Another Visit

Last night we spent the evening with the Gagliano/Leonard household. Carol and I made dinner. They provided the space and entertainment. Chloe was our entertainment for most of the night. At four and a half years of age, she has outgrown her hide-behind-mommy days and is ready to play. She has a very cool new swing that is attached to the doorway. She loves to spin around, swing, or both at the same time. She even invited the adults to try it out, however most of us were getting dizzy just watching her. Tom and I were content to play with the top that whirred! Oh to be young again.

This is Thatcher and Owen.


Carol and Tom. Amore!


Ellen.


Chloe in her swing. It's basically a cloth sack with a pillow in the bottom. It is a sturdy design and is available at IKEA. Get yours today!

A visit

Last night we visited the house of Prudich the Elder. There we enjoyed dinner with the whole family and friends. Seeing Phil and Stacey here in Athens was a real treat. We got to catch up without the chaos of frisbee, which is the only venue we've seen them since last March. Zachary was a doll as well. He told me that he is prepared to take over the dynasty of OU Ultimate when his time comes. What a great kid.

This is Zachary. Looks ready for frisbee to me.

Stacey, Phil, Lori and Kent.

The Prudiches had the coolest ornament which did not escape our notice. I made Kent take a picture of it. It had a button that when pressed, vader said "Obi-wan has taught you well. But you are not a Jedi yet." Craaashh, woomp. Oh yeah and the light saber lights up too. It's almost as cool as the piggy bank Tim gave us that says pretty much the same thing.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!





Jeff was right at home with his new remote controlled helicopter!






Kyle and his GreatGrandmother....

Merry Christmas!

Lori and I spent the holiday in Cincy and then returned home today, after dinner at Nonna's (Lori's Grandmother's house).

We had a great time visiting with family, catching up, eating yummy food and cracking jokes. It wasn't easy watching the Browns suck as they lost to the Bengals....while in a room full of Cincinnati natives.

I hope that you enjoy the quick post.

Friday was filled with a fun visit to see Roy, Tiff and Hazel. Santa brought us Joy & Otto late that night as well. Un-be-known to me, Otto and Joy were driving north from Atlanta to see family/friends. They knocked on Roy's door at 11:30 at night, and I thought, "who the heck is that knocking on your door at this hour, in this neighborhood?"

We hope to put more photos up from the weekend.

Duane and Fisher Ray.

These are some photos we took when we were out in the country with Duane and Fisher Ray. We tried to put them up before but the computer gods were uncooperative. Duane lives out in the country, so I think this was taken on the way there. We visited just after Halloween. It was a beautiful autumn day.

Fisher and I were carving pumpkins.


This is a pumpkin bat.

Saturday news

We traveled to exciting Covington, KY yesterday to meet up with a young man to purchase a used lens for our Canon Camera. After we bought the lens we went down to the river front and took some shots of the city. The new lens is a wide angle so Kent was lovin' the landscape shots that the city skyline offered.

This is my nephew kyle with his grandma.


Kyle.

It's official!

Kent was inaugurated into the Athens city council yesterday. It was a momentous occasion. The paparazzi were there, even a special presidential candidate honored us with her presence. Here is Kent taking the oath.

The crazy Athens paparazzi. I have to look my best now that I am in the public eye. Everyone is going to want to know what the first lady of the first ward is wearing, you know.



Who knew she had a sense of humor.

Happy winter solstice. The days are getting longer now!!!

In case you are wondering...

Santa ain't going nowhere this year. Looks like Blitzen, Donner and all the others garden-eating bastards got their due.

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

This is for all you ba humbugs out there! If you click on the photo to make it bigger, then you really get a good shot of the Grinch's nostrils. It's quite evil looking.

No Impact

Check out these websites.

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

http://sfcompact.blogspot.com

They profess having less impact on the earth. Most of you know me as a treehugging-hippy liberal, so I won't try to disquise these posts as something else. I want you to think about what you consume, where it comes from, and where it goes. And you all know that I usually don't shove this sort of thing down your throat, so consider this some obligatory reading, if you are interested.

Oh yeah, one more. it's really informative.

the story of stuff

Sunday

Well, it didn't quite reach 60 degrees today. maybe 40 if we're lucky. But it doesn't matter because the rain has been relentless. We even heard thunder earlier today, which is unusual for December, don't you think.

Kent and I attended 2 basketball games this past week. We watched the men beat St. Bonaventure and Delaware. Both games were somewhat close in the first half, but then OU came out strong in the second and dominated. Which is good, because that means they can play through and finish. As long as they don't dig themselves a deep hole in the first half. Of course, we'll have to see them against some good competition to see how they really measure up. Though, I don't know if they play anyone of consequence prior to the MAC season.

Not that any of it matters until the MAC tournament because the MAC only gets one stinkin' bid to the NCAA, so you need to win that to go anywhere. Which is ridiculous, but I won't rant about that right now.

It's Snowing!

Yeppers! We are getting a good snow. Too bad it's going to be in the 40's on Friday and 60's on Sunday.

It has been snowing all morning and afternoon. There is about an inch and it is sticking. Of course the schools around here closed. They freak at the sight of a flake. Plus those buses go on some pretty nasty back roads. I guess it's all for the safety of the kids. It's very pretty. I love the sight of fresh snow. Definitely looks like winter (for now).

Tree time

We decorated Carol's tree again this year. She gets a tree from her sister's land in the country, so these trees are getting bigger and bigger every year. We hack off some here and part of the tree there, but it's starting to take up the whole room no matter what we do. That's part of the challenge. I don't know if you can see it in these pictures, but there are popcorn strings on the tree that we strung 3 years ago. It's holding up well. Plus, I don't thing we want to string it again. We would rather pop it in Carol's whirlypopper (I think that is what it's called) and then eat it!