Money Can't Buy Me Love

This is from the Citizens Against Government Waste website. It only takes a couple of minutes to help stop the massive government spending spree that will only pile additional debt on future generations of Americans. Pelosi and her gang in the House of Representatives have already passed a massive so-called "economic stimulus" bill and the Senate version is even worse. Tell your U.S. Senators that you oppose this huge fraud by visiting the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste's web site, www.ccagw.org, to send a letter today.

Just DO this! Click here.

Daniel, snowman and Margie

Over the Christmas Break, we went to Keystone to go snow-skiing. Here is some living proof that even though I've been in Florida for 32 years, I can still build a snowman!! (With Daniel's help of course) Not bad for a Florida boy!!

Get Ready

The big Ravens-Steelers rematch is tomorrow nite and we are ready! This means wearing purple all week, accumulating lots of food, and tweaking the TV.

Most of you have only recently been introduced to Digital TV...thanx to all those annoying ads about what may happen if you don't buy a converter, which are really suggestions that you should buy expensive cable or fiber optic service. Tom and I, on the other hand, have been playing around with it for a couple of years. With the help of a special antenna and a couple of amplifiers we have great "seats".


(Yes, some of the equipment is in the laundry room, Rose has always been a good sport about this stuff.)

Everybody hereabouts agrees that these are the two best teams in the NFL, so this is practically our Super Bowl. Go Ravens!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The wind chill is -2 here this morning!

I'll spare you my standard "Al Gore rant", but I am hoping that we can soon put an end to all the global warming nonsense.

Here is one of dozens of great editorials from Investor's Business Daily on the subject.

Everything's Cool

Meanwhile, the New York morning shows are gushing over what they must think is the perfect story. They love to relive 9-11...and yesterday's plane crash into the Hudson River was a great sequel...with no loss of life and no bad guys.

If this had happened anywhere else in the country they would be screaming for new measures to protect Canada Geese from those nasty airliners. Why, look what we're doing to the poor things right here in Maryland.

Geese Gassed

Help!

Does anybody know what this is? It IS Tupperware....but, what is its purpose?


I have four of these things....probably bought them at a yard sale.
Dimensions: 3-1/4 long, 1-inch square opening at the top, tapers a little at the bottom. What would YOU use it for?

New York, New York

Beth and I are headed to New York today. This is a genealogy/history research trip. We plan to visit Ellis Island and hopefully walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Teresa is meeting us...well, actually we are throwing ourselves at her, needing some serious guidance on how to get around!

Here's a few pictures.

Purple Haze

Today is Purple Friday in Baltimore, to rally the Ravens in Sunday's playoff game. Tom Jr investigated making the trip, but the air fares to come home Sunday nite...the end of the holiday week...were waaayyy too expensive.

Auld Lang Syne

Time to take a long look back....at last week.

Here's some pictures at our house on Christmas Day.

New luggage for Beth...not that we're trying to move her out or anything....

Rosie is excited about her new power tools.
If she can't figure out what to use them for, we'll help her.
I can tell that Maureen wishes she got something that cool.

Tom can't seem to get too excited about much.
He's got all his sports teams covered though.

In the Midnight Hour...

...I'll most likely be asleep!




We're gonna have some steamed shrimp early in the evening, then call it a night. Lovin that Twilight Zone marathon, though.

Come Together

I'm posting some of the highlights of our Christmas Holiday over the next few days.

Christmas Eve we joined up with Ed & Keri for Ed's traditional Polish dinner. Quite a feast, including pierogies, golabki, kielbasa. Before dinner we shared the oplatek ((Christmas wafer), and afterwards we exchanged some gifts and the kids treated us to a little variety show.

Do That...One More Time

After reviving the blog to tell our Grand Canyon story, I kinda let it die last summer, but with all the activities and visits the past week or so, I thought I would try to get back into it.



