Tonight we are going out to see the midnight showing (12:11 AM) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight. We have never done this sort of thing before so it will be fun. We will be very tired tomorrow but it will be worth it...we think. This will be kind of sad though considering its the end of the franchise.

Pops on the River is Chattanooga's Independence Day celebration. The Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra performs patriotic and American standards. Its a great celebration down by the Tennessee River. Kayoko Dan is the new conductor of the orchestra and this was her coming out party. I am blessed to live in a city with a great cultural and artistic life. It was a great time.

We had a great Easter Sunday. We went to Church, then to eat out with Tony's family. Afterwards we went to visit his grandparents. God is good to bless us with a risen Savior who gave us life eternal. The Easter Bunny came and gave us some good things. Blessed be the name of the Bunny.

Today we celebrated our twelfth anniversary at Chattanooga's Bluff View Art District. We ate at Tony's Pasta Shop, browsed the sculpture garden, looked at some great art of all kinds at the River Gallery and had some sweets at Rembrandts. It was a genuinely romantic Sunday afternoon. Great times for us both.

On Sunday the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hand out its coveted "Oscars" to the best actors, actresses and films. We are starting the weekend out by watching "The King's Speech" Colin Firth in a BBC mini-series version of Jane Austens "Pride and Prejudice" He is quite good as Mr. Darcy. Colin Firth is a versatile actor with a great talent. Mr. Firth is up for best Actor on Sunday and we think he has a strong chance to bring home the gold. We are fans of Colin Firth and this classic tale of coming of age. 

Extreme Makeover Home Edition has been in the area building a home for a deserving family in nearby Rossville, Ga. The Sharrock family has a child with brittle bone disease. Their home was not safe and was showing its age. We volunteered on Monday night and then went back for the reveal on Saturday, Feb 19th. Here are some of our pictures from our time there this week.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition has been in the area building a house for the Sharrock family in Rossville, TN. Today we got to meet Ed Sanders of the show after the big reveal. We like Ed because he is a great carpenter and a "Brit". He was very nice to engage the crowd in signing everything from paper to t-shirts and he talked to loads of people too. We were thrilled to have our picture taken with him courtesy of Angeline Lassiter who is a member of the family. 

Today we will be going to a co-ed wedding shower for our pastor and her fiance'. Rev. Amy Cook and Robert Whatley will be married in April. Today's wedding shower will be a fun time. We are blessed to have Amy at White Oak UMC. Robert has become part of the church family in this short time. We are ready to have fun today to celebrate their upcoming wedding.

Last night we got Chinese food and along with that comes the ubiquitous fortune cookie. These vessels of your future life in a lightly sweetened pastry have been staples of Chinese restaurants forever. We have noticed that there is a definite shift from predictions of personal fortunes but a more Proverb-like tone. Also they are educational with common Chinese phrases and even lottery numbers. We kind of like the fun of a fortune. Some random prediction of our futures. As we all know its all in humor and is not meant to be taken seriously.

We have a bird feeder on our deck and we attract all sorts of birds. Finches, house sparrows and more. We have also attracted some major league birds too. We have seen orioles and cardinals lately. Keeping our fine feathered friends fed during this cold weather we have had is a must. We are glad to help. I think this next baseball season we might cheer for one of these birds on the baseball diamond.