Meghan's Wish List

Well, I am going to post this, although I think it is a living piece of work and continually growing. I will print in it's entirity although there are some things that have already been purchased. I will not say what they are or remove them from the list in case she decides to read this. I have drawn a line to denote what I prefer her NOT to get (those under the dotted line). Some things she found in a catalog and I'm not really sure what they are. If you want to know what has already been purchased just send me an email. For those that want to give gift cards, she likes Claire's, Build-A-Bear, Limited Too, the Hello Kitty stores (don't know the names but there is one at Internation Mall and a new one at Westshore Mall). For those who like to purchase clothes, she is wearing size 8 (pants are tricky because of her long legs). Again, I will request "NO STUFF ANIMALS" - other than that, anything or nothing is fine. I look forward to having everyone at my house again this year.

Meghan’s Christmas List
I-Pod
Mini Archery Set-with extra arrows
Hello Kitty Eye Glass Case
Heelies size 5 (black w/pink or any of them w/pink)
Pin Art
Bratz Forever Diamonds-Cloe
Hannah Montanna CD
Knitting Machine
Moon Shoes- in purple
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I-Cat
Musical Limbo Mania
All Surface Swingball
Fun Roller
Matallic Stilts
Sport Disk
Pretend and Play Office
Fun Ride with 35 foot cable

Our North Carolina Thanksgiving

Laura and I drove up to Boone for Thanksgiving with our friends William and Katheryn. They are both good cooks and William always has some fine wine for us. The food is always good and they have wonderful little Shelty dogs and two Persian cats that Laura loves to visit with.

Today we just sat around the house, walked the dog, and did our grocery shopping. It has been unusually warm the last two days. I am almost through with school and am already acting as if I were on my sabbatical. I'd better start thinking of ways to make myself productive.

Blaine, can you show me how to use a scanner and put up some pictures of my own? And I want to look at Elizabeth's camera and how she does it.

We are busy thinking of our Christmas wish list. We expect to see everyone's up on the blog soon. For the moment all I can think of is a gift certificate to Borders or Barnes and Noble and a nice bottle of brandy. But I am sure I can do better than that!

We now have the new heat pump installed and it is so much quieter and efficient than the old one. I expect it to use a lot less electricity. Laura is just glad it is warm in here again and that the heating seems to be so much more consistant from room to room. So we have a new roof and a new heat pump. There must be some other big ticket item about to break or fall apart.

We will be down your way before much longer.

Thanksgiving

I'll post a few photos from Thanksgiving at the Judy and Blaine Jessee home. Jenifer was not here and had stayed in St. Louis. She and some of the other students were going to eat over at a professor's house. She was making green bean casserole. Mother , Jackie and Art, Elizabeth and Meghan, Marshall and Diane came for dinner along with Judy’s family (Day, Du and Xuan, Tram and Andy.) Thomas and Gail came by with Gail’s Mother but they had already eaten. I did a turkey and we had the usual dishes to go with it. We had Judy’s noodles and of course the traditional Thanksgiving day egg rolls.

The next is of Judy with her sister and husband. I found out that when he lived in Bulgaria, he was in Burgas, an industrial city on the Black Sea between Romaina and Turkey.

Now for a photo of Mother and Thomas on the "Sam Case bench".

This last one is of the "kids" playing outside. It's hard to beleive that Tram is two years plus older than Meghan.

Me and Mark Twain

A few weeks ago I put up a portrait of Mark Twain on my office door. Yesterday a student who had come in for a make up exam looked at it for a moment and then said, "Dr Jessee, what were you thinking when that picture was taken?"

I was thinking I look like Mark Twain.

