The Honeymooners.

Trying to get back into the swing of things after a couple of lovely weeks hanging around Charleston and cruising about at sea is no easy thing. It ain't all champagne and strawberries out there, you know.

Here's Your Sign, Again.

"Woe unto you wicked generation that seeks after a sign" is, I think, a little severe. I seek stupid signs all the time. Over the past few weeks, I found more than a few. Here's a sampling:

I saw this one outside a store. You've heard of stores, right? It's where they try to sell stuff. This one apparently must not sell much, because they're crowing about one sale. Imagine the pressure on that poor clerk if the customer backs out!


Hey, how'd these folks know I was speeding? Okay, I'll slow down. Is 40 m.p.h. too fast for a parking garage?


Let's see. A beer exchange and you don't have a bathroom? What are you exchanging it with?


If I'm hunting for wading fountains, I'm not sure that I like that rules four and five are merely advisory.

Take Me Home, I'm Stupid.

Just got back to the Boro today after a week of lots of sun, fun and, well... fun and sun. Yeah, I know. I said there'd be lots of wedding and Honeymoon photos. That's mostly Facebook stuff, but I'll post something in the next few days ('course, I've got tons of work to get caught up on, but I'll post something). Anyhow, after a memorable and all to brief stay in Charleston, Lady Di and I went cruisin'.
Which cruiseline? You mighta seen the commercials showing the bright red fin at the back of the boat. No? Well, apparently a smokestack is as good a selling point as any. And it is as fine a looking smokestack as you're ever likely to see. So fine, in fact...
...that they made a mascot out of it. Meet Fun Ship Freddy. Say, that little fella looks familiar. Where have I seen this guy before? Oh, wait. I know.

Hellboy.

The Wedding: An Appetizer.

My Godfather, Uncle Bob, took this picture at the reception. Lady Di and I are about to go off on our Honeymoon. I rather doubt I'll have time to blog for the next week or so, but I may have some (strickly edited) tales to tell when I get back.

Pretty in Pink.

Saturday was a memorable day. My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, came up from Tampa to see me. We ran in the Susan Komen Lowcountry Race for the Cure 5K (I also got married on Saturday, but I'll post that later). October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so you'll see pink ribbons and other pink paraphernalia everywhere- especially at a race dedicated to beating breast cancer. The pins at left, of course, were necessary to attach our race numbers and such to our shirts.

The venue was Daniel Island, a beautiful little outpost of Charleston, and the home of the Annual Family Circle Tennis Tournament.

I got dressed up in official Run for the Cure garb, including an "In Celebration of Diane" sign to celebrate Lady Di's 17 years as a breast cancer survivor. She used to be one of the local leaders within the Komen Foundation. She signed up for the race, but was busy with other matters...

The gun went off, and AndyMan and I, and 10,000 of our closest friends ambled off. Was it crowded? Uh, yeah. But that's a good thing. Tons of people out to help whip up on cancer.

Here's a 20 second video for a taste:



Ah, success! Now it's off to Church. Andy, you got that ring?

White Wedding, Redux

I'm gettin' married tomorrow. Don't have much time to post, but I had this image of a couple of wedding videos. Maybe Billy Idol and the Fifth Dimension. Sumpin' like that. Wait... this sounds familiar. Oh, yeah, I've posted it before.

Whale of a Sale.

St. Jude's Episcopal Church does a number of pretty cool things in and for the community. The turkey dinner they have at Thanksgiving for folks that aren't able to put together their own feasts is paid for, in part, by a big yardsale: October's Whale of a Sale.

Parish folks bring carloads of stuff in varying stages of abuse and set it out. Hey, one man's trash is another man's treasure, and all that. Volunteers set it out and price it. This is the calm before the storm.

Talk about bargains! And it'd go down from there. Diane had to talk me out of bringing a bunch of stuff home.


'Course, not every Cinderella got a prince. These brave little toasters didn't make anybody's dance card.


Then there was cleanup. Lookie, there! It's like nothing ever happened (but it did. St. Jude's got a thousand clams or so to prove it).

Ye Ole Fashioned Ice Cream.

A classic peri-Charleston haunt is Ye Ole Ice Cream and Restaurant. It's located on US 17 just South of the bridge to Downtown. I've seen it plenty, but never stopped in until the other day.

Wonder what's good. Say, this BLT looks tasty. Shoot, I'd bet this thing has nine, maybe ten, slices of bacon.

Yep.

Wide Open Spaces

'My baby girl got a new place. You got to love the view.j

I Never Sausage a Thing.

Lady Di could make shoe leather taste good, I'd bet. We had a smoked sausage begging to be eaten. This is less healthy than her normal fare, but, you know, I like sausage. Regular cabbage is pretty standard, but Diane wasn't feeling it. How to dress it up? Hmmm. How 'bout an onion and some bok choy? Saute it in some olive oil and a little pepper. Now that's the ticket!

Bowled Over.

I've mentioned a past penchant for taking the boys bowling. This is how the Lads and I celebrated several New Year's Eves. Friday night, Diane suggested that we take them out to the Lanes for no particular reason. Sounded good to me. None of us has a distinguished career in bowling. When AndyMan and I were young, our goal was to break a hundred. For me, breaking 100 is still my goal. Diane has an even less stellar track record. If I was listening correctly, she's only broken 100 a couple of times. The Lads are even less accomplished. This ought to be fun. Press the "play" arrow below to watch Tyler knock down a single pin..



Taylor at least LOOKS convincing (until he actually rolls the ball).

We did have some success early. See? There were a few strikes.

Diane rolled a strike on her first ball!

...and she even got her 100 (the Mathews men managed just over 200 all together).

Looks like it wiped the Lads out.