Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone! Thank you for such a wonderful day. Even though the pirate game was a little "cut throat" this year. We missed everyone who could not be with us today. But rest assured you were in our thoughts and prayers. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.

Christmas Day Is Coming!

We are so glad everyone is coming to East Aurora for our family celebration. We know it won't be easy to be here by 10ish and appreciate the effort. PJs are acceptable attire. With that in mind, we decided to do brunch instead of dinner. Don't worry, there will be lots of delicious food so come hungry. We will mix our champagne with a splash of OJ and Bloody Mary's will be availble for those who dare. The 'nog is fermenting.

It's time to make more memories! Count down starts ....NOW!

Unkie & Antie's Big Adventure

Being the world wide travelers that we are......we decided to surprise Kristen on the opening day of her new office. What a surprise it was! We booked our plane flight and a room in Atlanta, packed our duffel bags and off we went. We had a VERY hard time not letting the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Neither Kristen or Adam knew what we were up too. We spent Sunday sneaking around Atlanta and resisting the temptation to call Kristen, which would have ruined the surprise. FINALLY, Monday morning came and we hurried to the new office checking out the location on the way. This is a very old and famous, or so the sign said, hotel about 2 blocks away from KDH R&C.

This is the world famous FOX Theater, a true masterpiece (think Shea's only bigger) which is about 2 blocks away.

At last we spotted the building.

Yup, this is it.

We took the elevator up to the 7th floor, excitedly knocked on the door of the office and........no one was there! I mean, no one! Now what? Down we went to wait in the car and as we stepped off the elevator, there stood Kristen. The look on her face was priceless. She was SO surprised. We laughed, we cried and finally we noticed people were looking at us strangely so back up we went.

This is the reception desk.

This is the boss.

This is the view from the boss's window

This is Unkie on K's porch where we went to drink champagne before it was time to hop on the plane and head back. All in all, one of our very best adventures ever.

A Family Trip To Willow Valley

A Peaceful Rendition of a Family Getaway
by JT Pilaf

The stockings were hung on Mickey Mantle with care...

I can do this anywhere (we have documentation) it's just nicer to do when there's no worries about.
Last week we traveled down to Willow Valley (Lancaster, PA) in our rented, gold Chevy Malibu to a conference Sandra needed to attend. Why did we all go down? Why not. Zach had off from school and I've got the PTO to use, so sure, why not. Oh Emma, yeah we pulled her from school. We probably shoulld have told them though. Rebels.

We just figured it was the perfect oportunity to go swiming and relax. Emma gives the thumbs up approval sign. So it must've been a good idea. They had two pools and trust me, we got our time in.

After the pool time we drove 20 minutes down the road to Strasburg to see PA.'s Railroad Museum. It was a really nice setup. They had an inter-active area for kids and adults and then a huge warehouse filled with old passenger cars, engines, freights, everything from years past. They even had the Engineer Hall of Fame. I didn't see any woman engineers in the HOF and that got Emma mad.

They also had a gift shop there... hmmm... pirate gift???

The kids got to play and spent close to two hours in the inter-active room going from one diisplay to the next. Sandra and I saddled up to a bench and just watched them for ever.

I just love it when my little girl wears Yankee stuff. You know, she's a lefty. I'm just sayin'.

Adm, doesn't she look good in that hat? CC would look almost as good in that Yankee hat... almost.

Usually Emma has to stand back as Zach dominates the display, but there was enough to go around for everyone here.

Then on the way home on RT. 15 westopped off at the Little League Museum in Williamsport, PA. The price was right and we had a good time there. They had a Jackie Robinson display, early LL world series displays, when it started, who's been in it, what countries have won it, very informative. Did you know Pierre Tourgeon is in the Hall of Excellance for Little League? Neither did I.

As you can see Emma's opening up her stance a little early. I'll work on that with her. In the batting and pitching cages they had a camera set up so they replay back to you what you just did for 60 seconds. The kids loved it.

I just love watching them play, they both totally get into it.

See, eye on the ball, nice weight shift, balanced bat. I guess it's easier in the batting cages than on the playing field.

They also had a gift shop there... hmmmm.... pirate gift???

We had a nice time on our mini-vacation.

Every Journey Starts with One step and a scratch off.

So we were graciously invited back to San Antonio, to the Eagle Ranch Bed and Breakfast, and so we packed up our wares and headed south. Cookie was flying that day also, much to our surprise!

Flying with Gramma is never really a challenge as long as you bring her scratch offs and we have a wheel chair!

Notice we are all in jackets, sweatshirts, etc. It was snowing that day on our way to the airport and our plane was delayed as it had to be de - iced!

