Sunday, August 31, 2008

Decatur Book Festival

Every Labor Day weekend, the city of Decatur, Georgia, hosts the Decatur Book Festival. Authors of all types of books converge on Decatur to discuss their latest books. MH is a librarian and this is Heaven on Earth for her. The first three sessions we attended were by Southern authors that we like. The characters they create or discuss can be recgnized by any native of the South.

Roy Blount, Jr. (below) is a favorite. He has become somewhat more famous lately because he appears frequently on the Saturday morning radio show from NPR, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me". He is a native of Decatur but now lives in Massachusetts.


We have been hearing Bailey White of Thomasville, Georgia, as a guest on NPR's "All Things Considered" for years. We were glad to finally see her. (Sorry about the picture quality - it was hard to hold the camera still.)


Rick Bragg, a native of Alabama, has become well known writing about his parents. His book about his mother, "All Over but the Shoutin'", should be read by everyone who has a mother.


We don't have a picture but another author we enjoyed was John Dean. If you are near our age, you probably remember Dean as the star witness in the Watergate hearings before Congress. He was a legal counsel in the Nixon White House but these days, he writes books very harsh about Republicans in general and the Bush Administration specifically.


One author we did not get to see but MH would like to have was John Bemelmans Marciano, the grandson of the creator of the Madeline series of books for children. No books had been written in the series for many years until he started writing them.

A good time was had by all!


Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"Oh, Lonely Peas"

Reid and Hayes love three song books by Sandra Boynton - each has a CD included and the words to the songs are in the book. Reid has memorized most of them. Here is an excerpt of him singing "Oh, Lonely Peas". It's about peas ("so green, so round and so small") left on the plate after the child has eaten everything else. The peas are lonely and no one loves them at all!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Tiger Woods, Watch Out!

Hayes is cranking up for the big time. Here, he learns the importance of a "mulligan"*.

* For you non-golfers, a "mulligan" is the same as a "do over".

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Reid's Sixth Birthday

Reid celebrated his sixth birthday with a pool party.

As usual, you can click on a picture to see a larger version.
There are two movies - click on the arrow to start.





Reid does not care much for cake but Hayes makes up for it.


I think I'll let Hayes have my piece of cake.






Bud Light. It's not just for breakfast anymore!


Hayes likes to do the Dead Man Float.



Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Now, Where Are Those Sardines?

Hayes and Reid visited the Fernbank Museum on a recent Saturday. They saw an IMAX film about sardine migration from the Anarctic to the coast of South Africa and all the animals that feed on them, including humans. It was fascinating to see penguins, whales, dolphins, sharks, seals, flying birds and human fisherman all catching sardnes in the same general area.

The overall message was that the sardine population is dwindling, perhaps affected by global warming.

While waiting for the film to start, Reid helped himself to the fun things.



"...These Are a Few of My Favorite Things"

Hayes is doing his favorite two things simultaneously.

1. He is pointing to all the pictures in a book.
2. He is watching Dora the Explorer or Diego.


Friday, August 1, 2008

Atlanta Zoo



Reid, Hayes, Mommy, Granddaddy and Gamma all went to the Atlanta Zoo one recent Saturday morning.




A New Beginning

Reid was ready to go right to bed to wait for the tooth fairy.



Happy birthday, Mommy!

Laura celebrated her birthday with the boys. Hayes is more interested in the birthday cookie.







Sunday, July 13, 2008

What Portraits?



MH and Jim visited with Kate for a week while her parents were out of town. One day we visited the National Portrait Gallery for an outing http://www.npg.si.edu/ . The Gallery has an nice indoor courtyard with three very large man-made "mud puddles". It was hard to drag Kate away even after two hours of marching up and down.

There probably were some very interesting portraits in the building somewhere!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Michael Featured on Duke University Web Site


Michael is featured (with photograph) on the web site of Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. Way to go, Michael!

http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/



Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Inland Surfing

On a recent trip to Germany, the most unusual thing Jim and MH saw was a group of surfers hundreds of miles from any seashore. A river runs under the city of Munich and emerges under a bridge. The force of the water creates a natural wave.



Sunday, May 11, 2008

Michael's Graduation


Michael received his degree, Master of Environmental Management, from Duke University on May 10. His school web site is: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/ . Michael has worked hard for two years to reach this goal and we are all proud!

All the students in his specialty wore shirts like this.

Michael's paper: http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/10161/523/1/MP_mbs28_a_200805.pdf