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Site News (from
newest to oldest)
| Wednesday,
March 1st,
2006 |
| Big
Unveiling! New Blogging software means more frequent updates.
You won't find new stuff on this page anymore. From now on go to www.brucearmstrong.net/wordpress
for updates.
|
| Saturday, April 23rd,
2005 |
  Happy
Birthday to Me! We had a big bash for my 40th
birthday, but also to get some of our North-side pals down to
finally see our new new place and enjoy some outdoor activities. We
had a fantastic turnout (over 40 folks!), and over my protests of
"No one needs to bring gifts", lots of folks chipped in
and got me a fantastic birthday present: An excellent telescope, the
SkyQuest™
XT8 IntelliScope™. |
| Tuesday, April 19th,
2005 |
Patio Build. Over the last few weeks we've been in
the process of building a new "dry lay" patio just off of the
back porch. It turned out to be double the expected cost and 10 times the
expected physical labor, but since Michelle likes the finished product, it
was all worth it. Click
here for a construction history photo album.
| Tuesday, March 29th,
2005 |
Big Gallery Update. After I made all these recent
updates, I realized I had never added Thanksgiving or Christmas photos to
the gallery. I have done so now, but lots of them are without captions so
far.
Site News Archive Reorg. The "News
Archive" section had gotten a little out of control, so I organized
it by year. You can now browse the site news by year: 2000,
2001,
2002,
2003
 Happy
Easter! Another first for the new house: We got to have an
Easter egg hunt in our huge back yard. It was a little muddy, but
still fun as we had lots of new places to hide eggs. Later than
evening, we had dinner at Michelle's parents'. Click
here for a gallery of photos. |
 Skate Ramp
Build. What a busy weekend! Andrew, Cameron, Derek, and I built a fairly sizable skate ramp over the weekend.
We've been wanting to do this for a while, and since my Mom was visiting,
we were able to use her truck to get all the lumber we needed. This was quite a learning experience and took longer than it should have, but with this job under our belt, the next project will go much faster.
After suffering a work stoppage because of a dead battery
in our power driver/drill, we finally finished the ramp late in the
evening. To our horror, it started to rain right as the last screw was tightened. That didn't stop the boys from taking some wet, slick rides. They went back out late that night after it had dried up a bit, but the real breaking-in was the next morning when it was sunny again.
They got brave enough to do some proper
"drop-ins" from the 3-foot-high top. This project was tons of
work, but it should get tons of use and end up being well worth the
effort. Click the image to see a gallery
of photos.
Our ramp is a slightly modified version of the plans found
here: http://www.slapmagazine.com/new_site/woodshop/quarter/index.shtml
| Saturday, March 19th,
2005 |
 Holly Armstrong Named
Twisters MVP! Holly has been playing soccer this season, but I've neglected to mention it on the site until now. I can't
keep quiet any longer, because in this Saturday's game, Holly was named
MVP! This is her first season to play, but she has been improving rapidly,
particularly on defense. In this game, she didn't let the other team
near the goal for the first 58 minutes of the 60 minute game. Yes, the
other team finally scored when the game was almost over, but it was The
Twisters' first tie (and first non-loss). Several of the girls nominated
Holly as MVP, and the coach said she would have overridden them and given
it to Holly no matter what.
Holly's Oklahoma grandmother (Mamaw) was visiting us and
also got to see Holly's great performance.
| Saturday, March 12th,
2005 |
 Baby
Bunny Rabbit. During my first lawn mowing of the year (and it's
still officially Winter!), I frightened a tiny rabbit and it
ran across the road. As small as it was, I was surprised it could
run so fast. Strangely, once it got across the road, it just
stopped. I went over to check on it, and even as I approached
closely, it stayed right where it was. To my amazement, I was able
to pick it up. At that point it got lively again, kicking and
scratching. It was so small though, that I was in no danger. I knew
Holly wouldn't be satisfied just to hear this story, and that I
would have to show her the rabbit in person. Since Holly was out
shopping with Michelle, I put the little critter in a container with
lots of grass to keep it comfortable until she got home. I thought
it would thrash too much for Holly to be able to hold it herself,
but it remained calm long enough for her to ooh and ah, and coo and
cuddle it. After this, we let it go in some tall grass behind our
property.
