Spring Break in Cville

While other grad students are finalizing exciting plans for our upcoming Spring Break, I'm dreaming of fun things to do here in Cville. Cyrus is heading off to Paris and then Bruges on a week long European adventure. The Prince is heading to London for a few days of fun. And I, I will remain here in Cville, working on various papers and research. And I get a special bonus class on Monday from 7-10pm, which we're all just thrilled about.

This weekend we'll be taking care of friends' children for a few days so that they can enjoy their first vacation together [alone] in almost 18 years. More on that later...

An afternoon at The Paramount

This evening we had a great time at Charlottesville's beautiful Paramount Theatre. We went to the 21st reunion concert of SGGL, a four man accoustic band that formed at UVA during the 1980's. SGGL stands for Speidel, Goodrich, Goggin and Lille, which are the last names of the singers. Despite the unfortunate weather [whose bark was ultimately worse than its bite], a good time was had by all who attended.

We had some special connections to the event that made it particularly fun for us. First, it was a concert to benefit Young Life of Charlottesville. Young Life is an international ministry to high school students that we volunteer with here in town.

In addition we have a personal connection to the band. Tom Goodrich, one of the singers, is not only our pastor at Meadows Presbyterian but he also married us in 2005. In fact there was a special dedication to us at the concert as they sang their original song 'Let your love (bring me home again),' which Tom sang as our first dance as a married couple.

With both sets of parents in attendance plus many Cville friends, this was one of those great and special evenings we'll not soon forget.

The Homestead

We headed up to The Homestead for President's weekend.

Waltons (plus 2), Saunderses, Collinses, & Cagninas.

It was, of course, a great weekend. It was snowy and cold, which made the fire, hot tub, and tea that much better. We had a great game of Celebrity which the ladies won in the charades round.

There was a "torch light" parade to celebrate the presidents. Basically, a torch light parade is skiers with torches, skiing down the slope, and fireworks to Neil Diamond and patriotic music. We suspect that the July 4th fireworks show was recycled.




Good times! There are a lot more pictures from the weekend here.

For a while there we were having a pity party about the lack of snow this year. The Farmer's Almanac was right though, and once February hit, so did the snow. It hasn't really been SNOW-like the kind you can play in. It's been freezing, sleety, stuff, but still manages to get school canceled. Last week we did have one night of snow (which Bailey is pondering in this picture). Last night we had quite a bit of freezing rain, which is melting today. That's Virginia for you. While I am not looking forward to making up today's missed day during Spring Break, I am pleased to announce that I still have not had a full week of school in 2007! I am afraid the streak will be broken soon though.
To see more of our snow pictures, click here.