Happy Holidays to all our Friends and Family
We hope this e-card finds you all healthy and happy and ready for a great 2006.
Here's what we've been up to:
At the end of 2004 our big week- long holiday trip began with a three day journey through the gator infested Okefenokee Swamp. Though it was cold and rainy the entire time, we still had enough fun to think about doing it again sometime (but not this year). And we only flipped the canoe once! The second leg of that trip was four nights on Cumberland Island and the weather cooperated with us for that trip. We rang in the New Year at a little local bar called Seagle's in St. Marys, GA with a riotous barmaid named "Cindy Dean the Porno Queen".
We took a couple of trips for weddings in 2005; a trip to Chicago for Andrew's cousin Rachel Koransky and Ricardo Montecinos and another trip to San Francisco for the wedding of a friend of the Koransky family, Erica Fox and Yaron Friedman. Of course, we took in as much of each city as we could between wedding festivities.
Some of the other fun things we did this year: We took a class, Universitatus de Porcinus (aka Pork U) from Sam Huff at Lost Mountain BBQ on the proper way of barbequing and cooking meat by smoking. We researched and toured Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. We took a three day seminar at Elizabeth Pointe Lodge on Amelia Island, FL for Aspiring Innkeepers on how to start up and run a Bed & Breakfast. This seminar was very informative, after which, we decided against running our own Bed & Breakfast (Though we may still do something smaller called a "Homestay"). We also took a 9-day hands-on Homebuilding seminar at the Southface Institute to learn more about energy efficiency and homebuilding techniques. We have pictures of our project, a garden shed, here.
In Feb, Andrew's friend and co-worker Ed Larkin who has a small plane and took us up flying. Both Andrew and Teresa were able to fly the plane for a little while. Andrew has wanted to learn to fly, but if he did, our big trip would be postponed even further. On July fourth, we ran the Peachtree Roadrace, the world's largest 10K race, something Teresa's wanted to do since her knee injury. Throughout the year, we took several hiking and camping trips with Simon to various places around Georgia.
Sadness also marked 2005 for us. Teresa's grandmother Gertrude Hooker (known to all as "Momo") died in the spring at the age of 96. She had been in great health until a year and a half earlier when she had a series of strokes, one causing her to fall and break her hip. Her mind was always sharp and she knew her condition there in the nursing home and hated being dependent on others. Her death was a release from this world. Teresa's mother, Dolores Piercy, Momo's only child, never really recovered from the loss and joined her 3 ½ months later, dying suddenly in her sleep. The family was brought together again for another funeral, marking the passing of a generation. While going through the estate, Teresa obtained several boxes of old photos and keepsakes that they had collected through the years. She has been scanning much of this and posting it for family and friends on a web page here. There are still more photos to be added, but they will have to wait.
We are gearing up for our year-long BIG TRIP- "The Adventures of T & A". Teresa left her job in the summer and focused on getting the house ready to sell. She painted the inside of many of the rooms, painted all the interior trim, cleaned up the landscaping, dealt with contractors for painting the outside of the house and refinishing the floors, moved furniture and cleaned everything. She also sold things on Craigslist and got rid of loads of stuff through Freecycle and took lots of things to thrift stores. Craigslist.com and Freecycle.org are both great places to do some spring cleaning. Our outside cat Terra, the one that adopted us when we moved into the house, now has a nice home with a lady and her son who spoil her rotten. She's become an inside cat and sleeps in the bed with them. In October, Teresa took Simon down to Florida to stay with her sister Dianne and her dogs while we are on our adventures. In the first few days, the cousin doggies had a few words about who's in charge, but after a few stitches and a very expensive trip to the ER vet, they are getting along great now. By September we listed our house and the second person who looked at it made an offer! Due to a few stipulations in the contract on the house (the buyer works for Delta), Andrew waited until after the closing to give his 4-week notice at Nexidia. So right now we are homeless and living for a few weeks in the basement of Andrew's parents, Jack & Ellen Koransky. Our take off date is Dec 20th, that's when we begin...
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Peace and happiness to all of you in all of YOUR adventures!
Teresa & Andrew
You are listening to Bob Rivers Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire (lyrics).
(apologies to our vegetarian friends, but this was too funny to pass up!)
