Naming Ceremony

For years, my grandpa has worked with the Yates Mill, a historic mill just a bit south of Raleigh NC.  He's put in a lot of work there, restoring the mill, creating a foundation to support it, starting and building an educational facility there where you can host camps, do research through NCSU, and bring school kids and everyone to learn more about how the mill worked and the history behind it.  He's been the President of the Board for a number of years, but has passed on that hat and in honor of all the work that's been done, they named a classroom at the facility after him!

 And then we went to dinner at the Faculty Club.

It was nicely fitting for him, especially the quote on the plaque: "head of a scientist with the heart of a historian!" Congrats Grandpa!

Chicago Trip

In June I traveled to Chicago to see friends Matt and Amanda and their 6 mo. old Ava.  Here are the highlights!

I took the train out...

First view of Chicago

 Meeting Miss Ava for the first time!

 We toured Millenium Gardens

 And walked down to the Navy Pier

Then took the water taxi down to the Field Museum

 Where we saw Genghis Khan and Dinosaurs!

 And an Irish Elk...

Hanging out at their home, playing the piano during tummy-time

Visit to the Botanical Gardens!

One morning we made peanut butter banana french toast, a recipe from Pinterest and they were awesome!

 Helping cook

 Finished products

 Hanging out in her swing!

I had a great time hanging out with them and getting to meet Ava!  Hopefully I'll get to see them again soon!  From Chicago, I took a flight to NYC to see some family.

Losing Fluffy (1995-2012)

We had to put our 17 year old cat Fluffy down today as she's in complete kidney failure.  She's had a great life, we got her and Chocolate in 1995 and have had so much fun.

She liked watching the mouse on the screen, sometimes jumping up to catch it!

 We always snuggled together in bed on the weekends, she used to crawl down to the foot of the bed and would attack my toes.

 Her favorite spot to get scratched was right under her neck on the white patch, guaranteed to get a purr.

 "Forget the book, pay attention to me!"

 She would sit up on her post observing the activity in the family room and kitchen

 Any warm body was a perfect place to take a nap

 She was a fan of boxes, and wanted to come back to JMU with me

 She even warmed up to Gma as she got older (Fluffy, not Gma)

 When she was little she was scared of going outside, but eventually she began going outside more, stalking bugs in the garden and sitting among the flowers

 Lap cat, err, arm cat?

 With Fluffy on her post

 Playing with her worm toy, Christmas 2011

Found a warm spot on Alex, now getting scratched and loving it

Watching TV with Alex

Sleeping on her last day, she was having trouble walking and eating :-(

We love you lots Fluffy and hope that there are lots of mice to chase, tunafish, cantaloupe, and comfy cushions and warm bodies to snuggle with.  I'm sorry I couldn't be there for the end.  Know that I love you and will miss you!