Porter poses 

Autumn Season 

Here's Porter after his haircut trying to look tough. He can't not smile. He sure has lots of teeth. 

This morning was haircut day. Porter wanted his head shaved like all the other kids. Autumn wanted her head shaved too, but I just pretended to cut it and then tied it back instead. 

Monday we went to D.C. to pick up my China VISA and stopped in at the National Air and Space Museum. The kids were good and very interested in all the planes and ships. They earned their stars. 

After an early morning of paintball the moms and kids joined us for lunch at the farm. We looked at the animals and paddled around the pond with Darryl (a MD/PhD classmate) and Rowan shown here. 

Today we dropped in on the Smithsonian Yemen display looking for the alter offered to Almaqah by the tribe of NHM. This tribe lived and still exists where the incense trail turns east accross the Arabian desert, the place where Ishmael was buried in the 6th century BCE. 

Me and Eustace. Eustace Conway was called "The last real American man" by GQ magazine. He is an anthropologist who now lives completely off the land. He plows the fields with his bulls and travels by canoe and horseback, simply because he loves to. He holds the record for traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific by horseback, something like 103 days. One day when he was 17, he moved outside into a tipi and stayed there for the next 17 years. Check out the link to his page I placed on the right side. He has a good book titled after the GQ quote. A neat man with a incredibly interesting history. 

On the last day of Merlefest as we were leaving, a man and his wife were passing me on their way to catch a bus. The man said to me, "You win." "What," I replied. He said, "You win. You have the perfect family; son in a ball cap, beautiful wife and beautiful daughter. Your family is the best looking family I have ever seen." Well, now that I look at them, they are kind of cute.

We had a fun 4 days in Wilkesboro, North Carolina attending Merlefest from April 28-May1. Here is a picture of Doc Watson. We enjoyed the best of Bluegrass, Celtic, Irish, Blues, and Country music. Some of our favorites were Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, The Avett Brothers, The Kruger Brothers, Doc Watson, Tony Rice, John Cowen, Mel Jones, and of course the kids loved Shanna Banana. We camped in a tent for 3 nights. The kiddos didn't want to come home. 

Here is another sketch done in Corel Draw. If you search the internet you will find a similar depiction of Napolean, but you will notice this does not look very much like that more famous painting. This is my own version of that painting. Also, this one was done with a mouse and not a brush. Grandma Anderson should be happy to know I am still drawing something, eh. 

Mom's birthday is on April 25. Here is a quick sketch of her done with the pencil tool in Corel Draw. If anyone wants to buy a portrait of themselves, I'll sell you one for $40....or if you ask me nice I'll do it for free. Oil on canvas near life size and framed would take me about a month and could cost from $500 to $1000 depending on the size. Needless to say it would be much much better than this sketch. I'll post examples in the future.

Amber and David have started to keep a blog

What has happened in the Edwards family world the past few years? What is planned for the future? Herein is a web-log, or blog, chronicling a simple family history.

Calling all grandmas, grandpas, greatgrandmas, parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and relative hopefuls......the fan mail is stacking up and time to write you all timely letters is ever decreasing. So, just check here for a response to letters we feel should be included in a history, to see updated photos of the family, and to generate a desire to visit us when you are freezing your buns off.

Without delay, let's begin.

This week David is writing a Neuroscience jounal article so he has been in and out of the house in a jiffy [the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, or around 1 nanosecond] leaving no time to catch the bug that has infected his wife and children, nevermind kiss their infected mouths. But he has compensated by planning a trip to Merlefest [Merle is the son of Doc Watson. Doc is the father of Bluegrass. Merle died when his tracker rolled over, just days before he was voted the best guitar picker in all traditional genres] for 4 days beginning this Thursday in North Carolina. The plan is to stay in a tent at night, and sing and barn dance all day....YEEEHHAAA!

David went to lunch with Dennis Choi, MD PhD, the current exec vice president of Merck, and was able to talk at length about possible life opportunites for MD/PhD students. The future is bright....