Shipped off Arlington Journey 2008 DVDs #6 an #7 to Carol & Bob and Joe & Sandy today. Still need to make one for the Stonegaters. I am going to publish the videos on youtube.com/fishbackfilms. Have this first one up. (See sound volume button.)
#1 Mom
#2 Nicole
#3 Grant & Jami
#4 Ted
#5 Margie & Jack
#6 Carol & Bob
#7 Joe & Sandy
JC:
Itchy jellyfish bites
Flounder in net at night
Kitchen with a couch
Toe comets (glowing sand)
Parking scooters behind Chu’s (store) and sneaking through
Putting dead crab in crab hole
<a href="http://mac.fiveforks.com/gallery/v/stonegate/tybee-bay-2008/IMG_0494.jpg.html"
Visit to Jack and Margie
Super cold candy store
New parking meters
Girlscout geocache scare
MCC:
Thunder and Lightning…no rain
Watching TV while eating dinner
Staying up with Kelly watching TV
Kitty Cats outside he balcony
Traveling to Bird Island in water
Dolphin shows outside the condo
Meeting Justin (14 year old boy with Cerebral Palsy)
Scooters
Tiny Condo
Big boats crossing the bay
Only one that didn’t get stung/bit
Passing the condo we stayed on spring vacation (good times. good times)
KEC:
i got sick one day
floating around bend and walking back.
and that’s all
you guys basically covered everything else
KMC:
swimming at night and seeing the stars
looking for Sandra Bullock
finding John Cougar
sleepy racoons in a dumpster
I noticed that the humming birds were enjoying the purple hasta flowers, but did not seem to be enjoying the glass hummingbird feeder. I told Kathy that maybe the nector (sugar water) has to stay filled to the top for them to get anything.
She refilled it, and I just counted one of the humming birds dip into the red, glass flower 23 times in a row before belching and flying off.
hummmm…. (burp)
My camera has a panorama mode which I used to create this 180 degree view from our balcony on Bay Street. Photoshop has a feature that stitched these all together. I’m not sure if Ted’s shots were 180 degrees, but with this one, you can scroll to the right and it mimics looking all the way from left to right from our balcony. More story to come…
You’ve heard of handwriting… One morning at track practice, Kelly noticed the field was covered with dew. She walked out and scooted her feet in the grass to write. She then went up in the stands and snapped a photo with her cell phone. Since Verizon wants to charge you 50 cents to e-mail pictures, they do not make it easy to get your photo out of the phone for free. (I dislike Verizon as much as Comcast because of these kinds of fees.) So I took a picture of Kelly’s phone. Her coach saw her do all of this. He thinks she is a nut, but in a good way of course.
(Take that Verizon!)
I had to stay late at work Thursday night and missed Mary Claire’s swim meet. But I got a very excited phone call from her to report she had gotten five blue ribbons. Like her brother, she loves to win, but this was a bigger win than the colors of the ribbons.
Asthma brought a pretty quick end to Claire’s soccer career this spring. It had been coming on for a year, but with the move to larger 13/14 fields, too many games were being interrupted by Claire collapsing on the field after a series of runs. It was a sad thing, because she loved playing soccer and really played well with her teammates.
She resumed athletics with summer swim league. We were hoping asthma could be managed better in a humid environment with rests between races. All of our kids have been strong swimmers, and Claire is no exception. Swimming 50 free and 50 back would have been the best (easiest) thing for her… shorter swims with her strongest strokes. But no, the coach needed her for the less popular events including 100 free and individual medley (fly, back, breast, free.) And he needed her for 50 fly, too.
Unfortunately, the asthma kicked in on some of these events each meet, usually with back-to-back 4-lappers. Claire would have to stop on the third or fourth lap, shaking, get to the side, and I would help her get out and get recovered. In a couple of cases she was able to rest and help her team out with the end-of-the-meet free relay.
She has been working on pushing herself at practice, figuring out the best timing to use her inhaler, and last Thursday she must have figured out the magic formula. She had a tough assignment including 50 fly and I.M. (only one 4-lapper, though). She also swam anchor on the free relay, and brought the team from behind to win. (Danny says that was always the funnest thing to do at the end of a meet.)
We’re all proud of Claire, yes for getting the five blues, but also figuring out how to compete, help her team win another meet, and, at least this past week, telling asthma to “eat my bubbles.”
[Update: 7-20. I cannot recommend JoS. A Bank. While we had a good initial experience, a series of errors by the staff, who started blaming one another, resulted in several trips back trying to get the right size and fit pants, coats and shirts. We are still doing battle trying to get Danny some comfortable pants.]
Danny and I went suit shopping for the Arlington Journey. We were helped by department manager, Steve Chamberlain at JoS. A. Bank. We both highly recommend Steve based on the coaching and service we received.
Danny ended up with a flat charcoal 3-button, and I ended up with a blue-on-blue dark pin 2-button. Both were “Signature Series” suits on sale for $300. Danny wears a 42 long w/ a 34 waist. After much testing, Steve put Danny in a 16 / 35 tailored pin-stripe shirt with a wide collar, no button-down. Steve doesn’t want either of us wearing button downs with suits, although they are fine without a coat.
He wanted to put me in either a 39 or 40 long, depending on material, but he did not have a lot of choices on the rack. I ended up in a 40L. For a shirt I am a “perfect” 15 / 34 tailored fit, although I can go 33 when not wearing a coat. (The 34 is needed to peek out under the coat sleeve.) My waist is also a 34. He wants us to wear our pants high (especially higher than young guys are used to) and a bit loose in the waist to make sure the pleats lay flat.
He laid out several shirt and tie combinations with our suits, and had a lot of fun trying out different combinations, explaining to us what was going on with the color. Danny ended up with a good looking gold tie with blue/gray squares. I ended up with a light checkered tie with pinks and blues.
Steve doesn’t want either of us wearing black socks. Charcoal. Period.
We really enjoyed the attention and advice we got from Steve. We’ll both be fitted on Monday by Evan the master tailor who makes his own suits. (Danny already knew about Evan because his friend Joseph Dreher worked at this store previously and spoke highly of him.)
We’ll probably walk out at $500 per. I wouldn’t want to spend that much every time, but it feels like we just visited a clothing doctor, and that’s not a bad price for going to the doctor.
Brian is one of the A-16 group in Armenia with Nicole. He is in a different village, but they all go to school together during the week. I posted a comment on his blog, and he sent me an e-mail saying, “I know Nicole… she’s sitting 10 feet away from me right now.” They were in an internet cafe together.
Photos in this post.
Danny is working hard for Grant this summer, and last week’s 95+ temperatures made it tougher. Over the weekend he went camping at the lake with two of his buddies for some well deserved R&R.
The Civic was covered with dust and bird poop from the work site. It also had plenty of mud on the floor from his boots. I asked him how could he track so much mud in the car when it has been so hot and dry. He explained that they are constantly washing things off and down around the site, so there is plenty of mud.
I decided to wash the car and vacuum it out Saturday night while the temperature was in the 80’s instead of 90’s. Found this crumpled receipt on the floor. “Hey Andrew… pass me a Beer Brat and a Banana.”
See also: the Economic Stimulus message at the bottom of the receipt.
The winning shirt design. The vote was 12 to 6.