Me and the Monks

I wrote in 'Not Mayberry' that I was thinking of going to a monastery for a retreat in January. I made up my mind and booked a week at the Abbey of the Holy Cross in Berryville. It is a mile or two north of Route 7 on the banks of the Shennandoah River. I'll stay there from Monday 8 Jan til Friday 9 Jan. It is unstructured, so I can do anything I want. I get a little room with a bathroom, a bed, a table, reading chair and a lamp. That's about it. We can attend all the services with the monks if we wish, but since that involves getting up at 3 am I may think about that for awhile. I could probably do it since we are supposed to go to bed at 7:30 pm. Might turn me into a morning person yet. There is a small library and we can walk as much as we want on the grounds.

It should be something completely different.

Finally, we have heat again

Actually, this is more to Laura's benefit than mine. I kinda like getting up to 55 degree temps. About three weeks ago our heat pump died. Since it is as old as the house, over 30 years, it was time to get a new one. Laura did all of the calling around, got bids, and did the negotiating. Her brother Munchie gave some useful advice on heat pumps and prices.

Today, bright and early, the work crew showed up with the new Trane heat pump and installed it. Laura has been luxuriating in having plenty of heat again. For the last three weeks we have been spending a lot of time in the tv room with Leo in front of our gas fire place. We have a little heated blanket that Leo loves to sleep on. The cats sleep on Laura. And I can tolerate the cold. But it is getting colder and will get colder yet, so it was time to get some heat.

But Laura has promised me I can turn the heat down as low as I want at night.

Messages from North Carolina

Some of you have been reading our adventures on the Not Mayberry page, or at least my adventures with Maggie and Leo. Laura is going to up the ante by offering to take the little girls she teaches piano for out to a movie to give their poor mother a rest. There are four of them! Ages 11, 9, 6 and 3. The mother is pregnant with number 5, apparently a boy. But they are cute little girls and reasonably well behaved. So, Elizabeth, if you think it is funny to read about me trying to conduct a conversation with Maggie, stay tuned! Fortuntately the oldest three are perfectly bilingual.

Last night Laura and I went to the Christmas lights festival in North Wilkesboro. It was fun, but no big deal. It seems that there are fewer and fewer people at it each year. It was not very cold last night. I met Laura at the library when she got off work and then walked around for a bit. We went into the art gallery since it was having a big reception for their artist of the week. He was actually still working on one of his paintings, a huge portrait in oils. Reminded me a bit of watching Chris Clark work.

Marshall, if you have been wondering why you didn't get your summer/birthday savings bond it is because the post office kept returning it. I must have given a bad address to the bank. I have it now, and will give it to you when we see you at Christmas time.

We are planning on leaving here on the 21rst of Dec and staying until the 29th or 30th. We'll see everyone then, I hope.

I think that this year it might be a good idea for everyone to put their Christmas 'wish list' up on the blog, so we don't keep running to Elizabeth for hints as to what everyone wants. I'll put mine up in a week or so! Just to get started you understand.

Blaine - I got the article you sent and it was exactly what I wanted. Thanks. I'll try the Berryville place first.

Just a quick picture post.

Jackie had gotten after me because I said that I had a photo of Sterling and Diane and their girls and she hadn't seen it, or even known that I had it. Since there may be others interested here it is.

Not the “Pig Pen” photos!

Yes, some of the ever popular little barn in the woods. Since many of you (will at least one) have asked for more of my photo collection, and have failed to give me any direction as to what they would like, I have made my own decision. Since I do have a plethora of photos of this farm landmark, I picked it. (See Scott someone besides you can use big words and since I now have spell check I am no longer afraid to do so.) My photos of the “pig pen” have always been in great demand. Such as the view from the north, the view from the west, the view from the field, and the very popular view from the south east. Enjoy.

Halloween

This year at Meghan's school, the 3rd graders' costumes had to be a charactor from a book they had read. Meghan chose Charlotte from "Charlotte's Web". We had to get creative because I couldn't find a spider costume. Luckily Target saved the day with a spider decoration that I sewed elastic to like a backpack and some leggings with silver spider webs. She went trick-or-treating with a friend in the friend's neighborhood and got lots of good candy which I have already gone thru and decided that 1/2 of what she got will be going back to work with me (not to share with anyone but for me to eat - chocolate helps relieve the stress!).