I will be spending the weekend with Abby and her family in Perquimans, North Carolina. We are going to visit her great-grandmother.

See some engagement photos that Kellen and Anna Beth took of us in Falls Park at Reedy River.

This past Saturday, my mother and grandmother and I went down to Atlanta to shop for fabric at Gail K Fabrics. We weren’t sure what we were going to find. Grandma had talked to the lady (Gail) on the phone and had been assured that the place had lots of formal fabrics and laces, but who can really go on what “lots” means? But when we got there, we discovered that Gail had been quite truthful—they had positively mountains of formal fabrics. Bolts of lace were stacked two and three layers thick on the wall, and you could barely get the other fabrics out, they were packed on the tables so tightly. We didn’t even really look at the whole selection, because we found a piece of lace that I really really liked. Then we asked the lady about trim to go with it, and her teenage assistant found us the perfect trim. We also found fabric for the bridesmaids’ dresses that is a light purple (not quite lavender, but not dark either). I took a picture of it, but you can see just the pattern—the color isn’t right in the picture.

Meanwhile, Lincoln went over to my house to help my dad and brother paint the trim on the house. He got to use scaffolding, which he’d never done before, and the boys were able to finish up all the painting my father wanted to do.

All in all, it was quite a successful day.

Third in an occasional series

In the middle of the night shift, the manager heard some people talking loudly outside and went to investigate. A moment later, she rushed back into the restaurant to summon help. She ordered the largest waiter, who happened to be the closest to her at that time, and the biggest cook to come and help her. She also told the assistant manager to call the police.

The manager, the assistant manager, the cook, the waiter, and I ran outside. A man sat in an oversized white pickup truck. He wore nothing but a pair of shorts, and he was covered in sweat and beer. A woman knelt in the bushes, wearing only a long t-shirt and undergarments. She was screaming.

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Since some doubtless want to see the car and care more about the color than what’s under the hood, here is a recent photograph.

On Tuesday, I purchased a car. The car is a 1995 Chevrolet Lumina with 126,600 miles. Abby and I have looked for a car for several months, and finally settled on this one. The car drives well, had a clean history except for one fender-bender, and passed inspection by a third-party mechanic. The gas mileage is decent, from all accounts. Importantly, dual airbags are included, which was important to me for Abby’s safety (and mine).

I read an article in Popular Mechanics about the ‘95 Lumina. According to their survey, 63.8% of Lumina owners were fifty years old or older. I fit well into that demographic.

Not having much experience with cars, I didn’t really know what I was doing or what to look for. I asked many people for advice and appreciate the advice received. Several people who have seen the car—including one who used to drive a Lumina—said that it seemed to be a good bargain. Let’s hope that it was.

I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop. I’ve been interested in trying Linux for a while, and Ubuntu seemed friendly enough and powerful enough to suit my needs. The installation proved to be fairly easy. I plan to continue experimenting with open-source software.

I’ve started reading the online news website Inside Higher Ed. I’ve found it helpful to keep inform me about the news in higher education and also to give me data about what life is like in academia.