Duke becomes one of the family - chug! chug! chug!

There are several moments you go back to year after year in recollecting your childhood.... Duke will remember this one... His first Friday night playing quarters; of course he's still not too good at bouncing so he had to do a lot of drinking. We started him out on ginger ale but by 10:45 we moved him onto Seagrams Lime flavored gin and tonic. Here he is chugging about 3 ounces of one of our local microbrews at the hands of Emma, my 11 yr old.

Well actually, its cranberry juice and no, we don't teach him to play quarters - yet.
In between the soccer, baseball, cross country running, piano, saxophone, flute, and having friends over - my kids always find time to play with "little Dukey". He's finally found his voice and like to tell the neighbors about it.
School's almost out here - kids are ready to play hard. Then three days later, we start hearing "I'm Bored!"

Website redesigned

Hey Guys,

I got the redesigned web site online. Still have some minor tweaks to do as I finesse my CSS skills. I'll also be phasing out my old email and changing over to mark (at) giftedgraphicdesign (dot) com

I'd like to call you guys and catch up on stuff. Things are a bit different since I went totally deaf. I have to use a relay service. Basically I sit at my computer typing stuff out. An operator reads that to the person I'm calling then types in whatever they say. It's a bit awkward at times but better than no communication at all. I'm only set up for outgoing calls at the moment so if you want to give it a try email me your number and a good day and time to call. Kenrick survived the experience so it can't be that bad.

Later,
Mark

Look at those killer ferocious teeth of the Duke-meister - able to devour cheerios and small bits of hamburger in a single bite; able to tug on a rope for hours without tiring; able to open packages of fig newtons in 1.3 seconds!......

My son Spencer is a bit shutter happy with the digital camera and his new best friend, the puppy Duke. So we have a gazillion photos of the dog doing everything.

I was inspired by Mark and his uneven ground in North Carolina to show a pic of the homestead in Maine. That's the silver Buick with nearly 200K miles in the driveway. The house actually is bigger than it looks here. We have a walk-out finished basement (Spencer's room) and whole second floor dormer that juts out the back of the roof allowing three bedrooms and an office upstairs. Plenty adequate for my tribe.

Can't make Memorial Day in Motown - kids in parades and such. Didn't seem like anyone else was going to make it either.....I can, and will, go later in June if any of you guys are in.

Shark, O Shark, where art thou! Kevin - come up for air and post a bloggy-note; Good to hear from you guys - Mark, JP and Kenrick. I really thought this blog thing would be an easy to get everyone communicating again. This month is 25 yrs since we left Verot HS (God knows what day we actually graduated!!) and it means a lot to me to know that after that long, I have guys around the country I can call on anytime and speak easy. That counts a lot in my book.

Texas wildflowers

Took the kids out riding last weekend and had a Texas flower picture project. We took pictures of all the wildflowers we could find. Here is the set of flower we photographed. The kids had a great time. I never realized how many flowers are out there. We are going fishing today out at a park near the mall west of town. J, L, J, L and J

in the house

Hi everyone,

got a few pictures up of the place for you all to see.

http://www.giftedgraphicdesign.com/NChouse/

Still getting used to the fact that just about none of the ground is level. It probably drops about 12 feet from one end of our driveway to the other and then the road climbs up maybe 20 feet as you head up to the mailboxes. Yes, we have community mailboxes for our cul de sac located about four or five houses up the hill from us. I've started jogging up the hill to get the mail which is a good workout for me at this point. Just as long as I don't drive down it too fast like that car in the opening from "The Streets of San Francisco."

There are still a pretty good number of boxes scattered about but we're making progress!

Take care,
Mark

Google Earth - Mt. Katahdin

Actually John the lake is about 10 miles to the mountain. It is at 45°45'30.53"N and 68°47'50.96"W. I found it on Google Earth. Did I mention how awesome Google Earth is. If you do not use it you are nuts. It is SO COOL. You can see my driveway on Llewellyn in Fort Myers. I even think I can make out the oil spot where I changed my oil and after 3 quarts of new addition, I realized the drain plug had not been put back on. Boy was my dad pissed.