11/15/04

More pictures are up! I've posted Easter 2004, and two sections for Michael and Mandy's Wedding. One section is of pretty good quality, and prints can be ordered of those pictures. The second album has more pictures, but they small and not picture quality (they are from walmart.com). I have the original pictures and can scan them at a better quality if anyone wants them. Mom currently has the negatives (though she can't find them!). Lots of Love!

Easter 2004
Mike and Mandy's Wedding, Section 1
Mike and Mandy's Wedding, Section 2

11/14/04

With November comes Thanksgiving, and this year it looks the Tollhouse/Fresno McGrath clan will be making the long trek to join the Kelseyville McGrath crowd for turkey and merriment. It's been some time since this whole group has been together, but mom did some cajoling, myself being the last to commit to the journey north (its longest for me coming from the LA area, ugh!) This will definitely be a Thanksgiving be remembered =). Well, I suppose I should go upload some picture and add to the photo page, I have been promising you all those wedding pics for some time…

9/22/04

Sorry I haven't gotten updates going and pictures up, I've been a busy girl- I'm going to be vending at a fair comming up, so I've been frantically making items to sell, plus I am have some terrible computer problems, stupid evil computer viruses! I'll dedicate some more time to this page next week, promise!

8/27/04

Well, the wedding was lovely! Congratulations again to Mike and Mandy! We are all so happy for you two! I have lots of pictures I will be uploading, just as soon as Walmart.com lets me download them (I've been having lots of problems with them, the pictures should have been available weeks ago, and I've called three times to try to find out what the problem is.) I currently downloading five of the seven rolls of film I took. Whew! Lots of pictures =). I did do some other updating around the site, the informational articles, calendar, archives, and soon photos. So I'm going to keep this little chat short for now. I'll come back and write some more news here soon. Talk to you all later!

Lots of Love,

Morgan

Congratulations Michael and Mandy!

Well, I'm setting a new goal for myself - I'm going to try to update this page at least once a month. We'll see if it works =). So first things first today, I want to extend a big Congratulations! to my brother Michael and his wonderful bride-to-be, Mandy McGuire. They will be married on Saturday, August 7th, 2004 at 1:00 in the afternoon at Holly Spirit Catholic Church in Fresno, California. For those of you who do not know Mandy, she is Sierra High School graduate and is currently a senior (I think! I may have to correct this later =) at Fresno State University. She grew up with her mother, father, and brother just down the road from our home, on lower Burrough Valley Road. Mandy is an athletic, outgoing, outdoorsy girl who complements Mike perfectly. I don't have any pictures of Mike and Mandy yet, but I promise I will post some pictures and news soon! We all wish Mike and Mandy all the best in their future and are looking forward to attending their wedding. We love you guys!

Now for the less exciting stuff. This last weekend I went up to visit Mom and Dad and spent quite a bit of time ridding computers of unwanted intruders - viruses and spy ware. And so I thought it might be a good time to urge you all to take care of your computer. So here is my advice. First if you don't have a anti-virus program, shame on you! Go get one now! There are a few good free ones out there, two that are highly recommended are Anti Vir and AVG. Anti Vir can be found at www.majorgeeks.com or www.free-av.com/. AVG FREE Edition can be found at www.majorgeeks.com or www.grisoft.com. Once you have you virus program you have to do two things, keep it updated (probably at least once a month) and scan your computer at least once a week (perhaps less frequent if you spend little time online, or do no downloading). You might not think that your computer is in danger of getting a virus, but you'd be surprised easy it is to get one, so its best to be prepared. Also to cut down on your vulnerability make sure you have your windows patches up to date. Go to www.windowsupdate.com to make sure.

Next you should make sure your computer is clear of spyware. "Spyware" can be benign little tracking cookies that report your browsing activities or nasty programs that shower you with pop-ups or hijack your browser. Either way they are not welcome on my computer and probably not yours either, so I recommend downloading Lavasoft's Ad Aware. It scans your computer for these programs, reports its findings, and gives you the option to rid your system of these nuisances. You can go to Lavasoft site to learn more at www.lavasoft.de or download the program at www.downloads.com.

Lastly you may want to look into downloading a firewall. This will help protect you from viruses, hackers, and all kinds if nasty internet menaces. ZoneAlarm is a highly recommended firewall, but I have had problems to get it to work on my computer, mainly because I have two networked computers accessing the internet through the same line. But if you don't have your computer hooked up to a second computer, this may be a good choice for you. A great place to check how secure your system is ShieldsUp (www.grc.com). Look through the rest of the site for additional nifty information.

I hope this help you all have a more enjoyable internet experience. If anyone needs help, you can always e-mail me Morgan[at]TheMcGrathFamily.com. Later on I'll probably add some more to this and post it under "Information Articles." As always, if you have anything to submit, advice to give or instructions that you have written, please e-mail it to me, I'd love to post it!

And one last thing before I go for the night - a belated congratulations to Khara and Jeremy Turner on the birth of their daughter Cora. I was lucky enough to see her this weekend and she is a beautiful, healthy baby girl! Take Care Everyone!

