Sally's Stuff

Michelle is Sick

2010-02-25T23:56:00.002-05:00

As if life wasn't keeping us busy enough....Anne and I got back from Austin to find that Michelle was sick. It didn't seem all that bad on Wednesday, although she was coughing a lot and seemed pretty stuffy. It seemed more like a cold than anything.

Well, her temp kept going up and by the time Christine came to get her, she was running quite a fever and not feeling good at all. Christine took her to the doc this morning....ear infection, a good start on pink eye, and a cough. Meds for all, which is great fun. Michelle takes after her dad when it comes to her willingness to take meds. Although actually she isn't quite as bad as he was--LOL.

By this evening, she was feeling some better, thank goodness. It was quite a day...Christine brought her over after she got the prescriptions filled, and had time to go change and get to work (starts at 11). It has been a good long time since I have dealt with a sick kiddo and I haven't missed it at all--haha.

We will hope she continues to improve rapidly!

Brian has his knee surgery tomorrow..

Take care all....send plenty of good thoughts, okay?

Snow in Austin

2010-02-23T13:25:00.002-05:00

They act like it has never happened before. I do know it is pretty rare though....

Anne's appt for ending her trial was at 11 a.m. today and we left an hour early just in case of bad roads, accident back ups, etc. I didn't have to drive on the freeway so that was good too. The roads were totally fine, which was good. There had already been reports of accidents in other places but we had no problem and didn't pass any accidents.

I got to see the wires being pulled out of Anne's back. Kind of interesting/weird. The gal pulled a good 6 inches or more of wires out. The human body is a wonderous thing, as they came out clean as a whistle, the little holes didn't bleed or leak any kind of fluids or anything. It was pretty cool. Sadly, of course, it means the temporary end of her pain relief. Her knees started to hurt before we got back to the motel, and she is pretty much back at her previous pain level already. Oh well....

So the snow. It is accumulating, mostly as slush, on sidewalks and places on the roads that aren't driven on. It has looked pretty coming down. It snowed really hard while we were waiting at the pain clinic, but slowed down a lot by the time we were ready to go.

She has an appt for injections in her knees tomorrow and then we hit the road for Abilene. It is to be warmer tomorrow and dry, and the storm is to have moved on by this evening... so all should be good tomorrow.

I will try to update here more often.

Round Up Time

2009-10-31T14:34:00.004-04:00

I had intended to write more about the Richmond trip ages ago and it didn't happen. Suffice it to say, we had a really good visit! It is always fun and relaxing to visit with Jo and Eric.

Jo and I both did a lot of spinning. I finished spinning and plying all the solar dyed fiber I brought with me. I haven't done a thing with it since I got home, except take it to knitting group to show. I had almost forgotten that I wanted to put the one skein back through the wheel to reduce the twist a little bit. I will have to do that next week. Then both skeins need to be finished.

Jo gave me some fiber to spin on that last Thursday. The day when we were supposed to be home except for our flight being cancelled. It was kind of interesting/strange looking fiber--maybe not a color combination I would have chosen. Well, it spins up really pretty. I spun up half of it while at Jo's. I have the rest to do and still haven't touched it yet, except to take it to knitting. They all loved it, both the unspun and the spun. So, I guess it is just outside my usual comfort zone and not a strange combination after all? I am really pleased with the way it looks when spun so I guess that is the big thing?

Okay, back to our visit--lol. We went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and had a great time there. The flowers were lovely and the grounds are wonderful. Mike and Jo went in to see the Butterflies-turned out that was the last day for the exhibit. Mike got some great butterfly photos.

On Tuesday we went to Colonial Williamsburg. Mike took his camera and we had a great time walking around and seeing the sites. Mike and I hadn't been there in a good 15 years or so. It seemed to me that the surrounding areas had changed a good bit, but it is hard to say--15 years is a long time to remember too many details.

One of the big highlights was: eating lunch at the Trellis Restaurant. You may remember Marcel Desaulniers, who did two different cooking shows years ago--Death By Chocolate and The Burger Meister. He is co-owner of the Trellis. We ended up eating lunch there and it was wonderful! We had a good lunch and had to order a slice of the Death by Chocolate cake. We split it three ways and all had more than enough cake. It was delicious!

It is amazing to think we have been home as long as we have.

We have made another trip to Epcot, enjoying the ongoing International Food and Wine Festival.

This past Thursday I took Mom and Dad to Orlando to see my Aunt Glenda and some of the family. It had been 30 years since I had seen any of them. It was a great visit! Two of my cousins, their wives, and a daughter each were all there. I hope it isn't another 30 years before we meet up again.. Thanks to email and FaceBook, I am sure we will keep in touch better than we have in the past.

I think I am caught up now? With blogging anyway.

I have wool to wash. Ditto alpaca. I have spinning to do! I have skeins of yarn to finish. And Christmas shopping to get started on. Yikes!

Happy Anniversary!

2009-10-27T14:08:00.004-04:00

We interrupt my greatly delayed recounting of our fun time at Jo and Eric's to bring you a very special announcement!

AnnaBelle and Earl Walters are celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary today!

They are a true inspiration to us all.....

Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig?

2009-10-18T16:44:00.002-04:00

We are safely home.

The Fates didn't seem to want that though?

We were to fly home on Wednesday, after several days with Jo and Eric. They dropped us off at the airport in good time and we got the bag checked, through security (hurmph!) and to the gate all in good time.

Mike and I were the next in line to get on the plane when they stopped boarding people. Before we knew it we were sitting again and the people already on the plane were back in the waiting area. There was a problem with the plane. A crew was called in and it was eventually determined that it could not be repaired in time for the flight to take off that evening.

We stood in line and chose to try the same flight on Thursday. We called Jo and she and Eric kindly came and rescued us. What a mess! It was nice getting to spend more time with Jo and Eric though....it made the whole situation much easier to deal with.

They took us to the airport again on Thursday. All went well, although our plane was a little late getting in. Unbelievably, the pilot announced that they had hit a bird on their way to Richmond, and they had to have the plane checked to make sure there was no damage. Good to know they take things seriously, but honestly---why so hard to get out of Richmond? They got a crew in to check the plane and all was good. We were about an hour delayed, but at least we knew the plane was not damaged.

We arrived safely in Orlando, and were glad to be back in warm Florida--haha.

I will post soon about all the fun things we did in Richmond!

In Virginia

2009-10-11T11:36:00.003-04:00

We had a safe flight to Richmond. Jo met us outside security and Eric was waiting outside with the truck.

We have been keeping busy. We went to the farm on Friday and I bought half a fleece that was shorn from the sheep at the farm. Mike took a lot of photos, and there should be some good ones in there!

Yesterday we went to the fall music festival (not sure that is the real name?). There were a number of stages with groups performing. There were a number of different kinds of music being played--just about something for everyone. Jo says the craft area was smaller than in years past. There were a few artisans demonstrating, which was interesting.

We got rained on a little bit--the first rain we have had here since we arrived, I think?

Jo and I have been doing a lot of spinning. I brought some fiber with me that I had solar dyed. I have finished spinning an ounce of it and plied it. It is in hot water soaking. I think it is way over twisted and I might have to run it back through.

In any case, Jo is letting me use her Ashford Traditional wheel and I am enjoying it. I still like my own wheel best, of course, but I like hers too! It is a single treadle, which took a little bit of getting used to.

Well, I had best go....more later.

I Forgot Things!

2009-10-03T11:44:00.002-04:00

Isn't that the way, I finally got myself busy and posted on my blog and then the next day I realized there were things I forgot to talk about. And it has taken me this long to get around to posting again.

Last weekend--on Saturday, to be exact---Mike and I went to Epcot for the first time since the birthday weekend! The International Food and Wine Festival had just started up on Friday. We were a little worried that it would be really crowded, as we had heard that is usually the case the first weekend. Although it got more and more crowded as the day progressed, it wasn't crowded at all that morning and early afternoon.

It is always fun deciding which country's offerings to try out, and enjoying again things we tried last year. We tried two new things, both of which were good! There was Spicy Chicken Sausage with Polenta in Canada, which was really good and they weren't kidding about the spicy! We also tried the grilled scallop from New Zealand, which was good. Oh----I almost forgot, we tried a dessert too------Lava Cake with Baileys chocolate ganache from Ireland. Oh was that ever good--- yummm! The other things we ate were all things we had last year and loved.

It seemed especially hot, which was a bit surprising, since we have often visited Disney parks when it was much hotter. We are looking forward to it cooling off a little bit. And we definitely look forward to trying out more of the great food selections.

The "Eat to the Beat" concert series is in full swing too. The group that day was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We hadn't heard of them before, but enjoyed the show. They are a swing band, and had plenty of brass in the line up.

Not much new on the spinning front. I did get the yarn off that bobbin (photo in last post) and onto the niddy noddy. I still need to tie the skein and get it washed and finished. Then there are just the last bits of the mint julep to finish plying and I will have to decide what to spin next.

Is it Fall Yet?

2009-09-29T09:22:00.002-04:00

I see I have been slack and have totally skipped a week.

Our weather continues warm but we are to have a cold front come through tomorrow, I think it is? It will take our highs from high 80s/low 90s, to mid 80s. Also lower humidity, so it should be nice!

I got my hair trimmed on Friday--a long over due chore. I luckily found a new gal, who did a nice job and respected my request not to use scented stuff. We figured out that my hair was unhappy with the chlorine it is exposed to when I swim. Worked out a routine to take care of that and it is working well. I could tell a difference after the first time I tried it and it is even better after the second time. It was as easy as wetting my hair with tap water before getting in the pool, and giving it a rinse with water and vinegar before washing my hair after swimming.

I am really hoping to get it together this fall! The nice weather always manages to trick me into forgetting that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. You would think that the Halloween candy in the stores, and the Christmas stuff out already would be clue enough, but somehow my brain still ignores that in favor of listening to the weather.

On the handcraft front....I finished spinning up the mint julep batts. I started plying the two bobbins from that last batt last week, and finished it on Sunday. It almost totally filled the bobbin. I still have to get it wound off onto the niddy noddy and washed. Then there is the rest of the singles on the first two bobbins that still need to be plied. I think I will get a pretty good amount of yardage out of this. This is that almost full bobbin....

Talk Like a Pirate Day

2009-09-19T18:22:00.002-04:00

Aaaargh, me hearties!

Well, enough of that--lol.

I took a step out of the usual routine and went to Magic Kingdom on Wednesday to spend part of the day with Becky, Tom, Zack, Maddie and Jake. The weather was great--well, hot, but no rain! The park wasn't crowded at all, so we spent the day never having to stand in line. (well, maybe a tiny line now and then-LOL) That was really wonderful!

It was really good seeing everyone. Jake sure is getting big--way bigger than last time I saw him. The kids seemed to be having a really good time. We had 4 goes at shooting alien bad guys and made the universe a little safer for everyone--hahah. We had the fun of seeing Tinker Bell making friends with Jake--he wasn't having any of that---I think he was getting hungry and tired but wasn't expressing it yet.

I left about 4 o'clock to head home and had a good trip, with the traffic not being bad at all.

I actually went and swam three times this week. Part of my plan to stop being so lazy and to take advantage of the pool while it is still warm enough--haha.

I have been doing more spinning. I am 3/4 of the way done spinning the last of the mint julep batts. Just as a guess, I should have a skein at least as big as the one pictured in the previous post, by the time the rest of this is spun and plied. I really like the way this yarn looks.

I got smart finally.....haha. The sparkly stuff (firestar) in these batts tends to stick to my slacks when I am spinning (leaving strands of firestar here and there). I have been putting my silk scarf on my lap before I start spinning and no more fiber stuck to the pants. I am glad I thought to do it.

I will have to start thinking about what I want to spin next. Or it might be time to play with the drum carder some more and make up some of my own batts? I have plenty of things to add to the mix now--a number of different colors of bamboo, and some tussah silk. I should be able to come up with some good combinations.

Avast ye lubbers!

Rainy Weekend

2009-09-14T11:58:00.004-04:00

That just about says it all. We had a cloudy, gloomy day on Saturday. The sun didn't really peek out till way later in the day. It rained off and on, and rained that night too. More rain Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. I have to remember to go check the rain gauge.

There wasn't much going on--football on the TV and time spent on the computers. It sure was a quiet weekend! Mike had the beeper, so quiet was good, actually.

I got the plied Mint Julep yarn off the bobbin and got it washed and finished. It has been hanging in the bathroom, drying. I took it down and took some photos--it looks really pretty, if I do say so myself! I have hung it back up--I want to make sure it is really totally dry before I tuck it away. Wool can hold so much water before it feels wet, I don't like to take chances. So, here is the first skein of Mint Julep!

Oops, second photo is blurry! But, it has the dime to give an idea of thickness, so I will leave it. Might try to take a better photo later and replace it.

Too Late for a 09-09-09 Post

2009-09-10T11:43:00.003-04:00

I really would have loved to post at 09.09 a.m. on 09/09/09, but I didn't think about it till too late--haha. Oh well.

All is fine here. Mike and I are keeping busy, as usual. There hasn't been much photo taking going on. It is the wrong season for birds, except for the ones that seem to be here all year, and they have been photographed half to death. There are no little grand-daughters here to take photos of either. And no trips to Disney since the end of July. Between trips out of town and rain chances that seemed to go up almost every weekend, we just haven't made it over. However, I am sure that will change soon, as the forecasts are starting to look better again and it won't be too much longer before we are into the beginning of the dry season.

I have been doing a little bit of swimming at the folks pool. I made it up to 25 laps the other day--not sure how that translates to laps in a regular public sized pool. I did measure the pool back before Mom and Dad moved in, but I don't remember now just how long it is--except not very long--haha. I keep reminding myself to swim while I can, before it is too cool to do it in comfort. I hope we don't have another colder-than-usual winter like we did last year.

I haven't been knitting much but am still spinning--sometimes several times a week.
Here are the two bobbins of Mint Julep that I have spun so far. I have been plying these and almost have a bobbin full now. I still have one batt of this fiber to spin, too. The yarn is coming out really nice and soft, and looks pretty.

It is Thursday!

2009-09-03T17:45:00.002-04:00

Already.....the week is almost over.

We have had rain. A lot of rain. Wednesday morning I found 3+ inches of rain in the rain gauge, and that was before it rained some more. I was on my way to knitting, and so didn't take the time to dump the gauge. So, I have no idea how much it rained during the day while I was out. Although it has rained more since then, there hasn't been a significant amount of rain in the gauge, which is nice. We have finally had some periods of sunny-ness though, so I won't complain about the gray, cloudy parts too much!

The number of dragonflies buzzing around has been on the increase. Not sure what that is all about, but I am seeing them everywhere. At least they don't bite, so I don't mind them--lol.

I finally got with the program and joined Facebook. There are actually people I remember from high school on there. How wild, eh?

I went to the folks and swam today, for the first time in ages again. I always enjoy it and wish I would make the time to do it more often!

I have spun 4 days this week so far, which has been wonderful. I had finished the first batt of the mint julep, and I'm halfway through the second batt already. I really like the color, and the way it is spinning up. I will be interested to see what the finished yarn is going to look like.

Shuttle Discovery Lift-off!

2009-08-29T00:06:00.004-04:00

The shuttle launched tonight--oops, Friday night, just before midnight. I risked waking Mike with the beeping door, and went out to watch. Here are some of the photos I took with the little camera.

Click on photos to make them bigger!

The Week in Review

2009-08-28T15:36:00.002-04:00

Ha! It was actually a pretty slow week, with not much to report.

The shuttle still hasn't been launched yet, but they are planning to try again tonight. I hope they have the valve problem sorted out in time, and that the shuttle can actually get on its way tonight.

We continue with nice hot weather! I have noticed in blogs of bloggers to the north, that they are talking about cooler temperatures and fall in the air already. We are still in summer, and so is most of Texas, it seems. I sure prefer our weather.

The grapefruit on the tree in the back are getting bigger. They are quite easy to see from in the house. It looks like there will be a good crop of them again this year!

I still haven't cast on any knitting but am getting closer to doing it--hahah.

I have been spinning and am enjoying it a lot. I finished another strip of the mint julep batts yesterday and hope to get part of another strip at least started today.

I realized I haven't yet put up a pic of the cute little sample size niddy noddy I got from The Spinning Loft. It is a nice piece of workmanship and is just cute as the dickens! And the wee little skein it makes is just too cute. So, here is a photo of the niddy noddy, a little skein made from some baby yarn I had in my knitting bag (I demonstrated the use of the niddy noddy for the knitting gals), and a pen to provide some sort of frame of reference as to size. I couldn't find a ruler for the life of me. Oh well.....

Shuttle?

