Apologies for My Lateness

I have been doing intermittent battle with Picassa for a couple weeks now trying to get some new pics posted and some of the albums a little updated and cleaned up. Sadly, I have learned late in the game that the problem is with my laptop, not with Picassa. Still not really sure what the problem is but at least I can move ahead on my work computer with some postings for my two faithful (hopefully still faithful) readers.

Updates:

1. I got promoted. Grade-wise, not position-wise, so I get more money for doing the same job. I am now the rank equivilant of a major in the military which, in my job means diddly-squat but hey! more money!
2. Mum got her second robo-hip replaced and everything went great. She had falsies put in 15 years ago when they were just getting fasionable and at the time they only lasted for, well, 15 years. Her shiny new ceramic ones are supposed to last forever. Didn't ask her if she got an actual warranty. Anywho, the left one was giving her problems in July so she went in and they told her she needed to do that one imediately... so she did. I got to help her out with that while I was back there on home leave before coming over here. That went so well that she rushed right back in to get the second one done last week. She is already back home resting comfortably and she got some cool drugs out of the deal too. She's walking (with a walker) and has big plans to be auto-mobile soon.
3. My brother's getting married! My oldest brother J, the only other single one left in the brood, met a nice lass a year or so ago and is now officially fianced. The nuptuals are set for the weekend of Thanksgiving. I have high hopes of being able to get back for the hitchin.

I'm sure I'm missing some important stuff that I'll throw in later but I'm pretty sure that those are the big chunks.