Hallie plays in the orchestra

Tonight we attended Hallie’s first concert with the Ligon Philharmonic Orchestra. She was playing 2nd violin for a few fun Halloween pieces, with 69 other students on stage.

It was a wonderful performance and quite a showcase of the talent at Ligon. We enjoyed every minute of it!

I’ve got gobs of video I’m working to upload. Be patient!

Pilot in the making?

Travis is protective of our flight simulator

Travis is protective of our flight simulator


Our son Travis had his checkup yesterday. The doc reports that he has exceptional eyesight. I found this interesting since all the kid talks about is planes, planes, and more planes. When he’s not doing his homework (or building planes with his Legos), he’s watching YouTube videos about aviation. He was also flying my flight simulator quite often.

He’s begged me for flight lessons before. He’s even asked if lessons were a birthday gift. I’ve hemmed and hawed but if he keeps showing such strong interest and has the ability and determination, I might not be able to avoid it.

Kelly might think otherwise, but Travis could be on his way to becoming a pilot. A pretty good one, too, I’d bet.

In God We Trust, all others we monitor

The title of this post is the inside joke and unofficial motto of National Security Agency spooks. It’s not quite “all others,” though; spooks monitor whomever they’re tasked to monitor. But who is considered “God” by today’s spooks? Whomever they’re told, I suppose, and that depends on which way the wind blows.

I’m still flummoxed how President Obama can state that he will no longer monitor world leaders yet seems okay with recording Grandma’s calls. With all due respect, Mr. President, world leaders are fair game! That’s why we built this colossal monitoring institution: to find out what the world is doing. The operative word here is “world.” American taxpayers aren’t handing over their money so they themselves can be monitored, they’re expecting you to go after the bad guys who dwell outside of America’s borders.

When our President is skittish about monitoring foreign leaders yet doesn’t bat an eye at monitoring ordinary Americans there are priorities somewhere that are seriously out of whack.