5/27/11

2011.05.26 Alexa Visit in Greensboro

Pictures of the day are in a separate Post……..

We went to Greensboro to see Alexa, Lauren, John and Marlene, David and Daniel on May 26, 2011. We spent a lovely day with them. I took birthday presents for Lauren (June 16), John (July 4), and Marlene (August 1). I also took gifts for Alexa who is 6 months 3 days old today. Alexa seemed to enjoy her little gifts - a soft rattle, some tub toys that squirt water, and a hat and bib with blue and white stripes and red crabs. The hat was too large and I am sorry for that as it was very cute. The adults opted to save their gifts for ther birthdays to open.

Don and I ate at Lexington BBQ before getting to Greensboro. We each had a barbecue tray which had barbecue and barbecue slaw and hush puppies. It was just right not to be hungry but not be too full either. I bought candy bars as "birthday stocking stufers" for the birthday people plus have some to give Daniel.

We sat around and chatted most of the day although Marlene had angel food cake, homemade whipped cream, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries and homemade lemonade available in the afternoon for a sweet snack. The baby was eating baby food (a new thing for her) and went to nap soon after. After her nap, Lauren put her in a jump-up toy and she jumped and jumped. I thought she was going to wear herself out. We all held her at different times and she was agreeable with everyone. She didn't fuss or cry anytime during the day.

After a brief second nap around 5:15 p.m., we went to Elizabeth's to eat. They have a menu of great Italian food for around $15 a person (more or less). I had manicotti and it was great. Don had eggplant parmigiana and loved it. Daniel had a pizza which no one wanted to share so he had some to take home. We could go there again anytime as we really enjoyed it. We left probably around 7:30 p.m. and had no traffic trouble on the way home. We thought we might have run into constructioin that late or maybe race traffic aroun the speedway but all went very smoothly.

At the restaurant, Alexa was good as gold. We noticed she kept looking in a certain direction and discovered she was watching a tennis match on television (not allowed at home). Now, she might be a champion tennis play, we guess.

Lovely child, lovely day.

20110526 Alexa comes to Greensboro and 2nd time out on the Town

Folks, some of us are having trouble seeing in IE9. don

(Linda I got it working , Might have to click button for compatibility in IE view to right of address line. Pictures went away but I just recreated them and all seems ok now.
Blog at
http://www.blogger.com/Blog%20at%20http://lsmupdate.blogspot.com/2011/05/20110526-alexa-comes-to-greensboro-and.html%20%22Collected%22%20TO%20http://donredding.smugmug.com/Ancestors-Family-Relatives-and/Linda/20110526-Alexa-comes-to/17247161_LQc5xZ#1309207790_JR5mzzN

Original Pictures on Linda's Smugmug
http://lsm.smugmug.com/Family/Josephsohn-Diaz/20110526-Alexa-comes-to-NC/17247031_2Wqx4W#1309200217_nKkgB77


Copy of Pictures on Don's Smugmug "Collected" TO:
http://www.blogger.com/comes-to/17247161_LQc5xZ#1309207790_JR5mzzN

We went to Greensboro to see Alexa, Lauren, and John and Marlene, David and Daniel on May 26, 2011. We spent a lovely day with them. XXX01xxxo2
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5/9/11

2011.05.05 through 2001.05.08 Reunion in Chapel Hill

We had a great time this weekend. I didn't see a lot of people I knew from my own class but met some I had not met before! Pam, my roommate came just for the Saturday lunch, picture, and evening party so I did get to be with her a little.

We went a day early so we could see the Carolina Basketball Museum for our first time. We really enjoyed this walk-through. Don thought it didn't have quite enough about some of the older teams he remembers from childhood. But there is no way to see everything. They have videos of many, many games and visitors have to pick and choose what they see of those. Otherwise, you would need to bring a sleeping bag and some food - and they'd run you out anyway at closing time. I have now decided that it is officially illegal to park anywhere in the city of Chapel Hill or on the college campus. There are a few pay lots available but some of them are nowhere near where you want to go. We finally asked one policeman where we could park in one restricted lot and he told us he wasn't after giving out any tickets that day. So we parked illegally right in front of him.

