Welcome to Dollison.com!

Brian's been here for a week and a half, and so far things are going very well. He's in sailing camp, and when he's not learning to sail, he's playing with neighbors Josh and Brandon, mowing lawns for extra cash, helping make home-made ice-cream, being the neighborhood DJ (we have a small FM radio transmitter set up with a mixer board, CD player, turntable, and microphone), or playing Gameboy (of course!). There was a big neighborhood yard sale last weekend, and Brian helped make walnut-chocolate-chip cookies. We've also been to Denver Botanic Gardens to see the Chapungu exhibit.

I've been on vacation so I could spend as much time as possible with Brian, since I don't see him that often. Elizabeth and I have done some yard work, pulling out some overgrown Clematis, Fescue, and Holly plants, and replacing them with two varieties of grapes. We just reached our two-year anniversary, but will celebrate later, when we have some time to ourselves. We went to a Thai restaurant for my birthday, and Elizabeth bought me a 20x - 50x spotting scope for watching the prairie dogs. It's great! I was able to get some decent pictures by putting the camera up against the eyepiece. For some background information about prairie dogs, check out this link

Check out all of our summer picutes at Webshots.
7/1/2004 10:12:35 PM

I'm back... the trip to D.C. went well, although I wasn't able to hook up with as many friends as I had hoped. I was only there for a few days. I did a little sight-seeing, went running with the local club, and will try to get the pictures online later this week.

Elizabeth and I have been working in the yard, removing lots of stuff. The original owners planted six trees and five holly bushes in the tiny back yard, along with lots of large clumps of ornamental grasses. Although it's beautiful and looks very full, it's become somewhat overgrown and takes up too much space. So we're removing a lot of it, and hope to put some grapes up along the fence instead.

Today is the first day of a three-week vacation from work. Unfortunately, it's also finals week for my economics class, and I'm a week behind in the reading assignments. I hope to get caught up today, and take my final exam. After that, I have a two-week summer break from school. Brian will be here tomorrow, and is staying for the whole three weeks. He'll be in a local sailing camp, and he also wants to earn some extra money by mowing people's yards. Elizabeth and I hope to do some other fun stuff with him, like visit the Chapungu exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens, go see some fossils at Morrison, do some fishing in the pond behind the house, and maybe go to Water World.
6/18/2004 9:10:43 AM

Sunday night we threw a carbo-loading (pasta) party for our friends who were running the Bolder Boulder run on Memorial Day. Unfortunately, I had to work on Monday, or I would have been manning the beer stop. We've been doing well; Elizabeth is no longer sick (or at least, she's keeping her lungs inside her body now). We've had a few skunk visits lately, but not as bad, since we skunk-proofed the house. It's now skunks just on the outside of the fence, going after my neighbor's trash/recycling cans. Then their dog goes after the skunk, he sprays, and it comes right into our house (our air intake is right there, only 10 to 15 feet away). There's a raccoon that comes around, too. But he still comes into our yard by climbing over the fence (skunks, thankfully, don't climb). I suppose the only way to stop the raccoon would be to modify the electric fence to run along the top of the wooden fence. That would stop the squirrels, too!

My PDA (a Palm IIIxe) died this week, after 3 years in my back pocket. Maybe not the best place to keep it. I think dirt & dust shorted it out on the inside. Anyway, I just ordered a Sony Clie TJ37, which has wireless access, MP3 player, camera... pretty slick (no voice recorder, unfortunately). So I'll have it to access my e-mail when I go on my business trip. I spent a few hours today doing yard work... the english ivy is taking over everything, and climbing the trees... I should have taken before & after pictures! Oh, Mom - I put those camera-phone pix of Brian on the Webshots album, and Amanda's prom picture.
6/1/2004 11:19:05 PM

May has come and almost gone... things are going pretty well here. I began an economics class at DeVry... I decided that life was getting too hectic, and put some activities on hold for a while - attending National Management Association classes, attending Linux meetings, being the coordinator for my running club, attending Homeowners Association meetings, going to Friday morning church breakfasts, etc. So now I'm down to just family, work, and college. It's hard to let go of stuff, especially the ones you helped create.... But the doctor's visit for chest pains convinced me it's time to de-stress a little bit.....

