September 4, 2007

It's been about 4 weeks since my last post. A quick apology to my regular readers for being so tardy. I'll try to be more timely in future posts, but I am not optimistic. Life is just a bit too busy for regular postings. This will be a longer post but sans pictures.

In late August I took a trip to Corning, NY for Gram's memorial service. While there were a few sad moments, it was great to see everyone there and we did a pretty good job of celebrating her life. She had a truly spectacular life and in her earlier life, she was a simply a ball of fire and fun to be around.

While celebrating her life, we made a few new great memories. In no particular order, some of the highlights were:

1. Installing a railing in Donna and Paul's house to help Buppa navigate the stairs. It was a learning experience. Fun too, right Paul. Only two trips to The Home Depot.

2. Watching a slide show on Paul and Donna's back porch projected on to a large white sheet/screen with an mishmash of electronic equipment.

3. Eating a fabulous lunch with friends and family and watching Pop's slide show of Gram's life at a great restaurant following a perfect memorial service in Bath, NY.

4. Drinking some of Bob's 150 year-0ld (or at least really really old) Irish Whiskey. Not enough ohs in smooth to describe it.

5. A couple of plates of some Noodles and Beans. 'Nuff said.

6. John and Mary's Royal subs fresh from the original store. Thanks Pops! Man I could use one right now.

7. Buffalo chicken Pizza. We can't get that in TN.

8. Cold Beer. Lot's of it.

9. Rebecca and Julie's birthday celebration.

10. Drinking a beer with Buppa and watching the double rainbow form after a fast moving storm moved through Corning. Some would comment that the storm and rainbow could only be a sign from Gram, perhaps signaling her approval of the festivities.

11. Mike's double eulogy of Gram. He simply needed 2 turns to cover it all.

12. Ma freezing me the first night in the hotel when she turned the thermostat to 24 degrees below zero and I only had a sheet. At least the price was right.


Well, that's about all from the trip to NY. I may or may not post pix from the trip at a later time.

Since the trip to NY, Nick has played a couple of more football games, won them and scored a couple of touchdowns. Sarah has started softball and tonight she simply dominated the game. In one inning she made all three outs and hit a 3 run home run, ensuring a victory. I've not been to one of her soccer practices yet, but rumor has it that she is doing well there too.

I started shooting photos for a national photography company part time shooting sporting events that will go into the kids high school yearbooks. So far I've covered a golf match and a big high school football game between 2 local state champions. Later this week, I'll cover a volleyball match and some more football.

We spent the night in Gatlinburg over the Labor day weekend with Yvonne's family and the kids played in a mountain stream for a while while we grilled some brats. Later, we ate out and then played some mini golf and laser tag. The next day, Nick and I went to a haunted house and then we swam for a while before heading back to Knoxville.