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Hello and welcome to our web page.  We are glad you could join us.  First, here is a little information about us.  My wife and I own and operate the Harmony House Inn - a fine Bed and Breakfast in New Bern, NC.  We are in our nineth year of innkeeping and loved it.  Many people ask us why we became innkeepers.  The answer is simple.  When we found out we were going to have a child, we evaluated very closely how our friends who had children were living their lives.  Many of them had to have both parents work full time to support the  family.  This left the child in the care of someone else for a major part of the day.  As hard working professionals, most young couples have to work 60 hour weeks.  When they got home at the end of the day, they usually only had a short amount of time to spend with their children.  And after long days at the office, it did not appear to us to be quality time.  The pineapple is the universal symbol of hospitality and that the significance of the three pineapples.

My name is Ed.  I am the computer nut of the family.  My hobbies include reading, messing around on the computer, touring civil war sites, cooking, music, and sports.

I like to read a lot of different kinds of books and magazines.  I have read several books about the Civil War including  Co. Aytch (pronounced "Company H") by Sam Watkins.  He was in the 1st Tennessee Infantry during the Civil War and this book is his memoirs written twenty years after then end of the war.    Some others I have read include Landscape Turned Red and  To The Gates of Richmond by Stephen Sears, and Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horowitz.  I also enjoy reading fiction such as Intensity and Sole Survivor by Dean Koontz,  Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwall, Dance Hall of the Dead by Tony Hillerman, and Sacrament by Clive Barker.  Historical fiction such as The Killer Angels by Jeff Shaara and The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt are also books that have appealed to me.  Some of my favorite authors are Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and Clive Barker.  My all-time favorite book is Bliss by Peter Carey.

I have recently ordered a couple of books from amazon.com and was completely satisfied with their service.  They offer 20%, 30%, or 40% discounts on most books and have a secure server through which to place an order.  I received my books two and three days after placing the order.  One simply cannot beat their prices and convenience. 

        Please click the logo to visit their site. 

Bliss by Peter Carey, is about Harry Joy, an advertising executive who dies of a heart attack, but is resuscitated after several minutes.  During the brief time of his "death", he experiences himself going to hell.  The book is about how this event affects the remainder of his life.  The characters in the book are interesting and fun to read about.  The descriptive style is some of the best I have ever read.  Please click on the book cover to go to amazon.com's page describing the book in more detail.  There is also ordering information on this page if you are interested in attaining a copy.  Please let me know what you think of the book.

Some of the Civil War Sites I have visited include Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Manassas, and many interesting sites around the Washington, DC area.  But my favorite place to visit has been the Battlefield of Anteitam near Sharpsburg, MD.  Also close and well worth the trip  is Harper's Ferry, WV.  About half way between Sharpsburg and Harper's Ferry is the quaint town of Shepherdstown, WV.  I have stayed at the Thomas Shepherd Inn there which I can highly recommend.   I also recommend dinner at The Yellow Brick Bank.

My wife Sooki enjoys decorating and arts and crafts.  At the inn, we have an inside joke when our guests ask us if we did the decorating ourselves.  "Yes," I explain, "My wife told me where to put everything and I put it there."  Her other interests include working with children, church activities, arts and crafts, and cooking.  She operates a small gift shop at the inn.  We do not carry a lot of merchandise, but what we do carry is unique.  Many of the things we carry are arts and crafts that Sooki makes herself.

On May 14, 1994, we added our daughter Jamie to our family.  She has been the greatest gift that could have come into our lives.  She just started the third grade and describes herself as a "junior innkeeper".   She has been entertaining our guests since she was able to crawl.  Over the summer, she took great pride in her work around the inn.  She did such things as pouring orange juice for guests, mingling, helping with baking, etc.  She is a very visual little girl and likes a lot of different colors.  When asked what her favorite color is she usually answers "Rainbow" meaning that she likes them all.   She enjoys playing computer games, painting, and watching videos.  Her current favorites are the videos in The Land Before Time series.  She also likes the shows Dragon Tales,  Arthur and Scooby Doo, and Lizzie McGuire.  It amazes me that Scooby is still popular after all these years.  When I was a child, I remember when Scooby Doo debuted.  I enjoy watching the old reruns with my little girl. Her reading is very advanced for her grade and she is already enjoying many of the books in the Nancy Drew series.
 

Comments or Suggestions? 

This web page was designed by Ed Kirkpatrick.  Last updated August 2002.