22 posts tagged “linda”
i heard on the new this morning that the funds for the official Flight 93 Memorial have been appropriated. that's good.
i have also heard that the design is controversial....
Linda and i rode up there on our motorcycle trip a couple weeks ago and thought the simple, make shift memorial was pretty moving as it is.... a place of much grieving, and thought, and appreciation, and prayer.... we were very happy we made the trip....
this is the view that we saw at the site. hey had a picture of this design hanging inside the guard booth there.
now from what we saw there, the design that i'd seen on the inter-web about a crescent is a distorted part of the whole. there is a part of the plan called "the bowl" that the controversy is taken out of.... now maybe some things were changed;... but from what we saw a crescent, especially a muslim crescent, is not what the memorial will look like.....
i'm sure we'll make another trip or two up there in the future to see what develops... in the mean time, here are a few pictures of what we saw that day....
here's Linda reporting from Purple Door Fest in Pennsylvania.
her son, James, graduated from college! yay! with a degree in accounting. he's already got a good job lined up and he's going to be fine... he also got engaged this week to his sweetheart, the lovely Barbara T. and, it so happens that Barbara also graduated at the same time and same school with a degree in finance.... nice, huh?!... big week end...
so i flew up on Friday evening to Chicago...
on Saturday we got up kinda early and headed to the college for the graduation. we met up with Linda's sister there and then, after the cerimonies, with lots more family.
James' and Barbara's...
John, James brother, and his girl friend, Jamie, made the trip up from near Philly. and Barbara's parents and brother were there. also James and John's dad came from New Jersey with his kids, 10 yr old twins iirc. and we all took lots of pictures. :-)
next we drove out to see Linda's mom and dad and took John and Jamie with us and Carol, Linda's sis, and had lunch. it was nice for them to see their grandson John since he's not up there too often. he and Jamie had a good week end too. it was Jamie's first time in Chicago and John took her on a long walking tour the day before and they took lots of touristy pix with their beautiful new camera..... :-)
then Saturday night James and Barbara hosted a big party at her parents house... family came out in force. lot's of Barbara's family were there, and James had a good showing too. me, Linda, Carol, Linda's Mom & Dad, James' Uncle Dave, Uncle Jim, James' dad and the twins, brother John & Jamie... and a good time was had by all!
we all got to say congrats for graduating and getting engaged...
and company and the food were really good! Barbara and her family are Polish and the food was mostly Polish dishes and fantastic. i also really enjoyed her family. lots of fun, delightful folks. i hope to be invited back for more parties! :-)
Linda and i left the party 'round 10:30 as it was winding down... but, as we passed the movie theaters on the way home, we decided to see if it was too late to catch the new Star Trek film. yay, there was a showing starting in about 10 minutes so we got our tickets and enjoyed the heck out of it!
the new ST was lots of fun, good movie... :-)
then on Sunday i got up, packed up, drove to the airport, called my Mom, and flew home.
Linda and i had a nice weekend! i flew up on Thursday and we hung out at her hair shop on Friday until we left for the marriage conference where we spent the rest of the week end.
Family Life Ministries does a nice marriage retreat called "a Weekend to Remember." it runs from Friday night to Sunday at lunch time. we've been to a few of these marriage week ends but this one was the best i'd say. i was telling Linda that and i said that, i thought it was the best one we'd been to but not because the leaders where any better. it must be all the prayer that went into the planning and the event. the material was very good and the leaders were very good too, but i could feel the Spirit and the prayer moving over the event. :-)
through the study material, Linad and i had a couple good conversations and projects that we worked on. on Saturday night we had a date night and Linda and i ordered room service, a steak dinner, and then we went out to see a movie. we saw "I Love You, Man." it was fun. Sunday morning they split us up for a men's meeting and a women's meeting, and then brought us back together to finish the week end....
on Sunday we made our annual trip to DC to visit the White House, the National Christmas Tree, and the Nat'l Fire Pit.
then we went to dinner and a play at the Kennedy Center. we saw "Sheer Madness," it was a lot of fun...
the White House Visitors Center
it was a good year at the fire pit.
so last week end i did go to Chicago and i did see Linda and i did have a good time...
these are a couple of pics of the Republican Party offices in Evanston, Ill. and the GOP County Committeeman.
we went to the office a couple of times so Linda could get some work done that needed to be done...
Sunday was the big day. Church in the morning was wonderful. the whole orchestra was there with the praise band and the choir. good stuff. after church we had another, even bigger musical experience waiting. Linda's Mom, Jean, is in a community choir and orchestra that was doing a concert that afternoon. it was fantastic. the orchestra was huge and and choir was even huger! they did a variety of classical and not so classical music and i really enjoyed it...
i'm flying up to Chicago tomorrow evening. i'm going up for Linda's Mom's 80th birthday. that'll be nice, but mostly i'm excited to see Linda again. i haven't seen her for three months.... that's a long time!!... i hope she recognizes me at the airport. i've changed a little. my hair is longer. i've gained weight. i have more tattoos. i'm shorter but my arms are longer. i wear an eye patch now. i walk with a pronounced limp because of my peg leg. i got rhinoplasty done then i grew a beard from my eyebrows down. i have a mohawk and a nose ring but not on my face.... but i think she'll be able to pick me out of a line up.....
we'll see tomorrow evening i guess.... just look for the guy in permanent KISS make up.
:-)
i went up to Milwaukee this week end for the Harley Davidson anniversary. i flew up Thursday, Linda picked me up, and we drove directly to the Lloyd's house. they were kind enough to offer thier fold out couch in the tv room to us, and that was really nice. big thank you to the Lloyds!
we got the party started right away.... as soon as we dropped off our bags, we headed out to a near by town that was having a party. we ate some BBQ and Pizza and saw Blues Traveler in concert. good show, "fawkin awesome."
speaking of shows.... over the next couple of days, mostly Friday, we saw Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, War, Los Lonely Boys, Black Crowes, and the Boss - Bruce Springstein. we also kinda looked towards ZZ Top, but that show was a bust because they were put in a much smaller stage area than they needed. it was sooooo packed that we didn't get anywhere close. so as we moved past the stage trying to get in, but failing, we heard a couple of songs but didn't see anything. so we just headed over to Los Lonely Boys, who were very good! the Black Crowes are good too, more of a jam band than i thought they'd be. War was fantastic. and i enjoyed BRMC a lot too. Bruce played for more than 3 hours and that was a really good show too. we hung out with Shari's brothers and family at that show as they were all there, and had fun. i was definitely glad we went to see him.
the concerts and some other events are at a place called "Summerfest Grounds." a pretty cool area full of stages and food courts. and last week end, bikers!
Saturday was a big day for us too. we hit the road early and went by Milwaukee Harley to see what was going on there. it was quite different from the official events since the Harley dealer was next door to a strip club and they were sharing a parking lot. they had the world's biggest beer bong there, and a carnival atmosphere that the official events didn't have. at the Harley events everyone was calm, cool, and friendly... nothing that would make Linda uncomfortable, like at the dealer/strip club gathering. but we picked up some t-shirts at the dealer and then headed over to the venue that was having demo rides. the demo rides were about the best part of the week end. they allowed passengers so i rode with Linda and once with Shari. we got to ride the new Fat Bob, the Heritage, a Road King, and the new Trike. we were very happy with all the rides. good times... on Friday we were wondering where all the bikes were? it was more about hanging out, eating, and shows. but Saturday we found the bikes. and it was sweet.
we also went to two of the factory tours, but only had time to walk through one. we picked up some t-shirts there too. i ended up with about five t-shirts from this week end.
