Here are the rest of the photos that we have from Sarah's wedding in Jamaica from November 22, 2008. I've put them together in a FLASH slide show (need Adobe Flash installed and allow permission when prompted from the task bar). It might help to maximize your browser window. When the window opens you can either click "play the slideshow" or manually arrow through the photos.
Here are 3 musical slide shows that I created from photos of Sarah & Thomas. The embedded frames link to YouTube video shows. I hope you enjoy them. - Phil
Sarah & Thomas at our Thai dinner at Couples on Wed, Nov 19.
Patty, David Bill Spurlock and I all arrived at the Coupless Swept Away (SA)resort in Negril Jamaica on Wednesday, November 19th. It was a brutal travel day getting here with w 3:30 am WAKE-UP.
Here are some of our first photos from this beautiful resort: Patty on the veranda of our suite at Couples Swept Away (SA)
Sarah & David relaxing at our first dinner at Couples SA
On Saturday, November 1st, Elaine Sandy & Sally Seidenstein threw a wedding shower for Sarah Marder in honor of her upcoming wedding to Thomas Spurlock. These photos show some of the fun that everyone had at this marvelous event.
Part of the lead-up to Sarah & Thomas' wedding in Jamaica was a session with their photographer, Darci in Indianapolis. Below are some copies of the photos taken during that session, last week.
We celebrated Sarah's birthday on October 16 by having a dinner with Phil, Patty, Thomas and Sarah at Ocean World. We all had the famous Ocean World "Box Dinner". We all thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and even Thomas had enought to eat.
On Friday, Sarah and Thomas had their engagement photo session with Darci. This photo was taken by Darci in the honor of Sarah's birthday.
Even though their wedding is only about one month away, they still seem cool, calm and collected.
Steve Goodman. Every heard of him? Probably not. He's not the folk singer that's at the tip of your tongue. But, I really enjoy his music. He's probably most famous for the song he wrote entitled: "City of New Orleans". It's become an American standard that was first made famous by Arlo Guthrie and then by Willie Nelson. Goodman was born just three months after me in July of 1948 and his life ended much too quickly when he died at the age of 36 after a long, long bout with leukemia. In fact, most of his best work was created and performed after he contracted the disease illustrating to the world how not to feel sorry and morose about yourself.
No, his work won't go down with the great folk masters of Dylan and Woody Guthrie. Goodman provided a great mix of whimsy (The Vegetable Song, I'm My Own Grandpa), humor (Lincoln Park Pirates) and emotionally touching ballads (The Dutchman, My Old Man). He was also a great guitar-picking musician. Finally, you should know that he was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan. Below is a little taste of some of his music. I hope you enjoy it.
Late this afternoon, I drove downtown to get my first inside glimpse of the Indianapolis Colts' new playing field: Lucas Oil Stadium. This new $700M creation is a showplace for the Colts and really, all of Indiana. It should be, since mucho taxpayer dollars went into its construction. Obviously, the Colts have parlayed their recent successes into convincing Indianapolis residents to build this 8th wonder of the world. While not the biggest stadium (seating for 63,000) in the NFL, it may be the fanciest. It has both a retractable roof and front window which opens up to the Indianapolis downtown skyline.
I met up with David Abbott, my seat-mate for Colts' games in his tailgating parking lot near the NK Hurst Co. and we hoofed over to the stadium together for our look-see. At 3 PM, we took the brand new escalators up to our 5th level seating along the goal line on the visitors side of the field. We were both quite impressed with the view that we were afforded from our new location. We are in row 2 of our seating area, assuring us a clear view of the field at all times. We sat in our new seats and then heard the first announcement that the stadium roof would open at 4 PM. Unfortunately, there must have been some kind of glitch because the roof didn't really open until about 4:30 PM. We watched as the front window parted and then finally the roof opened fully. Wind poured in which caused the banners to wave while sun drenched down on those at the far northeast end. Luckily for us, we will never be sitting in those sun-drenched seats as this may be quite hot for September games.
