Xcalak, Mexico

Xcalak Mexico is on the southern end of the Yucatan near Belize. This was our third year to go down and we plan to go back again next year.













No TV, no radio, no phones. You get to eat, sleep, dive, snorkel, read, and there is the option to do ocean fly fishing. We affectionately call our daily gathering before dinner "happy hour." We recall the events of the day and share snacks and adult beverages.












The restaurant onsite serves fresh fish daily. They catch themselves. Here, the proprietor throws fish scraps to the frigate birds.

I love it here!

Had a great trip and visit with family and friends from around the country. Our next trip is tentatively scheduled for late February or early March. TBD. A hurricane passed through the area last year...the resort itself did ok but we could see differences in the landscape to some extent.


This year, I drove to Chicago and then took a direct flight to Cancun with Marilou. From Cancun, we piled into two vans and drove for 5 or so hours to the remote fishing village near Belize. There were 14 of us in total. Uncle Paul was sufficiently recovered from his knee surgery to dive. Josh successfully completed his discovery dive class and was able to go out for some deeper dives. It was great.

Josh after his first real dive.

Uncle Paul's birthday was earlier this week on the 23rd. But the plan was to surprise Marilou who has a landmark birthday in May. It was fun.

Someone grabbed my camera.

It was nice to come home to spring!

hummingbirds

Dean has had hummingbirds in Bloomington already...time to put up your feeders. Keep them clean and refresh them frequently!

Arthur E and Richard J

I received a letter today from Aunt Ruth Ann about cousin Art. He passed away in February at the age of 95. Most of us have been to the farmhouse where Art lived and where Dad was born. Dad was born on Art's 10th birthday. Art and his sister Esther had to wait in the barn during the birth.

Richard J was a cousin who was in Mom and Dad's wedding. He passed away on april 6 at the age of 82. Ruth Ann says Richard was especially close to Dad because he was closely related to Don E.

Margaret

NCAC 2008

This post is long overdue, since NCAC Conference was back in February. Better late than never!

This is the pool where the Conference meet is held. I believe it was in Canton?

On deck, ready to get in.

Warming up for the race!

The 100 Freestyle sprint

Napping between events

Margaret predicted a color change... here are the results! Don't worry, it's not permanent, and the fierce mohawk intimidated the competition. :P

Nothing in this sport is possible without the team! Me with my assistant coach and team captains. (note the bald head... most of the guys shave completely!)

The guys celebrating our results! 4th place is a big deal in our Conference, and we even beat our rival school Wooster.

All and all, we had a great season, with 90% of the team getting lifetime bests in one or more event. We got three swimmers to make B cuts, broke 4 pool records, and sent one of our guys to Nationals! I made lifetime bests in all three of my events: 50 free, 100 free, 200 free. I have had a great time, and will be continuing with my swimming career through college.

Harrison Highlights

Mary has accepted a position at the Cleveland Clinic on day shift. She works mostly a normal human schedule although her commute is an hour each way. She is on the tranplant team performing all of the tests necessary to insert organs from one human being to another. Her training at OSU impressed her new employer and now she is there.

David is in the wacky world of corporate buyouts. Yesterday the Associate Vice President who used to be over him visited his department and begged all the customer service representatives to come join him. Dave is no longer scrambling for a job. He has an interview for a Personal Lines Underwriter position on Tuesday so he might end up with some choices, but the good news is he has a job July 1.

Dave and Jane's Plymouth Voyager died Saturday of a broken transmission. At 204,000 we decided it wasn't worth a new transmission. Any leads on a good cheap car would be appreciated as we are scrambling for wheels.

Dave

Family Updates

Grace has been doing ballet lessons and loves it. They have a recital on Tuesday April 15th for anyone interested in coming. I am sure she would love to see you. (Please call for times and location).


Also, Grace's school has a Variety show every year. There were several acts and some very talented kids at her school. Obviously we have our faves..

More on foals

I'm talking baby horses...(colts and fillies)

Willow had a filly. It is her first born. She already has a name >>> Sugar! It's because she is so Sweet! Sorry for no picture but she is all legs, sort of pumpkin colored with a big white blaze on her face. She is fearless and curious.

blintzes on Mapleleaf

Scott, Christine, Olivia, and Christopher came for dinner tonight. We are worlds apart on culinary tastes but found common ground on breakfast (for dinner). I learned how to make a blintz. It's kind of like a crepe. Not bad...I'll do them again.

