A new favourite place

I am a very lucky man...... yes i could do the "I have wonderful kids", "I have my health", "I have the love and support of my family", "I have a wonderful job" - all of which is true but I get even luckier than that. I have a wonderful partner who is beautiful, inspiring, thoughtful and above all - patient. Let me explain .....

Valentine's Day being a Sunday meant I would have the kids over to enjoy the day, catch up and relax so myself and Laura agreed that we would do something nice Saturday so I planned a nice dinner to cook for her. Well she also did some planning but I messed up her plans. So she decided that she would surprise me one day last week instead - well it happened to be Sunday the night of the US-Canada Hockey Game that Tika wanted to come over and watch so Laura INSISTED that having Tika over to watch the game was more important so that is what we did. So yet again I messed up her plans. So yesterday she told me not to make any plans because she was taking me out to dinner. It was worth the wait. She had found a little place in Leesburg that was reminiscent of a place I had found in Seattle - a quaint restaurant that specialized in wine in a very relaxed atmosphere. It has a great menu - small but varied and tasty - great service and GREAT carrot cake.

She made the evening very special and she motivated me once again to make sure I take time to appreciate all the little things that I have around me that I need to appreciate more - especially her.

Now you know why I am a happy man.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Bridgers

It was a late arrival but on February 22nd, 2010 the Bridger family welcomed Isabella Katherine Bridger to the world in a hospital in Sydney Australia. Another female voice in the Bell and extended family.

I spoke with Leslie yesterday morning, she called to tell her big sister Laura that she had welcomed a new daughter to the world. Leslie sounded great, a little tired as expected but great and of course VERY excited. Isabella came in to the world at a nice weight for her Mom - 7 lbs 13 oz and I think she will be a dancer too as that weight is carried on a 21 inch frame so I think she already is showing the svelte form of her Mom.

Laura and Leslie's Mom, Kaye, happened to be in Australia, she had gone to help with what was to be the new born baby, but little did she know that she would be in the delivery room with her daughter. Having only just gotten to know Kaye I am not sure I am the expert to say this but I am guessing she was more than a little excited to be there to welcome another grand-daughter to the world.

A BIG congratulations to Leslie and Andrew, who must be so proud to add to their wonderful family. A big HOORAY to Daniel and Grace who now have a little baby sister and a big WELCOME to Isabella.

Laura picked up some tulips on her way home last night and of course she made sure it was a pot of 3 bulbs. How apropos that there are two pink flowers with one of them just beginning. Once the snow has all cleared we will plant the bulbs in a special spot in our garden so we will have the Daniel, Gracie and Isabella tulips appear each and every spring.

CONGRATULATIONS

A cold trip to Sea World

Tonight we took a quick trip to Sea World to ride a roller coaster and do some Aquarium sightseeing. It was more than a bit cold - in the mid 40s with a wind chill but that did not stop me from riding the MantaRay a half dozen times. A very cool ride with you being thrown into some great G-forces.


The aquarium that we toured had a great collection of rays, guitar fish, sea dragons, anemones and other various sea life. Some of them were quite cooperative for pictures including this ray and anemone.

It did surprise me though to see pink flamingos out in such cold weather.

Well hopefully I will get my flight back tomorrow  and get back home to DC - it is very hard being away and I know I have more travel coming up.

Alright - back to packing ...... cu

In Orlando ... wondering when I will get home

In Orlando @ an internal conference. The weather here is a bit better than DC but not ideal. It is raining and starting to cool down. The conference is good though - I got to meet the head of INTERPOL and hear him speak - a very interesting man.

Ok back to work

....cu

Location : 12953-13041 Reams Rd, Windermere, FL 34786,

Winter Weather update ....

Well it is still snowing ... and has been since just before 10 yesterday morning. It is supposed to stop some time this evening but since we are going on 24 hours of steady snow I guess another 10 or 12 will not make it that much worse. I expect we will be walking to do things for a couple of days. Laura walked over to the small gym that is across the street so she could work out. It always impresses me that she gets up every day to go to the gym - better than the US Postal Service - through sleet, hail, snow. I am just glad we have the place close by so she can go there without stress.

I will need to call the girls when they get up to see how they are handling it. Not sure what I will do tomorrow - I guess I will have to see how the roads are before I make plans with them.

Well I guess I better go do some shoveling - before it gets out of hand. Before I go a couple of pictures from today. The one above is our small patio off our sunroom. The other two are from our front door - one I tried to take from the same angle as the one yesterday so you can see the difference.

Have fun and be safe.

.... cu

Snow again in NVa ...

Hard to believe that it is snowing again. If they are forecasting it right we will total over 4 feet so far this year.


I just came in from shovelling the initial 6 inches. The sad part is I just shovelled two days ago.  Oh well - I guess it is winter.


Location : 42429 Greenside Dr, Ashburn, VA 20148,

2010 has been a challenging year so far

Over the last few years I have had a couple of challenging years, from a personal perspective, but the first 30 odd days of 2010 have been a real challenge for me. Today one more challenge presented itself when Laura lost her father to his battle with cancer. In some regards it was not a surprise - he had been sick for some time and for many years Laura had a distant relationship with her dad - but neither of those lessens the blow. Laura had, over the last year, been more in touch with her Dad which helped to re-establish their relationship and it was nice to see that she felt more comfortable with that. She also found comfort in the prayer beads that her Dad had sent her last year. But today was still very hard for her and hard for me since I am still in Nashville while she is at home by herself.

Laura's Dad was an interesting man. Grant it he did make some bad decisions over the years of his life, but I guess we all make decisions that are bad and it is only their impact on others that truly make those decisions painful. He did make some good decisions as well - his marriage to Laura's Mom and fathering three wonderful daughters would have to rate the top in my mind. He spent a number of years in the US Army part of which he spent as a body guard for the President. He was a black belt in Judo and spent many years studying Yoga (even before Yoga was the "in thing") and was a big part in the Nashville Yoga community along with his church. Later in life he looked after his wife Robbie as she began to suffer from Alzheimer's. 

Yes he made mistakes but without him the world would be so very different and I think it is safe to say that the Bridger family in Australia is grateful that he was part of bringing Leslie Bell to the world, the Lincoln family (especially Ashley and Brittni) are grateful for his part in bringing Lisa Bell to the world and I am ever so grateful for his part in bringing Laura Bell to this world (and I know from her work women around the world will also appreciate that).

He will be buried Thursday, February 4th with Military Honors and I know the Bell sisters will come together in spirit to celebrate who he was to them.

In memory ......

Dinner in Nashville

I landed in Nashville about an hour ago. I got to my hotel quickly (staying next to the Grand Ole Opry) and checked in. I did a bit of work and now at Jack Daniels for dinner. Have no fear - walking back ;-)

.... cu

I was at : 2425 Music Valley Dr, Nashville, TN 37214,