World Champions - Boston Red Sox

I was still so excited this morning I put peanut butter and strawberry jam on my English muffin. The cause of my joy - the 6-1 victory in the 6th game of the 2013 World Series which made the 2013 Boston Red Sox champions of the baseball world. From last to first in one year. What a feat!

And David Ortiz is the man who led the Red Sox all year with his hitting, his enthusiasm and his belief in his teammates. Ortiz was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 2013 World Series.

I am going to add four numerals (2013) to add to my favorite Red Sox banner.

(Complete blog here.)

(Send comments: arch@archibald99.com.)

A couple of friends

A couple of friends dropped by Wednesday en-route from Florida to North Carolina. What makes this couple

so special is they are my two oldest friends in terms of years known. Don and Edna Sherrow were in Washington with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations when I arrived there in the spring of 1953. Don was in the USAF and serving as the Administrative Support in the Counter-Intelligence Division. Edna was a secretary in the Sabotage & Espionage Branch, which I joined as Administrative Support. Later Don and I each went to the OSI Special Agents training school and served several years conducting personnel, criminal and counter-intelligence investigations. I left the Air Force for civilian life and Don transferred into the Army where he was commissioned. He later worked as a Postal Inspector. Interestingly, their daughter and one of my sons, met and worked together in later years.
It was the first meeting of my wife, Joyce, and the Sherrows and they took to each other immediately. We don't see each other all that often, just the occasional service reunions and when passing through each other's living area, but the friendly ties and bonds formed years ago when we were all young and starry-eyed continue to this day.

I ate the whole thing

Having a wife whose birthday is the day after yours makes celebrating easy. Joyce and I went to Biltmore Estate in Asheville

for a three-day getaway (Oct.1-3). She had not been there before and seeing it was atop her bucket list. I visited about 40 years ago and my lasting memory was the Kiosk behind the mansion which offered delicious ice cream. It is long gone but new restaurants and an ice cream parlor were introduced sometime in the 80's. The ice cream is made from milk taken from the dairy herd on the premises and is some of the best I have ever eaten. This delicious sundae (creamery vanilla ice cream topped with strawberries, whipped cream and a cherry) was my choice and Joyce enjoyed a Root Beer float.

The mansion was built by George Vanderbilt, grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, beginning in the 1890's. Today, the magnificently tended gardens are a tribute to his love of the out-of-doors, and the imagination of Frederick Olmsted, the journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer, who is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture. We learned of George's great generosity also to the Asheville community and people. The Episcopal Church in Biltmore Village outside the Estate grounds is an example of his many contributions.

(Send comments to: arch@archibald99.com)

(Complete blog here.)