The Home of The KCPokes

Once again, another year has gone by and I still did not find the time to rewrite the entire gift registry application. No loss though, since everyone is already a member and I’ve left it as is. What that means is that it is now time to start thinking about firing that puppy back up and getting your lists made. There was an issue, recently, with email being sent from that box, which is correct now, so everything should be pretty much ready to go.

Best approach is to go through your list and remove everything. If you have something on your list that you still want to keep there, I’d remove and add it again, just to ensure that no one had it reserved still.

Being proactive now makes it easier for those shopping, such as me! Please drop me a line or shoot me a message should you have any issues regarding the registry. Same as last year, thus should be pretty straightforward.

Sorry there haven’t been any updates lately, just seems like there are just too many things going on. I am currently in the process of changing jobs, which requires finding one first, so between regular work, my work on the side, and the job situation there just haven’t been time for updates. I hope to get back into the flow and start posting more pictures and news, but until then please be patient.

With Christmas comes all kinds of new “toys”, for both adults and kids. This year was no exception, with Santa determining that we must have all been pretty good boys and girls this year. With all the great things received, and given, who would think that we’d have the most fun with one of Delaney’s gifts? She received a VTech Kidizoom digital camera, which is essentially a low quality digital camera in a durable construction. She loves to play with our camera now so our thought was to get her one of her own and see what she produces. Who knows, maybe she is the next Ansel Adams?

It turns out that not only does she love her camera, but EVERYONE else did as well. For the most part she wasn’t even the one using it as all the other kids had a great time taking pictures of everything possible. Then the adults got ahold of it (ok, so it was me) and you knew it wouldn’t turn out well.

Some images didn’t need any extra effects!

To see all the pictures, not just the ones that the adults took, you can check out Delaney’s Album. As she takes more pictures, and trust me she takes a LOT of pictures, we’ll continue to add them to her album so be sure to check back from time to time. All new pictures will be added to the beginning of the album.

The camera is a hit so now time to see what kind of eye, and patience, she has. Hope you enjoy them as much as she enjoys taking them.

Not much in the news department, but I did manage to get some pictures uploaded that were much overdue, specifically the rest of the Halloween pictures. The following albums have updated pictures:

Halloween 2007
Holidays 2007
Miscellaneous Family Pictures

That’s all for now. Be looking for Christmas cards in the mail any day.

Maybe you’ve noticed that there is a little box following you around the past couple days? Don’t look now, but it’s in the lower right hand corner of your screen. I SAID DON’T LOOK!

Ok, you can look. You can even click it, if its there. Actually, depending on what time it is, it might not be there at all. Wierd, eh? But what is it? It is an instant chat box that connects directly to my instant messenger. That means that anytime I’m signed onto messenger, the box will be available for site visitors to click and chat. The drawback? It is only me that you’ll get, unless I’m at home and the wife is around. But it’s a quick and dirty solution for that instant support you may need. Have a quick question? Ask away. How can it get any easier then that?

It is just about Thanksgiving time, already, which means that the request for your Christmas list will be a commonly uttered phrase in the very near future. I’ve always thought there was an easier, and perhaps better, way of doing it. Problem I’ve always seen is you have to have enough options that you can give each, and every, person multiple options. That also means that if you give one person four ideas you cant give another person those same ideas, thus removing them from the pool of options and potential presents. What would be ideal is a single “wish” list that everyone could see and “reserve”, without the person seeing what has been taken/they are getting. Much like a gift registry, if you will. I kept telling myself, each year, that I was going to just write one myself, but I just never got around to it. Turns out someone already has a pretty good start, thus I’m going to use and build on what they have in place.

That means, starting this year, as a trial, we now have the KCPokes Gift Registry. This is still very much in a testing phase so I invite you to please sign up for an account, which will have to be approved by us to control SPAM, and try it out. The accounts are not synched up with this site (something I still need to incorporate), for now, but that may well be a good thing as it could provide more people the option of seeing your list without them having to join our main site. Signup should be pretty straightforward, as is usage. I definitely would like some feedback as to what you like, don’t like, or what is not working. I think this will make things much easier for everyone, but it will require everyone using it to make it successful. I’ll be adding a link in the left menu, for authenticated users, to the registry as well.

Please let us know your thoughts. Obviously people may not even like the idea, but until we hear otherwise I do not know if this is true or not. Additionally, on the topic, we are always looking for feedback in regards to the site in general. What would you like to see, what don’t you like, etc… We cannot improve, or make changes, if we do not know what people would like to see different. And remember, under every post you can leave comments or even ugly rude remarks, if you so please.

Thanks.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, mainly because we have fun with limited stress, unlike the typical holiday season. It is normally a time for family and friends to come over, chop up some gourds, and relax. With Delaney older this year the holiday also included a field trip, with her school, to Red Barn Farm along with our annual trek to Carolyns Country Cousins Pumpkin Patch. Two pumpkin patches in one year, what could possibly be better for a three year old?

Somewhere along the lines we became the crazy “Pumpkin House” on our block. It started out innocently, at the old house, carving a pumpkin apiece. Then we carved fake pumpkins, figuring they’d be less cleanup and easier (I can tell you they are, in fact, NOT easier). Since then it has grown into a full fledged pumpkin frenzy with friends and family joining the mix. By the time it was done, this year, we had 13 (yes, ten plus three) pumpkins lining our front yard and sidewalk. As I said, it started innocently and somewhere it grew out of control. But when there are pumpkins around, they MUST be carved. Delaney and I received two free for going on the field trip (they were mini pumpkins). Theresa bought five full sized pumpkins for us to carve (Theresa, Joanie, Delaney, Kayla, and I). Our friend Brooks also had two pumpkins to carve, and since his family comes over to our place for Halloween, the pumpkins do as well. We also had the four fake pumpkins that get put out each year, which quickly adds up to thirteen!

Kayla didn’t have an opportunity to carve hers, thus I just couldn’t let it go to waste and spent two plus hours of my life, Tuesday night, carving this one…

I’m not gonna lie to you, it wasn’t easy. It is supposed to fit on a far bigger pumpkin, but I decided to see just how insane I was and managed to make it happen. But not to be outdone, the rest of the crew took the challenge and whipped out some rather impressive pieces of work…

One of Brooks’…

Theresa’s work of art, for Delaney…

Aunt Joanie’s first ever pumpkin, of this sort…

All this BEFORE Halloween even. You can check out the rest of the pumpkins, as well as all the activities and events in the Halloween 2007 Photo Album. I’ve also tried to start uploading a few movies here and there. Most are taken with my camera or phone, for now, so the quality isn’t the best, but good enough for the web. You can see the current movies in the Movies album in the Photo Gallery.

So now we start thinking about what we are going to do NEXT Halloween! How as your Halloween?

You know how it goes with me, within a year I’m always bored with the site and ready to move on. Frankly I thought this would be a good fit, having a true CMS, but honestly it just didn’t give me exactly what I wanted or was more like trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer; the framework is just far to bulky for what we need. So that means, shortly, you can expect to see another new site come into existence, as the old one goes by the wayside. I’m looking for something more straightforward, visually more appealing, with the same basic functionality. I hope to garner some speed from the move, as well. I’ve been doing some work for other sites so I think I know what I want to move toward.

Stay tuned!