7/9/06 Nancy: Raleigh, NC. Our visit here is wonderful, mainly due to the most fabulously cute, lovingly adorable, Amanda. At 3 1/2, she is so full of giggles and dance that it makes your heart sing to be with her. I feel like I'm laughing most of the time. She is running and playing every minute, has long involved conversations complete with hand, foot and body gestures, loves to copy what we say and do. She's so much fun. When she sees you in the morning, she screams with happiness and waves her arms, shouts HIIIIIIII!!!!! She's so good for the ego! That big smile is worth even a Delta Airlines flight!

We've lucked out on weather, it's been beautiful. A bit of rain, and so far just warm, not hot days. It's not true every summer day in the South is sweltering. Most of the properties we share with Cess are doing well. One, however, had a tenant who is in jail for drugs, so his friends had to move his stuff out and Cess had to go to court to get the official eviction. We had to move lots of the junk out that he left, thanks to a Craig's list ad trading the labor of hauling the trash to the dump, for the furniture and lamps for free. We got probably 100 calls and emails in an hour once the ad was placed. (Mys sister is a genius, a fast thinker and a get-it-done now person!) Another unit, when repaired recently, afterwards mysteriously was missing the washer and dryer electrical and venting. Turns out the handyman walled over it. Not real bright. So, we're trying to do what we can while we're here, to help get over this slump. Usually things are not quite so weird, thankfully. It's been fun being in the South. Yesterday we had barbeque, which Jack loved and I thought was marginal (the pull and shred pork, and add a sauce kind of vinegary) - and Cess and I had to try deep-fried cheesecake for the experience. Not bad to me; Cess thought it wasn't so great. On a visit to Chapel Hill, we stopped for what was going to be a simple coffee, and ended up having crumpets with turkey, fresh wonderful chevre cheese and the most fabulous fig jam. They had dozens of crumpet combos to choose from, about a million martinis, and frozen blended drinks that all sounded good, including a spicy chocolate one that Cess had, with jalapenos and cinnamon. I'm in love with that place. Amanda is a joy to be with during all of the various things we're doing. I will miss her so much I'll probably cry for a week.




(Jack) The local farmers' market is where I tasted my first hush puppy. Pretty good..If one could compress the taste and smell of a state fair into a large bolus, this would be it. And let's not forget the deep-fried cheescake....Nancy and Cess were grubbin' on that one!














"Old times there are not forgotten..."