Happy holidays

Hi everyone. It's been a long time since a post. We hope everyone is having a grand holiday season. I have one more night in a long stretch of work and then can relax with a long stretch of several days off through January 2. And as Ned can tell you, the poor man, nobody works harder then me, NoBODY! It has been a most memorable couple of weeks for the pocono home. Ned went to visit on Saturday and saw the indeed we have some sort of a foundation.

It was very exciting when Ned returned on Christmas eve and showed me these digital photos. In addition he also took video and 35 mm film in order to insure we get the images. In no time the framing will be up as well. It also helps that we are having a bit of a mild streak up here in the mid-atlantic region.

In other news niece Stacey arrived yesterday afternoon from Atlanta. She is spending her holiday break with us this year. We are very excited and hope we can show her a god time. After my slumber tomorrow we are heading to the Spa for some R&R then on Wednesday it's off to NY to visit our family. On the way we are picking up Ned's sister Leslie and the kids who are joining us. It is the first times our families will meet. Next we charge over to the Pocono's to ring in the New Year with some dear friends who are part of our Philadelphia family. Whew!. Anyway to all have a great New Year! Now that we have some house action I hope to be on the Blog more often. By the way this year the Kennedy Center is Honoring None other than Miss Tina Turner. It isscheduled to air on CBS tomorrow 12/27 be sure to catch or tape it. They always have moving montages of the performers life and art during the honors and I love my divas. Enough of the plugs.

Just an update

We finally received word this past week that all of our permits have been assigned and that the clearing for the pocono house has begun we are under a bit of pressure to get the foundation and framing done as soon as possible otherwise the winter will delay construction. Our Philadelphia residence has just cost us a lot of money... again! Our plaster was bubbling up in several areas due to cracks in the stucco on the side and rear of the house. Now that the problem is solved the inside repair work can commence. That will be my job next week. We hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving. I worked but we were treated very nicely after to dinner and dessert by our friends who are also building down the road from us. It's a race to see who's house is completed first. We then visited Ned's sister and niece and nephew in Northern NJ. We all saw the Harry Potter movie, ate some good food and relaxed. Other than that it's been work!work!work!

Jacksonville/Pocono's

We have just returned from a visit to Ned's family in Jacksonville. It was a warm lovely visit. We were able to get a sneak peak at the BLaferships new home, being built now. We visited the site on Saturday and saw many busy hands getting ready for the new occupants.


On Sunday we split into two groups 1 group went to see the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Houston Texans in football and the other group went to the Cummer museum and gardens. Guess which group Ned went with and which group I went with. The museum had a special exhibit of sculptures of J. Seward Johnson. He recreates famous paintings in three dimensional sculpture form. It really was very interesting. He concentrates his works mostly on the impressionist era. He also has many city scene sculptures through out the country including the man with an umbrella here in Philadelphia. After the museum we swung back around the Blaferships new home and saw that in 24 hours they had built a back patio and stairs to the 2nd floor. I was able to experience the excitement with them as they saw the progress. Here is a shot of my sister in law Lori , Charlie and Olivia in the game room. Thanks again to Dad and Ginny and the Blaferships for the great time. Back to the old work grind today for Ned and tonight for me.

Now for the Pocono's. We have settled on the construction loan and are waiting for permits. We have about three more weeks according to the builder to get started before the weather gets to bad. Above I have included two pictures One of Ned in front of out land and one of a similar style home a mile or so from our intended home. The other a picture of the road the house will be on. The whole process is a real nail biter.

Sarah's Graduation

Well we were finally able to celebrate our niece Sarah's graduation from High School this past weekend in Albany and the foliage or as my father would have said "foilage" was near peak. Unfortunately there was a lot of rain so it dampened the festivities only slightly. Sometimes however, a dark gray sky can actually bring out the brilliant colors of the leaves even more than a clear blue sky. I still am trying to figure out if a dry Summer means brighter colors or if it is the opposite and a wet summer means better leaves in the fall. This is my favorite time of year! If only winter didn't have to follow than it would be perfect. My nephew Alexander's football game was all the more interesting in the pouring rain. Offense/defense there is nothing the boy can't do. He is one of the better players on his league of mostly 10 year olds. In addition to Alex we were able to visit with three of my four siblings and 7 nieces and nephews. Above I've posted a picture of the Merrill 5 circa 1971 just for the heck of it. Sarah's celebration consisted of a dinner party with a couple of Sarah's friends, family friends and relatives. Diane, a friend of my sister Denise since she was 5 and a family friend forever as well came to the party with her three girls. Diane and I are Sarah's godparents and unfortunately due to technical difficulties beyond our control Sarah, Diane and I were not at Sarah's first holy communion in 1994 at the same time so Diane and I had to improvise the all important godparents/godchild shot at such a religious rite. Above is that shot plus we were able to finally get a shot while the three of us were in a room all at the same time marking another milestone in Sarah's life.

