We just had a great mini-vacation and only an hour drive from home. We spent Wednesday evening through Sunday on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Rocky Knob Campground. Thursday we braved the 10 mile loop, 2000 foot elevation hike into Rock Castle Gorge and back out. Friday we found ourselves on our road bikes making our way to Mabry Mill and Chateau Morrisette Winery. We spent the day on Saturday at FloydFest, a fun weekend long world music festival. It was hard coming home on Sunday, but what a great mini-break.

Brian's photos (Some of the photos at the beginning are from Maryland and the New River.)

Jessica's photos (click on the gibbous moon picture below):

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More sad news. My cousin's wife lost her battle with cancer last week. We miss you Diana.

Diana Lang
Diana Miotto Lang, 42, a three-year resident of Ellicott City, formerly of Severn and a homemaker, died June 28 at Gilchrist Hospice Care.
Mrs. Lang was born May 17, 1966, in Washington, D.C. to Albert Miotto of Silver Spring and Angela Miotto of Greenbelt. She graduated from Bowie High School. Before moving to Ellicott City, she lived in Severn for eight years.
Survivors include her husband, Matthew E. Lang; three sons, Garrett, Aidan and Carson Lang of Ellicott City; one daughter, Bridget Lang of Ellicott City; one brother, Steve Miotto; and three sisters, Lisa, Ginina and Andrea Miotto.
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. today at First Presbyterian Church of Howard County, 9325 Presbyterian Circle, in Ellicott City. Interment in St. John's Cemetery in Ellicott City will follow at 11:30 a.m.
Arrangements are by Harry H. Witzke's Family Funeral Home Inc.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Diana and Matthew Lang Family Fund, 501 Windy Knolls Court, Millersville, MD 21108, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, 200 E. Joppa Road, Towson, MD 21286 or Gilchrist Hospice Care, 555 Towsontown Blvd., Towson, MD 21204

It's been a week full of sad news for my family, ending with something unexpected and hard to understand. We lost my sister-in-law's brother this weekend. I graduated from high school with Paul (PJ) in 1995 and haven't seen him much since then. He was a great golf player and this is a picture from our high school yearbook. When his sister and my brother got married while we were in high school, Paul would yell out "hey sis" when we passed in the school hallways. My thoughts and prayers are with the Wills family. Paul will be greatly missed by his loving family.
Paul's obituary

200805_Belize

I was part of a crew that went to sample forest structure and composition at Belize Lodge & Excursions property in the Toledo District of Belize. Click on the photo above to go to additional photos of our expedition.

Antonio, our guide, and Travis discuss the damage done by Hurricane Iris in 2001 as we float down Golden Stream.

Another year of VPI Cave Club Picnic in beautiful skydusky hollow, Bland County, Virginia. It rained on us pretty good this year, but we had a great time all the same. What a view!

Brian made a great new portable camping table.

This lovely soap dispenser showed up in our bathroom at work one day in March and for whatever reason it really struck my funny bone. It made its way to the men's room for a short while, but someone moved it back thinking it might offend whoever brought the glass slipper in. Later I thought about putting a big industrial soap dispenser inside a muddy boot for the guys room, but never followed through. Ohh, the little things in life to get through the mundane days in cube world.

Check out Pam's blog for some sweet videos of our trip to the VT Center for Ursid Research (Bear Pens).

Sarah and Jon made it to Blacksburg again this year for the cave-club banquet. We had a wonderful time back in our old banquet hall, the Newport Rec Center. It was a great year for dancing, cute guys, and red dresses!