Well, we're back from Greensboro where everyone and everything is Friendly and houses cost $1 a square foot.

We weren’t even sure that we would make the trip as Beck got sick. Really sick. He caught some nasty chest cold where his lungs rattled as he struggled to breathe through phlegm and wheezes. I rushed home last Thursday and he was like a panting puppy so off we went to the Doctors. It took 5 days of Zithromax, 10 of Amoxycillian and nebulizer treatments 3 times a day for him to inhale and exhale like a normal baby and not a 90-year-old man dying of the consumption. There is nothing sadder than a sick baby coughing out his button, crawling over to it, sticking it back in his gob only to cough it out again. It was very Sisyphisian.

I took hundreds of pictures while in NC, most of which I still need to sort through, but I will post them soon. In the meantime, I am going to brag about my niece Madeleine. She lives in South Bend, Indiana and anyone who has ever been to South Bend knows that other than the Irish, there ain’t a whole lot going on. (My sister gets her social fix through Junior League. I’ll say no more.)

To give the people something to do, and the little children hope, Notre Dame sponsors art contests for kids in the Michiana region. The winners have their drawings featured on home game tickets. Every kid in a class draws a picture, and then the other students vote for their favorite. Then the best of each grade is submitted from each school. Hundreds of public and private schools participate, so to earn a place on a ticket is really something.

Well, folks HERE is one of the WINNERS of the Notre Dame basketball season!!! That’s hers second row, second from the left, with the little round ant-type things throwing a ball at what sort of looks like a hoop. Those judges sure do know raw and pure talent when they see it. Gifted she is, gifted.