In Her Shoes/The Pocono's

I just returned from seeing In Her Shoes. Filmed right here in Philadelphia, I had been waiting anxiously for it come out since I read the book by Philadelphia based writer Jennifer Weiner. My friend Shirl saw it over the weekend and raved about the film. Believe me that is high praise coming from Shirl. I have to admit it was really good. My adopted city shines as the backdrop of the film. Shirley Maclaine, Cameron Diaz and Toni Colette were all very good. Not to mention Candace Azzara, who had many roles in the 70's and 80's but hasn't done much in movies or T.V. she was really good as the evil stepmother! I wonder how many will know who she is. It's kind of a trivia factoid. My favorite line of the afternoon, however came not from this movie but from a preview for a Jennifer Aniston movie ,which again has Shirley Maclaine playing a grandmother. Shirley says to an upset Jennifer after she answers the door " come in and I'll start a pot of Bourbon.
Maybe it was the gray day we had today or just my mood, but it made me laugh out loud.

Next the Pocono's! It appears that things are moving forward. Plans have been completed and sent to the bank. We now have an idea of what the house will look like. In whirlwind hour we had to pick out all of the cabinets, fixtures, doors etc. It was very tiring. Ned and I got through it though with only minor back and forth snippiness. After we were able to swing by our friend Michael's place who has a home nearby and have a nice dinner and unwind with Michael and his family. We are now waiting for permits and finalization of the financial stuff and then perhaps work can begin.

A special hello to my friend Mrs; K She just had a 2nd daughter and is doing very well and visited the blog. I can't wait to see her, Mr. K and the girls.

Dragon Boat. My team raised almost three thousand dollars for the Jefferson Breast Cancer center and have already begun plans on next years race. I, in my Thomas Jefferson get up, made it onto the Dragon boat festival website. My dreams of stardom are coming true. Not since Lisa Thomas Laurie interviewed me for Action news in 1996 at the inaugeration for Bill Clinton have I felt like such a celebrity.

Finally it was suggested yesterday by some friends that I need to punch up the blog. I'm not sure how to do that but will try with each post to be more exciting. Well as exciting as I can be. Perhaps I can also start sharing some of my entertainment trivia whirling around in my head. Anyway take care.

A shot of the team at the end of the first race 

The Dragon boat race came and went yesterday. It was a beautiful day with 125 teams participating from all over. My team Jeff Crew did very well for our first time out.None of us had any real rowing or racing background and after only three practices we placed 4th after our first race, 2nd after our second race and 5th after our third and final race. As the drummer my job was to keep the time for the rowers and to be entertaining on the boat so what better way to represent a team from Thomas Jefferson University hospital then to be Thomas Jefferson. I can almost hear the laughter from everyone who knows how tone deaf I am. It really was a great day. Thanks to Margie for organizing everything and to Toni for making sure we all had so much to eat and drink and to all of my teammates and supporters. Special thanks to Ned who stayed the whole day even though he had very little sleep the night before and took so many wonderful pictures.  

Dragon Boat Race

Philadelphia is having an International Dragon boat race this Saturday October 1st on Kelly Drive. The racers are racing for various cancer charities. I am a member of Jeff-crew. We are a group of nurses from Thomas Jefferson Hospital and are raising money and awareness for a new breast cancer center at our hospital. One of our nurses, a 1 year breast cancer survivor, has spear headed our participation in the race. None of us have had any prior racing experience and are racing after only three practices. I am the drummer of the boat which means I keep the pace and time for all the paddlers. I am both scared and nervously excited about Saturday and will post more of it when the race is over.

We recently wen to NY and saw Spamalot on Broadway. It was a great night of entertainment. Sara Ramirez who stars as the Lady of the Lake is an amazing talent. Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce and especially Hank Azaria (APU and many other voices form the Simpsons ) made it a great night to remember.