2009-08-26T22:21:00.003-04:00

The shuttle launch has been scrubbed twice now and I think it is scheduled for Friday now? I don't imagine we will see it, in any case. It is set for 12.22 A.M., which is a bit late--haha.

There isn't too much going on these days. I am getting back into the swing of things, catching up on laundry and such. I went to knitting group today and had a good time.

I stopped at Barnes and Noble after knitting and found the newest Simply Knitting magazine. Alan Dart has a new design out--Hula Hamsters. They are totally too cute. Grass skirts, leis, hibiscus blooms in the "hair", the whole bit.

I did some spinning yesterday and plan to get some more done tomorrow. I really like the way it is looking, and look forward to seeing it plied, too.

Where Did the Week Go?

2009-08-20T22:58:00.007-04:00

It feels like we just got home from Texas, and here it is the end of the week already. Time is a very strange thing.

There were a bunch of Sand Hill Cranes one yard down from my folks yard this afternoon. There were 5-6 of them and they sure were loud! Mike and I went out to look and make sure they weren't under attack, they were so loud.

This is the skein of yarn I made from the batt bite I mentioned in an earlier post. I am pretty happy with the way it came out! It is promised to Anne. I brought it home from Texas so the knitting group gals could see it, and so Jo can see it. Then it can go to Anne. There are about 93 yards in this skein. It is a 2-ply yarn, and I had the most fun ever plying it. Edited to clarify: of all the singles I have plied together, plying these singles was the most fun!

I have started spinning another batt from Corgi Hill Farms (the source of the batt bite). The color is Mint Julep and it is really pretty. Made up of merino wool, silk and firestar. Yum! It is spinning up pretty easily and I am really enjoying it.

We're Back!

2009-08-18T16:35:00.002-04:00

We had a great visit in Texas! Our flight out was good and we landed in Houston, got our rental car, and were on the road before the big thunderstorm hit. Thank goodness it didn't start earlier.

We had a good time, visiting with Mike's mom and dad, meeting some of their friends, and seeing all the kids. Anne and Paul, Brian and little Michelle, all arrived on Friday. It was great seeing them again! Michelle is looking forward to starting preschool next week.

Russell, Amy, Skyler and Zoey arrived on Saturday. It had been at least 2 years, maybe more, since we had seen them last. Michelle and Skyler played really well together and got along just great. You would have thought they saw each other all the time. Little Zoey has red curly hair and is sweet as can be. A very quiet baby--she was so good!

The time passed way too quickly. We did get to try a number of flavors of Anne's special homemade jams and boy were they ever good. Anne and I made a fresh peach cobbler that turned out pretty good too. Yummm!

I didn't take any knitting with me--I figured I would be too busy visiting to want to bother with it, and I was right.

We flew home yesterday, with 6 month old twins in front of us. It was not a quiet flight--haha.

I did a little bit of spinning today. I thought I would start on the carbon diamond bamboo, but it wasn't really speaking to me, and I am also thinking it might be happier blended in with other fibers. We will see. I wound off the little bit I had spun onto a yarn core and opened up a Mint Julep batt. That was more like it! It is so soft!---wool, silk and firestar. It opened out into a pretty huge batt, I think it was done on a double wide drum carder. I spun up a little bit of it and I like the way it is spinning.

I still have to put up photos of the batt bite. It turned out pretty well and was fun to spin.

Tuesday

2009-08-11T16:46:00.003-04:00

I finished spinning the little batt bite today! I had a longer than usual session while the dryer was running. I was glad to get the last of this batt spun up. If I have time tomorrow, I will get it plied and washed. I am really interested to see what the finished yarn is going to look like!

A New Week

2009-08-09T17:29:00.004-04:00

I never did mention that we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie on our anniversary. I hadn't read the book since it first came out, and I guess that was a good thing! I heard they added things to the movie that weren't in the book. You wouldn't think they would need/want to do that as there was plenty of material in the book---Rowling's last ones were all over 500 pages. But they did--go figure. It had been long enough since I read the book that I wasn't sure if I had just forgotten bits or if it was stuff they made up--although I remember thinking I would have used different bits from the book in place of some of the scenes, and I think those were all the made up bits--hahah. Oh well. The movie itself was good, but as usual, never as good as the book. I can't off the top of my head think of any movie I thought was better than the book it was based on.

I just now finished spinning the first half of the "batt bite" I have been spinning. I took some photos and here is one of them--the one that gives the best view of the bobbin of singles. It has been easy to spin. There have been little bits that don't want to spin like the rest. The rust colored parts are especially prone to be a little difficult--I am guessing those are camel or yak or one of the other exotic fibers the batt might include. All in all though, it has been fun to spin and I am looking forward to getting the other half spun, and the singles plied!

I will be getting ready for our trip to TX, so I'm not sure if I will post again till after we are back.

This and That

2009-08-04T17:26:00.006-04:00

I have intended to post so many times and didn't have time and/or didn't have photos ready that I wanted to post, so put it off.

You have probably heard that the Endeavor landed safely. We heard the (two) sonic booms, they pretty well shook the house. Two nearby ibis were startled and flew past the dining room window--would have been cool to have gotten a shot of that.

It might have been that same day, I was outside and spotted the family of swans that live in the lake behind the houses on Old Glory. Mom and Dad swan and the 4 almost grown up swans, who look about as big as the parents at this point, but are still brown. Go figure. I got the camera and they stayed around long enough for me to get a shot that wasn't too bad....

On the spinning front--I finally finished plying the amethyst merino singles today. Two bobbins full in all, the most I have ever spun of any one fiber. I got the yarn wound onto the niddy noddy and finished up in the sink. It looks better than I could hope, as it hangs drying in the bathroom. I'll put up photos of the two skeins later, but for now, I have a photo of the yarn on the niddy, ready to be pulled off and washed.

I knew it wasn't going to take long to finish plying the merino, so I wracked my brain to decide what I would start spinning next. I didn't want to start a really big project, or anything too fussy. I decided I would spin up a freebie bonus half batt I got when I ordered some batts from a favorite etsy shop. I actually remembered to take photos of the fiber before disturbing it. I then weighed it--about 0.6-0.7 ounces. I divided it in half, so I can do a two ply and have similarly filled bobbins--lol. I have spun a little bit of the first half, it is spinning very thin, and is very sparkly! Have to go get the band--okay, she calls it a batt bite (!!!) and it may contain merino wool, silk, firestar, yak, camel and bamboo. It is very soft and sparkly, and fun to spin.

Three Days of Disney Fun!

2009-07-30T18:22:00.003-04:00

We survived our second annual "Mike's birthday weekend at Disney!" We had a really good time, as usual. And we made it through 3 days at Disney with just one blister each. We were a bit worried about the weather forecasts, but we really got lucky and although 3-4 thunderstorms hit Epcot on Sunday, we managed to avoid getting wet.

Mike suggested we get some photos taken on Monday, so we did. We had two sets done on Main Street, by two different Disney photographers, in two different locations. They actually aren't bad, and I think we might order some. We really will have to get them to take photos with one of our cameras some time. I know we never seem to have many/any photos of the two of us together.

We had a great dinner on Sunday night at Teppan Edo, one of the restaurants in Japan. The food was wonderful, just as it was the last time we ate there. It is a good show and very enjoyable! We had a good dinner on Monday night at Tony's Town Square too, for Mike's birthday. Yummy food, and an ice cream sundae for Mike's birthday.

On the fiber front, I plied most of the rest of my two bobbins of singles today. Well, I spun till the one bobbin ran out of singles, that is. Despite carefully dividing the fiber into two equal sections and spinning each on a bobbin, it wasn't so even after all. Oh well. I still have a pretty good amount of plied yarn on the new bobbin, and I might have close to 300 yards of yarn by the time it is all done?

I still haven't remembered to take a photo of the skein of finished yarn...that will have to wait for a different day and then I will get it up on the blog.

It is Yarn!

2009-07-24T14:14:00.004-04:00

We are fine, keeping busy. The weather has been nicer this week, not as many thunderstorms. Which has been nice. It is nice seeing more blue sky. One of the trade-offs has been hotter temperatures. Oh well. We did have a thunderstorm last night, and I think we got rain here, although I am not positive. It didn't sound like they had anything at all in Orlando.

We head off to Orlando tomorrow for our celebration weekend at Disney. I made reservations for dinner at Teppan Edo on Sunday evening and Tony's on Monday, for Mike's birthday. The food at both places is really good--can't go wrong with either place. I am not sure if we are taking the computer or not, but even if we do, I imagine I will not be writing--although I would be sure to check email. I will have my cell phone, be sure to call if you need to get hold of us!

The kitties are doing fine. They still have kitty wars pretty often, so still seem to have plenty of energy, despite their elderly kitty status. You would think they could/would just lie around and be lazy, but not so.

I finished spinning the amethyst merino. On Tuesday I started plying the two bobbins of singles. That was eye opening and disheartening, as I saw just how irregular my singles were. It was strange, as I had thought that my singles were much more even than past efforts, and I thought this yarn would be really good. HA!

I found that once plied, the yarn filled the bobbin with plenty left on the singles bobbins. I filled the bobbin almost totally full after hours of plying (see photo), and decided since there was no way to get the rest of the singles plied and onto that bobbin, I had best stop. It took a good bit of time to wind all that yarn onto my niddy noddy. I gave the yarn a good bath and went ahead and shocked it with hot and cold water, whacked it and snapped it. I had been a little worried that the yarn would be totally unbalanced, as some parts of the singles really had a lot of twist in them. But, amazingly, once the twist was set, the yarn hung straight and there was no sign of little twisty pigtails.

And best of all, the yarn looked so much nicer than it did when I was plying. Go figure. I have 148 yards so far, and there is still the rest to ply. I did start plying the rest yesterday but didn't have much time to devote to it.

The Week in Review

2009-07-18T10:08:00.003-04:00

Space Shuttle Endeavor got safely launched. When Mike came home from work (on launch day--Wednesday?) we talked about it and then forgot all about it. Although, we were not sure what the launch time was either. Oh well. Mike heard it going up and called to me. The shuttle was already into the clouds, so we couldn't see it, but could see the trail below.

I am almost done spinning up the second half of the amethyst merino. I feel like I am learning a lot. It also seems to be going faster--not sure if it really is or I have just been spinning more often. I did up 7 hunks of the top yesterday, a real record. I took breaks now and then--dealing with laundry, getting coffee, etc--and it made a difference. I was comfortably able to spin longer.

We are at home today instead of at Disney. A 50% chance of rain is just too high--our experience is that it is almost a guarantee that it will rain at some point. Oh well. It is nice and sunny outside right now, but they are predicting thunderstorms this afternoon.

Well, not much of interest going on.....

Shuttle Launch Scrubbed Again

2009-07-14T10:39:00.003-04:00

The weather sure hasn't been cooperating with NASA. We had our "daily thunderstorm" earlier in the afternoon/evening yesterday so things were looking good, but Cape Canaveral had another storm to the north that was moving away but not fast enough. I always feel sorry for people who come from all around the country to see a launch.

I finished up the first 2 ounce bobbin of the amethyst merino yesterday! Today I hope to get it off the wheel, clean and oil the wheel, and start the second 2 ounces. I have been enjoying spinning this wool, but will also be glad to be done with it, as other fibers are calling to me to be spun too--lol.

Things continue much as usual in our little part of Florida. I will be glad when we move past this late afternoon storm session--I know it isn't just a given for this area, at least not as an every day thing.

A New Week

2009-07-13T11:12:00.003-04:00

The summer is zipping by, not sure where it goes.

I ended up spinning 4 times this past week. I am almost done with the first half of this merino wool. It will be a two ply yarn and I think it will come out pretty good.

Mike and I swam at the Brady's pool and spa both Saturday and Sunday. We went early enough to miss the summer thunderstorms. We had a nice chat with the folks yesterday, Mom and Dad came and sat out on the patio.

The space shuttle launch has suffered from the storms though, and was delayed once again yesterday. I hope it goes off tonight? If the storms would come through earlier, all would be well....

I am going through Disney withdrawal. We haven't been since Michelle's birthday. Yikes, that is almost a month ago. Between being out of town and bad weather, there hasn't been much choice. I guess we could go despite the rain chances, but we hate to have our time shortened by a thunderstorm. Oh well....

I will have to get back to washing Anne's wool, and wash up some more alpaca too...

Spinning Fun

2009-07-07T13:39:00.007-04:00

Don't faint, I am back to posting more regularly!

I am finally getting back into my routines, after having Brian and Co here for two weeks, then being out of town for a week. The washer and dryer are getting work outs and the nordic track got used for the first time in more than a month.

I have now used my spinning wheel 3 times since we have been back. I actually have spun two days in a row--I am sure that is a first for me. I am spinning up some merino wool in the colorway Amethyst, from Woodland Woolworks. It is spinning up nice and easy and my singles look pretty even.

I finished knitting a baby hat. It was my knitting group knitting--mostly mindless knitting that I don't have to concentrate on too hard. It is really cute! I had plenty of the ball of yarn left (Bernat Baby Jacquards in Easter Basket), so have started another hat in the 1 year size. The recently finished hat is in the 6 month size.

It looks like a thunderstorm is descending on us---black clouds moving in fast and some thunder in the distance. The wind has really picked up too. We could use the rain, since the actual rain fall we have had recently is less than it seemed. Yep, a good old thunderstorm, lots of lightning and thunder but not very much rain....oh well.

Busy Summer

2009-07-03T10:06:00.002-04:00

June flew by in no time at all, that is what being busy will do for you. Brian, Christine and Michelle flew in for a visit, and we had a great two weeks with them. They got the Disney military salute tickets, good for 5 days of Disney fun. We made full use, and used every day of those tickets. I imagine they have had enough Disney to last them a good long time.... On the down side, it was hot and more crowded than I remember the parks being last summer. But, I remembered that the weather kept us from going as much last summer as we did the rest of the year, so I can't really judge.

We finally got to take the kids to Epcot and that was a lot of fun. Michelle did just fine there---we weren't sure if there was enough there to keep her interested and happy, but it worked out okay. She did sleep for a while, but that was good, since we stayed till closing and saw the fireworks, which she absolutely loved. She liked it so much, we then stayed at Magic Kingdom long enough to see the evening light parade and the fireworks. They really put on a great display.

We also went to the Animal Kingdom, and Michelle enjoyed that too. I quickly remembered why we think we will enjoy that park more in cooler weather--lol.

On most of the non-Disney days, we went next door and swam at Mom and Dad's. Michelle loves the water and doesn't mind getting her face wet, water up her nose, etc. I wonder where she gets that from? She had a grand time and enjoyed jumping off the side of the pool to us.

They flew home on Friday the 19th and Mike and I flew to Denver on the Monday the 22nd, for Mike's TDY to Boulder. We had a great time there, tried out some new restaurants, and enjoyed the cooler weather. I got to shop at Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins again, and bought some great fiber to spin.

We are home again, and I am back to meeting with my knitting buddies on Wednesdays. Hurrah!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T09:49:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone has a good day?

We went to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot yesterday and had a great time. It worked out really well to park at Epcot, catch the monorail to MK and have some fun there for part of the day. We caught the monorail back to Epcot about mid afternoon, and had fun there too---more photos, etc. Watched the Herman's Hermits concert twice! It was great, lots of fun and some audience participation. Mike has photos on his smug mug----www.mikefoto.smugmug.com. Just click on "new photos". He got some great photos......I have to say, Peter Noone puts on a great show!

Don't eat too many jelly beans! I have to go find out where the Bunny hid Mike's--lol.

Baby Birds!

2009-03-14T20:54:00.002-04:00

We stopped at the Wetlands after dinner tonight. Took Mom and Dad with us, so they could see the place. Wow!

We stopped in the area where the great blue herons were nesting, hoping to see baby herons. We didn't see any yet, although we did see adults on nests. We don't think the heron eggs have hatched yet. We did see two baby anhingas though! So cute! They looked pretty big already, not as big as the adults, of course, but they sure weren't tiny little baby birds by any means. They were hungry little devils, constantly pestering the adult bird for food.

We saw tons and tons of ibis. Tons of egrets, herons, ducks, coots, etc. We didn't spot any bald eagles--oh well. Mike took a lot of photos and is busy looking them over to see if he can find anything he is willing to let people see. He is pretty fussy.

Dad spotted an alligator in the water---the first we have seen there actually in the water. Our previous spottings have been of alligators over on an island in the wetlands, and we had started to think that they weren't likely to show up in the water. Now we know--haha. This one was barely visible, as we could only see the top part of its head and part of the snout. It was great that Dad managed to spot it.

The weather has been good and we are hoping that these blasted cold fronts are at an end, or at least slowing down. It has definitely been colder than usual this winter.

