Civil War Soldier Camp

In early June, Ben participated in the Civil War Soldier Camp at Latta Plantation in Huntersville. NC. This was his second year participating, and he had a great time. His only disappointment was having to be a Yankee during the Cold Harbor re-enactment. They had many more Confederate soldiers than Union, so Ben and several others wore Federal blue during the Cold Harbor re-enactment, to make the sides more even.

Ben was promoted to the rank of corporal this year. Congratulations, Ben!

Below are some pictures taken on the last day of camp.

The battle ground before the soldiers arrived

Latta Plantaion house

The Confederates on the move

The battle is underway

The Confederates in position, the Federals advancing

The Confederate soldiers left their initial position, following the Federal attack.

Ben is wearing the red shorts

Following the battle

Drilling for the parents

Present arms

Final muster

Lot's Been Happening

There's been a lot happening with us Sweigarts lately, so I'll hit a few of the highlights.

We have two new-to-us vehicles, both Civics, a '93 & '05. I traded my truck in on the '93, and Anna chose the '05 as her first car.

Anna's Civic is in the body shop at the moment, having the rear-end replaced, after it encountered a guard rail after hydroplaning on Memorial Day. Thankfully there were no injuries, which we are very grateful for.

We traveled to MD last weekend for Ian & Angelita's wedding, and had a wonderful time. It was an up and back trip, leaving on Friday morning and returning on Saturday evening. You can see some of the wonderful wedding pictures at the photographer's blog, here.

Marge and I attended our first Camping World Series Truck race on May 15th, and Ben and I attended the Nationwide Series CARQUEST Auto Parts 300 on May 23rd. Following the Nationwide race I was parked in, and enlisted the help of four local high school students to 'assist' me in moving the offending vehicle out of the way. We were able to get free tickets for both races through work connections.

Another school year has come to a close at Sweigart Academy. Emily, Anna, & Wesley finished up the spring semester at CPCC, and Anna & Wesley are both taking classes during the summer session, which started three weeks ago.

We've been having plenty of rain the past few weeks, so everything is very green and lush. A week between cuttings is almost too long for the grass.

Marge has been doing a lot of work in the yard, trimming back our azalea's, pulling & digging up multitudes of saplings (and not so saplings), and raking up several years accumulation of leaves.

Marge and I attended our first Charlotte City Council meeting, to show solidarity against a proposal concerning a request to Raleigh to allow Charlotte to have a referendum on a 1/2¢ sales tax increase, to help fund, you guessed it, mass transit (again). The State bill this concerns is titled "Congestion Relief and Intermodal Transportation 21st Century Fund Legislative Act." We were disappointed with the vote, as they voted to make the request to Raleigh.

Christianne started working at Chick-fil-A in May, so our four oldest children are currently employed at the Mt. Island Chick-fil-A. Anna has also been promoted to Supervisor.

Ben has really been looking forward to going to Civil War camp at Latta Plantation next week. He attended last year and really enjoyed it, and has been patiently waiting for this year's camp to begin ever since.

So, that's a little bit of what's been happening with these past few weeks. Maybe I'll have some pictures to post soon.

I Love This Doctor (from a recent email)

Wesley received this today in an email, and I thought you might enjoy the humor as much as I did:

I love this Doctor

Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! ..... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:

'Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO, What a Ride!'

AND.....

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like.
Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Everyone Else is Doing it, so Why Not?

Rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 4 and columns to 4 (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php).

d. Save the image and post it!

Questions:
1. What is your name? Steve
2. What is your favorite food? Pizza
3. What is your hometown? Quarryville, PA
4. What is your favorite color? Duke blue
5. What is your favorite movie? It's a Wonderful Life
6. What is your favorite drink? Iced Tea (sweet)
7. What is your dream vacation? British Isles
8. What is your favorite dessert? homemade apple pie
9. What is one word to describe yourself? friendly
10. How are you feeling right now? normal?
11. What do you love most in the world? my wife
12. What do you want to be when you grow up? too late for that
13. Favorite Hobby? coin collecting
14. What kind of books do you like? Louis L'Amour westerns
15. What’s your favorite sport? Track & Field
16.Where do you work? Airgas National Welders

March Madness Retires, until 2010

With the final buzzer in last night's NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship game between the UNC Tarheels and the Michigan State Spartans, March Madness 2009 came to a quite close, at least here in our house. The game wasn't particularly exciting, unless you're a Tarheel fan, which none of us are.

Here's the final outcome of our family bracket challenge. Ben was the only one who correctly chose UNC to win the championship. We had a three way tie for first between Marge, Anna, & Christianne, who each had 43 correct. Wesley and I had 42 each, and were followed by Ben with 41, then Emily, who I'll suffice it to say that she had less than 41 correct.

Since we have a three way tie based on the number of correct game winners, I need to come up with a tie-breaker. I can't use who correctly picked the most teams participating in the championship game, because both Anna & Christianne had UNC going to the final. Anna selected three of the Final Four correctly, so she's our winner. Congratulations, Anna!

The prize will be a gift certificate to a yet to be decided store of her choosing. She's at her German class at CPCC right now, so she'll have to wait until she returns home to hear the news, and select her store.

Next year's season starts in just over six months, but we've got plenty to keep us busy between now and then.

Final Four Brackets

Yes, another post on our brackets. Four of us still have active brackets, meaning that there is the possibility to accumulate more wins, and the other three are finished, with no chance for any more correct predictions.

Who might these four be, you ask? Well they aren't the oldest three in our family. Anna has three of the Final Four correct, Christianne has two, and Wesley and Ben each have one. Marge also has one correct Final Four prediction, but she picked them to loose to a team that already lost, so she's done. If you do the math, that leaves both Emily & me with none of our Final Four correct.

Overall, Marge has the most correct picks, so far, and there is a three way tie for second between Anna, Christianne, and me.

Enjoy the down time, 'cause the weekend will be here before you know it, as the Madness continues into April.

Tuesdays are Different

Tuesdays are not "normal" at our house, not that any other days are either. It's just that on Tuesdays there are several things that take place that don't on other days.

Christianne has her dance class, so when I get home from work, Marge and Christianne are not here. It's rare that they aren't here, and it's a strange feeling to come home to a house and not be greeted by my darling wife, and to not see my youngest daughter. Wesley was also gone, over at a friends house practicing with his bandmates. Emily and Anna were home from work already, and Ben was here, too.

Both Emily and Anna have an evening class, so they are off to school around 5:00. I do see them briefly before they leave. Anna's German class is only on Tuesday, but Emily's ASL class also meets on Thursday evenings.

With Marge being gone in the late afternoon, she does a great job coming up with meals that can cook while she's away. Often she's prepared something in the crock-pot, or a pot of soup, but tonight we're having stuffed shells. I put them in the oven at 5:02, and they'll be ready to eat right about the time the rest of the family gets home.

Don't tell Marge, but I did eat one of the extra shells she set aside for the girls to eat before school. It was delicious, and I'm looking forward to eating quite a few more.