New Orleans!!!!

Sandy and I traveled to New Orleans on Thursday to attend the wedding of my son, David. David and Lindsey are getting married on Saturday.

We are staying at the Maison St. Charles Hotel in the Garden District of New Orleans.

After we checked in, we went to Emeril's Delmonico for dinner....

Emeril has several places and this one is more of a steak than cajun as the name delmonico might suggest....



Here is Sandy waiting for her dinner!!! in the background is the garden..... remember this is the garden district..... and a reflection of the dinning room where we ate....

Sandy had a petite fillet (aged beef) and I had lamb chops..... Dinner was yummmmmmmmy!!!!!!




In this shot, you can see some of the New Orleans architecture.





On the way back to our room we encountered a couple of cats that hang out at the hotel.... I am thinking they are mousers!!!!















This morning, Friday, we took the trolley downtown....

to Cafe de Munde

We had coffee and beignets (the kids had hot chocholet)!!!!

It was everything we expected - and we will go back tomorrow!!!!










Then we walked around and saw some sights.....

Church in the background and a garden much like the squares in Savannah!






a bridge across the Mississippi







this river boat is a ferry that crosses the Mississippi and you get to tour around.... it has a paddle wheel in the back....






Here is a tug boat







that is the paddle wheel









palm trees

and a cannon





After all these sights and some shopping we ate lunch at Bubba Gumps and then returned by trolley to the hotel...................... The bride and groom, Lindsey and David, are treating all of us travel weary guests to a Cajun buffet here at the hotel - the buffet is being put on by the Gumbo Shop.......

So for now, I will say good bye ...... cheers, john

MORE NEWS ABOUT MATT!!

There is more news about Matthew....
He is in NY at Sloan-Kettering Hospital and will begin treatments on Monday in an experimental program.
Click on his name or the following URL to see this new information... http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/

Keep praying, john

The Signs of Things to Come

These were in our yard yesterday.........




















There is a new blog about Matthew
Click on his name or follow this link to read it http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/
Please keep praying for Matt, his family, and his caregivers.
Thanks, john

The latest about Matt

this from Deanna, our administrative aide at work:

I just received a call from Matt Fay. Although he sounded a bit stuffed up with a cold (and on antibiotics for that), he said he was thinking of us and was overdue in calling. His last scan showed some increase in the size of the cancer, which is a bummer. They have sent his findings to Sloan-Kettering in Manhattan and they are hoping to see the folks up there in the next week or so. They are the leading site for his type of cancer. He will keep us posted on what they find and are able to do for him. He said he probably would be somewhat of a guinea pig (with less hair!). He has maintained his sense of humor and strong faith, which has undoubtedly kept him going. Thanks for your continued love and concern for him.

From me: Thanks to all you who have been praying for Matt this past more than a year...................Please keep praying.

Blessings, john

Special Meeting of the 4 O'Clock Club

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Our friends from Minnesota, Ruth and Rhonda, came to visit and were staying with Dennis and Marie...... We decided that the visit called for a special meeting of the 4 )'Clock club. So we invited our spouses and had the meeting........ it was a lot of fun to gather at the Acoustic Coffeehouse and have some drinks!!! Here is a picture...........

We really had a good time and can't wait for Rhonda and Ruth so we can have another special meeting........

Cheers, John

News about Matthew!!!

Following is a copy of an e-mail sent from Matt's mom to our Administrative Assistant at work:

Matthew is doing pretty well. Believe it or not, he went to North Carolina with his brother and his friends for a “ski” trip this past weekend. The doctor said it was ok for him to go. He actually got to snowboard twice. He was extremely excited and had a blast.

He had to come straight back on Monday and go to chemo. He has it everyday this week. He is worn out and a little sickish from it but hanging in there.

We are in the process with Sloan Kettering. The records have been sent. I will be calling this Friday to see what our next step is. We want to wait until Matthew gets his scan in two weeks so we can take those results with us as well. I’ll let you know when we know something definitive.

Thanks so much for your prayers and concern particularly hanging in with us for over a year now.

Please continue to pray for Matthew.... He and his family are facing huge decisions and great challenges.

Blessings, John

BOOB VS. BREAST and WEENIE VS. PENIS

Some blogger friends of mine and I have been having this rather good natured bantering in the comments of another friend who posted some pictures of famous people who have been in the news lately and he thought that, while he didn't like to think of these people as useless, they might be considered that way......... My comment was that they all looked like boobs to me!!! One of my friends comment back to me was that I shouldn't use the word boobs that way, that boobs were a good thing.... my comment back was something along the lines that the dictionary defines boobs as stupid awkward people and that I was sticking with my assessment... another friend then said that he agreed with the first person that boobs were in fact a good thing................... So here we are and I thought I would expand this conversation a little - it is a rainy day and I am bored!!!

