Tobin Family Website

If you frequent theTobins.org, you may have noticed some subtle changes recently.  For starters, I simplified the look and feel a bit by going from two “sidebars” (the column of information on the right side of the page) to a single, wider sidebar.  I thought that the two sidebar approach was a little cluttered, and it didn’t always display correctly on computers with lower video resolutions. 

Secondly, I added paragraph indents to the posts and adjusted the post font to hopefully make it a little easier to read.  Third, you may have noticed that I have added a “Guestbook” of sorts at the top of the sidebar where you can easily leave comments.  The latest comments will be displayed in synopsized form on the sidebar, with the complete list of full comments available at the Guestbook page. 

Lastly, I have added a new Photo Gallery plugin that replaces the old gallery that I used to use.  The new gallery is a WordPress Plugin coded by Alex Rabe that is entitled NextGEN Gallery.  It is a much simpler approach (in my opinion) than the Gallery2 application that I used to use.  I like how it integrates into WordPress and provides a nice, simple, aesthetically pleasing display.  You can see it in action by going to the Photo Albums page and selecting an album.  ONce there, you can view photos by thumnail or as a slideshow.  The slideshow has some nice music that I have selected to play in the background.  If you don’t like the music in the slideshow, you can simply turn it off by clicking on the speaker icon inside of the slideshow image.  You can also see it in action on the Tobin Fine Arts page, where I have included an album of Eric’s paintings and another of him painting.  I can also easily insert links to albums right inside of a post, like this:

Eric Tobin at Work

A few candid shots of my brother Eric at work behind the easel. Additional information about Eric is provided below, courtesy of the Visions of Vermont Art Gallery in Jeffersonville, VT, one of many fine galleries in New England featuring his works.

7 Photos

That is about it for website changes.  Nothing too radical, but hopefully a little improvement over the last design.  I still wish that the Genealogy site were better integrated within WordPress, but I like the application too much too change it! 

Not too much going on in the way of family activity.  The kids have been having a lot of sleepovers with their friends as the new school year approaches.  Most have been held here at the house, although, Delaney did get invited to a sleepover at a friend’s house this past Wednesday.  Tonight, Ben’s friend Mikey is spending the night.  Last weekend it was Mikey and Alex on one night and Delaney’s friend Madi on another night.  It is kind of fun having the extra kids around, as long as they behave.  The biggest issue is trying to get them to go to sleep.  We have been fortunate that the kids have made good friendships here in Virginia after moving up from Florida.  For awhile there, the kids were pretty melancholy about the move. 

This coming week, I will be going through a 4-day retirement course/seminar at Bolling AFB in preparation for my planned retirement next year.  I have been told that this is a “must do” course about a year out so that I can plan appropriately.  I am curious to see what all they cover in the seminar, and it is starting to set in that I will be retiring soon.  I will have 20 years of active service on 15 Oct 2009, and I don’t plan to stay in much beyond that date.  I haven’t decided on an actual date yet, but I am thinking Oct/Nov.  It seems like a long time away yet, but I will have close to 50-days of terminal leave and an additional 20-days of permissive leave that I will be allowed to take.  That accelerates the date by a little over 2-months.  Of course, I still need to determine whether I will transition into a civil service (Government) job, a “beltway bandit” type of support contractor job, a major defense contractor job, or something entirely different.  I am still weighing the pros/cons and will zero in on what I want to pursue within the next 6 months.  Bottom line, by this time next year, I may be pretty well in the final stages of retiring from active duty. 

Karen is planning to work as a substitute teacher again this coming school year at Delaney’s school (Ben is moving up to middle school).  The job she had last year as a teacher’s assistant at another elementary school dried up with their budget.  Although the pay was less to be a teacher’s assistant, Karen enjoyed staying with one class and not being the transient teacher (that kids like to take advantage of).  The beauty of substitute teaching, however, is being able to say no if you have other things going on that day.  From that perspective, it is a lot more flexible.  Based on past experience with the school, she could work almost daily as a sub if she wants.  The demand for subs is high, and there is a paucity of good subs out there.  So, if she wants to work, there is usually no shortage of opportunity!

Finally, the election cycle is starting to enter the final stages.  This morning, Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate.  He is probably as good a candidate as any of the others out there.  I find it funny, however, that when Biden was still a candidate himself he railed on Obama’s utter lack of experience.  I think he made a comment about how the Presidency is not a place for “on the job” training.  He even went so far as to say that McCain was a much better candidate than Obama in terms of experience.  It will be interesting to see how Biden handles questions about prior statements now that he is on the ticket.  I am anxiously waiting to see who John McCain picks as his running mate.  I personally would like to see Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge on the ticket alongside McCain, but it very likely won’t change how I plan to vote. 

