The Boss's Birthday

The cake is in a Harley Davidson theme. People digging into the food. The food - Tilt your head to the left...

This is Randy holding Julie's baby.
This is Doug making an announcement after we ate. In Doug fashion, even though it was his birthday, he gave each of us a gift. Thanks Doug!

Cutting the cake.

Opening the gift.
Opening the card.
It was a nice little party.

My Office

This pond area is just outside my office. It's really pretty and relaxing.

This is looking from the pond back toward one of the buildings (the one I work in).
Doug is a bird lover. His office overlooks these birdhouses and birdbath.
These are assorted fruit trees, just outside my office door.
This is my office. Messy....

The Bats!

You have to click on these, but it gives you some idea of what I'm dealing with when I'm talking on my cell phone (no signal in the house, so I have to stand in my driveway). Hence the constant "EEEK!" There is a barn behind my house and I think they're coming from in there.

Charleston, SC - Day 3

Yep. Our third morning at the Hampton Inn began with a fire alarm. We had to go outside and mill about for around 45 minutes. They let us go back in, Bill got a shower, and just as he was getting out (before I had a shower, mind you) the alarms went off again. I didn't want to go stand around again, but almost immediately, we could smell smoke. People were banging on doors shouting "Fire!", so we left the room. It took about two hours, during which time the Hampton representatives told us to go eat breakfast next door at the Embassy Suites. So we did. When we got back in, the whole place stunk of plastic smoke smell, and we gathered our stuff and left post haste.


People milling about outside waiting to hear instructions.

Charleston SC - Day 2

OK, Day 2 was a full day! We ate breakfast at the hotel, then began walking again. This turtle is located at the entrace to the Slave's Market, so called NOT because slaves were traded there, but because they shopped there. This is Bill examining a freshly made straw basket. The price tag said $600 or something like that. Huh?!?
More baskets.

The interior of one of the buildings. It's a very long continuous flea market, basically. I bought Mike a wallet here.
Then we went on a tour in a carriage pulled by horses. This is our guide. I forgot his name, but he was extremely knowledgable.
I just liked these turtles...
I took many, many pictures of homes and churches. I'll not bore you with all of them, but here is a sampling.

The homes all have porches and are beautifully restored.

These, according to our guide, are the largest Crape Myrles in the US!
This fence many appear to be black, but it is not. It is "Charleston Green" so called because after the Civil War Charlestonians were too proud to use the Yankee Black paint sent for restoration, so they created their own color, which is 2 parts yellow to 8 parts black.

Heading our towards the battery.
A very cool breeze blows here. There are oleander bushes all down the center of the street.

Oleander is poisonous, and practically untraceable. It causes a heart attack in the victims.
This color of paint on the ceiling of this porch is typical. It is supposed to repel ghosts.
This is the old prison. It was spooky! The tree is the hanging tree.
Another view of the prison.
Another view of the hanging tree.

This is another turtle. He was downtown somewhere.
Bill bought Mike a digeridoo - a very large (as you can see) wind instrument. He insisted on sitting like this. :)
Next we went to the room to cool off. HOT, I tell you, HOT! And steamy. And we were walking and walking. After a short rest, we hit up the little bistro next door for a cold drink. (Did I mention Bill bought a hat?)
OK, yeah, I pretty much looked like this for the whole trip. Makeup was fruitless, as I sweated it off right away. Fixing my hair? Forget about it! Heat, sweat, and humidity forced me to wear a polytail the whole time....
A view of said bistro.

Millenium Music. A very large music store. We shopped in it for a while, found a cool poster, but left the buying of the poster till the next day so we wouldn't have to tote it around.
This mall was blessedly cool, but unfortunately fancy. Bill and I, sweaty and dressed-down as we were, left quickly.
Turtle. I got a kick out of all the turtles (obviously...)
Walking around town we saw some very cool cobblestone streets.
Walked out to the battery area.

Park at the battery area.

Next, we hit up a roof top restaurant and bar for refreshment. The food was ho-hum. We had a crab and shrimp quesadilla. Yawn.
Next, we stood in line for over an hour to eat at this place, which was even more ho-hum than the roof top one. Boring steamed scallops, boring steamed shrimp, exceedingly bony flounder. Even the sides tasted like cafeteria food. Overpriced.
Then we stumbled back to the hotel, got in our bathing suits and went swimming in the hotel pool. By the time we did that, it was after 10 and we were exhausted from the heat and all the walking and we fell into bed.