So we’re back from our 4 day adventure at Disney World. It was great fun! The kids had a good time (we think) and the two parents enjoyed no work for 4 days. I even deleted the work account from my iPhone to make sure I didn’t check email.

Of course, no vacation is perfect and we’re all back with some varying degree of coughing. Zandra and Andrew are the worst off.

But to prove at least the kids were there, here’s a picture of the kids with Pluto at breakfast.



More pictures later!

Tags: Andrew, Declan

Hooray! We had Andrew’s Birthday Party today and we survived!



Zandra made an ice cream cake (yummy!) and Andrew had some of his school friends over. I’ve posted pictures here.

Tags: Andrew

Andrew performed in his first violin concert the other night. Dad was very proud.



Even better - good form on bowing and left wrist for this camera shot! And Andrew followed dad's advice - at least start and finish at the same time as everyone else.

I'll post a few more pictures in the picture section when I get a chance. I've got a few weeks worth of pictures to post.

Tags: Andrew

My friend Fourth Breakfast made a comment recently about never knowing I played the violin. I'm positive she forgot. I think we crossed that path once before when reviewing the odd similarities in our lives....but nonetheless, here's an answer for her and others who might (or might not) have been interested.



So the story about the violin. Recently, Andrew started playing violin at school. It's offered at our local elementary school starting in 3rd grade. First thing you need in order to play the violin is, well, a violin. A friend suggested I just get one off eBay. I disagreed with that. Having played violin myself for well over 15 years, you don't just buy a violin like an iPod. You have to audition it. They don't let you do that on eBay....

I happened upon a local violin store. Gailes Violin Shop in College Park which isn't too far from us. The moment I walked in I knew this was the right store. Violin shops, in my opinion, have a certain atmosphere, including smell. It smelled like a violin shop. Some nice mixture of rosin, wood, along with sounds of instruments being played in a wonderfully silent environment. I spent a fun hour trying out the quarter-sized violins before selecting one for Andrew.

The experience made me decide to dust my old violin off and get it back into playing shape.

I have faithfully carried my violin in its case around, by hand, for 18 years. It has always moved in the back seat or trunk of the car. So it actually was in pretty good shape. I needed a bow rehair, new strings, and a little adjustment to the bridge. Otherwise, the violin was amazingly just as I left it when I closed the case 18 years ago. Opening the case and getting the instrument tuned up was quite like rediscovering an old friend.

Getting the violin to the violin store was how I discovered it fit in the boot of the Mini, by the way. It happened to be the car with gas in it that day.

Andrew and I are now practicing together, with my hopes that not only will Andrew keep up with the violin, but that I'll get enough rust out of the fingers to actually join an ensemble or some other local group. I have discovered, though, that my double-jointed pinky fingers haven't gotten any better with age...

Tags: Andrew

Last Thursday, Andrew and I had a chance to visit and ride on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad originating in Cumberland, MD. It was a great chance to spend time together and to for me to get out of the office for a day.

The excursion starts as a 1 hour train ride from Cumberland, MD to Frostburg, MD on tracks from the original Western Maryland and C&P railroads. On our trip, we were pulled by a Western Maryland diesel locomotive, but other trains are pulled by steam engines. Below is a particularly scenic shot taken in Frostburg.



More pictures can be found at http://www.stickman.org/Pictures/Pictures-2007/WMR/

After the 1 hour train ride, the train engine is turned around on a turn table (you get to watch!) and you are then given an hour and a half to eat lunch and explore Frostburg. One of the neat attractions in Frostburg was the Thrasher Carriage Museum which houses various restored horse-drawn carriages and sleighs. There's also plenty of scenery to enjoy in the surrounding area and town. You then go back to Cumberland on the same train you came in.

It was a 2.5 hour drive from our house to Cumberland, but I think we'll be going back. In the fall, I think the scenery should be spectacular and the people all around were friendly and made the trip thoroughly enjoyable.

Tags: Andrew

Happy Birthday Andrew!



What's not shown is the "Busted Balloon Incident". Zandra bought Andrew this huge mylar balloon which also played "Happy Birthday" when you thumped it. It lasted all of 60 seconds in our house as Andrew, totally by accident, walked under the ceiling fan with his new balloon. Ooops.

We did buy him another one today and it's now safely tied up in his bedroom. Away from the ceiling fan.

Tags: Andrew