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Old News, 1999

December 23

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year--and Happy Birthday to Ethan. The next update will be January 5, or so. As Big Sister says... "We're off to Germany."

December 22

Here are some pictures of the kids from around this time last year--there are 6 pages in the series. And here is a (big) page of our favorite pictures of the kids during our first few months here.

December 21

It snowed over night. We woke up this morning to a thin covering of snow, which stuck to the roads. We'll have to add another word to the guide: gritter (a truck that spreads sand and salt) -- in case we see one. It certainly seems like the shortest day of the year: it was middle-of-the-night dark at 7:45AM, and the streetlights are still on at 8:15AM...

December 20

Mary Ellen made a day trip to London. The kids put up Christmas decorations, then after dinner treated us to a really big show. It occurred to us today that we need to pack for our trip on Thursday.

December 19

The Guide to British English has been updated with some words contributed by Jenny, Nate and Noah who win the Courage Award for their research on Marmite...

We went to dinner at the house of some friends on Friday night after the Noddy show, then to a Christmas party today (and Little Brother squeezed in a birthday party, as well) then Mary Ellen and I took Mom to dinner this evening. These Brits are turning us into party animals.

December 16

We had our first snow yesterday -- sloppy and icy. Tomorrow we go to Little Brother's nursery Christmas party then to see Noddy (a live action show based on a kids' storybook character.)

December 13

We spent several hours in ruins over the weekend. On Saturday we drove to the Yorkshire Dales and rode a train with a steam locomotive. Santa Claus was on the train, and gave gifts to the kids. After lunch we walked around Bolton Priory--a very peaceful setting next to the River Wharfe. On Sunday we drove to Brimham Rocks, a hill covered by very large and strange looking rock formations and featuring great views of the Yorkshire Dales. While Mary Ellen stayed with a sleeping Little Brother in the car, Mom-Mom and Big Sister and I went scrambling over and under and through the rocks. Afterward we visited Fountains Abbey, the ruin of a beautiful 12th century Cistercian Abbey, the largest in Europe. By the time we got to the Abbey it was dark, and the buildings were dramatically lit with colored floodllights. The kids had a huge time walking through the ruins, which where just scary enough to be fun. Because of the late hour, we missed the Elizabethan mansion, the Georgian water garden and the deer park. This site and Bolton Priory are near the top of our list of things to see again when the weather gets warmer.

December 10

I'm playing with colors here, so if anything looks too wacky on your computer, send me an email and let me know.

We rented a car for this weekend, and plan to go on a Christmas train at a steam railway, and if the weather is OK, to a park where the kids can climb a bit and see some strange rock formations. But first, off to the supermarket to stock up on bulk goods and other stuff too heavy to schlep home...

I just finished A History of Warfare by John Keegan. Mom-mom continues to plough through a book every two days or so. Mary Ellen reads gripping tomes on social policy. The kids read about Biff and Chip and Floppy.

December 7

It is unabridged, free range, updated, annotated, cross-referenced. It is Mary Ellen's Quite Useful Guide to British English, version 3.

December 6

This site was off the air for several hours today, due to the WWW hosting service moving locations. Now we're back.

December 5

Yesterday was overcast, rainy and cold--a perfect day for another visit to the National Railway Museum, followed by a long nap. If everyone feels up to it, we'll go swimming this morning.

December 4

December 3

Mary Ellen returned from her conference last evening. Father Christmas is at Big Sister's school today. Coincidence?

Big Sister's school fair was a hit. She and Little Brother spoke with Father Christmas about what they wanted--it was the first time they were not completely intimidated seeing Santa Claus in person.

December 1

Mary Ellen is off at a conference for a few days--your photographer stayed behind, so no research meeting pictures this time. York is decorated for Christmas (this started a month ago) and looks very charming, and the streets are crowded with tourists.

November 27

Our Thanksgiving dinner was very nice--we had good company to make up for our lack of pumpkin pie -- canned pumpkin hasn't made here, yet. Nor has a pie pan bigger than a tea cup saucer. Mary Ellen wrote a new chapter on brilliant innovation by baking the apple pie in the inverted lid of an enamelled iron casserole and by roasting the turkey upside down, to keep the white meat juicy.