Of course it is common knowledge that Gramma thought she had won 20,000$. No she was convinced she had won 20 grand! Here is Cousin Barb holding her "winning" ticket. Barb was pretty much the only one, Gramma would let touch her golden ticket!

Chores are a part of each day on the ranch, Gramma and Barb were given the job of "stuffing" our scare crow for our Halloween decorations. Gramma was pretty much stationed in her rocker for the duration of our stay.

Here is my sister, busy at work on the porch of the quest house. Notice the bright sunshine, sigh! This is just one of the many photo's I took of the garden. Notice the 15 foot high plant in the middle of the garden? It is a century plant, it blooms once and only once at about 10 years of age, it is getting ready to bloom, unfortunately it did not happen while we were there. But the local paper did come out and take pictures!

Gramma, cousins Pat and Barb after our pumpkin hunting outing. Notice the "jug" on the truck!
One of the fun things I like to do is, put different hats on Gramma's head and take her picture! She fusses, but she is always a good sport. I find this picture one of the better ones! You can fill in your own caption.
In addition to the Bed and Breakfast and all the community organizations the Col and Pat belong to, they also have the Corny Colonel Business. This is a food vendor stand that is set up at local fairs and festivals. They sell corn dogs, popcorn, fried snickers bars, funnel cakes, pop and water. This was the Fall Harvest Festival that Sue and I helped with. It was a gorgeous day, and a lot of fun, but whoa, a lot of hard work.

I am not quite sure what she is talking about? But she does have a captive audience.

The Col was paying no attention to what Sue was talking about. Come to think of it, I don't think any one was....

All in All, Gramma at 91 years old, is pushed and pulled from pillar to post, shoved and wheeled all over, kept up late to take our money at poker, and is one of the best seasoned travelers! We thank from the bottom of our hearts our gracious and generous hosts, we had a ball!

Hee hee...

Some things just make me giggle.

Halloween Is Gonna Suck This Year

Poor Emma and Zach... does anyone now where these poor kids can go trick or treatin' this year?

Let's Go Rays

You're not going to believe this, but I'm rooting for the Rays over the Blowston Red Sux in the series.

Just a concerned voter trying to get the socialist propaganda off this blog. And I like my water clean , not dirty. James Shields for president!

happy post season!!!

I was hoping you guys could root for my team, since your team is sitting at home and all.

It's no Celion Dion blog....

Jill "Double fisting" french fries up her nose.

It's a Progressive Thing... You Wouldn't Understand

A Prog Experience
By JT Pilaf

My friend Dave and I have been wanting to see Spock's Beard live for a loooooong time. Unfortunately, they don't tour much here (the states, even though they're from Calif.) but are always over in Europe where prog music is appreciated just a lil' bit more. Here I am enjoying some tailgating with a libation in between sets. We arrived in Burgettstown, PA just in time to catch the end of Mandrake Projects set. As you can see it was a beautiful day outside.


After Gongzilla's set (with a special appearance from Ryo Okomoto) , Spock's Beard went on stage at about 6:30 and blew us away. Here's Dave Meros (left) and Alan Morse.

Ryo Okomoto got into a car accident over in Japan just 3 weeks before the show and broke his jaw in two places, but as you can see left nothing behind as he started jamming out on his keyboards. Two stage crew guys had to steady the equipment and made sure it didn't give out on him. Totally rock n roll!!!

And then... Neal Morse joined his old band for an encore performance of their 20 minute epic "The Light". Totally awesome!!! He left the band 7 years ago to concentrate on Christian music. So needless to say, everyone in the audience was going bazerk when he came on stage... you can only imagine the excitement.
"Ryo is Rock n Roll"

Just another shot of Neal and his old bandmates tearing it up.

Then it was Neal's turn to take the stage. I was hoping he wouldn't wimp out and play secular music for the masses and play his Christian Prog and he didn't disappoint. He started out with "The Creation" from the One CD and then played his latest CD Sola Scriptura in its entirety minus a short lil ballad. What a show! And just when you think its over... Mike Portnoy from Dream Theatre and Roine Stolt from the Flower Kings joined him (if your keeping score that's 3 of 4 TransAtlantic members, minus Pete Trewavas) for an encore and they played "We All Need Some Light" and then their 30 minute epic "All The Above". Neal ended up putting on a three hour concert... SWEET!!! We didn't get out until after 1AM and then we had a hour drive to Butler before we could rest our wearied eyes.

You guys missed a great show. So next time in your in Burgettstown, say hi to the Pepsi Roadhouse and thank 3RPfest (Three Rivers Progfest) and Howard for hosting an awesome show. Unfortunately, our wives and kids wouldn't allow Dave and I to stay for Sunday's show featuring California Guitar Trio and the Flower Kings, but we had an unforgettable time this day.

Neal and Mike Portnoy on Drums.