Lets think about this a little. I certainly agree with the underlying notion that breasts are good. However, I believe that the word boobs is slang for breasts!!! Now the person with the original post had pictures and a couple of the women had low cut blouses and you could see part of their breasts - sometimes called cleavage. Actually the sixth definition in the on-line dictionary of cleavage is 6. Informal The hollow between a woman's breasts, especially as revealed by a low neckline, the first definition is 1. The act of splitting or cleaving. So, fact be know, maybe I got the idea to call the boorish people boobs form the pictures. I would have other pictures here of boobs and breasts and cleavage, but it might be offensive.

So the fact is, boobs are good when referring to breasts and not good when referring to stupid awkward people.

But I can't let it go at that, I have to make the comparison of using boobs for breasts to the use of the word weenie to represent the male penis. I, for the life of me, do not understand that. But here we have it, guess people do not want to call a breast a breast and they do not want to call a penis a penis so they call it a weenie....



Now here is the definition of weenie:

Noun
1.
weenie - a smooth-textured sausage of minced beef or pork usually smoked; often served on a bread roll
frankfurter, wienerwurst, wiener, frank, hot dog, hotdog, dog
sausage - highly seasoned minced meat stuffed in casings
Vienna sausage - short slender frankfurter usually with ends cut off
red hot, hot dog, hotdog - a frankfurter served hot on a bun

and here is a picture...... of a weenie, not of a penis.
If I put a picture of a penis here many people would really get offended, others wouldn't mind.....


So, why I have been pondering these things, I am GETTING HUNGRY!!!

And here is what I think, when referring to a hot dog, weenie is and acceptable term. But, when referring to a penis, weenie is just one more slang term like boob is when referring to breasts!!

Well, all this is leading me to say that I prefer my boobs plain and unadorned, and my weenies with mustard, chili, onions, and sauerkraut on a bun!!!!

Cheers, John

Yesterday the 4 O'Clock met - it was a beatiful day - see http://copesofjc.blogspot.com/ for a picture of the group sitting in the sun on January 8 - While we were doing that, there was a record high of that date:

Hope your day was as good as ours!!!!

Hello everybody - it is 2:47PM Eastern Time and it is........................

There are many joys of home ownership. However, correcting past mistakes is not one of them and when you live in a home that is over 110 years old there are plenty of past mistakes. In this case it was using paneling to enclose a bathtub with shower..............

We have had a problem in our upstairs bathroom with ants.... it has gone on for several months and the pest control people have tried everything they know to get rid of the ants. Finally they suggested that the paneling (wood paneling) that surrounded our bathtub [the bathtub alcove] may be part of the problem.... it had some cracks and there was some mildew around the edges.... So Sandy and I decided that we would give our bathtub alcove a make over!!!!

The day after Christmas I began ripping out the paneling that surrounded the bathtub. Not to my surprise there was rotted wood and wall board and stinky old wall paper. Ugh!!!! Also, I saw what appeared to be a dead wasps nests in the wall.... Soooo, I took my reciprocating saw and cut into the wall just under the window.... Wow!!! There was an area about 9 inches wide and 12 inches high where there was indeed a dead wasp nest - a big one!!!! and it was full of ants.... so, I sprayed the ants and sucked out the wasp nest with a straw - just kidding - it was my shop vac.... The was nest had completely replaced the insulation.....

We have not seen one ant since I removed all the yucky (not a scientific term) wood and sucked out the dead wasp nest - go figure....

I replaced the rotten wood and wall board with plywood......................

then I covered it with a plastic wall covering that I bought at Lowe's - it came in a kit called a bathtub alcove replacement kit!!!!

It worked well except for the fact that there are no square corners or straight anythings in a 110 (actually 112) year old house!!!

Here is the covering without the trim or the window frame....

and here it is with the unpainted trim and the the window frame - I used PCP wood (I think that is a contradiction) for the window frame.

And here it is finished and ready to use................

It has been a fun project and I got plenty of exercise.... Upstairs to basement over-and-over and over-and-over ........................

Now I can get ready for my Sunday School class at church and my regular classes at work...

The joys of home ownership never end...

Peace to all in the new year.... John

brrrrrrrrrrrrr -

But not as cold as MN!!!!

shots from the upstairs windows - too damn cold to go outside!!!


And Jill dog from the front poarch.

Happy New Year -

Please keep praying for Matt as he continues to have chemo.

Peace, John

ps - more on the bathroom in a day or two!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Matt

I saw Matt on Thursday, he was taking a couple of tests so that he could remove Incompletes from his record from the semester a year ago. The university requires Incompletes to be removed within a year or the become Fs. He has some facial hair but his head was bald. He was more thin then the last time I saw him. He was in a cheery mood. I got to chat with him between exams, he had to take two that day. By the time he finished the second he was extremely tired.