November 26

New Daily Picture today. The weather was mild a couple of days ago, so we went for a spin in the neighborhood.

November 25

Happy Thanksgiving. We're celebrating on Saturday: we invited an English/Australian family to visit. We warned them that the dinner might not be strictly authentic. We're trying to track down a turkey...

I just read High Exposure by David Breashears--see Books for a brief review. I also picked up the new Chris Whitley disc--see Music for brief review.

November 24, 1999

We updated the list of fun stuff. Have we mentioned it now gets dark before 4:00PM?

November 21, 1999

On Friday, Mary Ellen and I went to London for meetings and sightseeing, respectively.

November 18, 1999

Pictures of Edinburgh: the Castle, views of the city, and our hike up Arthur's Seat.

November 16, 1999

Big Sister had Parents Night at school -- she got to take Daddy to school and show off her work. It was great. Mary Ellen returned from Edinburgh this evening, to much rejoicing. Now that we've got our bearings here we've started lists of what we like, what we miss and the fine print (stuff that nobody warned us about -- like the fact that today the sun set at 4:09.) Oh, and the beer page is updated.

November 14, 1999

Most of us are back from Edinburgh. We had a great time--saw castles, climbed a mountain, ran around with friends, didn't eat haggis.

November 11, 1999

Oops. When I wasn't looking the beer page got updated again.

November 10, 1999

Tomorrow we head up to Edinburgh for the long weekend. Mary Ellen has some meetings, and rest of us can enjoy some cultural exchange. I'm looking forward to exchanging some pounds for some culture of the Single Malt kind. On Sunday in Glasgow the English and Scottish soccer teams meet for the first time in 10 years. This is apparently a great rivalry and, although England is favored, the expectation is for a fierce game on the field with the fear of violent hooliganism off it. I think we will be on the train when the match ends, which might prove a good place to be... Yesterday I took walk along the Minster Way, a series of public footpaths around the countryside adjacent to the city. There are a couple of pictures from the walk on the UK Pictures-York page.

November 9, 1999

I've been pressured to update the beer page. We've started a list of the good and the not so good things about living here.

November 6, 1999

The London trip was nice -- the kids really enjoyed seeing their friends. They talked more about that than about the Aquarium and Tarzan and the Rainforest Cafe. Mary Ellen and the Fellows (and spouses) got a briefing at the Commonwealth and Foreign Office, followed by a tour of the renovated building and a reception. On Friday it rained, so the kids and Dad and Mom-mom took a bus tour of London. The tour wasn't interesting for the kids, for the most part, but Little Brother got a good nap from the deal. The beer page has been updated, again. Just in time for Saturday night.

November 3, 1999

The UK Pictures site has is a new series of pictures of the Malham area in the Yorkshire Dales, taken on our recent hike there. The beer page has been updated. Tomorrow we go to London for several Fellows meetings and interviews with homeless policy folks (well you know what I mean.) The kids get to go to see Tarzan and eat at the Rainforest Cafe.

November 2, 1999

There is a new Daily picture today -- everyone is hard at work in Mommy's office.

November 1, 1999

I've put up a few more pictures from our trip to Oxford.

October 31, 1999

Yesterday visited Castle Howard (the location of Brideshead Revisited a few years ago. The house is very big and suitably castle with lots of big dark paintings and marble busts. There is one wing still occupied by the Howards, although we didn't run into them. We saw only a small part of the extensive grounds, but we got to spend a lot of time at the playground. Today we went swimming with some folks from the University -- Big Sister and Little Brother jumped right in. Then we joined the University folks again at Beningbrough Hall and Gardens, and walked around the gardens and grounds and ran around its playground. There are pictures of all of this, and they'll be here shortly...

