Bierhanzl Beeswax

A place for the family tree to know all its' branches....

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Home

Boat to Tangier's Island
We are home from our summer vacation road trip and it was wonderful. Aside from the driving (which Josh did 97.5% of) I wish I could do it all again right now. We spent time in Virginia, Maryland, and seven different destinations in New York. Although we didn’t get to see everyone, I think we did as much as we possibly could. The highlights of the trip were definitely the time spent at Mom’s house and the time spent in Ithaca. Too bad that couldn’t have overlapped some how. I can’t help but be a little homesick as I write this. I am always super adamant about not having sad goodbyes. I’d rather skip being sad and just start planning the next visit. This time it was really hard, I had so much fun and Harper loved Uma and Aunt Nee Nee so much. It was a good thing that we had an itinerary to stick to or I would still be there.
Flowers with Uma
Here is a picture of Leah and I on our way out the door to see Priscilla's Husbands band play at a local bar. I can't remember that last time we did that. It was sooooo much fun.
Going out to see Monk Meat
Our time spent in western NY with Josh’s family was great too. It was a weekend of closure. Josh’s grandmother passed away in April and it was nice that we could spend a few days at her house before it is put up for sale. We reminisced about our visits with her over the past few years, watched old VHS tapes (Christmas in the 90’s and honestly it was very entertaining), and collected a few pieces of memorabilia including a mug, a fork, and a small jewelry box that plays music. The jewelry box belonged to Josh’s Mom and he has vivid memories of playing with it as a child. Josh also picked up a large storage container from his old house. It is filled with pieces of Josh’s child hood from when he was an itty bitty through college. His mother had accumulated all of it and Josh always knew it was stashed at his old house. What a blast to go through. Check out the awesome t-shirt designed by Josh:
Bo Jackson t-shirt by Josh Bienko
The Weapon:Nike Air Trainer SC
Bo: Arrested for exceeding the speed limit in sneakers. No cars or trucks involved.
Bo Jackson t-shirt by Josh Bienko
Then there was the reunion. A bit of a disappointment for Josh because there was only 17 classmates there! I didn’t care because a handful of Josh’s close friends were there and I was really glad to meet them in person. Josh and I had a blast because to us it was just a date, a night out together. We even got silly on the dance floor, yep, us and like 3 other people. But we didn’t care; we were having fun, fun, fun.
10 Years
After all that craziness we headed further West for our final bit of closure. We hung out with Josh’s dad and his family. Josh’s dad is moving to South in a couple weeks, so our next get together with him will be Florida.
After all of that we embarked on our two day trip home. Not bad at all, just about 6 hours of driving per day and Harper was such a good boy. The trip was so good for him. He got to see so many loving faces and was definitely nudged out of his comfort zone. He was a totally different person when we got home and for some reason I was actually able to watch it happen over the days spent elsewhere. It’s odd because I am with him all day every day but I definitely felt like I got to spend so much more quality time with him. It was definitely just what we needed as a family before the craziness of the fall semester starts. More on that later…
Tangier's Island

Monday, July 24, 2006

Only two more

It was a two week trip so hard to narrow the pics down.The skies are especially beautiful , always changing. This was 9PM form our moored boat.
We went over the Pontcysylite aqueduct, 127 feet above the valley and 1,000 feet long opened in 1805.
Thanks for watching.
It was very easy, thanks again Edward Posted by Picasa

More

The Llangollen canal and our boat, 65 feet long 8 ft wide, steered from the back with a rudder.





Breakfast on board, rashers, toast and jam.

Chris and I going through one of two tunnels, at a speed of 2 MPH it was easy to get on and off the boat.

Or to leave the Chris and Jessica driving the boat while we explored ( another pub and hand pulled pint of bitters) on bicycle Posted by Picasa

Pictures from across the pond

Thank you Edward! Still the best brother. Hard to choose from the 4oo pictures and I think you can only post 4 at a time so I may send a second set. Beautiful pistures of your butterfly garden. How do you put them in that format? On second thought never mind. Mary Jo, hope to see pics from the reunion.
Good news today,Dustin PT/Ct scan looks clean, they think they just see inflammation and lymph nodes secondary to the treatment.
Back to England. We had tea outside Kinsington Palce in the Orangery.
I expected to see the chimney sweeps dancing onthe roof tops

Big ben of course and Dustin on bicycle on one of the country roads.
 Posted by Picasa

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Everything but the Butterfly

Flowers from our butterfly garden.

Note the absence of actual butterflys. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Posting pictures

Well, I had promised Louise that I'd put up a link to the software that I use to post picutres here. Now Joyce's post has reminded me.
I use Google's Picasa (http://picasa.google.com/) to organize my pictures and the software has a simple "Blog This" button that you can hit and automatically post whatever picture you're looking at.

It's also a decent way to organize/view/edit pictures. Best features:
- it's free
- when you install it, it automatically finds all your pictures and organizes them by date

If you look at my "Train" posts, you'll see a little logo at the end of the text. You can click on that to get an explanation of how Picasa works with Blogger.

[Disclosure: I have no financial interest, either current or contemplated, in Google, Inc.]

