Scarlett Grace Sweyer

Congrats to Peter & Chrissy Sweyer! Scarlett Grace was born February 18, 2008 around 9:00pm. She weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces, 20 inches long and in Pete's words: cool as a cucumber. I went to visit yesterday. Pete and Chrissy were funny and thrilled and happy and healthy (and fed me the best nespresso ever). Scarlett slept and made only a few peeps! She is perfect and beautiful and a miracle. A true testament to dreams come true.

Myrtle Beach 5K

Howdy from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!


Last Friday night, Amy Sawyer, Kathryn Webster and I hit Broadway on the Beach for the Myrtle Beach RBC 5K! Our race - which started at the Ripley's Aquarium at 6:20pm - was part of the Myrtle Beach Marathon weekend.


We hit the Expo first to pick up our chip timers and tees. Plus, there were about 50 vendors with running paraphenalia for us to drool over. On the way out, we found the info booth for all the Rock'n'Roll running events across the nation. The prize if you do more than one event in a year - a medal deemed "a heavy medal". If you do FIVE events, you get the Rock Star medal. Here's our model Amy with an example. Pretty, pretty. Shiny. Shiny!

We checked into our hotel and then went to Broadway on the Beach to warm up, down a few RED BULLS and watch the 1-Milers run through the sidewalks and piers around Broadway. After a rocky performance of the Star Spangled Banner and a nearly 10 minute delay, the gun sounded and we were off!

And we rocked! We all achieved personal bests! Here are our official finishes:

241 10 6487 Amy Sawyer 36 F Carolina Beach NC 29:15 9:25

270 15 6017 Elizabeth Andrew 36 F Wilmington NC 30:18 9:45

397 29 6585 Kathryn Webster 35 F Wilmington NC 34:30 11:07

We went back to our hotel and sparkled up for dinner and cabbed it to a nearby Sushi/Steak/Seafood restaurant that was awesome! Here we are with our medals at dinner:

The next morning, I just had to get up to watch and cheer some of the 10,000 runners in the marathon and half marathon as they streamed by our hotel. It was so much fun - even at 7:15 am to watch all these runners and walkers. I couldn't tell which would be worse: to pass all those pancake houses along the route or......

...passing 'Fat Man's Dream' while you trotted along for 13.1 miles!

Later that day, we did the half marathon....of shopping! We hit the Tanger Outlets and Barefoot Landing and if I counted right, we actually stopped in 13.1 stores (including lunch and the restrooms)! We should have received medals for all that we found!

Gotta Run,

Beth

George Clooney

For all of you who commented, called and emailed about the GLARING omission of Mr. Clooney on my list, I have an addendum! I included 25 items because the 75 that remain all have to do with George. Wishes like:

1 - Play a game of hoops with George Clooney
2 - Spend a day with George Clooney at his home in Lake Como
3 - Take a ride down Mulholland Drive & Sunset with George Clooney on his Indian Motorbike
4 - Play a practical joke on George Clooney
5 - Tour Darfur with George Clooney
6 - Race George Clooney in the new Tesla Roadster

You get the picture.........Nothing to see here.........move along...........


ttfn,
beth

Bucket List

This might be the number one blog subject but I have to weigh in. Have you heard of the Bucket List? You know, it's that list of the things you'd love to do before you kick the bucket. I started a list about three years ago - and you know what? - SEVEN of my to-dos came true! I started with 100 on my list - how many do you have?

Here is part of my list (in no particular order):

1. Have lunch with Oprah
2. Have dinner with Jon Stewart
3. See the musical WICKED
4. Drink a glass of champagne atop the Eiffel Tower
5. Take Dad and Joyce to Wimbledon - all expenses paid
6. Be the Commencement speaker at Peace College
7. learn to speak French fluently
8. visit the Uffizi museum in Florence, Italy
9. Body surf at Nai Harn each in Thailand
10. Skinny dip at midnight in Fiji
11. Sail around Australia and New Zealand
12. Snorkel the Great Barrier reef
13. Write a novel
14. Visit the Louvre
15. Take a guitar lesson from Trey Anastasio
16. Attend the Academy Awards
17. Help someone else achieve one of their 100 dreams
18. Own a convertible
19. Spend a week in the South of France
20. Solve the problems in the Middle East
21. Take five friends on an all-expense paid trip to New York City
22. Learn a dance from Madonna
23. Attend Sundance Film Fest
24. Play basketball with Michael Jordan
25. Dance the salsa inRio de Janiero, Brazil

TTFN

It's Parker! I'm testing Picasa and it will let you blog from the program.
This was from Thanksgiving - at the Aquarium.