October 30, 1999

Although the kids have their Halloween clown costumes, we're not sure about going out to Trick or Treat. Halloween does not seem oriented to small kids here, and we've heard that it is mostly older kids who go out--we've have several costumed 20-something kids show up at our front door after dark over the past week or so. Guy Fawkes Day (Nov. 5), celebrating the hanging of the leader (born in York) of a plot to blow up Parliament a long time ago, seems to be the bid deal, with fireworks, etc. The River Ouse, by the way, rhymes with "snooze."

October 27, 1999

Yesterday we returned to York from Rochester (New York) where we had gone to attend the funeral of Mary Ellen's father. Although the circumstances were sad, it was good to see family that we hadn't expected to see for another 6 (or 10) months. The kids, of course, had a great time -- Little Brother and his cousin of the same age ran around like two 3 year old boys and Big Sister developed a modest crush on her older cousin -- little love notes and all. She also got her ears pierced. Being the progressive and understanding Dad, I went along with this (enthusiastically) on the condition that Mary Ellen get her navel pierced. Now that we are back we're all on different sleep schedules and stages of cold/strep. I'm nearly finished reading a great book -- Cryptonomicon.

October 18, 1999

On Saturday we took a leisurely drive south to Oxford. We drove scenic back roads for much of the trip, and stopped for lunch in a town called Rugby (home of the sport for drinkers) that was really nice -- it was too bad we could not spend more time there. We walked around Oxford a bit on Saturday evening, just as things were closing down. We ate at "Charlie's Horse Mexican Cantina" which was overpriced and hardly authentic. But it had a kids' menu. We walked again on Sunday Morning -- through downtown and Trinity college, which has a beautiful small chapel. We took several more pictures which will appear here next week. For lunch we gathered at the house of one of the Fellows and the kids got to play with some of the friends they met during our London stay. On Tuesday we travel back to Rochester for a week.

October 15, 1999

Mary Ellen has returned from Rochester, and we're getting ready to travel for a couple of days. There is a new Daily picture for today -- Mary Ellen brought back clown costumes for Halloween, and Little Brother hasn't taken his off... Also, the beer page has been updated--see York. There is a new section for UK Pictures on the Picture page. I'll put many of our sightseeing pictures in the new section.

October 13, 1999

This is the new look for the WWW site. It should be easier to use, faster to load on your browser and, most importantly, easier for me to maintain. There should be a menu above with 7 choices, each on a different color background. If I have broken anything doing this change, let me know. For real news, Mary Ellen returns from Rochester tomorrow--the kids (and the rest of us) can't wait. Coming up is a visit to Oxford, where the kids will see some of the friends they met during the London orientation. Soon after we head to the Lake District then up to Edinburgh for more meetings.

October 11, 1999

Little Brother's project today at nursery was a zebra mask. See Pictures for a peek.

October 10, 1999

See Pictures for a new Daily. We went to the playground today to take advantage of the warmer weather. The kids got good and tired, and it was nice to get outside so we didn't have to hear each other sniffle all day. After lunch we called Oma's house and talked with Mommy. The kids really, really needed to talk with Mommy...

October 8, 1999

See York for the new beer page.

September 30, 1999

We all attended Big Sister's first assembly at school. The theme was "Thank You for the Harvest" (or as they say here, "HA-vist.") The kids were very cute, and Big Sister had fun.

September 24, 1999

Happy Anniversary to us. See York for an update to Mary Ellen's guide to British English...

September 19, 1999

On Sunday we visited the National Railway Museum. We went with Mary Ellen's mentor and his family and two other families. We enjoyed hanging out with other parents and the kids loved running the around the big steam locomotives and cars with some new friends. The Museum is huge, and is a good poor-weather activity. See Pictures for a couple of local York pictures.

September 16, 1999

The "Work" Section has become the "York" section (it was only one letter to change) and will contain descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells of York, Yorkshire and other places we visit in England. See Pictures for some more snaps taken in Yorkshire, including Helmsley Castle.

9/14/99 - See Pictures for some snaps taken in London and Yorkshire the first week in September.

