News from Florida

Sarah has a new post on her Florida blog in which she crashes an ATV into a tree, contemplates a career in show biz, and revives her water heater--all in the space of a few short paragraphs!

Pitchers!

As many of you know Susan and I spent our Spring break visiting Sarah in Florida. We drove through the night on Sunday (Susan doing the brunt of the driving, both ways, in fact) and arrived mid-morning on Monday (the 13th, this post is a little late, I suppose).

It was a very relaxing trip, we divided our time between helping Sarah get settled in, various beach related activities, eating, and hanging around in Destin, a town not far from Niceville.

The reason I post this now is because I've compiled a little website with pictures of both this trip and the East coast trip Susan and I went on last Summer.

They're at http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~peddy/pictures.htm You can can click on the picture or the "next" button at the top to advance the pictures, or click on any of the thumbnails at the bottom to see a particular picture. My comments are underneath the picture, right above the thumbnails. Clicking on the "home" link will take you back to where you can choose which picture set to look at. Hope you enjoy.

Further adventures in Florida

Sarah has a new post on her Florida website that recounts her visit with Phillip and Susan, cleaning a clogged sink, an encounter with a cottonmouth snake, and an upcoming grad school interview at Oregon State. (Tonight that got firmed up with another phone call from them; looks like she'll fly out there the weekend of April 1.)

The Mark Eddys In Michigan!

Well, they came, the bought a fancy new manDO-lin, and left again.
And now, we must pick up the pieces...

Photos of the boys themsevles can be seen HERE
The official website of Mark's New Mandolin is here.

It was a wonderful whirlwind visit, based around a trip out to East Lansing to visit the legendary Elderly Instruments for the purpose of (as has been said) a new mandolin and getting Mark's banjo repaired.

Hopefully we won't have to wait another 10yrs before the next visit!

PS. For those in the family that do not enjoy the high lonesome sound of the banjo (though I am sure that everyone does) this may help.

another lost family member

So, where is Max? I hope some blond floozy didn't snatch him or allure him away!
I am assuming Mark, Paul, Matt and Chris are in E. Lansing having a great time and that Lisa and Karen are having fun picking out a wedding dress. We are having a family gathering here tonight to help soothe my nerves over the Monday surgery. The retina specialist is going to remove the scar tissue so hopefully my blurry vision will clear up. In the meantime I continue to have pain so am convinced the eye will have to come out. Wouldn't the grandkids love it if Grandma could take out and ey and show them!!!
Rob is taking me, brave lad that he is, and Mary Wilson from church is taking me to Dr. Schraut's office at eight the next morning. Last I heard from the weather man we are supposed to get 3 inches of snow Monday nite, but Mary being a Wisconsin native I doubt that will bother her. Now me-that's another story!
Dad and I are being entertained by basketball. I notice not many of you sports fans are filling out the brackets. Mike, I emailed Pat but didn't get a response.
For those of you who remember Pat's arthritic hands, she had one hand straightened out. Es, says it looks perfectly normal but so far she hasn't much strength in it.
Tornadoes hit all around in Mo. but no one we know and love were hit.
Sorry this is so long--

Let the Games Commence! Talking Eds Take the Court

The NCAA Tournament sort of snuck up on me this year, but not to worry--I've got the Talking Eds team all set up on the ESPN Tournament Challenge. Just click here to sign up for the team and complete your bracket. Remember you've got to do it before the first game starts about noon on Thursday. Give yourself lots of time because it's really slow with zillions of people doing the same thing you'll be doing. But it's so worth it!

Who can remember what Eddy came out on top last year? (How fleeting glory is.)

New Post from Sarah

Sarah's blog site (see link on the right) has a new posting about her apartment, tree-climbing snakes, and flying squirrels.

Caleb's math team victorious

On Tuesday, Caleb's math team went up against 10 other area schools in the Math Bowl held in the Pine Village Elementary gym with an audience of about 250-300. They took first place, answering correctly 25 out of 28 questions! The proctors posted the questions on a screen and gave them 30 seconds to formulate their answers. Then the solution would be given, and the teams who got it right would hold up their hands so the fans could cheer. It was pretty hard stuff: story problems, number pattern recognition, understanding primes and writing equations. The same contest was held simultaneously over the state and Klondike finished 4th in the state for their size school. Here's a picture of the proud competitor (and proud siblings) with his medal.

Almost as good as Julia's!

You have to take a look at this Honda ad. It's amazing.

My most recent encounter in the animal kingdom!

As you may be able to tell from the above picture, I encountered my first diamonback Rattlesnake this week! The snake was probably a little over 4 feet long and maybe 6-8 inches in diameter. I was really overjoyed by this encounter. I've heard so much about rattlers and I've never seen one. 3 years in new mexico and never encountered one! Well, now I have and I have to say that they are gorgeous and intimidating. I was really struck by the bold lines running down the sides of its face. I guess I wasn't expecting these snakes to be so beautiful.

Anywho, we came upon this snake sunning himself on one of the roads on the base. I could write a lot more about the encounter, but if your interested I've already posted about it in my blog, which is linked over on the side. Mainly I wanted to post one of the pictures I took ( I know I know, not the greatest pic, but i was a little nervous about getting too close), so some of my interested cousins could see!

PS: Just so you all can be jealous its been in the upper 70s/low 80s all week. Gorgeous! Of course what this means for the temperatures in July I don't even want to contemplate!

And the Answer Is . . .

The correct answer for the asking price on the Nova is (drumroll, please) $1650! Seems incredible, but, even more incredibly, the Kelly Blue Book value is $1890. (I couldn't get a price out of NADA.) This is the same car Mom couldn't sell for $200 and Rob was ready to drive to the junkyard. In fairness I'd note that the dealer has tuned the car up (which it badly needed), replaced the muffler, replaced the sagging roof cloth (which Dad had stapled up on more than one occasion with not great results), and generally cleaned it up. We'll never know what the dealer actually gets for it, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't crack $1,000.

I think by Price Is Right rules (and Mark I'd defer to your expertise here) that the winner is the person who came closest to the actual value with exceeding it. In that case Mark and W. Max, having both selected C, are co-winners. You're supposed to start jumping up and own, waving your arms, and screaming at this point.

Anybody got a tie-breaker? The E-Bay value of the old cell phone that Phillip rescued from the glove compartment?