2018-02-04 - Sunday - Tomato

Stephanie and Brett came for a visit and brought their dog, Tomato with them. Tomato's bed is the size of  a small couch and he gets lost in it, but he loves it.

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2017-12-24 - Sunday - Festive shrubbery

On Christmas Eve I was outside grilling and noticed that the Harbor Belle dwarf nandinas were fruiting. It made me think even the shrubs were in the Christmas season (even though Karen and I are spending Christmas alone and I was grilling).

It was odd without the kids. Stephanie and Brett spent Thanksgiving with us, so they spent Christmas with Brett's family. Meredith couldn't get time off for Christmas until the 29th. We will all meet up in Pennsylvania after Christmas. That will be nice.

I love Karen, and we love spending time together, but it was a strange Christmas without the kids here. Binkley isn't here either, and he always LOVED Christmas.

We discussed going someplace for Christmas next year, possibly a cruise.

We'll see.

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2017-12-03 - Sunday - Stephanie's birthday

We went to Greenville on Sunday to celebrate Stephanie's birthday a few days early. Karen go her a gluten-free, dairy-free cake and it was delicious.

First, we went out for a nice dinner, then back to Stephanie and Brett's apartment for cake.

All too soon it was time to hop back in the car and head home.

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2017-10-22 - Sunday - Greenville, SC

Sunday we went to Greenville, SC to visit Stephanie and Brett. While there we went to Falls Park on the Reedy. It's a beautiful park with a lot going on, not least of which is the Liberty Bridge.

Karen in front of the Medusa Tree.

The falls.

Stephanie, Brett, and Tomato.

The Liberty Bridge.

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2017-09-02 - Saturday - Mom

This month (September) my mom turns 80, and mom and dad will be celebrating their 60th anniversary. To celebrate, she wanted to get the whole family together for dinner. Unfortunately Meredith couldn't get time off work, but the rest of us were there.

Stephanie, Brett, Karen, David, me, dad, and mom.

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2017-08-07 - Monday - South Carolina

Stephanie got her new South Carolina license plate and asked me to put it on her car. While doing so I noticed the strange slogan at the top of it.

What?

Stephanie said her her choice was "In God We Trust" or "the basic" plate.

I don't get it.

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2017-07-15 - Saturday - Wedding Day!

What a wonderful day! The wedding reception was amazing and I'm pretty sure everyone had a great time.

We were worried about the weather being too hot, but it rained for about an hour in the middle of the day which cooled things off nicely.

Stephanie and Brett got their marriage off to a great start on Saturday.

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2017-07-14 - Friday - Wedding preparations

Friday we set up the Vintage Barn for Stephanie and Brett's wedding. It came together great with the leadership of Kimberly, the wedding planner. She really outdid herself.

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2017-06-27 - Tuesday - Card and fungus

Tuesday.

No doubt who my recent birthday card from Stephanie was for.

I found this fungus in the yard.

It makes me think of an old apple slice.

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2017-06-19 - Monday - Deer lounge

Monday night Stephanie and I pulled into the driveway and I noticed two large does resting in the back yard, ears up like satellite dishes. They looked at us, but didn't bother getting up; too much trouble I guess. We walked past them and into the house.

When I told Karen about them she went out with her phone to try to capture more photos and they were standing by the fence, grazing. She flashed a couple of photos (that didn't come out) and they stopped grazing long enough to look up at her and went right back to eating grass as if we weren't there.

They are getting way too used to people.

Original photo

Lightened to see more.

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2017-06-18 - Sunday - Art from Poland

Stephanie and Brett wanted a "thumbprint tree" for the guest book at their wedding reception so I found one on Etsy that would be custom made --in Poland. It was a great deal, with lots of options to customize it, and the shipping was only about $15. It even came with three color choices of thumb ink pads.

It arrived and looked great. The print is actually on canvas stretched over a wooden frame. Unfortunately I did not remember to snap a photo of the finished tree, but here's the shop so you can check it out yourself. StudioGoldArte.