9/12/99 - This weekend was the last with our rental car. On Saturday we drove to Pickering, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors and visited a castle ruin. There is also a small steam engine railroad there that travels up into the moors. By happy coincidence, it was "Thomas the Tank Engine" weekend, so we got to see and ride real steam engines with "Thomas" faces. The moors are beautiful country, and would make a nice day (or two) hike. On Sunday, we stayed in York and watched a performance of several traditional dance groups performing Morris dancing. The kids were enthralled by the costumes and the dancing, which involves dancers banging sticks.

9/10/99 - I've added a description of our house and neighborhood in the York section.

9/9/99 - Today we picked up the boxes we had shipped over, so the kids now have a few toys and some more familiar stuff around. We had fish and chips for dinner this evening. It is the perfect thing to do when your "Grease Low" light comes on.

9/8/99 - No pictures, yet, as I need software that is in one of the boxes to be shipped over here. I've added some details of the trip here in the York section. As some of you know, we were the defendants in a nuisance (we thought) lawsuit that was scheduled for trial the day before we left. Well we showed up, and the other party didn't. Her attorney says that when got our response to the suit he tried unsuccessfully to reach her to tell her she had no case, but he thinks she has been hospitalized with mental health problems. Our lesson learned: you don't need a good reason or a good case to sue somebody, just an attorney willing to file the paperwork.

9/7/99 - We're back on-line. If you've emailed recently, you'll get a reply soon. The trip over was long: after 4 hours on the plane the kids were getting a little restless--because we had not left Dulles yet. Missed connections and baggage ensued, but it all worked out. York is a very nice town, and the house will work out. We spent a couple of days in London and saw some sights, and drove (really) to the Yorkshire Moors and some castle and abbey ruins. Today, the kids had their first day at their (respective) schools and they had fun. Pictures and details will follow in a few days. Oh, and Mary Ellen celebrated her birthday yesterday. I'm not allowed to say how old she is now.

8/20/99 - New Daily Picture today--the kids are very excited about their last day at school and about our big move. This is our last day in "our house" for the next 11 months. This also might be the last update to this site until the first week in September.

8/11/99 - See Pictures for images of our visit with Aunt Ann, Aunt Betty, Aunt Angela (average age: 90+) and Cousin Billy. It was great to see everyone in good health and good spirits. The kids were angels and charmed us all. Little Brother got over his fear of the ocean and waded right in, then spent an hour making sure that the sand completely covered every exposed and un-exposed bit of skin. It's funny until someone puts out an engine. As we started our takeoff roll on our return flight, Kevin commented on the large stain of liquid spreading over the top of the wing, something to the effect that in the Air Force they call that a fuel leak. We had a laugh about that until, aloft all of five minutes, the pilot informed us we would be returning to the airport due to an engine warning light. The emergency equipment escorted us all the way back to the gate, where the plane sat until the next day, when we boarded it again. We've got some nice pictures of the trip, and we'll put them up in the next day or two.

7/27/99 - Happy Birthday to Kevin. What's up with the lack of updates here? We've been very busy getting ready for our move... Don't take it personally. And there was a new Daily Picture yesterday, and another one today.

7/14/99 - We spent the weekend with the gang in Baltimore, then Kevin and our niece visited for a couple of days. It was nice to get together with the guys and wives in Baltimore--and our kids got to play the older kids for a while. Then they spent a couple of days worshiping their big cousin and singing along while Kevin strummed Barney tunes. See Pictures for some views of our trip to the animal farm.

7/5/99 - More good news: Kevin is back home from overseas, Tom has a new job. We had a nice visit to the very DC-like sweltering humidity of Rochester. There is a new Daily Picture of Mary Ellen beating the heat.

6/30/99 - We have lots of good news: Kevin is headed back in a few days, we rented our house here, and we rented a house in York. And Little Brother has had some breakthroughs in a difficult project he has been working on for some time. It's been a very exciting week.

6/27/99 - We took some pictures of our trip to the playground. Oh, and it looks like we rented our house from the end of August through June. Mary Ellen is working hard on the UK side. It will be a relief to get these things done.

