W O W ! ! ! !

I will have to write the whole story soon when I am completely awake and have time to upload the pictures. In short...Phantom was amazing and Greg was terrific! It was so nice to share him with friends (a couple from Clemson went with us). It was pretty neat to see so many people in awe of him...he's just Dreg!

Way to go Greg! You are doing so well in your career and I am honored to know you. And now that I've seen the show, I can send my well-wishes to you in a proper theatrical manner...

"Break a leg"

My buddy, Greg Mills - "Raoul", Phantom of the Opera national tour...visit his site.

<><

"Heeeeere's yer sign"

[buying Nicholas' Cub Scouts Uniform - including all patches]

Momma El: "I know Walker, you can use a glue gun to sew the patches on the shirt" (wink...he he he)

Sales Associate: (having overheard the intended joke) "Ya, you can. OH...but I wouldn't! You know why? The glue will get on the shirt"

Really?

Look what Robin did today !

She asked for earrings, but did not have her ears pierced yet. So I told her that if she got them done soon, they will heal in time for Christmas and she can ask for earrings then. She got very excited. So tonight we wen to the mall in Anderson and ..... voila!

Claire's would not do it without 2 sales representatives there. So we went to the Piercing Pagoda (one of the islands in the mall). That lady was VERY nice. She was a bit unsure about how Robin would behave (without additional reinforcements), but anyone who has seen her get hurt in public knows - she will NOT cry!

The woman told her "Turn your head and close your eyes real tight." And Robin followed directions VERY well. Wish I had a picture of this, but she asked to sit in my lap - how can a mom turn that down! NOT A FLINCH! She looked up at the lady and turned her head in the other direction. The girl is made of stone!Meanwhile...the boys were at the driving range and had plans to stop at the store afterward to get "that red drink and burp in the car on the way home" [per Nicholas]. Apparently this is a usual "guy-time" ritual.

do web designers still blog?

ok...so my friend Adam did a research project on why bloggers blog. Pretty cool. I did not even know what a blog was then. So I looked into it and started this one. That was in grad school. Now that I spend ~8 hours/day in web design (architecture, consulting, imaging, blah blah blah...) I have no interest in this blog! Sheesh!

Mmmmm....Cranberry Sauce
So the other evening Nicholas said something absolutely wonderful and I can not remember. I was well taught as a child that the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory. None the less...I missed that one.
But this I can remember. The other night we went to Ryan's for dinner. Works out well when we all want something different and Robin has NO IDEA what SHE wants for dinner. Well, Nicholas gets a huge plate full of what I would consider Thanksgiving dinner...right down to the cranberry sauce! I missed the live action (but got a GREAT replay) of Nicholas taking a HUGE bite of the "cranberry sauce" only to be perplexed with the unusual taste. Seems he's never eaten pickled beets before! Yah...turns out he does not like them!

Breathless
Yesterday I let the dogs out of their pen and they took off all over the yard. Our small dog (Sable) loves to herd the larger dog (Thunder). Their pen is on the far side of our yard, away from the house. When I was walking back to the house I was clipped from the back by Sable barreling into me full speed. The hang-time time I had in the air felt rather cartoon-ish as I could feel myself frantically (in slow motion) doing the backstroke in the air, praying that I would actually rotate and land on my feet. No luck. Smack on my back. I think the last time I got the wind knocked out of me, I was in 1st or 2nd grade and fell off of a pulley as I slid between the Pecan and Cherry tree in our back yard. So today, I am rather sore and PRAYING that it is due to muscle issues and not bone/joint problems!

Wisdom Nugget: Don't push the button!
I have this GREAT new camera for work that currently has some WONDERFUL images on it. I can not share those with you now because it is locked in my filing cabinet. Sure, you say I can just unlock it. However, without the key, my camera is hostage! Note to self: don't puch that little silver button in if you do not have the key that pops the little button back out!!! Anyway, here are a few images I took with that camera!


a "Red Hot Poker" from the South Carolina Botanical Gardens:


Hummingbird at my neighbors feeder...

<><