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2017-05-13 - Saturday - Meredith's graduation

Saturday was Meredith's graduation day. It was marred by a steady rain and a really horrible lack of planning on the school's part.

Since the graduation takes place in a tent on the lawn a lot of the area surrounding the tent was under almost a foot of water. There wasn't anywhere near enough room in the tent for a majority of the families so we were herded into the cafeteria and others were sent to various buildings to watch the proceedings on projector screens.

Since we were watching the ceremonies on the YouTube feed instead of the direct one we lost audio shortly after the start. It was only by counting the names in the program that we even knew Meredith was coming up, since we couldn't hear her name announced.

We had to park about 1/4 mile from the cafeteria and most of the "shuttles" were open, 6-passenger golf carts with a roof. Now we know how the Gorton's fisherman feels.

This was a completely unacceptable way to treat the graduates and their families especially after paying an exorbitant amount of tuition for four years in anticipation of this moment. Due to a horrendous lack of planning we missed one of our family's biggest moments.

Now that I got all that out, let me say that we are immensely proud of our daughter for graduating cum laude with a 3.5 GPA and being on the dean's list for all of her semesters. I know she gets her beauty from her mother and apparently her intelligence too.

The day got better. We went for a nice lunch and then back to the house for cake. It's always nice to have the whole family around for these important moments.

After cake and celebrations we went to pack up Meredith's belongings from her apartment.

Tomorrow it's on to the next phase of her life.

Justin, Stephanie, and Ryan in the cafeteria.

Meredith on the big screen.

The big screen.

At the restaurant.

At the house.

At the apartment.

Goodbye to the apartment.

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2016-12-10 - Saturday - Holiday Sale

Saturday was the Goneaway Pottery Holiday Sale. Becky, Ju-Ian, Judith, and Elaine joined me for a chilly day in the garage. When we started, it was 24 F and only went up to 44 F for the high. We ran the propane heater, but it couldn't warm up the whole garage, so we spent some time gathered around the heater.

We had a steady stream of customers all day and good fellowship, snacks, and music.

My setup.

Ju-Ian, Judith, and Elaine.

The ever-popular snack table.

My friend Edson took this photo of me.

While we were having the sale, Stephanie was doing the Girls on the Run 5k with kids from her school. She's a coach for the program this year and we're very proud of her. Karen went with her and snapped this photo.

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2016-12-05 - Monday - Signage and phones

Monday I put my pottery sale sign out on Park Road for the upcoming sale.

Later, in the evening we went to BJ's and upgraded Stephanie's phone to the new Google Pixel. It's a very nice phone (and she's a very nice daughter).

While I was taking a photograph of my pottery sign for social media, a woman suddenly appeared in the frame. I had no idea she was going past until she appeared in the camera, so I just kept on snapping. At the time it was quite startling, but made me laugh at the absurdity of being startled by someone running away from you.

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2016-11-24 - Thursday - Thanksgiving

We went to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and Brett came too. While this year's family gathering was bittersweet with the loss of Karen's dad earlier in the month, it was nice to all be together for the holiday.

Stephanie and Brett made pumpkin cookies and were very proud of them.

Later, at the table, I caught them clowning around. Good kids.

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2016-09-24 - Saturday - Back in the mountains

Saturday we were back in the NC mountains in Sylva to look for wedding venues. Stephanie and Brett are planning on getting married in July of 2017 and the wedding will be in Sylva near where they met.

View from the library on the hill.

Stephanie and Brett in front of the library on the hill.

We had supper at Haywood Smokehouse
and I got a kick out of the sauce descriptions.

This was parked outside of our hotel
and I felt sure it would transform into a robot.

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2016-08-03 - Wednesday - St. Thomas

Wednesday we landed in St. Thomas.

Ryan and Mereditth.

These ships are huge and top-heavy.

Meredith, Karen, and Stephanie.

Iguanas were everywhere.

The bay.

The way out.

Photogs everywhere.

Lots to photograph.

I spent a lot of time watching the employees
goof around on the Flow Rider.

Lamb for dinner.

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