Hmmmm. What's that flushing sound?

Gotta love incoming links, even if they're from just another bass player...

Finding Jacko

Here's the boy dressed up as Nemo for Halloween.

Happy Birthday Marissa

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, Marissa!

She's 29 years old today! Woo hoo! I'm so lucky to have such a young wife. Yowza! We managed to score a baby sitter tomorrow night so we're going to eat at her favorite restaurant, Sakura.

Last night we took Jack and Victoria to "Trunk or Treat" at a local church. Jack figured out the whole "grab candy and stick in the bucket" concept very quickly. Once again everyone loved his Nemo outfit. It has a little tail that shakes back and forth when he walks. At one point there was a swimming pool full of plastic eggs with candy in them. He saw his cousin Brynn in there grabbing candy so he ran up and rolled over the side and started grabbing it himself. I had to go "fish" him out of there. Har, har.

In other news back home, long time friend and cousin Heff also celebrates a birthday today. He's 40 years old! Wow! Hard to believe he made it this far. I think he's going to braid his James Spann Hair Island for the event today. I've also heard his office in Columbiana has been vandalized in celebration of the event. No pictures yet though.

New Hatcher

There's a new Hatch loose on the world. Adler Silas Hatcher was born yesterday morning in Nashville, TN. He was 20 inches long and 6 lbs, 11 ounces. His father Shawn is my first cousin, and his mother's name is Autumn. I visited them yesterday when Silas was about 5 hours old and everyone was doing fine. Marissa stopped by today to visit and I'm afraid she may be Jonesing for a baby now. Ack. Here's some pictures.

Halloween Thoughts

Jack looks really cute this year dressed up as Nemo. Every time he goes out in the costume, everyone loves to run up to him and say "Look! We 'found' Nemo!" Man, that never gets old. Heh.

Of course every Halloween also brings to mind that my good friend Mok should be celebrating a birthday this morning. Heff and I should be sending goofy emails to him today that would mark a major milestone in life. Mok would probably respond as he always would, embarrassed but with that goofy grin on his face.

Mok would have turned 40 today, but he didn't.

In happier news, it's also my cousin Debbie's birthday today! Happy Birthday Debbie. I won't tell anyone how old you are.

Hatcher Reunion

I drove up to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky on Saturday morning to attend a Hatcher family reunion that was held by some distant cousins I've never met. I had read about them on the Hatcher Family Resources Center and since I had the time I decided to drive up and introduce myself.

I pulled up to the picnic area and walked into the building that looked like it was having a reunion. I didn't know anyone, but I knew one of the people hosting the reunion was named Maxie Hatcher, so I walked up to two gentlemen and asked if they could introduce me to Maxie. Turns out one of them was Maxie Hatcher, and the other man was his brother Jackie.

After I explained who I was they quickly welcomed me and made sure I was going to stay for lunch. They had quite a spread laid out, so I didn't argue with them too much about that. I ended up staying for about three hours and met lots of Hatcher cousins. We're not exactly sure how I'm related to this Hatcher branch, although I've been told that through genetic testing we know we're not too far distant. There is some question about how my 3rd Great Grandfather William Hatcher fits into the full family tree of the descendants of William Hatcher who came to Jamestown, Virginia in the 1630's.

Here's a picture of me and Jackie Hatcher, taken by Maxie Hatcher. It turns out that Maxie used to live about 3 miles from where I do, and Jackie lives less than 10 miles from me.

Cool Cave Picture

I led another weeknight trip to Hardins Cave late last month. My friend John from work went along and snapped this cool picture of me about to climb up a mud bank. Say hello to my little friend. There were a lot of bats in the cave that night. More than I had seen on any other trips there. They were flying around a lot as well and we were ducking to avoid them a lot on the trip.