The reunion was very similar to Don's 50th a couple of years ago. I had looked forward to a professor of Comparative Literature (Joe Flora) doing a seminar on "You can come home again..." but this was led by another professor who was very good but not nearly as personable as Mr. Flora 2 years ago. I was a bit disappointed in that - but wait - Don and I decided to go to church on Sunday morning instead of graduation ceremonies (it was pouring rain early). I saw a Sunday School class called Christianity in Literature and we decided to see what that was like. WELL, there was my guy - Joe Flora - teaching the class!!!! It was absolutely great. A whole bunch of college professors were the students and it was a really high level, interesting, meaningful class. Wish I were there for that one every week. We studied a Yeats poem this Sunday (chosen to tie in to Mother's Day) and I don't think either Don or I would have understood a word of it without his explanation. Really fun learning experience.

On Thursday as I was unpacking, I looked high and low for the bag that had all my makeup and meds. NOT ANYWHERE TO BE FOUND. Oh, my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!! I told Don we needed to go to a drug store and let me get some basic (much cheaper) items to make it through a few days. HE DROVE BACK TO CHARLOTTE AND GOT THE BAG FROM MY LIVING ROOM......Hard to believe. I went with him and we really enjoyed this 6 hour sidetrack as much as anything else we did all weekend. It was his birthday and he got 2 Quik-Mart turkey and ham sandwiches for his fancy dinner. He particularly enjoyed the bag of potato chips we shared. We made the trip only for the missing meds combined with the length of stay. Still impressive I would say. More than a gesture as far as how I felt about it - it made my heart just sing for joy because this sort of oversight can surely ruin a weekend.

We went to a baseball game on Friday evening. It was rather cold but we stayed through all 9 innings of a shut-out against Maryland. Some guy near us was screaming to the top of his lungs for Maryland. He finally left as all his cheers led to strike-outs. I started calling him turtle mouth to the people around us. We had some pretty knowledgeable baseball fans behind us and we would ask them questions when we didn't understand some call (people boo-ed the umpire and he went over and apparently told some fans off - I don't think that is kosher at all. Then he calmed down and did his job the rest of the game.)

I sat next to a lady for Saturday lunch who was a member of the team of attorneys in the Butcher banking scandal years ago. She was QUITE an interesting conversationalist. We got into the discussion by telling her Don and I had both worked at a bank together. Don asked her husband if he remembered Butcher since they were from Tennessee. And the man said to ask his wife - SHE knew ALL about it. And she surely did. Pam came sometime during this lunch and I moved over to join her for part of the lunch event so I didn't find out all she had to say, but I can say I would hate to be on the other side of her determination. I enjoyed her lots and lots.

Much food was served every day but we used some sense about it. AND WE DANCED at the big Saturday night party. UNC combined my 1971 reunion class with the 1966 reunion class and had a dance floor set up between the two groups. They played music people our age(s) like and lots of people danced. Some of them had a pretty good looking shag going on for a while. When the music got a little more loud and fast and incomprehensible, Don and I left (around 10). The transportation back to our quarters stopped at 10:30 so 10 wasn't so bad.

We went to a little place for Sunday lunch called Time Out. They had been in business 30 years and neither of us had ever heard of it!! The Hatfields let us know about it and we wanted to go there sometime over the weekend. Great chicken (with cheese) biscuits and some good vegetables too. Every serving was so big, Don got a biscuit which we shared and I got veggies which we also shared. We were plenty full when we left and we enjoyed the food too. We recommend the place.

One other little fact is that the graduation gowns were newly designed by Alexander Julian and were made of recycled plastic bottles. They have a new white stripe that runs down the middle front. One of the 50-year veterans was upset that it was raining so hard about 8 a.m. and wondered if the gowns would be waterproof as a result of being made out of recycled plastic bottles. (I have my doubts about that.)

Link to Audios
Link to Pictures

5/5/11

2011.05.05 to 08 Audio Visuals from UNC 40th Reunion of 1971 Class

(This works well on Seamonkey and similar browsers. Apologize to Internet Explorer and Mac users as the screen is a mess when using them. Working on it but usually cannot get much better.)

