Quote Of The Day

"This will light your butt on fire." --The Chipster, about to show Matt an amazing trick

Eat Mor Chikin

I caught a parachute!

Spectating

Is there something strange about our neighbor at the game?

Games And Play

Our very sweet next door neighbor and her granddaughter baked G a cake for St. Patty's Day, and Patty was the one who ate most of it. Hey, it's my name! It was delicious.

We were so grateful to be given Thrashers ticket vouchers from "The Source", and we were able to see them play the Red Wings. Of course, the entire crowd was wearing red, as the Thrashers don't have an overly huge following. The first period was loads of fun, but then G had a meltdown and the rest was rather difficult. It was still a treat to see the Wings.

We had G's second soccer game on Saturday. It was the perfect weather for it, and he did a great job. He scored three goals!

The tent we used last year was too small for the three of us, so we used our REI member coupon on a new Marmot Limelight 3P tent. We are going to break it in in a couple of weeks with the Brociouses. We set it up on the back deck to check it out, and we are extremely happy with it. It is perfect for us - 2 doors, we can sit up and G can stand, just enough room to sleep all three of us but not much extra (that's a good thing), four gear pockets, and a gear loft. The fly has two vestibules, and if you understand half of what we just said, you probably already own the tent.

Go Wings!

We are at the Wings- Thrashers game.  Awesome fun, even G is a little interested.  The fans are great and Philips Arena makes each game fun with each special effect, audience participation game, and giveaway.  Today the Army sponsored a parachute drop of tee shirts.  We didn't get one.  We are drinking beer and eating a hot pretzel and Cracker Jack.  Most people are wearing red, so we feel right at home.  The girl behind us is from Grand Rapids.  Maybe Katie knows her!

Trains, Cosplay, and Tulips

Last Saturday, G went with his Daddy to a model train show at the Cobb Civic Center. On Sunday, we visited Momocon, an anime convention, for something unusual to do. G met these cosplay (costume play) girls with their giant paintbrush, which they offered to him to hold even though he was too shy to do so. Today, Matthew surprised his happy spouse with some beautiful tulips - spring is here chez Angle!

Dahling, You Look Gorge-ous!

With the perfect weather and cool temps, we took the opportunity to take a major hike at Tallulah Gorge. Hiking is a huge priority for us, and so is teaching G to be a safe and responsible hiker. This was a strenuous (for adults!) almost 4 mile hike, most of which is scrambling over rocks in a river. In many places, we had to sit on our behinds, take off our shoes, and scoot, lest we slide down into the river. In other places, we had to "leap frog" over the rocks: one of us goes forward, the other passes Chip over and catches up. Oh, and yes, dear Matthew slipped into the water at one point, but not until the very end.

We could not have been more proud of our son. Not only was he able to stay human the entire time (if you know him, you know that he is usually an alien), but he listened to all of our safety advice and scrambled like a pro. He even suggested some routes to try when we were stuck, and he got us out of some difficult situations! At the end of the 4 1/2 hour hike, we had to climb over 500 steps back to the top, and he did them all by himself.

Permits are required to hike the floor of the gorge for safety reasons, and the guideline is that children must be at least 8 years of age. The ranger who helped us said that we know our child and that if we think he can handle it, he would let that be our call. Either he thought we looked prepared (there weren't many people around with Camelbaks, actual hiking shoes, and the whole nine), or he was very trusting. Either way, we are grateful to him for allowing us to take the challenge with the Chipster.

One of the high/lowlights of the trip was that as we were passing through the gate to the "permit only" section of the park, we saw three people getting handcuffed for possession of marijuana. The funniest part of the whole thing was that those poor suckers had to walk all those 500-some steps with their hands behind their backs! Ha!!!

A little trivia about this gorge: part of Deliverance was filmed here (but don't worry, it is ANYTHING but creepy there), Karl Wallenda performed a famous tightrope walk across it in 1970 (although he was the second person to do so), and the persistant trillium (an endangered, or more specifically, critically imperiled species) flourishes here.

Here are some photos and a video of our amazing day. There are a couple of Oceana Falls that make them look flat, but they were very intimidating and pretty dangerous if one isn't careful. Also, when you look at the photo of the menfolk on the suspension bridge, you can see the water at the very, very bottom of the photo.

One more thing: lest we think this was the biggest deal ever, Mom and Dad totally showed us up. They are hiking the GRAND CANYON today!!! Can't wait for those pics!

G's first soccer game!

G had his very first soccer game today. He did a great job and had a really great time! He scored two goals. Not that we're keeping score, because they don't, but you know, if we were keeping score, which we won't, he had two. It was a beautiful day for soccer and we celebrated by getting some ice cream after the game. We're proud of you, Chip!!

 

  Yes, they had to change from their "home" to their "away" tee-shirts before the game started

 

 

What The...???!

Googling "Matt and Patty Angle":

Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm ... - Google Books Resultby Bill Bass, Jon Jefferson, William M. Bass - 2004 - True Crime - 304 pages The next day Angle went to the sheriff's office to report Patty missing. She'd tried to persuade Matt to file the report, but he'd refused; he'd also asked ... books.google.com/books?isbn=0425198324...

Snow!

We knew it was coming, but we were still pretty surprised this morning when it started snowing around 11:00 in the morning. We didn't really have any place we had to go, so we spent the day hibernating in front of the fireplace. It was really relaxing and we had a wonderful day, including a great dinner at P's mom and dad's house.

 

 

We think this visitor was a downy woodpecker