Entries Tagged 'Friends and family' ↓

We had friends over for supper. Mary made homemade chicken pot pies. But one of our guests is allergic to corn. So she made a special one just for him. But she didn’t want to forget which one had no corn. The result:

We took some photos in and around Wheeling:

Cherry Hill Road

I think that power plant in the distance is in Brilliant, Ohio.

From Wheeling Hill

Here’s an old abandoned railroad bridge that goes into an old abandoned train tunnel that, on the other side, crossed the river in to Martins Ferry, Ohio. We’re looking down the hill from McCullough’s LEap.

This photo is taken from about the same location, looking out into the valley where the Fulton area of Wheeling lies.

Pogues Run Road

This is Pogues Run itself, right beside the “back road” to Oglebay Park.

Wild turkeys!

Seen from Pogues Run Road, on the way to Oglebay Park.

See all of the photos on Flickr.

The girls taught us all how to play a card game called Baloney!

An entire deck of cards is dealt, and play goes around the table starting with player one being ace, player two being two, etc., through king and then back to ace. Each player places from one to four cards face down on the stack and says, for example, “Two aces.”

If no one challenges, play continues to the left. But if another player thinks it’s a lie, that player shouts, “Baloney!”

If the cards are not what the person claimed, the person who played those cards picks up the entire discard pile. If the cards are what the player said, then the challenger picks up the discard pile.

First person to discard his entire hand wins.

More photos from the fencing tournament on Monday.

Johnita and lamb, originally uploaded by Jon B. Swerens.

The techies at WebHero restored my blog! In honor, I’ve posted a couple of photos of Mary’s mom as a child.

Fulton Tire Shop, originally uploaded by Jon B. Swerens.

We’re going to slowly start scanning and posting photos that Mary has inherited from her family.

This one is of Fulton Tire Shop on National Road. Mary’s great uncle Pasty founded the store.

Go to our Flickr page to see more great photos!

Easter at our house, originally uploaded by Jon B. Swerens.

I’ve posted about 20 photos from our Easter celebration. Go over to my Flickr page to see them all.

Above, Sarita discovers how tricky her brothers are when hiding Easter eggs.

Easter eggs with natural color, originally uploaded by Jon B. Swerens.

Mary colored these Easter eggs today, experimenting with natural color from the juices of various foods.

Find out what foods she used by clicking on the photo above.

Hi! It’s been a while, eh? But Caleb had a fencing tournament on Monday, and I was able to borrow a little camera with video capability to record for posterity. (Caleb is on the left.)

Caleb’s fencing tournament from Jon Swerens on Vimeo.

This is called foil fencing. The silver vests they are wearing are called lamé, and they’re connected to a scoring box, which you can see on the floor to the right of the fencers.

The tip of the foil must be depressed while in contact with the lamé to cause the scoring box to beep in your favor with a red or green light. If the tip is depressed for any other reason — touching an arm, or the floor — the beep has an indicating white light.

But there are also rules about right of way, so you can score only if you were the fencer who began the attack.

You can read more here at Wikipedia.

And he won second place!

Caleb wins second place from Jon Swerens on Vimeo.

My family loves me. They buys me some books.

I got “My Life for Yours: A Walk Through the Christian Home” by Douglas Wilson from my sister.

My dear wife got me the following books:

• “The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape”
• “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream”
• “The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community”
• “Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the ‘Great Good Places’ at the Heart of Our Communities”

And then, with cash from my mom and my dad, I bought … another book! Yes, it’s “City Comforts: How To Build an Urban Village,” which I blogged about earlier. (Only one copy so far, David.)

So that’s six books on one birthday. Pretty sweet.

Plus! My dear children pooled their money and bought a typeface for me for that new project of mine: Corpa Gothic Light.

Thanks for being so thoughtful, everyone.