The big news here is that the Ravens, predicted to be a rebuilding team this year, made the playoffs by beating the Jags yesterday (decisively, I might add). Beth and I lucked into some 50-yard line tickets for face value (with a parking pass!). Tom went too with his friend Mark.


We checked in with the Oriole Bird before the game. After all, Spring Training is only six weeks off!

A Horse........of Course

Tom, Beth, and my nephew Ross all had a special Fourth of July...riding a horse that my next door neighbor had over for the day.

(My neighbor is a former jockey who won the Preakness in 1983).


What more could you ask for...parades, pony rides, a cookout, fireworks. Despite a little rain off and on we had a great time. The fireworks were "the best ever"!

Rosie and I passed on the horseback riding. Here we are earlier at the Catonsville Parade.

Mid-Hike at the Oasis

Day 3 it was time to head back up -- We started out around 6 AM from the Bright Angel Campground, next to the river, and hiked to Indian Gardens...about 4.5 miles, and an altitude increase of 1300 ft.

The only rough part was a nasty set of switchbacks called the Devil's Corkscrew.

You can see part of it here zigzagging up from the bottom center of the photo.











Fortunately, shortly after that we arrived at a shady spot by a creek where we could rest and chat with other hikers for awhile, comparing notes on where we were hiking from (and to), hometowns, and experiences on the trail.














Along here we also started to see the warning signs to downhill hikers.




We arrived at the campground about 10:30, and spent the afternoon "chillin"!

Last Dance

Tom played his last game in the Catonsville Parks and Recreation League tonite...after thirteen seasons. He'll be 18 in September, and thus becomes ineligible for the kid leagues.

Despite that crippling knee injury a month ago, he caught two games in a row in the championship playoffs, which the team sealed up tonite with a 24-1 win.


Thought you might like to see his "rookie" card from 1996 when he first started T-ball.

Let's Hear It For the Boy(s)

We brought back some souvenirs for my grandsons, so we met up with them for breakfast this morning...they have pretty busy schedules with about sixteen birthday parties to go to every weekend, so we had to catch them early. Evan got a caribiner gizmo with a compass, watch, and flashlight and Eric got a stuffed mule...who looked much happier than the real mules, since he wasn't carrying a load of mail or or cranky tourists.

Please Mr. Postman

We camped two nites at Bright Angel Campground, near Phantom Ranch.
Guests, supplies, and even the US Mail, come in to the Ranch by mule.




















On Day Two, we hiked towards the north rim, but only about a mile or so, just to keep loose. Here's a few pictures in and about the ranch.

Homeward Bound

We're at the Phoenix Airport, waiting to board the airplane for Baltimore. Loaded up on a bunch of food for the flight, but I think mostly everyone will be sleeping. Hate to leave, but looking forward to getting home too.

UPDATE:

Got home a little after 1 AM. Flight was a little bumpy, but we got in early...special thanx to Josh's Mom for coming out to the airport to get us in the middle of the night.

I'll post some more pictures and stories about the trip over the next few days.

On The Road Again

We're back in Williams, Arizona, where we had a delicious steak dinner last nite, then ice cream at the Dairy Queen. (Josh went for a buffalo burger...it was good, too).







Back at the motel we went thru all our pictures, and relived a lot of the hike. Here are a few highlights from the first day.






















This afternoon we head back to Phoenix for the flight home.

Happy Trails

We started out at 5:20 this morning for the final hike out. (Yesterday we were kind of embarrassed, we were almost the last ones out of camp...at 6 AM. ). After an hour hike, we're stopping for breakfast at the 3-mile point.  Lots of conflicting thoughts, want to hurry to beat the heat, but want to linger to continue enjoying everything.

UPDATE:

We reached the top just after 1030 AM. The last mile was loooong, definitely feeling the effects of the high altitude! We treated ourselve to a Coke and an ice cream cone, called home, and exchanged email addresses with fellow hikers. After hot showers at the motel we're gonna have a big steak dinner.


Scroll down to see some pictures I added.