We found this photo waiting for us when we returned from South Carolina this weekend. Congratulations to Eric, Audrey, and all the kids for their beautiful new baby girl. They picked a great name, too! America Laverne. I am starting to figure out the use of an alliterative strategy in the naming of kids. If you yell at the wrong kid, you can still make the case that you were really yelling at the right kid, but they just heard wrong. If your kids have names as different as say, Jimbob and Mortimer, that strategy does not work as well. If you name them Addie, Adriana, and Amercia, it has a chance. For those families with children as well-behaved as this family, the only reason to chose alliterative names is because they are very cool! I know several people were waiting to see this picture. Thanks for sending it to us and congratulations again!
We went to a graduation party near Greenville, South Carolina this weekend. That is a beautiful part of the world. To suggest that the people we met this weekend were merely hospitable would be a gross injustice and and understatement. We went to what was essentially a church potluck that set my diet program back by at least three weeks. We are talking about massive amounts of food. It is about a five hour drive from where we live, so we stopped at a Walmart to pick up some food to take to the potluck a little before we got there. I talked to the greeter there for about twenty minutes while Lorena and Kelly shopped and Christian worked on his PDA. He was a retired business man and a graduate of Greenville’s highly rated Furman University. He took the job as a greeter at Walmart so he could remain active, meet people, and get a little exercise. What a wonderful ambassador for Walmart, Greenville, and North Carolina. I left thinking he was a remarkable guy, but by the end of the weekend had come to the realization that hospitality seems to be ingrained in South Carolinian culture. It was very nice to be with a group of people who made lots of effort to be nice to us and to each other.