Requiescat in Pace, Larry Archer

I was sitting in a meeting yesterday at work and briefly stepped out to use the Ladies Room.  As I was walking out of our work area, our Office Administrator (OA) was walking back in and looked to be crying. I stopped in my tracks and somebody asked me if I knew why she was crying.  Since I didn't know, I turned around and went back into our work area to find out what was wrong.  At that time I saw our Program Manager and another Manager standing there with her and I looked askance at the PM as to what was going on. He asked me if I had heard the terrible news that one of our Operations Managers named Larry Archer had died. 

I was shocked to hear of his death as he had just been at work all of the previous day, as usual.  He was supposed to be on vacation on this day.  From what I understand, he and his wife were at Dinner in a restaurant when Larry had a fatal heart attack at 67 years old. He had worked on our project for 18 years and now he was gone, with no warning whatsoever!  Everybody at work is so shocked and saddened by his death!

It's so strange that one could learn so much about somebody after they pass away.  I read his obituary today and learned that he was an Irish Catholic and went to Catholic School, just like me.  He also worked overseas and traveled the world extensively like I have. He has the most magnificent and upbeat obituary that I've ever read and I love how it tells of his travels, how he met his wife, and how he proposed to her in April in Paris!  How could one ever know that Larry was such a romantic man from just seeing him at work from time to time?

Allen Family Funeral Options did a beautiful job on his online memorial!  They have a wonderful picture there of him and a 45 minute tribute video with beautiful music and pictures of him and his family throughout the years.   Here is the picture that they have of him on his tribute page:

Lawrence Joseph Archer

It's such a sad and lonely experience when somebody you've known for a long time at work or elsewhere passes away.  It leaves a big, empty spot there at work. It also forces everybody to think about their own mortality.

Larry got really close to retirement, but never quite made it.  It's very sad that he had to die right before an upcoming trip to see all of his family in New York!

I was reading some of the condolences left for him on his tribute page by people from work. One guy said that he had worked with Larry for the past 18 years and would really miss him and the emails that Larry sent to him in Latin.  This really made me smile as my bet is that both this guy and Larry learned Latin serving as altar boys, just like my brothers did when we were growing up!

This said, I just want to say some last words to Larry in Latin . . . Requiescat in pace, Larry Archer.  You will never be forgotten by the people you worked with here in Dallas!

Sweet Baby in Baltimore

We took off last Saturday morning, March 29, 2014 to see my grandson and kids in Baltimore, Maryland.  It was an early morning flight and we only encountered one traffic light on our way to Dallas Love Field Airport. We got there and stowed our bags at the curb with the Skycap. I was lucky enough to get selected for TSA Pre, which meant that I didn't have to take off my belt or shoes.  This was great since I have a broken ankle and was wearing a boot!

We boarded Southwest Airlines Flight 672 and it took off  towards Baltimore.  The flight attendants were very nice but the bathroom in the front of the plane smelled like an outhouse that had been sitting in direct hot sun for about a week! One of the flight attendants said that it always smelled like that on morning flights, but I've flown many times and have never encountered such stench on a plane! I'm sure that it was left uncleaned for at least overnight.

We were greeted in Baltimore by dark grey skies and cold rain. What nasty weather!  We claimed our luggage and went to get our rental car, which was a GM Captiva with wonderful heated seats! We drove to the Hilton Garden Inn in Owings Mills, MD and checked in. We went to our room and relaxed for a while, then went to the Red Robin at the Restaurant Park a block down from the hotel to get some late lunch/early dinner.  We got an appetizer of onion rings on a tower with some dipping sauces, which was delicious!  Tegan Marie got a big burger and fries and I got a BLT with avocado and a bowl of chicken tortilla soup.  Tegan enjoyed her meal and I liked the soup, but wouldn't order the BLTA again.

After we finished eating, we went to visit with Nicole, Brandon and Branson at their townhouse in Eldersburg.. Branson is so chubby and adorable with his square face, big blue eyes and pouty little lips!  He has thick, light reddish-brown hair and big pink cheeks!  He looks like one of the Campbell's Soup kids!

We held him and he "talked" to us.  He smiled and cooed a lot.  I just loved rubbing his chubby little feet and kissing his chubby little cheeks!  Here's a cool set of animated pictures of me giving him an never-ending kiss on his chubby little cheek:

Love Those Chubby Cheeks!

Here's a picture of Branson sitting on Tegan's lap blowing bubbles:

Branson blowing bubbles with Auntie Tegan

We visited for a few hours and then headed back to the hotel. Since our last meal was much earlier, we went back to the Red Robin and got a large order of Towering Onion Rings and some dessert. Tegan got a Gooey Chocolate Brownie Cake and I got Double Berry Cheesecake.  The food was good but the service not the greatest due to the fact that it was late and the people working there wanted to go home.

