The Auldridges

We aririved in Gastonia, NC last night or, more accurately, this morning. We left yesterday at about 5:00pm, and spent about an hour eating dinner at a Pargo’s. The rest of the trip was spent battling heavy traffic and heavy rain. We didn’t get in until 1:30am! Boy were we glad to get to bed.So we’re in the hotel now. Checkout is in one hour and we could’ve used a bit more sleep. We got about 7 hours, though, so we’re good. Shari is doing an exercise video on the portable DVD player, and I am tapping this out on the free wireless Internet access that the hotel provides. Don’t you love the age of technology?We’ll be spending some time with Laura and her family today, then hitting the road for Folly Beach, SC to hang out on the beach and partake in the wedding activities. Time to get off here now and shower and pack up so we can beat the checkout clock!

--Jim

This weekend my younger sister, Emily, will be getting married in South Carolina. She’ll no longer hold the monicker Auldridge, and will assume the name Douglas. I am very happy for Emily, and am pleased that she found someone like Ira to marry.

Being that the wedding is in South Carolina, Shari and I will be hitting the road this evening to head that direction. We plan on stopping over in Gastonia, NC tonight to see a friend of Shari’s as well as to take advantage of a free night in a hotel that I am entitled to on my hotel rewards program. In the morning we’ll continue on to Folly Beach, SC. There we’ll be staying in a beach house with family, and attending the wedding and reception.

Given that the ride is so long, and that Shari and I have never taken a trip of this sort without children, we are opting to leave the boys behind with Nana and Papa. While I feel like somewhat of a bad parent by choosing to not take my kids to this family event, I am comfortable in the fact that they are looking forward to their time with Nana and Papa. I am also comfortable with my reasons for making the choice, so I suppose it will stand as is.

So today has been a day of cleaning and preparing the house for Nana and Papa, and getting things packed up to go. I think the house is pretty much ready now, but I definitely need to get off here now and fold some laundry to pack.

We’ll be checking in while on the road, though, so we hope to record the weekend here.

--Jim

I installed PhotoPress today so that we can start getting pictures online as well. I like PhotoPress because it ties right into WordPress, and allows us to place our images in the album, as well as right into blog entries.

The drawbacks to it are that it lacks some things that, quite frankly, it should have. For example, it breaks all the XHTML Validation unless you hack/edit the scripts and play tricks with the options:photopress configuration. It also did not like the theme I was using very well, which required me to do more hacking/editing to the album layout. This is all fine now that it is installed, but can wreak havok when I upgrade or try to change themes. Oh well.

I may try some other album softwares over time, but in the mean time, I do have pictures online now.

--Jim

The page announcing our in-progress adoption and explaining the process is online.

--Jim

Auldridges.com is slowly coming online. I was planning a large, custom written web application with which to manage this site but have now opted, for the time being, to install WordPress and run the site with it instead.

This site will cover topics relating to the Auldridge and Guinan familes, particulary the portion of the family belonging to Jim and Shari. We’ll try to keep you up to date on what we’ve been up to, how we’ve been, the adoption, etc.

--Jim