Spring is a beautiful time... the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming... but boy, is there a load of yard work to do! LOL! We've been pulling thistles like mad, clearing out paper wasps, pruning the aspen and crab-apple trees, fertilizing the flowers, etc. Oh, and getting the sprinkler system running again, which included fixing a few leaks and two busted sprinkler heads. It's a good thing I enjoy working out in the yard! But it really is beautiful... check out our pictures at Webshots (click on the Spring 2004 album).

Dad is back to oil-painting again, after a 20-year hiatus. Check out his first few paintings at the Webshots album (click on Dale & Family). I went down to Colorado Springs for a week-long class, and got to spend several evenings with my old running club. It was fun! Simultaneously, Elizabeth went on a business trip to California, and saw her friend Kathy. Unfortunately, Elizabeth got sick the day after she got back, and was home with Bronchitis, a high fever, and a hacking cough for 8 days. She worked a half day yesterday and today. At least she was able to relax in the sun room, and we just got some new plants in there to make it a little nicer (see the Webshots album).

That's about it for now. I'll be going out to D.C. for a few days in the near future, and Brian's coming out for a few weeks at the beginning of summer, and will be taking some sailing classes. Talk to you again soon!

-- John.
5/25/2004 10:54:39 PM

Hey! It's been a good week. Last Tuesday & Wednesday were warm and sunny, and I was off-shift. Thursday and Friday, however, were nothing but icy rain and snow all day. But Friday night I got to go out with some friends and see a visiting friend who recently moved to New Hampshire. Saturday was warm and sunny, and the snow quickly melted off. This is one of the few Saturdays Elizabeth and I get to have together, since I'm usually working on the weekends. But this time I'm going on night shift, so we had the day together. We did some furniture shopping, and then looked at cell phones. Not super exciting, but it was just nice spending the day together. I just posted some new pics to Webshots, and now I'm off to work again tonight.
5/3/2004 4:54:15 PM Your Name

I haven't written in quite a while. I've been pretty busy, as usual. The biggest thing is that I'm now in college. I'm taking online programs through DeVry. My first class was "Advanced PC Applications", which focused on how to use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Access databases in a business setting (creating graphs & charts, analyzing large amounts of data, performing automatic calculations, etc). My next class was "Project Management", which was fun, but pretty intense, since it covered mid- to large-size projects, and included a fair amount of cost and schedule analysis, auditing procedures, etc. There was a rather heated discussion at one point about outsourcing work to other countries. (My neighbor works from home as a programmer, but manages a development team in India.) Now I'm taking an economics class. Already we've had a discussion about the world diamond market. They aren't as rare as people think.... The DeBeers company has maintained a 100-year monopoly on the industry, so they keep prices artificially inflated. And many of the diamonds are known as "blood diamonds" or "conflict diamonds" because they come from child slave labor in poor African countries that are ravaged by war.

Since I've started college, I've had to let go of several other activities. I no longer have much interaction with my church breakfast group, the Linux User's group, my running club, the National Management Association, or several other groups that I was trying to stay active in. But now I have more time for studying, and a little time to spend with Elizabeth; and she's much more important than all that other stuff, anyway.

I have some new pictures to put on the website. Our front yard is really beginning to bloom. The crab-apple tree is a beautiful mass of pink flowers between the fresh green aspen leaves and the purple lilac bush. We havn't had any problems with skunks for almost two months now, although last week it looked like they attempted to dig their way back in again. We had a paper-wasp infestation on the upstairs deck, but I think that's under control now. The dam construction behind the house is almost finished, but supposedly they will begin putting in a new elementary school as soon as the dam is done. Bummer. But we will still have lots of open space and trails behind our house. We're looking forward to Brian's visit this summer. We plan to have him in the sailing program at the lake right our our back door.

