Sea Island vs. Stipe

After months of careful preparation, planning, and great timing, I had successfully achieved R.E.M. nirvana with pit tickets to the Atlanta show.

Saturday, June 21.

Me. John. Front row. Stipe. 'Nuf said.

Then I checked the mail. Trouble.

Saturday, June 21 was also the same day as the fancy surprise party for my dear Aunt Bootsie and Uncle Allan for their 50th wedding anniversary at the Lodge at Sea Island.

F**************************k....

As already detailed herein, I made up for it in advance with DC and NC shows...and was happy to find a VERY nice fellow fan who traded for the tickets. He had seen R.E.M. about as many times as yours truly but never from that range. I told him it would change his life, and my heart felt happy about finding the right person for the tickets.

Particularly given the fact that my brother and his family were also coming down, I was all good with the change in plans and away we went. Despite the brief "challenge" Warren experienced with the roundabout (Big Ben, Parliament) we arrived at the Lodge relatively unscathed and in high spirits.

The night was most entertaining...it was great to see family and close family friends we don't normally get to see, and it was fun to get gussied up as well.

Not to mention the fun of kicking around the Lodge eating delicious snackies, drinking Pinot Grigio, and availing myself to the sea-shaped chocolates on the silver tray by the ladies' room. Repeatedly.

After lots of visiting and a great toast from Cindy, we opted to head over to Bootsie and Allan's house (via a brief but fairly hilarious stop at KFC with a moderately buzzed set of parents, siblings, and spouse, as well as mini mart stop for Warren, and a Starbucks stop for yours truly, the designated driver) for some post-party visiting.

Next time, Stipe. Sorry.

Click here for many more pictures

Memory-ial Day at the Cabin

Twas a quiet Memorial Day. Despite the "vintage" jetski at my cousin's on the point, despite the sounds of various layers of Hodges/Fullam/Seifert/Ingvalson children, despite the sounds of amour between Tilley and her cousin dog Max, there was an odd kind of quiet.

My girls were missing!

When I stopped to think about it, it occurred to me that there have been few years (if any) that I didn't bring at least a handful of chicks along for the ride. Oftentimes this was at great logistical and petrol expense, with sometimes multiple vehicles caravanning down from DC.

There was the year we all toured the Litespeed bike factory (complete with riding around on a $1000 titanium tricycle). There was the year that Cathy and I taught Sheila and Mark from Ireland how to fish. There was the year that Cameron was -um -invented. There was the year Jessica discovered strawberry salsa. There was the year I bought my tri bike. There were the many years that inbetween getting sun we swam, biked, ran, or talked about triathlon. There was the year Dad busted JoMarie and her date. There was the year Dad busted me and MY date, flown into DC from CA and then driven all night to TN. There were the years that Amelia got back to her Southern roots. There were even the years when Sarah and Tina and Gina came from Campus Green Vote, and Pam from the NMP days.

Nostalgia aside, this year was about family. We hadn't seen Warren and Susan and Sam and AnnMarie and Max since Thanksgiving, so we were excited to get some serious hang time in despite John needing to do some studying as well.

We ended up scooting out of town early from Atlanta which put us headed to Chattanooga around lunchtime. I called ahead to my friend and high school love Connor who we picked up and headed to Sticky Fingers rib shack. Connor, meeting my high school dating requirement of being a McCallie boy, said as we pulled in the parking lot that the place was pretty good even if it is owned by a bunch of Baylor boys. School rivals in Chattanooga are lifelong, I tell ya. After we hung out with Connor and dropped him back to work, we stopped by to see his mom and did a little shopping. It was great to catch up with both of them and now Connor no longer has the excuse of not having my Atlanta address for letter writing. True to form, a letter arrived not three days later.

We arrived at the cabin with the girls late afternoon and hung out with Mom and Dad and did some visiting. Let me explain the Cabin for a second. Located on Watts Bar Lake, my grandfather purchased a lot and my great uncles did the same. Now "the hill" is still all family two generations, with the addition of the Hicks at the turnoff who are now as close as family. It pleases me to no end when Tilley waddles off our dock and heads over to the other dock "for just a little visit with my cousins" just as I did as a little kid, just as our grandparents did, just as our parents do, and now as my cousins' kids do.

