Hawaii Trip

ALOHA!

Okay, here goes...as you guys have heard Diane and I are going to Maui. We leave on Friday June 9th and return on the 15th. We are both excited but I'm sure the nervousness will set in once next week arrives! We will be staying in Kihei. You can see it on the map I attached. Well, until next time! Take care everyone!

Maggie at Merlefest

Our friends the Quiggleys put this video of their daughter Maggie at the Merlefest on the Internet. It goes on a bit too long, but perhaps you all would like to see our friend Maggie. She just turned four, as she will tell you as soon as you meet her. She thinks of us as her 'Uncle Scott and Auntie Laura.' Blaine, it will give you an idea of what Merlefest is like, except that you cannot see all the tents and pavilions surrounding the huge grassy area in front of the main stage.

[UPDATE: I have been instructed by Maggie's Mother that the video is NOT too long. It is only my inability to focus on the most important thing in the world. This is TRUE. Actually, I was referring to the few dead spots where Maggie is NOT in the camera frame. Otherwise it is obviously too short. Just thought I would clear that up.]

Memorial Day in Wilkes

Laura and I have done nothing but our usual routine today. I got up very early - to make up for sleeping in late yesterday and missing church (Benadryl will do that to you). I did a lot of reading for my school research. Laura walked Leo and worked on cleaning. The only really energetic thing I did was to go over to the Y for the biking class. The instructors seem to be getting younger, fitter, and more maniacal in their expectations of what a 57 year old can do.

I invited Gail and Tom to join the blog. I tried John and Karen but the message bounced back. I'll try again after I reread Elizabeth's e-mail. Gail at least seems all rearin' to go.

Take care everybody.

St Louis and Washington U

Last night I went to our favorite pizzeria to meet a new colleague who was in town with his wife to look for a place to live in the fall. His wife, Greta, told me she was from St Louis and went to Washington University. She loves both places. Apparently everyone else does to, because her husband told me he was impressed that everyone he met who had gone there loved it.

So Jenifer, looks like you have picked a good place to go to school. BTW, when do Marshall and Diane go to Hawaii? Hope they have a good time.

Does Blaine or anyone else plan to come up this way during the summer?

Email

Scott, would you please send me your email address. I don't have it and wanted to forward you John/Karen's and Thomas's email address that you requested. If you don't have mine it is in one of my first "comments" on the blog. The only reason I just don't send you their email addresses in this post is because you know how Thomas is about his personal information (very secretive) and he might think it was an invasion of his privacy for me to post it. Anyway, send me an email and I will respond back with the 2 you are missing. I don't think John and Karen check their emails too often. I don't think they have a computer at home and at work they are limited with what they can pull up on the internet.

I have taken today (Wed.), Thurs. and Fri. off from work, plus I have Mon. as a holiday. Today is Meghan's end of the year party for her class and there will be a 2nd grade parent vs. students kickball game - that should be interesting. Then tomorrow is only 1/2 day school and she will be out at noon for the summer. I'm hoping the rain holds off and we can go to Adventure Island Friday. She has never been and is sure she is going to go on the big slide that goes straight down. I be waiting at the bottom!!!

Got to go get ready for the big game! Bye - Elizabeth

The Latest From Wilkesboro

Hi everybody. It looks like Marshall has signed up for Jessee's Place and Diane may too. Marshall says that she might be better about posting than he would be. Sounds likely. Now just about everyone is onboard except Tom and John. Does anyone have their e-mail addresses? If nothing else I'd like them to know this thing exists.

I am enjoying my summer break immensely. I just need to remember to get productive on research and writing. Laura and I went down to Winston last week and spent the night. We met our Korean friends for dinner - Tai is the friend who came down for our wedding.

The reason we were in Winston was for Laura to have her annual cardiac checkup. She seems to be fine, although the ultra sound shows that there was indeed some damage from the heart attack - but it is mild enough not to worry her doctor. So I'll put Leo on notice that he should up her walking routine to get her in shape!

This evening I was up in Boone, at the Mellow Mushroom Pizzeria where I spend almost every Tuesday night. Our young friends Maggie and Curtis were there, and some others. It was a lot of fun, now that we are all out of school. Curtis will graduate from High School next week and I think his mother (my old friend from FSU) is going to give him a party.

