John, Marsha, Zachary, Samantha & Anna
5/31/2002
Happy Birthday, Karen!!!!

Thank you! Watch your email for pictures! And speaking of pictures, the pictures of Erika's room just arrived -- looks beautiful! Check the projects page. :-) --Gary

Happy birthday tomorrow, Karen. Hope you have a nice day.

Hey, what am I? Chopped liver??? Here's mine. :-) --Gary

Great, glad you liked it -- I did too. Yeah, talk about being under-appreciated! There's a great quote that really fits Smith's life: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." His idea was so new that at first no one could understand it -- and when they finally did understand it, they were like, "What's the big deal? Everybody knows that!" And hey, I just finished another great tape: Dennis Miller's "The Rant Zone," which is Dennis Miller doing his "rants" from his HBO show. Hilarious, and brilliant. I'll drop it off at Mom's this weekend if you want to pick it up...? --Gary

I tried it just now and it did eventually open, but the site is very slow today -- must be some trouble on their end. It's called SongFacts and it gives you background info and trivia on almost any popular song you request. Interesting, but no big deal. --Gary

Happy belated birthday, Brent!

Anyway you can write to me at ebe403@msn.com thats my email address and I'm checking it daily. Lots oh computers here. Talk to everyone later. Bye!

Wow, tough call! Hopefully I would have seen that timing conflict coming and scheduled around it.... If not, though, it would be Hello Roma and Arrivederci Frodo! And "Dove il cinema??" as soon as the plane touched down, hoping that I could follow the Italian dubbing. Luckily, however, Fate has been kind, and has arranged for these two events to be well-spaced. :-) --Gary

It's the words that crawl across the bottom of the front page. Maybe it doesn't work with Internet Explorer...? Hmmmmm. --Gary

Thanks. It will be a spot for quick little announcements. --Gary

As to the itinerary, I don't have anything formal yet. We arrive Monday morning (which will actually be Sunday night to us) and I figure, in spite of any jet lag, we will make a bee-line for the old Roman Forum to see the ruins and the Coliseum and everything. Tuesday may be the day we drive to Pompeii. There is a chance we would spend Tuesday night in Naples (which Pompeii is right next to), because some Italian travellers have told me doing Pompeii as a day-trip from Rome is really pushing it -- it's a 2+ hour drive each way, and there is so much to see when you get there. But others have said it is do-able in one day, plus the drive is spectacularly beautiful (except for the insane Italian drivers, which everyone warns about...). So I don't know. Wednesday will probably be Vatican day, as that is the day the Pope makes his public appearance. I'm told that it is easy to spend the entire day in the Vatican museums. Other than that, I've got a list in my head of all the great places I want to see -- the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the church of San Clemente (built on the ruins of a pre-Christian altar to Mithras, which is still visible), the Campo dei Fiori (a public square designed and built by Michaelangelo -- this may be on Saturday, as I understand that's their open-air market day), the Trastevere, the Piazza Navona (another public square -- this one preserves the outlines of the chariot racetrack which used to be here), the Trevi Fountain (where it is said if you throw in a coin, you will return to Rome) -- and a ton of other places....

I do plan to email everyone whenever I'm near a computer. Our family website will be a real help: It can be accessed from anywhere in the world, and I can easily send email from our "Contact" page. My friend is taking a digital camera, so I might even be able to include photos with the email. :-) So that's where things stand at present, with (gulp) 26 days to go....

Hey Karen, thanks for the heads up on Frontier House. Very good! I'm glad to have soap.

P.S. Amanda the new pictures of your girls are so good. What cute outfits. Grandma Cathy? I thought Teghan was taking to the water well, when and where? Was Tristen there too and what did she think?

Why, thank you! :-)

Hey Karen, thanks for the tip on "Frontier House." I missed the first one, but caught the rest of 'em. Very interesting show! Makes "Survivor" look like a bunch of spoiled crybabies. :-) The show (three two-hour programs) was very successful ratings-wise, so it will certainly be shown again. Don't miss it next time!

One more thing: tune in to this webpage tomorrow for a spin-off game of "Who Am I." ...Call it "Who Am I-Lite." :-)