Mabry Middle School Orchestra

Tonight was the first orchestra concert. It was held at the Mabry Middle School auditorium. Just like the chorus concert, it was standing room only. We were there 20 minutes early and managed to get seats. The sixth grade came out on stage first. Bailey, playing the viola, “earned” the second chair. I use the team loosely as apparently it was based upon how often they take their instruments home and how well they play in class.

And based upon what we hear at home we were expecting something like fingernails on chalkboard. I must admit that we have seen much improvement over the past couple of weeks when Bailey has taken the time to practice. Klare and I were pleasantly surprised at how well the orchestra sounded as a whole. A few misplace squeaks here and there but overall a very good performance.

Read more >>

Photo Blog

I have started a new Photo Blog in order to display some of my favorite photographs. The existing “family” photo-gallery is good for organizing and displaying a lot of smaller pictures, but doesn’t do justice to my photography.

WordPress only take a few minutes to install. The hardest task is choosing from the thousands of templates that area available. I have picked a simple, yet elegant theme that will allow me to better categorize and display larger pictures. The next task is going back through all my originals and selecting my favorites.

AECOM Holiday Party

This past weekend was the AECOM Holiday Party. It was held at the Freight Depot near Underground Atlanta. Klare and I made an evening out of it by getting a room at the W hotel. We got ready at the hotel and then went to dinner at Shout. After a great meal, we took a cab to the Freight Depot. We were escorted by a homeless man who asked for $3 for a hamburger. The theme was casino night. So, Klare and I found a blackjack table to play at. The dealer was a lot of fun. She would look at the next card and let us know whether or not we needed to hit or not. We ended up with a lot of raffle tickets, but none were winners at the end of the night. We left the party and went and had a couple more drinks at a nearby club. We had a fun time and promised to do it again soon.

Thanksgiving in St. George

For Thanksgiving this year we rented a house in St. George. A usual retreat for us in the summer, visiting this time of year was a first. The temperatures were in the mid 70s during the day which made for perfect weather for sitting on the beach. We enjoyed a lot of walking both along the beach and along the frontage road. It appeared that only about half of the houses were rented.

This was our second visit to this house. It appears that the house has new owners who had made some very nice upgrades to the house. The living room furniture had all been replaced and there were flat screen TVs in all the bedrooms. The kitchen was well stocked for all of our needs during the week. Read more >>