Lots of Love!

Morgan

5/1/04 Update

Well, I just thought I'd add a few more things. First, another site for you all to visit; www.tollhousetrash.com. This web site comes from our very own Tollhouse Market, the place where the In Crowd hangs out (well I suppose some mountain folk also hang out in Prather and Auberry, but well, they just aren't as cool). Dad is even featured under "Local News/Gossip" as a member of "The Tollhouse Coffee Klatch" (see Tuesday, April 13th). I absolutely love going to this site and seeing all the pictures of familiar scenes, it makes me homesick! I love it when student at work look at my pictures from home and ask "What state is that in?" You can really tell they are from LA. Anyways, everyone should go check out this site, look at the beautiful mountain, and support our local small town business by buying something from their store!

Secondly, I thought I'd mention all the new pictures I have uploaded. Newly available for all of your view pleasure is Thanksgiving 2003 (mainly picture of Lacey and Nathan though), Zack's 5th and 6th birthdays, and Easter 2002 (2004 is coming as soon as I develop them). I'll probably be uploading like a mad woman all weekend, so I'll post a note when I get more up. Have a good weekend all!

4/30/04

So, what have I done tonight... I have now posted some more new pictures (well links to new pictures). If you haven't taken a look at the changes with the photo album, I'll fill you in on the details. I've decided it is just too much work for me to host the pictures all on my own site. If I were to host it, I'd have to manage all the links to each pictures (and for example, just my album of Zack's 5th birthday is 110 files, and that's after slimming it down!) so for me to manage that many links and small and large views was just an overwhelming task. So now I'm having the photo album hosted at www.shutterfly.com. The nifty thing about this is that if anyone wants a print of some of these photos, it's easy and cheap to buy the prints on actual photographic paper and have them mailed to your door. (I don't get any kickback from this, so don't feel you need to do this for my benefit) I will put up the links on our photo album section to the individual albums online. If you have any problems feel free to e-mail me.

Also I have set up the Archive section. No you can go see pages dating back to 2000. It hosts screen shots of our old web pages along with all the older updates.

Lastly I am putting up a link to a site I am very much in support of - www.sacred-texts.com. This site hosts religious text from nearly all world religions and makes them accessible for free to anyone who is seeking. I think this is a huge step towards religious tolerance, and is something that can be appreciated by all, regardless of their religious background. It also houses all of Shakespeare's work and legends and stories from countries around the world. Including what is more specifically related to this site, and my favorite, the legends and tales of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England. If you are as enthused as I am about these things, please buy the CD, it's a whopping $50 but it goes to keeping this wonderful site online, and I know I have absolutely loved mine. The back of my CD reads:

"You are holding in your hand a complete library of the most important books ever written. The scriptures of every world religion, in English and the original languages. Hundreds of books about religion, mythology, folklore and the esoteric, all in easy-to-use HTML format. Includes many text scanned from rare books no longer in print. Includes the Bible in English, Hebrew, Greek and Latin; the Qur'an in English and Arabic, the Talmud and Kabbalah; Vedas and Upanishads; Homer, Virgil, the Eddas, the complete works of Shakespeare. Topics include the Bible, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Shinto, I Ching, Taoism, Confucianism, Jainism, Sikkism, Shamanism, Australian, Polynesian, African and Native American traditions; Ancient Near East, Egypt Rome and Greece, Sagas and Legends, Wicca, Grimoires, Alchemy, Atlantis, Tarot, Atheism, Philosophy, and much more. Includes over 1000 complete books, the equivalent of 250,000 printed pages. Ideal for schools, libraries and students."

Ok, I'll stop raving now. Just had to get that out of my system =). Anyways I thinks that's it for tonight, take care all!

Lots of Love to All!

Morgan

In Loving Memory Of Helen I. Critchfield

In Loving Memory Of Helen I. Critchfield

Grandma passed away Saturday evening, 4/10/04. However, she lives on in the hearts and thought of her three children, nine grandchildren, and four greatgrandchildren. I know I am not alone in wishing I had more time with this wonderful person who has given us all so much.

We Love You Grandma!

2/24/04

Hey all! I changed the layout a bit, I think it makes it easier to navigate, and that way you don't have to have the side bar reload every time you change pages. I'm hoping this with inspire me to work more on the page. Meanwhile I have done some work on my other pages, www.maevinwren.com and particularly my portfolio at www.morganmcgrath.com. Also I bought Dad a domain name for Christmas, he hasn't done too much with it yet, but its at www.sierrahighfootball.com (he's still struggling with the web builder, keep at it Dad!). Also check out our online store at cafepress.com! If you want to see more here, the best way to get more frequent updates is to encourage me! If I know you visit, and want to see more content, better yet, if you write me an update or anything, I promise I will dedicate more time to this page! I want it to be for everyone, 'cus I love you guys and all! Well off I go, everyone have a great week!Love and LaughterMorgan =)