This is really heart wrenching to see. I've spent some really good times in New Orleans, including 4 Jazz Fests and a couple business trips. It's an amazing town that will never be the same. It will be months before they get all the water out of the city and re-building even possible. AARP's Member Event was scheduled for late September and will be cancelled. I was looking forward to having a burger at the Port O Call on Esplande, having a few cocktails and hearing some music at the Shim Sham Club in the quarter. We were planning on dinner at Jacque Imo's and of course having beignets at Cafe Du Monde. I know NO will bounce back and I hope AARP tries to hold our annual event there again. I think they will need our tourist dollars when they get this city back on it's feet. You can go to AARP's web site to find links to places to give money to relief efforts. http://www.aarp.org/about_aarp/hurricane_katrina_resources.html We're going to help out this city with a donation. More soon :-(

My mother took this picture last week while we were watching Baby Mozart. I'm wearing a Jazz Fest t-shirt which reminds me that if hurricaine Katrina is as bad as they say, the Jazz Fest fairgrounds are going to be under 10 feet of water. The AARP Member Event is in 5 weeks in the French Quarter. That could also be a problem if it goes bad. More soon... 

Sam's new hat

Sam's new hat
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Bucket head

Marky Mark

Who would have thought that I could rap the ABC's better than Dr. Dre. The boys love my hip hop\rap version of the old standby and are requesting it before bedtime. We took the boys to get haircuts today and didn't do much more. It was cool and rainy so we spent most of the day in doors playing with trains and watching movies. We are watching Beyond the Sea, the Bobby Darin movie and it's alright. I hope we can get to the pool tomorrow. It's the end of the season and the boys do enjoy splashing around. Word....

Shaun of the dead

Funny movie with some awsome Queen tunes. I'm all tired now and need some sleep. We gave Micheal Murray a ride home tonight and planned a dinner in New Orleans later in September. I like Micheal, he's alright.

Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

This is Sam and I giggling to the Wiggles on top and Dylan, Nicole and Kumie getting ready to do the monkey. Yes, the show was semi humorous but even at 70 minutes, a little long. Dylan was begging to watch "Baby Mozart" about 40 minutes into it. (Baby Mozart is a dvd we have at home) I think Kumie enjoyed it the most but she also she lives for Sponge Bob.

@ mci center

@ mci center
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Wiggles

This is the Ambient Orb I got at All Things Digital last May. It's been telling us the temperture by changing color for the last few months and it is finally out of the orange and red zone that tells you it's in the 80's and 90's. It's now showing a comfortable green shade meaning it's in the 70's. I'm looking forward to some cool blue ambient colors showing that fall has arrived. It's an interesting little device that picks up it's information over the air and can be programmed to follow the stock market, various commodity markets, UV indexes, air quality or just plain temperature. The cool thing with having it programed to display temp is that it will flash when thunderstorm or tornado warning are issued.

I'm back to work and Nicole is back from California. My mother went home yesterday after helping me with the kids all weekend. We had a good time the boys want to see their Grandma again. It seems either Grandma is better than Nicole or I. We are off to see the Wiggles tomorrow. Good times.

Lake Accokeek

Me, Grandma and the boys went out to lake Accokeek today to ride the uppy downy hoarses, play in the playground and run around in the woods. It was hot so we had some diet soda and blue ice treats. We had a good day compared to yesterday's meltdown at Safeway. They were much happier and played in the pool in the morning, took a 3 hour nap and ate a good dinner. They do miss their mama but they will see her early tomorrow.

This is Sam talking to Mama in California. Dylan wasn't as talkative but I think Sam is ready for his own cell phone.  

Grandma Carolyn, Sam, Dylan and I went down to see Mark Jenkins art show in Georgetown tonight. Mark works in my group at AARP and creates art from packing tape. This is the boys standing in front of a card board cut out of one of the tape sculptures he's created. He also had a full size tape car on display. Check out his site with some photo's of his outside installations http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/installations.html or check out this quick article from boing boing. http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/28/mark_jenkins_tape_ba.html

East Lake Country Club





This is where I played golf on Wednesday. Beautiful course with a ton of history. This was Bobby Jones' home course and where he learned the game. It has an old school feel and will host the Tour Championship in early November.