Mom - I hope things are getting better for you at work. Dad - Keep sending us photos of your paintings... they're great! I'll put a few up on my website when I get time.
That's all for now....
4/29/2004 4:05:49 PM

Probably the most interesting thing that's happened this week is that our house got skunked. That's right, not our cars, like what happened in September (or August?), but the whole house. Apparently the skunk sprayed the side of our house where the air intake is for the furnace. So at three AM two nights ago, we awoke to a horrible stench. It's in every bedroom, the basement, even the closets! We've had the doors and windows open, but it hasn't helped much. Send us clothespins for our noses! And no, we haven't washed the whole house in tomato juice.....
1/10/2004 11:22:43 AM

OK, so I haven't updated my website in months. Sorry, mom... Quick recap -

October was great, all the Aspens changed colors, really beautiful. For Elizabeth's birthday I had a surprise party at a Mystery Dinner Theater, and we stayed at a historic hotel. Next weekend was spent at Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park, hiking up Shadow Mountain. Took awesome pics! Finished working in our yard just days before the first ice storm of the season. There was a big fire northwest of us, I have pics of the smoke billowing across the plains.

November started getting cold and busy, as we prepared for Thanksgiving with friends and I started researching colleges with online programs. We had our furnace replaced, and A/C installed. Elizabeth went on a business trip to Las Vegas.

December came and we realized we still didn't have plane tickets for Brian and hadn't done any Christmas shopping. We volunteered to help out some some families who aren't as blessed as we are this season. Elizabeth got our running club involved, and raised over $1000 to help out two families with several kids each. It was very rewarding, and we'll do it again.

January - I just started college at DeVry University's online program. They screwed up my registration, forcing me to drop one class. But it's just as well, the screw-up made me start the other class late, so now I'm scrambling to catch up. I'm back on night shifts again.

Well, there's a lot more that's happened in the past three months, I only wish I had time to tell you all about it. See you soon!
1/10/2004 11:07:42 AM

Last night we went to the Ringling Brothers Circus in Denver! We went with some friends, and had a lot of fun. I haven't been to the circus since I was a little kid. We saw lions, horses, elephants, a dog-clown act, a chinese acrobatics group, the trapeze artists, and six guys on motorcycles inside a big steel ball. It was pretty cool!
We are almost done with the house, yesterday we applied a second coat of solvent-based sealant to the fireplace. Boy, does it stink! But the water-based sealant was essentially floor wax, not the kind of finish we wanted. I've also finally got all the built-in glass shelves finished and installed. This Saturday we'll be throwing a party to thank those who helped us move, and to meet our new neighbors. So I've got today and tomorrow to finish up all the details, and hide all the boxes and junk that still remain. I'm trying to remind myself that it doesn't have to be perfect; especially since we've only been here about 6 or 7 weeks.
I'm still trying to get over whatever it is that I've caught. It started as a cold, then became a sinus infection, and now it's a heavy feeling in my chest with lots of coughing and congestion. Not the way I want to feel. Blah..... Maybe it's time for a trip to the doctor? I'll give it another few days and see how I feel. Well, back to work... gotta get the house cleaned up, and tonight I'm on night shift.
10/2/2003 11:50:39 AM

Click the Webshots link (above) to see some of our most recent pictures, including John Shelburne's visit (an old friend from USS Klakring (FFG-42) and Camp David), and more pictures showing the progress of the house renovations.
Elizabeth and I are doing fairly well, although she had a bad cold during her trip to California last week, and now I've got it. We're finally getting some free time to visit friends and relax a bit, but there's more work to be done on the house.
9/25/2003 1:36:59 PM

Just a quick update - Last week Elizabeth was on a business trip to California, and got home Thursday. I had most of the week off and spent my time unpacking, fixing stuff around the house, moving bookshelves, etc. I worked this weekend, while Elizabeth had some time off. We're starting to make plans for a housewarming party. Still no time to make the updates that I'd like to this website, but I'll get there someday! Dave, congrats on starting college.... have fun!
Time for me to be getting ready for bed.... Good night!
9/21/2003 10:12:21 PM

I'm free! I just finished another four-day shift, and now I have the next four days off. Unfortunately, Elizabeth is on a business trip to California, so I'm on my own for a few days. Guess I'll sleep till noon and eat nothing but cereal for a few days..... OK, maybe not. Anyway, I realize I haven't written in over a week. Sorry. Let's see - we finally got the house clean enough that Elizabeth had some friends over one night while I was at work, and a few days later we had a visit from John Shelburne, an old friend from my days on the USS Klakring. (Pictures will be up tomorrow, John!) He joined me on a moonlight run with my running club, the Hash House Harriers. Other than that, I've spent most of my time either at work or unpacking here at home. We tried to get our TV armoire downstairs, but it just doesn't seem to fit. Se we still have no TV, after what, 5 weeks? We'll get around to it eventually. Well, time to jump in the hot tub for a little while before I head off to bed. Good night!
9/15/2003 10:27:37 PM

