Mickey's Debut

Last Tuesday all of the Quigleys, all four of them together for the first time in 5 months, came to our weekly gathering at the Mellow Mushroom. Maggie basked in the glory of showing off her baby brother, who seemed to enjoy the whole thing. At least he didn't pull an entire pint of beer into my lap like Maggie did when she was 9 months old and met her Uncle Scott at the Mellow Mushroom for the first time.

Several of our colleagues were there with their kids and they all had a good, though loud and frenetic, time. It was a lot of fun.

Anyone have the videos?

I mentioned that the family had an old home movie of Mother and Daddy going on their honeymoon to Williamsburg back in the last century to two of my colleagues. When they realized I was talking about home movies of the early days of the Williamsburg reconstruction they started to salivate.

I remember that years ago Blaine made of good video of the movie. It was so long ago that Marshall was just a little boy and when he saw a 20 year old Helen Case walk across the screen called out "Look! There's Aunt Beh-Bet!"

Blaine, do you or anyone else still have either the original film or the video? If anyone can put their hands on the video, could you please send me a copy of it?

Thanks.

Back from Utö

I just returned to Helsinki from our 10-day stay on the island of Utö, the site of our studio projects. It is a small place with about 50 inhabitants. Apparently it gets a lot of visitors in the summers but right now it is just locals...and us. The place is slowly trying to become a tourist destination so our projects kind of speak to that. (For more about the island, go here)

We are designing two things for the island. Our main project is a sanctuary of silence; "a non-confessional scared refuge where anyone has a chance to satisfy their need-personal or collective-for worship, meditation, or for mere silence-regardless of their religion." The complex will be near or on the old military barracks we stayed in. The second project is something we will actually go back and build in April. We are all to design a small 4 square meter pavillion on the rocks near the water. One or two will get chosen by our professor to build. I'll let you know how they both come along.

I've been putting my photos on Snapfish so if any of you would like links to view them, please give me your email addresses. I can either send you just my photos or all the ones in my group (60+ albums). Just let me know. XOXO

Our friend Maggie is reunited with her family

Last night Mary and Mickey, now 9 months old, made it in from Ireland to the Charlotte Airport. I was driving over from Winston where I had spent the afternoon and once I got on I-77 heading towards Charlotte I looked over and saw a silver gray Suburu WRX, just like Martin's car. It was too dark for me to see inside so I could not be sure. Then as I pulled in behind it I could see a little pale hand in the gloom waving to me. I knew it was Maggie.

Yes, Mickey is just as cute as all his pictures and videos. He was a bit nervous about my beard at first, but then seemed ok with me. He loves his big sister - every time she says something to him he looks right at her and smiles. When they got in the car a very tired Mickey started to cry - until Maggie sang to him. Calmed him right down.

They are going to need some time together for the next few days, though Maggie is going to continue to go to Kindergarten. If you want to read a local paper's account of it, click here. My take on it is here.

.

Look!

The comment is under Scott's concerning Mickey will be home soon!!!

For Jen

First....I posted a "comment" on Gen Lee's picture but can't find it anywhere. However I said it was way cool and looked to antique... nothing modern that I saw (which doesn't mean much).

Jen, perhaps you can email me some pictures. Your Dad not home when I am and then when he's home I'm asleep.

Photo from Gail

I've been asked to post a photo for Gail. It's of good old General "What's his Name" at Olustee.

Gail said:

"I am attaching a picture from Olustee that a UDC lady sent to me. The picture was taken at Morning Colors."

Good news from Ireland

Maggie's mother e-mailed to tell us that the State Dept in all its wisdom has decided that Mickey can come home after all. So she and Mickey will be home on Saturday.

After five and a half months and tens of thousands of dollars.

Joey's Blog

Well, guess what?! I'd been looking at "where is Joey today". Now I know better thanks to Blaine. Also it looks like Little Mikey might be home soon!

Our trip to Spain!

I forgot to write about our big news. Laura and I are going to Spain for the Spring break, 9-16 March. We will fly into Lisbon for a few days, then take an 8 hr bus trip to Sevilla where we will probably meet Joey and Emily. Then we may go to Cordoba and other day trips around the area. Should be a lot of fun. Unfortunately it means we won't be able to come to Tampa to see everybody this time.

Oh well. One must make sacrifices.

.

Events in North Carolina

Not too much bad weather. I have posted stuff over on Not Mayberry about Leo, and about Maggie's trip with us for Chinese New Year's celebration at Wake Forest. It was great fun to be there with her and Martin, her dad. She wore a gorgeous Vietnamese outfit they had bought in the Old Country. A bright read top with silk white pants - the type of outfit Judy used to wear.

Whenever the Chinese dancers did their routines she would dance along with them - she is a good mimic and loves to dance by herself. The last time we went over to her house she danced an original piece of choreography - the Crane Dance, complete with long ribbons on her arms to flutter like wings.

