the place to go for autumn leaves. But here on the banks of the Woods of Spring Creek, we have a number of native Texas ash trees that turn a brilliant yellow just about now. And then they dump them all almost simultaneously….just about now.

Friday we invited Lydia over with brother Luke, sister Susanna, and mom and dad, to celebrate her 5th birthday (Nov. 10). We decided to have a leaf blast before dinner.

Here are all three grandkids in the big leaf pile we managed to assemble:

Here’s the birthday girl who particularly enjoyed raking the leaves back up after all of us jumped in them:

Susie liked the leaves, too:

Luke decided to take his nap in the middle of the pile:

…but then he decided he wanted to play some more:

The evening ended with an indoor stair leaping contest. Here’s the birthday girl showing her stuff:

After being offline for some months, the noble Webmaster has (finally) enabled my blogging capabilities under the “Nucleus” program, replacing the now defunct Moveable Type which mysteriously stopped functioning last Spring.

But, it’s been a quiet month or more, in Lake Wobegon, as they used to say. (The new movie entitled Prarie Home Companion has gotten poor reviews I understand….) About the only newsworthy item from here at the Richardson outpost of the Dishmans, is the recent graduation of Kevin’s son Tylin from Texas Tech University. The Anderson family made quite a week of it, hosted lavishly by Joe & Laura in Amarillo. Joe provied us all with autos or SUVs and we were off to Lubbock at the crack of dawn on Saturday, Aug. 13th. Graduation started at 9 AM!

As a test of the new blogging software, I have attempted to upload a photo and write this blog. The photo is of Tylin with his Aunt Linda & his Mom immediately after the graduation ceremonies ended.

Since this worked out OK, I am posting several more photos in the extended area below.

Even though “men are from Mars” (and women are from Venus) I like Jupiter best. It was a rousing performance by Sir Andrew Davis & the Dallas Symphony Orchestra covering all 8 planets (except Earth) known by Gustav Holst at the time of his composing the piece, around the turn of the 20th century.

In the photo above Kev & I are about to head down to the Meyerson with tickets in hand courtesy of our kids. Many, many thanks to David & Elizabeth, Mark & Angie, and Peter for this wonderful treat. They provided us the best seats in the house: the center section about 25 yards from the orchestra, so we could see (& hear) up close & personal.

And oh yes, not surprisingly, Kev liked Venus best.

On our last night in Hawaii we ventured a few blocks from our condo down to the famed Princeville Resort. Its nine stories descend a cliff overlooking Bali Hai from South Pacific Fame. Quite a sight at sunset! Aloha Hawaii….

We’ve returned to the “real world” and are slowly making the transition from paradise to the important things in life such as figuring out how to pack both of our things into the master closet!