Million Dollar Baby

I did not realize that Lucia Rijker, (Billie, the Blue Bear) was a professional fighter, until I looked her up on Intenet Movie Database. She was junior welterweight boxing champion of the Women's International Boxing Federation (WIBF). Her record was 15-0, with 14 knockouts, as of February 16, 2002. I also did not know she was a four-time World Champion kickboxer with a 36-0 record...25 victories were first-round knockouts. Remind me not to get in the ring with her. I don't think she will ever be an abused housewife. I hope for his sake that her husband treats her nice.

Trippin' 1000

Finally my blog has tripped 1000! This is a big deal for me, as I seem to be running behind some others that I have been reading. I watched Million Dollar Baby last night. It didn't turn out like I had expected or hoped. I won't say any more so that I won't spoil it for those of you who would like to see it. Here is a shot of Maggie fighting that German girl who fights dirty. I won't say any more. L8r.

Dennis Tart Leaving Hanes

Dennis Tart is leaving Hanes Dye after 25 years. He will be moving to Wilmington with his wife Peggy and daughter Valerie in a matter of months. Dennis has done a great job in our environmental compliance area, and we hate to see him go, but we also wish him good success. In case any of you are wondering what Valerie and Dennis are signing, its the Wolfpack sign for NC State. Go Pack!

Building update

Here is what the house looks like on our street as of this AM. Today they put quite a bit of tar paper on the roof. As you all know, I will keep you posted.

Nifty watch-phone

I had always thought that it would be neat to have a watch-phone like Dick Tracy has. This is not what I had in mind, though. What do you think?

This watch, the CEC GSM F88, has a color display, speakerphone, 3-megapixel camera, and weighs a mere 3.5 ounces. How much is this amaze-o-phone? Try $1,100. Not available here, don't even ask for it.

I think I'll wait.

Building on our street

Well, there is this house being built up the street, and you know I had to take a few pics to show y'all the progress. I know this won't be as exciting as watching grass grow, but here it is. I'll try to give a couple more updates, but it seems to be going up pretty fast.

Back to Mount Vernon

I believe there was a gentleman in the back asking if I had made it down to the landing. I stated that we did, and it proved to very informative. Just before heading that way we observed the children enjoying dressing in the clothes of that period. Notice George's coach in the next shot. And then there were the field workers. Notice the size of those radishes! And then there is the field of flax. I hate to admit that I have two degrees in textiles and have never seen flax growing in the field! Cotton, yes, but not flax. Now I did know that flax was used in making linen. After all, I do know some things. That is what most of their clothes were made of back then. That just proves that one is never too old to learn. Every day we must learn something. I didn't take any pics of the sixteen-sided barn, but this was very innovative. A guide told us that there were a couple of ways to get the wheat from the "straw." One was to beat it out using a flail, which is a long piece of wood with another piece of wood attatched by a piece of leather, (which was very hard work. And the other was to let the horses trample over it outside. This tended to bury the wheat in the mud. So George came up with the idea of making this barn with strips of wood and spaces in between. The horses would trample over the wheat a foot or two deep, and the grain would fall down below where it could be easily gathered. Old George kinda reminds you of some other intelligent people back then doesn't he?

Hitchhiker's Guide

So I suppose I had better tell you about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as I had promised. My older son saw one or two movies in his youth and exclaimed at the end, "Best movie ever made!!" These are not the words I would use to rate this movie. I suppose that this one would appeal to the younger generation, in that it seems to be a take-off of the Star Wars movies, or the science fiction in general, or at least the ones involving space travel. As you can see from some of thes pics, there are very close similarities to some of the characters. The Vogon creature depicted in the Title shot there looks like he could be a distant relative of some of the creatures we saw in the bar at Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine in Star Wars. And the little white robot is a fat miniature of the storm troopers, with the exception that he has a very large Charlie Brown-like head, and I mean no disrespect whatsoever to Charlie Brown. It seems that the Vogon spacecraft is taken from Independence Day (ID4) just from the size of the vessel alone. So this must be a take-off on most all sci-fi flicks.
And that is all I have to say about that.

Mount Vernon, again

Well now, back to Mount Vernon. Here we have a pic of the cook's area, and then a shot of the overseer's office. As we came out the back of the mansion, (no pics allowed inside) we saw these men working to restore the outside. They are plastering sand to the surface of the wood. (This is called faux.) And then you can see the lovely view looking from the rear of the mansion of the evergreen tree with the Potomac River in the background.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I interrupt these posts on the Mt. Vernon tour to bring you this important info. Back in October, my sister had a Halloween party, which was also her birthday party. So we all dressed up for Halloween to celebrate. There was a friend of her two girls, John, who came as Arthur, a character from the movie, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I had never heard of this movie, and I thought that I ought to check it out since I was one of the few that was in the dark. I picked up the DVD at the library, and will watch it tonight, so be prepared for a review tomorrow.

Mount Vernon

Finally I am getting around to posting our visit ot Mount Vernon, the home and estate of George and Martha Washington. (This was on Monday June 5.) We decided to take the slave tour first as it was just about time for one to start as soon as we arrived. I enjoy hearing the history on any tour such as this, and this tour guide was very informative. She made no apology for the fact that George and Martha owned slaves, even though the inherited them. The black and white photo is of a slave called Tom. The color shot is one of a slave named Hercules, George's favorite cook. The guide told how it would have been impossible to keep up a place such as Mt. Vernon without any help. The brick building shown behind the magnolias is the slave quarters. The middle section, known as the greenhouse was destroyed and it was rebuilt with brick from the White House when President Truman restored it in the 1950s. The boxwood is Asian Boxwood, not what the Washingtons had originally. That was English Boxwood, but for some reason, it died and they could not get it to grow again.