There are several ways to get audio to play - click the black arrows on either of the two audio players or copy and paste link to Browser. Audio should begin after a pause. Small slideshow should be running and a click on a picture will take you to larger ones. When moving to another selection, refresh screen if a problem hearing and click again. Some of the players will not work on Internet Explorer and Macs or through AOL. Click here for Trouble Shooting
xxxxxxx
Click Picture or here for bigger pictures on Smugmug
Click here for Trouble Shooting
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3/5/11

2011.03.03 Speech on Presidential History

We went to a speech on Thursday night at Queens and it was DKG about presidential history. She told story after story about Presidents that were humorous and informative and we had a wonderful time there.

We also went to see Doris Kearns Goodwin give a speech Thursday night. She talks fast but clearly and told great stories about LBJ, FDR, and Lincoln. She worked for LBJ as an intern "in the days when that was an honor". There were only 3 female interns out of 20 or so and LBJ liked her a lot from the beginning. Within a week of meeting him, a national magazine published an article she wrote titled something like "How We Can Get Rid of LBJ" and she thought she was doomed from there. The article was something she did because she was so against the Vietnam war and she wrote it before she got the internship. Anyway LBJ kept her on and she said she loved listening to his stories which he told with great flair. Later she learned they were in fact all tall tales with only a sprinkling of truth in any of them. Then she was afraid one time she had gotten herself in too deep with him when he took her for a picnic beside a lake named for himself in Texas. She said it started to look romantic when he put out a blanket and flowers. She was nervous and started talking about her boyfriend (which she made up). He told her she reminded him so much of his Mother!!!! She said she was relieved and insulted at the same time. Another great one is that some city during Roosevelt's time had a group of mass transit people go on strike because an African American had been hired. The guy had made 95% on a proficiency test and had certainly more than qualified for the job. Eleanor was adamant that Franklin do something to support the black population's rights. So he individually addressed a letter to all the striking men saying if they didn't return to work by Monday, the government would start sending them draft letters for the army on Tuesday. Every last one of them returned to work. She said she is working on a book about Theodore Roosevelt and after that, she thinks she is about out of Presidents to write about that she has any interest in. She said Obama and more modern presidents use electronic media so much she doesn't know what historians are going to use for source material. She uses actual diaries and notes made by the parties involved to do her research. One other interesting note is she said it took her twice as long to write her book on Lincoln as it did to fight the whole civil war and it took her as long to write the one on Roosevelt as it did to fight WWII. The Roosevelt book won her a Pulitzer Prize.

2/24/11

2011.02.22 Knitting

I had mentioned to a Sunday School friend that I would like to learn to knit. She said the prayer shawl people get together on Tuesday afternoons and knit and talk from 2 to 4 p.m. If I would come to that she would teach me the basics. About a week later, another friend in the UMW asked anyone who was willing to join the prayer shawl group and said they would teach anyone who was willing how to do basic knitting.

Tuesday, 2/22, I went to the knitting group. My Sunday School friend did the "casting on" and taught me how to continue with the knitting. I am not sure I quite have the hang of it yet but I felt I made good progress with it. I can see how this could be relaxing since I am not trying to do anything fancy - just knit a rectangle 60 stitches wide and 60 inches long. Some members of the group do fancier stuff but they have been knitting a while. Others are doing exactly as I am and just doing a plain knit shawl.

I loved some of the colors they were using for yarn. Before the session, Don and I went to two places in order for me to find size 13 knitting needles and some yarn (3 skeins). That was a little confusing as yarns come in all weights and the skeins seem to have a variety of yarn lengths. I bought 4 skeins just in case since I knew I probably couldn't match the dye lot for the yarn later if I waited to come back to get more. One person said I should go to someone's house for a lesson prior to going to the knitting group and another person said that was not necessary. One person told me the yarn was provided by the church and another said everyone provides their own yarn. I decided to get my own since if I mess it up, at least I own it from the beginning. Who knows, maybe I am knitting my own prayer shawl! I hope not as I want it to go for a good cause. I understand one of our ministers blesses the shawls as they get several finished. People can get the shawls by going to a place where they are kept and signing one out and telling who they were for and something of the problem that person has. They are in pretty big demand, I understand. I told my friend from Sunday School I could see why since our class alone could keep this whole group busy for quite a while.

