Gamblin' Thew

Gamblin' Thew.

Here's a picture of me, circa 1991, that my dad just scanned and sent to me.

Poplar Forest and the Declaration of Independence

Poplar Forest

One of the places I visited on my recent trip to Virginia to visit Nancy Drew of ReallyTopDrawer fame was Poplar Forest, the retreat home of Thomas Jefferson. He designed the building and grounds to be completely symetrical, with the octagonal structure designed to offer eight vistas instead of the usual four.

Our adorable and elderly tour guide shared with us the fact that Thomas Jefferson died $100,000 in debt and was too poor to provide a wedding present to one of his granddaughters so he gave her the desk upon which he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Appropriately, copies of the Declaration were available in the gift shop. Maybe it was the historical and somewhat patriotic mood of the setting, but it made me think about what an important document the Declaration is and how inspiring it can be to actually read it.

I didn't buy the copy they had available at the store, but I did just order a copy that comes with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in one volume. I can't wait for it to come.

Cruisin' by New London Light

Sailor Thew

I was inspired to get out my camera this morning by the beautiful sunrise-reflected glow coming off the snow-frosted flatirons. I finished up a roll of film that had been in my camera forever and took it to get processed today. This is one of the discoveries I made from the roll. This picture was taken while transiting back to the ship after a long day of survey work in Long Island Sound. In the background is New London Ledge Light, marking the entrance to the channel to get into the harbor of New London, Connecticut. That's my official NOAA Corps float coat I'm wearing -- something that doesn't see the light of day much now that I live in Colorado. You can see a few other pictures from my first sea tour over at my flickr page.

Let us then be up and doing...

I've recently renewed a friendshind with an old college friend of mine, Cathia, and even more recently discovered that she keeps a blog over at livejournal, called "Let us then be up and doing..." I added a link to it over on the sidebar, as well. She tells her story better than I possibly could over on her blog, but let me just say that she was a wicked and ruthless sparring partner back when we took fencing at good ol' K college.