After dinner we all ended up in my den/orchid room. Scott was watching Xavier basketball in their gallant effort swan dive in the "elite eight." Christine liked it in there because it is warm...So it was very close, cozy, and fun. We watched basketball, chatted, and played with my new finger puppets from IKEA.

It took me a half hour to realize Christopher lost his beard.

IKEA

You can't miss it when you head up i-75...big as life. They opened about 10 days ago and since I was off work today, I decided to venture into the fray. It was busy! I was standing in the check-out line after 3 hours of browsing and a little girl behind me said "why is everything here Swedish?" I just smiled.

I didn't try the cafeteria or check out the childrens play room. I just shopped. I came a way with a catalogue and ideas and some future purchases to consider. I see some much needed closets and library shelves for this old house in my future. I only picked up a couple little things today. It should be high on anyone's list if you are looking to remodel or get new furnishings or improve your surroundings. Oh...and to mom and dad, they have 49 cent tiny stuffed toys for well-behaved children.

Margaret

Wildlife in our back yard.

This is a juvenile hawk on our back porch last summer.

Here you can see the color is coming back to the Goldfinches. Did this Cardinal use too much lipstick?

This little guy is either a Downy Woodpecker or
a Hairy Woodpecker. They're virtually identical except for size.

This is a Northern Flicker, never seen here before or since. We had to look it up to figure out what it was. We first thought it to be a woodpecker.

Its a boy - name contest

Not really a contest but Sandi is holding out for just the right name.

As you know, Olivia and I have been taking riding lessons since last June. For a long time, I was riding Sassy a 19 year old pregnant mare. Every week she got bigger and it was harder to tighten her girth (or find one big enough for her). I rode her up until she went on maternity leave a couple months ago, I had to get used to riding a skinny horse again.

It seemed like a long wait to meet him...but I can't imagine how mama felt being pregnant that long. Anyway...he's a beauty !!!
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He is very dark brown...almost black. He has a faint star on his forehead but is otherwise unmarked. Sandi is about my height so you can see how tall he is. He is all legs. He is less than a week old in this snap. Mama is compelety unconcerned about sharing her colt with visitors. He was born toothless but you can already see his teeth emerging at the gum line. His coat is so soft.

He still is un=named. Sandi loves hearing suggestions and she has gotten a bunch. Mama is named Sassy for a reason. All her foals have had punky attitudes. The front runners for names right now are "spindles" and "felix". He will have a more formal name for the show ring. Let me or Olivia know if you have a brainstorm.

pix 2 share

This is a picture from the Father Daughter Dance

This is the wall paper on our pc.

Just stuff to make you smile. : )

Lenten Rose - Hellebore

One of the coolest plants in my yard...Lenten Rose. It blooms in the time margin between winter and spring. It is evergreen...the leaves you see in the photos are from last year. It spreads by seed but is not invasive. One of its best attributes is the deer won't touch it. The leaves are thick, leathery and have a spiny edge. And it is one my favorite harbingers of spring.

After taking these photos, I cut off the old leaves, just leaving the flower stems. This gives a better flower display and in a few weeks, all new leaves will emerge.

Lenten Rose will thrive in shade to almost full sun. I'm told they don't like to be transplanted, but so far I haven't had any problem with it. The leaves fill in and can make a nice (tall) groundcover. An individual mature plant is 14-18" tall and 18-30" wide.

They come in a limited pallette of colors...whites, greens, pinks, and maroons. But sometimes they are spotted (my spotty ones haven't bloomed yet). They tend to hang their heads down so they aren't flashy.

These will be open soon.

A critter broke this one off. I will stick it in a vial and wear it to work tomorrow. It is a little more white than the photo shows, but it does have green tones. The specks are just dirt.

Hellebore flowers can be brought indoors as cut flowers. But because they hang their heads down, the best way to display them is to float the blossoms in a bowl of water like water lilies.

Dean, you have these by your front doorstep (at least you did before the new garage). Christine, you might have them too.

Under the snow

Just last week, we had about a foot of snow. Weren't the snaps of Grace, Sara, and Griffin great!!! No snowmen or kids at my house...just snow.



