Xmas Eve

A quick video of our Xmas Tree in the dark.
Presents have already been delivered by Santa's Helper.



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Julia helps Santa out.
Do not allow viewing of the following video if the magic of Santa Claus is being preserved in your family!



Mary (age 10) is desperately trying to hold on to Santa. Her sisters say she knows the truth, but the way she acted today, you would never know it! "Santa's coming! Santa's coming!"

The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz

	I received 92 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz canon s5 is

WhirlyBall

Here is the website for Mad Mad Whirled which explains Whirlyball and has some videos of the game in action. I have some video, but it needs editing.

Rock City Gardens

On our way back home from Thanksgiving in TN, we stopped at Rock City Gardens outside of Chattanooga for the first time in 8 years. The girls do not remember the previous visit at all.

The girls thought Rock City was great!

Rock City is a 75 year old survivor of those eccentric old Roadside attractions from the early years of a car crazy America. Click here for a great RoadsideAmerica.com description of its quirkiness.

Slideshow of our trip below. Click on it to see larger pics. (even a couple of elusive pics of...me!)

Some might remember that we had See Rock City bumper stickers on our luggage for our second and third China trips.
(Julia in Jan 1996 in Nanjing)

North Georgia Drought - Lake Allatoona Comparison pics - page 1

Red Top Mountain State Park
Lake Allatoona

We are in the middle of a severe drought. We visited Red Top Mountain State Park on Oct 13, 2007 and Nov 4, 2007 to check on the lake levels.

Our drinking water comes from this lake.

Oct 13, 2007
The (normally floating) dock

Nov 4, 2007

Oct 13, 2007
Those poles are channel markers.

Nov 4, 2007

North Georgia Drought - Lake Allatoona Comparison pics - page 2

Oct 13, 2007
Note the branch in the water.

Nov 4, 2007
Same branch

Oct 13, 2007

Nov 4, 2007

North Georgia Drought - Lake Allatoona comparison pics - page 3

We think that is a turtle in the middle of this pic
Oct. 13, 2007

Essentially the same pic. (See the embankment)
Nov. 4, 2007

Oct. 13, 2007

Nov. 4, 2007

North Georgia Drought - Misc Allatoona Lake pics

Another view of the girls checking the lake out.

A water bird checking the mud out for snacks (far right of branch)

Iron seeping into the lake. The State Park is named Red Top Mountain because of the iron ore that occurs here and was mined until the early 20th century.

Halloween 2007

Yikes! They are growing older! Louisa as a detective.

Mary and her ghost costume.

Julia - detective (the card sez so!)

Madison and big sister Taylor (best friends from next door)
a cat and a detective (imagine that!)

Halloween 2007 - Our decorations

Both Pumpkins this year are fake. Mary did a vampire pumpkin and I recycled the Fu-O-Lantern

Mary created a grove of trees with eyes.

Halloween 2007 - Trick or Treating pics

Mary leading the pack.

Mary leading the Pack off of someone's porch

Mary is not always in front! (oh wait! I just clicked on the pic to look at it closer and by gosh, Mary is on the porch - 1st in line. That's a couple of friends to the right of the tree!)

Halloween 2007 - Misc House Decorations

Various decorations found at houses we visited.

Click on the above picture to get a good view of the leftmost pumpkin.
It's dead Jim!

Woodstock GA Fourth of July Parade

The Fourth of July is a big deal for the Bartlett-Sloan family. We always get to two parades here in Cherokee County Ga. In the morning is the parade in Woodstock. In the early evening is the parade in Canton Ga (the county seat).

(oh yes, it is also Mary's Gotcha day - 8 years ago)

Louisa in back. Julia and Mary in front - all of us waiting for the candy thrown during the parade.
(Hey - they didn't throw candy in parades when I was a kid!)

My propeller hat was quite the hit at both parades.
Below is a video of it in action (in shadow)

Woodstock GA Fourth of July Parade

The start of the Parade

I see this little British armoured car tooling around the streets of Woodstock almost any time of the year.

Honest Abe made a visit.

Can you tell that this company rents inflatables and moonwalks?

Woodstock GA Fourth of July Parade

The following video is a stilt walker in the parade. This is the first year I have seen something like this in the parade.

What's a parade without Shriners?
(notice that Louisa had moved closer to the street by now. Closer to the candy!)

The following video is the Shriners and their little go-carts. Unusually small turnout this year. I've seen as many as 12 of these cars in the parades on other years.

Ben Franklin on the Sons of the American Revolution float. I have a better picture of him in the Canton parade later.

This juggler was great!