6/25/99- Last evening we put Mary Ellen on a plane to England where she'll spend a week scouting out houses and schools. The kids had a great time at the airport as we took the shuttle past the planes at the gates and walked around the waiting area. They carried their own little backpacks--sort of a dress rehearsal for August--and did really well with the long day, the strange place and the good-bye.

6/20/99 - On Saturday afternoon we pitched the tent in the back yard and prepared for a camping trip. At dusk we retired to the tent with a backpack full of sleeping bags, books, stuffed animals and flashlights. We read stories and sang songs until it was very dark and the crickets were very loud. Surprisingly, the kids went right to sleep. It rained all night, but we were dry and the kids thought it was a great adventure.  There are a couple of pictures, of course.

6/13/99 - We had a nice visit from Connie and Dave (and Wellington) who were passing through. We heard from Kevin, who thinks he might be overseas for another 3 weeks or so. We had neighborhood-wide a yard sales--we unloaded some good stuff. In the confusion, Big Sister got a pair of used kid-size inline skates. She looks so grown up in the pads and helmet.

6/5/99 -  Open house today. There are pictures. Thanks to everyone who came by. Payton: the grill-tool-thermometer is AWESOME (although it is overly optimistic about hamburgers.)

6/2/99  -  We visited Andy and Lynn and their little girl over the long weekend and had a great time. See Pictures for dancing and swimming kids.

5/28/99 -  The rumored rabid raccoon is nowhere to be found: the kids are disappointed about that. Kevin got another stripe, which earns him a party here when he gets back from overseas.

5/24/99 -  On Saturday I got a last-minute invite to an Orioles game (thanks Neil.) It was a great day for baseball: sunny and warm and I ate a sausage sandwich with peppers and onions.  The game was fine -- the Os did well until their pitching fell apart in the late innings and they lost by a run. There is a Daily Picture of the ballpark. Kelly is reading a hilarious travel book, and Big Sister is having fun with First Grade computer learning--See Books and Kids Stuff in Play.

5/17/99 -  There are some new pictures from the weekend at the Arts Festival, plus Monday night's dress up party. I've put up a Daily Picture Archive page so you can view the previous Daily pictures. 

5/14/99 -  See Links for a couple of sites about York. There is a poem in Humor--it has been around the Internet a while, but it is still funny.

5/12/99 -  See Pictures for some managed care fun. Also, in Humor, help for those trying to understand Boston.

5/10/99 - Happy Mothers' Day--the kids made cute cards and gifts. See Pictures from some outdoor fun on Sunday.

5/7/99 - We heard from Kevin again, who was slated to have lunch with the President, but got bumped at the last minute by a  guy who wound up sitting at Bill's table. Hey, Bill's loss.

5/1/99  - Mom's house finally closed. This site has a New look. There will be more format changes in the next week or so... Go to Contact and try the new mailing list feature. It will let us send announcements to you and will allow you to exchange email with the friends and family who look at this site.

4/25/99 - We had a busy weekend: chores, dinner guests, and haircuts. Cutting the grass every weekend is greatly over-rated. See Pictures for a couple of dance party pix.

4/19/99  - We got an email from Kevin, who is overseas due to the Kosovo crisis. He said he is working long hours, with five days on and one day off. He got a look at one of the refugee camps, which was pretty sobering.

4/16/99 - Mom has come down to stay.  She's almost all moved out of her house, and the sale closes next Wednesday. She'll make one more trip to gather the remainder of her things, then she's here for the summer, and beyond. Also, see the new Daily Picture today. Then go to the Links page and pop out to McSweeney's. It' s worth the click. I updated the Music section: more to come there.

4/15/99 - Updated the Movie page with links to information about each movie.

4/11/99  - A new Daily Picture yesterday. I'm back from travel--just in time for Big Sister's party. Seven 5 year old girls (plus Little Brother) and a rainy day.... it was a great party (see Pictures.)

4/5/99 - A new Daily Picture. New pictures and news will resume Friday or Saturday. Big Sister is on her new bicycle as much as possible. Thank goodness for an extra hour of daylight.