Year of the Pig

Until February 7 - it's still the Year of the Pig - so how appropriate that I found this pot-bellied porker down the street! I rolled down my window and started talking to him - and he started wagging his tail!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2008. What are your resolutions?

Merry Christmas

Caribbean Adventure

We're home! Our Caribbean Adventure ended on Monday and we returned to Wilmington late that night. I have to say our trip this year was even better than last. By the time we left, we felt a part of the Le Vele and had completely adapted to Island Time.


We spent the last few days (Friday - Sunday) doing a bunch of nothin'. We borrowed the Le Vele bikes and went into town. The Saltmills is a small center (maybe six shops and an art gallery) and we browsed around for a few trinkets. Neal bought some cigars and I found some fun earrings and a hat.



On Friday evening a front moved in and the wind picked up so we spent most of the last few days on the beach. We did Sushi at Yoshi's one night, hit a Irish pub (sports bar) one night and the Bay Bistro on Saturday night.

We watched a wedding from our deck on Saturday.

I finally finished my book on Sunday. This is actually a great vacation read. Mr. Buffett can spin a good tale. The best part is that you don't have to listen to his music while you read it. He actually refers to two all time great songs: IF I HAD A BOAT and THE WIND CRIES MARY.

Neal finished his first book on Day Three of the trip and finished up his second (A PAINTED HOUSE by John Grisham) on the flight into Wilmington.

On Sunday, we were entertained by our Egret. He flew into the pool area about 10:30am and proceeded to pick the area clean of the tiny geckos that run around Provo. He walked/balanced along the hedges and struck when the lizards were least expecting.

On Sunday night, we had not-so-fancy appetizers on the deck before walking down the beach to Hemingways. Despite the wind, the sky was incredible - with full views of the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, Mars and Venus.

Above & Below: Views of our Views

Here is the rainbow that we saw on our last day. There were quite a few squalls that moved across the island and one left this colorful arc that moved closer and closer to the shore.

The promise of our return? I hope so!

Snorkel Safari

I am addicted to snorkeling. Yesterday was incredible. We were picked up for our half-day snorkel cruise outside Le Vele and taken to our ride - a 48-foot catamaran run by Sail Provo. There were about 10 couples on the boat and we went to three different snorkel sites. The first site was shallow and warm. Someone sighted a shark here and there were several barracudas. Here's what we saw.

Here is a rare sighting of an Ace-Fish:

Ooooh. Barracuda.

Here is my picture of the fish:

Here is the fishies' picture of me:

Here I am above water. After the second site, we hoisted the sails and cruised about a mile off-shore. They provided pineapple and cantaloupe and the rum punch was flowing. They had the tunes pumpin' and we heard everything from Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake to Janet Jackson and Bell Biv Devoe. Hilarious.

Mmmmm. Calamari.

Just kidding. What we thought was a small squid was actually a cuttlefish. She joined up with four others and lined up in a row along some rocks. They were perfectly spaced from each other and just rocked back and forth with the waves. The third spot we hit was the best. The sunlight was just right and the reefs were about 10 feet down. There were tons of caves and little ledges for fish to sneak in and out of. We were not there nearly long enough.

One of the highlights of the trip was spotting JoJo the dolphin. JoJo is a celebrity around here - you may have seen him in the movie DOLPHINS around 2000. He is a loner dolphin that seems to be more social with humans than with his own species. We came across him on the trip in and I was stunned by his size. I think he was about 8 feet long. He hung out in our wake and surfaced a few times before veering off after some lunch.

Here we are disembarking from our craft. Next time, I'm doing a whole day trip!

Snorkeling Safari

T&C Adventures - Continued

Well, it's day four and I've got four words for ya: This does not suck!

Wednesday night was a blast. We went to Grace's Cottage for dinner and it was one of the top dining experiences I've ever had. It was the fanciest place - they even put my purse on a little bamboo stool beside my chair so I could reach it easier. We started out with the conch appetizer which was incredible. The plate itself was beautiful. Neal had the Red Snapper with a sweet vinegary watercress salad and the best grits we've ever had. I had the Grouper in a lemon butter sauce that was sugary and reminded me of lemon meringue pie. Its accompaniment was avocado fritters -OMG. I had two glasses of Mumm's Cordon Rouge Champagne and we ended the meal with an incredible chocolate souffle and homemade vanilla ice cream.

Happy Bessie dancing around on our porch after dinner. We walked down to the beach for a while and sat on a Hobie Cat to watch falling stars and plan for Thursday.

Of course, Thursday didn't go quite as planned. We had reserved a Carolina Skiff to go explore the reefs and the coasts of Provo. We were all packed and ready to go when Mike called and said ix-nay on the oat-bay. Ooooo-Bay. He said it was too rough for the flat bottom boat. So, we called an audible and went to the beach for most of the day. Here I am floating around in the Atlantic:

After a bunch of reading and PB&J sandwiches for lunch, we hit the pool. We had fun with the underwater feature - can you tell?

And then......

We went horseback riding on the BEACH! Oh my goodness it was so much fun!

Here I am riding off in the sunset.

More to come.....

caribbean flip

Hi, Y'all!

Greetings from Provo, Turks & Caicos. We have had a wonderful first day and a half. We arrived yesterday around 2:25 and waded through customs before arriving at our hotel. We were greeted by Beverly and round of rum punch to take to our room. We are on the fourth floor this year and have a spectacular view.

Here I am with my rum punch. We unpacked a little, Neal set up the wireless internet in the suite (of course) and then we went for a walk on the beach. This was our pre-sunset view. There are a lot of people here this week - moreso than last year, but we feel that we have the place to ourselves.

Here is Happy Neal on our walk yesterday afternoon.

Here is Happy Neal on the beach today (Wednesday). We went for a walk this morning and then hit the beach. We had yummy sandwiches and a few cold beers on the strand. Later, we went on a bike ride around Grace Bay. We went for a dip in the pool and in a bit, we're headed to Grace's Cottage for dinner. I can't wait!

Arrrggh!

we made it

Here is the view from the air on arrival! ttfn

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving! It was a great weekend of food and family and fun. Anna, Colin and Parker arrived on Wednesday and we spent the afternoon playing BALL and chasing Parker around the house. Dad and Joyce joined us for dinner and Wii that night.

On Thursday, we went to the club for lunch. There was enough food for an army. Our favorites: the oyster dressing, roast beef, turkey and mashed taters.

The dessert bar was incredible. Everything from chocolate mousse cake to apple caramel cheesecake; from peppermint ice cream to pecan pie. The highest rated: chocolate bread pudding.

Afterwards, we sat on the front porch and tried to relax. Here are Johnny Cash, Joyce and Anna watching as Parker sleeps in the car.

On Friday, Anna, Colin, Parker and I went to the Aquarium. It was amazing. We were able to see alligators, pet horseshoe crabs and listen to the divers laugh underwater. Parker went to each exhibit and sat for pictures.

Looks like Anna and the gator are smiling for the camera:

This is what Anna and Parker are going to use for their Christmas cards this year!

Here we are squinting by the school of air fish outside the aquarium.

Here is the only nap Parker got all weekend:

This is out of order, but this is Parker playing buh-BALL with Colin on Wednesday afternoon:

Battleship Half Marathon and 5K 2007

Hooray! On Sunday, Amy Sawyer and I competed in the Battleship Half Marathon & 5K! My official 5K time was 31:06! Amy finished the HALF MARATHON in 2:14:13!!! Wow! A personal best! It was a beautiful day for a run. It was chilly (38 at the start) and a little breezy - but the sun warmed things up and the day was beautiful.

Amy's run took her from the USS North Carolina over the Isabel Holmes Bridge, through downtown Wilmington, around Greenfield Park, over the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and back to the Battleship. Incredible.


Here she is at the 13 mile mark - only .1 to go!

Still smiling!

....and there she goes!

Awesome job! She earned her second Half Marathon Medal.

I am so proud of Amy and impressed with her dedication and determination. She trained HARD!She was consistent every week of training - despite Widespread Shows, backaches, drop-outs like me and the long, hot summer - she perservered.

Her stick-to-itive-ness is heroic.

AMY, YOU ROCK!

TTFN,

Bessie

Congratulations

Congrats to Steve and Christy Nix! Noah Nix was born at 12:18am on the morning of October 25!

Hallowed Songs of the Holiday

and whosoever shall be found.....without the soul for getting down.....

So ends one of my favorite Halloween songs. I think I was twelve when Michael Jackson's Thriller debuted on December 2, 1983 on MTV. It's amazing that almost 25 years later, I can still feel a thrill when I hear Vincent Price's laugh at the end. I can still see the dancing zombie number and the evil yellow eyes that Michael flashes in the last scene.

Here are my other Halloween picks:

FRANKENSTEIN - by the Edgar Winter Group. Of course, my favorite version was performed by Phish on Halloween 1996 at the Omni in Atlanta.

HIGHWAY TO HELL - that's right, AC/DC.

SUPERSTITION - Stevie Wonder

FIRE WOMAN - the Cult

WEREWOLVES OF LONDON - Warren Zevon

ttfn....

pink grass

Pink Grass by Nancy Tuttle May

I sent this from my phone. How cool!