We finished our dessert and headed back to the hotel to get ready for bed.  I have to say that the cold and rain truly had a bad effect on our trip this time. Unfortunately, Tegan Marie only brought some canvas flat shoes with knee high hose and her feet got soaked and were freezing. Understandably, this made her feel miserable!  I also wasn't feeling well and kept hacking due to my LPR. I hate getting my clothes and hair wet and had to keep putting my coat over my head to get back and forth from the car, which was not a pleasant experience!

We turned in and slept to around Noon, which was great!  We got up, showered and then went to the IHOP on Liberty Road right next to the Rite Aid where I used to buy Justin's diapers. The service and food were excellent!  Sarah, our waitress took really good care of us!  Part way through our meal we noticed that the rain was starting to look thick.  Next thing we knew, it was snowing outside!  Yes, snowing on March 30th!

We finished our meal and then went to the Payless Shoes Store next door to get Tegan some warm shoes.  Next was the Rite Aid for some drinks and warm socks. Then we headed over to Nicole and Brandon's place to visit.  Here's a really cool animated picture of Tegan in .the snow outside of Brandon and Nicole's townhouse:

The Snow-globe Princess!

She looks like she's standing in a snow globe in this picture!

We visited with Brandon, Nicole and Branson until my son Justin arrived at 6:30 PM.  He gave me a beautiful bouquet of red roses and a card as a belated birthday present, which was very sweet!  Here's a picture of the roses:

Birthday Roses from Justin

We chatted for a while and then Nicole, Justin, Tegan and I headed to the Osaka Japanese Restaurant for some dinner.  We invited Brandon but he didn't want to go, so he stayed home with Branson.

We enjoyed visiting over our meal!  Here's a picture of Justin, Nicole and Tegan and I siting at the Hibachi table getting ready to eat dinner:

Family Hibachi Dinner

We finished our meal and then headed back to Nicole and Brandon's house and dropped off Nicole and Justin and then headed back to the hotel.  We stayed up for a while and talked and ate some ice cream bars, then we fell asleep.

We slept late the next morning again and then headed back over to the IHOP.  The bad weather and exhaustion of being away from home so much really started taking its toll right around this time!  We were just worn out and frazzled and everything was getting on our nerves!  We finished eating and then headed over to Nicole and Brandon's place. When we got there, Dave and Colleen Holsey, Nicole's in-laws were there.  They had stopped by to visit on their way home from Ocean City, MD.  We visited with them for a while and then they went home.  

We stayed a little while longer and then headed back to the hotel for a while and then went to have some Dinner at the Ruby Tuesday's down the road, then we turned into bed at the Hotel.

The next day Nicole called to say that the Holseys had invited us all to Dinner at their house. We met Nicole and Brandon at their place and followed them to the Holseys. Here's a cute picture of Branson all packed up and in his car seat and ready to go:

Branson is Packed Up and Ready to Go!

We had a nice visit at the Holsey's, especially with Dave's mother, Miss Bobby.  She is one of the sweetest ladies that I've ever met and reminds me somewhat of my own mother.  She's just recently recovered from a bad bout of C-Diff, which put her in the hospital several times.  I'm so glad that she's feeling better and is able to hold Branson now!

Dinner was a yummy lasagne with garlic bread and a glass of wine, finished with a delicious strawberry shortcake for dessert! We finished dinner and visited for a while, then headed back to the hotel to go to sleep.

The next day we packed up and moved to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Baltimore Washington International Airport.  We did this to be closer to the airport when we flew out the next day.  We drove back out to Eldersburg and visited with Brandon and Nicole and to play with Branson for the last time before we left. Then we returned to the Hotel and then went to Dinner at the Ruby Tuesday's about a mile down the road.  There was nothing special about the food there, to be honest.

The next day we got up and showered, then had a nice leisurely Breakfast at the Bob Evans right in front of the Hotel.  Then we dropped off the rental car and enjoyed our flight back to Dallas.  Over the course of the flight home, two different women gave us two drink coupons, so we each got two free drinks!  I guess we must have looked like we needed a drink, LOL!

We were very glad to get home.  I guess our visit must have tired out Branson.  Here's a picture that Nicole sent of him after we left.

Branson is Pooped from our visit!

Boy does he look pooped!  Just like Mimi and Auntie Tegs!  All in all, it was a very nice visit, despite the horrible weather and not feeling well!