new day at the office take three

yesterday in the office was a bit unusual in that we celebrated the man to my right becoming a citizen of the United States. He was the second member of my staff to do so in the past two months the man to my left became an American citizen also. The one to my right was originally a citizen of the country whose capital city is Conakry (done anyone besides Andrew know what county that is) how about some guesses) the other guy;s home capital was Beijing. One had been in the US 18 years the other 9, so these guys are not recent arrivals and both are registered professional engineers and one a phd. in engineering. They permit landfills and other solid waste facilities-

other than that it is kinda quiet around here, waiting for March to end and April to get here. That will be a busy month as Patt will head to visit grandchildren then and leave me here - nope no jealousy here, just me back here by myself while Patt is going to visit all three grandchildren and me staying here in Raleigh, so Patt will be holding Isaac, talking to Julianna and Lydia and I will be here - no problem. That will happen in April. Yes in April, Patt will be going off to visit the grandchildren, and not me, nooo, not me, but am I taking this news well, -- of course being the mature person that I am, no problems at all, Patt is going to visit Laura, Matt, Juliann, Lydia, Isaac and see their friends too is my guess, while I will be here - where here. while Patt is visiting and holding grandchildren, playing with them, listening to them, and holding them some more. and where will I be - here -- Yep in April I will keep you all posted, you can probably bet on that.



















be very careful hitting the enter key!! otherwise you have published a post,
and I just did it twice trying to get the title done for this one.

new day at the office

new day at the office

Jen's Birthday

Jen's birthday is March 25 and Wake is not playing basketball so I thought I would write about her and her birthday.

Jen is from near the Hudson River in New York, Here is a photo of her telling that to Stephen, Stephen is trying to remember
















and here another photo of Jen and Stephen in Central Park in New York City. Jen and her Mom were showing Stephen and Patt and me how to cross the street, move through crowds, and in general not get lost in the City and be comfortable there. -- and we were.













HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN,
I AM GLAD TO SOON BE YOUR FATHER-IN-LAW!!!!!

one and done again

We did find the American Airlines arena where the games were to be played











I went looking for the Deacon, and found an Arizona Wildcat, tested and tested and sure enough it was him. The wildcats even beat the Utes of Utah, despite being underdogs. and looked good doing it. Utah even looked good losing even though they lost to a lessor team. Now about those Deacons Once again I looked for the sorry things, but nooooo, no Deacons anywhere in south florida-- just one heck of a lot of people.




























there is that impostor, sorry rascal would not get close to me, and if he had I would have whooped his sorry butt
the Deacons played one sorry sorry game, ---tell them all to go away, start over next year with a new team















As you can see we had plenty of friends and neighbors on the way home. this was I-95 north out of Miami at 12:45 PM oR on friday night- well actually real early on Saturday morning. Yessirree, lots of friends and neighbors, just how many of them do you want. Patt, I think we need to look down here for retirement potential so we can find some friends and enjoy ourselves in traffic.

pictures of an airplane for Julianna and Lydia

Julianna and Lydia, here are some pictures of your GrandDaddy with the airplane he flew in today with his brother, your Uncle Mark. We flew to Florida to watch basketball --

J



There is a a photo of the little airport we stopped in for gas in south Georgia, not much of an airport at all, kind of glad that was not our destination.





We did see some nice views out our window, especially along the south Florida Atlantic Coast.












also there is a picture of me with an airplane that your GrandPa from North Dakota's uses. That picture was taken several years ago and was one of the coldest days I ever experienced. There is also a picture of him here too.













and I just had to put in this picture of the big truck I got to ride on the day I was in North Dakota..





And you can see Mark and me sitting in the airplane while Mark is flying. We have on headsets to keep the sound of the airplane from hurting our ears. Also I have a picture of me with a shirt that your Mom and Dad gave to me. I think it says I am a GrandDad. And I am glad that I am. Say hello to your brother for me and give him a little kiss too.

love from your GrandDad


and now Mark and I are going to watch Wake Forest play basketball - ask your Mom and Dad about that too.

Fill out your brackets

it is time for the tournament - teams from as far away as North Dakota are in this years tournament!
and check out the video for a preview of the expanded field.

Wake Forest, Mark and I are on our way to sunny Miami Florida to see the Deacons play the Vikings of Cleveland State, where ever Cleveland is. (and we are certainly counting on the Deacon showing up this time.)



NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams



more to follow. as we March through March.

and it took me a while to fill out this bracket

the hands and faces

well I was going to write about our ride home from Atlanta and the final day of the ACC and I was going to post some more photos but my goodness but that got changed. 

check out those photos of Isaac Luther and his sisters.   

Matt and Laura sent them and I have surely enjoyed them and the knowledge of grandfatherhood.  Unfortunately getting this posting correct has not been without some obvious difficulty.  

I have really enjoyed looking at the hands and faces of the children.

important and I missed the words

Something very important has happened

The ACC day three- games 9 and 10

and that is one heck of a lot of basketball to watch.  

The heels lost and my goodness the gnashing of teeth and such carrying on from the fans immediately behind us.  Thankfully they left as did many of their compatriots - we were hopeful for a rare double double when both unc and duke would lose on the same day but the fates were not kind as duke did beat Maryland.

I think I mentioned the building is large

this is where the Atlanta Falcons play football

Mark has some more photos I will upload later to give you an idea of size

We traveled to and from via the Metro, changed trains at Five Points and I don't reckon Mark or I ever figured out how to make the eastbound to northbound or west to south or whatever to wherever with the upstairs, downstairs and can not cross the tracks problem

your may have noticed we traveled with friends and neighbors too

and at the end of the day we had a nice dinner at The Oceanaire

one and done

Well I looked for my friend the Deacon, but IMPOSTORS showed up.

Yup, impostors, looked like 'em, but sure did not play like them.  I got there early too.

The building was quiet a bit more full than yesterday.  Though yesterdays crowd was "only 26,000.  This is a big building.  I guess 34-36,000 here today, we will see what offical attendance is.  Problem is so very very many wear light blue.  Really sad to see so many sick people.

Between games Mark "took ill" and had to rest after dinner.  He was a bit upset with all the blue.  He kept mumbling about the evil empire or something like that too.

anyway we are one and done and that is no fun.

but we have some seen some other very good games (not counting the Deacons mess) and tomorrow is another day - and somewhere the sun is shining and all that, 

 

We have some adventures planned for tomorrow evening so we will be alright.

just got to find the real Deacons.

In the Georgia Dome

As you can see it is quite large and bunches of people have chosen not to come to game sessions one and two.  The early games are not heavily attended and were a bit slow.

note the couple beside me, they are really intently following the games.  They were in the building when we got there, and there when we left, a nice enough couple from Winston-Salem, but were certainly not intently following whoever it was playing Clemson.  (it was Ga.Tech-who won in an upset)

and if the upper deck is full, someone really wanted to come to the game.

(Photos from Mark's i-phone)

Paul's camera is in Raleigh.

got my lucky hat

Soon we will be looking for my friend the Deacon again.  

I have searched the closets and the lucky shirts, hat and such are packed.  If the Deacons are not Champions, it will not because of me.  

Work is a good thing to leave behind for a few days

see you from Atlanta

getting ready for Atlanta and the ACC

no I am not excited, and I am not counting the days, but I am sure starting to think about it.

At the ACC Mark, Marie, Patt and I will have a view somewhat like you see below.

We are in Section 131 row 6 and I think that puts us about the second hand rail as our seats are 5-8 I am not sure if we count from left to right or right to left.  I think it is to much to hope for that our seats are in the front block- I am thinking those are rows a, b, c, but if they are not, whoa nellie.

the seating chart is below, of course Carolina and Duke have the prime seats, and goodness but what did Maryland and Virginia did to irritate the seating decision makers - but I would not recommend it.

The Georgia Dome is set up for basketball and I think there will be about 32,000 people there for the games.  Pretty large audiences and with 11 games in four days, it will be a bit tiring at times.  Four games Thursday, four Friday, two Saturday and one on Sunday.  The Deacons have a bye on Thursday as do Duke and Carolina.  The other bye is as yet undecided and final seedings of nearly all the positions are not yet decided - Wake will finish either 2nd or 3rd.  Its been a good year.  

check out the video from the Maryland game, it was a great moment and a turning point in the game and we are planning on seeing more of the same from Atlanta next week.  

This was an entertaining moment on TV- and has become a hit on youtube too.

more to come -- stay tuned.