In general everything is fine, now that we have gotten the latest word on Laura, so I am going to enjoy the summer.

Will I finally got on to pass on some information. We went up to Tallahassee last week end and helped Jen move back down to Tampa. She will be here this summer and then head up to St. Louis. Don't know how we did it but we got everything in one trip. Her car was full to the roof and you can see from the picture that the truck was full. (If I can get the picture loaded.)

We got back alright but now everything is all over the house. Jen is getting her room cleaned out and things thrown out and starting to move the things from school in, but it takes time. Maybe if I got my things cleaned up their would be enough room in the house for everything. (But we all know that won't happen.)

We had gone to church with Mother and Elizabeth the weekend before for the 5th aniversity of Dad's death. Mother had paid to have the flowers in his memory for that weekend. I am adding a picture of them at the church before we took one set home with us. Mother took a few flowers out and Judy and I took the rest over to the Health Center for Ms. Roberta. She has failed quite a bit now.

I ended up going over to Lanier for the PTA meeting tonight. Tram was to be in a program for this last meeting this year. I saw one of the boys that played soccer with Marshall at Robinson. He has a girl in the third grade there.

Will close up for now. It looks like I am able to get the pictures on here. I will check back in with some more.

Brownies & Dance

Well tonight was a very busy night for Meghan and myself. Her father (Darius - remember him), picked her up from after-care and took her to CiCis (the pizza place). Her dance class was having a pizza party because they had the best attendance during the year for a small class. I showed up as they were winding down to take her home to shower and change for her last Brownie's meeting of the year. It was a end of the year party and ceremony thing. I got to eat dinner there - they had chicken nuggets (Chick-fil-A I think), fruit and cookies/ice cream. Meghan received her prizes from the Girl Scout Cookies Sales (she was the 2nd highest seller), and she recieved a patch for sports. I also recieved a recognition prize for driving/chaperoning the Disney on Ice trip last Friday (nice mug). It was all very nice but we didn't get home until 8:30 which on a normal night, Meghan is usually asleep by then (tomorrow morning should be interesting). Of course when we got home we had to look thru all her cookie prizes. She especially likes the cell phone radio.

Well, I want to finish reading my book from the library (The Spider's Web by Peter Tremayne - Mother & I have been reading his series of Celtic mysteries) so will sign off now.

Elizabeth

We are not alone!

Thanks for the news Elizabeth - I thought no one else would take us up on the invitation to join and this would end up as the Laura and Scotty page. We were glad to hear about the Ice Princesses - hope you were able to keep it all under control.

Today Laura had to work at the library so I went up to Boone by myself for our little friend Maggie's birthday party. She turned four almost two weeks ago, but didn't believe it until she had her party! So now in her mind she is officially four. There were about 7 or 8 little kids there and some of my colleagues. I had a lot of ice cream and three cupcakes. They went well with the beer.

The weather here in the foothills has been cold even for me. Laura has had the fireplace on again. Fortunately this is the way Leo and I like it so we've had fun on our walks. When we went out tonight there were great flashes of lightening, but no sound. Leo ignored it, but when we got back inside the thunder started and that made him nervous.

We are waiting to hear from Joey and Emily. They are in England and were supposed to leave yesterday but they dawdled at the hotel and missed their flight by 3 minutes. Don't know how they will get out of this fix but Laura's brother is fit to be tied. If you want to check out the blog devoted to their trip click here for Where is Joey Today. The pictures are gorgeous and Joey is an interesting writer.

Somebody tell us about Marshall and Diane's trip to Hawaii - this is the first we have heard about it. Marshall, if you read this, give us an update! This is what the blog is for: so that we can keep in touch.


That's all for tonight. Someday I will learn how to put up pictures. Got to get to bed early because I want to go to the 9:30 adult education class as church: Islamic Fundamentalism.

Disney Princesses on Ice

Well, since I finally received Scott's invite to post, I thought I would. Meghan and I just got back from Disney Precesses on Ice with her Brownie troop. I was a chaperone/driver. :) It was fun (mostly) but a long night. Picked up girls at 6:30 and did not get them back to parents until after 10:00. Then I took one of the girls home to her house so her mom wouldn't have to come back out - don't think I'm too nice - her dad does my hair and has been in the hospital for a couple weeks and is just now getting back on his feet.

