Coffee House special benefit for Ron Jackson

On Saturday, April 21, 2007, a Coffee House fundraiser was held at First Luthern Church in Rock Island, to benefit Ron Jackson, musician, Vietnam veteran and all around great guy!

Fire In the Belly with special guest Elizabeth Russel perform. Fire In the Belly consist of Joe, John and John.

Siobhan, daughter of Elizabeth Russel and Chris Dunn, with the Almost Brothers, featuring Mike Wallace, in the background.

Joan Holland, Maria Cummings, Margaret Thomas, Connie Barrett and Vince Thomas watch and listen.

Men are from Mars, Women from Venus

Connie and I were sitting at the breakfast table reading the paper this morning. Dear Abby had a letter from a women who said that when her twins were babies people were constantly coming up to her, telling her how cute her twins were and asking if they were identical. She would say "No. One is a boy and the other a girl." They must not have noticed the blue/pink clothing difference or that fact that he was dark and she was fair. To me the conclusion was obvious. Theses people were not actually looking at the babies at all. My guess is that since you always tell a mother her babies are cute, beautiful, healthy-looking, etc. there is no reason to actually look at the babies to see what they look like. If you actually look at them and don't think they are beautiful then that would make you a liar. The safest thing is to just not look at them. I proposed this theory to Connie and she did not like that theory AT ALL.
She had no alternate theory to explain the facts, but felt having no explanation preferable to mine. And my theory to explain that is that men are from Mars and women are from Venus.

More pictures of Vince receiving the Human Rights Award

Many friends and relatives of Vince Thomas attended the Celebration of Human Rights brunch put on by the Church Women United of the Illinois Quad Cities at the Mark of the Quad Cities in Moline on the morning of March 31, 2007 where Vince was given a Human Rights Award.

Pictures by Rafa Gonzalez

Dave Barrett, Vince Thomas, Connie Barrett and Robert Imler

Seated Connie Barrett, Sylvia Rosales, Imelda Crinklaw, Eva Savala
Standing Dave Barrett, Ramon Rosales, Vince Thomas, Margaret Thomas, Robert Imler, Bob Crinklaw, Stella Schneekloth, Tar Macias, Guillermo Traveno

Terry Meisch, Margaret Thomas, Vince Thomas, Rita Cohn

Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad

On Saturday, April 7, 2007 Dave and Connie drove to Boone, Iowa to ride the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad. It was the first Saturday evening dinner train of the season. A sumptuous and elegant dinner served in a diner car on a train ride through the scenic Des Moines River valley. Click here to see a promotional video about the dinner train.

The train consisted of a diesel-electric locomotive and two diner cars -- The City of Los Angeles and The City of San Franscico. (The Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad also has steam locomotives but does not used them on the dinner train.)

Connie waves to Dave.

Connie and Dave seated at their table waiting for the trip to begin.

The angle of the sun made it easier to take pictures out of the other side of the car.

Dave and Connie look at the scenery passing by.

Saying Goodbye to Rachel

On Wednesday, April 4, Connie and Dave met Rachel, Marg and Vince at a restaurant to say goodbye to Rachel just before she flew back home to California.

Vince and Marg

Dave and Rachel

Connie and Nora visit Evan and Evelyn

Connie and Nora and her friend Magali went up to Schaumburg to visit Evelyn and Evan on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We hadn't seen them in a long time (two years) and were surprised at how much Evan has grown. He's 10 now.

Evan is a typical 10 year old boy!

We had a good visit. Evelyn and Evan share Nora's hilarity over bathroom humor. We'll have to visit more often.

The Stone House Bed And Breakfast in Chester, Illinois

Connie and Dave visited Dave's parents in Chester, Illinois for a couple of days. The weather was perfect, sunny, with temperatures in the afternoons in the upper 70s. We stayed at a beautiful bed & breakfast that Dave's brother Dan told us about -- The Stone House. The beginning of April is apparently not the busy time for tourists in Chester and we had the place to ourselves.

The Stone House is on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and the view from the front porch is beautiful. To the left are pictures of the view in winter and in summer. Being early spring the view we saw was somewhat in between those two. We spent a half hour or so at sunset both evenings we were there out on the porch.
The Innkeeper, Sandra Starr, is a very friendly and interesting lady. She serves great breakfasts on beautiful china and is a fascinating person to talk to. The room we stayed in was decorated with things from Egypt where she had spent 8 years teaching at the American school in Cairo.
If you ever find yourself needing to book a room in Chester, Illinois we can recommend the Stone House.