Hi! We're slowly getting settled here at our new house, but we're learning that things don't always work the same here as they did in Boulder. Today was trash day. In Boulder, we put out the trash and the recycleables every week, and two separate trucks come to pick everything up. Here, however, they only do recycling every OTHER week. I had put everything out, not realizing that this was our "trash only" week. So the guy came by, put our trash in the truck, and then tossed all the recyclables in the truck, recycling bin and all! So now we need a new recycling bin. Sigh....
In other news.... An old friend from my Navy days is coming out for a business trip, so I'm looking forward to seeing him again. Now it's off to work.... I'm currently working 12 hour night shifts, but will be back on day shift soon.
9/6/2003 4:47:33 PM

The past few days have been pretty busy. I worked nights last week, finally getting home and going to sleep on Saturday morning, while Elizabeth got lots of unpacking & cleaning done around the house. We spent the afternoon shopping for some accesories for some of the rooms, and Elizabeth bought me a beautiful new ring. We went to an Italian place for dinner. Sunday morning we awoke at 3 a.m. to the smell of skunk outside our bedroom window. Not too unusual; this is the 4th visit in the three weeks we've lived here. We shut the window, but in the morning we found (to our dismay) that the skunk had sprayed in our driveway, catching the garage door and Elizabeth's car in the cross-fire. Since this was our first full day together in about 10 days, so we went to our favorite breakfast place in Boulder, then spent the afternoon emptying the garage, vacuming out all the sawdust from the new flooring and fireplace work, vacuumed off the couch and took it inside, and unpacked most of the boxes that were left. There's almost enough room for a car in there! Today of course was a holiday, so Elizabeth and I spent the day replacing all the doorknobs and deadbolts in the house (only two had matching keys), taking all the cardboard boxes to the recycling center, replacing a bad faucet in the bathroom, and replacing the dead battery in Elizabeth's car. Then we had a nice dinner at a local Indian restaurant. Tomorrow, if we feel like it, we may add a patio or porch to the front of the house... just kidding... Elizabeth would kill me if I suggested one more project. We still have plenty of furniture to move and boxes to unpack, but we finally feel ready to have a guest or two over. Oh, and Dad - we got the oil painting you made, and we think it's great! We'll try to get it framed soon.
9/1/2003 10:38:47 PM

This week was much like the last, with the contractors continuing to work on the first-floor renovations, while most of our stuff remained in boxes. Our hot water heater died, so we just had a new one installed. Elizabeth and I sucessfully cleaned all the wood glue off the floor of the library, and filled all the nail holes in the baseboard with putty. Then we moved in some bookshelves and books. The house is really starting to look nice. You can see the latest pictures at Webshots.
8/26/2003 11:48:03 AM

Well, the old house is sold, and we're completely moved into the new house. But the contractors haven't finished renovating the first floor, so most of our furniture and posessions are still in boxes, crammed into the garage and the sun room. Another week, and we should be able to start settling in. Brian was here for two weeks. Although it was a difficult time, he made it over to the community pool, and also did some fishing in the pond behind our house. He even caught a 4 or 5 pound largemouth bass! Elizabeth and I are exhausted, but she's been getting the kitchen set up (and was able to cook dinner tonight) and I've got the office set up. We even have our phone back on again! That's all for now..... Check in next weekend!
8/17/2003 9:16:16 PM

Well, we did it! We've closed on our new house and will be moving in very soon. We're very excited! Please call or e-mail if you need our new address.
7/30/2003 6:22:17 PM

I've just put some new photos of Brian's vacation on Webshots. Take a peek!
7/12/2003 10:59:15 PM

