Summer '09

The birds in our yard bring us great pleasure! Yes, we know...we are very dull people! If you click on this picture you'll see the golden finch. There are usually three to four feeding then darting in and out of the yard. Our other favorites are the cardinals. Sorry to say I don't have a picture of them.

Here's the view out the kitchen window. It's even better sitting outside! I love to sit out there in the morning drinking my coffee and journalling.

We met a new mid named Tim. We've decided to call him "tall Tim" and then we have "our Tim"! The other night when we were over on the yard watching drill practice, Tall Tim was leading 9th platoon right by us and calling the cadence. It was getting dark and it wasn't till he went right by us that we noticed who it was. Jeff said, "It's Tall Tim." He grinned and they kept marching. As they got passed us we heard, "Oorah, Mr. Steiner!" And then the whole platoon, "Oorah, Mr. Steiner!" It made our day!

Tim and Mike Tipton

Until August we were able to eat many dinners out on the patio. The heat arrived in August and so did the mosquitoes!


We were honored to have Stephen Schoenholtz come for an overnight visit. We met Stephen and Gloria in Corvallis when their son, Zack played basketball with Tim. Jeff and Stephen collaborated on some projects when they were both at OSU and now were going to connect again here in the DC area. Sorry to say, Gloria couldn't make it. They moved to Blacksburg, VA the same time we moved to Annapolis.

We sold Tim our red Camry and bought a Prius for Jeff to drive to Beltsville. He is proud to say he gets 55...almost 56 miles to the gallon!

So what do we do on a summer evening in Annapolis?

We go over to the yard! We don't always see Tim but we don't care. It's a peaceful beautiful place to walk and see a wide variety of things!

The other night was another muggy night and too miserable to sit in our backyard with all the mosquitoes so we did what we love to do: went to the yard! Lucky for us the plebes were out on the parade field and we got a front row seat to watch 10th platoon. Tim quietly walked up and down the rows giving instruction and criticism as another detailer called out the drills. The hard work paid off as the next day they came in second out of thirty platoons in the drill competition! Click on the picture to see it better.

Last Sunday, along with all the plebe parents who had just said good bye (tearfully:(), we watched the evening meal formation. I get so emotional watching the parents. I feel their pain! But, it was so great to see our firstie with the red name tag! OOOOh those red name tags were powerful when Tim was a plebe! Now it's his turn to put fear in people! Click on this one, too, to see Tim. They will finish plebe summer on Wednesday, August 19, when the whole brigade returns. The summer will be over but the academic year is in many ways much tougher. Tim will be with the plebes as detailer until then. He said he's anxious to get started with classes!

Another night we parked a ways away and walked to the seawall to watch the sail boats. It was a muggy night but the breeze near the water felt great!

We got a glimpse of Tecumseh being painted for the Plebe Parents Weekend...this year's theme was "A Plebe Story". Tim's plebe summer it was Jack Sparrow in honor of the second Pirates movie that summer.