Road Trip

So last Tuesday we left the burg and headed south on a little adventure. Our first stop was Macon, GA where we stayed overnight with Jo's pals PR and Harry and their dog Wrex. It wasn't a very long visit, but we knew we'd see 'em on the way back, so Wednesday morning it was off to Florida.

We made a pit stop in Gainesville and snooped around the campus of the University of Florida for a little bit. We parked illegally so Jo could snap some pictures of the "Gators" at the football stadium. Then we asked a group of college boys if they knew a good place to eat lunch. They recommended "The Swamp" across the street. It was good, they were right. After that we continued on to West Palm Beach.

After arriving at the bed and breakfast and being greeted by Telullah the dachshund we were ready to walk, but not sure what direction to head in so we wandered around lost for a little bit. We also called Tony and Casey (Woodard) McCloud, old Fredericksburg friends now living in West Palm. They came and rescued us. After a nice dinner out they gave us a little WPB orientation and let us know where all the good hang out spots were...as well as Donald Trump's beach house.

Thursday was basically spent bumming around at the beach, in town, taking more pix, eating ice cream and waving to Donald T. who we saw out trimming his shrubs (right). We saw our first Man o' War jellyfish washed up on shore. It was a little chilly for swimming, but once I saw those bad boys I wasn't going anywhere near the water! That night we went to the movies at this really cool theater with couches for seats. Apparently there is supposed to be one like it opening at the Spotsy Towne Center.

Friday was baseball day, Marlins v. Dodgers in spring training. We went really early to catch batting practice and everything. Very cool...if you're into that sort of thing. We got sunburned watching the game but enjoyed every minute of it. After that we drove along the coast for a bit, stopping to check out sights along the way at Jupiter and Juno Beaches, before heading to Boca Raton where we met up with Jo's old pal from college, Lottie and her husband and 3 yr. old son Doug. We spent the night at their place before heading back north in the morning.

Saturday we drove up to Titusville (near Cape Canaveral) where we ran into some kid named Thomas MacGregor. He looked malnourished, a real starving artist, so we took him to lunch. Then it was on to Hilton Head to meet back up with PR & Harry at PR's mom's house. Geez, what a great place to live...Hilton Head. So after hanging out with them for another night it was back home finally. We dropped off "Gerry" (short for Geriatric) the rental car, hopped in "Bob" (our car) and we're reunited with Dusty late Sunday night.

Sabbatical Week One

Well, being on sabbatical is certainly...different.

Today Jo and I discovered how nice it is not to work on Sunday. After going to church at 3rd Pres. in Richmond, where we remained happily anonymous, we decided to snoop around the U. of Richmond campus. While there we stumbled on a baseball game between U of R and that sports powerhouse, Yale. It was a beautiful day so we sat on the hill and watched really smart guys play a few innings of baseball before going out to lunch.

Otherwise we've been hangin' with some of the college kids on spring break as well Abby the former intern. Christine, Amanda, and Abby all came over for dinner with Jo and I Tuesday night. We played Canasta and ate ice cream late into the night. Then a couple days later Tim, Tommy, Christine, Amanda, and I all had lunch together. In between all this eating and card playing we talked a lot about faith and ministry, things that had made a difference in their lives, and things that hadn't. Otherwise I've done some writing (my "book"), lots of reading, checked out some running (wheeze!!) trails in the National Park, and done a little exploring in the seminary library in Richmond.

All this reading, writing, and eating makes a man have to go outside and work with his hands. I've been working on the back of the house trying to make it appear a little less ghetto. Although, come to think of it I've never seen a ghetto with as much dog poop as our backyard. But it's getting better. I painted the foundation and crawlspace door and the dog helped out. While I managed to minimize the amount of paint on me, Dusty now has a frosted white tail and a white tip on her left ear.

Someone better comment on these blogs or I'm not going to bother!

High School Retreat

Once again we loaded the vans and headed to Brethren Woods for this year's high school retreat. This year we talked about trusting God and changing our perspective. We were joined by three of our esteemed youth group "alumni." The weekend started with hot chocolate, cookies, and some serious "King/Queen of the Box" action. Saturday we spent the day in the woods doing low ropes in the morning and the high ropes course in the afternoon. Somewhere in there a giant turtle made of aluminum foil. After that we took a break during which a few of us decided to engage in a little mud football while waiting for the lasagna to bake. Later after our worship time everyone took 20 minutes of silence and then spent the rest of the night hanging out and eating brownies and homemade ice cre...er...milkshakes. Sunday morning was spent putting out the fire in the oven, cleaning up, and praying for one another. Then after a last minute and unsuccessful attempt to rescue the turtle we headed for home.

Go Grizzlies!

Over the President weekend (Feb. 16-19th) the Kvasagers along with the Grizzlies hockey team came out to D.C. to conquer a hockey tournament (up in Reston,VA). Tim and I had fun chillin (literally chillin) in a ice rink for most of the time, cheering on our favorite Grizz #4 and the outstanding coach of the Grizzlies! We played tour guide in D.C. as we ventured on the metro to the Spy Museum. Of course we had to eat Chinese food along the way in Chinatown (dah). Peggy and Mak came down to the Burg for a night to meet Dusty and visit the homestead and spend my BDay with me! The Grizzlies ended up with a third place finish for the weekend and hopefully had tons of fun!