FAMILY visit

This past weekend, the parents visited our humble abode. We met Uncle Georges' son, Rick and his wife Sue, who live in a beautiful new home in Eagle Point which is not far from Ashland. It was great to hear family stories from Rick and Darlene and see them happily reminisce on memories of George. I was amazed to see the clear resemblance of Rick and George from the photos Darlene brought down.

We did make it to a Shakespeare Festival play, Equivocation. It was an interesting and funny play about Mr. Shakespeare and his theater company struggling to write a play that pleases the King.
We had a great time walking the town, and getting some tasty treats at The Rocky Mounting Chocolate Co. I think that Louie's Burgers were the hit food for the trip.

We are excited for the family and the Bridges to visit next month. We still have more places to explore and then I will have a chance to take more photos; I need more "tall" photos for my new picture frame!

The Vortex!

A few weeks ago my BFF Lauren and Mr. Nate (her new Beau and our new friend) visited. We took a trip to a local attraction called The Vortex. The vortex, essentially a whirlpool of force, is what creates the mystical illusion. Nowhere in the circle do you normally stand erect. Inevitably the visitor assumes a posture that inclines toward magnetic north. As another person, on a level platform, recedes from you towards magnetic south, they appear taller. When they approach you, coming towards magnetic north, they become shorter.

Lauren was confused and is still pondering how it "really" works. We all had a lovely weekend.



The below images depict the phenomenon clearly.

Easter Sunday

We had a lovely Easter Sunday with the Fam. We went to R HAUS for Sunday Brunch. My Grandpa told us that he and my Grandma had gone to this restaurant since they were in high school. They used to spend their evenings there playing and dancing with local bands. So it was really nice to be there with them!After Brunch we had birthday cake at my Grandparents house for my sisters birthday. Then Anna insisted we play solar system Monopoly with her. About an hour in I decided I had won the game, since I had all of the 1$. SO I handed my properties over to Matt and left the game (taking all of the 1$ with me).

Now Matt and I are sick, sniff. Strep and a terrible ear infection. Not fun! Lets hope it improves soon.

AIFF

THis weekend we spent our time at the Ashland International Film Festival. Above you see Matt infront of a van of cameras. We had a great time. We saw three excellent screenings!One screening was full of 6 local short films.

Then we saw, Between the Folds, which is about artists, scientists and mathematicians from all over the world working in the very same medium of origami. It was so beautiful and amazing. This screening also featured a short film on david mccullough, an author, painter and PBS show host (he was a funny guy with a great life story).

Another film was Prom Night in Mississippi. Even though segregation became illegal in the US in the 70's, the town of Charelston still practices this by doing one senoir prom for whites and one for blacks. In 2008, Morgan Freeman offered to pay for a prom for the school, if it was intergrated, and hesitanly with confrontation, they agreed. The film documents this event. It was a great film, that HBO just picked up, and it is being submitted for an oscar.

All of the films we attended had a Q&A session with the Directors at the end. It really was neat to get more of an idea of how the films came about and how it all came together form the directors viewpoint. You could really tell that these films were labors of love for the film makers we met.

The lake

Recently we went to Emingrant Lake to fish. We did not catch any fish, yet, but we had a lovely day!