Disney Christmas

2008-12-15T17:30:00.004-05:00

We finally made another trip to the Magic Kingdom on Saturday, 6 Dec. It was the most crowded we have seen it, I think? We walked in to Main Street and found the street full of cheerleaders! I figure those girls got pretty hot, as the weather was nice and they had on long sleeves and gloves. Disney was filming part of the Disney Christmas parade. We watched a couple of takes and then moved on.

Disney was all nicely decorated and it was quite Christmas-y! We stayed till after dark, so also got to see Main Street with all the lights on.

It was really lovely. We were also lucky enough to see the glass blower finish an item--he was making a large martini glass. It was really interesting to see how it was all done.

We staked out a spot and sat to watch the parade, thinking it was going to be a special holiday parade. Imagine our surprise when it was the same one as usual. Oh well. We did have our best view of it yet, so that was nice.

Mike put together a little video with some of the highlights. You will see some video of bushes with pink flowers. The rose bushes were just covered with blooms and I asked Mike to be sure to film them for the Moms.

Enjoy!

Friday at Epcot

2008-11-08T10:27:00.002-05:00

It is always interesting visiting a Disney park on a weekday. It always surprises me that there are a lot of people there.

We went to Epcot yesterday and had a great time! There were a lot of people, but it wasn't crowded. I know that seems contradictory and I thought so at the time, too. The International Food and Wine Festival was still on---the last day is this Sunday. It was fun getting to try out more foods, since there were things we were interested in that we didn't get around to last time.

We shared an empanada from Santiago de Chile. They just had Santiago Chile on the sign, Anne, but I remembered that this is the proper form? I won't list everything we ate, but I will mention something that I didn't think I would particularly like, and instead I loved it. Canada had a maple glazed salmon with some kind of corn and green leafy stuff--lol. I really don't like meat/fish to be sweet, but Mike was interested, having heard from a guy at work that it was really good. I was glad we tried it---it was yummy! There were also some sweet bits of maple glazed nut in the mix too and those were really good.

It was a very musical visit. We managed to accidently be in the right places at the right time to hear a lot of things we easily could have missed. We heard most of one set played by British Invasion, a "Beatles" band that plays in England. We had heard them before, but mostly in passing. They are really quite good and we enjoyed the show. They were doing 3 more sets during the evening, and we decided to be sure to catch the 6 p.m. show. For each performance, there is a theme--along with appropriate costumes. It was all very enjoyable.

We went to China and got to hear a Chinese woman play a number of selections on a zither type instrument. It was really interesting and we were glad we got to hear her play.

Epcot is also near the end of one of their Concert Series, and we got to hear a band that I like! The band was Night Ranger, and I guess their biggest hit was a song I have always liked---"Sister Christian". They played a number of other songs first, almost all of which I recognized, but I hadn't realized that Night Ranger was the band that did them. That happens to me a lot--haha.

There, I had forgotten to mention that earlier on we enjoyed the music of Off Kilter, at Canada. They are an interesting group, they do rock/Canadian folk music, with guitars, keyboard, drums, and a bagpipe! They all wear kilts, too. They always put on a good show and yesterday was no exception.

There was plenty of music to be heard, all these and more. The food lines weren't long at all. I think the longest one all day for us was when we stopped to get Mike a Sam Adams beer. And even then, it wasn't nearly as long a line as some of the food lines the last time we were at Epcot.

To top it all off, we stopped and did Spaceship Earth just before leaving--no line at all. We had never seen it without a line. Amazing!

Have to Root for the Colts

2008-10-28T13:46:00.002-04:00

So last evening I was busy knitting, while Monday Night Football was on the TV. The Colts and Tennessee were playing. And I heard the announcer say the name Pierre Garcon. I thought, it couldn't be, could it? But really how many people have that name? I told Mike and since he was logged onto his computer, he did a quick check. And it is "our" Pierre Garcon. Of Mount Union football fame. How did we miss hearing about it?

How cool is that, for one of our Mount Union football players to get drafted by a professional football team! I was so thrilled, I watched the whole game. Sadly, the Colts lost. Garcon did well though. Wow!!!! I am still amazed, and pleased!

Meanwhile, we have had a cold front go through and it is a real one---it is rather chilly. The last cold front gave us highs in the high 70's, which isn't really much of a cold front--lol. This morning we were in the 40's and aren't expected to get out of the 60's today. It is to hang on for a few days before we get back to our usual warmer Oct/Nov weather.

I have been working on boxes---again, finally. I am making some progress, thank goodness.

Mike is keeping busy with work. We are both fine......

Settling In

2008-09-20T16:04:00.002-04:00

Well, Mom and Dad arrived on Wednesday, and the movers delivered their things today. They arrived just after 9 a.m. (the movers) and they were gone before noon. They really were quick and had everything unloaded in no time!

The house is starting to look more like "their house". Mom and I got inventory stickers off the furniture, etc, while Dad got the hanging clothes all situated in their closet. Some progress has been made!

We figure it will all look really nice once it is all done.

Mike did a little bit of video shooting, so there will probably be a video here to watch at some point!

Magic Kingdom!

2008-09-07T12:59:00.004-04:00

We finally made another trip to Disney--we hadn't been since Mike's birthday. The weather was great--hot but no rain. It wasn't at all crowded, which made for really short lines, when there were lines at all, and we managed to do quite a bit.

Main Street was a surprise, as they had decorated for Halloween! It all looked really nice and I am looking forward to seeing how they decorate for Christmas!

Anyway, Mike made a video--enjoy!

A New Car!

2008-08-26T19:36:00.002-04:00

After Fay

2008-08-23T18:22:00.002-04:00

We had sun and blue skies this morning, and some clouds, of course. It was a wonderful change!

We now have a thunderstorm, with lightning and more rain--boo! Oh well.....

Before Fay Four

2008-08-21T16:23:00.003-04:00

Before Mike put together Fay Four, he made this one up. Thinking it was kind of goofy, he set it aside and put together Fay Four, as an informative video.

We decided to go ahead and put this one up too! Enjoy!

Fay Four

2008-08-21T16:11:00.002-04:00

Fay--Day 3

2008-08-21T09:36:00.004-04:00

Take it as a given that things look pretty much the same outside--wind, rain, flood water, .....

The rain has been a bit lighter, in general, and the flood water is slowly receding. Thank goodness!

The news last night reported that Viera had officially had 18.45 inches of rain. I don't think we have had that much here, but it is hard to say--the little rain gauge really isn't all that accurate.

The pool is holding its own now, after my prolonged draining session yesterday afternoon. I checked it last night and Mike took a look this morning, and it is in no danger of overflowing.

I am more than tired of clouds, rain, flooded street, etc. It will be unbelievably good to get back to normal, whenever that happens.

Mike is still home from work. There are areas that are much more flooded than we are, some places with standing water measured in feet, not inches. We are really glad that the base has been so sensible about the work situation.

Check back for more videos---I am sure Mike will think of something else soon!

Fay 2

2008-08-20T17:30:00.003-04:00

Scroll on down and read the first post, if you haven't already!

Okay, welcome back! Mike is having great fun with the little video recorder, and making movies on the computer. I took the camera over to the Brady house with me and took some video of the pool. Mike came and took it back when the rain slackened a bit! He got more video of wild teens and their endeavors to have fun with the flooded street.

Tropical Storm Fay

2008-08-20T11:56:00.002-04:00

Tropical storm Fay arrived yesterday as expected. She was supposed to move on into the Atlantic, maybe gathering strength and then make landfall again further north. Well, she has decided she likes it here. She is making like a turtle and crawling, and so we continue to get wind and rain. The wind hasn't been bad--a decent thunderstorm often gives us more wind.

Mike has been off work, yesterday and today. I wish today that more people were staying home. There have been cars, trucks, etc, going down our street today. The road is flooded, so I personally wouldn't want to drive through it. It doesn't pass the rule of not driving on a road you can't see.

We have a good bit of water out there, but not any worse than it was with Jeanne. We are more than ready for Fay to move out though. The news report just said she is only moving at 3 miles per hour now. Oh well.

We got a little video camera, called a Flip camera. It really works quite well and Mike has been having a lot of fun with it. He has put together a little video of Fay for you all. Here it is:

Sunday at Magic Kingdom

2008-08-01T12:06:00.002-04:00

To continue.....

We got an early start on Sunday. We skipped breakfast at Shades of Green in favor of an earlier than expected bus to MK. It left at 8.10 a.m. We ended up having to wait for the park to open, but it wasn't too bad. There is a "welcome" show right before the park opens, but we couldn't see it from where we were standing.

We stopped at Guest Relations right off and Mike got a birthday button. The guy put Mike's name on it, dotting the "i" with a Mickey head. Disney cast members who spotted the button wished him a happy birthday, which was fun. We added to our Dumbo count right off, as we went there first--after getting coffee and splitting a cherry turnover! We found that early morning is definitely the best time to ride Dumbo, there was very little line. We actually rode it three times, and have now ridden in half the Dumbos.

It was a good day! We went on the Rocket Orbiter ride for the very first time. It is basically Dumbo, up high (you have to go up in an elevator), with rockets instead of elephants. The rockets are hard to get into though, so we might not plan to do that ride very often.

We had dinner at Tony's restaurant--patterned after said restaurant in the movie "Lady and the Tramp". We got a nice table inside, and our server was great! She was very helpful and told us all kinds of things we hadn't known. She brought streamers and Mickey confetti to sprinkle on the table, and a strip of Mickey stickers, for Mike's birthday. Our food was really good, and I can see eating there again sometime. We decided we were too full for dessert, but still got a surprise, when she came out with a little sprinkle covered cake with a candle. She announced that it was Mike's birthday, and on the count of three, everyone said "happy birthday" and did that Italian kiss thing--kissing the fingertips. It was fun and Mike didn't quite die from embarrassment! Most of the cake came home with us--it was really good. We did end up with rain and also lightning and thunder. We waited out a good bit of it, and since it was not constant, we were able to do a few more things. But ultimately, it was evident that it wasn't going to stop any time soon, there was still plenty of lightning in the distance, and my feet were really tired. We figured that the fireworks might be cancelled, the weather was that bad.

So, we finally called it quits at about 8 or so (?) and had an early night. We got back to our room, to find that I had a blister on the bottom of one of my toes (actually two toes had blisters, the one just didn't show as much). My foot was not happy in shoes on Monday morning, so that ended any thoughts at all of trying to do a little more Disney before heading home. Oh well. We had two great days and although we got rained on both days, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

It was definitely a fun trip and it worked out well to stay over, so we could stay later and also get an early start at the parks.

Disney Birthday Weekend

2008-07-30T13:40:00.001-04:00

What a weekend! We left the house as usual for a Disney day on Saturday morning, with the addition of a little bit of luggage.

We decided that Saturday would be an Epcot day and Sunday would be the Magic Kingdom (called MK from now on!). We had a good drive over and got a parking spot right at the near end of a row---always a nice bonus.

We were happy to find that the Japanese candy lady was working on Saturday. We had only seen her once before, the Monday we flew back from Richmond. We were there waiting when she arrived at her stand, and even though many others quickly showed up, she asked us what we would like her to make, first off! We decided on a flamingo, and in short order we had a candy flamingo on a stick. Our flamingo is now sitting in the china cabinet in my vase.

We decided it would be a good day to try out the Japanese restaurant,so we went up to check on the availability of reservations. The gal said they were booked up for dinner, but we could stop by later as walk ins, or that they could seat us for lunch (it was almost 1.30). We decided to do lunch there, and it worked out great. They actually have two parts to the restaurant, the steak house, where they do the cooking in front of you, on the very hot surface, and the other part is a sushi restaurant. You probably know which we chose--hahah.

It was all very nice. We had 6 other people with us at the table, two of them teenage girls who appeared to be without parents---I found that interesting! They were very quiet, so it wasn't any problem. Just "different". Our chef was really good, and although Japanese, was from Jacksonville! Mike had steak and I had chicken, and it was all delicious.

We really had a nice visit at Epcot. We left about 2.40 or so to go get checked in at Shades of Green. The resort is really nice---very fancy and well done. We got checked in and went to see our room, which was really nice. After a short rest we headed back to Epcot. We took the SOG bus, and that worked out really well. It dropped us off at the MK transportation and ticket center, and it was just a short walk from there to catch the monorail to Epcot.

We had to deal with some rain in the late afternoon, but it wasn't a downpour, and didn't last too dreadfully long. We stayed at Epcot till closing time and finally got to see the fireworks and laser show there. It was really great!

I will post later about our day at MK on Sunday!

Rocky Mountain National Park

2008-07-21T17:59:00.002-04:00

On Sunday we went ahead and made the trek northwest to the Rocky Mountain National Park. If I have to mention that again, I think I will put RMNP, just so you know--haha.

We headed out after breakfast, so we were on the way by 7.45. There was an interesting lack of traffic in parts of Boulder, then we came upon massive numbers of bicyclists. We also saw plenty of bikers, by the way--all kinds of wheeled things going on. The bicyclists seemed to have some kind of race going on. There were three places along the road where the police stopped car traffic to let bicyclists cross the road without having to stop. There were huge numbers of mad bicyclists. We saw them (not all from the race) all day.

The drive to the RMNP was really nice. As we neared Estes Park, we spotted an interesting looking water spot, with mountains lurking behind, all very scenic. We stopped and Mike took some photos. There were a number of people there fishing, we spotted some ducks, some little ground squirrels, and I saw a couple of fish. The one was near the ducks, just swam right by, and he was in such shallow water, his top fins were sticking out of the water. It was really strange!

We drove on, and right there in Estes Park (the town) I looked to the side, and spotted a number of elk, lying in the shade, in a golf course! I thought they were deer at first, it was only later that I realized they were much too big and figured they might be elk. Mike found a photo very much like what we saw (he looked online when we got back) and it said they were elk. So, we were right. It was really strange to see them just lying there, with all the car traffic and so many people around.

We had a great visit to RMNP. I am not sure I can adequately describe it. There were mountains. There were narrow roads, with occasional idiots coming from the other direction who were unable to stay in their own lane. No close calls, but it was slightly nerve-wracking. Most people were able to stay in their own lane, thank goodness, or we probably would have headed back sooner. The scenery was fabulous. It was cool! The weather forecast was predicting 100 degrees or there abouts for the lower areas, like Denver and Boulder, and it was in the 70's at RMNP. It really felt lovely. We were amazed at the number of Europeans we saw at the different parking spots. They have the Alps and they come here to see the Rockies. Interesting! We went high up! We went part of the way along the Trail Ridge Road, which is just about what it's name says. If not actually along the ridge, it is as close as it can be. There was no shoulder at all. The road was curvier than lower down. And, while at a large parking area--- where we got to see some tundra areas---lightning was seen and thunder was heard. We decided, after a couple flashes of lightning in the distance, that caution was the wiser course. We had seen a good bit, we were on a level with snowfields (and maybe some baby glaciers) just across from us on other mountains, we had seen enough. And we were getting hungry! We decided to head back down. We were really glad we did. There was an almost endless stream of cars headed up, as we headed down. It all would have just gotten more and more crowded. Also, we got down to the lower levels and found it had rained. We really would not have wanted to face rain on those higher roads.

We had thought we would stop in Estes Park. They have a nice little downtown area, with tons of little shops, including two quilt shops. However, we got into town and the rain had started, and it wasn't just a sprinkle. It was one of those soaking rains you love if the lawn needs it, and hate otherwise. And there were no parking spaces to be found. We gave it up and headed back to Boulder. It wasn't raining here!

Oh, but bicyclists. We saw them all the way along the roads we followed at RMNP. They weren't part of the race group, just some of the ones who seem to get their jollies riding bicycles up mountains, I guess? The last elevation marker we saw was 11,000 something feet. I don't remember what the numbers were that would replace the zeros I put in. We were high up, in any case.

It was a good day. We took it easy the rest of the day, although we did make a trip to the Pearl Street Mall for a final visit to the Cheesecake Factory. Yum. There was some kind of a craft sale going on, although we didn't take the time to stop and look at anything before dinner, and when we came out, they were all almost done closing down. I did see that there were a number of people selling thrown pottery, and paintings (some really awful modern stuff and some really lovely), and I think some wood work stuff too.

So, a good day, we got out and saw things and it was all good.

Busy Days

2008-07-19T21:02:00.002-04:00

Well, we are into the weekend, and enjoyed some sight seeing today.

We made a trip up to a weather research place called NCAR. Not to actually go in, although Mike has been up there before. He was here years ago for a tdy to NCAR. We went up because there are some hiking trails, and for the view---it is pretty high up, gives a better view of the local mountains, and a good look out over the town. Also, there is a little museum in the lobby, although we found it is mostly aimed at kids, it seems?

