Matt and I have been watching Family Ties during the past few weeks courtesy of our Netflix subscription. We're currently on Disc 2 of Season 1, and we're loving every minute of it.
Matt has discovered that he has a retroactive crush on Meredith Baxter Birney (now just Meredith Baxter), and to be honest, I'm okay with it. She's very pretty, and she plays a cool character on the show. And...I'd probably be a little more worried if the show was current and if she was a real-life acquaintance of ours.
At any rate, Matt and I had both forgotten how good the writing and acting was, so we're having fun rediscovering that. We're also enjoying the humor of the Keaton boys, Alex P. and Steven.
For those of you who would like a dose of nostalgia like the one we've been enjoying, I discovered today that you can watch full episodes of Family Ties on cbs.com. They don't have full seasons, but they do have the most popular episodes from each season.
Cable television is a thing of the past in the Taylor household. Yesterday, we kicked Time Warner Cable to the curb and welcomed the Dish Network into our home.
Many things led to the switch, but the top two were Time Warner's lack of customer service and lack of MASN (the network that picks up Orioles games). So far, Dish has definitely delivered better customer service. And, Matt was happy as a clam as he watched his first televised Orioles game last night.
At some point, I'm sure I'll miss wasting my time arguing with customer service representatives and letting repair people in our house on a regular basis, but for now, I'm enjoying the switch.
Matt and I took a trip to Nashville in early June to celebrate the birthday of my niece, Rachel. While there, we also celebrated with my nephew Ryan and a few other family members who also have birthdays in June.
Friday night, we arrived at BNA (a.k.a. the Nashville airport), and headed to Madison to try and catch the final minutes of Rachel's performance in the Madison Bluegrass Festival. Rachel has become quite the musical virtuoso and played guitar with some other kids in her class. Check it out...a bit of video is below (Rachel plays lead guitar from about 0:50 to 1:20).
We missed the actual performance, but we were able to enjoy a post-festival dinner with the whole gang (Brent, my sister, the kids, and my mom and dad) at Fazoli's. Saturday, Matt and I ate a wonderful home-cooked breakfast courtesy of my mom, then headed to All Fired Up to paint pottery with Rachel, Ryan, and my sister. Photos from breakfast and our pottery adventures are below (I made Rachel a frame for her birthday, and Matt made Ryan a cereal bowl for his).
Rachel with the bracelet we got her in Santorini
Ryan with the pen and pencil set we got him in Rome
Having fun at All Fired Up
Ryan carefully paints his skull and crossbones
Celebrating Rachel's birthday with Gigi's Cupcakes!
Ryan Blowing Out His Birthday Candle
Rachel and our present to her, The Crammer
Saturday night, we had one of our traditional celebrations where my family celebrates all the birthdays in that month. It was a fun night of food, outdoor fun, and indoor games.
Celebrating June Birthdays
The weekend ended on Sunday after a trip to church and lunch afterward with my mom and dad. It was nice to spend some time with them, even if it was too short.
Although it was a typical "whirlwind trip", I was thankful to have the opportunity to celebrate my niece and nephews' birthdays. I haven't gotten that chance in recent years, so I'm glad the tradition is starting back up. The photo below shows Rachel and Ryan with the items they painted (Rachel: dolphin, Ryan: skull and crossbones with a gold tooth) and the items we painted for them as birthday gifts.
Our hard work paid off!
Sorry for the delay in my post...I wanted to get photos from the weekend first. Matt and I will resume more frequent posting now. Take care, and have a great week!
U.S. News & World Report has named Durham among its Best Places to Live. An excerpt from the magazine is provided below.
Located halfway between the Atlantic coast and the Great Smoky Mountains, Durham, N.C., is called the "City of Medicine" because of its expansive healthcare industry. And although widely known as the home of prestigious Duke University, it's also a thriving technology hub.
Missing from the write-up: there's no mention of the Durham Bulls. Also, minus points for mentioning Duke.
Here's what Money magazine had to say at the time:
Once a quiet bedroom community outside Baltimore, Catonsville is undergoing a renaissance, thanks in large part to the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, which has transformed itself from a commuter school into a dynamic research center. (In 2006, the school received $85 million in research funds, up from $10 million in 1990). In the process, the city has attracted a number of high-tech firms - and the jobs they come with. But even as Catonsville grows, it still remains one of the more affordable areas in the state, and its schools are among the best in the metro area.
Missing from the write-up: there's no mention of Catonsville's Fourth of July Parade.
On Monday night, Matt and I returned from our "big vacation" of 2009. Always looking for offseason travel discounts, we were fortunate enough to find a great deal on a cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean. Needless to say, we jumped at the chance.
We boarded the Celebrity Solstice on May 15th, and during the next few days, we headed to various places in Italy, Turkey, and Greece. It was an incredible experience for which we are both so grateful. We took two cameras and managed to snap just shy of 1,000 photos. At the moment, we are trying to wade through them and narrow them to a number that is manageable for uploading and sharing. So, we'll be posting those in the coming days.
In the meantime, I'll just say that the trip opened our eyes to how big the world is and how much more we need to learn about it.
We needed a little amusement this weekend, so we headed to an amusement park. Seemed like a logical move.
Our Saturday trip to Kings Dominion in Richmond, Va., didn't disappoint as we mixed roller coaster rides with consistent breaks to settle our stomachs, which admittedly aren't as strong as they used to be. We used said breaks to try on hats at the gift shops and to sample some of the outrageously priced amusement park food. Along the way we learned from a fellow patron's example that not all stores enforce the "You break it, you buy it" policy after all. Good times.
Almost as amusing as the rides were our fellow park-goers. We started our day by watching a near-fight at "The Shockwave" (expletives were hurled, bulky boyfriends were called to the scene, but ultimately everyone gave peace a chance) and ended the day by standing in line for "The Dominator" with disgruntled, flamboyantly dressed transvestites. If that's not an advertisement for family friendly fun, I don't know what is.
Even though we saved a few dollars with the Duke employee discount for park admission, we kept our game playing expenses to a minimum, losing just $2 to the coin toss game. (We wouldn't have had room for the giant stuffed bear in the car anyway.)
Our only real miscalculation on the day was our timing with water rides. Clearly, the White Water Canyon should've been conquered while the sun was still shining instead of during the cloudy, cool evening, shortly before our 2 1/2 hour ride home. Live and learn.
So our Saturday was filled with fun rides, silly hats, and transvestites. What could possibly make a day like that any better, you ask? An obvious question deserves an obvious answer: Dinner at Shoney's!
Come Sunday, we didn't need any more amusement. Mission accomplished. Thank you, Kings Dominion.
Video taken on board the Rebel Yell roller coaster
Erica drives the antique cars
Scooby Doo gets two thumbs up
A romantic pose with the"Eiffel Tower" in the background
Erica's long lost twin is a face paint model
There's no going wrong with Scooby
Ending the day with "The Dominator"(disgruntled transvestites not pictured)
Matt has discovered that he has a retroactive crush on Meredith Baxter Birney (now just Meredith Baxter), and to be honest, I'm okay with it. She's very pretty, and she plays a cool character on the show. And...I'd probably be a little more worried if the show was current and if she was a real-life acquaintance of ours.
