FALL/WINTER 2003

AUGUST

On the 7th Susan flew to Kansas City (Independence) to spend some time with her mom. The next day they drove down to Wichita to see David (Susan's brother) and stayed overnight. They had breakfast with him and then drove back to Independence. He was in Wichita doing some computer installation work for his company. We were glad he had time to visit. The 19th we served dinner at our house for the people who bid on it at the Bumpin' on the Bayou in the spring--a steak dinner. Took a long time to coordinate a date but we hope they enjoyed it. Saturday the 23rd was busy with boating in the morning and then a ULM picnic and dance at the Coliseum in the evening. We have begun to attend church at the early morning worship service (SPUMC). Fall semester started and Susan is enrolled in five hours: geography, COBOL (programming language), finance, networking and business communications. Ken is busy with his dean duties (2nd year) and working on four textbooks which are all due by the end of the year. The weekend of the 29th, family members came for the weekend. We had Tim and Heather, Ken's brother, Phil, and his family: Linda, Shawna and Regan. Susan also attended the annual dog show on Saturday with Sue and Mary Ann. Sunday we took everyone boating and took the inflatable thingie also.

SEPTEMBER

Ken and I attended the last day of the dog show, to view the Welsh Corgis. There were some lovely dogs in attendance and even Ken enjoyed picking out the winners of each class, though that can be hard to follow, given the confusing way classes are organized. If it hasn't been mentioned before, Susan is a member of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP), which is an organization in the CIS department affiliated with a national organization of the same name. She has enjoyed getting to know fellow students and sort of enjoying another semester of classes. On Friday the 5th, Ken and I went to the showing of "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" at the Straus Little Theatre. We are patrons now and it was Patron Night. The show was really good, even though it didn't quite live up to the Burt Reynolds/Dolly Parton pairing of the movie. On Saturday the 6th we went to the pre-game Tailgate in the Grove where AITP sponsored the food. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN on the 7th!!! We went boating on the Ouachita River with Lily and then had a birthday dinner at Red Lobster. On the 10th, Ken and I attended an Ad Club luncheon meeting. The presentation was on the different TV media ads created by various member organizations. They were really good. On a sad note, we traveled to upper Missouri to attend Ken's brother, Richard's funeral which was held on Saturday the 13th. Dallas went up there with us, so at least we got to visit with him. Mt. Olive UMC, Virgil and Marcia's former church, very graciously served lunch for the family (see family pict below). That was really sweet of them!! Afterwards we drove to Tim's house for the evening and left for home on Sunday and then Dallas left for home. On the 18th, we had church portraits taken. On Sunday the 21st we attended church and had another SPUM Church Dinner Club gathering at Sidney and Carolyn's. They have a lovely home and we enjoyed the company. Saturday the 27th involved boating with Lily on the river and then Ken and I had dinner out at Copeland's, a really good cajun cuisine restaurant. On the 30th, Ken and I attended a Minority Business Council meeting at the local United Way building.

OCTOBER

On the 2nd Susan went to a fun AITP bowling night at the local bowling alley. She had one pretty good game of 172 or so. On Saturday the 4th, Susan and Lily drove to Vicksburg for the 2nd annual Magnolia Corgi Festival. (Click on the name to see lots of picts and info.) Many owners and corgis were in attendance and the food was catered and very good. Lily needs more socializing as she was rather defensive and didn't play well with the others. Unfortunately, Ken was busy and unable to go, but hopefully will next year. The following day we took Lily boating with us. She can go when the weather isn't too hot. On Friday the 10th Susan took Lily for a walk at the Black Bayou park. This is a great little park to see a swamp and has alligators, though we didn't see any. There's a raised walk of about a mile long that meanders through the woods also. Then we went to see Intolerable Cruelty at the theater. We don't go to the movies very often, so it's always a treat. The movie was okay, wasn't as good as we would have wished, but not bad. On Saturday Lily and I took Ken to Black Bayou to show it to him and later we went to Red Lobster for dinner. The 15th was the annual Pet Day on ULM campus, so we took Lily to show her off. She did better with these dogs, so maybe more dog outings are helping her. Actually, she goes a lot of places with us, but not very many that have other dogs in attendance. (Attending church service at SPUMC nearly every Sunday also.) On the 21st, the CBA held it's annual Residence Scholars Luncheon where business people come in and teach classes then a lunch is held in their honor. The 24th saw the dogs getting groomed at Petco (our newly opened pet mart) while we ate at the new D'Angelo's Pizza Restaurant close by. The restaurant is a pretty good, higher quality dining experience establishment newly built out by the mall. That area is beginning to develop very well. On the 25th Mary Ann brought her corgi, Yogi, over for a play date while we cooked out. The dogs got along well, with Lily flirting and yet acting hard to get. It was funny. On the 29th, Ken left for a conference at North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, and to visit our old stomping grounds of UNCP and Lumberton NC. He got to see old friends. We missed him, but did enjoy Black Bayou while he was gone.

NOVEMBER

Susan participated in the Inflatable Olympics at ULM on the 4th, helping represent the AITP club. It didn't go as well as it would of in her younger days. More like a comic relief effort, but points for participating anyway. She also helped with their float for the Homecoming parade on Friday. Then on Saturday we attended the tailgating in the Grove before the game. On the 9th we had another SPUM Church Dinner Club gathering and that was really good. Ken left on the 16th on another trip, missing my birthday on the 17th, so that was a bummer day. We celebrated on Saturday at Red Lobster. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Cracker Barrel again this year, but left for Dallas TX on Friday to have TG with Dallas and Wes. Lily enjoyed seeing the boys again. We fixed dinner that night. Unfortunately, Ken wasn't feeling well before we left and he was pretty sick by the time we got back home. We keep forgetting to take pictures...., however, we did get a picture of the sinking Twin City Queen river boat.

DECEMBER

On the 6th, we attended a Christmas party at Ron and Christine's for the AITP and Insurance clubs. A good time was had by all, as they say, and the food was great. FINALS during the second week and Susan was definitely looking forward to the end of the semester. Then on the 10th, we hosted the big College of Business Administration's holiday party at our home. We figure about 80 people were in attendance (wish we would remember to get pictures). This event took a lot of preparation and it happens during finals week, which doesn't really work well in my schedule, but has to be organized. And then it was followed on the 14th with the SPUM dinner group meeting at our house for the meal. Well, at least the place was clean by then. Might as well bunch up the activities and get them over with. On our anniversary (the 16th), we had a great lunch with Sue and Mary Ann at Red Lobster. They gave us a nice bottle of champayne and we always enjoy their company.

(Continued on Christmas Trip 2003)