Mike pulled into the parking lot and as he was pulling into a spot, we saw a deer walk past! It was not all that far away from us, just calmly walking along in the grass, towards the building!

They have a nice little weather trail, that is 0.4 miles long, and has occasional plaques with information about weather aspects of the area. It was really interesting. There were plenty of places for Mike to take photos, and we hope that a lot of them came out well. I found that I finally noticed the change in altitude. Walking along the trail was just enough effort (it rises significantly during the course of the trail) that I quickly found myself breathing harder and deeper, in the thinner air. Not uncomfortably so, but enough to notice---haha.

Later in the morning, we headed out to do the Celestial Seasonings tour. It was easy to find, and although the tour is free, they give you a ticket---a packet of tea! Each tour time has a different flavor, so they can control how many people go in each round of the tour. They weren't actually working there in the factory, as they generally just work 5 days a week during the summer, but at other times in the year they work 7 days a week, and they have 3 shifts all the time, it sounded like. The tour was really interesting. While waiting for one's tour time, they have brewed tea samples so you can try out a number of different teas.

We made our final trips to the spinning/weaving/knitting/basketry, etc, store. It is called Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins and it is a great shop. There is so much stuff in there, it is almost impossible to take it all in.

We haven't finalized our plans for tomorrow yet, but we will probably get an early start, whatever we decide. It was supposed to get up to 98 today, and I think it did, and it is supposed to hit 100 tomorrow. It sure hasn't felt all that hot--but hot enough!

We have had a good time here, but I will be glad to get home. It is always nice to get back to the familiar routines.

Boulder

2008-07-14T09:49:00.002-04:00

Well, we are here! We had a good trip, with all working out just fine. There was plenty of waiting time at the airport, of course, but we definitely prefer that to being in a rush.

There was some turbulence during the flight, but it wasn't too bad. The pilot put the seat belt sign on a few times in response to that. So, all was safe and no worries.

There was a long line of people waiting to get their rental cars, but it moved fairly quickly and we were in a car and on our way to Boulder before too long. Mike had printed out a map from online, so we had good directions. He remembered a lot of it from last year too, so it went pretty smoothly.

After getting settled in our room, he took me to check out the Pearl Street mall area---this is an outdoor mall type area---lots of walking and pedestrians, restaurants, some bookstores (we haven't been in any of them yet), and street entertainers. The majority of the entertainment yesterday were musicians, of widely varying abilities. There was a group of 2-3 people singing (not well), with one guitar, and a hope for a donation. There were larger groups who were much better! There was a man playing a didgeridoo, who had an assortment of hand/foot instruments that he played too, while puffing on the didgeridoo. There was a group of 4 (I think it was 4) people, three of them playing violins, the fourth playing a cello, who were playing something by Beethoven. They were really good, far and away the best of the musicians there.

On our way back to the car, we spotted a statue, sort of bronze looking, a woman in a long dress, holding something in the palm of her hand. I noticed a paint can type pail at the base of the statue, with some money showing. I took a closer look at her and told Mike it was a real person---and it was! About then, Mike noticed her blink, and then the breeze ruffled the skirt of her dress a little bit. Then a little boy came up and started to lift and look up her skirt! His parents quickly intercepted him, and she adjusted her pose---bent down a bit and waggled her pointer finger at him!

An interesting thing I noticed was that a lot of the restaurants seem to have adjustable glass fronts, and they had the window sections moved so that the restaurants were open in the front. I don't remember seeing anything like that in the States before.

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, a first for me. It was really good! We brought back leftovers, so I definitely won't have to go find lunch today.

We were up at about 5.30 this morning (we finally gave up on getting any more sleep) and I have a feeling that might be our norm the whole time we are here.

Well, I guess this is enough for now. Take care!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNE!

2008-07-04T23:34:00.002-04:00

I haven't been recognizing birthdays as much on here as I used to. I don't blog as much as I used to. Such is life, right?

But, this is a big birthday and I wanted to say hey to Anne. Anne's first birthday as an old married lady--lol.

Anne, we hope you had a good day, a great visit with your friends, and much happiness. Be sure to wring as much happiness out of each day as you can!

We love you!

Mom and Dad

Home From Virginia

2008-06-03T12:03:00.002-04:00

Well, after how many years of little to no travel, we are more than making up for it. Not sure if that is good or bad, but the trips have been enjoyable, so I guess it is good?

We left for Virginia on Thursday, for a visit with Jo and Eric. Since we are both anal about arriving at the airport early, that is what we did, and we had short lines everywhere. Of course, that meant there was plenty of time to sit and wait for the flight, but at least we knew we were safely there and ready to go. Jo was in the terminal waiting for us when we arrived in Richmond, and my checked bag was one of two that popped out on the baggage carousel quite soon, before it stopped. Usually when a bag or two pops out and then the whole thing stops, we find our bag is one of the last out--haha.

We had a great visit, with plenty of time to visit, and trips out too. We went to the Greek Festival on Friday and it was really fun. They had plenty of great Greek food, and Jo got a sampler of Greek pastries to take back to the house---yummm! We got to see some of the Greek dancing--the dances we saw were slow and unfamiliar, till they did some dances from Crete! Those dances looked quite familiar and were much more interesting to watch.

We visited the Meadow-oops, I don't remember the name of the farm! It is the farm that Jo volunteers at. It is very nicely maintained and restored, and we enjoyed it a lot. Mike came along, with his camera, and took a good number of photos. There were sheep, horses, and pigs to photograph at the farm.

Jo and I took several walks--the weather was great! We visited her local quilt shop---it is probably a good thing that I don't have that good a shop nearby--haha.

Jo's birthday was celebrated on Sunday, when Becky and her family could come. Eric grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and we had quite a spread of good food to eat. It was great seeing Becky and her family again too. We finally got to see Jake and he is a real cutie. It was great seeing Zack and Maddie again, they are growing up and fun to visit with.

Jo and Eric kindly got up in the wee hours of the morning (5 a.m.!) to take us to the airport for our flight home. We found tiny lines and got checked in and through security in no time. We arrived in Orlando a few minutes earlier than expected, my checked bag showed up quickly once again, and we decided that since we were so close, we might as well stop at Epcot for a few hours!

The only crowd we saw was when waiting to go through the turnstiles---not sure why it was so crowded there. I figured that we got to that point right after a bus dumped a huge load? Anyway, after that, it was not crowded at all. We went over to the World Showcase, and had never seen it so empty. I did finally remember that it was Monday, and I am sure that had something to do with it. We had a nice visit, and left by 3.30 to head home.

The kitties didn't seem to be too upset that we had been gone. We didn't get the cold shoulder, but they also weren't too naggy about getting attention. It really made it nice! It is nice getting out and traveling, but it is also really nice to get home too.

Holiday Weekend

2008-05-26T10:35:00.002-04:00

A lot has happened since I posted last. I made a trip to CA and have been back more than a week now. It was really good to see everyone. I was lucky enough to see all of my family and it was good to catch up with everyone.

This past Friday I bought a new dishwasher. The old one is giving indications that it has just about outlived its useful life, and I would much rather replace it at a time that suits me--haha. It doesn't hurt that Sears was having an appliance sale too. The new dishwasher will be delivered tomorrow!

Mike and I went to the Magic Kingdom yesterday. Saturday had way too high a risk of rain and thunderstorms. We did have some storms here and I think they did in Orlando too. The weather yesterday was pretty good! There were clouds, but no rain, and there was still plenty of sun, too. We decided to switch things up a bit, and took the ferry to the entrance, rather than taking the monorail. We really enjoyed that---we don't think it took any longer, and it was nice being on the water, with the nice breeze. We were afraid the park would be really crowded, since it was a holiday weekend, but that wasn't the case! We had a really nice day and as a nice bonus, we actually saw some baby ducks there!

Plodding Along

2008-05-08T09:48:00.002-04:00

I have talked to Anne a few times since last time I posted. They are making good progress on getting settled in. Many of the rooms are set up the way they want them, and I know that has to give them a real sense of accomplishment. It is always nice to get things settled and the boxes out of the house.

They continue to find that things are different in Texas. Even getting a new drivers license is different. I am sure it will all come together for them though!

After saying that I didn't think there were any blooms on the gardenia, I looked out the window the other day and could see three blooms! So, I didn't have to risk going back there to check. I think the jasmine is still in bloom too, so I keep my distance.

We have clouds today, although I don't think there is supposed to be much of a chance of rain today. We are quickly approaching the 90's. Melbourne already had a 90 degree day, back in March, but Orlando just recently had their first one of the year. They are predicting a pretty warm weekend, with highs of 93.

I know, those of you in TX, you all have had plenty of 90+ degree days already and it looks like you have more this week!

I went to knitting group yesterday and we had 8-9 of us there. Really was a surprise after just 4 of us last week.

Talked to Anne

2008-05-06T10:51:00.002-04:00

Anne and Paul are safely in Texas and busy trying to get settled in. There have been drivers' licenses to get. The truck had to be inspected and registered. The trailer had to be unloaded and there is unpacking to do.

The charger for Anne's cell phone was finally found last night after I talked to her. Hurrah! Their local phone won't be hooked up till Thursday--not sure why it takes so long. They should have internet access later today, so she will finally be able to get email, etc.

I truly think that no matter how many times a person has moved as a kid, and even with the family as a young adult, it is still a new experience to move by oneself or as a married couple. I think the prior moving is helpful, but it isn't quite the same. I sure found that when Mike and I moved the first time. I am sure Anne has found the same thing to be true for her.

Still no rain around here. I think the last measureable rain Orlando had was the day Mike and I got totally soaked at Epcot. That was about a month ago, from what the weather guy on TV says.

There are several blooms open on the magnolia tree. Between brown, fading blooms, fully open ones and partially open ones, I think there are about 8-9 blooms on the tree at any given time. It really looks pretty! I haven't noticed any blooms on the gardenia bush this spring, I will have to go outside and look, as they might be on the other side of the bush? Of course, I hate to look because if there are flowers, they will smell! The frangipani has more open flowers now and still has plenty of buds, waiting to open up.

Sunny Sunday

2008-05-04T19:02:00.002-04:00

I sent a text message to Paul's phone the other evening and had a message back that they are fine and will call soon. They haven't yet, but I imagine they are still pretty busy and so I am not worried. I am sure we would hear if there was any problem.

We made a trip to the Magic Kingdom yesterday and had a good time. It was quite cloudy here in Melbourne/Viera, and we had a little bit of rain on the way to Orlando, but as we got closer to Disney, the sky cleared and the weather was great. It was quite warm though. I think Mike and I both ended up getting a bit overheated and dehydrated, but we both drank plenty of water and felt better.

Mike took his camera and a different lens than he usually takes and got some great photos. We finally worked it so we were in the right place at the right time to see the castle show. Mike found a place to sit on the ground, front row center, and had a blast taking photos.

Here is the link to see the photos. The first photo is one of the Suffragettes (from Mary Poppins). I had a fun encounter with one of the other Suffragettes! A young woman in a lovely yellow dress, who was really into it. She started to walk past me, then stopped, took my hand, said something about how lovely it was to see me, we "air kissed" on each cheek, and she went on her way. You see, I know how to play along, too! It was a hoot!

We have had a quiet and lazy day today. It is sunny and nice outside. It isn't usually nearly as hot here as it is in Orlando, in the summer (and late spring--haha). Thank goodness!

I Know Nothink!

2008-05-02T09:19:00.002-04:00

Isn't that what Sgt Schultz said countless times on Hogan's Heros?

No news from Anne. At least, not since the text message Wednesday night saying they were at New Braunfels. I still maintain that no news means that all is okay. I did send her a text message last night, but have had no response back. I am not too worried about that, as on Monday she had told me that Paul packed the charger for her cell phone, and she didn't know how long the charge on her phone would last.

I figure they probably had a hectic day yesterday, taking possession of the duplex and getting the trailer unloaded. Of course, there is the unpacking to do too. And probably some shopping to buy food, and other things that they will need in the new place.

In local news, there is a brush fire north of us, but still in Viera. I mostly mention it just in case it is a slow news day in any of the rest of the country and it gets mentioned on your news reports. We are perfectly fine. I didn't even know about the fire till I heard the report on the news last night. It was getting close to some homes and people were getting very nervous, but the firefighters were confident that they would be able to keep the fire contained. From the little bit I heard this morning, it sounds like that was the case--that it has been contained.

There are a number of magnolia blossoms on the tree now! It looks so pretty. I just remembered that I hadn't checked the frangipani in a while. I went and looked, and the buds have started to open! Some branches have flowers open already, some are still in the bud stage. The flowers are so pretty, and are a lovely, cheery yellow!

I will let you all know when I hear anything from Anne and Paul....

Tuesday on Wednesday

2008-04-30T20:19:00.002-04:00

I am behind--haha.

I know that as of 9 p.m. last night, Anne and Paul were in Louisiana. I have no idea how much longer they traveled and where they ended up for the night. Or where they are today, for that matter! I figure no news means that all is okay though.

I was outside yesterday and realized I hadn't checked the jasmine in a good long while. I know that in the past, it has required a little bit of attention, redirecting some of the vines that want to go get tangled in the palm tree or wherever. Well, it was a good thing I gave it a check! There were vines of jasmine tangled in the palm fronds. There are some vines over climbing up the side of the house, clinging to the door frame (of the garage side door). As one might expect, the back side of the trellis has the best growth of vines. Oh well. I spent some time getting vine pulled off the palm tree and redirected. I also grabbed vines that were making their way to the air conditioner, and did the same with those. A quick check showed me that it was going to take more time and effort to remove the vines from the wall, so those are safe till another day. The vines are in full bloom, and I came back into the house, reeking of the jasmine smell. Oh well. At least it is really pretty to look at!

I came home from knitting group today and saw that there are two blooms open on the magnolia tree, and another one half open. It is so pretty!

I'll let you know when I have more news of Anne and Paul.

Update

2008-04-29T13:51:00.002-04:00

I had a call from Anne late this morning. She wanted to know where I put her camera. I put it in the truck yesterday----and I had forgotten to tell her just where I had put it.

She said things are going well. They are making better time than they thought they would. She said they got to Tallahassee last night. I didn't ask what time they stopped---I imagine it was late though.

I happened to look out the living room window and saw that one of the magnolia blooms is about half way open! It looks so pretty already. It looks like a couple other ones are about ready to start opening too. The magnolia trees at Disney are much further along---they have many really large trees and they all have a lot of blooms. They are so pretty. Disney also has a lot of gardenia bushes and they have been in bloom too. They put off a lot of scent---quite a treat for those who like the smell! Not me though--haha. Fortunately, my allergy meds have been up to the challenge and I haven't suffered much.

I will keep you all posted as I hear more from Anne.

On Their Way

2008-04-29T11:03:00.002-04:00

Anne and Paul are on their way to Texas!

They moved up their timeline once again, and decided they would leave on Monday. Paul and a neighbor got the big things loaded on Sunday, and Paul got most of the boxes loaded up too. I went on Monday to give them a hand. There were still some things to be broken down, some things to be boxed up, things to haul to the dumpster, and a little bit of cleaning to do. We took a break for lunch, and had a much needed rest and refueling. Then it was back to work. Finally, the trailer was full, the bed of the truck was full and covered with a tarp, and the animals were loaded in the back seat. It was time for hugs and farewells. It was sad to see them go, but I know it is a good move for them, so I am happy for them. How could I not be? Please keep them in your thoughts as they travel to Texas!

I am not as tired as I thought I would be after my efforts yesterday. I pulled out of the parking space just a minute before they did, and I got home at 8 p.m. I know, a very late start for them, but they figure they are going to be going so slow, pulling the weight of the trailer, that they want to make the most of their time. They hope to arrive in San Marcos on Thursday. Anyway, driving home, I could feel a hard knot of muscle in my back, and I figured I might be in trouble. Not so! Some rest at home during the evening, and a pretty good night's sleep, and I feel fine this morning.

Mike has been hinting (!!!) that it is long past time to make more progress on removing the wallpaper border. (I had told him ages ago that I would do it, I have just been really slow) I decided there is no time like the present, and have already spent some time on it this morning. I have removed the top layer of wallpaper from more than half the border in the living room! I got lucky and was able to get some good strips going where I was able to pull several feet of paper, the whole width of the border, at one time. That sure makes it go faster---I just wish it was possible to do that the whole time! But, it just doesn't always cooperate. Of course, there is still the backing of the paper to deal with, which requires water and a scraper. And it takes much much longer to deal with. At least it is just a little bit darker than the paint color, so it isn't as hard to look at as the wallpaper!

It is cloudy outside today. It doesn't necessarily look like it is going to rain, although I think there is a chance of rain today. It is kind of gloomy looking outside, though!

