Early Days

The Moir kids (circa early 1930's)

Marie, Bill, Lewie, Rosemary

Marie entered the convent right after her high school graduation in 1939. Upon entering, a young lady becomes known as a postulant. Solemn vows are then professed years later after study, work, and prayers in and with the community. Above, Marie is pictured as a young postulant with her mother, our Nana Moir. Below, she is with her brother, our Uncle Bill.
I can remember visiting Marie at Marygrove in Detroit when she was in full habit. She told me that the habit was made of wool and summers were very uncomfortable. After Vatican ll, the Sisters had a choice to give up the habit; and she couldn't get it off fast enough! After that, she enjoyed shopping and dressing for the seasons!

Hidden Camera

Maybe you already know this but I did not. When I Google-map my home address, an actual picture comes up along with the directions. In my case, it's a picture of the house next to us, but that's pretty darn close. These are not aerial photos as seen on Google Earth, but just regular looking shots. There are also directional arrows so the photo can be rotated.

So when I discovered this, I went nuts and started Google-mapping all kinds of addresses, including my office building. As if I needed a picture of my office after 20 years, but there it was.

Anyway, it's fun to play around with in your spare time. I like to complain about how busy I am with all the things I have to do. But evidently I am not THAT busy. But what I really want to know is this: who is taking these pictures?

*Edit 8/30/08: I found more info here and here.

More Gold

We just spent another afternoon watching the DVR-ed Olympics from last night and early this a.m. Rainy weather all week (hallelujah) has presented the perfect excuse to kick back and o.d. on these wonderful events. Today I was brought to tears with Shawn Johnson's win on the balance beam. She has put forth such great effort in all events and I am so glad she is going home with a gold on top of her other medals. After the last girl performed, Shawn knew she had the gold with her high score. She caught the eyes of her parents then the camera focused on them. When I saw her mother crying with pride, that's when my tears started flowing. I know how proud this mom must be of her daughter's accomplishments and the rest of the U.S. is just as proud of Shawn. I love Shawn's big smile...reminds me of another big smile that comes from a young lady I love.



And now that we're talking of gold, I was unaware of the gold-colored $1 coins that came out last year until I read an article about them in the paper this morning. Seems the public is never keen on changing from bills to coins (remember the Susan B Anthony). To heavily promote these coins, Austin TX along with three other communities (Portland, Ore., Charlotte, NC, and Grand Rapids, Mich.) will join a push to dump these coins in fast-food places, big chain stores, parking garages etc. Retailers will also get promo posters in these cities to further introduce them to the public. The paper went on to say these four cities were chosen because "all are known for their younger populations and cool reputation-in the push for the hip new version of the old dollar bill that's cooler, edgier and better looking". I know Austin would be that because it is a university town but don't know much about the other cities. Enlighten me if you know more about these cities. Anyway I'm glad to know about these coins. If anyone had tried to give me one before today, I wouldn't have know they were legal tender. To read more about these new Presidential dollar coins you can go here.

Golden Girl

We all agree that fabulous Michael Phelps is the Olympics' Golden Boy; and here in Plano, Nastia Liukin is the Golden Girl. She hails from Parker, which is just outside Plano (you may recall we lived in Parker from '86-'94) and trains at a gym about a mile from our present home. As of today, Nastia has a gold in all-around, silver in team event, and bronze in floor exercise. She is very strong in the upcoming events of uneven bars and balance beam so I wouldn't be surprised if she medals in these two events also. One more medal and she'll tie her dad's record of 4 medals at the '88 Olympics and surpass him (which I'm sure he doesn't mind) if she wins a 5th.

World Olympic Gymnastic Academy in Plano is where Nastia trains. Four years ago, Carlie Patterson won Gold all-around at the Olympics. She trained here and Nastia was her training partner.

Keep an eye out for this 15 year old. Rebecca Bross also trains at WOGA and is Nastia's current training partner. Are we looking at a future medalist in 2012??

Speaking of training--here we have Mel in training. Since this is the last year for baseball and softball in the Olympics, Mel is going to petition the IOC to add floating as an event. I know he will medal in this as he practices everyday!

Migration

A coworker, who is much more of a football fan than I, brought this TV commercial to my attention. Her nephew is in it - he plays for the Giants. At first I thought it was just okay. Then the more I watched it the more I liked it. It's not the typical athletic wear commercial. I think it's because of the song - titled "Train Song" sung by Vashti Bunyan. I know - I had never heard of her either. Turns out the song was released over 40 years ago. See what you think.

We're Booked

You may remember this post from last year. It was an invitation to join Mel and me on our next cruising adventure. We booked the cruise last week...Tom, Linda, Mel and I will be departing San Francisco summer of '09 for a 10 day round trip cruise to Alaska. Ports we will be visiting include Ketchikan, Juneau, Haines, and Victoria, British Columbia. Temperatures there should be a wonderful respite from the 100+ temps we have been experiencing here in TX and OK these past summers. If you couldn't join us on this trip, stay tuned for our next cruise invite featuring leis and hula dancing!

This is one excursion I want to go on.

Temp's Down

When I woke up this morning and saw that our temperatures were in the mid-60's, I thought I'd slept right through the rest of the summer.

I grabbed my iPod and took a long walk. I don't work out as much as I used to since our fitness center at work closed down. And I don't ride my bike much anymore since dodging the traffic has taken away most of the enjoyment. And memories of Tim's cycling accident still haunt me.

You must be wondering what's on my iPod. Some selections from the following artists (if you're chuckling, don't tell me):

Wilco
Los Lonely Boys
Leona Lewis
U2
Neil Young
Steely Dan
Nickelback
and a few more.

I hope our cool air continues, but I know the heat isn't gone forever.

89

We celebrated Art's birthday this weekend. Tim's brother David came into town Friday evening - arriving by train.

While waiting for the Amtrak to arrive, Art is enjoying the view outside the train station. Travel by train was a normal mode of transportation in his younger days.

We enjoyed a gathering of folks for a steak cookout on Sunday. Melanie and Jason, accompanied by dogs Sydney and River drove over to join us. Melanie is demonstrating to our friend Jane the commands the dogs have mastered. Jane has a nice German shepherd, Niko, but he was unable to join us.

A nice walk with the dogs after the delicious but heavy meal felt good. We walked right past a bright yellow fire hydrant which both dogs totally ignored. Dog myths abound.

It was a wonderful day. Family, friends, dogs and good food. Who could ask for more.