Billy Graham Statue

I must interrupt my posts of my trip to DC two weekends ago to tell about the last two nights at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Greensboro, NC that my wife and I were able to attend. Last night a statue of Billy Graham was unveiled, and it is entitled ROOM AT THE CROSS. I must say I was a little apprehensive at first, that is before it was unveiled. I thought there would those who would criticize the making of this work of art, saying that this is an idol, which if that were true, would be against the very first of the TEN COMMANDMENTS. I really don't think that there is anything to be concerned about, once you have observed it. First of all, Dr. Graham has said many times that we should not receive any glory, any praise for doing God's work. God alone is worthy to receive praise and honor and glory. Secondly just look at what is being portrayed: Rev. Graham is holding a Bible, the Word of God in his hand. He has both hands outstretched as he is preaching the Word, trying to reach everyone for the sake of the Gospel. On a stone at his feet are the words from John 3:16 "FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON..." Behind him is the cross, the subject of every evangelistic message preached by Billy Graham. We are all thankful that he allowed himself to be used of God in such a magnificent way to reach so many for eternity. Below I have copied the text from the SBC website:
"Room at the cross"
By Jonathan Blair
“There’s Room at the Cross for you,” a sculpture of Billy Graham -- a stone at his feet displaying the words of John 3:16 -- was unveiled June 14 during the final session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C. The sculpture was created by Terrell O’Brien -- a bi-vocational pastor whose church and studio are in Wyoming.

I will have to take time for another post to share more of what we were able to witness at these meetings.

One more thing...

I thought police were supposed to obey the law too. Isn't there something about not parking by a fire hydrant?

Reagan National Airport

This was a nice stop on the way back from eating in Alexandria, and you can see a takeoff or a landing about every minute or so. I thought I did a pretty good job of snapping this bird flying right overhead here. It really is surprising that they allow specatators here when something could go terribly wrong, but I suppose that could happen just about anywhere, we just don't realize it because these "accidents" don't happen every day.

Hard Times Cafe

One weekend ago (Sat. June 3) we went to eat in Alexandria on King Street, in a place called Hard Times Cafe. This place had a lot of character, with a Juke Box, and old movie ads on the walls. I was particularly interested in the one named, Woman They Almost Lynched, starring John Lund and Audrey Totter, circa 1953. We went upstairs to eat and there were cartoons on the wall, and all of them seemed to revolve around a chili theme. I have to confess that I took too many pics in the restaurant, and at some point I did have to stop and eat. The chili was very good, and the four of us had all we could eat.

CARS

Pat and I went to see Cars Friday night and it was everything we had hoped it would be. I am sure that true Nascar racing fans will get more out of this than the average person. A lot of kids were there (even at the 9:00 show) and they laughed long and loud the cracks they made. If you are a car enthusiast of any kind, you will enjoy this movie. (Notice I said movie, not film, which is something you wipe off of your windshield.) The truck named Mater (as in Tow-mater without the tow) definitely has the most character of anyone. He is an old rusty tow truck that runs of 6 or 7 cylinders most of the time. He has a real southern accent for someone who lives way out west somewhere off of I-40 and it used to be on the ever popular Route 66. I fully recommend Cars to anyone and I am going to have to watch it on DVD next so that I can hear the jokes that came after the first one in each scene because there was so much laughter that I couldn't hear. Gentlemen, start your engines! I suppose now with women getting behind the wheel we are going to have to modify that. Don't get the king started.

Sunday at the Capitol

Over the weekend we stayed with Dale and Mary Susan in Alexandria. Dale is Pat's cousin. They have been such gracious hosts for several of our trips to the DC area. Dale is pastor at Downtown Baptist Church in Alexandria. The pic of the church is of Capital Hill Baptist in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, where Ben and Sarah are members. We were able to worship both morning and evening with them since we were not leaving until Monday.

Zoo three

Now don't be making fun of the folks that believe we came from monkeys or apes (the Darwinists) 'cause they have feelings too. The real interesting creature here is called a Mara, its kind of a cross between a rabbit and a deer. Its smaller than a fawn and bigger than a rabbit. Very interesting.

Zoo Two

Here I have shown a ring-tailed lemur, a couple of gibbons, an aligator, a seal, and a turtle which was actually in the lemur cage. The lemurs would hop somewhat like a rabbit, but they moved so much more quickly. They were very playful and fun to watch. The two gibbons in this pic stayed together for quite a while, and it looked like the white one was eating bugs off of the dark ones head.

Zoo

Before I get to talking about all the fun we had at the National Zoo I must say that there is definitely a difference in the way motorists view pedestrians in Washington versus New York City. In Washington, motorists are required to stop for anyone in the crosswalk, and stiff fines are given for those who violate this law. In New York, drivers act like they are trying to run over you, and they try to intimidate you by coming as close as they can to you as you cross. But, I digress. Yes we did get to the zoo on Saturday, and we were able to see the baby Panda, Tai Shan. I have included one pic of him with his parent when he was much younger so you can see how he has grown. And he has grown in his 11 months--up to 50 pounds. I have many more pics of the zoo, and I will post some more tomorrow.