20050221 - John Kohler Funeral

20050221 - Up to the Farm and over to Ashland to attend my great uncle John Kohler's funeral. John was one of my favorite uncles and always had amazing stories of the Farm and growing up there. He was 87 years old.


20050211 - Snowmen

20050211 - Dylan Jack and I made a pretty nice little snowman today.

20050131 - South of the Boarder

 20050131 - Up early and headed to Reynosa Mexico for the week.

20050119 + Jane & Rex

20050119 + While in Denver on business I headed to visit aunt Jane and Rex. We had a nice dinner and they gave me a tour of their place. They have a nice place and it was great to see them. Flew home that night, good to be home!

20050118 - Week in Denver

20050117 - Headed to Denver for the week to meet with Direct TV and design a repair process for all of their set-top-boxes.

20050110 + Canada and Cold

20050110 + I find myself in Canada this week. Flew in to Toronto and then on to Nepean where I worked at the Sitel Call Center all week. L had the D&J busy out in the cold and messing with boxes.

20040427 ? GGpaB Passed Away

20040424 - I was in Toronto on the SAP implementation project when I got this email from Lori:

From: Lori Winger <Lori@winger.net>
Date: Tue, Apr 27, 2004 at 9:42 AM
Subject: papa
To: matt@winger.net


Hi honey.  Just wanted to let you know that papa died this morning. I don’t know anything about arrangements yet…I’ll let you know.
Jack has a fever so I don’t know what I’ll do.  I guess there is nothing to do there today…
Love ya!
lo

20040410 ? New Baby Ransom

20040410 ? Got an email from one of my best friends that he had a baby!Kaeden Jacob Ransom
Born: Saturday, April 10th, 9:21pm
Weight: 10lbs 04oz.
Length: 21.5"

Mom and Kaeden are doing fantastic!!

20031117 ? New Baby Long

20031117 ? Got an email this morning from my good friend that he had a baby!If you do not already know, Kerrie and I (well, mainly Kerrie) gave birth to Elizabeth Ann at 6:53 pm Monday night.  She is 6lbs 11 oz and 19 1/2 in.
Mom and daughter are doing great and they will be home Wednesday evening.

Kerrie did great through the whole 10 hour process.  I have attached a picture, but it was taken shortly after the birth so my hair is a mess and my shirt is not tucked in all the way. :)

Jim

20031111 - New Tradition for Me

20031111 - So four years ago today I was in a pretty horrific accident...  Not long ago L and I talked about the accident for the first time.  It was after that discussion that I decided that I was going to do something with my experience.  So this year, on this day, for the first time I am sending out emails, letters, phone calls and personal visits to people which over the course of the last year have done something to make me remember them, an action, a smile, a pick me up, or something that has left an impression with me.  My list will consist of one person for each year of my life, so this year there are 33 people, next 34... 

This is the message I send, it is sort of a chain letter…. except you only have to pass it on to one person [or more if you wish] and not by forwarding this or copying it or doing anything of that sort.  What I request that you do is contact someone special to you, someone that has done something nice for you, someone you appreciate, one that makes you laugh, shared a burden with, you love or can call when times are tough.  Anyone that stands out as contributing to your life in the last year and let them know you recognize the value they have added to your life, and you just wanted to call and say you too are special to me and thanks for the that thing that you do.

Not hard, but not done enough.  So on this day that I spend with my family and just look, feel, enjoy and interact with them all day to appreciate this second chance we were all given, I ask that you do this for yourself, because in an instant, you may not have that chance again…
I plan to do this each year on this day...

20021208 - Landed in China

An email i sent while in China:
Wow,
what a day!
I left Friday morning at 7am.
I arrived Saturday at 12 Midnight to the hotel, that is 11am Ohio time
At 9am this morning I was greeted by Wang Shu Wu and Zhang Rouo Yun, two Celestica guys.
They first took me to 'Tiger Hill' (the attached photo, there is a 1000 yr old pagoda in the picture, hard to see, but I have taken many other pictures with our good camera).  Tiger Hill is the most famous garden in Suzhou, and it was amazing!!!


From there we went to Guan Qian Street, Suzhou's most famous shopping area.
It was several city blocks where no cars or bikes are allowed, just thousands of people.
We ate at a famous restaurant Song He Lou, the name means restaurant of the king.  the king actually ate there some 200 years ago and liked it so much that he gave it it's name.  A funny story, while we were eating a man came towards our table with what I thought was a six foot long sword, he pointed it in my direction and amazingly steaming hot water leapt from the end into my tea cup.  It was fascinated and watched him go around the restaurant filling the glasses of others (of course he filled mine first, due to the odd appearance of me.)  The food was quite good, hard to eat with chop sticks though, no forks or knives, not even an option...
I find I am just as fascinating to see by them as I am to see there cultural things.   There were quit a few picture taken of me, and lots of staring... hahahaha!
We searched the little shops that line all of the streets and I got tons of Christmas shopping done...
Low, I have gifts for all of the grandmothers and fathers, our parents, and of course you and Howdy.
I bought Howdy an adorable 'Prince's shirt', is navy blue silk with gold embroidered symbols and buttons.  I looked for a soccer shirt and they didn't have any his size, so they asked me how big he was and called the factory and will have a special one made for him in 3 days!!! $10 for a one of a kind custom made shirt!!  I would describe what the other gifts were but then everyone would know what they are getting, so....


After much walking and shopping and seeing thing that stunned as well as thrilled me it was time for dinner.
We ate at a very famous restaurant for Beijing Hot Pot, a pot of boiling something was placed in the middle of the table and then TONS of food, raw meats, vegetables, and things that I could not recognize, we put the stuff in the water/spice and let it cook, then ate.  Not as good as lunch but very nice.  Everyone at the restaurant was watching me eat with my chop sticks and listening to us talk with much laughter from all around at the mess I was making of it.
Back to the hotel about 8pm and getting ready for a nice long night...
I would have been frozen stiff had it not been for my new coat!
More later,
Love
matt