dobrina - this is a test blog - don't know how this works.
Mom

funny one

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW drives up in a
cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd: “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”
The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly
answers: “Sure. Why not?”
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,connects it to his AT&T cell phone,
surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact
fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an
ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the shepherd and says:
“You have exactly 1586 sheep.”
“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep.”, says the shepherd.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man: “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep? ”
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says:“Okay, why not?”
“You’re a consultant.” says the shepherd.
“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?”
“No guessing required”, answered the shepherd.
“You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don’t know crap about my business… Now give me back my dog.”

General Stuff

Hello All ;)

Well, figured I'd write and let you know what is happening around here.

All is well; Jaki, Greg and I are having fun when we get a chance to hang out. It's not as much as I'm sure we'd all like but that is to be expected, life and things do get busy. I've have had some chances though to show Greg around the city a bit, we're hoping he finds the right house or condo to live in so that he has a short commute to and from work (and our houses) and the right 'extras' such as pools with hot chicks and near by food and fun.

I guess things are fine by me, went to the holiday party for the World Bank last night, had a nice time at a great fondue place, good food, I like cooking the meat and shrimp and all that on the skewers, kinda fun. I'll be working part-time for CIBT at the World Bank in '07, the price is right and they can use my help so it should be a beneficial relationship for both of us. I'm happy to go back to the World Bank because that place is just so international it's cool. Lot's of neat stuff from around the world everywhere, cafeteria and elevators full of different languages, clothes and smells ... it's all pretty sweet. So, I'll be programming some forms for the visa office there and that should be a great way to make some extra money and let the traffic die down before heading home. 7am to 5pm here at AJE (It's Al Jazeera English now, they changed the name from Al Jazeera International) so I can work at the WB from 5 to whenever and then go home. I plan to only work there on days I work here so as to keep my 'days off' just that, days off ;)

Work here at AJE is going well too. I'm busy mostly all day, and time seems to go by pretty quickly because of it. Being in the IT world is a bit different from what I'm used to but I think I'm adjusting ok. As you know I was a graphic designer for the last 5 years and so this whole 'fixing computers' thing can be challenging. I do what I can and don't BS anyone so it seems to be ok that I am not the worlds brightest computer wiz ya know; I mean hey, I'm no chump either, but the real challenge isn't fixing the computer, it's fixing the computer under pressure and under 1/2 hour :) ha ha, that's when things get 'Fun' I guess you could say. Anyhow, the pay is great and I'm right downtown which is exciting too. Plus the drive is short enough that Myrtle and I aren't on the road for too long, and that's just a blessing right there.

Let's see, what else is new ? Virginia is coming back for the holidays so that is something I'm looking forward to for sure. Not sure though what will happen this year in '07, Virginia will be in England and I guess I'll start dating again. The intersting thing is that I think I've finally created some standards ya know, just don't have the time or desire to hang out with or spend/waste my time with girls that are simply not going to work for me. This is an old concept from what I hear but a new activity for me so wish me luck. From now on I'm only hanging out wit the top 1 percenters, no time for the other 99% I guess.

I was working for the Washington Opera again in the Madam Butterfly Opera, that was kind of fun, very taxing on my schedule and energy but fun none the less. I was able to bring Greg along but didn't really get to have him back stage during the show like I had hoped, he was forced to patiently wait upstairs in the dressing area petting a nice but stinky golden retriever ... I think that dog was in heaven.

Anywhosy, that's it for me, things are OK and I am having some fun now and then; working mostly and spending time with Greg and Jack as often as I can but still trying to get it on on my own ya know. Hope all is well with you and yours, Happy Holidays !!!

Much love, Pete

Okorn Family

Hi you all !
Just finished reading your posts (since there has been no e-mail recently, for me to find out what's going on) - thank you for the info on the blog pages (I had trouble figuring out how to do a posting, I hope this works.)

Dobrina and Ian, I'm excited about your great news. Congradulations and best wishes for a sucesful and happy forthcomming event. I hope to be with you at the time.

Greg, I bet you are bussy right now with your move and I hope it is not too stressful - I always hated moving, packing, relocating and again setling in. I'm proud of your achievement on the test scores and am sure that you will soon get offers from some outfit close to the DC area. Enjoy your stay at Jaki's in my old room until you find a place of your own, and take advantage of soaking in his hot tub while you are there (be careful of the squirels above).

