A new life; same as the old life?

On this day in history, May 22nd 1859, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, was born in Edinburgh, a great representative of the Scottish people. I am sure I do not have to tell anyone who he is, and so I won't go into screeds of detail, especially as there are many websites doing exactly that. He is, of course, the inventor of that most famous British silhouette, Sherlock Holmes. In 1887 he wrote "A Study In Scarlet". I am sure that at the time, coming from a writing family, his mother's influence and experience, could never have prepared him for the phenomenon that has become Sherlock Holmes. Check out these websites for more information , and if you ever get a chance to travel to London, check out the museum website for a visit

...today, to be present at the dedication of two of the homes I have been working on up at Habitat For Humanity. I was invited to this a few weeks ago, through the office, as one of the houses being dedicated was the Hewitt house, our 9th! We had never been to a dedication before, and so didn't really know what to expect. The first picture here, shows a part of the dedication ceremony, where we all lay our hand on a part of the house and repeat, "I dedicate this house" We worked in the morning at one of the houses on their new site, I built a stud wall. I was also there to see what I might be doing next week, when I do my very first volunteer crew lead next weekend. All of the regular crew leaders from Americorp will be in Texas for a blitz build, where they get several hundred volunteers and Americorp folks and try to build something like 100 houses in one week. The main reason that it was a special privilege for me today though, was that as a Hewitt employee and regular

Most, if not all of my Non US readers will probably never have heard of this. Last Friday we went with some friends to a Mexican restaurant to drink Margarita and eat good Mexican food. Nothing new there, I can hear my friends mutter. Cinco De Mayo is a huge day in the history of Mexico. It is not Mexican Independence day, which is 16th September, but it celebrates the date when the Mexican Army beat the French, who were trying to expand their empire to include Mexico. The victory was at the Battle Of Puebla, 1862. To understand what events lead up to this you have to go further back in history. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1862. Between then and 1858, the Mexican economy took several hits, through various events, political takeovers and wars (including the US Civil War), culminating in the Mexican Civil War. Mexico was heavily in debt to several nations, with Britain, Spain and France being the main loansharks. France worked with Britain and Spain to head over to Mexico to