At Walt Disney's place in Orlando              Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I'm so excited, I doubt that I sleep well tonight.  I always wake up numerous times the night before a trip, afraid that I'll oversleep and miss my flight.  I've been looking forward to this trip for months now and really enjoying all the planning.  Now I just hope the trip is as much fun as the anticipation was.   I'll only be gone 9 days, but a lot can happen in 9 days.  They'll be a lot of catching up to do at work (I'll worry about that later) and I supposed my sister Alice will be moving into her new house by then.  I'm really going to miss Xanga.  Nine whole days without blogging or reading other's blogs.  My system will go into withdrawal.

The Cloister at Ephrata                                    Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This was one of the places that Alice and I went to when we took our trip to the Chesapeake Bay area a couple years ago.  I really enjoyed touring all the old buildings and especially since some of them had the furniture still in them.  These people must have lived pretty austiere lives.  They had no refrigerators, no gas stoves, no radio, and the internet hadn't even been thought of yet.   Frankly, I don't think I'd have made a very good pioneer. 

A Zoo in Florida                                       Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Sorry, but that's about as close as I can get to where that picture was taken.  All I know is that it was on my sister Alice and my trip to Florida.  It's a zoo that Marvin took us to while we were there.  I chose it today because it's such a serene and peaceful picture, and that's what I want for Alice today.  She and her builder had "words" last night and I'm hoping and praying that they'll patch things up.  It's not good to let bad feelings between people fester.  They need to be dealt with fairly soon. 

A marina somewhere in the Chesapeake Bay area. 

I'm not feeling very well today.  I think I caught a cold or maybe it's just allergies, but my eyes are at half mast and my nose is running and it's sore from all the wiping.  I probably should be in bed but didn't want to be off sick so close to being off 9 days for vacation.  I may finish the "seeds" project and then give in and go home. I GOTTA be healthy for my trip to England.  One would hate to make the trip and then spend it in bed over there.

Lake Dardenelle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

These little flowers were growing so low to the ground that in order to get them in the picture along with the lake and far shore I had to lay down on the ground.  You'd think I'd feel foolish doing such a thing, but then you don't know to what lengths I'll go to get what I think will be a good shot. I'm pleased with this one.

Flowers growing wild at Lake Dardenelle

Another sad day.  The wife of one of my husband's best friends and business associates died this morning of pancriatic cancer.  It seems like just last month we got the news that she'd been diagnosed, but as I check the calendar I see it's really been more like 6 months.  Her name was Beth and she was definately a classy lady.  I'm hoping that her husband Bob, who is a wonderful person, will be able to cope . . . with help from family and friends and most of all with God's help.  

Church at Bibury Court in England

Eternal Sojourner told me to make sure I took pictures of the old graveyards in England when we're over there.  Here's a look at a couple of pictures I took on our trip there in 1996. That red stuff on The Bibury Court Hotel was everywhere; kind of like ivy over here . . or kudzu.

Church at Great Rissington in England

The picture above was taken in Great Rissington Church yard in Great Rissington. These old grave stones have sooooo much character.  And I was surprised how much of the church yards are taken up with the cemeteries and how close to the buildings they are set.  I guess when you run out of room your bunch them up.  Another thing that surprised me was how many of the graves where actually INSIDE the church buildings.  Is that weird or what?


Someone's Driveway . . . I believe it was in Chipping Camden, England

And speaking of weird . . . take a look at what this home owner is using as fence material.  I'm wondering how these gravestones were obtained.  Hummm.

Charleston, South Carolina graveyard                        Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I really can't tell you why I like old grave yards so much.  I really can't.  But I do know they have to be old.  I don't get a charge out of going to recent graveyards, and by recent I mean less than 50 years old.  I just like the old grave stones and how they're weathered and especially when you can just barely read the names and dates.  I really liked how this little plot had it's own black wrought iron fence.  My husband is not usually inclined to stop the car so I can take pictures of old graveyards, but this one was in the middle of town where we were taking a walk, and we simply stumbled upon it. 

A house in Burford, England            Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This house is in Burford, England and that's the little town we'll be using as our home base while we're touring the Cotswolds in a couple weeks.  We simply fell in love with it's beauty and flowers and quaint shops.  And they have this wonderful bakery with all kinds of goodies.  The main street if I remember correctly was about 6 blocks long. . . a really nice size.  And every Sunday afternoon they have a flea market at the high school.  We'll make sure to hit that. 

The main drag in Burford                Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Here are some more of the lovely stone houses in Burford.  They remind me so much of  condo's that are all connected to each other, but each one looks different. 

Blue Salvia at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano, TX              Photo by Chris Duffy

Zipidy-Do-Dah, Zipidy-A.  Oh my goodness what a WONDERFUL DAY! Sorry, folks, but I'm just soooooooooo relieved.  I fixed my own computer problems and saved myself $200 by not having to phone the "Geeks on Call" fella.   You see, we switched rooms with my computer room and the guest bedroom in our house.  It was a lot of hard work, because it was just my hubby and I doing the furniture moving.  I had to pay to have the cable people come out and pull the cable modem wiring over to the new computer room.  I got everything hooked up and everything worked except the earphones I use to talk to my sister in Instant Messages.  I tried every conceivable combination of ways to hook the earphones up to the computer, to the speakers, the CPU and nothing worked, so I called "Geeks on Call" and had them come out and figure out the problem.  It took him all of two minutes to fix it and he charged me $99 . . . the minimum.  But it was well worth it, since I certainly couldn't figure it out.   What I failed to realize at the time he was here, was that wireless capabilities for when I bring my work laptop home to do home work on, also did not work.  Well, the next day a friend of mine from work volunteered to come see what the problem was so I wouldn't have to pay the Geek again.  He decided my wireless router had died during the move so he installed a new one and got my internet up and running and my laptop working wirelessly too.  That only cost the price of a new wireless router.  

But then the NEXT day when I fired up the computers to do a blog and to do some homework, not only could I not get my laptop to work wirelessly, I couldn't even get to the internet on my HOME computer.  I tell you I was depressed.  I felt really bad about the prospects of calling my friend up and telling him that nothing worked, but I felt even worse about the thought of having the Geeks charge me $200 to fix my new problems. . . I KNEW he wouldn't be able to fix it in two minutes again.   But before I bit the bullet and called the Geeks again, I thought I'd give it one more try this evening and wonder of wonders, I actually figured out what the problem was, thereby saving myself $200. 

Now, the way I see it, having SAVED the $200, I should now be able to go out and spend it on something I really want.  Right? Right??  Work with me here.