An attorney friend of mine

said recently, beware of things sold through infomercials.

The Sun

While wandering the web, I found an interesting photo essay about the sun. It consists of 21 or so pictures with descriptions about solar activity. Below is one of the pictures.




The whole photo essay can be found here. Some really hot pictures. There is even a photo animation of what happens to a comet during a period of extreme high solar wind.

Two in one day

Especially after not posting for a month, I am posting two in one day.

I had to go on a business trip to Northern NJ, so I brought K along. K had never been to NYC so I thought that this would be a great opportunity. K and I drove from our hotel, down to the NJ docks and took the ferry over from NJ to Midtown.


From there, K and I walked to the Empire State Building. We walked around it, but the line was 2+ hours wait, so we did not go up. But here is K at the Empire State Building:


Then we wandered back to 7th Ave and found the Macy's. This is for all the shoppers out there (A, C and others.):


We wandered around in Time Square for a bit, going into the Hershey Chocolate shoppe and the M and M building. I got K to pose for a picture with the M and M:


I also saw a poster on one of the walls in Time Square that reminded me of a young woman in my life. So I took a picture for her, A this is for you:


We then went on a 3 hour Circle Line tour. It was nice to see NY from a different point of view. As we went by the Statue of Liberty, it was moving and impressive. As if there are not enough pictures of the SoL, here is my take from the Circle Line tour boat:


Then, after taking the ferry back across the Hudson, the night scape of NYC is fantastic. At the right of the below picture is the Empire State building. It is a glorious place to visit and a great place to leave.



We also visited Ground Zero, but it is busy with construction of the new building. We got to GZ too late for us to view the Memorials, etc, but the area was still impressive. One of the things that struck K was how there were sooooooooooo many really big buildings.

We lunch and dinner at some corner restaurants in "Hell's Kitchen". There we had some good Greek and Italian food.

K and I had a great time in NYC, but were very tired when we left. It was a day well spent, just touching the fringes of the culture and sights of NYC.

It has been too long, part 2

It has been a month since my last post. Not much has really happened, other than me traveling a bunch. As I was in western PA a couple of weekends ago, I stopped in to see a bunch of the relatives. They were not overly chatty, but I was glad to see them anyway.
Mom's Stone:


LFD and Aunt Nell's


AJ and UK's stone:


Grandma and Pop's Stone:


And we (K ws with me) finally found ALS's stone. I was looking in the wrong section. First the marker up close:


And now a picture showing better where ALS is located:

My pants in the picture above were covered in dirt as I did some minor weeding as a couple of the sites. Sorry about that.

A's new condo

A while ago, I suggested that A had moved into a Condo at school It is a 4 BR, 2 BA condo set up specifically for college students. There is not a master bedroom or master suite. It is a workable 4 BR condo. The place is a two story unit, up one level from ground.

Each BR is about 10x12 and is upstairs. As they are all girls, the AC bill is not bad, but we will see what the heat bill brings in the winter. A's BR window is the one with the blind partially open in the top of the below picture. A knew several people already before moving in, so it worked out nice.

Rain - the storms

Last week, them remnants of Hurricane Fay dumped 6+ inches of rain in our area. Some of our friends, with rain gauges in their yards measured 13 inches. It really depended on which bands of rain passed overhead. Our friends in Atlanta were also glad to get the rain, filling up their reservoits. Any way you look at it, the drought that we were having is off the daily news shows, at least for now.

With Hurricane Gustav heading toward LA, please pray for my friend BP and his family as they evacuated NOLA ahead of this storm. He will be heading back to NOLA on Wed or Thurs to assess any damages. Although his house was without power for 3 weeks after Katrina, he experienced none of the flood damages. I pray for his safety this time as well.

It appears that Tropical Storm Hanna is on track for arrival here next weekend. The current forecast puts her at about Greenwood, SC on Friday at about 8PM, meaning Saturday and Sunday will be wet around here. That is if things do not change.

For our Anniversary

I decided it would be fun to take K off to a Ruth's Chris Steak House. K had the Petite Fillet, with Mashed potatoes and a salad, I had the Three Combo, Small Fillet, Crab Cake and Roasted Free Range Chicken with Sauteed Mushrooms and a Gumbo. For desert we had Cheesecake and Creme Brulee.

Everytihing was prepaired perfectly. The steaks were tender with a great flavor, the chicken and crab nicely seasoned.

It was a great way to spend the evening, especially our 26 Anniversary. Thanks K for putting up with me all these years.