Hold your mouse over the small images to read a description.
Click to see a larger version. |
 |
| Thursday, March 10th,
2005 |
Andrew's First Track Meet. Andrew is running track
this year, and it turns out he is best at running distance. He has become
one of the best milers in the 7th grade at MMS, and the mile was the race
he ran in his first track meet. There were 8 schools competing and with
events taking place for 7th grade girls, 7th grade boys, 8th grade girls,
and 8th grade boys, the meet went well into the night. Andrew's mile run
was the next to the last event, not starting until around 10pm. Since he'd
been standing around and goofing off since the meet's start at around 3pm,
he had had quite a wait. After some instructions from the judges, about
nineteen 7th grade boys stepped up to the starting line. Andrew says he had
butterflies the size of Thanksgiving turkeys in his stomach, but that
didn't last long once the starter's gun went off. We think he did pretty
well for his first race. He came in right in the middle of the pack, but
expects to improve rapidly in coming races.
Getting instructions before the race. (Andrew is on the far
left) |
Lined up at the starting line and waiting for the gun. |
Andrew streaks past during his third lap. |
(Unfortunately, my camera battery went
dead, so I didn't get photos of the end of the race.)
| Saturday,
February 26th,
2005 |
New Member of the Family. I wanted to say "household",
but Holly insists that our new cat is a member of the family.
"Simon" (he's Siamese, get it?) had been hanging around outside
for over a week, sometimes disappearing for a short time, but always
turning back up on our doorstep. Well, it looks like we're going to take
him in for good. I would never have guessed that Michelle would accept a stray
cat into the house, but this guy is so handsome and has such a fun
personality that she just couldn't resist.
At first, it seemed like Simon's biggest personality trait
would be how affectionate he is, but it soon became apparent that he loves
to play. His favorite solo toys are Holly's elastic ponytail holders. He
can flip one of these things into the air with either his mouth or paws,
and remain entertained by it for a surprisingly long time. He also likes
to play hide and seek, with an emphasis on chasing and being chased. He used
to enjoy staring at the mouse pointer moving around on the
big movie screen as I would browse the web and read emails. That was
until he actually jumped to grab the mouse pointer and tore a few holes in
the fabric! He's not allowed anywhere near the screen now.
| Sunday, January 2nd,
2005 |
Holly's Website Finally Updated! After over a year
of stagnation, Holly has finally updated HollysNotebook.com.
Andrew has also done some work on AcesBase.com
recently. Check 'em out.
| Saturday, December
25th,
2004 |
Merry Christmas!
|
| Friday, December 10th,
2004 |
 Holly's
10th Birthday Party. This year, Holly and 12 of her
closest friends met at our house for pizza and a movie in the home
theater. Then we took a convoy to Mosaic
Madness in Waxahachie. We've got photos of the girls at our
house and later actually creating their mosaic masterpieces. Click
here for the full gallery.
|
| Tuesday, December 7th,
2004 |
Christmas Lights Photos. Our
first holiday season in our new house is also the first time we've
ever put up Christmas lights. I had visions of a Griswold-style
spectacle, but I was able to restrain myself and keep the display
fairly tasteful.
|
| Thursday, November
11th,
2004 |
  School
Photos. This was the first time the kids had school photos taken
without their DBU uniforms on. I've also added these shots to Andrew's
and Holly's pages.
