We had to part with Nigel last week after a wonderful 18 years. He lived a healthy life until recently but chronic renal failure kept him from eating and as such, it was time to say goodbye. He's joined his sister, Lucy, who died two years earlier, in a special corner spot of our backyard. As we did with Lucy, we created a special photo gallery to remember Nigel.

The loss was hard on everyone. We still have Shadow, who is currently over 16 years old and has survived eating a cactus, chewing on various cords, and even diabetes (which a switch in diet reversed just this past August). Shadow has suddenly become a "lap cat" after years spent relegated to other spots since Lucy and Nigel primarly occupied the laps that were available.

Some updates:

• Along with the photos of Nigel, there are at least 10 new photos posted to the photos section.
• We've finally compiled years' worth of Yanoff Family Green Tips onto one page!
• We now have a teenager in the house as Gillie turned 13 earlier this week!
• Scott has taken on another volunteering effort. He now updates the Shorewood SEED organization's web site. Check it out!
• iTunesStats, Scott's script that runs on Windows and can analyze your iTunes/iPod listening habits now has a Facebook page. Please "like" it!

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This is the new living room. We've painted the walls with some color rather than their previous white. We have a storage bench at the south end, the ping pong table we bought yesterday in the middle, and two brown chaises underneath each window (courtesy of Ikea) as part of our "reading nooks".

It's been several months since our last update but there are two videos for 2011 posted: Gillie's piano recital and the hatching of about 250 praying mantids. There are a lot more photos now on the site, including those of our vacation, neighborhood hawks, and tea party fun.

Some updates:

• We had a wonderful spring break vacation at the end of March in Sanibel Island, Florida.
• Gillie went to her first popular music concert. Scott took her and a friend to see Taylor Swift early in June and everyone had a good time.
• Carly turned 11 this month and created a tea party-themed party in the backyard for her friends from the block.

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Here's some other stuff to read after you read about how you can swim with a polar bear.

We've put up some photos of the great snowstorm of 2011 as well as Carly with curled hair in the photos section. Also, please let us know if the new vertical drop-down menus off of the top navigation bar are working well for you.

The photo here is of a light switch cover in our upstairs hallway. It has a thermometer built in and even if we keep the house at 66 or 67 degrees, it typically shows 68 degrees. After our energy audit at the end of December, we learned that we had zero insulation in our first-floor walls and that the attic needed far more insulation than it had. We're waiting to get the first floor done but we had the attic done last Monday and the upstairs has been registering 70 degrees every day since, including the near-zero weather we had mid-week. The upstairs even feels warmer, as do the two bathrooms we had insulation added to from above.

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Here's some other stuff to read after you read about the woman who suffered a stroke after receiving a hickey.

Some people compare presidents by how well they did under each president. I keep a spreadsheet of our family's financials regarding our investments and property taxes so I thought I'd do that comparison for the first two years of our last two presidents.

I could probably list the percent raise I received each year, but I worked for different companies with different philosophies so that's not an equal comparison.

You can draw your own conclusions. At the start of the Bush presidency, the dot-com bubble had burst. At the start of the Obama presidency, the housing bubble had burst and we entered our worst recession in decades. Investments went up under Obama's first two years but not Bush's. Property taxes always go up and they went up more under Bush, although my home value (not shown) did climb more under Bush, but that's not a very liquid asset.

Oh, and the Phillies and Brewers went to the post-season under Bush, but the Packers are going to the Superbowl under Obama.

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