Well, I like the look of the living room without wallpaper so much, I think I will go see if I can get the rest of it pulled off! Take care, all.

Godspeed, Anne and Paul!

Cranes

2008-04-21T09:49:00.002-04:00

Two sandhill cranes just flew past the dining room window, both making some kind of loud crane call! Just last week, I saw three cranes fly past as I sat at the computer. Oh! One just flew the other direction, from this side of the street to the other side, back behind this first row of houses. We have seen cranes flying before, but not all that often, and I'm not sure I have ever seen them flying around from the house before. It is definitely interesting seeing them fly, they are so big!

We are back to warm weather after the unseasonable cold front we had last week. We can't complain, that cold front had brought really cold temperatures and snow to other areas. Still, it is nice to be back where we are supposed to be, weather wise--haha.

Yesterday evening, as we drove up A1A on the island, we saw a large group of pelicans, flying around in a circle. It was really interesting. We very much wondered just what was up with that! I am sure I have never seen that many pelicans flying together before.

There are a lot of buds on the magnolia tree now, none have opened up yet. The blooms are always so pretty, when they do get around to opening!

As you can tell, I don't really have any news.....more later!

Is Anybody Out There?

2008-04-17T09:53:00.002-04:00

I check blogs daily and for some reason, never think that I need to update this!

We have seen some busy times in the past couple of months. Anne got married to Paul Way, on 16 February 2008. We had a full house! We had lots of family here, and it was great to catch up with everyone. Sadly, of course, I didn't get nearly as much time to visit with people as I would have liked. The wedding went off without a hitch and everyone seemed to have a good time. The happy couple left for a honeymoon in Puerto Rico a few days after the wedding. This fullfilled a long time dream of Anne's, and Paul's too, and they had a great time.

Brian, Christine and Michelle stayed after all the rest of the family had to leave. They stayed till the end of the month, so we got to have a good visit. Michelle is really growing and learning new words every day. It was a lot of fun having them here. We took a day and went to Disney World. We all had a great time! It was our first trip there in the 3.5 years we have been here---long overdue!

Anne and Paul are getting ready to move to Texas! I think they are moving the end of this month, although it could be the beginning of May. They found a nice duplex with a fenced backyard for the dog, and are really happy to be making a move and a change.

We have had a bit of a cold spell the past couple of days, with some pretty chilly temperatures. Fortunately, that is about at an end and we will be back into our more usual 80's---I am ready for it! The leaves have popped out on the frangipani and the flower buds are in place. It should be blooming before we know it. There are baby grapefruit on the grapefruit tree. I will have to check it again when they are a little bigger, and see if they need to be culled any. I don't think there are too many on this year, but we will see.

Well, not much else to write about so I will put an end to this! I will try to update more often and keep you in the know with what is going on--haha.

Who Would Have Thought There Could Be So Many?

2008-03-07T10:56:00.001-05:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
82
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Another Week Almost Gone

2008-02-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

Wow, time is moving at warp speed lately, or so it seems to me! We are almost down to one week till the big day. I am not sure where the time has gone.

The guest room looks more like one now--there is a bed in there! The new bed arrived on Wednesday, and I finished my work on the room yesterday. Mike and I got the bed put together last night, it was easier than we expected. It looks nice and comfy!

We have rain and cooler temperatures today. Quite a change from yesterday. We had a lot of sun yesterday and set a new record high of 88 degrees. I promise you all, it sure didn't feel that hot when I was outside, so I was really surprised to hear that was the high temp. The forecast for the next ten days has us staying in the 70's. That could change, but whether 70's or 80's, it should be nice weather when everyone is here. There isn't too much rain in the forecast, so that will be good.

The shuttle went off as scheduled yesterday. I was running errands to the south and forgot about the launch till I heard about it on the radio. I did get to see the trail left behind, but that was it. Oh well. I still love seeing it, even though we have seen a number of launches (from home) by now.

Well, I am out of news, so I will get moving on the errands I have to run today--haha. Take care all, and see most of you soon!

Wednesday update

2008-01-30T16:49:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I am not sure if any one is even checking this any more, I know I have been pretty slack about it. I will try to do better, and this is a good time to do it, since it is a busy time!

Things are moving right along, wedding plans are pretty well under control. A few details to iron out and all will be set. Really is moving along fine.

I bought a new washing machine today and it will be delivered tomorrow! I was amazed that they could deliver it so soon, and I think the salesman was too. The old machine is making horrible noises, more and more often. I figured it would be just my luck, it would die while I had a full house. So, I made a preemptive strike and defused it! This will all work out really well. We got our money's worth out of the old one, so no real need to run it till it totally died (most likely at the worst possible time).

I have an outfit for the wedding, it is sort of an emerald green. I dropped it at the base today to have the hem raised just a bit and have it dry cleaned. So, that is taken care of and I don't have to worry about it any longer. Anne was an angel and went shopping with me yesterday.

The weather has been great today! AOL shows me that it is 80 outside, and it is almost 5, so definitely past the hottest part of the day. When I was at the base, the automated sign said 82 and I really didn't know if I should believe it or not, but I guess it was. It was really nice out, warm but not hot, and the sun shining.

Well, I guess that is it for now, take care and I will try to update more often.

Thunderstorms

2008-01-19T23:08:00.001-05:00

We have had a quiet day at home. Mike is still feeling pretty miserable with his cold. He took some Nyquil before bed last night and slept really well. Thank goodness! He had been waking up a lot--so much congestion, etc. We are sure hoping that this three day weekend will give him a chance to get over the cold.

We had rain off and on all day, and I heard thunder in the distance not too long ago. It was really nice outside today, despite the occasional rain. Tomorrow is to be a good bit cooler, but not real cold, so I won't complain!

I got some work done in the sun room today. I am glad to be making some visible progress. You might figure from this (working on the sun room) that my back is feeling better, and you would be right! I am still taking the meds, and will for a couple more days----mostly to make sure all is still good and healed. I sure don't want a relapse. I was careful when sorting, etc, today, to take frequent breaks and didn't over do things. The back is still feeling good, so I must have done okay with that.

Take care!

This and That

2008-01-18T16:44:00.001-05:00

I see it has been a while since I posted last. Sure nothing new about that, is there?

I did a number on my back last week. It came on gradually, which is good I guess? I suffered with it till Tuesday, then made an appt to see my doc. Muscle relaxants and a good anti-inflammatory have made a world of difference and I am well and truly on the mend! Thank goodness. I still have tons to do, and an aching back was no help at all.

Mike has been dealing with a cold, so he has been sneezing, coughing and generally feeling miserable. We are hoping it is finally starting to clear up a little bit? At least he will have the long weekend to relax and sleep as much as he likes.

My back has put an end to exercise for a while. I had managed to do a little late last week, but by Monday my back didn't want to have anything to do with exercise, at all. I sure didn't want to push it and risk a longer recovery. I hope to get back on track quickly, as I sure don't want to get out of the habit, after I managed to develop an exercising habit!

We have had quite a cloudy day today, with some light rain and sprinkles now and then. I don't think the sun has popped out at all today. I think it has been cooler than predicted, as it was in the 60's when I was out and about today.

Well, I guess that pretty much brings me up to date. Take care, all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRISTINE!!

2008-01-09T16:29:00.000-05:00

I agree with Jo, revealing the ages of kids is not good, so I won't! Although, I stand by my decision that they just keep getting older and we age at a much slower rate. It sounds good, right?

In any case, we hope that Christine has a great birthday! I think I heard something about her making little angel food cakes? Should be really cute!

Our weather has been nice again, almost too warm at the base today. I am not complaining, mind you! I would almost always rather be too warm than too cold. No rain today, so that was even better!

Anne and I went to knitting group today. She wasn't feeling well, so I took her home, then completed the rest of my errands. It has been a busy day.

Well, take care, and more later!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! --2

2008-01-01T11:23:00.000-05:00

Don't freak out! Two posts in two days? Is the world coming to an end? Yikes!

No, just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! Since it is actually 1 January 2008 now.

It is cloudy out today, although there are tiny breaks in the clouds and we might see a little bit of sun eventually? Our cold front is getting closer and we are already seeing the temperature changes coming. It made it up to 80 yesterday. For anyone interested, the record high for that day was 88 degrees, set in 1966! That is pretty warm for December, wouldn't you say? It is only to get to 75 today, and only into the 50's tomorrow. The tv is saying the high in Orlando will be in the 40's and a low Wednesday night/Thursday morning, in the 20's. It sure sounds like Orlando will have its first freeze in years. They had been expecting it, but originally they hadn't been predicting quite such cold temperatures for Wednesday and Thursday. I am glad it isn't supposed to get quite so cold here.

We are seeing more cranes out and about these days. I think they take off for part of the year, as there are times when we don't really see them much. I never really seem to notice till we start seeing them again. There always seems to be plenty of ibis around. They are kind of goofy looking. It is fun to see the ibis and the cranes flying around, especially since they seem to spend most of their time walking around and grazing on worms and such.

The sun just popped out!

Well, I had best go, you all take care and have a great year!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!

2007-12-31T23:08:00.000-05:00

I know, I am early. It is just after 11 p.m. here, there is a football game on and Mike has been dozing on the sofa!

I haven't posted in a while, and I figured I had best get with it, since it is the last day of the year, and fading fast.

We had a high of 85 degrees here yesterday, breaking the old record high set in 1951. It didn't feel that warm. Mike and I went for a long walk (about 50 minutes long) and found the weather to be very pleasant!

The grapefruit look like they are probably close to being ripe, if they aren't already. This is a nice time of year, the bougainvillea is blooming and looks lovely. The hibiscus are blooming too. The frangi pani is still totally bare, it won't put out leaves and bloom for months yet.

We had a good Christmas--I sure won't complain! The big things got done--haha.

Well, that will do for now. Take care, all, and Happy New Year!!

Despite the Best of Intentions

2007-12-16T23:27:00.000-05:00

That is the way it goes, right? Good intentions end up going out the window when it comes to blogging sometimes.

Plus, I still can't post from AOL---although I have found that if I am on AOL and check gmail, I can get at blogger and post. That is what I am doing right now---it works, and beats having to switch to mozilla---I don't mind doing that, I just tend to forget that I want to post on this while I am there.

I have been busy knitting. The stockings are almost done. Then I will soon have another one to do, for Paul. At least I have it pretty well figured out--I think! heehee!

We had a nice day today---the cool weather hadn't hit yet, although we did have some rain this morning. I had thought it was to get cold last night, I had switched the thermostat over to heat before I went to bed. I am sure it never came on, the temps were fine today, and I had to put the A/C back on.

I was busy in the kitchen today too---I made more fudge, some of it without nuts, for Paul. I also made karamel korn---I think Brian and Anne both want some of that. I had bought a new microwave popcorn popper at the BX and I really like it. The popcorn popped up really big and nice. It sure is easier than trying to pop corn on the stove.

I still need to make Mike's cookies and the molasses cookies for Anne. I have thought about making some cookies for me---it is a small batch, mostly cocoa and egg whites and some walnuts--they freeze nicely too and I used to store them in the freezer when I made them before. I am not sure I really want/need sweets around right now. I am doing pretty well at leaving the trash, fudge and karamel korn alone--a taste now and then and that is about it.

I am still losing weight---I'm down 1.2 pounds from last week. I am still being careful what I eat, and I am exercising regularly and have upped the intensity a bit. It all helps, eh?

Well, not much else to write about. We are all fine. I am almost done with shopping, but am behind the curve on all other things Christmas. No cards done yet, no tree up yet (I had thought I would try to get it done this weekend, but was too busy---maybe tomorrow?). It will get done though (well, I hope the cards will get done---they are generally the thing that doesn't get done, if anything doesn't. Oh well)

Take care......!

Am I in a Rut?

2007-11-29T11:44:00.000-05:00

I seem to do a lot of the same thing over and over again. I guess that is the one problem with being a stay at home, right? Although, I would guess that even those who work outside have the same problem?

I have been knitting on Michelle's stocking. I have been working on the house. I do laundry and clean the litter boxes. I pet the kitties. Yikes!

On the other hand---I have been exercising again---that too is a lot of the same over and over, but at least it helps lead to good health, so I guess that is okay. I don't totally do the same thing over and over---the body gets used to that and stops making progress, but it is still exercise, isn't it?

I was sent a link to a site called Spark People, by Jo, and I spend some time each day reading articles and tracking my exercise, etc. It is interesting, and I actually learn something new now and then!

I also have been slowly updating my page on Ravelry. You crafty people already know that. I can see that it could be a huge time eater, so I am cautious and go slow!

I will have to think about decorating for Christmas at some point--haha! I hope to actually get Christmas cards out this year--I didn't make it, last year. I also hope to get all my shopping done...I am making progress on that.

I still bake bread---I freeze most of it so it stays nice, since we don't go through it that quickly. I still make muffins pretty often.....

The weather is nice, high 70's to low 80's, and sunny most of the time. The hibiscus have blooms on them, the frangipani is resting. Everything is nice and green, although we have had to start watering again, as we are in our dry season now.

Well, that is about it for now!

Kathleen

2007-11-14T09:15:00.001-05:00

So many memories...

Sitting in a waiting room at the hospital with Mary, while our Grandma Brady went upstairs to see Mom and Baby Kathleen.

The so-very-cute little girl, with dark brown hair and pretty blue eyes.

Always bright and inquisitive.

Kath taking tap dancing lessons, and tapping around all over the house.

Writing stories, even in the days before she found she really did like to read.

Long hair, so long she sat on it.

The Parkay/Butter commercial, done in German, for a skit at school.

A very generous spirit---too generous at times, always willing to help others with school work, etc, at the expense of getting her own work done, sometimes.

Playing chess.

Her wedding day, Kathleen in her beautiful gown, looking very lovely. I am so glad we were able to be there.

Her husband, Jon, and their three beautiful children, Kaeleigh, Ru and Liam.

There are so many more memories but this is enough for now. She was much too young to leave us. She really wasn't done with life yet. There was still so much to do and to experience.

And we most definitely hate having lost her so soon.

I love you, Kathleen.

Cripes!

2007-10-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

I hadn't realized that it had been almost a month since I posted. I have found that once again, I can't get to it to post while logged into AOL, I have to go through mozilla, and I usually forget about it when I am there.

Oh well.....

Well, Melbourne broke a record a while back and the streak ended today. For 132 days in a row, the low temperature was 70 degrees or higher. The old record was 114 days. Even those days when Orlando and other spots west were in the 60's, Melbourne had continued at 70 or higher. Wow. But, today we were finally down in the 60's for our low. The cold front that other weather systems had been holding off has arrived, and we are cloudy today, with much cooler temperatures. The weather guy said our high yesterday was 89, and it is to get up to 78 today--quite a change. The lawn guys were here today and loved the cooler weather! I will say, I was out yesterday and it felt warm, but not as warm as it was. Go figure!

On the way home yesterday I experienced a first. I was driving on Wickham Road, and was getting fairly close to my turn onto Murrell. There is a pond at the right side of the road, and I have on rare occasions, seen a turtle at the pond, and once saw one at the curb. Well, yesterday, there was a BIG one (maybe football sized? or a little bigger?), crossing the road!!!!!! He was still fairly close to the curb as the car in front of me went past. I was able to get past him without going out of my lane, although I did pull to the left to give him more space. The cars behind me swerved in a controlled manner, to avoid him. I couldn't help checking the mirror now and then to see if he was going to make it. I saw a truck, pulling a trailer, headed for the turtle as he hustled his way across the two lanes and towards the median. I was amazed at how quickly the turtle was moving. I was sure the truck would end up hitting it---then I saw the truck stop right there in the road and let the turtle get past him.

Most people around here seem to be careful of the wildlife. It isn't uncommon to see people stop and let the cranes cross the street, or let a turtle cross, or whatever. Now and then you will see a crane that didn't make it---always a sad thing to see. I think they are most often hit at night, when it is harder to see, and when some young people are more inclined to be out speeding around. It is heartwarming though, to see so many people take the trouble to stop and let the critters get across the road!

Critter count---after the turtle, I saw 7 cranes in yards on Old Glory, the swan was swimming around in the lake on our road, and there were tons of ibis out too!

We are fine, keeping busy. All the kids seem to be fine, too.

Take care, I will try to post more often!

I'm Back.....

2007-09-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

And this time, blogger wouldn't let me sign in again. Not sure what the deal is. Does the sun have to be in the right position or something? Oh well.....

Not much going on here. Keeping busy and not getting much done, is the order of the day.

