North Carolina

Two weeks ago Jamie, Norah and I went to Raleigh to visit Jamie's brother and sister-in-law. We had a really good time and got to go see some pretty cool sights. The first day we were there we went to Duke Gardens to have a picnic. After lunch we traveled over to Chapel Hill and took a look at the UNC campus (and bought some Tar Heel paraphernalia).

Sporting Dr Seuss like blue hair-do's

We also took a day trip out to the outer banks, which was really cool. We first stopped at Kitty Hawk and saw where the Wright brothers first took flight. I think I enjoyed it much more than Jamie did. From there we went straight to the beach, where Norah got to jump into the ocean for the very first time. From the beach we drove down the shore all the way to Cape Hatteras to see the light tower. It turned out to be a long day, but it was well worth it.

Norah petting Razor

Norah loved looking out the plane window

At Duke Gardens

Somewhere between Hatteras and Kittyhawk

Cape Hatteras lighthouse

And a few more pictures of Norah, since that seems to be all that anyone cares about these days :-)

Minnesota Hacksaw Massacre

On Friday we had a little bit of time to do some chores around the house, something we don't get to do a lot of anymore. I was finishing up some work on the sprinkler system and Jamie decided to trim some shrubs in the front of the house. Specifically, these variegated dogwoods.


However, I'm not exactly sure that what resulted could appropriately be called a trim. I'd say it was more like a hatchet job. When I came around to the front yard I nearly choked. The once beautiful dogwood now looked like this....