Spring officially rolls in Thursday this week but it has been creeping into my yard for the last several weeks. The birds are singing territory and courtship songs. The groundhog crawled out (believe it or not I saw him Feb 3, the day after groundhog day).

But the true sign of spring is when the flowers open. And omigosh there are still fall leaves on top of everything. Time to get busy.

Witchazel is a shrub. This one is fragrant but it has only been in the ground 1.5 years so it doesn't put out a lot of flowers yet. I have to get up close to it to enjoy the smell. I have another one that blooms sort of orange.


Snow drops...galanthus. Johnika has them in Sweden too.
This clump was here when I moved in. Amazing little clump in the middle of the yard way out in the back. I love these guys. They defy winter and they last and last. The squirrels have eaten most of the bulbs I tried to plant. I haven't given up. Just need to defend them better.

Mileposts again.

Brrrr.... Chilly day for a ride in the country. The high temperature for the day was upper thirties.

Milepost 357 between Springfield, OH and Urbana, OH.

This Milepost is just south of Loveland Ohio.

Technology is a wonderful thing, in the hands of somebody who knows what they're doing. Obviously not my hands. This was supposed to be with the following post "Mileposts R Us."

Mileposts R Us

We love to ride bike paths converted from abandoned railroads. Sometimes we see remnants of the former residents. We've developed a fondness for mileposts.

Surviving White Death 2008

So with the 'white death of 2008' we found ourselves all at home and playing in the snow.










...even Griffin!

If you watch TV at all, you will see that everything in the world is closed. Well just so you know, we at Britton Ave are all well and alive and open for business. If you venture out in the blizzard, feel free to stop by for some cocoa or maybe some chili.

Blue Ribbon Affair

The local orchid show this past weekend was fun. I helped out Friday and Saturday and I brought two plants in for our club display. Since we are the host club, we had a lot of plants and we set up two displays. I received a blue ribbon for the white "moth" orchid (phalaenopsis) which had 2 spikes, 19 flowers, and 4 buds to go. It only competed against other white moth orchids.


I received a second place for my orange-red "Blazing Treat." I had 2 spikes...I saw a relative of the cultivar that had maybe 20 spikes...


My friend Toni was awarded a blue ribbon and trophy for best of class for this beauty (at the top with the ribbon). the flowers were at least 5 inches across.

Visit from Jay's crew

Jay, Michelle, and crew came to Mapleleaf for dinner last week. We had a lot of fun and a great visit. As usual, Sara didn't want to have her picture taken (at least by me). I think she's just messing with me. Our family is so big...I think I like these smaller family dinner parties...it gives me a chance to catch up and visit more on a one on one. The girls had their jammies on when they left. It was late for them, dad said they were asleep before they got home (2-3 miles?).

New Look

Hi everybody! I haven't posted anything in a while, gotta make up for lost time!

I am doing well in college this semester. One of my New Years resolutions was to complete my homework BEFORE the day it is due, and I have been keeping up with that pretty well, despite my deeply entrenched procrastination habit. I have officially declared (ooh, scary!) and I am now a Psychology Sociology double major with an English minor. I think I may be overachieving just a little bit, but I feel confident that I can keep it together.

I am still going strong with swimming. The NCAA Conference meet is only a week away, and we are all getting prepared for that. It is the final meet of our season, sorta like a swim team Super Bowl. I am really excited to compete, and I am expecting to get at least one life time best from this meet.

And now for some really BIG news. This is something I haven't even disclosed to my parents yet, so surprise mom and dad! I cut my hair!

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Nyes, shocking isn't it? Incidentally, I have been wanting to cut my hair super short for over a year now. My inspiration comes from the movie V for Vendetta, when Natalie Portman gets a buzz cut. Also Stacy (I mean Kat...) when she came home a couple Christmases ago with a shaved head. Both times I thought they looked great, and really wanted to do it myself. However, I was talked out of it by everyone I mentioned it to. People really hated the idea, especially mom. So, I compromised by waiting a really long time, and by not completely shaving my head. A mohawk is a nice alternative. So far, despite everyone's pessimism on the idea beforehand, I have gotten nothing but good comments on it. I am really quite surprised how well all my friends have accepted it.

Well, that's me. At least for a few months until it grows back in a little bit.