Sue is AWESOME!

Today we went to the Natural History Museum at East Tennessee State in Johnson City. Libby read over the weekend of a new exhibit there of "the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. rex fossil ever discovered." The place was awesome; the T. rex was awesome; the whole trip was awesome, all according to Briggs (we even had pizza for supper after we got home). The assembled T. rex skeleton was pretty incredible. There were plenty of hands-on exhibits for all ages. We also watched a short film about the site, and then got to do some pretend digging for bones. Finally, though it was cold, we got to go outside and see the actual site where the ETSU folks do their digging.

To be clear: Sue, the T. rex, was found in South Dakota, by a paleontologist named Sue Hendrickson. The fossil was ultimately purchased by The Field Museum in Chicago. ETSU has the exhibit on loan through April. There is however a Miocene era dig in progress in Gray. They have found lots of bones near what was once a watering hole. It was nearly paved over by Suncrest Drive, but work was halted, re-routed, and the site secured by ETSU. The university then established an entire department to begin unearthing the site. The T. rex exhibit is no doubt a coup for this smallish department and school, but it was really drawing a crowd today. It was well worth the travel for us; I think everyone learned a little something. Briggs for sure had a blast and was turned on even more (if that's possible) to the world of dinosaurs!

(The museum had a really nice white, yellow and red logo/design (lower left of the graphic above) for the exhibit (signage, promo items, etc.) but I couldn't find it anywhere on their site; I had to make do with this rather bland B&W rendering above.)

So proud

Black Mountain PC(USA) did two services for Christmas Eve (much as they have in the past). The early service is for families and in the past was pretty standard fair with lots of adult involvement. I suggested this year letting children do the bulk of the service. An adult (clergy-person) would only need to do the welcome and concluding blessing. I was able to utilize all of the children participating and present in the Aerie Singers (grades 3-4-5 in our Logos program) as readers and pray-ers. Eli was one of those, though he usually does not sing with the group. He allowed himself to be convinced by myself and our educator Ginny Soll to be a lector. He did a great job. This is a posed shot after the service of Eli at the lectern. He did actually sing the anthem the group sang, though he had not practiced it before! He even got to ring a chime as part of the accompaniment.

Snow!

It ain't much, but it's actually snow. Other parts of the county (of course) got more; we managed only a dusting. But it was enough to close daycare for Briggs (school for Eli was still on holiday). Not so much snow, but plenty of cold: 17 degrees right now at mid-morning! I am reminded just how leaky this old house is!

Christmas 2007

We had a great time with my mom and my brother and his girlfriend Kristen. We ate really well and had a nice time watching to boys open presents. Here are some photos; included in this album are several shots from our visit later in the week with Libby's brother and SIL Uncle David and Aunt Brenda. Here's Eli on his new bike; and here is Briggs on his. Above Briggs is showing off his new watch and Spiderman sweater. Though you can't see them, he's also showing off some new firefighter boots!

Two great tastes that taste great together

The last time we had pizza a couple of weeks ago, Briggs got onto the topic of his favorite foods. Those are pizza and chicken nuggets. The next day when he was suggesting (as he does every day) what he wanted for supper (always either pizza or nuggets), I suggested a "chicken nugget pizza." He was stock still in his tracks! He barely could comprehend a meal of his two most favorite things at once. We agreed that next time we had pizza his could be a chicken nugget pizza.

Tonight was the night. It was heightened by the fact that the nuggets had dinosaur shapes! One half was "his" pizza; the other was Eli's usual pepperoni. FWIW Libby had green pepper and ham; I had barbecued chicken and red onion. Next stop for Briggs, the virtues of "tastes great; less filling!"

Elf-ed

Too cute! Take a gander here!

Stupid Cat

She's not looking at anything; she's asleep! The cat has found the heat rising from the basement wood stove to be a real enticement. She likes to be near the vent where the heat rises into the living room. On the floor, on the sofa, on the arm of the sofa, as long as she's near the heat, she's very happy. So I thought she was just looking at the floor while enjoying the heat. But no; I nudged her head and she didn't move. She was totally asleep! Amazing. The other shot is from below. You can just make out her face between the arm of the sofa and the wood top of the side table. I expected to see a trail of drool dribbling from the corner of her mouth!