Belle Meade

This is the front of the mansion on the Belle Meade Plantation on the SW side of Nashville (I think?). The family that lived here had the name Harding, but they weren't related to President Harding. The daughters married two Jackson sons, but they weren't related to Andrew Jackson. So, a lot of familiar names that don't do any good.

Jaclyn and I went through the mansion tour, which lasted about 40 minutes. One interesting thing was that they used tulip poplar wood in construction, but it didn't look rich enough for their taste and social status. So, they brough in a guy who faux painted wood grain on all the doors and trim.

What Belle Meade is famous for is thoroughbred horse breeding. They said that a lot of times, all of the horses entered in the Kentucky Derby (I think that's the right race - ask Jaclyn!) were from the Belle Meade bloodlines. Seabiscuit is from Belle Meade blood.

This is looking out from where the mausoleum is. We couldn't tell if anyone was actually buried in there. The path and all of the big hardwoods were very pretty.

We are masters of self-portraits. A well-placed stump made a good tripod for this one. We're sitting on the porch of the building the Hardings lived in while they built the mansion.

The little garden behind the cabin had some nice flowers in it for taking pictures of bees and butterflies.

Here is one of the bees!

wild animals

Jaclyn & I went to the Nashville Zoo on Sabbath afternoon to see what kinds of creatures inhabit downtown Nashville. It was pretty hot, but the zoo has lots of shady paths, so it wasn't too bad. We did lots of walking and saw all of the neat animals they have.

This was actually one of the later animals we saw, a ring-tailed lemur. It reminds me of the movie Madagascar. The lemur king is soooo funny in that movie. Anyway, I think they're pretty.

I LOVED this exhibit with the Lorikeets. They would let you buy a cup of nectar to feed them, but we didn't want to. So, I used my SAU ID card (not good for a student discount at the zoo, but great for attracting birds) to lure the birds down to my hand. One tried to take it, I think.

These chairs were really cool. They weren't quite big enough for us both to sit comfortably, but they were nice for one person.

This is us looking hot and tired at the animal show. They showed two smaller cats, an opossum, some arthropods, a two-toed sloth, and an albino boa constrictor. There might have been more, but I can't remember.

pics

I just can't resist putting cute kittens on here. We're down to 3 now. Mom sold Josh and Jerry and we still have Reo, Myrrh[gatroid], and Lily (who Grant has claimed for his own). Myrrh is holding Lily's head while she sleeps.

This is Reo. He looks the most like Solomon. He has an umbilical hernia, so he was always the male I could tell apart from the others.

A 10-foot U-Haul truck was the perfect size to move all of my stuff to Tennessee. After this week alone, I'll have more stuff than will fit back in there! I'm having a washer & dryer delivered tomorrow.

Here's a family shot in front of the truck. Too bad you can't actually see us because of the high-contrast shadows & sunlight on our faces! It's ok, we were all hot and gross anyway.

Here's one of my drive-by pictures from the move!

new job

Well, I'm pretty much moved in. I still don't have much in the living room (just a couple of little tables and a TV). The bedroom looks the most set up, but my clothes aren't all put away yet. I finally found the hardware to put my desk together and got it set up last night. The kitchen table is still a mess with lots of papers that need filed or thrown away.

I'm finally at work at my desk. I have already had a couple of run-ins with the Internet/Highland's network. I'm still not sure how it all works. It was much easier at MPA where we had our own e-mail and web servers. I need all of the shortcuts that are on the desktop from Salli's account, but can't get to the Internet that way. Hmm.

I'll try to bring some moving pics over on my thumb drive this afternoon. I haven't taken any of the apartment now that my stuff is in there. I want to wait until it looks clean.

Well, that's all from me for right now. I'll be here for awhile trying to figure out why the website isn't working! Pray for it and me!