For the Nerds

I ran across this while looking for something else on the web, but it explains a bit about the new CERN Particle Accelerator over in Switzerland and France in a way that will reach a bunch of folks. I thought it was a great way to do this.



I know some of what they talk about, but my sister CP probably knows way more. "The Higgs" is what is called a Higgs bosson, thought to create gravity. The statement Gravity is weaker than weak refers to the Weak force.

If you go here, you can see some really cool pictures of CERN. Some of them look like sets from Star Wars, like this:

All of us

As I have not been in a picture recently, I thought I would post this one. It is all of us at K's wedding.

Interesting Picture

In southern Ohio, between Dayton and Cincinnati, just off Interstate 75 sits a statue. It is about 45-50 feet tall and about as wide. It is a bust statue of Jesus. The most interesting thing about this statue is the pose.

Jesus is looking to heaven, arms out stretched, beseeching God for wisdom. Really just normal for a statue of Jesus.... or is it.













Is Jesus refereeing a football game amongst the Disciples????



This statue is commonly called Touchdown Jesus by the locals. Cannot imagine why.

C has a new room

C moved into school last week. As noted, she is an RLA (Residential Life Advisor). This means that she is a first line go to person when someone on her hall is having a bad day, whether school, emotionally or other.

Here is C in front of her dorm.



Here is a picture of her room, at least her half. The hutch on the back of her desk should look familiar as it is the one that A used last year. It fit perfectly on C's desk.



As RLA, C and her fellow RLA's were responsible for various bulletin boards through out her hall. This is one just outside her room (and across the hall from the Hall Mom (?))



At the end of her hall is the "lounge" where there is a TV, some "This End Up" furniture and a place to just hang out.



So far, C has been quite busy and enjoying seeing old friends as well as making new friends with the incoming students.

C's new room mate seemed very nice.

As promised....

Here are some images from our recent trip to southern Ohio. Unfortunately, the camera I was using created problems, focusing on the wrong things, so many of my pictures are horribly out of focus. I am posting the ones that turned out ok.

This first one is one of A and C as taken by their cousin L, 5 years old.


Here is one of A and L



This is one of A and C



This is K, A and C



Here is K holding her grand nephew T.



I am bummed about my camera.

Our House, our life

Is now very quiet and the drama level has decreased significantly, at least for me.

C was delivered to school last Sunday at 9 PM so she could go through RA training. It started Monday and will continue through Friday. The Juniors move in Saturday AM beginning at 9AM. Both K and I are volunteering to help during the move in process.

A has also moved into her new digs. She is hanging pictures and arranging her room. She got to meet and have lunch with her Pharm Mentor today. The Mentor said that 1st year was not as difficult as year 2. 1st year has Bio-Chemistry as the hard class, but it is only one class out of 16 hours. 2nd year has 20 hours both semesters, so the work load goes up significantly. There are also no Humanities/Social Science classes to lighten the load, all science classes with many labs to be done.

K is really busy right now doing 3 projects things. First, she is sewing a dress for A and her sorority. Everyone must have the same dress, to be sewn by the various people and it is giving K fits. The fabric is inexpensive (read cheap) and ravels easily, giving K many frustrations.

Then, for A's new apartment, K is sewing curtains for the window in A's BR. Not a big deal, but it is another project.

Third, K is still helping C with her gold award project. C is about half way done, and needs to go to the local quilt guild meeting Thursday evening to help with the progress.

There is much work for me to do too. I am working on work work and project around the house. Photo's soon.

Last Weekend

There were going to be pictures of last weekend here along with witty posts, etc, but in reviewing my camera, the images were mostly blurry because of camera issues. I will post what I have tomorrow.

It is going to be a busy week

We are getting both kids ready for their various schools.

A came home asking to go shopping for stuff for her new place. We bought the beginnings of food, some stuff for the house, shelf paper, but the best is yet to come. Wednesday AM we pick up some furniture for her bedroom and deliver it to her new residence. Then there will be the requisite shopping trip for room and home set-up. She will be living off campus, so must have nearly a complete home set-up. I will also get A's Futon repaired as she had broken a couple of welds on the support wire. I wish I had a little MIG welder set-up to fix it, but will need to pay someone to do it.

C on the other hand will be delivered to school a week from Monday. She is an RLA and they report on Sunday. However, we will be on the way back from Wilmington, OH as the family attends the nuptials planned. She got special arrangements to be a day late. So K and C went shopping today for school stuff and of course a new dress to wear to to the nuptials. C will also want to do more shopping this week. Having finished her volunteer work her evenings are free.

