PugPuggy's First Birthday!!!

Hello Family!

October 21st was PugPuggy's first birthday. Here is a video of the momentous occasion complimented by the musical styling of One Small Step.



I never thought I would be the type of person who celebrates a dog's birthday. But I am. And I love it.

Ben

Bartleyberg Updates

Here is a quick update of the many activities at the Bartleyberg household. Finally last night I crashed from exhaustion - but Mr. Chips (aka John) was able to just keep moving forward and still went out. I am enjoying a lovely sunny fall day today at the house, finishing up some school work for tomorrow, doing a little laundry.


We went down to Chicago a couple weekends ago and toured this house along with several others on Astor Street.


In the same day we went to a formal fundraiser put on by my WEC (Weekend College) student, Lacey. Here we are - not bad for having gotten back from a full day in Chicago about 45 minutes before this picture was taken.


John took a rare day off for his birthday and we went up to Kohler for the day with a friend to visit a really cool private wildlife preserve where we had a fantastic lunch in front of the fireplace at the lodge on a cold and rainy day. Here we are by the river that runs through the property:





We've been enjoying the fireplace A LOT. This is John building our first fire of the season. We still haven't turned on our furnace. It is fixed now, but now we are seeing if we can hold out until Nov. 1 before turning it on. While the highs are only in the 60s during the day, the house warms up with the fireplace and John and I have taken to dressing warmly around the house.



John has been giving an insane number of lectures of late. He did one on Prairie Architecture last week including this house, he did another on the Mansions around the Pabst Thursday night, we went up to Sauk City (north of Madison) last week for another on the architects of the Mansion. What I find amazing is that he never references notes - he just remembers all of this stuff.

So, I better get back to work, but just wanted to update everyone on our crazy October.

Jodi

Happy 60th Birthday, Dad!!!

Happy Birthday, Dad!!! 60-years-young!

For your birthday, I made you a virtual birthday cake. (Try to guess which Font was not on the original birthday cake)



Aaaaa, the magic of Photoshop.

Everyone who reads this blog should put one of their many favorite memories of dad in the comments. I will get it started with one (of my many) favorite memories of dad:

My 6th grade basketball team consisted of Paul Sprague, Phillip Sieve, Brian Crilly, Ryan Charleston... we were horrible. Judge Sieve (Phil's dad) was our coach. We had not won a game all year. We were playing Christ the King in basketball for St. Pat's. Dad was in the stands, as always. It was a close game and I made the winning basket with about 3 seconds left. I can remember hitting the winning basket, and (instead of running back on defense, like I should have), I looked into the stands and saw dad, raising his clinched fists. When I hit the basket, dad did a fist-pump of excitement. It was the only game we won that year. I don't remember the feeling of winning so much as I remember the feeling of dad & I being there & being excited. Thanks, dad. That was awesome... good thing I hit that shot, I don't think the St. Pat's basketball team won another game all year.

These days, after I complete a good Tech Support call... or make a good joke at one of my shows... or even finish mowing the grass, I often wish I could glance over and see dad with his fist pumped. I think it would make everything I do a little more fun.



October 15th, 2007, is a great day. Join with me in celebration of an awesome 60 years of life. Today, I pump my first in celebration of my dad, Ralph Bartley.

More sattelite images

Here are more important places in Bartley family lore.
Location A)


Location B)


Location C)


Location D)


Location E)


Any guesses?

Places in Bartley Family History Quiz

Welcome to the first "Places in Bartley Family History Quiz". This is round 1 of the quiz. The winner of the quiz receives full accommodation at the Ben & Megan Bartley International House of Luxury in Austin, TX... aka "PugPuggy's House" (accommodation is free, you have to pay for the airline ticket... sorry, not THAT big of a prize).

The rules are simple:
a) I have put satellite images of places that are very important to our family
b) everyone has been to each place atleast once, maybe more times than that
c) put a comment in this post
d) in the comments, try to guess what the satellite picture represents
e) put the number of the picture next to your guess
f) I have included little hints for the more difficult ones

Here goes the quiz...

Location #1)

Hint: This is the easiest one... even Marvin the night watchman knows this place.

Location #2)


Location #3)



Location #4)



Location #5)

Hint: this picture was taken a long time ago.
BIG Hint: closer to the time Jack was born.

Location #6)


Location #7)

Hint: Google maps could not zoom in further than this picture.
Big Hint: The red X is the spot that was important to us
Big Hint #2: That is the Ohio River making a U-shape at the top of the picture

Location #8)


Location #9)

Hint: This is the most difficult one.
Hint 2: We have all slept in this house.
Hint 3: Most of us threw-up in this house during the holidays, thanks to a nasty stomach-flu we passed around
Hint 4: Only Jen & I lived here