Spider-people!!!

Last Wednesday was my Son’s 29th birthday and Michael and I went to Atlanta a couple of days early to help him celebrate.

Brian and his wife, Amber, have joined a climbing gym called “Stone Summit” and they wanted to show us what they can do so we enjoyed several hours of watching them.

The facility is crazy, with walls ranging from 25 to 60 feet tall……

But, the most amazing thing about the visit was seeing what Brian and Amber had learned to do.

This is Amber at the top of a 40 foot wall……

And there goes Brian…..

For safety purposes, there is a rope attached to each climber. It loops over the top of the wall and then is attached to a “belay person” on the ground.

According to Wikipedia…..Belaying refers to a variety of techniques climbers use to exert friction on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far. A climbing partner typically applies friction at the other end of the rope whenever the climber is not moving, and removing the friction from the rope whenever the climber needs more rope to continue climbing.

Both Brian and Amber worked almost as hard at Belaying as they did when climbing. It is especially difficult for Amber as she is so much smaller than Brian. When he is on his descent, she has to squat down and lower her center of gravity so that his weight doesn’t pull her off of the floor……

In this photo, you can see Brian at the very top and Amber WAY down below…

They even have special glasses to wear so that you don’t have to keep straining your neck to look up at the climber…..

The final thing that Brian showed us is called “Bouldering” and is done on lower walls without a rope and with dense pads at the base of the wall…..

After all of this exercise we had to have some good food so they took us to one of their favorite Korean Tofu Restaurants. Michael had Korean BBQ and one of the soups with Purple Rice…..

while I had a WONDERFUL spicy chicken dish……

A FUN, FUN day …….

Thanks guys for letting us celebrate with you!!!!

Berry Picking……

It has been so nice this Summer to have time to do things that I have wanted to do but just couldn’t get around to. One of those things is picking berries at some of the local farms.

On Friday, I traveled to Washington Farms to see what was still available. The farm is a favorite place for many people, .

with Strawberries in April, Blueberries and Blackberries in the Summer, Pumpkins in the Fall, and a Corn Maze as well.

When I arrived just after they opened, I was one of three cars. I asked about which berries were available and they told me to go to the Blackberries first as they would only bear a few pickings.

I had a wonderful time walking down the rows of beautiful plants and picking the plump, juicy berries…..

I loved the colors of the new berries that were just starting to form. It didn’t take long to have a full gallon…..

….although I did eat a few along the way.

Next, I moved to the Blueberry bushes…..

Picking was a bit slower here but I once again enjoyed the colors of the ripening fruit…..

The results were wonderful……

The morning was perfect, with clouds overhead and a cool breeze blowing. I will definitely find time to do this again!!!!

When you are married to a scientist…..

…..you find notes like this on your door…….

Then, of course we have to take it out of the truck and take photos of it’s gorgeous colors and patterns……

Michael’s first words were “I think that this would make a gorgeous quilt!!”.

Early in our marriage we owned two pocket mice named Popcorn and Fizzle (reflective of their personalities) and a Kangaroo Rat named Dippy (from the genus Dipodomys).

This is not a photo of Dippy, but will give you an idea what he looked like……

Our animal collection was rather tame compared to one set of friends who had a Mongoose, a Blue-Tongued Skink, a Flying Squirrel and a Rhinoceros Viper!!

Now what does Brian do again???

This is a question that I have been asked many times….people want to know where our son, Brian, is working. So, a couple of weeks ago I spent a few minutes with him at work (in his apartment) and got the lowdown.

Brian is a Sound and Music Designer, and has been doing freelance work for the last four years and has done a bit of everything…..

At times he is audio engineering podcasts with “Gaming Union” in the UK.

At times he is doing sound effects and music for animated short films.

He spent a year working on a web series called “Abigail”…..click HERE to see the trailer. He has won one award for his work on this series and been nominated for several others.

He has recently finished writing music for an online game called “Wind of Luck”.

He currently has a new job that I am not allowed to talk about here, but he is greatly enjoying working with a group of very creative computer graphics designers.

While he worked, I took a few photos of him in his working environment…..

I love his collection of office decorations…..

…..as well as his collection of stringed instruments…..

And, this painting was created for him by his very talented wife, Amber…..

You can check out his website HERE to see more of his work and hear some of the other compositions that he has done just for the fun of it!!

We are very proud of Brian and are glad that he has been able to find his niche in the creative world!!!!

I’m going to be in so much trouble next year….

One of my favorite things about Christmas is planning and buying the gifts. As the kids have gotten older, they often want cash instead of presents and I HATE to just hand cash over!!

As the years have gone on, I have stuffed cash inside rolls of toilet paper, taped 10 dollar bills to cans of chili and even folded it up and rolled it into bubble gum wrappers.

Last year was a great year as Brian’s money was inside a bank and he had to roll a small ball thru a three dimensional maze to unlock the bank, Amber had to unroll yards and yards of crepe paper to find her presents inside and Jenny’s money was stuffed inside balloons that she had to pop.

So, this year Michael decided that I needed a bit of my own medicine!! He bought me three packs of Tsueniko Fabrico Markers and wrapped them in an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper!! I unrolled for about 5 minutes!!!!

Jenny and Amber both received plastic containers filled with candy, finger nail polish and hard cold CASH…….

But the one that stole the show was Brian’s gift. It started when I found this lunchbox for my Star Wars crazed son….

Then I started thinking about the lunch that he took every day for 4 years of High School. It consisted of one peanut butter sandwich, a bag of Spicy Nacho Doritos and 2 mini Butterfinger bars.

I decided to fill his lunch box with an actual lunch, but where would I put the money……in the Doritos bag….no, too easy……in the Butterfinger pack….no, too hard.

That leaves the sandwich……..

……just right!!!

Brian was a trooper and played along with the entire gag!!!!

…..first checking out the lunch…..

….then hopefully checking the Doritos bag…..

…..finally conceding that he was going to have to at least open the sandwich, although at one point he thought that he would have to actually eat it!!….after much laughing and finger licking……

…..the cash was liberated…..

As we all laughed about the gag gifts, Jenny noted that next year it will be all-out war. I will have to be VERY watchful when opening my presents next year and will have to up the ante. Any suggestion?????