Last night we carved pumpkins for Halloween. One for each of us including Collen. His is the little vampire pumpkin. It started out as a pig that Kristin sketched out but somehow it became a vampire, a vampire pig perhaps?
I’m back from a week of vacation and genealogy. I drove up to Wisconsin last week to do some genealogy research that just can’t be done at home. The Internet and interlibrary loan are great tools, but for this trip I had to head home. Kristin didn’t have any free vacation days so this was a solo trip.
I spent a couple days at the Wisconsin Historical Society library and archive in Madison and at the Area Research Center at UW Parkside in Kenosha.
The trip was a great break from work, a chance to head home again, and a mother lode of good info. For example, I now have a copy of my 3rd-greatgrandfather’s (Carl Ploenske) estate file including thirty pages of testimony by several members of the family back in 1916. I also have copies of immigration paperwork for two great-grandfathers on my mom’s side, John Luba (from Poland/Russia) and Frank Leskovec (from Slovenia/Austria).
We spent this weekend in Salem, Illinois, attending the 2003 Salem Days Fest. Salem Days Fest is one of three officially sanctioned Days of our Lives fan events. And yes, I do watch the show…. Not every episode, but Kristin TiVos them, and either I watch them with her, or she updates me on what I might have missed.
Anyway, there are Q&A sessions, autograph signings, and ticketed events with the guests from the show. This year’s guests were Matthew Ashford (Jack Devereaux), Missy Reeves (Jennifer Horton Devereaux), Jim Reynolds (Abe Carver), Valerie Wildman (Fay Walker), Eric Winter (Rex), Alexis Thorpe (Cassie), and Farah Fath (Mimi Lockhart).
Farah was the person I was most interested in seeing. Here we are at the autograph signing. When it was my turn in line, she looked at me, said I looked familiar, and asked if I was at the event the previous year. I had to admit I hadn’t, but hey, Farah thought I looked familiar! That has to count for something, right?
On a related note, during the Q&A with Eric, Farah, and Alexis, I walked closer to take a photo, and Kristin told me afterwards that Alexis smiled and waved at me. Of course, she did this right after I took my picture, so I missed it entirely. 
We also went to the brunch with Matt and Missy this morning. The brunch was great, as both Matt and Missy spent a lot of time taking questions. Matt looked like he had a long night, but Missy seemed every bit as perky as her character Jennifer. Missy is so cute….
I haven’t posted in a few weeks, so I figured I better put something up. There really isn’t too much to report though.
Now that the football season has started, we’re back in Sunday Ticket mode. My dad comes over, we watch the Packers, and we eat. Unfortunately the Packers lost last week, so it wasn’t an auspicious start to the season, but we still have 15 games left.
Next weekend we’re headed to Salem, Illinois, for Salem Days Fest 2003. I used to kid Kristin about watching Days of our Lives when we started going out, but it didn’t take long before I found myself watching the show as well. Should be a fun weekend. I’ll be curious to see how soap opera fans compare to Star Wars fans (having been to both Celebration events).
Looks like Wesley Clark is going to enter the race soon. I like Dean, but I think I like Clark more. People talk about a Dean-Clark ticket, but I think Clark-Dean has a much better chance of beating Bush. Until he announces, the closest thing to an official campaign site is the Draft Wesley Clark site. Check it out.
It has been nearly a month since my last post. It has taken me that long to get our trip pictures uploaded. We’ve even been on another trip, a weekend getaway to Chicago, since then. Oh well, I do have an excuse… way too many hours at work. The new semester starts in a couple weeks, and I’m putting in a lot of extra hours trying to get everything ready.
Anyway, back to the trip. In July we headed to Georgia for the annual Dingler Family Reunion. Kristin is a descendant of Johannes Dingler, who came here as a Hessian soldier, and wound up fighting with the colonial army. The reunion was held in Madison, Georgia, near the site of the family farm.
On the way down there we stopped for a night in Chattanooga, a charming city in a very scenic location. We didn’t have a lot of time there, but we did make it to the Tennessee Aquarium (awesome seahorse exhibit!) and walked across the Tennessee River on the Walnut Street Bridge, the world’s longest pedestrian bridge (nearly half a mile long!).
After Chattanooga, we drove to Madison. It was pretty slow going around Atlanta, but we eventually made it to Madison. The reunion itself was very well-attended, and people (most of them many decades older than us) seemed quite excited to see young folks who were there and interested. Madison itself was a very picturesque town. The town avoided being burned by Sherman on his march to the sea, so the downtown area is quite well-preserved. A lot of neat shops, and some excellent restaurants made for a great weekend.
On the way back home, we stopped in Atlanta for a visit to Centennial Park, the CNN Studio tour, World of Coca-Cola, and a bite to eat in the Atlanta Underground. We were even interviewed by AP about the situation in Iraq.
.p Our last night on the road was in Nashville where we stayed at a great B&B, the Timothy Demonbreun House. The house is beautiful, and Richard Demonbreun, a practicing lawyer as well as innkeeper, is a fantastic host. We can’t wait to go back and spend some more time there.
Anyway, go check out the pictures in our Dingler Family Reunion 2003 gallery at Pbase.