Tags: Family Update, Politics, Website Update

We had a great trip to Vermont over the last weekend to attend my brother Andy’s wedding.  We left Virginia on Thursday morning (6 Aug) and drove straight through, arriving in Vermont about 5:30PM.  It is about a 580 mile drive door-to-door, so it makes for a fairly long drive with the kids.  The drive was uneventful, aside from some sporadic downpours between Albany, NY, and our destination in Essex Junction, Vermont.  After arriving, we spent the first night at Karen’s sisters house.  On Friday, we went to my parents’ house to visit before leaving for the wedding in the late afternoon. 

The wedding was held at 6PM at Andy & Pam’s house in Georgia, Vermont.  The wedding guests were limited to immediate family members with a separate reception for friends and extended family scheduled on Saturday afternoon.  They have a beautiful home that they purchased set on 10-country acres.  They have done a lot of work insde the house (and out) over the last year to really make it wonderful.  They have enlarged and completely remodeled the kitchen and built a master bedroom suite above the garage.  They have also added a separated 3-car garage (in addition to the 2-car garage attached to the house).  They also have a nice pool in the backyard that was recently replaced, as the old one collapsed this past winter.  All in all, it was a beautiful setting for the wedding.  The wedding was held on the wraparound porch that surrounds over half of the house.  The guests were seated on the lawn.  It was a very nice and informal ceremony that finished ahead of the rainshowers (thankfully)!  It was very nice to be able to witness their exchange of wedding vows.

We spent Friday night at my parents house, and Saturday morning I fixed the exhaust fan in their upstairs bathroom that had stopped working.  We went out and purchased a replacement fan at Home Depot and then had to do a little creative installation as the old fan had been installed incorrectly.  When all was said and done, the new fan worked like a champ.  At lunch time, I took the family to “Al’s French Frys” in Burlington….a landmark for great french fries!  Saturday afternoon we drove back out to Georgia (VT) for the wedding reception.  Andy and Pam received almost 190 RSVPs for the reception!  Thankfully, the weather was absolutely perfect.  I was able to see some Aunts and Uncles that I hadn’t seen in many years.  I also got to see my cousin Ike that I hadn’t seen in probably 15+ years!  I also saw many “old” friends of the family.  I also met my neice Eliza’s boyfriend and was happy to learn that they had announced their engagement.   It was a lot of fun!  Unfortunately, Karen wasn’t feeling well and we left before the fireworks and bonfire.

On Sunday we drove up to Johnson, Vermont, and had breakfast at my brother Eric’s house.  On the way there, we drove across two covered bridges so that the kids could see a bit of Vermont history. Kathy & Eric cooked up a huge blueberry pancake breakfast, topped with some of Eric’s real Vermont maple syrup that he made this spring.  It was delicious!  Eric graciously gave me a half gallon to take home, and I bought two quarts from him as well to give to some co-workers.  We also go to see Eric’s art studio which is being built as an addition to his garage behind his house.  The studio will include an office, and area to paint indoors and lots of wall-space to display his paintings.  It is huge and is going to be a great place for him!  We spent the late morning around his pond while the kids hopped on the trampoline and played croquet before driving back down to Essex Junction. 

Sunday night, I took the kids over to Underhill Center to Scott & Susan’s house to visit with them for awhile.  The kids really enjoyed spending time with Uncle Scott and Aunt Susan and they had a blast with Aunt Susan’s horses.  We also watched some of the Olympics with them before heading back to Essex Junction for the night, where we stayed again with Karen’s sister Sue and her kids. 

Early Monday morning, we drove south to Chittenden, Vermont, and spent a couple of short hours with Karen’s other sister Laura and her husband Andy at their newly remodeled home.  They remodeled Andy’s grandmother’s house by adding an addition that nearly tripled the size of the original house.  They did a great job and now have a wonderful “new” home for their 8 children.  It was designed to meet the unique needs of such a large family, with an oversized kitchen and dining room as the centerpeice of the house.  While we were there, Andy showed us video and pictures of their 5-weeks in Norway where he was working on an assignment.  It was beautiful, and was quite dramatic as we viewed it on his 12′x8′ projection screen in his home theater that he constructed in his basement.  Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures of their new home in the short time that we were there! 

We left Chittenden around 1PM and drove part way back to Virginia, spending the night at a hotel in Moosic, PA.  We drove the rest of the way home on Tuesday morning so that we could get the dog back from the kennel.  It was a great trip, albeit a short one.  We managed to see most of the family that still lives in Vermont, and were reminded how much we love and miss the beauty of Vermont.

Tags: Family Update, Vermont