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Showing posts from November, 2004

SPC Mark Thomas made it home for Thanksgiving

Mark Thomas (David Whetstone's stepbrother) was in Iraq for some months, serving with the U. S. Army. He recently was rotated back to the States (YAAAAY) and so we are all celebrating his safe return. Talk about having a great Thanksgiving!! For his part, he's celebrating by sleeping for "approximately a week" at home in Marysville, WA, and then he plans on visiting David for a couple of weeks in North Carolina. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SERVICE, SPC THOMAS!

Trading Spaces

While Tom/Emily and Loni/Dave will be enjoying the Opera next weekend, Susan/Jimmy and Tom/Jan will be trading spaces of a sort. Jimmy and I will be going to NC to visit (son)David for a few weeks. While we are gone, Tom/Jan will be leaving the cold mountains and coming down to Phoenix to enjoy a little warmth and turkey with the rest of the AZ family. They'll stay at our place while in the Valley of the Sun, but it's costly: they have to feed, water, and walk our dog while they are here!!

Tom and Emily Go To The Opera... Again

Loni, as most of you know, works at the AZ Opera, and in her generosity has offered tickets to some of this season's operas to family members.... Tom and Emily will be recipients of her kindness once again on November 20th when they will attend an operatic offering of Cinderella at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix. They were totally "wowed" at the performances of Il Tabarro and Pagliacci a few weeks ago, and Emily is chomping at the bit for next Saturday to get here.

What is a blog??

Some have called and asked me, "Just what IS a blog anyway?" Okay, in the purest of definitions, a blog is a publication of content and web links, sorted in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. The content reflects personal or corporate interests, and is almost always written by an individual. Blogs were originally called web logs or weblogs. However, as "web log" can also mean a server's log files, the term was confusing. To avoid this confusion, the abbreviation "blog" was coined, and became the common term. Blog content varies dramatically. While often it reflects what is happening in a person's life, there are many blogs used by companies to distribute content. THIS particular blog is intended to give info on what's happening in our extended family, but (at this point at least) it also seems to be home for my various ramblings. . .

Bush Won

Well Mr. Bush won the election... now I have to live up to my promises and listen to any griping, that is, if the gripee (is that a real word?) actually voted . June and I have been having a fun and lively discourse on some of the possible actions of the Administration's next term. Keep those emails coming, June!

DID YOU VOTE TODAY?

Election Day. If you're in the U.S., that is. Did you vote? If not, don't ever complain to me about anything in this great country of ours! Did I vote? Of course! By mail, weeks ago. How did I vote? Anyone who knows me knows the answer to that one... anybody else, it's none of your business. That's why it's a sealed ballot system. You vote your choice, I vote mine. Whoever gets the most votes rules for the next 4 years, then we try it all over again. Now, get out of your chair and GO VOTE . Thanks for helping make our country great!

Heavenly Music

AAAh, the Opera. It was Wonderful. The music was fantastic (we were in the third row from the orchestra pit) and the sets were absolutely beautiful. The performers were dressed perfectly for the parts, and their voices were... well, heavenly. There were a few scenes where the whole cast was singing, an outstanding choir. And the solo scenes by the main players were nothing short of passionate, beautiful, and flawlessly sung, every note a pleasure to hear. The two stories of Il Tabarro and Pagliacci are very similar -- and very dark (love triangle, hubby is outraged and murders wife and/or lover). I used to think all the unfaithful wives and aggressive women portrayed by Hollywood was just Hollywood male writers with wishful thinking, but these are not new operas. I see that Hollywood didn't start the trend of entertainment being love triangles and blaming it all on the woman. Perhaps I led an extremely sheltered life, but all the women I have ever known never behaved this w...