Finally, we walked around the concourse of the stadium noting the wide walkways, multiple restrooms, and concession stands. The theme around the concourse is both Colt's football and racing with many exhibits touting the Lucas Oil name. View of Lucas Oil Stadium from the south
Front concourse lobby area of the stadium
Large open stadium foyer near the front (open) window
Phil smiling with the roof and front window wide open
I think that most of you had already heard about my injury after the spill from my motorcycle. All-in-all, I was pretty lucky coming out of it with a separated shoulder and scraped up knee. Probably the biggest downer for me has been the lack of golf. So, in place of it, I decided that I'd do some activities that have gone by the wayside for lack of available time. That's what the extra trip to Colt's Camp was about. The next activity on the list would be a visit to the Indiana State Fair. It's really been a long, long time since I attended. I think that the last time Patty attended was when our kids were quite young (and I didn't go then). Thinking back, (for me) it probably was before our kids were born and the young version of Cliff Rohde came a visiting Indiana. I'm thinking that was about 33 years ago. So, it has been a long time.......
We've had just a beautiful month of August in Indiana. We've had very little rain and temperatures have been in the low 80's. You can't beat that for this time of year. So, the weather was good and the time was available so "why not go?".
We left the house around 9:30 AM and entered the fairgrounds on the northeast entrance and parked. School was already back in session around here so the crowds were way down from earlier in the week. We began by taking the tram (pulled by a bio-diesel tractor) around the grounds, passing the grandstand and "Main Street", going through the newly constructed covered bridge and getting off at the "Celebration Park" corner. Here, we entered the 4-H Exhibit Hall. We really enjoyed seeing the exhibits that the kids put together here. Lots of 3x2 posters, original artwork, crafts, and the like. It was heartening to know that there are still lots of kids around who make the time and effort to put these projects together. They were really fun to look at. From there, we saw the Butterfly Park and lumberjack exhibit, heading back toward Main Street. On the way, we went into the Ag/Hort building and took a gander at the many fine vegetables, plants, and flowers on display. We stopped for some lunch at a booth on Main Street before continuing.
After lunch, it was time to see the farm animal exhibits. What a gas! First, we entered the cattle barn where dairy cows were relaxing contently and/or being milked. We slipped through the building and entered the storied Pepsi Coliseum. Here, youngsters paraded their cattle past judges with a critical eye while folks like us, up in the seats, watched. Leaving the cattle barn, we next entered the Sheep Barn. Immediately, we noted some sheep-shearing going on while most of the barn was empty. We walked toward the rear and spotted some lambs needing a little attention. Patty scratched one lamb's head giving both some scratcher and scratchee some enjoyment (followed by extensive hand washing by the scratcher). Next stop along the trail was the hog barn. Lot's of smelly, noisy pigs to see along with the one called the "World's Largest Boar". As expected, the newborn pigs stole the show. We ended our farm animal tour in the Poultry Barn. What a cacophony of noise in this place with chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits filling our senses with sounds and smells.
By now, it was nearly 3 PM. We stopped to see the WISH-TV weather show in the "Our Land Pavilion". We made the big loop back to the car, bought some junk food (caramel corn), and briefly observed the "cross cut saw" demonstration (where the Governor's wife and State Fair Queen participated) in the Pioneer Village area.
All-in-all, we had a fine time seeing Indiana's finest, yearly exhibit.
(L)This year's theme at the Fair (R) Patty, attending to a lamb's scritch-scratching
(L) Rooster in the Poultry Building (R) view of the fair's midway
Pigs & Roosters put on a show at the fair. Jim Nabors "Back Home Again" for background music.
Musical Slide Show of all our State Fair Photos. Background music: "On the Banks of the Wabash"
I headed back to TerreHaute today for another look-see of the Indianapolis Colts training camp. This time (for obvious reasons) I drove a car there. I took I70 and got there by 8:20 AM. I was surprised to see that the practice was moved from the Rose-Hulman Stadium (Cook Stadium)to the adjacent practice fields. That turned out to be a much cozier venue for observing practice. For here, you get much closer to the players as they go through their drills. The practice lasted much longer that the one I went to in July. It was way more intense. There were offense, defense and special teams squads all practicing separately followed by team-versus-team drills. It was a lot more fun to watch and photograph. A couple of things seemed quite interesting. First off, Marlin Jackson (cornerback) has definitely arrived as a team leader. He was quite a stud out there. I was also surprised to see backup quarterback, Jared Lorenzen (13) practicing as a long snapper (Justin Snow's position). It made me think that they are trying there best to find a place for him on the team.
Cornerback, Marlin Jackson (28) talks with Tim Jennings (23) on the sideline
Backup quarterback, Jared Lorenzen (13) practices being a long-snapper after practice
July 31, 2008 Motorcycle trip to Colt's training camp What a fine way to spend a Thursday at the end of July! Today, at 7:30 in the morning I packed my Honda Shadow and drove west for about 80 miles along the old National Road, US 40. I passed by the small town of Stilesville, Putnamville, Reelsville, and Brazil before arriving just east of TerreHaute, Indiana at The Rose-Hulman Institute for a look at the Indianapolis Colt's football training camp. This was, by far, the longest trip I've taken on my motorcycle. Old US 40 is a beautiful road west of Indianapolis. It's four lanes wide with very little vehicle traffic. The ride through rolling hills was just beautiful. I arrived at the camp ~ 9:45 AM and entered the stadium area where ~ 400 other fans watched the practice. What surprised me most was how intimately involved (head coach) Tony Dungy, was. He called all the plays and watched the team's execution intently. The practice was over by 10:30 AM. I watched the players walk off the field (some greeting their families) while autograph seekers waited patiently for a chance of getting a player or coach's signature. Those who waited were not disappointed. After the practice, I strolled through the grounds and booths and then got back on my motorcycle for the ride home. I stopped at a McDonald's in the quaint town of Brazil, Indiana before coming home the rest of the way. Total trip: 160 miles and quite an experience......
Phil in the stands of Rose-Hulman at Indianapolis Colt's training camp
Coach Dungy directs the plays on the practice field
Thanks go to Kelly & Chris Rohde for emailing us this great photo. The photo was taken during the summer of 1982 during a vacation we took going east from Indiana. We stopped in Youngstown, OH and visited Kelly & Chris Rohde family. My, how we've grown up.
New York Road Trip: Day 9 Niskayuna, Erie Canal Locks, Maggie & Wade
Our last day in Niskayuna with Cliff, Allison and their gang. We took a little ride with them to see Lock #7 of the famous Erie Canal that is nearby their home. We walked up and down the structure and finally, after some time, four boats congregated at the low end and the locks went into action. The high side of the lock appeared to be about 25 feet higher than the low end. We watched the operator go into his little house and start the process for the water to empty out. This didn't take long and was quite exciting to observe. The boats then entered the lock area, low end gates closed, and it was filled with water from the high end. Following our adventure to the locks, we went back to Cliff and Allison's for an afternoon watching Wimbledon. At about 4 PM, the Rohde's cousin Maggie came to visit with her husband Wade. We all had a great time catching up on news and old stories with them. We finished the evening by enjoying a delicious (and famous) Rohde flank steak dinner. Tomorrow, we start the long drive home......
Patty, Kelly, Chris, outside Joshua's Restaurant in Woodstock
Kelly & Patty stroll in Woodstock
Retro band performs in Woodstock's town square
Some things never change in Woodstock
Patty purchase a tie-dyed shirt in Woodstock
Ethan Rohde gets a laugh out of Patty's jokes
Cliff & Allison Rohde listen to a conversation on their screened porch over dessert
Gracie & Ethan Rohde play in the park
Ethan pushes Noah Rohde on the park swing
New York Road Trip: Day 8
Woodstock, Rohde family in Niskayuna NY
We left New Jersey late morning on Saturday, July 5th and drove north to New York. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at the town called Woodstock, NY. Most everyone knows that Woodstock is famous for it's concert in 1969. This concert set the tone for an entire generation (ours) and goes down in history. Unfortunately for us, we never made it to that rainy event. We really didn't know what to expect in Woodstock. We were very pleasantly surprised by this now trendy, artsy, village that had wonderful shops and restaurants. We had lunch at "Joshua's" and it was a good one. Patty had the best falafel since Israel and the rest of us enjoyed ours as well. We strolled the streets, listened to a retro band play some Neil Young music, purchased a few items and then headed north for another hour and arrived at Allison & Cliff Rohde's house in Niskayuna, NY. We visited with them and their children, Ethan, Noah, and Gracie as well as with their Aunt Val Schultz. After a rib dinner, we went for a walk in their nearby park.