4/3/99 - We had grandparents and cousins visiting this weekend for Easter and for Big Sister's birthday party. Big Sister got some great Barbie costumes and her first real bicycle (with inflatable tires.) Big See Pictures for all the action.

4/1/99 - A new Daily Picture. Kevin is overseas again--but I hope he still sends email jokes...

3/27/99 - See Pictures for a couple of shots from today's trip to the circus.

3/25/99 - For the curious among you, and you know who you are, I added two reports to the Tools menu that show activity at this site--how many visitors, what pages get viewed and the like. The Day report shows activity yesterday (including my visits.) The  Week report shows activity for the past 7 days, excluding my visits.

3/23/99 - Updates about the UK trip will appear in Work.

3/21/99 - We made a quick trip to NJ to help move some of Mom's stuff back to our house. Kevin and my tallest niece visited, too. See Pictures for the newest photos. Kevin also made a mean dinner, but we ate it before we could take any snapshots of it.

3/16/99 - Added a Themes page for Pictures and two new jokes in Humor. Also, I updated the Archive so the page shouldn't break for you Navigator users (though a couple of the pictures are still kaput.) Mom's move is progressing and she sounds excited to be leaving her job and unloading "stuff" from the house. Kevin got the computer, which we expect will soon be upgraded to Internet Explorer 4 -- right? We got an email from Tom, who has successfully moved to Las Vegas. We've begun planning for ME's fellowship. There are too many details, and it is pretty clear we will never make it to our plane in time.

3/12/99 - Added some pictures from our visit with Connie and Dave.

2/23/99 - The wait might be over: Mom-mom is expecting an offer on her house. Good luck to Kevin, who is overseas again. Also, new hat pictures and a new daily picture.

2/20/99 - Fooling around with the layout and formatting... Also, there will be a new picture every day in Daily Picture: check it out from the Picture page.

2/16/99 - Added a few Valentine pictures and some of the Laundry Basket Races. Welcome back Kevin, who had a rough time getting to Germany (diverted to Paris on the way there-- imagine the hardship) then pressed on through four grueling days of conference before taking a skiing trip to Switzerland. I am so glad that viewing this site from overseas made the trip bearable.

2/8/99 - We had an small scare this weekend. On Saturday morning Big Sister began to complain loudly about stomach pain--then burst into uncharacteristic tears and wailing. We went to our family doctor, who said "To the emergency room." So we spent about 6 hours there. Big Sister was very brave about giving a blood sample and getting an IV (to encourage a trip to the bathroom for one of those samples, too.) All the tests were negative for bad things, and she started to feel much better after about 5 hours. The big turnaround was when she got to eat the popcicle the nurse had promised several hours earlier. She brightened up and got all better very quickly. She has some good questions about the procedures, and we didn't have really good answers...

2/5/99 - New pictures added today. Plus, I added a Humor section to Play. It will accumulate the best of the jokes and other funny stuff I run across. Also, a couple of new places to visit in Links.

2/1/99 - Look for new pictures of the kids at the dance party. We have a new address... Kavanagh-OConnell.org has much more room for pictures, including older pictures that had been removed to the archive. Kevin is "Off to Germany!" (as Big Sister says) for a week or so -- Prosit! Arnie? Are you here yet? Drop me a note.

1/26/99 - Recent connection problems solved.  There will be more frequent updates to the pictures and other pages.

1/4/99 - We had a great Christmas. Kevin made it for a Christmas Eve+ visit (after his overseas trip was canceled mid-way) with Diane and Mom-mom stayed the week. Big Sister and Little Brother were very excited Christmas day. Andy and Lynn and family spent a few days around New Year's visiting. On New Year's Eve, M.E. Kelly and Big Sister watched the ball drop and the hoopla for a few minutes, then turned in. I've started to put together an archive site for older pictures. You can find it on the pictures menu and the pictures page. It's still a work in progress, so please excuse the occasional missing pictures, etc.

Old News:
2000
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