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I posted 4 new videos of the little darling Dorothy Nettle to Google Video. These are the same links available through Dorothy’s Facebook Fan Club so that nobody is missing out on any of her sweetness. She SO much more awake after her first week, but is sticking to a good schedule of sleeping, nursing and looking cute. I haven’t organized any of our Dorothy pictures, yet, but will post links to those once I have.

And now, the links:
Video # 4: Dorothy with her Aunts
Video # 5: Dorothy with Hiccups
Video # 6: Family Dinner
Video # 7: Dorothy’s First Fire

I realize that not everybody is a fan of FaceBook. I wanted to make sure that anybody who wanted to see the little darling had a chance to see videos of her. As such, there are three links (below) to Google Videos that are copies of the ones I posted to FaceBook.

Video # 1: Almost Dinner Time
Video # 2: Mom, Dad and 2 Grandmas
Video # 3: What? Were you born yesterday?

Drop me a line if you have any issues viewing these videos.

I have paired down the hundreds of pictures that came from our trip to Costa Rica and Panama to a bold 256 included in my set: Costa Rica Trip 2008. There were lots of pictures taken from the vantage point of an airplane window (and also inside the planes).

Some of the highlights from out trip include:

1. Touring the Cafe Ruiz Coffee Plantation
2. Chilling on the Playas
3. Hot Springs
4. Flying from place to place
5. Dogs
6. Volcan Poas

Mary, Laura, Merritt and I went on a double date to check out the Christmas decorations down at the White House. I snapped some shots of the National Christmas Tree, various state trees and the Manger Scene. Also, I got some good video of the model trains that surround the National Tree and (my personal favorite) the National Bonfire. It’s a huge bonfire in the middle of the Ellipse that is tended by some National Parks Rangers armed with a forklift and a huge pile of wood.

Check out my online pictures or watch the 2 videos hosted by Google: The National Bonfire and The National Model Trains.

If you’re having trouble getting into the Christmas Spirit, a quick trip to the National Holiday Stuff will warm you up to the season of giving real quick.

Mary and I spent the weekend in North Carolina, visiting Maggie, Andy and Waggie in their log-cabin house. We had an awesome time hiking around the Smokey Mountains and checking out the town of Asheville, NC. We spent about 3 hours driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is a must-do if you enjoy roadtrips, fall foliage and/or the National Parks Service — maybe my 3 favorite pass-times.

Also, we got a chance to check out Maggie’s College (Warren Wilson College AKA WWC) and I shot 2 videos of the animals hanging out in the pens near her school.

Thanks to all you taxpayers out there! We spent the weekend in Rochester, NY and particularly enjoyed the awesome autumn weather up north. Sunday afternoon, we got out for (unfortunately) the only sailing I’ve done all year. It was really nice being out on the water once the wind came up at about 4PM. I rowed out and brought in the boat from its mooring, we loaded up and motored out of the harbor. Merritt took the helm and kept us on a steady course to enjoy some colorful leaves. Of course, the camera came along and managed to grab some sweet shots.

They’ve posted our pictures online from the Finish line at the Philly Half Marathon, last weekend. Mary and I look pretty good, considering we had just finished running 13.1 miles. After the race weekend, we ran 18 miles on the Capital Crescent Trail this past Saturday for our longest run, to date. As put best by Mary, we’ve really only got two more long runs left - 20 miles on Oct. 7th and the 26.2 on Oct. 29th.

Onward to the big day!

Also, Justin Kenney was willing to snap some pictures of us wearing our finisher’s medals before we bummed his shower.

Wowie! Flickr came out with a new feature that allows you to associate your photos with where they were captured. It uses Yahoo Maps to allow you to drag and drop your photos anywhere in the world. Someday, cameras will come with internal GPS receivers which will make your pictures REALLY smart, but until those come out — check out my growing scatter of geotagged pictures and lemme know what you think.

Right now, it’s a little slow and semi-clunky, but it’s got huge potential for being the coolest things of 2006.

I consider this past weekend to be a huge success! First, I met up with Mary, Laura and my Mom for some Friday night Indian food in Chinatown. Yes, we ate at an Indian restaurant in Chinatown. On Saturday morning, we tooled around Rockville/Shady Grove and found Laura a sweet apartment that is walking distance to the Shady Grove Metro. It’s on the fourth floor of a nice complex, which has a sweet pool/business center/gym on-site and is very close to restaurants, a Safeway grocery store, dry cleaning, etc. She’s planning to move in with her new roommate, Kate, on June 3rd. The complex is called King’s Farm. Saturday afternoon, we walked through the National Art Gallery to see some Renoir and then walked up the mall to check out the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln Memorials.

On Sunday, Mary and I checked out Shenandoah National Park and hiked down from Matthew’s Arm to the Overall Run Falls. The overlooks were breathtaking and we snapped a few pictures of the wildlife. It was an awesome hike down some pretty steep trails to see the 93-foot waterfalls. We stopped and had lunch near what we thought were the falls, but found the huge falls further down the trail. Also, we returned to the car via a short section of the Appalachian Trail. Obviously, I fell instantly and hopelessly in love with the A.T. and wished I had brought some supplies to start thru-hiking. Alas, we opted for beers and spaghetti in small-town Marshall, VA instead.

I checked my status on Google Video and discovered that some of my Costa videos became available. You can check out the travel genre for my videos and I’ll try to add more in the coming days.

Check out the Costa Rica Info Page for the most updated links and info.

Here’s my favorite thus far: