Back At The Ranch

Year-end Wrap Up

2009-12-27T09:36:00.002-06:00

Well, here it is, the end of the year, and the end of the first decade of the 21st century. It has been a good year for WonderMom and I, good, but not particularly exciting or remarkable in any way. I say this as an an excuse for not keeping up with this blog as I should have, and to avoid admitting that I was just too damn lazy to work on it!

The highlight of the year was the visit by all of our children and grand children this past summer. It was the first time in several years that we have all been together. We all had a good time fondly remembering childhood antics and crises, and all the cousins got reacquainted.

We, as most seniors, I think, spent a lot of time watching and listening to the childish scrabbling over the "health care bill" that dominated the airwaves all year, and ended with a whimper!

Mostly we coped with an unusually wet and cool year - the sump pump is running regularly today as it has most of the year!

Our biggest excitement, at least from my point of view, was my trip to the ER in a meat wagon a couple of weeks ago. I had an asthma attack - my first ever - and was having a lot of trouble breathing. I'd had bronchitis problems when I was a little kid, but nothing since then. I started to get a wheeze a few years ago, but it was mostly an annoyance when trying to sleep. I have been using a nasal spray for that and had pretty much conquered it, until this fall. After a few hours of IV steroids, nebulizer treatments, oxygen, a chest X-ray and CT scan in the ER, I was pronounced healthy except for the asthma, and sent home. Can't wait to see the tab for that night! My follow up visit to the Dr. resulted in a Rx for antibiotics, steroids, and Advair until my next Dr. visit in the spring.

Through it all, WonderMom has been just that - a wonder at coping with my needs and taking care of me calmly and efficiently. Thanks honey!

At any rate, I'm feeling really good now, breathing fine and, because of the short steroid course, many of my chronic aches (knees) are gone.

On a happier note, we spent a pleasant Christmas with Cricket and her family in Forgottonia. We had a gleeful gift opening in the morning, a great lasagna dinner, and a fun multiple video chat with Socket in NC and Shimmy in CA at the same time - we are technology hounds! WonderMom and I were able to sneak home on Saturday, shortly before the snow brought travel to a halt!

We are preparing for our annual journey to the Valley of the Sun in a couple of days. As is normal, we stayed here too long, and now our trip is threatened by the elements. Hopefully, we'll be able to leave on time, the 29th, and arrive at the RV park on the 31st. Looking forward to seeing Officecat and NASCARGuy again and spending an enjoyable warm winter with them. As an added treat this year, our friends Duffer and YogaGal will be spending a few weeks in the Valley this winter, so we'll be able to continue with our monthly dinners with them.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try my best to continue with our winter blog, Westward Ho & Back

Have a good winter and stay warm.

Computer Forum Presentation!

2009-09-23T01:16:00.003-05:00

As readers of this blog know, I'm not a particularly ambitious blogger, and I don't have a lot to blog about, so I haven't put much effort into dressing up the page. Now Cricket does it up right, with slide shows and seasonal headers, and such!

So naturally I was tapped to give a brief presentation on Blogging at the monthly computer forum. Well, I did, and it was passable. I demonstrated how to create a blog from scratch on Blogger. The thing was, I had to do a little digging onto the finer points of blogger and finally learned how to do some of the things Cricket has been doing.

Look for little embellishments, such as the new header image, on this page in the future. Not much, just enough to get me to the next hurdle that I'm too lazy to leap over for a while. I've got some video (analog) of a recent Balloon Glow that I'd like to post, and some flora and fauna photos to put in a slide show. Come back in a week or so to see how (if) I'm doing!

Summertime, And The Livin's Been Busy

2009-08-26T09:59:00.008-05:00

OK! I’m back! I know you’ve missed me because of all the emails I’ve received wondering where I went. I read them all, both of them! I’ve been collecting things to write about, but it is difficult since I lead such an uninteresting life. Here it is - for what it’s worth - enjoy.

We last visited back in mid May. Since then WonderMom and I have been kept busy by our children, their children, my family in Upstate, some friends, and some memories.

June began with Cutie Pie’s birthday #4, and we had a small family party for her here at the ranch. She had been counting the days, and was thrilled when it finally got here. WonderMom made her a beach cover for all of the swimming she planned for the summer - if it ever warmed up!

Shortly after that, we had the annual swarming of the prodigal children as Shimmy, Sysguy, Thing 1, and Thing 2 invaded from the west, while Socket, Mistletoe, and Pickle invaded from the east. Cricket, Paco, Scooter, Sweetie, and Cutie were already here. It was a grand affair, and we loved seeing them all together again.

Our first adventure was the newly remodelled zoo with a special Africa exhibit. We saw the lions, tigers and ... giraffes (no bears in Africa)!

Socket and family couldn’t stay for very long, but we did have a good visit with them, and Pickle got to see and play with her cousins for the first time in 2 years.

Shimmy, Cricket and I took Scooter and Thing 1 to the local air show in mid July. I always enjoy air shows, especially with the Thunderbirds on show, but the two kids could care less and didn’t like the noise! We’ll leave them home next time!

Shimmy and family retired to Cricket’s home where there is more room for five rambunksious kids to create havoc without driving the ‘old folks’ nuts. From there they went on other adventures such as Fun City in Iowa, and swimming in the local pond.

We had a few dinners here, one with my sisters from Upstate who came to see our seldom seen kids. I fixed some bodacious ribs on the grill for that meal, and a nice leg of lamb on the grill for another. We mostly ate out other than that so WonderMom didn’t have to make any huge meals this year - she made plenty of smaller ones though!

After the kids all went back home, things settled down a little, WonderMom and I went Upstate for a wedding reception (the wedding was 2 weeks earlier in Las Vegas) and reacquaint ourselves with some of my paternal aunts, uncle, and 1st and 2nd cousins. It was a nice party and it was good to see the family again (I’m the prodigal from that side of the family!)

In between family activities, I put on a couple of presentations for the local senior center computer club; one on the iPod Touch, and one on Moving video tapes to DVDs. WonderMom hasn’t been sewing so much this summer; she’s been too busy reading. She must have read 20 books so far. When she discovered she could order books from any library in the state on-line thru our local library, she was in literary heaven

This past weekend was kind of the grand finale for our summer. We attended my 50 year high school class reunion. It’s hard to believe it has been that long, but it must be true because there were a lot of old people there. Sunday morning we attended a breakfast and tour of the high school. This was a real treat, because it is the first time WonderMom has seen the building close up and inside. What makes it special is that the building is on the national historical register. It was built in 1934 as a WPA project. The design is Art Deco and the brickwork is fabulous. It was great to walk down those halls again.

The classic main entrance

Statues at the entrance

The entryway frescoes painted in 1936 - restored in 1987

Well that’s been our summer here at the ranch. Looking forward to an equally busy fall wihat with grandkids’ school programs, and birthdays coming up. I’ll try to do better on keeping up so my 2 fans have something new to read - maybe.

Drying Out!

2009-05-17T20:51:00.003-05:00

We've been drenched in rain this Spring, as you have been if you live anywhere in the midwest! The back yard is squishy, and the worms are climbing trees!

I hope the sunny weather of today and tomorrow is a portent of sunnier climes. The farmers really need to get into the fields so we can replenish our ethanol stocks! Also, our basements need to dry out.

Not much new to report since last time. We're expecting a visit from OfficeCat from AZ this week. It'll be good to see her again.

WonderMom has been busy power washing the deck so I can put some preservative on it. We got the yard cleaned up and the lawn mowed - finally. It's been busy.

The big excitement today was the spotting of a bird we've never seen in the wild before. We heard this tap-tap-tapping in our big shade tree. WonderMom spotted it first. I got the camera and took a bunch of photos:

It's a Pileated Woodpecker. Not particularly rare, but not normally found near inhabited areas, usually in the deep woods. Apparently they have been moving closer to civilization the past few years. Anyway, it was a real treat for us to watch it work. It's a pretty big bird, about the size of a crow. The photos aren't great because it was pretty high up in the tree and I had to blow them up a lot to get a good look at it. But at least I got her (I think) on the record (can't say "on film" anymore, can I).

Is It Spring Yet?

2009-04-20T01:07:00.004-05:00

Here we are more than half way through April and the tulips are just beginning to bloom, the magnolia tree had almost no blossoms on it, and the trees are just starting to show a little green. Weather has been nice for a few days, but now it's back to rain which is expected to last into Tuesday. Any time now!

The unspringy weather hasn't slowed us down at all though. WonderMom and I took advantage of the nice weather to clean up the flower beds in the front yard. Still have a lot of work to do in the back, but that'll have to wait for the next dry spell.

Need to get the tomato and pepper seedlings from Cricket to get them ready for putting out next month. I was looking at them when we were at her place for Easter. Had a great time with them, BTW, and guess what, the new puppy like me!

Speaking of Cricket, she and Paco have sprung for a new (to them) van, a newer ('06 I believe) Sienna, a burgundy red, LE model. She showed up with it last Thursday when she visited before taking her brood to see the dentist (good reports all around BTW). Lucky for us we had our new (to us) '08 Prius parked in the driveway so she could be surprised, too! And Shimmy complimented us on getting a car the same color as our house - sea foam green or something! See photo! That's WonderMom reprising her role as a car show model!

Also picked up a few new items from the Apple store, and they all shipped on different days - free shipping all around. The FedEx folks stopped by four different days last week!

And finally, WonderMom picked out a new glider to replace my overstuffed (and over used) lounge chair. It takes up less space and is actually more comfy.

I think (hope) were done with the buying spree for a bit.

We went out to dinner with our friends from up north, whom we haven't seen since last November. It was good to see them again. We got all caught up on family happenings and summer plans. We always enjoy our infrequent get togethers with them.

More when it happens!

It's Good To Be Home

2009-04-09T23:45:00.002-05:00

It's been a good winter for us, especially given the rough one the folks back home here had. We had to turn on the heat for a few days in January and February, and got to use the AC twice in March, but most of the time was it was pleasant. That's what we go for!

WonderMom had a great winter with her quilting as I documented in our Westward Ho blog. She felt accepted and became a part of the quilting group in our RV park and even joined the local chapter of the AZ Quilters Guild as a member at large.

I spent most of my time doing computer stuff - boring, I know - but it's what I do! I was able to video the annual talent show AND a small play this year and create DVD for sale. I enjoy doing that kind of work, but it is time consuming.

Our several outings with OfficeCat aka Cruise Director, and NASCARguy were chronicled in the various posts in the Westward Ho blog, here and here.

We also enjoyed our visits with Shimmy and her family in CA. The boys, Thing one and Thing two, are growing and maturing a lot in our absences. Wish we could see them more. Looking forward to their visit this summer. I'm hoping Socket and his family can make it this year. It'll be good to have them all together again.

Our trip home was mostly uneventful. We ran into some dust/sand storms in NW AZ, but there were no places where you couldn't see the cars ahead of you. Had to keep the outside air vents closed to keep the dust out of the car. The bird seems pretty airtight. We also ran into some patchy fog Friday morning east of Tulsa on I-44. Gas prices were down dramatically from last year! The highest we paid was $2.13 in Grants, NM. Everyplace else was under $2.00.

Our neighbor, Dale, who watches our house while we're away, had already gotten the water turned on, the water heater turned up, and the waterbed plugged in. It was all ready for us to move right back in. He does a great job for us!

Cricket and her family arrived here shortly after we got home and got the house opened up. Along with hugs and kisses, they brought food for the weekend, so WonderMom didn't have to do any cooking or shopping right away. We'll be going to her house this weekend for Easter.

That's about it for now. We're getting things organized (we brought a lot of stuff back home) and stowed. Got the computer network up and running, with some problem. We have a little old iBook that just runs the upstairs printer. I made the mistake of installing a bunch of updates that were waiting and it wouldn't boot up afterwords. Had to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS, normally a simple procedure. However! The OS that was on it is only available on a DVD, and this iBook doesn't do DVDs! The external DVD drive I used to install the OS last time, decided it didn't want to work anymore either! So I had to settle for an older OS version that I had on CDs.

Meantime, WonderMom is already working on her first quilt of the summer!

I'll be back as things happen, if they happen, just in case someone actually reads this blog.

Always Too Late!

2008-12-19T22:56:00.009-06:00

Here at year-end, WonderMom and I are preparing for Christmas, of course, but also for our annual retreat to the Valley of the Sun. And again, we have remained in the Plains of Winter too long. We, along with a few! other midwesterners, are ice bound. Last night's ice storm pretty much shut down a whole lot of the area. The world remains ice coated 24 hours later, with the promise of new snow to hide it from us (sigh!). Here are a couple of photos of the more attractive? aspects of the weather.

Weird Icicle!

Winter's Beauty!

This guy figured no one would be outside to see him. I got lucky and was able to sneak up to about 50 feet from him to get these shots. It didn't take him long to leave the area, with a flash of his white tail.

Well, I thought I'd give you a wrap up of 2008, from my POV. If you're not interested, this is a good place to stop reading. I'll see you at Westward Ho & Back over the next 3 months.

2008 has been a mixed year for us, some good, some not so good.
The good:
Pleasant summer weather - no 95 degree days with 95% humidity;
A great visit from Shimmy and her family in July;
A good crop of spring flowers and summer tomatoes;
A well done remodel of the bathroom;
Many visits from/with the local grandkids;
A great visit with Socket and his family down in tarheel territory;
WonderMom's first venture into competative quilting!;
And finally, an election that ended favorably.

The not so good:
Socket lost a part of his right index finger in an industrial accident;
We lost our winter gardener, house sitter, and good friend in AZ.;
The financial world tanked and we all lost money one way or another;
W's still in office!. Talk about staying too long!

So all in all, the good outnumbered the not so good. WonderMom and I are still in good health and looking forward to a warm winter and a good 2009. Hope your year was a good one, your holidays are happy and spent with good friends or family, and your 2009 is a good one.

We'll be heading west in a few days, and I'll be blogging at Westward Ho & Back if you're still interested.

My Two Cents

2008-11-06T00:19:00.003-06:00

YES, WE CAN!

YES, WE DID!

I've been relatively quiet about this past presidential campaign and election, except at home with WonderMom. I just felt I needed to express my views on the candidates and the election results. We're fiercely Independent voters, having NEVER voted a straight ticket! We commonly vote Republican for state offices to counter the overwhelming Democratic candidates coming out of Upstate... and did so this time.

I'm obviously an Obama supporter, and happy he won. He did win! McCain didn't lose, he was beaten by an opponent who had better ideas, a more forward looking, well thought out, and eloquently presented plan for the future. A candidate of a caliber we haven't seen in my adult lifetime.

I'm sorry, but I don't want my president to be a 'regular' guy, a Joe Sixpack! All of that senseless rhetoric just avoided talking about the real issues, and McCain's plans for solving our problems. I want my president to be smarter than me, and savvy enough to hold his own when dealing with those who would take advantage of us. I didn't see that in McCain, who asked us to trust that he knew how to solve our problems, and "had the scars to prove it". And then there was the lipsticked dipstick! What a bonehead move by McCain's campaign. The real McCain started to re-emerge in the last two weeks of the campaign, but it was too late, and he had the iceberg in tow!

Mr. Obama has renewed my hopes for the future of my kids and grandkids. I still believe they will not have the same level of lifestyle my middle class job afforded me to provide for them as they were growing up, but maybe not as depressed as I had imagined. We will see.

I have high expectations (probably too high) for Mr. Obama, and I strongly disagree with his position on amnesty for illegal aliens. You can't have everything, I guess. I'm certainly willing to give him a chance to change the course of the country before I complain about him. His performance on the campaign trail showed me he was a thinking man, not a platform slave. He can assimilate new information and change his plans and directions as needed. He knows he doesn't have all the answers and is very good at picking the right advisors. But he will be the decider, after carefully weighing of the facts. I expect him to have some serious disagreements with his Democratic congress, and get his way most of the time. I expect him to select members of his administration from all quarters of the political spectrum, and use their advice in shaping his decisions and the future of this country.

Much is being made of the fact that Obama is the first black POTUS. That's a good thing because it is a sign that we Americans are starting to grow up!

Maybe the black community voted for him because he was black, and I think they were entitled to do so, but I believe he was evaluated on his character and abilities and found to be superior.

It never crossed our minds, that he was black once we got to know him. Did we hold him to a higher standard than we would a white candidate? Probably, because we are a product of our past, however, our bias is not based on skin color, but on attitude and ideals, both of which we found agreeable in Mr. Obama. This is the same criteria to which we would hold any candidate.

OK! That's it. Comment if you like, disagree if you are of a mind to.

It's Finished - Finally!

2008-10-28T20:35:00.008-05:00

The Bathroom is finally finished! After almost 2 months, most of which was waiting for ReBath, the bathroom is finally fully decorated and appointed. Well there is still some calking to be cleaned from the window, but WonderMom is happy. Here are some photos of the finished product. They don't show it too well because it is too small to get a decent photo from inside!

This shot shows the new toilet,

refinished vanity with new lavatory

and the newly installed GFCI outlet,

small corner shelf on the left,

and vinyl flooring.

Yes, it is a tight fit on the potty since the

new tub is an inch wider than the old tub.

This shot shows the new shower curtain on the

curved shower rod, and the overhead

storage doors covered with wallpaper

With the curtain open you can see the new two-headed

shower, and some of the details in the shower itself.

Also it shows the wallpaper border.

I forgot to show you WonderMom's

decorative creation for the new loo!

She has been working on this wall

quilt for almost as long as I have

been working on the bathroom.

(Yes Cricket, the border is all one piece!)

ReBath ReDeux

2008-10-13T17:34:00.004-05:00

They did it!

And they're done!

ReBath showed up today with all the right stuff and completed their job. It looks great, but will look a lot better after I get the rest of the bathroom finished.

BEFORE

AFTER

Tomorrow WonderMom goes in for jury duty so I can pull the old toilet, pull up the carpet, prime the walls for wallpapering, and put the beadboard in on two walls.

Wednesday is wallpaper, flooring, new toilet, and lavatory install day. Sounds a little ambitious for me, but we'll see what I can do. I'll have completion photos when completion happens - including trim, Cricket!

High Five Comes Up Short

2008-10-10T22:36:00.009-05:00

Last week, our son, Socket, down in the Tarheel state was the star performer in an industrial accident! He got his right hand caught in the lift mechanism of a forklift truck he was repairing and lost half of his right index finger. He also damaged a tendon in his middle finger.

I waited until now to blog about it so I could include news of his condition. Other than losing an important piece of an important finger, he's fine physically. Mentally he is kicking himself for doing something he knew better than to do. I think it's a tossup, yeah he put his hand in there, but the actual accident was just that, an accident. Stuff happens! You just try to be somewhere else when it does. Sometimes you aren't!

He was pretty with it and actually assisted the EMTs in retrieving his finger piece from the mechanism. He also walked to the ambulance and climbed onto the gurney, then walked into the hospital under his own steam. He is just too big to pick up and carry!

They took him to the hospital Durham to see if they could reattach the finger, but no soap. The bone was too badly crushed. He was in surgery for about 2 hours. His wife, Mistletoe, is miffed at him for getting hurt and scaring the bejesus out of her. WonderMom is not happy that he didn't take better care of the nice fingers she made for him! AND HE CAN ONLY GIVE YOU A HIGH 4.5 WITH HIS RIGHT HAND! By the way, he is fairly ambidextrous, but he is mostly left-handed.

