Notice the before and after pictures of me after having gone for a joy ride on an ATV. I lost control and in a panic hit the gas instead of the brake. After taking out an aspen tree I decided to get overly ambitious and go for a much larger pine tree. To say the least, I am happy that the damage to both the ATV and my body were minimal.
We had a great Thanksgiving today at the Marino cabin up in Strawberry Valley near Duck Creek Village in Utah. We were hiking to Cascade Falls and to Strawberry Point.. . .incredible views. . .then we had dinner with smoked turkey and all of the fixins'. The final picture is sunrise from Larry and Susan's front deck. What a great place to spend time with family! Just wish all of the rest of the family were here with us.
Last weekend when Dan, Helen, and Erin went back to the Mid-West they also stopped by Notre Dame. They really enjoyed the campus and saw many of the familiar sites - The Grotto, Touchdown Jesus, Sacred Heart Basilica, and these funny fire hydrants. One is painted to look like the Golden Dome at Notre Dame and the other is painted to look like a fighting Irishman. These are definitely fire hydrants that dogs are not allowed to urinate on!
This past week Margaret and Brad went to San Francisco for a conference. Shown here are Tica and Aunt Margaret in their room at the Mark Hopkins Hotel before they went to dinner with Uncle Brad. The view is taken from their room at the Mark Hopkins, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. The Mark Hopkins is built on the location of Mark Hopkins' estate on Nob Hill. The estate was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The final picture is of the Executive Committee at dinner with the opening speaker for the conference, Story Musgrave (olive colored shirt), who has flown on all 5 of the space shuttles - has a very interesting story (no pun intended) to tell.
As many of you know we do not subscribe to a newspaper since we really don't feel like we have time to read it. On top of that when you get the news paper in the morning the news could already be 8 hours old! That is totally unacceptable to me. I like up to the minute news because then I never feel like I am out of the loop for even a second. There is a compromise when it comes to "breaking" news and that is accuracy and thoroughness. It is for this reason that we do subscribe to TIME and NewsWeek. What about news being delivered in the way of moving pictures? I can't remember the last time I watched the 10:00 news and there are two reasons for that, commercials and inconvenience. What would happen if those two issues were to vanish? That question was answered this week when NBC decided to offer the Nightly News as a free download through iTunes. I actually watched the news! Since I have 3 huge exams in one week's time I was not able to watch the entire broadcast at once, but it since I control when I watch it and where that was not too much of an issue. It was also great to watch Brian Williams with NO COMMERCIALS! That cut the 30 min. show down to 20 min. Anyway I just thought I would share that with people. Go check it out on iTunes!
It's James and Megan!! Dan, Erin and Helen just returned from a wonderful weekend in the Midwest, visiting Ne at Loyola in Chicago and James and Megan in Lansing. As soon as we arrived in Chicago, we headed to Pizzeria Uno in downtown for dinner - yummy!! Later that evening as we were driving on the Indiana Toll Road, we were broadsided by a deer running across the interstate. Fortunately, we made it to our hotel and got a new rental car. The next day, we toured Notre Dame, St. Mary's College and drove through the Amish area of Indiana. Erin was excited to claim three new states (MI, IN, and OH). We enjoyed the warm hospitality from James and Megan in Lansing and even shared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with them - thanks, Megan! The MSU football game was lots of fun, but also pretty cold. BRRR! It was nice to see where James and Ne attend their professional school - we are so proud of the work that they are doing! We hope you all get a chance to visit them in the future - just don't go during deer mating season!
Larry and Susan just finished putting in the pizza oven at their house. We all went over for the trial run. . .and can't wait for more pizza from Chef Larry. Then this past weekend we went to the beach house at Morro Bay with the Fasanas and Susan. . .went kayaking and climbed Bishop's Peak. . .all very relaxing. 
Helen and Allison flew to Connecticut last weekend to watch Jeannie and the Coast Guard Women's Volleyball team in their conference playoffs. It was a surprise visit as Jeannie didn't know that Allison would be coming too! Allison was able to attend one of Jeannie's classes and we enjoyed a "training lunch" in the wardroom. The playoffs games were very exciting, with the Coast Guard team finally winning and earning a berth at the NCAA playoffs this coming weekend at MIT. The weather was cold and clear all weekend, but didn't dampen the high spirits for Jeannie and Allison to spend some time together. We even saw a Navy submarine cruising down the Thames River one afternoon. We wish the women's volleyball team lots of luck this weekend!
We all got together last night to celebrate Mom and Dad's 56th wedding anniversary. It was a dinner of steak and enchiladas, with a chocolate dessert of course. Congrats Mom and Dad on 56 years!
The management team at Danny's office was supposed to dress up like X-Men for Halloween. . .Danny decided to be Wolverine - and took home the $50 first prize. Way to go, Dan!
