Welcome to the Family, Chester!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We all had fun welcoming David's puppy, Chester, to the family.

Chilly still needs to warm up to him--Rodney's been a good sport.

I've got some Labor Day pictures I'll be adding when I have a chunk of time----

Happy Birthday, Rod--the big 3

Hi! Just some misc. pics.

Boats gathering for the fireworks

Maybe next time I post, I'll remember that the first ends up last--scroll down to July 4th to start at the beginning....

The fireworks were great--up close--and no close calls with boaters who don't know how to drive or anchor.

David's in the spirit

Preparing the pinata for Francine's blast

Another accident waiting to happen--Francine, the potato gun

July 4th

With the fourth on a Wednesday, I thought it would be too short--but it turned out to be extra long and fun.

Alive and Kicking

This past weekend, my dad and I went to Ohio to visit my grandparents Massey and celebrate my grandma's 86th birthday. Grandpa has just started dialysis and isn't in the best of shape, and I figured that tagging along with my dad on the trip might be an added pick-me-up for both of them. Besides that, with both of them now in the northern half of their 80s, wasting a good opportunity and a free ticket (thank you, Southwest Airlines and Chase Visa) would only come back to haunt me later.

So I packed up my bag, got up very early on a Saturday (4:40 AM) and flew to Cleveland. Dad picked me up at the airport just after lunchtime (long layover in Nashville) and we drove to Hudson where they live in a very nice retirement community called Laurel Lake. Dad and my uncle Mike had arrived the day before, and since my Grandma was spending more time away from the house, they bought her a cell phone so that she could stay in close contact with them if need be. Dad gave me her new number and told me to call, ostensibly to wish her happy birthday- he had... "neglected" to mention that I was coming, so she just assumed I was being nice. As we said goodbye I told her, "I'll talk to you again soon."

We showed up at the door ten minutes later. So, surprise achieved and appreciated.

Below are a few of the pictures from the weekend.

The brain trust. Mmmm. Fruit pizza.

Uncle Mike and the birthday girl with her new toy.

Back (from left): Michael, Chris, Sarah, Mike, Tim (Diane's boyfriend), Bob

Front: Mary, Les, Roseanne, Diane

Dinner on the patio.And last, we have one so sweet it will make your teeth ache.

Weekend in Jacksonville

Here are pictures from last weekend when David & I visited Chris & Tommy in Jacksonville. Enjoy!

Ziplining

In April we went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera--ziplining was my favorite activity.

This was Erin's favorite part of the cruise

Rod's a good sport

I call this "the accident waiting to happen"

Anyone want to buy a historic home in Madison, GA? Erin wants it sold!

Other Nifty Things

Since I know each and every one of you will become addicted to this and check it religiously, I doubt there's any need to mention this nifty feature, but I added it *just in case* you think you might not remember to check the site for a while. There's a site called Feedblitz that will send you an email everytime that this site is updated, so you don't have to worry about missing anything. All you need to do is enter your email address in the little "Email Subscriptions Powered by Feedblitz" box in the lower right of the screen. It will give you a couple of prompts, but once you do that, you can sit back and not feel guilty that you're missing any important updates. What will they think of next?!

How to Post

Assuming you all have made it through How to Sign Up, and are now prepared to start bragging on your family (or slandering them, if that's how you roll), we will move on to the next step- posting your text and pictures.

Blogger works in pretty much the same way as any web-based email program, with a couple added advantages. You can post pictures directly into an entry, instead of having to attach them at the end like most emails. You can also post videos and other things, although that would involve using YouTube or other things that I can't easily explain, so if you want to do those things you'll have to email me separately. We're just doing the basics for now.

