20 April 2007

B'way bound

I can't believe it, but I am going to have to see Spider-Man when it opens on Broadway. Most likely, i'll even need to be there opening night, when the librettist will presumably be in da house.

18 April 2007

What class are you?

In light of William and Kate's split and the snide comments about Mrs Meddleton ;-), The London Telegraph has devised this handy quiz to determine what class we all are. I came out in the third group, "You probably have a coat of arms." Not quite the Duke of Devonshire, but certainly not one of Onslow's lot, either. Whew!

16 April 2007

Finally! A "good" phone tree

Check this out - The Don Imus Helpline (Courtesy of NPR). This made the carpool line at Ethan's school a fun place to be today.

14 April 2007

13 April 2007

And for my next vacation...

I'm going to Dickens World!

Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC

One of our favorite parts of the OBX trip was visiting The Elizabethan Gardens, at the site of the Lost Colony, in Manteo. Ethan, especially, enjoyed it, as he loves flowers and birds. I'm including a picture here of him with his activity sheet - a garden search game the ladies in the gift shop gave him. For someone visiting so early in the season, he managed to find quite a lot of the animals and plants on his "to find" list. We also enjoyed looking at the Elizabethan architecture (the ceiling photo is to die for - someday I must have a room with this ceiling!) and the views of Roanoke Sound from the gardens. The photo of the massive oak tree is one of my favorites - it is said that this very tree was living when the colonists first landed on Roanoke Island in 1588.









Illuminating times

I've finally got tie to finish blogging about our OBX trip over Spring Break. (I had 2 new classes start this week, intro to IT, which took up more time than i'd expected).

So, without further adieu, I give you, lighthouses of the NC Outer Banks!

First up, Bodie Island Lighthouse (pronounced "body"), on the Roanoke Sound side, north end of Hatteras Island. This was our first stop on the Grand Tour of Lighthouses.
























































































Next, the granddaddy of all NC lights, the Cape Hatteras Light - the quintessential American lighthouse (I think).













What is most impressive to me about the Cape Light is that it is now standing 2900 feet southwest of its original location (after being moved, intact, in 1999). This picture is taken from the site of the original 1903 foundation, looking towards its new home.


























Next, came the Ocracoke Lighthouse, on Ocracoke Island, one of the most remote areas I've been to in NC - as evidenced by the 13-mile drive from the ferry terminal to the first building on the island,























and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, in Corolla.






















Last but not least, we visited the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, overlooking the Roanoke Sound, in Manteo.

12 April 2007

Who's Famousr?

Won't you, too, waste a few hours of your life playing this game like I did today? ;-) My best streak so far is 35.

This is almost as addictive as the Sitcom/Dictator Game I know and love so well.

08 April 2007

Hoppy Easter



The eggs have been dyed and hunted, and our fridge now reeks of vinegar (thank you, Paas Corp!), almost as if the eggs were for the passover seder and got mixed in with the horseradish.

07 April 2007

To the lighthouse


In college and grad school, I famously loathed Virginia Woolfe's To the Lighthouse, so I am as surprised as anyone to see a blog post with this title, but, truly, it's the best one to describe our trip to the Outer Banks this week. I asked Ethan before we went what he wanted to see or do, and he said, "See a lighthouse." North Carolina has several, so I said OK, and promised we would. As it happens, there are several on the Outer Banks, and we managed to see them all!

The first picture here was taken at sunset on 4/3/07, in Kill Devil Hills, NC. it's the view from our table at dinner.

We stayed in Manteo, on Roanoke Island, a gorgeous little waterfront town, and the site of the first English colony ("the Lost Colony") of 1587.

My next few blog entries will be about the trip, but here's a sample of what we did and saw.

Bodie Island Lighthouse, Hatteras Island







Cape Hatteras Lighthouse







Ethan at the Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC







Cape Hatteras Beach, 10am 4/4/07. No one was on the beach but Ethan and I!








Roanoke Sound








Another view of Roanoke Sound








Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, Manteo, NC








Currituck Lighthouse, Corolla, NC

03 April 2007

Fleeing the pollen

It's pollen time in Raleigh right now - the worst it's been in years, they tell us on the news. Sure, springtime always bring pollen, but this is just awful. I've got drifts (literally) of sticky, yellow/chartreuse pollen all over everything. My black car. The outdoor table and chairs. The little ledge on the front door. Everywhere. Yesterday I had to mop and vacuum on account of all the pollen being tracked in on our shoes. Ugh. What we need is a good cleaning rain to rid us of the stuff, but I'm not hopeful. Please, God, do't let there be pollen like this in CA! Partly in response to the pollen, and partly because it's Ethan's spring break, we are running away. We're headed to Manteo, on Roanoke Island, this afternoon for a few days. We'll be exploring lighthouses, eating too much seafood, and having a look around the first English colony in the New World. I've been reading some books like If You Lived in Colonial Times to Ethan to get him in he mood for what we will be seeing. He's enjoying it all so far. I think our favorite thing we have learned is that, if he was to write MItch a letter,rhe couldn't address it "Dear Dad..." but instead would have to write "Dear Honour'd Sir..." and then sign it "I am, with greatest respect, Dear Father, your dutiful son, Ethan." Ha!