Category: Uncategorized

Edward: Yeah, it was back in 1969 on a farm in upstate New York.500,000 people….. and there were no computers or Internet, we had to go outside and play!!

So over the last few days my wife has scanned and posted old photos from her grandmother to Facebook. Her grandmother was born in 1888 and most of the pictures are from 1910 to 1930. Most of them we had no idea what the pictures were of, but the amazing Paul Schopp has identified many for us. Here are a few of the pictures of ships! Read More

.Der Bär spricht die Wahrheit!!! The Bear speaks the truth and it has haunted me for many many years!! (I had to go to Babelfish to write that by the way) So here’s the story, to graduate from the University of Florida and receive my BA in Political Science, I needed a year of a language. What ever made me think I could handle the German language, I don’t know. Maybe I thought that the ghosts of my ancestors on my father’s side, who all came from Germany, would come to me in the middle of the night and by morning I could speak like a native – not! Anyway, for someone who hates English grammar, can’t diagram a sentence if his life depended on it, German is not a great language to study. With der, die,and das, changing with direct and indirect objects,and verbs that split and part of it moves to the end of the sentence, (what;s up with that!) I was quickly lost. Well, not quickly because I did make it through the first semester, but that was because my roommate was taking the class with me and we studied together. But then, he didn’t take the second semester – that’s when I was quickly lost!! So rather than struggle through and feel stupid, I took the easy road and dropped the class! Unfortunately, that was my last semester at school, so the only way that I could get my degree was to take the class via correspondence. (this was in the days before on-line classes)   At least I didn’t have to feel stupid in front of a teacher, and I could actually not feel stupid at all because I could just put off doing the work!! I had more important stuff to do, I had a girlfriend to be with!! Read More

Will and Barb – We’ll Continue Your Fight!

New readers to this blog may look at the top of the right sidebar and question, why are there two Lung Cancer organizations posted with requests for donations. The reason is that back in January of this year my son’s brother-in-law Will Marris, lost his battle with lung cancer he was 30 years old.(Here is a report that ABC News report Nadya Han did on lung cancer featuring Will and Nicole) He was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer about 3 years earlier, just before my son Peter and Will’s sister Melissa were married. Oh, by the way Will was a non-smoker! Both of the organizations on the right sidebar are organizations that sponsor runs throughout the US to raise money for lung cancer research. Lung Cancer kills more people than all the other major cancers combined, and yet it is the least funded of all the cancers. I have participated in both runs and expect participating again this year! Read More

Earring Holder

Last night my daughter, Elizabeth, was working on a craft project (pictured above) and needed the staple gun. She asked me to find it, so I went down to the basement and found the hidden in plain sight among my tools. I remembered that the last time I picked it up, it really didn’t seem to be working right. So while sitting on my yoga mat, I tested it. Like the last time, it did not appear to be working. I tried it again, only this time, I pressed down a little harder. The first time I tried it I was holding it over the rug, the second time it was over my yoga mat, of course the second time’s harder push worked and now my yoga mat is stapled to the floor!! Read More

So we have five cats, four of them are male and one is female, One cat, Fenwick, the neurotic, stays away from the rest and lives in one room in the rear of the house. He used to be picked on, and was terrified of the other cats, but now he is happy in his little room. Often he is hard to find as he hides places you would never think he would fit, especially when he knows the vacuüm is coming! Of the other four cats one, Liam, is beloved.One James is semi-beloved. James is the brother of the neurotic Fenwick. The other two are Cow and Gabrielle. Cow, is black and white and the size of a small heifer. Think Kliban cat…… Read More

So it’s not often that you get to see two of your children achieve major milestones in their lives in the same month, but that is what we’ve been able to do this month. First, Elizabeth graduated from William and Mary and tonight our son Peter graduates from Rutgers – Camden!! The one good thing about tonight is that we don’t have to drive 8 plus hours to get there, we only have to drive to Camden. The one bad thing about tonight is that we have to drive to Camden. But seriously we could not be more proud of both of their achievements! Read More