My friend, Barry Holliday

The Inn at Canal Square, Lewes, Delaware

Blogger Palooza Presentations

Gag gifts given by Ron to Dr. Spo.

 

Todd, Barry, (Jay in the Mirror), Ron, the Cajun, myself (David) speaking with Dr. Spo.

What a HUG!!!

Blogger Palooza Witches of Lewes with dessert.

More after dinner entertainment with key lime, chocolate fudge, and pecan mini desserts.

Blogger Palooza Spo Shirt Raffle

Dr. Spo brought one of his handmade shirts for the raffle.  Ron took the basket of raffle tickets over to Java, and she drew Doug's name!

Dr. Spo was then crowned with dragon horns, and he had a few words to say!

Blogger Palooza - LET'S EAT!

Time to go through the buffet line and get our vittles!  Delicious roast pork tenderloin with aus jus, broccoli rabe, potatoes, and beer bread.  Enjoy, but it's not polite to drool!

Blogger Palooza Get Acquainted

Barry and I arrived Friday afternoon and checked in following Jay, Java, and Superman.  Ron was there welcoming us also, though he was not behind the reception desk working on this evening.

Barry and I went up to our second floor corner room overlooking Gilligan's Restaurant and the Lewes-Rehobeth Canal.

The room was large and had two windows on each side.  There was a sitting area with a flat screen TV, which was great for watching March Madness while we were there.

We decided to go down below to the Gilligan's Restaurant for dinner.  The chef's special was crab cake with mashed potatoes and asparagus.  It was the largest (softball size) and best (all lump crab meat) crab cake I have ever eaten, and I have eaten a lot of crab cakes on the Delmarva peninsula over the years.  For starters we had fried onion petals with a delicious chipotle dip.

After dinner we went up to Cubby's suite for the pre-Palooza meet and greet.  They were serving great Cosmos.

In the picture are Java, Cubby, Jay, and Barry.

Java took this picture with Anne Marie and myself seated on the sofa. 

While we were there, Dr. Spo and Someone arrived and everyone got all excited all over again!  Most of them had not had dinner yet while waiting for the dignitaries; so they went out to dinner.  Since Barry and I had already had dinner, we went back to the room to watch more games on March Madness!

Watch this space on coming days for four videos that I made of the big night!

My official name tag

Proper Pope Attire

The Pope, wearing a fabulous vintage chiffon-line Dior gold lame gown over a silk Vera Wang empire waist tulle cocktail dress, accessorized with a three-foot House of Whoville hat and the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz, on his way to tell us it's WRONG TO BE GAY.
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After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices the Pope is still standing on the curb.

'Excuse me, Your Holiness,' says the driver, 'Would you please take your seat so we can leave?'

'Well, to tell you the truth,' says the Pope, 'they never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal,  and I'd really like to drive today.'

'I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! What if something should happen' protests the driver, wishing he'd  never gone to work that morning.

'Who's going to tell' says the Pope with a smile.

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel.

The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 205 kph.  (Remember, the Pope is German)

'Please slow down, Your Holiness' pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

'Oh, dear God, I'm going to lose my license -- and my job!' moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at  him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.

'I need to talk to the Chief,' he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop  tells him that he's stopped a limo going 205 kph.

'So bust him,' says the Chief.

'I don't think we want to do that, he's really important,' said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed, 'All the more reason!'

'No, I mean really important,' said the cop with a bit of  persistence..

The Chief then asked, 'Who do you have there, the mayor?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'A senator?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'The Prime Minister?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

'Well,' said the Chief, 'who is it?'

Cop: 'I think it's God!'

The Chief is even more puzzled and curious, 'What makes you think it's God?'

Cop:  'His chauffeur is the Pope!'

QUILTS

Because of the cold winters at the farm, it was necessary to find a way to keep warm, especially in the bedrooms, which were often unheated.  I can remember Grandmama (Rosa Pearce Moore) wrapping irons  (made of cast iron for ironing clothing) that had been heated on the wood stove with heavy cloth material and placing them between the sheets to get the bed warm.  The also occasionally used hot water bottles, but this was before there was electricity in the farm house, so there were no electric blankets.

Mary Harter Alexander, my first cousin - once removed and the great-granddaughter of Rosa Moore inspired me to write this post.  Today, Mary is famous in Kentucky for her quilts.  She has a picture of Rosa Moore on the shelf of her quilting studio for inspiration.

Rosa Moore and the other ladies of the Timberlake-Hurdles Mill community often had quilting bees and made many quilts for their families to keep them warm.  In her late years, Rosa made a number of quilts for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  I use mine regularly and cherish it immensely.  The quilt's primary color is lavender and the pattern is the Wedding Ring.

On one of the back corners, she stitched her dedication:

Rosa Pearce Moore

Aunt Alma also made a quilt for me in the Star pattern, which has a black background with gold, red and black accents:

Midnight Train To Georgia

1.            Have you ever been to Atlanta? Yes, many times.  The traffic is horrendous (especially on the beltway), except for the time when the Olympics were in town.  The mayor asked the people to ride MARTA instead of driving and they did!  The MARTA platforms were crowded and the streets were empty!

2.           Do you enjoy traveling by train? I love train travel.  Once, I landed at the Hartsfield airport and took MARTA within one block of my hotel and the hospital I was consulting for.  Many years ago I took Amtrak from Miami -> Chicago -> San Francisco (Oakland) -> Portland, Oregon -> Chicago -> Albany, NY -> Miami (via NYC) – all in one trip!  Even in NYC, I took the subway from Grand Central Station to Penn Station, so that I could say that the whole trip was by rail.  Actually, the train only went to Oakland, CA and not San Francisco, so I had to take an Amtrak bus into San Francisco.

3.           "Midnight Train to Georgia" is Sam Winters' signature number at the karaoke bar. What's your go-to song when you take the mic?  I sing so badly in a monotone voice that the karaoke system would wilt and die.

4.           Do you drink tea? I love all kinds of tea.  For many years in Florida, I drank Lipton daily until my doctor told me that the tannic acid is what contributed to my kidney stones.  Now I primarily drink green tea daily.

5.           What's the most recent thing you purchased for your home? Some new towels.  For myself, a pair of Clark’s Natureveldt shoes, and for my computer a new mouse.

6.           Are there dishes in your kitchen sink right now?  Yes, because I have not emptied the dishwasher yet, but they will soon be in there.

7.            Have you ever been finger printed? Never.

8.           What was the last check you wrote? The hospital for some physical therapy I had last year.

9.           What color are your eyes? Blue.

NOT ALL THIEVES ARE STUPID!!

• Glove compartment info:  

Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose, while away, and someone broke into the car.  Using the information on the car's registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people's home in Pebble Beach and robbed it.  So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener.  This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

• GPS:

Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game.  Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially alloted to football fans.  Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.  When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.  The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house.  Then they used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house.  The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house.  It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it.  Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS was stolen.

• Cell phones:

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen.  Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.  Twenty minutes later when she called her hubby from  a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says "I received your text asking about our pin number and I've replied a little while ago."  When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.  The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number.  Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

• Lessons learned:

1. Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.  Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.
2. Lock your phone with a password, so that a thief cannot get to your information.  Android phones allow a small window to be displayed [If found, please call (number of family member)] on the screen even though the phone is password protected.
3. When sensitive info is being asked through texts, confirm by calling back instead of texting.
4. When you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back about to confirm that the message came from them.  If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.
5. Carry your registration card and insurance card in your wallet or hide it in the car in some place other than the glove box.
6. Don't leave your GPS in your car.

--edited from an anonymous email that I received.