Interest 1 Animals: Dogs and a 45 year old Parrot.  We have three medium size dogs. One is a female Samoyed,  one is a female German Shepherd and the other is the daughter of a Dalmatian and a Black dog. The German Shepherd is one of ten (10) German Shepherd puppies born here, several years ago. Her mother had to be put to sleep, about two (2) years ago, because her rear legs became paralyzed. Pilar put a huge effort into trying to rehabilitate her, but she deteriorated and lost strength.  A former neighbor gave Pilar a Toy Pinscher and we now have a pack (7)  of those. The Toy Pinschers are very alert, so they  are good for security,  but they are tiny and extremely fragile and probably should not be in homes where there are very young children or large dogs. Our Samoyed has Blue eyes. We believe that is either a birth defect or an indication that she is not a purebred Samoyed. She allows the Toy Pinschers to use her as a mattress or sofa and frequently, when she rests, several of them are on top of her. The Toy Pinschers eventually got the German Shepherd to let them use her as a mattress or sofa. (Note: The link for Toy Pinscher is for Miniature Pinschers. They are much larger than the Toy Pinschers). During 2009, the Samoyed had a Tumor or Cyst, near her right ear. Pilar put a tight thread around it (an old method for castrating pigs) and when Lanny took the Samoyed to the veterinarian, she was going to remove the tumor or cyst, surgically, two days later. It fell off, before that, and instead of surgery, the veterinarian cleaned the wound and it closed by itself. Pilar gave her injections for several days. We believe the Samoyed is approximately  8 years old. She is obese and not very active physically. The Black dog came through a gap in the fence, from a neighbors yard, when she was a few weeks old. We returned her, several times, but she kept coming back and she seems happy with us. The neighbors are living in Europe at this time.   She is approximately 8 months old now. Her mother is a Dalmatian and her father is approximately the same size and Black. She looks exactly like her father.

Interest 2 Increasing our family income. 

Interest 3  Raising a happy, healthy and successful child, who grows up to be a happy, healthy and successful adult. Melissa is thriving in  school. She  had two (2)  years of Kindergarten (K4 and K5) and finished  Third Grade during June 2010. She is completely bilingual and speaks both  English and Spanish fluently. In K5, she learned how to read and write in Spanish. In First Grade, she  learned to read and write in English.  Her teachers have nice things to say about her, on her report cards. She has been learning how to play the Flute the past two school years. 

Interest 4 Replacing or repairing the roof on our  house, in the most cost effective way possible.  With the exception of the roof, we are very happy with our  house and the location.  We have been living in this house since March 2004.  We had minor repairs made to the roof, at the front and rear of the house. The repair at the front was very successful. In the Master Bedroom and other places,  we continue to have bad leaks, during heavy thunderstorms. The structure of the roof is Guadua, which is  very rustic and beautiful, on the inside of the house. Sadly, the men who installed the roof did not use the best quality  materials and they rushed to finish the job and there are many places where we have leaks. The problem is not the Guadua, or what is immediately above the Guadua. The problem is the plastic sheeting above that (quality and installation) and the shingles on the top of the roof (installation).  Our original plan was to remove the roof entirely and replace it with a metal structure and top, but now we believe we will have the top part of the roof, which is the bad part, removed, and replace that with metal and that will solve our problem with leaks and we will continue to enjoy the rustic beauty of the Guadua when we are inside the house.

Interest 5 Astronomy - Pilar has been interested  in Astronomy for many years. She has an  8" Celestron "Star Hopper" Dobsonian telescope. Our  home is only 15 minutes from our former home, but the air here is  much cleaner, which is a big advantage for astronomy and probably  for our health too. She is using the KStars Desktop Planetarium astronomy software program in the KDE Desktop for Linux, for her Astronomy interest.

Interest 6 Amateur radio - Lanny got his first amateur radio license at the age of 12.  His HF  (High Frequency) transceiver needs repair and he hopes to be back on the air in the future. 

Interest 7 Lanny became  interested in raffles. He won nine (9) in the superstore where we shop in Cali.  Included were: 2 computers, a 34" TV (32" in the USA and Canada) with a  Home Theater, and a  Refrigerator.  On 24 December 2006, Lanny won a 3 wheel battery powered Prinsel motorcycle, made in Mexico, for Melissa, in a store in our  town and during June 2009, he won a large stuffed animal (a dog) for Melissa there. The probability  of winning the lottery is very small, but these raffles are a much easier way to be a "winner". If you do not participate, you will never win! The raffles in Colombia require that one purchase a product, but many of the  purchasers do not bother to participate.

Interest 8 Cooking - Pilar is a gourmet cook. 

Interest 9 Travel in Colombia and the USA.  Our best vacations have been to Orlando, Las Vegas, Dallas/Ft. Worth and a very unexpected side trip to Southern California, to visit family Lanny hadn't seen for 39  years. 

Interest 10 Studying  (Pilar - University courses),  (Lanny - Linux).  Pilar   was taking Distance Learning courses from the Universidad del Valle ("Univalle"), but she dropped out, due to the construction of our new house. She has an excellent G.P.A.  When Lanny opens a book about Linux, he always learns new things.

Interest 11 Gardening - Pilar is very good at this. She has a "Green thumb".

We hope you will return to this web page. We may have information about our new interests and activities and updated information on the following: Dogs Puppies Family German Shepherd Parrot Astronomy Retirement Pinscher Samoyed Income Astronomy Software Guadua

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