Family ShinDig

I have to confess that I get a little nervous about every family event that I plan and this weekend is no exception - you just never know how things are going to turn out. Mostly they go smoothly, but that doesn't mean I don't worry.

Technically this is my 5th big family event to plan. The first was my wedding. This involved 28 (I think) people from my family and about 10 people from our wedding party staying in 5 cabins in Cedars of Lebanon State Park.

The second was a summer getaway to Gatlinburg with 12 people, a bird and a dog in one cabin.

The third was Christmas in Gatlinburg with 19 people and one on the way, all in one cabin. This was probably my favorite experience - especially getting to decorate the tree and bake cookies with all of the little girls (who are getting to be more grown up everyday).

Last year was my first official time planning the Lock Family Reunion. After much research, we settled on Lake Cumberland Resort in Kentucky as the "halfway point" for the Canadian and American residents of our family. It is not a true halfway point as one of my cousins lives really far north, but it was as close as I could come for a middle point for my mom and her four siblings. This long weekend in August included 35 people in 3 cabins.

This year we are again going to Kentucky. This time with 18 people in 2 cabins - our family is getting big and with gas prices and time shortages, it is getting harder and harder to get our growing family of almost 40 to come all together at once.

Anyways, I hope and pray that this weekend goes well. I am sad that not everyone will be able to join us this year, but that is life... we are not always able to make the trek to Canada, so this is something that I fully understand.

Letter to the Editor regarding design...

This letter that we received for the monthly magazine that I lay out made me laugh. I just wanted to get feedback from my friends that are designers...

Portion from actual letter:
I am color blind in the orange/red part of the spectrum. As a result, I couldn’t read several pages of the August 2008 issue. Are you trying to make ID hard to read?

By the way, the highest contrast is not black on white, but black on yellow. And it would be nice if the body type was one size larger.

I think people who do magazine layouts forget that design should make the publication easy to read. It’s not to show off how creative they are.

So what do you guys think... is black on yellow the best form of contrast? Hah. I think the best part is comment that magazines are not to show off how creative you are... they are solely for the purpose of reading... I will have to remember that the next time I flip through a magazine and choose to read articles based on how well the images work together and grab my attention.

ExtremeMakeover

ExtremeMakeover, Home Edition is in Charlotte this week. I know that Ty Pennington can be annoying, but this show has become one of my favorites. Mostly because of the stories of the families - what they have gone through or going through now. I think we all have stories to share and this show has done a beautiful job of showing human beings coming together for something that is far beyond themselves. You can click on the link above to read more about this family in Charlotte.

New Patio Set

This is slightly old news, but here is a picture of our new patio set that we bought for our deck. Now we can enjoy our meals outside in comfort. However, I don't think that we will completely retire from sitting in our red rocking chairs on the front porch. There is something nice about being able to watch everything that is going on in the neighborhood. But I really love the new patio set.

Age

This spring, while teaching, there were many times I was mistaken for a student instead of the teacher. Yesterday while waiting to catch a bus from downtown Charlotte to home, a woman asked me if I attended Johnson&Wales. And then last night I was carded and the person carding me was surprised that I am almost 28 and asked me if I felt old.

I think the main reason that people may perceive me as being younger than I am has to do with how I dress - blue jeans, flip flops and hair in a pony tail on most occasions.

Is there some specific period of time that you are supposed to start dressing a certain way? To look your age? I don't really feel "my age" - whatever that means.

24 Hours of Booty

Theron Pickens, one of the principles at LandDesign where Daniel works, had to wear a tutu because he bet that his team wouldn't raise $30,000 for the 24 Hours of Booty.

24 Hours of Booty is (the original) annual charity event in Charlotte to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Click here for the full story of the event in the Charlotte Observer.

Poison Ivy

It would seem that Daniel has a case of poison ivy and it is most likely my fault.

Last Friday, I was picking up fallen sticks (and branches) in our yard and I found a pretty big one that needed to be cut up. I dragged it to the curb and later asked Daniel to do the manual labor of cutting it up.

For some time we have assumed that I must not be allergic to the stuff since Daniel and I will tramp through the very same places and he will end up with the itchy stuff while I will go unscathed.

So when he told me he thought he had poison ivy and I thought about the that branch I had dragged to the curb, there is a good chance that is what led to his outbreak. Poor Daniel. He is not very happy that I didn't disclose the possible poison ivy information.