I'm hoping Meghan will sleep late Saturday - at least until 8:00! I might have to get up early and put Bob (our inside/outside cat) outside so he doesn't bother us all morning.

Well, Mother's Day is Sunday. Jackie/Art will take mother to lunch Saturday so they can see his mother Sunday. Blaine and Judy are leaving early Saturday to drive to Tallahassee and help Jenifer pack up - they won't come home until Sunday. Meghan and I will probably spend Sat. night with mother so we can take her to church with us at St. Mary's. We might even try to go early enough that we can stop by McDonald's for breakfast - mother's eat free!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be expecting some more bloggers to chime in here now and then. Marshall - you will be expected to tell us all about your trip to Hawaii when you return. Maybe you could tell us when you and Diane will be going and where you will be (which island).

Gotta go so I can get in a couple games on Meghan's Webkinz account before I get too tired.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Checks in

Here's Elizabeth's c omment, moved up to the front page. Elizabeth - send me your e-mail address and I will send you the invitation to be an author. And thanks for checking this out.
Scott

"OK Scott - I finally just now heard about the site. Never got the email. I want to go to the Merlefest too! Maybe one year Meghan and I will have to come up. She and I have been enjoying our Busch Garden's passes. Every school/work day off we get we try to go - have been about 4-5 times this year. Her favorite ride is the Python - I don't know what I'll do when she decides she wants to try the bigger rides - I guess bring a friend for her to ride with. The passes are also good for Sea World and Adventure Island. We went to Sea World one time and next chance we have free we are going to try Adventure Island. I have 2 passes for 50% off Busch Gardens if someone in the family would like to use them - first come first serve. Meghan's last day of school is May 25. She has her dance recital June 4 (Sunday evening). If anyone desires tickets to see it, please let me know by May 22. It's at the performing arts center - very nice. The week of June 5 she will go to a little summer camp at St. Mary's school and then she will start back to the day care (Children's Nest). Well, will save some for later. Elizabeth"

Why don't you just go w ith her on the bigger rides? What could go wrong?

The Merlefest

It was a beautiful weekend for the MerleFest-the big bluegrass festival that is held across the creek from our front yard every year. A few years ago the Fest managers pumped $40,000 into the sound system so now we can practically hear the whole thing from our bedroom. In fact, a few years ago I was able to tell everyone that I had had Dolly Parton in the bedroom. It starts on Thursday night and goes until late Sunday afternoon. Laura says that when it stops you suddenly think you are deaf. Sunday morning as I got up I could hear Doc Watson himself singing and talking. He's about 80 now and we don't know how much longer he can go.

This year I waited until Sunday to go with my friend Rosemary, her friend Jerry and another couple. It was overcast, which made it chilly, which was the way I like it. I met Jerry and Rosemary at the sand sculpture - this time it was of bears playing musical instruments and acting silly. It was called 'The Big Bad Burly Bear Band. A blow for alliteration in everyday life.

First we all went to hear Allison Brown, whom I'd never heard of. She is a banjo player and very good. It was at one of the smaller venues so we could set up close - in fact it was hard to avoid it. After that we went to hear Pete Seeger. I thought he was dead, and had been for some years, but he is still alive and pickin' at 87. His grandson, a tall handsome man with a good voice, performed with him. Then I went off on my own to hear John Craven and his jazz band. I think I enjoyed them the most since they were funny, and very very good. Again, I was only about 25 feet from the stage on a hillside steep enough that I was looking down on the band. Later I wandered around and listened to some little bands where I could sit close and practically shake hands with the players. For the finale I sat out at the big Watson Stage, built years ago for the Fest, and listened to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. This included Mr Futureman and his amazing electronic percussion section that he wears strapped to his chest like a warped electric quitar.

Got back home, got Laura and then went off to a Mexican restaurant with the others. We were going to Monte de Rey, but the daughter of the other lady who was with us works for the health dept and advised us against it. Something about the last kitchen inspection. So we went to the other Mexican restaurant.

It was all a lot of fun. Last year the MerleFest dropped something like $14 million into the local economy. Blaine really should try to come up and see it before he gets too old and creaky. I would suggest next year.