NC

Mid January and I'm finally getting around to visiting my family back in NC for the holidays. As the difference between a ticket at Christmas and a ticket two weeks into January was about around $600 it only made sense to delay it just a little. As an added bonus, Elizabeth was able to trade into a Raleigh/Durham trip so she met me out here for a nice, fat 31 hour layover.

Elizabeth loves good barbecue and my mother had a line on a place about which she'd recently heard so we stopped on the way home. Yes, it was quite good...


The day after Elizabeth left we paid a visit to a long time family friend, Dr. John Hope Franklin. Among his obvious achievements, John Hope is an orchid grower and I had the brief opportunity to photograph some of them...



(other shots from the day...)

Happy New Year!

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Originally uploaded by meatyokra

We welcome 2009 at the Benson-Bond household and all of the hope it offers. It looks to be a little onerous in some regards but we're up to the challenge – and we have each other!

The champagne was very good but the bottle seemed a bit small this year. The glasses were sent to us by my mother. They are a set that she and my late father used to really like. We used them to invite in the new year as well as to toast our parents.

Happy New Year all!
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Unrelated but interesting nonetheless is Nancy's recent habit of visiting me in the office at my desk. Every morning and some evenings she begs to get on my lap, where she often sits until evicted. Often she further climbs on the desk, obscuring my view and sitting or walking on the keyboard.

Here she can be seen winning a game of chess(it wasn't even close).

And here she is, taking a much deserved nap last night.


Uh-oh, this just in: Although Elizabeth and I turned in rather early last night it seems Nancy ushered in the New Year on her own! We awoke to find her on the sofa...