I, on the other hand, will be going to Franklin, VA on Monday evening to be in the paper mill on Tuesday AM. After the work at the paper mill, I will be traveling about 45 minutes north to visit BW and KW. Then home from there to deliver the furniture on Wed AM.

Thursday is a breather day, then off to the wedding on Friday AM through the weekend. It will be great to see everyone. Look for pictures either over the weekend or Monday of next week.

Summer is coming to an end

Just after KF's wedding, school activities start for us. The Monday after the wedding, C goes back as she is part of the orientation committee to welcome incoming Juniors, so they have to be there a week early. Planning events to prevent many of the new students from getting home sick and adjusting to a harder curricula.

A on the other hand will be moving into a condo next week, but commuting between here and there until Pharmacy School orientation starts the week after.

Around here, peace will come very soon.

This one is cute

I saw this video on youtube and thought it was cute. Hope your day is a good one.

It has been a weekend

Sorry for the long delays in posting. Everyone here has been busy with life, I guess like everywhere else.

C is getting close to completing her volunteer work at the library. For School, she needed to volunteer 60 hours this summer at a non-profit facility. She tried to get many different opportunities, but the library was the only one to respond. Even they were hesitant. But the other day, her supervisor said; "When your 60 hours are up, you cannot leave. You are here permanently." Why, you might ask. Because she shows up with a good attitude, does the work assigned cheerfully, and dresses appropriately for the place, (not like most teenagers). Way to go C.

C is also about half way done toward her GS Gold award. She has about 60 hours of leadership in, but the project is only about 50% done. It will get done, but it will probably be completed when she gets back to school.

A is working at Duke Hospital as a Pharmacy Tech. This week she got 48 hours due to many vacations. She even postponed a vacation she wanted to take to work some extra hours. He boss called her aside and told her she too was doing a great job according to the others that work with her. Specifically the Pharmacists have told her boss about the extra things she does. Why, you might ask: Because she shows up on time, does the assigned work cheerfully, pitches in doing other things not required, with a good attitude.

K is helping C with the GS Gold Award project. Because it is a sewing type project, and K is our resident sewing expert, she is helping C correct many of the issues created by other people that apparently cannot follow printed directions. Difficult things like making a 1/4 inch seam allowance 1/4 inches (not 3/8 or more), and using the right side of the piece.

I have been in car maintenance mode this weekend. Today was fix the shifter and install new front struts on A's car, yesterday was troubleshoot and repair a smog system on C's car, then help my next door neighbor move a heavy piece of equipment (1200 pounds) from his house to a shop in High Point, about 10 miles away. I also did some research on HD radios as C wants to put one in her car.

Earlier this week, I got a chance to stop by and see MEH up in MD. As always, it was great to see her and to again get caught up on the various facets of both of our lives. And she has the cutest new puppy, a Jack Russell terrier named Lorelai, that is just adorable. Not enough to make me want one, but still really cute.

It is not this bad, yet

I find that I am doing more travel by air these days and these flights are getting more and more crowded. Good for the airlines but not so much fun for the traveler. Many people will disagree with my Airline of choice, Southwest, but they go where I need to go on a schedule that fits my travel plans.

However some airlines have begun charging for various things. Here is one parody that I found funny.



It is not this bad, yet.

Super Hero

C has a summer job at summer day camp for kids and adults with mental and physical handicaps, providing activities for them during the time when not in school. She has been doing this for 4 years as a paid member of the staff and for 8 years in total. She enjoys the campers and the staff, so will probably continue doing this for several more years as it is 7 weeks for 35 hours per week, 9-3. She is liked and appreciated by the campers and staff because she shows up on time, anticipates needs, works hard and has a great attitude.

Friday was costume dress up day for the staff and C went as Superwoman. She had the red cape, blue body suit, etc and she looked great. The staff and campers always have a great time with these types of things as it provides some break from the routine.

One of the younger campers was really fascinated with C's superwoman costume and the following exchange occurred:

Youth (Y): Are you really able to fly?
C: Not yet, but I am working on it.
Y: Do you have any other super powers?
C: Like you, I am in school learning how to use them properly. I am in Super Hero school during the year when you are at school too.
Y; Really, what are they teaching you.
C Well the next lesson is on my X-ray vision, but, it will be a while before I get than one perfected. Remember, I am a Super Hero in training.

With that last exchange, the other counselor with C burst out laughing. That caused C to get slightly embarrassed, but also laughed really hard as well.

Unfortunately it also rained Friday so pictures could not be made, but C looked cute in her Superwoman costume. That is my Super Hero in Training.