Late that nite, the Little Hodges arrived, I heard Tilley bark at Max then I got up to greet tha gang briefly. Tilley lamented Max (a Golden) was "no longer my size, wtf!". The weekend was peppered with Tilley chasing Max, Max chasing Tilley, sometimes involving one or more of my brothers' kids Sam and AnnMarie, and sometimes a cousin from across the way. We spent some good time doing water training with Max - and now of course Tilley wants to go duck hunting with Uncle Warren :) John also got in some adjustments on my cousin Wayne and his pals when they came over to assist with hooking up the wireless router. We also got some quality time in with my cousin Alex and a brief hi with his sister Christina. Must get back for another visit soon!!

CORGIS! CORGIS! CORGIS!

As part of our Memorial Day pilgrimage to the cabin for some sun and family time with Mom, Dad, Warren, Susan, Sam, Ann Marie, and Max...not to mention a multitude of cousins on "the hill" as per the multi-generational tradition...John and I had a little side trip planned.

It was time to go meet Browdie, the new puppy. BROWD (sounds like the past tense of the word brow as in eyebrow) is the Welsh word for brother, fitting because he'll be a little brother to Tilley and Laika and also shares a bday with my brother :).

We headed over across the dam past the massive and historically controversial Watts Bar nuclear reactor towards Athens and Sweetwater. Home to Mayfield Dairy, the Lost Sea, and our newest-to-be member of the family.

We crossed over I-75 and ducked in and around turns on country roads that felt (to me) like home; it was nice to see an area that looked like it hadn't changed much in the past years.

Honeysuckle was so thick on the vine you could smell it in the air driving along as we passed little farms, a multitude of cows, and yes, even an alpaca farm (Jess, I did not stop to herd them).

We turned up the gravel lane and headed up the hill to the house and were greeted by the fine folks at Immer Essen farm. I knew already that I liked these people from our chats on the phone and email, but really liked them once we met them. I can sum it up by saying this... anyone who raises corgis overlooking the Smoky Mountains, is a self-proclaimed militant vegetarian, and is a Buddhist who can comfortably quote Monty Python and the Princess Bride is alright with us.

We headed over to the little pen with an open travel crate full of little puppies pretty much sacked out on top of one another happily. One brave soul came over, the others in the corner of the pen or the crate itself couldn't be bothered. After a while our hostess headed over and un-sandwiched our boy from the pile and brought him over. As expected, even cuter in person :). He was pretty friendly with us but still pretty young and distracted. He took a little interest in the small toy I'd brought along, but was quickly on to the next thing such as my purse, shoe, or the cuff of my jeans leg. He was fine being held but didn't seem to want to get up near my face just yet.

Then we headed over to the outdoor day runs to meet Llewy, the dad. He was such a bundle of HURRAH - so friendly and energetic. He enjoyed the Zuke's mini treats I had along :). We then went along to meet some of the other corgis just for fun, including the highlight of the pen with the 8 and 12 week litters, where I was happily assaulted by many paws and puppy tongues. Just corgis. Everywhere. John and I later shared that we both seperately wished we had asked to go in and just lay there and let them have their way with us. Corgis!!

Next, we headed over to meet Faith, the mom. They are at 4 weeks so are starting to spend part of the day away from mom. She was such a sweetie....very friendly and happy. A good size too, much like Tilley in terms of confirmation. She enjoyed the backrub from me, lamenting "these puppies are killin me".

Then it was back to the puppy pen for us for more time with Browdie. I did a little putting him on his back on my lap and he was just fine, playing with my hand and my LiveSTRONG bracelet. He also nuzzled up to my neck and then proceeded to give a few glorious puppy flavored kisses to my nose.

Eventually it was time to leave his travel crate behind and say goodbye until 4 weeks from now when we whisk him away to start his new life. The good news is at least he didn't issue a verbal moan of discontent when he saw us like Tilley did the first time when we picked her up at the airport. She's since retracted her initial disappointment and regrets her initial comment. A few videos to get your cute fix on for the day: