Kyle Smith

Finally arrived back in Pok around 9:30 tonight. I’ve spent the last 3 hours doing laundry and catching up on email & news. The family reunion was fun. Got to see a lot of relatives that I either hadn’t seen in years or had never met before. The last Keany family reunion (my mother’s side of the family) was way back in 1988 in Virginia, so I really don’t remember much of it as I was six at the time.

For those of you with nothing better to read, a brief summary of the events since my last post:

Friday: drove to Albany, checked in at the Comfort Inn Airport and Conference Center, visited Crossgates Mall, made some cash when I agreed to help a well-endowed girl by taking a survey, watched the season premiere of Stargate Atlantis (which was excellent).

Saturday: got up at 5:30 am to drive to the airport, park my car, and check in. Flew from Albany to Atlanta, then after an hour layover, from Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham where I met my mother and rented a car for the 4 hour drive to Myrtle Beach. Checked in at the place we were staying and then went to dinner with my brother Darryl and his wife Judy. Was chewed out several hours later for not just taking a brief trip to the grocery store as we had originally intended.

Sunday: slept in and then went to the beach with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. Later on I went to the nearby mall with my brother to kill time, proceeded to get out of the car in one of the worst rainstorms I’ve ever seen, then went grocery shopping with the family to prepare for dinner (our branches’ turn to make it).

Monday: went and visited my Uncle Pete in Murrell’s Inlet. He broke his femur a few weeks ago but seems to be doing quite well. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him — I forgot that he’s extremely quick witted and has a self-deprecating sense of humor that I enjoy. He’s also managed to manipulate his new diet to include his beer of choice, Budweiser (okay, he does have some faults). Went to dinner at my Uncle Bernard’s condo, discovered that he’s a big fan of Corona and lime. Decided to polish off the majority of a case of it with him and then watched some fireworks on the beach nearby.

Tuesday: got up, packed into cars with 14 other family members and then drove to North Carolina to play golf at a club that my Aunt Wendy’s brother is involved with somehow. He managed to get us a great deal (about a quarter the usual price). Ended up playing 9 holes with my Uncle Bernard and his daughters Bridget and Mary while the 3 other groups played 16 -18 holes. None of us did too badly, including Bridget who had never played before. We definitely took our time though, which probably wasn’t a good idea since it must have been above 90 degrees. In the end Mary became dehydrated and was forced to return to the clubhouse after the 7th hole while Bernard and I finished up the last two holes of the North course.

For some reason at previous family gatherings I was always scared of Bernard’s children Mike, Bridget, and Mary (all of whom are 10 – 25 years older than me), but after playing golf with them I really like them. For some reason I keep thinking of Mary as Phoebe, only with red hair. Which is not to say she is dumb or dense. I’m talking appearance and maybe mannerisms here.

Wednesday: got up at 6:30 am to drive back to the Raleigh area. Checked in at the airport and then went to Durham to visit Duke for an hour or so. Unfortunately I didn’t get to talk with anyone from the Dept. of Computer Science as we arrived there during the lunch hour and I had to get back to the airport for my flight. 7 hours of flying and driving later, I arrive back at Marist to find half a dozen unknowns hanging out downstairs. Apparently the two guys downstairs doing work at Marist have become quite the social butterflies whilst I was gone. Hopefully their newfound status won’t affect Randy’s visit this weekend.

Here are a few pictures I snapped over the last few days. Nothing special. I brought my digital camera as well, but left the photographer duties up to my cousins Jennifer and Teresa.

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