Part surgery, part vacation

Of course, I'd trade my eye teeth to avoid this "vacation". But taking in some culture is always fun.

A good vacation begins with plush travel arrangements. This is going south, I traded with Dad on the trip north.

After our morning appointment, we went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. Monticello means small mountain. It's just south of Charlottesville. We went on a tour of the house and the gardens. It was a zoo, being school vacation week. Luckily everyone vaporized when we took this picture.

This is the vegetable gardens and the view beyond. This was a plantation, and the estate extended far beyond the bottom of the mountain. And Jefferson grew 23 kinds of peas, among other things in this garden. Want trivia? Come to me.

Then we went for an awesome dinner. Every course was staggering in taste and presentation, but I didn't get out my camera until dessert. Which included a chocolate trio (top), 7 deadly sins (right), and my choice, the butter pecan ice cream sandwich that came with it's own vat of hot homemade caramel sauce (bottom). Oh yeah!

Part of dinner was a tour of the kitchen where the magic happens. This is one of these restaurants where, for a price, you can eat at a nice table in the kitchen, just to the left in the picture. We didn't pay that price, but still got the tour. Take it from the rare necktie I got out, it was fine dining.

And here's my new patch. I think this was taken with a 256 color camera. The videos I have are much cooler, but whatever.

The day afterwards, I was psyched that Nick Friesen, Beth Leasure, and Beth Turcotte visited. I could hardly focus on conversations until I was talking to one person at a time. Beth T. was like the Easter Bunny coming early with chocolates and treats.

Not much news to report from home, besides that I'm feeling pretty good these days. So, that's that.