The frangi-pani, also known as plumeria, is blooming for a second time this year! There is a house on Old Glory with a small plumeria in the front. I had noticed that it was blooming, and figured it was just a case of it being a different kind, or maybe that it was planted at a different time or something. Then, one day, I remembered to check ours, and there it was, with blooms on it! What a huge surprise, as this is the first time since we have been here that it has bloomed twice in one year. It is so pretty, with the lovely yellow flowers. No wonder they use them so much for leis in Hawaii!

Well, that is about the extent of my news. We have had rain off and on, had almost an inch yesterday, so the sprinkler system can stay turned off a bit longer. We should be in the dry season by now, or will be shortly. Of course, that doesn't mean the rain will automatically stop! Not much sign of it slacking yet though.

Take care, more later.

Wow, it Worked!

2007-09-16T10:56:00.000-04:00

After months of not being able to sign in to update my blog, except by going through gmail, blogger finally let me sign in!

I have been very slack about updating, partly because of the above mentioned problem. It is, of course, easier to remember to update while actually looking at the blog, and since I couldn't just sign in while looking at it, more effort was required. More to the point, I often forgot once I got off onto other things.

We have had a number of birthdays which I neglected to mention here. Jon, my brother-in-law, had a birthday in August. So did my dad---Happy Birthday, Daddy! And, in September, missing Labor Day by one day, Mary had a birthday. I hope you all had great days and many more happy birthdays!

It is still hot here. Not hot hot, but warm enough! The rain is sporadic, a now and then thing, and the water level in the lakes is receding again. It isn't as bad as it has been at times past, but we are also getting closer to the dry season, so there isn't too much hope that it will change much any time soon.

I have started watching football and other sports instead of watching the food channel most of the weekend. I guess I just got tired of it, and it repeats so much!

I figured watching sports would be a better and more inspiring alternative. And Mike likes it too, so there you go. I am learning more about football, and it makes the games that much more interesting! Last night saw us watching one game on the TV (USC and Nebraska), listening to the Mount Union game on the laptop by way of the college radio station, and Mike was watching a scoreboard updater thing to keep track of the Aggie game. Mount Union played Otterbein, and pretty well ran away with it. Kehres had his third string players playing in the second half, had them kicking field goals instead of trying for touchdowns, and generally working to keep from running up the score. Otterbein finally scored a couple of touchdowns, and the final score was 58-14.

I have starting knitting on Christmas stockings again. Well, I should say, I knit several rows, one evening, then realized I was out of my written directions. I found ages ago that I don't like knitting by chart, so I have been writing it all out, and I find that much easier to keep track of. I have tons more written now and can get back to actually knitting, any time now.

We are fine, the kids are all fine, the weather is good. I will try to remember to post more often!

A Whole Lot of Nothing Going On

2007-08-27T11:03:00.000-04:00

I finally remembered that for some reason, since the "new" blogger came out, I somehow can't sign in while I am at my blog. Go figure. Of course, there are ways to get around such things, and so here I am.

Not a lot going on. My engine light came on in my car last week--actually, on Sunday when we got in my car to come home from dinner out. We checked the book, of course, and it said it is usually to do with the emissions control stuff. As suggested, I checked my gas cap first off. I knew that the problem wasn't that I hadn't tightened it properly, or that I had left it somewhere---I mean really. But, when we got home, I took the cap off and put it back on again. No change, and on Tuesday I went and bought a new gas cap, in case the old one wasn't sealing properly. Long story short, I called the Honda place this morning. I was surprised, he told me it would be $104 right off the bat to check it out, but said that the auto part places usually will do a free diagnostic thing that will let you know if it is the gas cap, or just what the problem might be. So, I called the place I got the new cap from and yes, they do that. So, off I went, and the guy did his thing. It isn't the gas cap. Something about the O2 sensor or something like that. So, I have an appt to take my car in to the Honda place at 2 p.m. today. We will see just what the problem is, and I hope they can fix it this afternoon, or at least first thing in the morning, since I will need my car tomorrow afternoon. I guess we will see.

That is about the most excitement we have had here. After weeks of no rain or very little rain, rain and thunderstorms are in the forecast again. Not sure if we will get any---the central inland section has already had a lot, and even had some flooding, I think. Thank goodness we don't seem to have that kind of problem here.

We heard the shuttle come in last week. I was in the dining room, on the computer, and heard a double sonic boom. Couldn't figure out what it was at first, then realized it must be the shuttle. I ran outside to see if I could spot it, but of course, it was much too far away. I came back into the house, to hear a special report on the tv, that it was getting ready to land, and about the two sonic booms, one from the nose and one from the wings. Mike says they heard it at work, and I think he said they had gone out before it was to go by, but didn't see it either.

It has been pretty hot. Not Texas hot, and not southern California hot, but pretty warm for us. We are supposed to start cooling down a little, like to the high 80's, but it doesn't feel like that has happened yet. I couldn't believe how hot it felt this morning, at 9.30, when I went to the auto parts place. A sign near there said it was 91 degrees, which I would have easily believed. But, you can't ever trust those signs, and the computer says that even now it is only in the high 80's. Not sure why it feels so hot then. Maybe the humidity is up?

Well, I guess that is enough for now. I will try to update more often!

Summer Doldrums

2007-08-16T11:19:00.000-04:00

Well, there isn't much to write about, but it has been a while since I posted so I figured I had best get on the stick and write something!

Last week Mike and I saw the Shuttle Endeavor go up. It was a 6.30 p.m. (or there abouts) launch time, so we were both home relaxing at the time. We watched it take off on the tv, then outside to see it in the sky, winging its way into space. I hope I don't ever get over the thrill of seeing this, right outside in our very own front yard.

We are doing pretty well. Progress on the house is very slow, but I guess that is just as well in the long run. I will be glad to get the sorting and packing away and moving Anne's stuff so it isn't "here", occupying the sun room, etc. I will be glad when we can actually use the sun room for more than my exercise room---not that that is a bad use for it! I will be glad to have my sewing machine accessible, so I can finish up a few things and maybe start something new! It takes time though!

Anne and Paul are doing well. Anne had a uti last week, that kept both of us on the run with calling docs and getting meds, and all that fun stuff. Since her surgery her blood pressure has been going lower than it normally does, and she thinks her blood sugar is going low again too. We are getting that all sorted out and she will feel a lot better once those are better regulated.

I have talked to Brian a couple of times. I think there is big news in the offing, I am sure he will let us all know if and when! Otherwise, it sounds like they are all fine and doing well. Michelle "talked" to me on the phone the other day---this consisted mostly of her laughing!

Oh, the magnolia is still blooming, although usually only one or two blooms at a time. I don't remember it ever blooming so much or so long since we have been here. The gardenia is long since done, but the hibiscus are looking great, with plenty of blooms, etc.

Well, enough for now, take care and you all can blog too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!!!!

2007-07-27T11:38:00.001-04:00

Yep, it is that time of year again, Mike's birthday. I am not sure where the time goes, but it is nice to have a reason to bake a cake!

And, our anniversary is tomorrow. Mike planned that well, didn't he? He said he wanted to get married the day after his birthday, so he would never forget the date.

Here we are, 28 years later (tomorrow) and how things have changed. Brian is married to Christine, Anne is engaged to Paul, and Michelle is two already. Life is good!

Well, I had best go bake a cake. Take care, you all, and Mike------Happy Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNE!!!!

2007-07-04T13:50:00.000-04:00

Amazing as it is to believe, Anne is 26 years old today. It seems like just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. I remember so much about the night she was born, including the little bit of trivia that The Life of Riley was on the tv while I was in labor. I know you were all dying to know that!

She has been an interesting kid to raise, and it has been fun seeing some of the stages she has gone through. I feel really lucky to have been blessed with two great kids.

I have a Chocolate Whiskey Fudge Cake in the oven, that should be done any time now. Of course, I make it with orange juice instead of the whiskey--never seem to have whiskey in the house, and the orange juice works just fine. We will go out to dinner, after a trip to the Zoo (assuming the weather behaves).

We had a good thunderstorm and a lot of rain last night. I checked the rain gauge this morning and we got 1.6 inches of rain. Anne and Paul had come by for dinner and to get some more boxes, and naturally, the rain started up again when they were ready to leave. I guess that is the way it goes, right?

Well, I have to go tend to the cake, you all take care and have a happy Fourth of July!

Mitchie's Birthday and Father's Day!

2007-06-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

So, our sweet girl had her second birthday yesterday! It is amazing to think she could be that old already. It doesn't seem like it was two years ago that I was in Germany with Brian and Christine. We hope she is having a great time in Ohio with all of Christine's family! Since we don't have her here, and I don't have a recent photo, here is a photo I really love, from when they were here at Christmas. A nice shot with Mike and Brian, so sort of a Father's Day tribute as well!

And, without further ado, Happy Father's Day to you dads!!!! We love you all!

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

2007-05-26T17:12:00.000-04:00

We are keeping busy, as usual. I started a new exercise program (new for me, not totally new--haha) and I have really been working at it. I am spending more time than ever on the nordic track and also doing some weight lifting. I am feeling so much more fit, already, and am really enjoying it!

Plans for the wedding are progressing nicely. It is still early days, of course, but we sure hope to keep things moving along at a nice pace and not end up with any last minute messes.

The magnolia tree is looking fabulous! In the past, it has always put out lots of buds, and yet they have tended to open up one or two at a time. Well, it is going wild this year! The other day I counted 12 open or partially open flowers, and that wasn't counting the ones that were open but turning brown. Here is a shot of the whole tree--afraid I cut off the top, but it is a better photo than the one that does include the top!

Here is a close up of one of the flowers. I had to make do with one of the lower ones, as most of them are too high for me to photograph well--as small as the tree is, it is way taller than me.

I got quite a surprise while out checking out all the plants. I had always known that there was this big bush near the corner of Helen's house (next door to us), but didn't know what it was. Don't ask me how I have missed seeing it bloom two spring/summers in a row, but I evidently did. I did see it at the right time this year though, and the huge bush is a gardenia. It is covered with blooms, and between the scent from it, and removing spent blooms from our gardenia, I went back in with a headache. Really gorgeous though!!!!

Back to our yard, here is a lovely hibiscus on one of the plants that Joel and the elves cut back because of some kind of mold or mildew or other miscellaneous plant problem. It is coming back just fine, and has the lovely flowers to prove it!

I didn't get a photo of the jasmine, although the trellis is really getting covered and it is all in bloom. However, the posts holding the trellis up seem to have broken/rotted out, and the trellis is not standing right now. The jasmine is getting quite a bit heavier, too, with growing and spreading so much. It is really gorgeous, and the scent is very evident too.

Now for Mom, in the quest to possibly identify the plant in the back. Here is a shot of the whole plant, well, the larger of them, as there are actually two, or maybe three?

This is a shot from the other day (the other photos were from the other day too). There are little buds, just starting to open up, and I think you can sort of see the way the stems and flowers are situated. It is sort of like some kinds of grass, that put out runners?

Here is a photo from today, of one of the flowers. They are opened up now, all those that were buds the other day, I should say. It has been windy and so between that and sometimes getting white glare from the flash, it has been tricky trying to get any photo that you can actually see detail in.

Here is a side view of one of the flowers. Not very good, but you can somewhat see the detail, etc.

So, there it is. The flowers are really small, not any bigger around than a ping pong ball, or a golf ball, I don't think. They are yellow with brown spotting towards the inner parts. It would be interesting to know just what they are.

Now, one last thing before I go! I have to tell you about a relatively new cut of steak. I had seen something on AOL news about some different cuts, and they were being raved over. Well, I was in the commissary a couple of weeks ago, and saw that they had some of one of those new cuts. It is called a flat iron steak. They came in the vacuum pack, and there were two steaks in each package, although that wasn't evident looking at the package. I got some, and Mike cooked two packages of them last weekend. There was a little bit of visible fat while they were raw, but not a lot. Well, Mike cooked them up, and we each had one. I think I can safely say they were the best steaks we had ever had. Good flavor, pretty darn tender and juicy, and even better, the fat all rendered out and we didn't have a scrap of anything left when we finished them. That is a total first for me, as I am really fussy about fat in meat. There truly was nothing to cut out. I don't know if we got lucky the first time or what, although that really isn't totally the case either, as we had the two left over steaks. Even reheated in the microwave, they were still tender and juicy, and once again no fat. Mike is grilling more of them tonight and we will see how they are this time. I did notice when I bought them, that some of the packages are already seasoned. I didn't get seasoned ones. I did give them a good dose of fresh ground pepper and a good sprinkle of salt, and they were fabulous!

Well, I have to go, take care all and more later.....

MANY HAPPYS!!!!!

2007-05-13T16:42:00.002-04:00

What a weekend for events!

Yesterday was Dad Walters' birthday! How the time does fly, eh Dad? We hope you had a great day.

Today is Mothers' Day, of course! Happy Mothers' Day to both our moms!!

I took some photos of the unidentified flowers in the back. The photos are very uninspiring, but I guess this one is clear enough that someone might be able to recognize the flowers and tell what they are? Here it is:

While I was in the back with the camera, I also checked the gardenia. It had several flowers on it, and this is a semi-decent shot that I got of two of them:

They are so pretty, aren't they? Just a shame that I can't stand the smell of them! They sure are pretty to look at though.

Not much going on around here. Anne keeps busy with school and Paul. She is still going to pt two times a week, too.

Mike is going to grill tonight, and Anne and Paul are supposed to come. I got some steaks at the commissary and he is going to grill those. We might do up the squeaky cheese too.

Well, I guess that is it this time around, I will try to have something else to talk about soon?

Less Than a Week Later....

2007-05-05T21:01:00.000-04:00

I'm back! Aren't you surprised!!!????

Not that there is a lot to write about. I am still baking bread for us, and I don't buy any bread any longer. Which is really kind of nice. It freezes well too, so it works out well to slice it all up, put part in ziplock bags, and slip them in the freezer.

Summer is pretty well here, I think. We have had some warm temps this past week, definitely mid to high 80's all week. The humidity level is rising a little bit too. Our county has generally been avoiding being mentioned on the "high fire risk" list, thank goodness. We haven't had much rain though, in ages, and the water level in the area lakes keeps going further and further down.

I gave Mike a hand with some work in the butterfly garden today. The passion vine is going wild. I had noticed before that the vine was working its way all over the place, inter-weaving itself among the other plants, etc. I had redirected some of the vines before, but naturally, it takes constant vigilence to keep up with these things! Mike and I redirected more vines, and Mike gave parts of the whole an assist in its journey over the arch. There are a number of flowers open on it and a ton of buds. They are so pretty and outlandish looking, those blooms!

We then headed to the back of the house, as I had noticed that part of one of the porter weed plants was dead. Mike got to work on trimming that and I put the trimmed pieces into the veggie recycling bin. There is a plant (well, a couple or more, I guess) behind this porter weed---I have wondered if it is an orchid or some kind of lily or iris. Mike took a good look at it today and thinks it is an orchid. There are three blooms on it, they are yellow. I will have to take a photo and post it. I didn't take that close a look, although I have looked at it from inside, as it can be seen from the sun room. I don't think it has the long bloom shoot that most orchids I am familiar with have, but I don't think all varieties have those? I guess we will see.

We gathered fallen grapefruit off the ground and checked the ones still on the tree, which seem like they might still be okay---I was sure they would have to be picked and tossed at this late date. The new grapefruit are getting bigger. A quick check didn't find very many, but I am not too surprised by that. They vary in size from big pea sized to malt ball sized--haha.

As we headed on, I glanced back at the gardenia, which didn't have any blooms on the front. There were some flowers on the back, so it is actually blooming again this year! It doesn't look like it will put out as many as it did last year though.

Joel and the boys had cut back some of the hibiscus, which had some kind of fungus or mold or something on them. They are growning back nicely and most of them have blooms on them--hurrah!

Well, enough for now, take care and I will keep posting more often! I'll try to get some photos on soon.

Too Long

2007-04-30T23:02:00.000-04:00

So long, in fact, that although I am sure I had the right password, etc, I couldn't log onto my blog. Things have never really worked quite right since they updated to the new blogger, and I still can't sign in from AOL---I can't ever get the sign in screen there. Oh well. After a good bit of time spent trying to get things to work, I had to just go ahead and institute a new password. So, here I am!!! Did you miss me???

We had a great visit with my folks, which went way too fast. It seemed like that two weeks was gone before we knew it. We had a great visit though, and got a lot done. I am very happy to say that the huge clutter of "excess benefits" that had been cluttering up my sink area are gone! That would be the instant hot water and the reverse osmosis faucet. The instant hot water was nice for a while, but it isn't really hot enough for a good cup of tea, and if not used for a few days -- as in, away from home -- the water gets really funky. Yuck! We never really had any need for the reverse osmosis, and after Dad reading and sharing info from the booklet about it, I am just as glad---it wastes a huge amount of water, and the filters, etc, cost a small fortune. Good riddance. They are both out of the way, and a nice, new faucet and hand spray thingie are in place, and it looks great!!!!!

