Jacob and Lauren’s Wedding
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
My cousin Jacob and his apparently-permanent gal pal Lauren decided to get hitched and they opted to do it on Friday, July 3, 2009. This worked out just fine for me as we surprisingly had the day off work for the upcoming Independence Day holiday. So I spent the morning working on the website, laying out in the sun, and then getting ready for this affair. They were scheduled to be shackled at Polen Farms (the site of my personal wedding reception #2) at 4:30pm in a lovely outdoor ceremony. Ashleigh and I stopped at Kroger to pick up a card, promptly forgot to bring along my camera, called Mom to make sure she had hers for me to use, and were on our way. Read the rest of this entry »
After we left Charles Town and our awesome visit with 
I am a Twilight Zone nut. Yes, I know…I am a nut about many things, but The Twilight Zone is one of my all-time favorites. I know, I have many all-time favorites. But we’re getting off the track here. Although my collection has never really advanced much along these lines, I had hoped to collect autographs from anyone I encountered who had starred in an episode of this great anthology series of the early 60’s. It is particularly nice to obtain such a signature on a photograph actually from the show. 
The game of Farkle goes back in our family for almost 30 years. While no one knows the true origin of the game (in the world, not just in our family), the name Farkle didn’t even come into being until 1982. My Grandma and Grandpa Murphy brought the game to the family when they learned it from a group of friends with whom they often played cards. At the time, we just called it the dice game. 
Chris had been to Siena, Italy before, but the last time he had taken a train from Florence. For our adventure destination on Thursday, May 14, this time he suggested that we might take the bus. Much cheaper, and actually would deliver us there faster. Siena was a much more ‘traditional’ Tuscan town, nestled in the hilltops about 75 kilometers south of Florence. The first bus out that morning wasn’t until 9:40am, so we didn’t have to get up too ungodly early. We set out on foot at about 8:50 and walked to the bus station, where I had a clandestine meeting with a salame toscano.