I remember as a young boy, under the age of seven, sitting at one end of Mom and Dad's dining room table and my brother sitting at the other end. He was drawing when a very small earth tremor occurred and he got mad at me because he thought I was purposefully shaking the table.

I loved hearing Dad or my Grandmother recounting memories from their past. To this day, I still enjoy listening to Mom reminisce. Memories are precious and I would like to document mine for posterity. So with that, here's my first...

I remember when Pete Rose set the career hits record in Major League Baseball. I was at the bowling alley on Wednesday, September 11, 1985 when he slapped number 4,192 against the San Diego Padres and broke Ty Cobb's 57-year old record.

From the CNN website...

From the MSNBC website...

From the CNN website...

CWA, our adoption agency of choice, was having an information seminar in Charlotte this morning for anyone considering international adoption. The facilitator had previously asked me and Carmi and Eliana to share our story at the end of the meeting which we gladly did. Any opportunity to show off the Empress is welcome.

Following the meeting, our stomachs dictated that we eat so Carmi suggested a restaurant nearby called Pike's Old Fashioned Soda Shop. We left after our meal and Eliana was fascinated with some butterflies on bushes outside the restaurant.



Carmi said that a scene in the movie "Shallow Hal", released in 2001, was filmed in this restaurant. I didn't know that. Seems that the two main characters, Jack Black and Gwnyeth Paltrow, shared a large milkshake at Pike's. Rumor has it that Gwyneth enjoyed her peach milkshake so much that she wanted to reshoot their scene multiple times.

Then we were off to Festival in the Park, an annual event held at Freedom Park in Charlotte since 1964. Eliana got to ride a pony...



Stalk some ducks...



Wear down dear old dad...



And then sleep on the way home...



Oh, and we bought this cool painting from a Chinese artist. Eliana picked it out herself so it will be displayed proudly in her room. The artist, I discovered, is from Guangzhou.

Pardon my english but...I ain't believin' this. The Ticketmaster website said that tickets for the Wiggles show on November 18 in Greenville, SC would go on sale at 10:00 am this morning. I logged on at 10:20 and all of the floor-level tickets have already sold out. ALL of them!

What kind of geeky parent would be sitting at a website with their finger on the "buy" button just waiting for a stroke of the clock?

I didn't this time but you better believe I'll be quicker on the draw NEXT time!

At any rate...I did manage to get some lower-level seats so it won't be too bad.

I must write 500 times on the chalkboard..."I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter. I'm not..."