Jaki and Peter, I know that you will all enjoy being together for the Christmas holidays, and I will see you all later in the year - but this year I am looking forward to seeing some snow (here in Ljubljana) to strugle through on my way to the midnight mass while the church bells are chimming in the cold.

There is still a possibility of my visiting Australia in Jan. or Feb. next year prior to returning to the USA.

Since returning to Ljubljana I have been bussy painting and am now attempting to have a showing. Next week I have an intervue with the person that invited me last spring to have it at her institute. I now have over 20 paintings (aprox. 1.5 x 3 ft in size) that I am not ashamed to show to the public.

My health is good (sorry for the falls alarm) and am doing good on the diet Dobrina put me on.

Love you all always.

Ata.

11 weeks' pregnant

Quick update here: had my first OB appointment yesterday which makes me officially pregnant. :) They did a quick ultrasound in the office (it appears I'm going to have many of those) and I was really surprised by how much the little tots have already changed. 10 days ago they were little gummy-bear shaped creatures, with little arm and leg buds. Yesterday they obviously had arms and legs, hands and feet -- and they were moving around a lot! It seriously freaked me out! To see them moving around so much on the video screen and to think that they are IN MY BELLY, well, it just doesn't seem real. Ian and I were both stunned by how alive and active they were. I guess we're having twins. Holy cow. Big sigh. They are positioned one on top of the other, like bunk beds. Better get used to it! My doctor and I talked about trying to go naturally versus having a planned c-section; I've decided to schedule a c-section which she recommends doing around 37 weeks, which would be mid-May. There are a lot of health advantages to doing the c-section, most of which would affect me later in life (like keeping my uterus from falling out and maintaining the ability to hold my pee); so call me selfish, but those seem like important things! :)
That's all from here; Ian's in San Diego today until Sunday for a conference, so I'm on my own for meals. He spoils me rotten. I had a huge craving for a cheeseburger on Saturday morning and the only place that was open was Denny's -- they actually make pretty good cheeseburgers at 9:30am!!

2 days to go

Hi Everyone,

As I type this, two guys are packing the contents of my house. I suspect I'm going to need a larger storage unit. :( I got one hour of sleep last night; I went to bed at 6:30 this morning, and the packers arrived at 8:10. I was up 'til 6:30 because I've been trying to reduce the amount of junk that I'll be taking with me, so I can reduce the weight and the cubic footage overall. Whatever I've left lying around is being packed, so I was up trying to separate the junk from the useful.

After seeing all the boxes that have been packed so far, I don't think I'll be able to fit it all into a 9x10x20 storage unit - even given the fact that the couches and dining table will go to Jack's. I just asked one of the packers and he thinks otherwise - so maybe the 9x10x20 will be big enough. We'll see. It looks like the forecast is indicating that Wednesday on the east coast is supposed to be dry, so if that holds true, then I'll be driving my pickup down first, and will have it to help transfer some stuff directly from the moving van to Jack's house.

The packer says that the movers will stack the storage unit from floor to ceiling like they do with their trucks, so I hope I've correctly chosen the limited items that are coming down with me else it'll be a nightmare simply trying to reach everything that's in the storage unit. As they're unloading, I'll try to generate a map of the unit to remind me where they put everything.

Can't wait until it's over and I'm finally relaxing with Pete, Jack, and Sophia watching a good show or movie.

Hope to see all of you for Christmas.

Lots of love,
Greg

7 days to go

This week, I'm heeding Dobrina's advice and trying to identify any junk that I really don't need to take with me. There's a lot. I've already gone through the basement and thrown out the obvious junk, and gave away the rest of the useable stuff to my neighbor, but now I need to really investigate all the junk that I've had hiding in boxes that I really don't need to hold onto. Any weight I can eliminate will reduce my moving cost, and any cubic footage I can eliminate will reduce my storage costs.

Still no bites on the house. The website for it has been updated to include interior pictures though, so maybe that'll help generate interest. Here's the site again: http://realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=5&locallnk=yes&frm=byzip&mnbed=2&mnbath=2&mnprice=275000&mxprice=300000&js=off&
pgnum=1&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=03051&poe=realtor&zp=03051&sbint=2&
sorttype=sbint&presort=sbint&typ=1&x=50&y=15&sid=078BED3B115BC&snumxlid=1070152716&
lnksrc=00002

and here's another site for it: http://www.nnerenmls.com/nne/maildoc/d0059U1760.html

More later,
Greg

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINA !!!!

Hi Tina, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Tina, happy birthday to you !!!

And many more ........ ! I love you, and miss you. P