All in all, I enjoyed the whole process and look forward to future sessions. Already want to try one of a different color as the colors people had varied so much and all were so beautiful. A couple of people had finished one and were ready to put labels on them. This identifies the church the shawl came from and is sewn in when the shawl is finished.

2/12/11

2011.02.11 Things Come Together

Friday, 2/11/11 was such a great day.

Two weeks ago, I had three things stop working at one time. First came my Kindle. I opened it one day and the "joystick", one of the main buttons had split in two. The next day, I couldn't connect to the internet on my pc so we made a call to Time Warner who thought it would be a simple modem replacement. They came out the next day and said it was the outside cable itself that needed replacement. The closest appointment for that would be two weeks since it is an outsourced service. I was told that was "squeezing" me in when they really didn't have time for it anyway. In other words, I should be grateful it would only be two weeks. No tv and no internet for two weeks!!!!!!!! Not a fun thought. I almost cried but decided it wasn't worth the stress to argue about it as it might only make matters worse. Then I dropped the camera I carry everywhere which is on permanent loan from DR. I felt awful about it. We sent the camera off for repair.

Yesterday got resolution - finally - to all three problems. The Kindle was replaced by Amazon within 24 hours. Great customer service. I don't think I have seen anything like it ever.

The camera was returned yesterday in the mail and it is fixed. I have only taken a couple of pictures so far but I can tell it is working just great.

As for the cable, we were told the repair person would call during the morning of 4/11 and that would let us know an approximate time they would come to re-do the cable. I figured it would be a day filled with waiting and frustration and being afraid to take any time away from the condo. I also feared they would pull the cable but then we'd have to get a second person out to hook everything back up and get it working. PC's don't really like to be disconnected a long time so I was also thinking I should be prepared for days of Norton and Windows updates. But the repair guy called at 7:30 a.m., was here by 8 a.m. and had the cable pulled before 9 a.m. On top of that, everything worked at first boot-up. It took the tv longer than the pc to come on with channels programmed back in . The pc had some updating to do but did it smoothly without my help really. There was only one guy who came but he was quick and knowledgeable and also assured me he wouldn't assume all was well until I told him so. He wound up calling later in the day to be sure I was satisfied. I wound up being impressed with the actual live person. Don even called his company and gave him a great review which seemed to please the person on the line greatly.

Then Don and I went to a class that ran from noon to four. We had figured to miss it but didn't have to. When that was over, we went out to Steve's Fish Camp in Fort Mill, SC to eat. We had a really great time all day.

Some days everything just comes together and that's what they did yesterday, 2/11/11.

1/22/11

2011.01.18 Dinner with a Football Player

We went to an out-of-town dinner and met a fine young man who has played football in his high school years. He aspires to play at college and maybe even the NFL if he is good enough in college. Anyway, he was very bright, having graduated high school early. He is academically ambitious based on the courses he mentioned taking and ones he is planning to take. We wish him well in everything he does and look forward to following his football career, no matter where it leads. He is interested in International Business courses and has taken Spanish, is taking Portuguese, and plans to add Chinese to his language skill-set. I believe China is expected to be an expanding market for business so knowing some form of it should prove helpful.

I asked him whether his college teammates and he live in the same quarters or if they are scattered around campus. He said he chose to room with other players as do most of the players at school. This is due to having such different hours than those not on the team. The team has early practices and would possibly disturb other students who do not have to get up early and also other students might stay up late and disturb the rest the players need in order to put forth the effort required in practice. He also told me the players often go around campus on mo-peds which is quite a sight when they go somewhere as a group. I bet it does draw some attention as these guys are a bit larger than your average fellow.

I told him I go to lots of games and sometimes fans can be quite harsh especially on the road. He said Tennessee was the worst this year as they threw beer and wine bottles AT THE TEAM during the game. I have never seen anything like that at a game but am happy no one got hurt as a result of it.

I asked if his parents support his efforts to play ball and his ambition to go to the NFL and he told me his father supports him in everything he has ever wanted to do. I would say there must have been expectations too as this guy was very polite throughout the dinner and appears to have a very good work ethic.

We enjoyed spending the evening with him very much.
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