Lisa and Jocelyn Golden visited for Memorial Day Weekend. They flew in on Saturday afternoon. It was Jocelyn's first flight.





We went to downtown Durham and had dinner at The Mellow Mushroom.



The American Tabacco District is in downtown Durham. It is the home of Lucky Strike Tabacco.





Jocelyn misses Spike (and vise versa)



We went to Wrightsville Beach on Sunday. Jocelyn was excited to see the ocean. We had a beautiful day. It was in the high 80's. We drove back home with the convertible top down.

Kathleen (my boss and friend) thought I should see the mountains. On Saturday after eating at the Waffle House we left for Asheville, North Carolina. It took about 5 hours to get there since we drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The views were unbelievable.


Are you ready to see some PURTY pictures?









Kathleen and I went out for Sushi/Thai and then we went to a Jazz Club in downtown Asheville. The downtown area is all local shops/restaurants. We did not see one chain.

Happy Mother's Day MOM!

I miss you (and dad too). I can't wait to be home at the beginning of June.

My First Visitors left today :-(

This is what we have been doing
Today: Went to Duke University. It was graduation day. We definitely felt a little under dressed. We walked through the gardens - very beautiful campus.





Friday evening - We went to Raleigh for dinner. We went to the 42nd Street Oyster Bar.





Friday morning and afternoon: What a morning. It was off to The Waffle House for some good Southern Grits.



We then went to Chapel Hill, Carrboro in search of Patterson's Mill Country Store. We finally found it near Durham on the verge of Chapel Hill. We then were off to The Duke Homestead, a tobacco museum.



Renee holding some tobacco leaves






Thursday:
Durham Bulls Game - We had awesome seats - first row (on the field) inbetween 3rd base and outfield. We were also by the bull pen :-) After the seventh inning stretch we took off to find food. We went to Tylers were Troy attempted to drink all beers on tap.



I of course heckled this poor guy. You would think I could behave at a sporting event. NEVER






This picture taken pretty late in the evening.

Hello -

Special Birthday shout out to my nephew Sam who turned 9 on Friday (and also to Astrid, her birthday is today). On May 3rd my parents celebrated their 53rd Anniversary - Congrats and can't wait to see you in less than a month.

Mom, Dad, Family and Friends - I want to introduce you to something special that entered my life recently. I may be giving you too much information but it does wake me up every day and thought it deserved a proper introduction:

I don't need to drive 25 minutes on the weekend to get a Caribou coffee - I can make it in my own home. Just one more reason to visit. So if I seem a little wired you know I have been hitting the espresso a little too much.

Invisible Fence -
Verizon came and buried my phone line on Thursday and ended up cutting my invisible fence in 3 spots. This is wrong in so many ways:
1 - I don't have a home phone
2 - The white flags placed three feet from each other definitely couldn't forewarn them about the invisible fence
3 - They then taped the invisible fence in one area and left it above ground
Needless to say Verizon and I are in talks about this entire ordeal and they will be paying the Invisible Fence Company. Stay tuned.

Training Update - Spike is doing quite well. He is now outside off leash but supervised. Yesterday we were playing and he decided to forget about the meaning of the white flags and got zapped pretty good. He comes running over to me afterwards and I praise him for coming and go down to pet him and he continues to let out howls. What a drama dog. My neighbors probably think I am beating him. We had to spend extra time outside yesterday after that event as now he is afraid of it all together.

House Update - This is a picture of the master bedroom. I am still in the progress of decorating. I am also on the hunt for a new bedroom set. I know exactly what I want but am waiting for a sale. It is almost Memorial Day and every furniture retailer has a sale. Excuse the print leaning against the wall. It takes two hooks and everyone knows with my skills that would mean about 5 holes and it still would not be level. Spike is enjoying his Select Comfort bed and likes to look out the window and keep track of the neighborhood.

Went to my first golf lesson. It went really well. Worked on the stance and swing. I have lesson number two next week. I am just am happy that he didn't refund me and tell me never to come back. I did harass the poor guy - he ended up keeping one of my clubs. I asked him if they always steal from their customers.

So you may ask yourself - How is Carol going to keep busy this summer? Last week I went to Golf Galaxy event for Breast Cancer awareness and purchased everything I need: sweet set of graphite clubs, 3.5 pound black bag with pink trim, glove, pink golf towel, tees and some big bertha balls.I start my golf lessons tomorrow night. I had some lessons about 10 years ago and have only gone golfing about a handful of times but what have I got to lose, except all the money I just shelled out on all of the above items.

My first visitors come to town next week ~ YEAH! Troy and Renee from Select Comfort are heading to North Carolina. Thursday night we will be going to the Durham Bulls game. Friday we will be golfing at the course near my house. I hope they know what they are getting themselves into. I really hope they don't want to keep score :-)

I will be heading into Minnesota for a real quick trip the first weekend in June. My childhood neighbor girl is getting married. I am also working in some volunteering for my favorite company, Finnegans.

Hope all is well
Carol