He told me he was having one of his regular treatments starting next Monday, the 17th. This treatment is to hold his tumor where it is now until he can have a new treatment sometime in the new year. There is a doctor in New York at Sloan-Kettering that has a new, experimental, treatment for the kind of cancer Matt has. That doctor has had some success with the treatment. It is so new, and so experimental, that you have to go to Sloan-Kettering to have it. Matt's current physician is now in the process of getting Matt into that treatment program.

Matt continues to have a positive attitude..... I can't help think that on Monday while the 4 O'Clock Club meets for a chit chat and brew and companionship that Matt will be having that treatment to hold his tumor in check. And while we spend this coming week in anticipation of the coming of the Christ.... Matt will be fending off the effects of that treatment and once more be losing his hair...

I would ask you to pause for a few seconds during this week and pray for this young man has he battles his disease. Pray that he may find the treatment that will cure his cancer.....

God bless you all, john

The 4 O'Clock Club and the Acoustic Coffee House

Dennis and Michael have blogged about our 4 O'Clock Club's last meeting, yesterday, at the Acoustic Coffee House. I could not possibly add anything worth while to what they have said. However, here are some pictures from our special meeting in November that made up for Joe having to miss our regular meeting..... Unfortunately, Michael was abscent and I have been reluctant to post these pictures because he is not in them....... Here they are anyway with my apologies to Michael....

here we are: Form left to right Joe, Sam, John and Dennis...........

It is a wonderful time that we share.....priceless really!!!

Merry Christmas to all, john

Happy Thanksgiving To All....

Of course, it is the day after thanksgiving...... shopping is happening, bread is baking, etc., etc., etc.....

Yesterday I grilled a turkey..... We went to Sandy's family for lunch at noon!!!

I was the only one cooking a turkey so the pressure was on....It was up at 5ish.....as you can see, my eyes were blurry (couldn't possibly be the camera...)

Then is was start the grill so is it could warm up... and get out the turkey..... the timer, the seasoning for the turkey, and some of the ingrediants for the gravey....

the turkey weighed 18.88 lbs...... Next we have the turkey in the sink after I washed it off and sprinkled it with seasoning.....

Looked pretty much like a turkey... at 6:00 am, I put the turkey on the grill..... this turkey had one of those little pop-up thingies....but not trusting that, I also used my tempature probe in the other breast.... Here it is on the grill....
The next step in cooking on my Holland grill is to close the lid and wait until the tempature probe tells me the turkey has reached the correct tempature...... So in the meantime I will start the gravey......I found this receipe in a Cajun cookbook - it is called Werstershire gravey... I am not going into a lot of detail other than it tasted good whein it was finished... and oh yeah, I did use the rest of the the turkey that came in the package.....

..... While the turkey was cooking Sandy prepared spinach salad and squash caserol and, I worked on the gravey......

The turkey finished cooking shortly after 10AM.... And here it is...

Inspector cob is looking over it....... We covered it with foil and finished our other preparations and left for turky lunch/dinner at Sandy's family..... We had a great time, ate lots of terrific food, gave thanks for the many blessings we have and came home.... It was a wonderful time.... Oh, and the turkey was a big hit, it was moist and tasted good too..... I used my grandfather's carving set to care it up before we ate

Then the fun started winding down, we packed up and came home at halftime of the first football game!!! When we unpacked we discovered the remains of the turkey....... and as you can see, inspector cob is pleased!!!!Well - happy day to all of you.... keep being thankful for all the wonders of this world and expectations of the next... and remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another. Love and peace, john

I don't usually ask for favors, but I am asking all of my friends to go to the blog about Matt Fay and leave a comment durning this difficult time for Matt and his family. I know that they appreciate all of your uplifting comments - and thanks M. for leaving yours..... here is the link - http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/

You will recall that Matt is a student at the college where I teach and he works in my department. He was within a semester of completing his degree. Last year he contracted a rare form of cancer, passed along genetically, and has been fighting ever since. He has been having chemo for over a year and apparently will continue to do so...... He needs all of our thoughts and prayers. So tell your friends to pray for Matt and his family.

Thanks and blessings to you all. John

There is new information about Matt Fay.. follow this link http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/ Please keep praying.

thank you, john

This and That!!!

These are our inflateable gohsts...... we used them on our deck this year and also in the back of the truck for Trunk or Treat!!!

Our not so scary scare crow!!!

100 pumkins all in a row - all dressed up and ready to go -
To the Coalition for Kids!!!!

Jill on a field trip!!

Trunk of treaters getting some pumpkins!!

A trunk decoration..............

Another Trunk or Treator!!!!

Our less than spectacular fall colors!!!

Peace to you all, John