We made a trip to Tampa to see my uncle (Mom's brother) and his wife. I had never met Aunt Bev, and hadn't seen my uncle in more years than I like to think about. It was a great visit and I am glad we were able to go. Anne went along too, and I was really glad of that, too!

We all made a trip to the McLarty Treasure Museum, over on the island. It is really amazing and neat to think that people can find some really interesting things, including gold objects and silver, on the beach, from ship wrecks from the early 1700's. Not that they are found every day, mind you! Still, I think it is pretty neat. There were a number of Spanish ships that were caught by a hurricane in 1715. A recovery crew was sent out back then, and they felt that about 80% of the inventoried treasure was recovered. It has been suggested that there was a good bit of treasure that wasn't listed on the inventories, and perhaps that helps to explain why so much has been recovered since? The museum was small but interesting! I think it would be fun to go over some of those beaches with a metal detector! I don't imagine we would find anything, but there is always a chance, eh?

We were lucky to have lovely weather the whole time they were here, and still are, for that matter. Our temps have been pretty much in the mid 80's for the high, and low 70's/high 60's for the lows. Really does make it nice. We only had rain a couple of times while they were here, so that wasn't bad at all.

Mom and Dad left for home a week ago, and we are getting back into routines again. Anne is hard at work on her classes---working on her master's degree, online. She has turned in a paper already and I imagine she has more due soon. She spends a lot of time with her fiance, Paul, too. I am sure they are making the most of their time now, as once Anne finds a job, they will surely have less time together.

The neatest thing happened on Wednesday!!!! Anne and I were headed off to run some errands, and when we got near the end of Murrell, we both happened to look to the right side, and saw a BALD EAGLE just calmly standing in the grass next to the pond at the corner. There were a number of birds near him, and a mama duck and ducklings on the water, and all seemed fine with having a bald eagle in their midst. We figured he was not at all hungry, and that the others all knew it was safe??? The funny thing was, when we went by the same place on Thursday, there was not a bird to be seen by that pond, or on it. Just a coincidence, I am sure!

Well, I hope to be updating a lot more often these days, and also the knitting, etc blog, as I know I am really hugely behind on that. Take care all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

2007-03-22T16:30:00.000-04:00

Well, this is quite a month for birthdays! Kathleen had a birthday on St. Patrick's Day, the 17th. Mom Walters and Philip have birthdays today. I feel like I might be missing someone? I will have to go check the calendar and edit if so.

I hope everyone had/has a great birthday this month, and special good wishes to you all! I think of you all often, even if I don't write as often as I probably should!

Take care and Happy Birthday!

Hello, is Any One Out There?

2007-03-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

I have been really slack again. Sorry about that. There has been so much going on and not much of it has been any different than what has been going on all along. Sure don't want to bore you to death--haha.

I am still baking bread, and not buying any. We are really liking this, and it has been great for Anne's stomach. She still is bothered by her stomach a lot more than she likes, but at least she can eat bread (and some other things) without problems. I really do like the Feather Bread I have been making, it turns out really nice. I will just have to start freezing more of it, as we sometimes don't get through all of it before a bit of mold hits--yuck!

Here it is, ready for the oven!

And here it is, all baked and ready to eat. Yumm!

Anne continues with pt three times a week. She is making some progress, but it is slow going. Lisa does a great job with her.

I had an appointment with pt at the base this week. I have some stiffness in my hip (xrays show nothing, which is good because the doc thought there might be a touch of arthritis), and the therapist thinks that part of the problem is my back--not a big problem or anything, just some maintenance stuff. I go back next week for exercises and stretches, and again the next week to make sure I have them all down okay. I will be able to just do it all at home on my own, no need to go in several times a week, or anything like that. That will be a real help with Anne's pt to work around.

I guess that is about it. We get to see Brian, Christine and Michelle now and then on the computer, which is great! We both have web cams, so can all see each other. It works out really well.

Take care and I will try to update sooner next time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!

2007-02-22T23:14:00.000-05:00

We hope you have a great day on Friday!!! Amazing how the time flies by, isn't it? It is hard to believe it we were out there two years ago.

February is turning out to be a busy month for birthdays, with Brian's and yours, and now Baby Jake having his birthday the same day as Brian's. And Skyler has a birthday coming up this month too. Amazing how they all add up.

I hope your weather continues nicer, I am pretty sure that the weather thing showed that you had some nicer weather coming up? I imagine your flowers are gorgeous!

I am tired and can't think, so I will go ahead and stop for now and will post more later on! Take care all, and especially you, Mom! Have a great day!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRIAN!!!!!!

2007-02-19T14:39:00.000-05:00

Today is Brian's 23rd birthday! Amazing, isn't it? How did he get to be so old? Not that it is old, of course, but I'm not old enough for him to be that old--haha.

I hope you have a great day, Brian! I am guessing no work today, what a nice change! I don't remember your birthday ever falling on President's Day before, although I guess it probably has.

We are still chilly here, but are due to continue to warm and will have some nice weather soon. Thank goodness! I have had enough chilly weather--haha.

We saw a blimp today on the way home from pt. It reminded me of the time when I was pregnant with Brian and went to a Halloween party as a Goodyear blimp.

Not much going on around here, so will go for now, but wanted to be sure to mention Brian's birthday!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

2007-02-14T08:16:00.000-05:00

I hope you all have a great day! The sun is shining here, and the azalea bush in the front is still covered in blooms--it really looks pretty! We have one more day, it seems, before the next cold front comes through. Oh well.

I have tried posting before, but blogger hasn't been cooperating. Not sure what the problem has been. I switched over to the new blogger and that all went well, but since then, had not been able to post. Anne tried it last night from her screen name, and had no trouble at all. So, today I came to it through mozilla instead of AOL, and all was fine.

Not too much going on here, except the familiar routine of taking Anne to pt. She is making progress and that is always a good thing! We try to run an errand or two after---enough to keep her up and moving, and not enough to wear her out badly.

I made bread yesterday and it was a new recipe from my book. I think it is called "Feather Loaf" and it is indeed nice and light. Anne had wondered if there was a recipe (without milk) that wasn't quite as dense as the bread I have been making. Well, this is it. It did call for 1/3 cup butter, and I put in just a bit less than 1/3 cup of olive oil instead. I don't know what it would have tasted like with the butter, but it tastes great with the oil! It called for making two long loaves--sort of like French or Italian bread is formed. I did one that way, shaped the other and put it in a loaf pan. They are both really good. I guess we have a new favorite recipe? Oh, as I indirectly mentioned, it makes two loafs. With the butter/oil in it though, it will stay fresh longer, so we should be fine. It is supposed to freeze well too, if we find we need to do that.

Well, I am sure I have bored you enough by now--haha! Time to leave for pt will be upon me before I know it, so that's it for now and I will post again soon! Have a happy Valentine's Day, eh?!!

Baking and Other Stuff

2007-02-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess it has been a while, hasn't it? I haven't meant to be away so long.

Anne is back at pt again, but then I might have mentioned that before. It is coming along nicely. Lisa has put her on the exercise bike twice now, and it seems to help. But the best part of that, of course, is that it helps make her stronger. She was on for 6 minutes today, and was really zipping along, when she finished it said she had gone half a mile. Not bad!!!

So, I spend my days taking her to pt, trying to work on the house, doing some exercise (finally!), and actually, doing some baking. I have started baking bread again. I haven't drug out the bread machine, although I might at some point. I have been making totally scratch bread. I had been thinking about it for a while, especially after seeking and finding my bread book again. I am so glad it wasn't still in a box! Also, Anne had found that the bread we had been buying had been upsetting her stomach. We aren't sure what component of the bread was bothering her, but thought it worth a try to see if home made bread would work better for her. The answer was yes! I made a list of the white bread recipes that took no milk, since that is something that bothers her. I have quite a list, and figured I would work my way through, finding which ones we liked best. Well, I have made that first recipe twice now. We all seem to like it and although it isn't very soft, like a typical sandwich bread, it is still very good and is wonderful toasted. It also slices nicely, which is really good in my book! It is very much like an Italian bread, in loaf form. Although, it is called "An Engish Loaf". Here is a photo of the current loaf:

This photo was taken yesterday, and those cut slices are all gone already. I figure I will be making bread again tomorrow. It is an easy to make recipe, and makes one 8.5 x 4.5 loaf. Yummm!

Yesterday we were home all day, and I made up the recipe for gingerbread scones that Anne found on the computer when Brian and Christine were here. The dough is very soft, and almost impossible to knead that few "kneads" that the directions call for, so I think some tinkering will be called for. The scones are very good, however, and are quite gingerbread-y!

Well, I guess that just about catches me up. Take care and I will try to write more again soon!

Belated Happy Birthday!

2007-01-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Christine!

I tried to blog on her birthday, but blogger had different ideas and I couldn't get onto it at all. Isn't that the way?

But, I was able to email, thank goodness!

Here is a pic of Christine while she and the family were here! She got in some good knitting time while she was here....

We hope you had a great day!!!!!

Meanwhile, here is another pic that shows a scene that was often seen here! Just substitute in each of us, at one time or another. A lot of computing went on at the dining room table, but that photo is really blurry. Oh well.....

The computers all got a lot of use. I am so glad that Mike and Brian went and got and installed the wireless network right away. It made life so much easier to have 3 computers that could all get online at the same time!

Another common sight was Michelle and Mike sitting together, sharing a bowl of trash!

Well, I need to go, will try to get back to blogging more often!

Once again, belated Happy Birthday, Christine!

Our Visit to Sea World

2006-12-31T14:18:00.000-05:00

Well, it was an interesting day, with lots of lessons learned, and a good day of fun thrown in!

First off, get your tickets online if you are a Florida resident. The reduced price for residents is only available online, even though they don't say that online! Go figure. At least Brian and family got in free, being active duty military, and that made up for a lot!

Second, although wheelchairs are allowed just about everywhere, strollers aren't. Go figure. They do have "lots" at each of the shows and displays for strollers, and we found out later that some of the shows have security to watch them--isn't that sad? But, the regular displays don't have security. Bring a lock for the stroller!

The seals are loud! They love fish--like we didn't already know that. Many people are willing to pay money to buy little fish to throw to the seals! Some of the seals just bark loudly, unendingly, waiting for a fish. One was a master, doing a loud and very long bark --- count that in minutes!---in his quest for fish. Here is a photo of one of the seals!

The manatee pool had an outdoor section, and an indoor part, where you could see the manatees swimming around, etc. Here is a manatee from outside. I knew that they were big, but seeing them lets one see just how very big they are. No strollers, of course, for the indoor part. We did things in shifts, with some going in while others watched the stroller, then the watchers went in.

A lot (if not all) of the manatees at Sea World are rescued animals, that have suffered injuries. This manatee is one that had lost a flipper to a motor boat.

Michelle seemed to enjoy seeing them!

We had barbeque for lunch, and it was pretty good. There isn't much variety at the different food places, that is one thing I think they could change a bit!

We saw the Shamu show, and it was good. Michelle looked like she was going to fall asleep, as we were getting ready to enter the show arena. Brian declared that the stroller would go in with us, as we would be in the handicapped area with Anne anyway. And what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a whole section of "sleeping baby in stroller" seating, right behind the wheelchair seating. Naturally, Michelle didn't go to sleep after all, but we had niches for the stroller and the wheelchair, and had a fairly decent view most of the time. Here is a side view of Brian, Christine, Michelle and Anne at the show.

Here is another shot, taken before we moved Anne next to Michelle, after an extremely large woman who didn't understand (or care?) that the seat in front of us that she took was for a wheelchair companion---and she totally blocked Anne's view.

We took the long way back from the Shamu arena, which is so far out that it surely has a different zip code? This took us past a great number of kiddie rides that we hadn't realized were there (next time, when Michelle is older!), and past the Anheiser-Busch wagon, with the requisite Clydesdales.

We then boogied back to the front of the park, where Mike returned Anne's wheelchair (well worth the rental, as she never would have made it on the crutches the whole time) and we walked back to the cars. We were lucky enough to have arrived early enough that the cars weren't far away at all. Thank goodness!

We had a safe trip home, stopped and had dinner at our nearest Chinese restaurant, and went home and collapsed. It was a good day!

A Day at the Beach

2006-12-29T12:09:00.000-05:00

I am sitting in the dining room, working from the laptop. I find that I can't access (I just don't know how!) the photos that I have downloaded onto the other computer and so can't add some of them to photobucket to put them in the blog. So, instead of talking about our trip to Sea World, I will post about our trip to the beach (since I have plenty of photos from that on photobucket!)

We made the trip to the beach on that last Thursday that the kids were here. It would be Michelle's first trip to the beach, and the kids were all looking forward to it, as were we!

The day was nice, although very breezy. Which meant that it was downright windy at the beach. The sun was shining though, and it was warm enough! Christine had brought Michelle's Winnie the Pooh swimsuit with its little pareo wrap and flip flops. She looked so cute!!!!! We went to the "stop light" beach, right across from the main gate of the base. It is a favorite with Anne and me, and it is easy to get back out of, since there is the stop light and one can easily turn left.

There was almost no one there at the beach---I guess most people were trying to finish their Christmas shopping? It was nice to have it so empty! We found a nice spot and put down the blanket. I am not sure what Michelle thought of it all! The beach hadn't been cleaned recently, or at least not since a lot of seaweed, etc, had been washed up. We saw plenty of Portuguese Men of War--which was a surprise as I hadn't heard anything about it on the news, and didn't till a couple of days later. Although, there weren't as many as there had been when we had a lot last year. Some of these were much bigger than the ones we had seen before though. Even so, Brian and Christine were surprised at how small they are, having gotten the impression (as we had before) that they were much larger. Oops,was going to put in a photo, but I didn't put one in photobucket. But, you probably remember what they look like!

We found some other surprising things on the beach, including a big cocoanut that had washed up!

Brian and Mike checked it out, and found that it had some very soft spots, so it was definitely left on the beach!

Michelle made a trip down to the water, holding hands with Brian and Mike. You will have seen some of the photos on the photo page! She didn't seem to be afraid at all, and had a good time in the water!

She also had fun with Mike and Anne

Brian and Christine took the time to play in the sand a bit!!!!

After about an hour at the beach, with the wind getting quite chilly, we called it quits and returned home to clean up for dinner. We were full of sand, and quite wind blown! It was a relaxing time, though!

Check back another time for a recap of our day at Sea World!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

2006-12-25T12:22:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone!!!!

We hope you all are having a great Christmas! We have already had the best one we could possibly have had---with Anne and Brian, Christine and Michelle, all here with us! Even though we celebrated early, it was a really good time!

Brian and Christine are home already. Brian called at about 8 p.m. or so last evening to let us know they were home. They had a pretty good trip, and didn't have much trouble. Mitchie was a bit fussy the last bit of the trip, but that is understandable. It will all get easier the older she gets, so that is something to look forward to!

I will try to come back and post about our trip to Sea World,

(Can you tell we were all getting tired? This was taken not long before we left the park!)
the beach,

etc, the things we did while the kids were here. We didn't get nearly as much done as we all had hoped, and I hope Brian and Christine aren't too disappointed that we didn't get more done. Hopefully we will all be in good health, no one on crutches, etc, next time they come, and with Michelle being a bit older, we can more easily do more fun and exciting things! We will really have to check out more things in the area too, so we know the ins and outs of things.

It was neat seeing the manatees at Sea World. We haven't yet got around to checking out any of the local spots where they can often be seen, but will have to do that sometime, so we can take houseguests in the future! They sure are big!!!!!!

Well, I had best go, but really wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

A Jolly Good Time

2006-12-16T15:18:00.000-05:00

We are having a great visit, here at Chez Walters. One of the first things Mike did was take Brian shopping on Monday and got the things to set up a wireless internet connection! It is the best thing ever! Of course, there has now been even more computer playing going on, but with the desk top computer and two laptops in the house, it makes it all easier than ever. Very little waiting, if one wants to get online.

That isn't all that has been going on though, of course. Mike and Brian have worked on the lights in the front of the house. The accent lights, which have been a bit of a bane lately, as one was broken a while back--we think by the guys who did the hurricane shutters. Mike and Brian found a replacement, and got it installed. They found the very exact kind as what is already in there, so all is good. Brian came up with a reasonable explanation of why the bulbs seem to burn out so quickly, and a solution. We will see how that goes! The outside looks much nicer with that light replaced and the lights actually coming on at night now!