On Thursday Brian and I finally finished building the FM Stereo Transmitter kit, hooked it up to a CD player, and listed to custom tunes throughout the whole house! Then, of course, Brian wanted to add a microphone - what kid doesn't want to play DJ? But it wasn't so simple - you need a mixer or preamp to hook a mic up to the transmitter. So on Friday we went shopping and found a mixer at Radio Shack on a close-out sale, and got a mic too. We added Elizabeth's turntable and the CD player, and now have a complete radio station! Brian's thrilled.... he was spinning tunes all night.
Today we went to the Butterfly Pavillion and saw hundreds of butterflies and tropical flowers. They also have an insect room and a sea creatures room. We had a great time, and I'll post some pictures soon!
7/12/2003 7:28:22 PM

Brian and I have been having a great vacation so far... We've cooked breakfasts together, gone to the pool, ridden our bikes to the Farmer's Market, gone to a 4th of July picnic, done some rollerblading, watched the skateboarders at the skate park, hunted crayfish in the creek behind the house, and began working on a radio transmitter kit. Brian decided to mow a few lawns to make some extra money while he's here. He's also going to take a few swim lessons before he heads home next week. Elizabeth's brother David and his son Karl came to visit for a few days, they're on a cross-country tour of all the best skateparks. We saw Daewon Song, a well-known skateboarder who's also on a cross-country trip (http://www.dvsskate.com/) at the Denver skatepark. I'll have some pictures posted to my Webshots album very soon. Elizabeth and I are doing very well. I just finished a management class that I was taking down in Colorado Springs; I met a lot of great people and had a good time. We have only three weeks left until we start moving into our new house! We'll keep you posted as things develop. -- John
7/10/2003 2:03:46 PM

As you can tell by the picture above, Brian made it safe and sound. We got home around 9 pm, had some birthday cake, and now it's time for bed. Good night!
6/30/2003 9:53:19 PM

Today Elizabeth and I celebrated our one-year anniversary of wedded bliss. I just came off of night shift yesterday, so we made sure that today was a nice, relaxed day. We went out for breakfast, then spent the afternoon with our running club in Denver. We came home and ate Chinese food on our patio. We're looking forward to Brian's arrival tomorrow. I've got vacation while he's here.
6/29/2003 9:04:00 PM

It's an absolutely beautiful day out today, and I'm on my way out the door - - to go to work! Oh well.... I had to work all day Saturday & Sunday, and now I'm on night shift for this week. But the end is near! On Sunday I start my two-week vacation, and Brian will be here. Elizabeth and I are really looking forward to it. Well, gotta go to work!
6/26/2003 4:43:30 PM

I've just posted some pictures of the new house on my Webshots album (http://community.webshots.com/user/johndollison). so take a peek!
6/9/2003 3:24:54 PM

Great news! After two years of searching, we've finally found our "perfect house"! It's a two-story, 2400 sq ft place done in an oriental theme, with a large two-story sun-room that has a built-in hot tub, and it backs to several hundred acres of open space, with a small lake off to the right, and a large reservoir off to the left. Our real estate agent was amazed... she was sure we were asking for too much house, for too little money. But we finally did it! The inspection was just completed and went well, very few problems. On Friday we put our house on the market, and had a full price offer on Saturday! After two years and a few "almosts", this is finally beginning to feel real... Brian will be here for summer vacation in two weeks, while we're still in our old house. We'll be moving in early August, when he comes out to visit for a second time. Elizabeth and I are really looking forward to having him here, helping us get settled in our new place!
6/8/2003 10:34:10 PM

OK, This is my first test of the CoffeeCup QuickPost software. It's supposed to make it a snap to update my webpage. So lets' see where I left off since March 20th..... well, we mailed a few boxes to our friend ChuckE, who was in the middle east (but just returned!); did a little skiing; finished our taxes; continued to house-hunt; went to a friend's birthday party; made an offer on a house (but it fell through); worked a few night shifts (never fun); and continued to meet with some of the men from church for our usual Friday Men's Breakfast. In May, we had another big snowstorm that took out a lot of trees in the neighborhood; a local rocks & gems shop was going out of business, so we got a great deal on some geodes and fossils; I had to have more work done on my Ford Taurus (as ususal); and Elizabeth and I went to a hot springs for Memorial Day weekend. The big news is, we've made an offer on another house, and should have an answer soon! Well, that's it for now... Take care!
5/29/2003 11:38:28 PM