What we’re doing out here…

My my my, how time files. This has been a very full year for Stephen and I! I took a glance back at my calendar…it seems we haven’t had a “free” weekend since February…I guess we just have too much of a social life and too many hobbies. If you are wondering how we could possibly have fit something into every weekend for 9 months, I may be able to help. We typically find ourselves participating in one of the four categores:

1. Some type of social function. Many of our friends are getting married; which means bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, showers, weddings, and engagement parties. So far, these events have taken up a fair number of weekends; and we have always enjoyed them. For the friends that have already been through the nuptials, we have also been spending time on baby showers and kid’s birthday parties…this year alone we’ve been exposed to more babies than we could possibly ever hope. Aside from marriages and baby things, there have been the obligatory birthday parties (adult), graduations, and holiday celebrations. And then, of course, Stephen and I do try to get out and just visit with friends we don’t see often; especially if it involves good beer!

2. We have also been pursuing some dancing events. We did make it to Viennese Ball this year, as well as a dance workshop with Frankie Manning (one of the original lindy hop dancers…this guy is well into his 90’s and makes even the youngest man look like a slob on the dance floor!).

3. The bulk of our time has been spent out-of-doors, pursuing some of our favorite hobbies…rock climbing, camping, hiking, and kayaking. Actually, I am not a huge fan of the Kayak, but Stephen seems to really enjoy it! So far this year, we’ve kayaked the San Juan Islands of Washington, hiked and climbed Pinnacles National Monument, hiked and climbed Lover’s Leap near Tahoe, hiked and climbed Bishop’s Peak in San Luis Obispo, hiked and climbed Castle Rock and Summit Rock near China Grade, and re-introduced my parents to the joys of “roughing it” again.

4. The last time suck is related to my occupation as well as Steve’s occupation. Both of us spend some amount of time managing relationships with clients. As such, we find ourselves at corporate-sponsored things like Sharks games, dining events, client venues, trade shows and trainings, as well as the obligatory holiday parties and general company cameraderie events. While these are not the bulk of our time, it does account for a few weekends.

So that’s what we’re doing out here. We miss you all and would love to wipe something out and add in “family time” with y’all.

Much love!

The Truth

After I posted the previous article I sent everybody an email (via the handy Chappell Message Center form) asking if people wanted an email notification when new articles are posted. Not everybody copied everybody with their replies, so I thought I’d share some of the feedback — generally the answer was “not really” — and post some thoughts for posterity.

It seems family visits to the blog are few and far between, which was kind of what I thought. Nevertheless, for the time being, I plan to keep writing these things and providing pictures from time to time. There’s probably some element of gratification publishing stuff knowing the whole world could read it if they wanted. But for me the truth about these blog entries is they substitute for what I used to do with pen, paper, an envelope and a stamp. Actually, they’re more like the self-addressed stamped postcards mom sent me if it had been a little too long since my last letter or phone call. I still have a half dozen of them in a desk drawer, that I didn’t get around to sending back to her in time.

The nice thing about posting a blog entry instead of sending a postcard or a letter or even an email is it’s non-intrusive, there’s no pressure to acknowledge it, answer it, or even read it. People feel obliged to open a letter or an email; and with email people often feel even more obligated to send back a reply. Blog entries, on the other hand, as was pointed out in some of the email replies (see? my point exactly) can be left for a rainy day when there’s nothing else pressing. I should point out, though, I generally lock out comments to a blog entry after a month or so. Otherwise, I’d be deleting 100 to 300 blog spams a week. More about that in a future article, when I’ll answer one person’s question about “ermine” on New Year’s Day.

So, these are my little postcards, where I mostly write the kind of stuff mom used to like to hear about. I guess it was something unique about her. Now that I think about it some more, I think maybe these are really for her. I just don’t know where to send the ones in my desk drawer. I sure miss you, mom.

Fall’s A-Comin’

We went out for a little walk today, and fall was definitely in the air. People were still mowing yards, washing cars, and doing summer stuff, but the air had that “better than summer” feel and smell. Not to knock summer smells, especially the smells of flowers, freshly cut grass, sizzling steaks on outdoor grills. I don’t mind knocking the “feel” of Kansas summer, though. But, that’s not really the reason for this article.

Becky got new glasses a couple weeks ago. Kim wondered how they looked and asked for a photo. So, it seemed like a good time to take a picture for her. I figured, long as I was photographing Becky, we’d have her get one of me. It’s rare I don’t look goofy in a photo, but she caught a rare moment. Hers came out good, too. So, I put ’em together.

Can be seen at my Flickr collection, (really the best view) or you can click the little pic here to see bigger pic. One of us is actually flipped 180 degrees (mirror image). Can you tell which?