British Beware!

We are going across the "pond" to visit Jolly Ole England...land of our forefathers and all that. There are 2 main reasons for going. First, I am attending the British Contact Lens Assn. meeting in Manchester the end of May/first of June. As an excuse for going that far to hear some of the world's best minds in optometry we are also going for Meg's "16th birthday trip". Yes, it is a bit late. Anneka and Richard opted for cruises. Lori was urging Meg to go to NY and see theatre on Broadway. I figured she might want to see theatre in London.
We will fly to Paris and spend 2 1/2 days before taking the Chunnel to London. Then pick up a car in London(we'll see how the left side of the road feels...not to mention the right side of the car) and head to Manchester for my conference. We will stay a week in Manchester at an apartment/flat that we have rented and do some evening trips or Lori, Meg, and Charles can take the train to some northern sites. Then we'll spend a couple of days seeing the Lakes District and Preston where there are some LDS Church historical sites as well as on of our Temples. We'll head south to Bath and hit a couple more Church sites and end up in London for the last week. I'll dump the car then as I have no desire to drive on the wrong side of the street in a "town" of 12 million. We have tickets for "Wicked" that Meg REALLY wants to see, a musical version of "Lord of the Rings"(we're not sure about that, but it sound "interesting"), and we'll go to the New Globe Theatre for a Shakespeare play. All this while staying at another flat we have rented for a week in Soho. We will be gone almost 3 weeks and will be the biggest trip we have ever taken. Thank goodness my plane fare is paid for as is 5 nights of lodging, 5 days of food, and 5 days of the car thanks to the benefits I get at work. I never thought that would happen.
Well, our passports are good and we are just waiting for the 25 of May. We'll for sure have some things to report afterwards. Cheerie-O!!

Grandma Lori

OK that would by definition include Grandpa Rick too. Yes, Anneka is pregnant. She is oneryer (that is a great word) than usually, moodier, sick to her stomach and has an offical due date of November 29th. She is really happy, but understandably spooked a bit. Heck, when Lori was pregnant with Anneka I was spooked and it wasn't even me that was carrying the kid. Lori is excited and has even been seeing things that the "little spud" would like. BTW, I have official permission from the Little Mother herself to call my future grandkid the "Little Spud" until it pops out and has a name. More to follow!!

National Honor Society Kid

Meg was inducted into the Barnoff Chapter of the National Honor Society last night. Apparently this chapter has opted to have a higher standard for GPA than the norm, so Meg is especially special. We are rather biased, but that what parents do. Congrats Meg!!!

Orchestra Kids

Yes, we have no orchestra program in the Sitka schools. But, for the past 6 years there has been a community youth orchestra. Charles played in it last year and this year he and Meg participated. The practice on Saturday mornings (not too early) and have one performance which was this past Saturday. They played one of my favorite pieces: the Smetana tone-poem The Moldau. This is a very nationalistic piece based on a Czech folk song. It stirred such national pride in the Czechs that Hitler banned it from being played after he invaded in 1939. When the Allies liberated Prague at the end of the war they broadcast The Moldau everywhere they could and the people knew they had been freed from the Nazis. They also play another neat piece: The Hall of the Mountain King. Charles of course played bass while Meg was on violin. There are a few adults in the group, but most are students. They had 47 members this year.