Tybee Island Light

Here are your intrepid travellers at Tybee Island Light. Later we climbed the tower and then had lunch at the North Beach Cafe. This photo was taken on 9/23/05

Lunch on Tybee Island

9/23/2005

Heading for the Weekend

Fridays are always good. For some reason they tend to be quieter than other days of the week, so I can usually catch up on stuff that has been ignored because of putting out fires elswhere.

Tomorrow Peggy arrives at BWI. We will pick her up in the afternoon.

Back in the Saddle Again

I am back to work after the vacation and getting settled into the rhythm of working. It's amazing how quickly I can get used to not being in the office.

Seth is really walking a lot more the last couple of days. He seems to be more confident and is going longer distances. It is fun to watch!

Hilton Head 3

Hilton Head 2

Hilton Head - Settled In

We arrived in Hilton Head late this afternoon after stopping at Santee NWR on the way down. They have quite a good dirving tour, which would be better during the waterfowl migration.

Jo Ellen and Wayne's place is very nice. They have got it fixed up well. Here are some pictures of our unit from the resort web site.

Click Here to see pictures

We had dinner at the Juniper Cafe. I had Chinese Chicken Saled and Debbie ahd Peppered Tuna. Both were good.

Hilton Head in Transit

We are in Fayettville, NC tonight on our way to Hilton Head. We had an easy drive to get here. Seth had about all of the driving he could handle for one day. We spent some time at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden this afternoon. It is pretty nice. We had a good little walk and Seth was glad to be out of the car.

Almost Ready

The bills are paid. Things are generally packed. I'm getting tired, so we must be almost ready to go.

Poaching Bandwidth - Again

I am waiting for my 9 am meeting and having a cup of coffee, so I decided to turn on my laptop and see if I could pick up a wireless network. I hit about 20. So, right now, I am posting this while sitting in a cafe at 17th and L Streets in DC.

I am really ready for a week off. We leave on Friday. If you don't count today, that means I only have one day left this week! Whoo-hoo!

Hilton Head and Ophelia

We will be leaving for Hilton Head on Friday so I decided to check on the status of Hurricane Ophelia to see if she will effect us. It looks like the storm won't be an issue except, possibly, for making a rainy drive on Friday.

Here is part of the National Weather Service report:

HURRICANE OPHELIA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 24A
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
8 AM EDT MON SEP 12 2005

...OPHELIA NEARLY STATIONARY...
...OUTER RAINBANDS VERY NEAR THE COAST OF THE CAROLINAS...

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE IN EFFECT FOR
THE SOUTHEAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES FROM NORTH OF EDISTO BEACH
SOUTH CAROLINA NORTHEASTWARD TO CAPE LOOKOUT NORTH CAROLINA.

Here is a map showing Edisto beach to the Northeast and Hilton Head to the Southwest:


And this is a link to the projected storm track as of this morning:
Click here to see storm track

Happy Birthday to Beth

We had quite a good weekend. On Sturday we drove up to Hopewell NJ to surprise Beth for her Birthday. Joe went up as well. We wandered around Princeton in the afternoon, had dinner at the Inn of the Hawk in Lambertville and came home mid-day today.

Seth seemed to really enjoy everyone's company.

He is sound asleep now.

The House is Calm

I just put Seth to bed. Debbie has gone to the grocery store. And I am sitting on the couch with some classical music playing. The house is very calm. I used to have quiet evenings like this a lot. When Debbie was working, before Seth was born, I had at least two nights a week like this. That wasn't always easy, but it was nice to have the time.

Presenting - The New Teeth!

Here they are! Two little teeth. Ta-Da!

(for a closer look click the picture)

More changes for Seth

This morning I got my first clear view of Seth's two new teeth. Yep, that's right, two new teeth. The bottom ones in the front. Mom and Debbie could feel them over the weekend and I tried to get a look several times, but the boy wouldn't show them to me. This morning I noticed that he is aware that they are there too. He kept rubbing his tongue on them.

I'll try to get a picture of them. That will be a challenge.

Interesting Day

Today we resumed work on the Smithsonian inventory. It had been on hold for about 5 weeks so that the data entry folks could catch up with us. Once again I got to see some things that I did't expect, and didn't realize were there. Most of out time today was spent in what SI calls the Quad, which is almost entirely underground. It is behind the Smithsonian Castle and includes the Freer, Sackler, and African Art Museums, as well as the Castle itself. In addition there is a huge, and I mean huge, three story office building and conference center under the ground behind the Castle. I was shocked at how big the complex is. It must have been a huge hole.

We had lunch in the "Boiler Room" which is a cafeteria that has been built in the basement of the Castle in the original boiler room. It's a pretty typical lunch counter, but not someplace that your average tourist gets to see.

Seth Walks!

Seth has been taking a step here and there over the past few days. We finally got him to put several together in a row.

Click here for the video! It talkes a little while to download so be patient.

In other news, we went for a hike to day at Black Hill regional park in upper Montgomery county today. It was a beautiful day for a walk.

Flat Tire

On our way to Fairfax yesterday to visit the parents we heard a weird sound coming from the back of the car. After getting off of the highway we discovered a flat tire. Ok, no problem, just put the spare on, right? Right! Except that the key for the wheel lock was at home in the basement. Ugh!

So I called the parents and they came and rescued us. I changed the tire and went to get a new one. We ended up having a nice afternoon and evening at our house instead of Mom and Dad's. It was a pretty good recovery for a day that started out badly.

Now the key for the wheel locks is in the trunk where it belongs. Hopefully we won't need it again.

Lost in the Translation - 2

Ok, everyone got that?

Click the picture to enlarge.

Ready for a long weekend

I am ready for Labor Day weekend. This week hasn't been particularly hard, but there have been a lot of "squeaky wheel" issues. Sometimes they are more draining than the really important things.

I feel like I haven't really taken any time off in a while and I need a little break.