Stuck in Chicago

This time it's my mother who will be spending the night in a local hotel after her flight from MSP sat on the runway for 3 hours then flight after flight to DCA was cancelled. Not good times and I promised the boys they would see Grandma when they wake up. I guess they'll see her around 10am instead. The boys and I played all night and had a pizza party at around 8. I let them pick our their own pajamas regardless if the tops and bottoms matched. It was interesting what they wanted, Sam was all about a yellow striped top and a red striped bottom. Dylan went with green trucks on the top and a blue fish on the bottom. They went to sleep quickly and have not been back up yet.

I hope Kumie is having a good birthday. We had a drink after work and I gave her the camera Joseph, Nicole and I bought her. I hope she uses it for good and not to take and deface pictures of me. I will have to destroy it if so. More soon...

Kumie's birthday

Kumie's birthday
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Her new digital camera

Stuck in Atlanta

I'm in Atlanta and I can't get out. I had a really nice day playing golf with our e-mail delivery vendors down here today but I've been at the airport for the last 3 hours and I'm annoyed. They claim the flight is going to leave at 8, but I'm not holding my breath. I took a bunch of pictures of the "home of Bobby Jones" East Lake Country Club. I hope to put them up on the blog if I ever get home.

My neck is sunburned and that's all I have left to say right now.

More soon.
Mark Carpenter
General Manager
Web Strategy and Operations
www.aarp.org
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net)

Drinks

Drinks
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Intercontinental bar in atlanta

We took the boys downtown to the National Pow Wow this morning. Kumie joined us and we saw a bunch of Native American dancers and a ton of trinkets. I really didn't get that many good pictures of the event but I did get some of the kids. It was hot, hot, hot again today so I stayed inside the rest of the day. Nicole and I went to Gecko's in Baltimore last night for Sue Meoni's 40th birthday party, she was surprised and a good time was had by all.

I put a couple random pics up in flickr that you can see at www.durpenters.com but nothing spectacular. More soon...

Gecko

Gecko
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Modean and phil

So golf today was really hot but fun was had by all. Particularily me and Curt who collected all the winnings in our foursome. These are pictures of the "losers" paying up and Curt and I enjoying our two bucks.

The boys are getting better and had cupcakes for desert today. It's amazing to watch them really enjoy things like cupcakes. I've stuck an entire cupcake in my mouth at time because I knew it was going to be good. I watched Dylan carefully eat each piece like it was going to change from bite to bite. Lots of wonder in new things.

I'll get pictures of the boys up this weekend.

My bad, two days and no post. I've been working a bunch, getting some workouts in and sleeping. I have gotten over most of my cold but he boys are still fairly sick. They stayed in all day yesterday and were bouncing off the walls by 7pm. I think Blanca took them out today so they should be a little more tame this afternoon when I get home. I'm playing golf tomorrow as part of AARP's summer outing. Should be fun and close to 100 degrees.

I've been trying to find time to post a collage of the new basement so maybe tonight. It's a technological cornucopia. More soon...

The boys on Uncle Adam's piano last weekend. This was taken by Aunt Elaine. I don't have publishing rights to this photo but I hope she forgives me. I stayed home sick today with the same cold the boys have. I really need to go to work tomorrow so I'll be there despite my condition. Summer colds are no fun... 

Sam

Sam
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

@ mt washington tavern

I played golf today and shot 80. It felt pretty good to have a good round and I'm back home waiting for chinese food. The only really interesting thing I have to add to this blog right now is a link to Kumie's blog post of the day. That and the picture she links to from WSO's resident tape artest, Mark Jenkins. http://icegrl.blogspot.com/

Chop

Chop
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Happy birthday kathy

Dylan lounging in suitcase

Dylan lounging in suitcase
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Morning with dora

New building reflecting the old. This new building is right next door to Adam's loft in NoHo. Adam's place is an old music publishing company headquarters while this glass structure only has the history in the things it reflects. The trip home yesterday was pretty un-eventful until we hit the Washington beltway. They both barfed within about 30 seconds and we then discovered that the guys at the parking garage un-hooked the car seats to clean the car and never bothered to strap them back down. Very un-cool since the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate 95 are not exactly the safest highways in the world. I think I'm going to bed early this evening. More soon...

Oh yeah, I but some boys pictures up in flickr. Go to http://www.durpenters.orgto see them.