In Honor of George and Abe...

Happy President's Day! In the past year, I read (or listened to, actually) 1776 and A Team of Rivals, both of which I recommend, and learned quite a bit about both of these men. They weren't perfect, they made mistakes like the rest of us, but they were intelligent and wise and dedicated to the cause and to this country. The things that go on in politics these days are not new, everything just moves faster and in a bigger scope because of the communication capabilities we have today, plus a whole lot more people to pass it around to. Anyway, I'm grateful for the day off and a chance to relax a little. It's really a little vacation for me, because Paul is also away on an ice fishing trip until Tuesday. It gets lonely around here when he's gone, but it's nice to not have to cook if I don't want to, and to have control of the remote and the computer all to myself :-) Actually, I have two computers to myself now, since we finally went wireless and have the old computer in the basement, which somehow seems to be working pretty well again - who knows?

We finally got a good taste of winter this past week. Wednesday and Thursday brought us snow and ice and some slippery driving conditions. It's nothing compared to what some of you in other parts of the country got, I know, but it presented us with some challenges. The University of Maine closed on Wednesday, so Paul and Toby had a day off, but the Belfast Free Library was open, so I made the slow drive to the coast. We closed at 3, so I was able to get home before dark. By Thursday morning the roads were pretty good, but the big job was getting the car doors open, all the ice off the car and getting the car out of the driveway. That took 45 minutes. What a way to start a day. Well, enough whining - it's kind of fun to complain, but I really enjoy the winter and am glad things are as they should be again.

This afternoon, I'll be heading down to the univ. to see Toby's play. I'm not sure I mentioned this before, but he is in "Bat Boy: the Musical " which opened Friday night, and I haven't been yet. We'll be going next Saturday with some friends, but I usually try to see his shows a couple of times. It sounds like it is really good, with good music, but a little gory. I'll give a review later.

Time for another picture I think. I've got several from the same night as the one of us all lined up on the couch. Here are a couple of us all sitting around having a slide show. That was something we did fairly often as I recall. If we ever get another family gathering organized, I think a slide show should be part of it. I'm sure we all have lots to share.

'nuff said.

Later, Betsy