Pumpkin Day!

Ben, Kata and I celebrated Pumpkin Day a little early this year since we would all be working, or at school. We had our traditional McLaren Pumpkin Day meal of Sloppy Joe's, pumpkin shaped finger jello and chips. We also painted mini pumpkins to add to the festivities.

Hope you all had a safe night!

A Day in Richmond

We think Toni's younger sister Kata is making steady progress. She has moved from Lynchburg to Durham to Philadelphia--that's still about three cities removed from Geneva, Switzerland, but a start nonetheless. She is doing a three month stint at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (we hope longer). CHOP specializes in pediatric care not prosthetics.

In typical Kata fashion, a road trip soon evolved. While Ben was at a conference in Richmond, the girls found time for a movie, a pedicure, pumpkins, and a stroll on the rocks of the James river (think Gone with the Wind). Ben joined the ladies in the evening for some dessert at the Jefferson Hotel (think Gone with the Wind again). Richmond, it turns out, has gone through a remarkable transformation since the "war." Philadelphia, it seems, has done the opposite.


We returned home, to an unfinished bed, and the king of the manor on his throne. Ben is not a cat person, but Ben has become quite the cat connoisseur. For that we can thank his majesty, Grayson.

Birthday Weekend in Philly

Living in a land of plenty has its advantages. America's abundance allows, for example, a transcontinental family reunion in just under three hours. In theory at least--Philadelphia's airport is a model of 1970s efficiency. It seems odd to consider that it used to take three days thirty years ago, or thirty days three hundred years ago to travel from MN to PA. In short, we'd like to thank Toni's parents and sister, Mike, Collen and Kata, for making the long trip for her birthday!


Ben would like to thank his wife for allowing a birthday weekend detour to the USS New Jersey (BB-62). Ben and Mike couldn't resist the "Big Guns, Big Fun" advertisements, or maybe it was the fact that the Iowa Class Battleship has nine 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns aimed at our loft. Our WWII vet guide assured us that they were pointed at Philadelphia's City Hall. We nervously chuckled.


We did manage to see some lovely non-violent sights in the region as well. We checked out the artisans shops, colonial architecture, and art fair at New Hope in Bucks County, Pa. But not before a "spur of the moment" detour to Washington Crossing Historic Park, where G.W. and Co. attacked the drunken Hessians on Christmas day 1776. The next day, we drove down to the southern tip of the Jersey shore to the Victorian resort town Cape May. Curiously, America's Major, Rudy Guiliani, "happened" to be giving a campaign speech in the town. His stump speech didn't sign us up for his cabinet, but we did enjoy the free hot dogs and obligatory New York Yankees joke-sort off.


Oh, and Toni did have a fantastic birthday weekend.