The ATC

I received a very timely piece of mail today. On Sunday I finished A Walk in the Woods, about the Appalachian Trail (I even wrote a little blurb about it here). Today, I got a letter inviting me to join the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. There's a nice little letter of invitation enclosed by Dave Startzell, the Executive Director of the ATC. In said letter he raises his suspicions about my dreams.... in fact he dares to guess that I have a very specific dream: That I would like to one day hike the AT from start to finish; from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. Or perhaps the other way round? Who knows. The point is: He's right! How strange? A conservationist and clairvoyant to boot!! Bill Bryson's book made me want to get out there and plod along through the woods. I think a sabatical is in order next summer.

A Walk in the Woods

I just finished Bill Bryson's book A Walk in the Woods. It was pretty darn good. It brought me back to the days of living in New England and hiking around in the Maine woods. It really made me miss doing so much hiking. He wrote this in 1996 along several portions of the Appalachian Trail. He does a great job of telling some history of the trail, and an environmental history of the Eastern US as well.

Two thumbs up for this one!

It's not that big

This is an unnamed 81.21 carat diamond. It was scheduled to be sold at Christies in Switzerland some time in 2004. At that time the expected price was between $1.5 and 3.1 Million (US). I wonder where it went.

Julie's replacement is just a bit smaller than this one, but only a tiny bit. We got a quote from the insurance people last night and instead of taking their replacement stone, we decided to strike out on our own and buy one ourselves (with their money of course). We went back to where we bought our rings in the first place, The Shane Company. They took very good care of us, and we ended up very happy about our new hardware. Of course, Julie had to upgrade from the original since it has been five years.....

Emily

This is Emily, you may remember her from that great Karaoke experience in July. She is here to get a prize!! "Most Comments by a Non-Ingraham!"

This picture is from the infamous "Fleet-Week" in New York City. Emily was working on Long Island on a project with the wifey, and they took a field trip into the city. All the ladies ended up wearing these hats from the sailors and playing dress-up at all the bars. Those military boys were pretty excited. Although if you look closely at the picture below, you can see that Emily has given her word to stop at third..... sorry sailors.

Day Old Coffee

Actually, I think it was about two days old.... oh well.

Today I grabbed a coffee cup off my desk and took a sip. Sadly, it was my coffee from the other day. Not today. In fact, today I brought Tea to work in my Dunkin Donuts travel mug, so who knows why I would pick up a paper coffee cup?? Perhaps my office with no windows is getting to me.

The interesting part about this: It wasn't bad. Like ice coffee, but with no ice. I got it at Joe's in East Atlanta Village. Apparently, their coffee keeps well in paper cups on desks.

Matt and Martha got ENGAGED!!

Everyone knows by now, but I didn't have a photo with both of them in it. So finally, here they are.

As you can see, Matt had to get her really drunk before she would finally say 'I do,' but it will be totally worth it.

Congrats to both of them.

Gone, baby gone

The jewel is gone. We can't find it anywhere. We were putting together new patio furniture, the heavy metal kind, and the wifey thinks that it may have popped out when she slammed her hand into some part of it. . . but it's not anywhere around the house.

Luckily, we have a great insurance company, and they are already on the case. They're working on it in shifts. They buy bulk diamonds and they'll replace and repair the broken one. OR, you can take their replacement $$ and get yourself your own new stone. Plus, there is no deductable, which is nice.

Too bad this rock is missing, but at least we aren't out the cost of a new one!

The thrill is gone

I am at work and I just got a call from the wifey.... "I looked down and the stone is missing from my engagement ring....."

I'm not sure what to do next. More on this developing story as it comes to light.

Cosmic Blog?

This blog predicts the future.... it finds lost puppies..... it connects long lost friends with each other.... the laws of physics do not apply to this blog. I have it on good authority that this blog is the cure for cancer. If someone could just convert this blog into pill form.

There was a topic somewhere in this blog which got people talking... somehow the subject of that conversation received some type of psychic waves and got in touch with those people. It's less of a twilight zone type of thing, more of a "what a funny coincidence" type thing. Still, the blog must be cosmic.