In case you haven't been keeping up, Andrew is in
7th grade and Holly is in 4th.
|
| Thursday, November
11th,
2004 |
 Photos
of Furnished Rooms. I've gotten complaints about having
tons of photos of what the house looked like before we moved in, but
none of what it looks like now. Well I finally dug out the tripod
and got photos of all the downstairs rooms. Click
here to go to the updated gallery.
|
| Monday,
October 18th,
2004 |
| Wednesday, August
18th, 2004 |
Home Theater Page. The home
theater has started shaping up. I've put together a Home
Theater Page to track its evolution.
|
| Monday, August 16th, 2004 |
First Day of School. The
kids were both excited about their first day in public school. As
you can see from the photos, Holly has to be ready for the bus
before the sun is even up. Andrew gets to wait about 30 minutes
longer. (As usual, click the small picture to see a larger one.)
|
 Fireworks in Ellis County. For the first time in my Texas life, I
was able to shoot off fireworks instead of only watching them. Andrew and I bought a modest bundle (spending around $130) and along with a couple of pals who were over, the whole family had fun setting them off. No photos of the action, but here's one of our supply before we got started. |
|
 Easter Photos. Since it rained and we didn't
get to have an outdoor Easter Egg hunt, there are less photos than
we would have liked, but you can still tell that people got together
and had some fun. Click the eggs to see the photos.
|
| Tuesday, February
17th, 2004 |
| Saturday, February
14th, 2004 |
|
 Cold
Valentine's Day. I said I'd believe the forecast for snow when I
saw it, so Saturday morning, I had to believe it. There wasn't
really enough for snowboarding in our area, but the kids played in
it and built a small snowman. The picture to the left was taken out
our back door. Click it to see a larger version.
|
| Wednesday, January
28th, 2004 |
|
Self-Promotion and Friend-Promotion.
|
| Wednesday, January
21st,
2004 |
| HAPPY NEW YEAR! I guess it's
too late to wish you a Merry Christmas, but I've only missed the new
year by a few weeks. Lots of new photos have been added to the
gallery. I hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving,
Christmas, and Oklahoma
New Year's Eve galleries.
Also this page should load quicker now, because I moved lots of stuff
off to the News Archives. I'll try to
only keep one year's worth of entries on this main page. Don't
worry. All your old favorites, like Andrew's
head injury are still available for your morbid pleasure.
Finally, I guess I can answer my most frequently asked question.
 |
Who is Gerry Misutka? |
 |
He is left-handed golfer, long-time pal, and one of the most frequent
readers and staunchest supporters of this site. Several entries on the Advice
page were created just for him. At a party recently, he complained that
in all of his many visits to BruceArmstrong.net, he had not once seen
any reference to himself. When I looked around the room and realized
that most everyone else there had indeed been on the site (even if it
was something embarrassing like the Failed
Float Trip), I just had to devote a headline to Gerry. And now you know...
the rest of the story. |
|
Go to the "Site News"
Archives: 2000,
2001,
2002,
2003
This page was last updated on
10/27/05 01:39 AM
.
(This counter has been reset so many times it
is meaningless, but I spent so much time making the custom digits graphics, that
I can't bear to get rid of it)
Text Links for web crawlers and search engines:
Advice Camera Experiments
Contact Us DVDs
Family Games
Computer Graphics 3D Renderings
Anaglyphs Doctored Photos
Holly Links
Newest Stuff House
Photos Karaoke Party at Mom's
Self-Portraits
Speedtest Videos
Warhol Art Maker XBox
About Hardware Boomerangs
PS2 Bruce Michelle
Andrew Holly
|
Holly Armstrong Named
Twisters MVP! Holly has been playing soccer this season, but I've neglected to mention it on the site until now. I can't
keep quiet any longer, because in this Saturday's game, Holly was named
MVP! This is her first season to play, but she has been improving rapidly,
particularly on defense. In this game, she didn't let the other team
near the goal for the first 58 minutes of the 60 minute game. Yes, the
other team finally scored when the game was almost over, but it was The
Twisters' first tie (and first non-loss). Several of the girls nominated
Holly as MVP, and the coach said she would have overridden them and given
it to Holly no matter what.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Fireworks in Ellis County. For the first time in my Texas life, I
was able to shoot off fireworks instead of only watching them. Andrew and I bought a modest bundle (spending around $130) and along with a couple of pals who were over, the whole family had fun setting them off. No photos of the action, but here's one of our supply before we got started.
.jpg)
.jpg)
