Happy Memorial Day Weekend and good morning. While enjoying this long weekend please do take a moment to remember the many sacrifices made on behalf of our freedoms.

Happy 1st Anniversary Cathy and Jason!

Adrianne is a brave soul. This whole weekend she is in school. A class on Children’s Rights will be run in one single weekend. Last night it started and today she’ll be in class from 9 till 6. Tomorrow evening she’ll finish – then the ever present paper and grade. Go girl!

This was an extraordinary week – Marcia VOTED.

We had elections you ask? No not really, but we did have the “Big Karaoke” show (aka Fox’s “American Idol 2”). Marcia prepared masterfully for the event – comfortably settling in for the full duration it was complete with couch, pillow, and blanket [slyly she stroked her large and completely full gold foil box of bon-bons]. On day 57 or thereabouts of the event the show reached a crescendo, to vote she and 13 million others, dialed their telephones for hours on end. It quickly became apparent that this ‘vote’ was a test of redial determination: here is where I introduced Marcia to the subtleties of the ‘redial’ button on a new chordless – this too she conquered beautifully. Marcia voted skinny – fat won – bon-bon girl was sorely disappointed.

I came through one of those regularly scheduled junior physicals with a glowing report. The fact that I am in sterling health I blame solely on a voluminous amount of moderation, a steadfast avoidance of Haggis, willingness to laugh and adopt a dog (for a fixed period of time only), and no hesitation to hum along with any type of music while outdoors. A little daily walk-about hasn’t hurt either.

Talk about extraordinary weeks; imagine you’re from the “Natti”, now imagine you have good skin and no bronchial condition. Just kiddin… Imagine being from the Ohio Valley and opening up your morning copy of the our very deep Cincinnati Enquirer and reading that big fish are near extinction, there is a growing threat of cheap coffee (Threat? This one I really don’t understand), the population of great Apes in Africa is on the decline and one more alarm bell, this one for looming disaster awaiting the world’s languages. With all these threats, I’m amazed the readers of the Enquirer would even bother to take a step outside. Of course the real question is which threat is the one that should be solved first…well that’s left up to the reader. But don’t be swayed by those like a main proponent such as a Prof. Sunderland who is shouting from hilltops about the world’s language problem: “it is clear that the risks to languages exceed those to fish and mammals and coffee.” Yes that’s right: the risk that we may be running out of fish with which to feed ourselves pales to that facing that of two folks on either side of the “Big Muddy” (the Ohio river) who now can’t swear at each other in their native tongue.



The old driveway has been removed. Marcia and I now have the pleasant task of moving 9 truckloads of dirt around and about to fill in the asphalt vacated space. Should we survive we’ll head out for a stomp at the Taste of Cincinnati – 42 restaurants, a number of bands on 4 stages, and with an expected half million it’ll be wall to wall people, don’t you just love it.

Have a great week.

Cheers,

Dirk