You'll start out at a screen that looks like this:

This is the "Dashboard" we talked about at the end of the last post. If you were to start another blog or somesuch thing, it would also show up on this page. As it is, since you just created a Blogger account in the last entry, "Email Lunch" will show up as the only option. To post something, click the little green plus next to the words "New Post." That will bring up a screen that looks like this:

Notice that it has all the common word processor functions across the top bar of the post window: font, text size, bold, italic, text color, hyperlink (if you want to put a link to another website in there), left justify, center, right justify, full justify, numbers (if you want to make a list), bullets (also if you want to make a list, just... you know, without numbers), block quotes (for if you want to separate a bit of text and indent it), spell check, add a picture (we'll be talking more about this in a second), and remove formatting, which will un-center, un-color, un-block quote or otherwise un-format whatever you've done that you're unhappy with.

You probably won't need to do too much of that stuff. But please, for my sanity, use the spell check. Not using spell check makes me cry.

Moving along, that text box is where everything happens. Enter all the text you would like, just like an email, and if there are any pictures that you want to post, we'll add those at the end.

Now let's talk about pictures. To add a picture, click the little "add picture" button on the toolbar above the text entry box. It will bring up a screen that looks like this:

To add an image that you have on your computer, select, "Browse." It will bring up a window on top of the other window that looks like this:

Find whichever folder you keep pictures in and select the one you would like to upload. Then click "Open." It will bring you back to the previous screen, where you will click the checkbox next to "I Accept the Terms of Service" and then click "Upload Image."

The window will then change to say "Uploading Image" for a few seconds (or as many as several minutes, depending on how large the picture is and what speed your Internet connection is). When your image has been uploaded successfully, it will show a screen that looks like this:

Your picture will then show up at the top of the entry in the text editing window. You can select it and drag it to wherever in the post you want it to go, and you can upload as many pictures as you like into a post. It's going to do some weird stuff with your line spacing, so once you've got everything laid out you may have to go back and delete a couple of extra lines. If you're having trouble formatting a post, send me an email. I can fix it so it will look all right.

Once you've finished formatting your post, click the orange "publish post" button in the lower left corner of the screen. You will then be taken to a screen that looks like this:

You can then view the blog to see what you've done. If you need to fix something, you can always click "back" on your browser to come back to this screen and click "edit post."

Hopefully these instructions were comprehensible and you'll be able to use this website as a living family album for years to come!

Again, email me if there are any problems or questions in how to do any of this.

Chris

How to Sign Up

Hello there. Here are some instructions (complete with screenshots, because I'm that awesome) on how to sign up for your Blogger account so you too can post to Email Lunch. I know you're as excited as I am, so be sure to breathe as you read on:

Step 1. Open your email. You should have received an email from "Alyce" that looked something like this:

Step 2. Click on the link. It will bring you to a page that looks like this:

Step 3. Unless you already have a gmail account (and most of you probably don't), you'll need to select "Create your account now." You put in a valid email address and choose a password, and click "Submit."

It will also ask you for a "visible name," which is how your name will show up when you post something to the site. It's best just to use your name, unless you have some really awesome web handle like "Wampa1" or something. (I don't expect you to get that. I just wanted to amuse myself.) Once all of that is complete, it will show you a screen that looks like this:

This is the "Dashboard." This is where we will start the next (and final) lesson, "How to Post." If you had any trouble reaching this point, be it because of user error (yours) or instructor error (because I suck), please send me an email at chris at massey-family dot net (add the @ and the . where they belong- you should do this because there are actually programs searching the internet for email addresses to send spam to) and I'll try to help you out. Good luck!

Chris

David's Graduation from U. of Florida

Our 4th and final UF graduation happened earlier in May. I think I wore the same dress & shoes each time. We're happy about the "pay raise" but kind of sad about no more UF.

Memorial Day Weekend

These are just a few of the pictures from our Memorial Day weekend--we had a house full -- lots of fun!

Chili and Rodney ready to start the weekend.

Out on the "floating family room".

Chili enjoys floating with everyone (Christopher and Will Serra pictured).

Erin and Kara Neal enjoying an adult beverage while tubing.

We return to find an uninvited guest.

Domenick Serra receiving a lesson in Wii Golf from Christopher (L) and David (R).