Congratulations, Brad & Laura!

Yay! Brother Brad and now-sister-in-law Laura tied the knot on the floor of the Grand Canyon today, after flying in from Las Vegas on their own private helicopter flight.

All family members -- including mothers -- were banished from the ceremony, unless they wanted to hike down into the canyon. The 'copter was a four-seater, one for the bride, one for the groom, one for the minister and one for the pilot, who doubled as the witness.

Congratulations you guys, and welcome to the family, Laura!

Meet the Parents, Vol. 2

Daredevil Kathy and Nick spent a short week with us, finding time to hit Vivian up for use of her Harley. Why did they come out to see us so soon after everyone meeting in Colorado? Stay tuned for the answer to that question.

But, this photo might give you an idea of why. We're celebrating -- or, rather, Shelly and Kathy are celebrating -- a big change in our lives with two big, stinky cigars. I suspect it was all a big plan on their part to get out of doing the dishes. (Which, I might add, worked. Nick and I barricaded ourselves inside the house, with the door shut tight, to escape the noxious fumes coming out of these mouths!)

He *Does* Wear a Tie!

Well, sometimes, at least.

But you know, my wife frequently complains that I don't wear a tie to work. And she's right: I don't wear a tie unless I have to.

A night at the Atlantic General Hospital Anniversary fundraiser was one of those tie occasions. If you look closely, you'll see it's a funky tie from China that Shelly brought back from her trip to Shanghai. Bruce, Vivian and I convinced the fotog that we needed a group shot, which turned out really well, I think.

Meet the Parents, Vol. 1

What a weekend we just had...it was Shelly's first weekend at home in more than a month, so Mom, who was visiting from Iowa, and I headed up to Lewes, Del., to meet Brad and Laura and take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry across the Delaware Bay to Cape May, N.J. This trip gave Mom a chance to see Brad, me a chance to ride on a big boat, and Shelly a chance to spend a few hours alone in her own house. No hotels, no foreign languages, just Shelly, Mister Tanaka and her tasks!



It was a nice, cool day, so we wandered along the beach, saw a bunch of Victorian houses (Cape May is famous for that, we learned), lost Mom's sunglasses and bought some expensive film at CVS. The ferry was larger than we expected -- and more expensive than Mom expected!



These photos are the first taken with our new digital camera. Thanks, Jerry, for winning it, and thanks, everyone else in Jerry and Carol's families, for already having a digital camera!

Holy Kum & Go!

Guess what we found?

Shelly and I took off on Saturday afternoon and headed up to 11,000 feet where, despite the fact that it was June, we found snowy Leadville, Colorado.

(We didn't really find it...we were looking for it.)

What we were not looking for was this.....remnants of Greg's youth. It's Kum & Go, all the way from West Des Moines, Iowa.

So, I dragged Shelly inside where I could chat up the clerks and get some physical evidence of my visit to Kum & Go number 915.

"So," says I, "I suppose Bill doesn't make it all the way out here very often."

"Mr. Krause?" one of the clerks replied, looking at me as if she knew I should not be calling the kingpin of the Krause-Gentle empire Bill.

"Actually, his son was just out here last week," the other clerk said, clearly unimpressed that I knew so much about the K&G power structure.

So, I bought some Certs and left.


(Useless bit of trivia: The K&G I worked at was number 533. How I remember that some 12 years after my last shift, I do not know. I can assure you, though, that I could be using that space to remember something more important...)

Training the Next Generation of Strong Women

Just back from beautiful, cool Frisco, Colorado, where we celebrated Shelly's mom's birthday with the whole family.

Unfortunately, this shot does nothing to capture the beauty of the Rockies.

Making sure Kayla grows up to be a strong, independent woman is one of Shelly's primary goals in life. (Who would have thought that?)

Maybe it's because I'm lacking that crucial second X chromosome, but I do not understand how dipping your feet in water that was very recently snow ties in with the whole strong independent thing.

But there are probably many things I'm not supposed to understand.

The Bane of Greg's Work Existence, Finally Done

That's not entirely true ... a good Web site is organic, always evolving and changing, and never really "done." But Atlantic General's old Web site is gone forever, replaced by a brand new one. I can't take credit for doing the programming -- that's a skill beyond my ability -- but I can take credit for creating most of the site's content and structure. I'm so glad to have most of this project behind me!