I have made two huge batches of trash and it keeps disappearing! We ate the last of it last night, and I hope to get another batch made today. Michelle took to trash like a true Walters. Here is a picture of her sharing a bowl of trash with her grandpa.

I also finally got a batch of Mike's favorite "Merry Christmas Cookies" made, after two years (or more?) of not getting it done. I mixed up the dough one day, and baked the cookies yesterday. They are being enjoyed by all. Mitch gave them her seal of approval, and says they are very good with milk!

We plan to make a trip to Sea World tomorrow, the weather forecast is great! We will plan to take a camera, so we will have some photos of the festivities!

Monday Anne and I make the trek to Jacksonville to the Mayo to have them look at her hip. Her appts are in the afternoon, so we will make it there and back in the same day, and be home for dinner. While we are gone, Mike will take the kids to the zoo! That promises to be great fun and an opportunity for more photos too!

The sand hill cranes have cooperated and made appearances in our yard several times already since the kids have been here. Brian took some photos with his camera, and they still get a kick out of seeing them! We do too, truth be told.

Well, I had best stop, take care and more later!

Edited to add-----they made changes to photobucket, and I do not know how to make the photos thumbnail size as usual. I guess you all will have to suffer with large massive photos for now, but at least they are easy to see, eh? And you don't have to click to make them bigger and easy to see. I didn't have this problem when I did the other post! Oh well.

Edited again---well, I looked at the blog on AOL, and the one photo that I had gone back and done the old way now shows up as a thumbnail, as I had expected. I have done the same with the second photo. It should now show both as thumbnail shots on aol, and I am not sure what will show on Mozilla!

A Busy Few Days

2006-12-12T16:08:00.000-05:00

Well! First off, the launch was delayed till Saturday. Then that morning, Anne heard on the TV that they were going to scrub it and try on Sunday. Hurrah, we figured, as then Brian and Christine could see it. But, it turned out that was all wrong and they really were going to try to launch on Saturday, and they did!

Mike set up his camera on the tripod, out on the driveway, and waited for the shuttle to appear. Anne and I watched on the tv for a while, then she hobbled out since she knew she couldn't rush on the crutches. I watched the launch on the NASA station, and then boogied outside to see the shuttle going up---with the little camera! I felt at the time as if the shuttle was significantly "up" by the time I got there and in position, but from this photo, with the outlines of rooftops slightly visible, you will see it wasn't really very far up yet.

I kept taking photos until the shuttle was so small that it was silly to keep doing it, which means that I took photos much longer than it made any sense to keep doing it. It was really neat to watch, and what you don't see in my photos is how much it lit up the sky. I don't know how Mike's photos came out. I hope he posts some of them! Meanwhile, I taped the launch, so the kids can see it.

Brian and family arrived about 5.30 or so on Sunday. It was so good to see them again! Michelle wasn't at all shy with us, and came right to me. She is such a sweet little girl, and cute as can be! She has been spending good time with Anne and Mike too!

I don't think I have a photo yet of Michelle and Mike, I guess I have to correct that!

And, Michelle finally got her giant Winnie the Pooh that Anne crocheted for her ages ago. It is kind of big to mail, so we just held on to it till they came for a visit! As you can see, Michelle approves of him!

So, we are all having a great time, although we really haven't done anything yet. That will change soon, as I know that Brian and Christine really want to go to Sea World, and some other places too. Time will sure run out if we don't get started!

Take care and more later!

Oh Dear,

2006-12-09T13:49:00.000-05:00

Is this becoming a weekly blog? It looks like it, doesn't it? I hope to do better after the holidays.

I am taking a break from dealing with the house, laundry, etc. Things are looking better, but I still haven't made nearly as much progress as I would like. Oh well.

The kids will have left Texas this morning. I wonder how far they will get today, and if they really will get there tomorrow? I know there is still a lot of construction, etc, because of Katrina, so that might slow them down a good bit. I guess we will see.

The launch was delayed till today, and Anne heard this morning that it had been scrubbed for today. It is 70 degrees and sunny, at 1.50 p.m., but it is to get cloudy tonight and there is a good chance of rain. There was only a 30% chance of good launch weather. We don't mind too much, as the longer it is delayed, the greater the chance that Brian and Christine will be here to see it! It is a night launch, so should be pretty spectacular!

I have been knitting stocking--Christmas stockings, that is. I have had trouble getting a pink that I like for Santa's face. The first I ordered has too much of a blue/lilac tint to it, and poor Santa would look rather funny? I have ordered two other pinks, and hope that at least one of them will work out. Amazingly, I don't have any other scraps of pink here at the house that would work, and almost no pink anyway. I worked on Christine's stocking till I got to the face, and have now started working on Michelle's. Once the pink yarn comes, I will go back to Christine's and get it finished first, since Michelle is still young enough not to know or care. Now if I can just get Christine's done before Christmas?

Mount Union is playing in the playoffs still, Division 3 football, that is. They are playing a school today, St. John Fisher, that has worked really hard at becoming a good team, and feel that playing Mount is a huge milestone for them. They are holding their own so far, the game has not been a pushover for Mount. The game started at noon, and at almost 2 p.m. they are already in the 4th quarter. Mount is leading by about 5 points. Not as much of a lead as we would like, but better than being behind! We are keeping our fingers crossed, etc, knocking on wood, etc. I am wearing a Mount Union shirt, as usual. Yikes! I will be glad when the game is over, and I know Mike will be too.

Well, I had best go, take care and I will try to write again before too long!

It's Been a Whole Week Already?

2006-12-02T13:30:00.000-05:00

I know they say time flies, but this is getting silly.

The week didn't end up as tied up with appts as expected. Anne saw Dr. Dunne, the podiatrist, on Monday. When he heard about her hip problems, she said that the hip trumped the ankle, and he really didn't think there was any hope of making any progress with the ankle till the hip is dealt with. He didn't have us make a follow up appt, but asked that we keep him posted on what we find out, and come back and see him if the ankle is still bothering her after the hip is sorted out. He felt that there was no sense in continuing the pt, either.

We saw the orthopedics guy, and he is referring her to another doc.

I called and canceled the rest of the pt appts, and we will see what happens.

Meanwhile, Anne's whole leg is giving her fits, the knee still hurts a lot (she has tendonitis in the tendon along the side of the knee) and the hip hurts and her ankle still hurts. The poor kid is a real mess.

Still, she is hanging in there and making the best of things.

We have had some rain---I dumped over an inch of rain out of the gauge the other day. I think that was Wednesday. We have had a number of cloudy days, and some light showers/sprinkles now and then that didn't do much. It has been warm again, and that has been nice! I think it was up to 83 yesterday, the warmest day in a bit. It is 80 degrees right now, at 1.30 p.m. I am not complaining a bit, especially since we are avoiding the snow that so much of the rest of the country seems to be dealing with.

All the bushes and trees seem to be doing well, and the butterfly garden is still blooming (most of it--some of the plants are taking a break!), and I am still seeing butterflies around the house. Really is cool!

I am making some small progress on the house, trying to get ready for Brians' to come. And to get ready for Christmas. I guess I will have to pick up the pace!

Well, I am out of news, so will go and more later.

Great Weekend

2006-11-25T13:42:00.000-05:00

Hi All--I am back. I am keeping busy and I don't see that changing any time soon, since there is so much to do and so little time before Brian and Christine (and the ever adorable Michelle) arrive here. So, don't expect to hear much from me, but know that all is fine---I will, of course, be sure to let you know if things are not fine. A case of no news is good news, eh?

We had a great Thanksgiving Day, with a call from the Walters, a chance to talk to Brian and Christine, and even a few baby words from Michelle! We can hardly wait to see them again!

Yesterday was a relaxing day for the most part. I got a good bit of laundry done---a lot of it things that need to be checked and dealt with---things that Anne needs to decide what to do with. I have a bag of things for charity already, and imagine that some of these things will go into another bag that will go out on Wednesday. Nice timing they came up with!

We were thrilled to death that the Aggies beat Texas yesterday. Mike saw an early part of the game and we watched the very end. He worries about jinxing them. Fortunately, they played well yesterday and won! I very well remember the feeling in the stadium, in 1979 (??), when Mike and I were there for this very match up and the Aggies won. It is just amazing, the good cheer, excitement, etc, when the Ags beat Texas. If it wasn't in 79, it was another year when we were in Bryan and happened to both be at the game together--but that does make it most likely that it was in '79!

Well, I had best go, I have to check on how Mount is doing again Wheaton today! Take care and I will try to jot at least a few lines now and then!

Yikes

2006-11-19T11:33:00.000-05:00

Yes, that is the word for it, yikes! I hadn't realized that I hadn't blogged in so long. All I can say is that there is really nothing new, and I have been busy. Not with anything fun and exciting, of course, or there would have been something to blog about.

We carry on with the usual activities. I take Anne to pt and doc appts. If she doesn't do it, I will go ahead and update the brain blog soon. Things move slowly, of course, especially with Anne and any type of healing. Nothing ever moves quickly for her.

I have plenty to get ready here at the house, as it does look like Brian, Christine, and Michelle, will be able to come for a pre-Christmas visit. Brian figured that a visit earlier in the month would be easier to get leave for, and travel would likely not be as bad. I think they are planning to leave Abilene on the 9th! I have tons of baby proofing to do, and have to figure out if the tree will go up right before they get here, or if they want to help decorate. It will be really interesting to see how the kitties react to Michelle! I don't think they have ever seen a littlie before. Fortunately, they are both good about taking off if they feel scared, and only attack if there are no options. We will be sure to keep an eye on Michelle till we see that she understands not to corner them--considering her age, that will mean any time the kitties are around, we will keep an eye on her. hahah!

The weather has been great, but we have a real cooling trend here right now. It only made it into the 70's yesterday, and today it is only to get into the 60's, and that will be the case most of the week. It is only 62 right now, at 11.30 a.m. It is bright and sunny out though, and it usually feels at least a little bit warmer than it really is. Actually, the forecast highs are for Orlando, and our highs here are to be a little bit higher, but not hugely so, of course! I'm a whimp, I know it, and I had the heat on yesterday morning---it was cold in the house! It didn't run long, but enough to take the chill off.

Well, I am totally out of news, so I will go for now and will try to do better over the coming days. However, that might not work out, since there is still plenty of baby proofing to do, among other things! Take care all, I do think about you all the time, even if I don't email and/or blog as much as I would like!

Back Again

2006-11-05T14:34:00.000-05:00

Sorry, no photos this time. I will get organized and get some on some time. Mike has started up a new photo thing on Brian's hummmm, what do you call it? On Brian's green bug thing. As you can see, there are gaps in my becoming more techno savvy. I am sure Mike, Anne and Brian will be laughing their heads off on reading that I have any thought of being at all techno savvy, but I am learning some and am not as totally inept was I once was! Anyway, I was going to say, I imagine that Mike will send out info about the new photo site so you all can go see the pics.

Anyway, we are back to lovely weather here. I see that AOL and the weather channel (as on Mike's blog) are not in sync about the temp, one says 78 and the other says 80 degrees. Either way, it is nice out and the sun is shining. Can't ask for much more than that, can we? The snow birds are returning already. I guess it has just been too cold in some of those more northern climes for them. It is still a bit early for them to be showing up here. I think the majority never used to head this way till after Thanksgiving? We don't really mind them, but they do make things more congested and we sure see the traffic increase when they are here. Can't blame them for wanting the nicer weather. (although I tend to think one should take the good and the bad, the warm and the hot, the cold and the mild/hot) But that is just me, eh?

I think we are pretty well rested after our journey to Texas. It still seems kind of odd to think that we were there and are back home already. I will say, I really loved the non-stop flight deal. It is sure the way to go, when possible. The trips through security weren't too bad, even with Anne's growth hormone, which could not go through the x-ray machines, and had to be hand checked. We were very glad to have the letter from the doc. Anne's ankle brace made for some problems. Orlando handled it well, just using the wand to scan and letting her through. Houston was more of a problem, and the gal insisted on patting her down. Sure, she looks like a terrorist, doesn't she???????? Seems especially stupid when one can see at a glance that the brace has numberous metal eyelets that the laces go through. Oh well.

There isn't much else going on here, just the usual routine once again of pt and doc appts. Anne sees her endocrinologist on Thursday. She had her MRI of her knee, and her bone scan (checking on the osteopenia) this past Thursday. It will be too soon, I think, for there to be any improvement of the osteopenia due to the growth hormone, but it will be interesting to see if it had gotten any worse in the past year.

Well, I had best go. Oh, I am happy to report that Mount continues their winning streak in football. They played John Carroll yesterday and the game was a little close for comfort at times, but Mount did prevail. My little bit of superstition, I always wear a Mount Union shirt on Saturdays when they play. I know it really doesn't make any difference, but.......

A Wonderous Vacation

2006-11-02T15:30:00.000-05:00

I see it has been too long since I blogged last. So much time was spent on appts, and preparing for the secret vacation.

You see, a plan was put into place to go spend Mike's parents' 61st anniversary with them--without letting them know ahead of time. We ended up with almost the whole family there and it was great! There were so many good things about it all, it makes quite a list.

We were really thankful to be able to be there for the folks' anniversary!

It was our first trip to Lufkin since 2001. We had seen Mom and Dad since then, as they had been to Ohio and to Florida to see us. However, we hadn't seen Jo's son Russ, and his family since our last trip to Lufkin. It was great to see them again and their little girl, Skyler!

We were thrilled to see Brian, Christine, and Michelle again! Mike and Anne hadn't ever seen Michelle at all, and she was only about 1 week old when I left Germany. Needless to say, she has changed a lot! She is sweet and adorable, and very good natured. Here is one of my favorite photos of the ones taken in TX, of Anne and Michelle.

I realized in looking through the photos we took, that there are mostly photos of Michelle, and not much else. Occasionally there is an adult, and sometimes Skyler is in the photo, but I find that I really missed the boat on the photo taking, and so did all the rest who grabbed up the camera now and then to take a photo! Oh well. Brian gave us CD's of photos, and there should be some better selections in among those photos! All the group photos are on the CD too.

In addition to the great fun of getting to see everyone, I think Anne and I agree that the other benefit of the trip was a chance to get away from our usual routine of pt and doc appts. It was nice to be able to almost forget about it all for a few days, and just enjoy being with family.

I am sure I will show more photos here later on, once I have a better chance to go through them all, etc.

In local news, it started to rain Tuesday night---after we got home, after the trick or treating, etc. It rained most of the night and into Wednesday morning. We had 3 inches of rain in the rain gauge. Quite a good haul! I am sure the lawn and the butterfly garden were really happy to have it! The butterfly garden is still doing well. The plants are all doing well, and Mike is making progress at getting the passion vine to climb the arch. I didn't see any butterflies when I was out, but it was early evening--maybe they were resting----haha.

Well, that is it for now, take care and I will try to be better about blogging again!

Foggy Morning

2006-10-13T09:28:00.000-04:00

Oops, I see I have been slack again. I hate letting so much time go between posts. Oh well..... It is foggy this morning. It is cool, too, in the low 70's. I guess it will burn off soon though---they are saying 87 for the high today. The weather continues nice. We have had a couple of cold fronts go through, which have cooled us down to the low 80's for highs. At least it isn't that big a difference from our normal highs!

Let's see, last time I mentioned Anne's growth hormone arriving. The nurse came on that Thursday to "teach" it. She was nice, went over a ton of paperwork instruction that she had from the company, etc. They had also sent her some demo equipment, and she and Anne went through a dry run before Anne did the real thing. The needle is tiny, so at least it isn't quite as scary/icky as it could have been. Anne did a great job with it. She isn't wild about the whole thing, but she has been very good about it all, and remembers to do her injection every night. Now, we just hope to see some difference.

Anne is continuing her physical therapy. Lisa feels pretty certain that the loss of muscle mass brought on by the low growth hormone levels is a big factor in the sprain, etc. Anne is getting some relief for her ankle from the therapy, but has been having more trouble with that knee. Lisa thinks it was injured at the same time.

It is amazing to think that we go back to the Mayo just next week. The time has sure gone by quickly.

Anne saw an allergist yesterday, and he seems to be really good. I think he will be able to do something for her. He ordered blood allergy testing, and later they will do the skin tests for allergies.

I have been doing some reading. I had heard of Laurell Hamilton's books, and hadn't really thought to read any of them, then had a chance to pick up one in paperback cheaply. I'm hooked. They are really good, the kind of books that are almost impossible to put down.

I have lapsed a bit on the nordic track again. It is harder to get to it when Anne has morning appts. That mostly just means I am going to have to make more of an effort--haha!

Mike checked the butterfly garden yesterday and said there are about 10 blooms on the passion vine. I haven't been out lately to look, I really do need to do the rounds.

I'd best go, you all take care!