At the Celebration there were lots of little girls and boys in traditional Chinese dress, and a surprising number of little girls in Korean dress. Maggie though was unique in her Vietnamese outfit.

The Quigley's still have heard nothing final from the gov't but it looks like they will finally win their appeal. It is causing too much heat for the State Department and Martin thinks the masters in Washington are about to read the riot act to the folks at the American Embassy in Hanoi. I sure hope so anyway.

My other niece, Joanna Xianzhen, came to see me in my office the other day. Of course, I had to lay aside all the work I was doing to talk to her. We watched the trailers for "The Golden Compass" on the computer and talked about her Dad's book about Sam Ervin. It is making quite a splash in North Carolina. He has been on TV and radio a number of times. Joanna, who loves Harry Potter, is now referring to her Dad as Gilderoy Lockheart (a Harry Potter inside-joke).

So that is about it from the foothills of North Carolina

The Fair!

Well, we made it home from the Fair. We left about 9:15 a.m. and got home about the same time p.m. We had fun, but I think we stayed about an hour too long. Meghan was tired but just didn't want to give up. It was a Pepsi arm band day, so we each got an armband for $25 and than could ride what ever we wanted. We rode :

• both roller coasters (one of them several times),
• went in many fun houses many, many times,
• the big slide several times (I couldn't make it up the 116 steps more than 3 times but Meghan went several more times with out me),
• the tilt-a-whirl a couple times (yuck!) and she rode a couple without me,
• the sky ride,
• the swings (2x),
• a flume ride 3x and than it broke right after we got off and they had to walk the people down,
• the super-Himalayan (2x) - very painful as one person ends up squishing the other up against the side of the car,
• and her most favorite was a thing called the MoseRide. You sit in a row and it takes you up and then drops you part way down, takes you up again and drops you again. I guess it feels like someone throwing you up in the air and catching you. I did not go on this at all....but Meghan went on it about a dozen times or more.

I'm sure there were a couple other things she went on but I'm too tired to remember. We won 3 things, ate at lunch at the Food Mall (all food is $2 and drinks $1), bought fudge, corn on the cob, corn dog and cotten candy, looked at the rabbits, poultry, cows and horses.

Well, I think that about sums it up! Fun, fun, fun!!! My feet are killing me!!

Laura, Just Imagine This!

Just imagine everyone...just checked Helsinki weather report and it's 16 right now and feels like 4 but it's going to get way up to 33 tomorrow with light snow....brrrrr.
Wearing all your your hats, sweaters and coats might help, Jen.

Boo Boo

You have to click on the "snapshot" place upper right before you see the pictures.

Check Parade.com

Go to this site and look for the multiple pictures down sort of in the center. There are 2 exactly alike ( I exited out and didn't realize picture sent without anything els). The 1st one is the good one. It's Art and Avery standing in the ocean.

www.parade.com

The Adventures of Jen Continued...

The girls and I have to wake-up early tomorrow so I'll try to make this brief. Tomorrow morning we are taking a three hour bus ride + a four hour ferry to the island of Utö. We will be there to finally START our studio project. This is where the "sanctuaries of solitude" that we are designing will be located. I'll explain more later.

Anyway, last weekend we took the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia while we had time to goof around still. We were there for a couple of days and it was super-fun.

Here's a view of the city, mainly Old Town, taken from a street look-out.

I took a picture of this door because it looked like candy! Everwhere we went in Tallinn had some fabulous doors.

Here is a picture of the Russian Orthodox church at night. I don't really remember the name...

Well, I'll try to keep you all posted. Enjoy!

Address??

Would like to have Jen's address.

Beautiful day here in Tampa and have windows open.

Awaiting news from Elizabeth about Meghan and her Girl Scout camping trip to the wilds of New Port Richey...or vicinity.

Nothing to say - but a photo.

Don't really have any news to post, (I did have a birthday a week ago and am now 64) but will post a photo of Meghan that I took at Mother's on my birthday. I thought that it turned out good.

FiNLaNd!

Hi everyone! Everything is going well here in Helsinki. It has been suprisingly easy for us to get acclimated and feel comfortable with the city. (I, of course, still don't know where I'm going half the time but luckily I have 3 lovely roommates that take pity on me and drag me around) Pretty much everyone speaks at least a little bit of English. The bulk of Finland works in some kind of service-related field and because the Finnish language is so unique/difficult, knowing English is kind of a requirement.

I've been here a week and don't have too many pictures yet...Dad. These I actually took the day after we got here. Christina and I decided to go down by the water to the outdoor market and check out the goods. Tommy would be happy to know that a few of the venders specialized in those Russian-style fur hats. I will fit right in :)

This is a picture, obviously, by the water. Thankfully the sun was out when we got here, which is apparently a rare occurance in the winter. These past few winters in Helsinki have been strangely warmer-than-usual. As you can see, the sea isn't even frozen over yet.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to post when I can. Studio officially starts Monday so that might not happen for too much longer.

Hei hei!