Monday, July 17, 2006

UK vacation

Dustin and I just got back from our two weeks in England and Wales with his friends , Chris and Jessica, who live in London and also have a country home in Southwold, two hours north of London on the coast. Southwold is a combination Cape Cod and Southampton on a small quaint scale. After two hot busy days seeing London we spent 4 days in Southwold, recuperating, bicycling on country lanes and berry picking at nearby farms, of course always finding somewhere to have cream tea (basically tea with cakes or scones). Then off further north and west to Chirk on the border of Wales to spend a week on a narrowboat on the LLangdolen Canal. Nice slow trip (2-4 miles/hr) so we took turns either walking or bicycling around the area. Beautiful countryside, lots of shep and cows in pastures, flowers and nice people.
I can't seem to figure out how to include the pics so I will email.
Overall a great trip especially for Dustin, lots of rest, good food fresh air and exercise and he looks like his old self. Pet/CT scan tomorrow and results next Monday.

Monday, July 03, 2006


Grumpy- A Love Story
I got my first glimpse of Grumpy last February when I was at the shelter taking photographs for the FurBall. Although I had only a glimpse I fell in love with the whiskers, the eyebrows and the vulnerability. I couldn’t get more than a glimpse because Grumpy was so shy that his reaction to people passing by was to bark and escape through his doggie door, and then to keep barking and peeking through the door to see if it was safe to return. He was one of many dogs that had come to the shelter as a result of a cruelty seizure and he was considered unadoptable. With patience and a gentle approach Billy, a shelter worker, was able to touch him and Mary, a volunteer, had him taking treats from her hand. But he was still far from being considered adoptable. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I’d stop by his enclosure every time I was at the shelter and eventually he came over and sniffed my hand. He wasn’t at all aggressive; he just didn’t feel comfortable around people. That didn’t really make him unadoptable, He just need a special situation and I realized I had that special situation, a quiet house in the woods with no close neighbors, an unused basement and a fenced in wooded yard. It seemed we were meant for each other. He had to be sedated for the trip to my house, but he adjusted quickly. Now instead of running back and forth from one side of his enclosure to the other he trots around the paths that he has created around the trees and through the bushes. He is no longer Grumpy, now he is Spooky Muldar Mc Dreamy, coming inside only to eat. And when he is inside he will apprehensively, but patiently, stand and let me pet him and brush him before heading back outside to enjoy his new surroundings- the trees, the sky, the rain and the fresh air.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

More...


Two more pictures that got dropped from the last post.
On top we have Graham and Barbara demonstrating that even Coach class on the Strasburg Railroad is a nice ride.

Below, an Amish buggy ride - proving that we did not rely exclusively on trains and cars the whole trip.

:-) Posted by Picasa

Train Trip (Pt. 2)


Did I mention that while we were in Elkins we stayed in a yurt?

Anyway, we spent a day at Hershey Park where Graham got to drive the Big Rigs. Naturally, he rode the many train rides there as well.

We also spend a day in Strasburg riding the Strauburg Railroad (America's oldest short-line railroad!) and visiting the Railroad museum. For the record, the Strasburg RR is a good deal larger and more comfortable that the Durban Rocket.

 Posted by Picasa

Train Trip!

Last month we took a driving trip through West Virginia and Lancaster Co, PA. Although we didn't plan it that way, it turned into the all-train trip. We started out near Elkins, WV where we took a drive down to Durbin to ride on the "Durbin Rocket" - an 8mph jaunt up and down five miles of track alongside a small river. Your choices for seating on the Rocket are "caboose" or "open car" (both shown).

Also a big hit in West Virginia was Seneca Caverns, where in addition to the grand tour we also got to pan for gems and arrow heads (looks like Graham found something!)

After leaving Elkins, we drove up through West Virginia to Lancaster County, PA to stay for a few days in Lititz and go to Hershey Park.

 Posted by Picasa

Saturday, July 01, 2006

2,365 Miles


Josh and I are getting ready for our trip to NY. We leave in a couple days and our first stop will be off the coast of Virginia to visit my Dad. After that we will continue north until we get to Mom's house. We will be there from the 8th through the 11th and then continue on to Ithaca. After a day or two in Ithaca we will drive a little further north to Caledonia, Josh's home town. Josh helped coordinate a 10-year highschool reunion for his class mates. I think he had a graduating class of about 42 people. I think a good bunch still live close by so hopefully lots of Josh's old pals will make it. He created a Blog in honor of this endevor and it's really funny even if you don't know any of the people. I am definitely a little nervous about the idea of going to a highschool reunion. Somewhare around a 5 on the anxiety scale. If it were my high school reunion it would be more like a 9.9. Fortunately no sign of my reunion in sight and this would have been the 10 year mark. Anyway, Josh and I discussed how funny it would be if we rented a fancy car to go to his reunion in. I'm thinking there are a few things that you should NOT do at a reunion. Arrive in a rented/borrowed car, drink too much (I'm sure there is a very fine line here), or bring up any "you kissed my girlfriend in 11th grade" garbage. Well, Josh and I are already violating rule numero uno. We HAVE to rent a car because we can't rely on the old VW to take us that far. It definately makes me feel better that our rented car will be more of the nondescript Dodge Stratus variety. But still!
I hope everyone is have a wonderful summer. I will be back to post pictures after our tirp.