Anyhow, here are a couple of photos, taken by him on his cell phone in the Dr.'s office after the surgical bandages were removed and his splint and tension band (for the middle finger) were installed. If you're squeamish, stop here!

If you'd like to send him an e-mail to cheer him up or bawl him out, click here->Socket's email

*****************************************************

***** WARNING DISTURBING PHOTOS FOLLOW *****

*****************************************************

The splinted hand. The rubber band is to keep tension on the damaged tendon.

The missing finger before splinting!

You were warned!

New Photos Are Up

2008-10-06T02:08:00.003-05:00

I finally got the new photos of the quilt up on he previous blog. The reason it took so long was I had to build a frame outside that we could hang the quilt from. It is way too big to hang in the house and I wouldn't be able to get far enough away from it to get it all in one frame.

A Prairie Gem

2008-09-29T00:38:00.011-05:00

Well, this weekend was the long awaited quilt show. WonderMom entered her serendipitous quilt and showed it off proudly to those who came to see it. Here's the best shot we could get of the whole thing. It was hung on the side of a booth and we couldn't get far enough away to get a straight shot at it. I'll get better shots of it tomorrow and replace/add to this one, so check back. Sorry it took so long, but here is a full on photo of the quilt.

and as close up of the quilting

No, she didn't win anything, and that came as no surprise after seeing some of her competition. It was obvious to us that her quilt didn't have enough actual quilting on it, even if the quilting was excellent. Most of the other quilts were closely quilted over their entire surface. Her quilt was only quilted in the border and in the black "came" between the pieces of colored fabric. In any event, it was an enjoyable and educational experience for her, and she doesn't feel badly about not winning anything.

Here are a couple of the quilts that did win something. Although it is hard to tell from these photos, there is a bunch of quilting on all of them.

These are some of the small quilts WonderMom made for the auctions held during the show. They brought in some good bids and $ for the

guild.

On to AZ next winter to enter in the ASU Quilt show. Maybe she'll come up with an idea to add quilting to the project and improve her chances.

Teaser!

2008-09-21T22:15:00.004-05:00

WonderMom got her special quilt back from the quilter last Friday. She's really pleased with the results. She plans to enter it into a quilt show competition this coming weekend. Before then she has to trim it to square it up, hand sew 32 feet of binding, attach a quilt hanger, and a label. I thought I'd post a couple of teaser photos prior to the quilt show.

Front

Back

I should have some good photos of the completed quilt as it hangs in the show. It is too big to hang anywhere in our house!

ReBath Revisited!

2008-09-19T23:22:00.002-05:00

I blogged earlier about having ReBath redo our tub/shower area. They called last week and scheduled the installation for Friday, Sept. 19th. Tomorrow at 7:30 AM (ouch)! So today, Thursday, Sept 18, I tore into the bathroom, stripped old paneling off of the walls, ripped up the carpeting, and removed the lavatory, all of which we are replacing.

I was working on the paneling, and ReBath called and said they would be late - 9AM. That's OK. Better for me.

So right after I removed the lavatory, and the vanity, essentially making the bathroom unusable except for the toilet, ReBath calls again. They just inspected the tub insert for my installation and found a manufacturing defect!

My options are:

a) wait 2 weeks for a replacement insert to be made (in Mesa, AZ!)

b) They will install a replacement tub, which is actually a new tub, not an insert. They say this is a more expensive option, but they won't charge me any more money.

OK, no brainer on which way to go there! It'll be interesting to see how the get a new tub into this bathroom which is only 5 feet by 6 feet! The tub, which is 5 feet long, fits in the 5 foot dimension, of course, and takes up 28 inches of the 6 foot dimension. Yes, it is a tiny room, but it works for us - for overnight company, not so much! We have a half bath in the basement.

Friday morning Bert and Ernie from ReBath show up. We go through the project together, and they seem like good guys, friendly and accommodating. I ask to see the replacement tub to make sure it is something we want - it's fine.

They start tearing off the old shower surround and removing fixtures while I'm working on stuff in the garage, when it happens!

Bert comes out, talking on the phone and asks me if the house is a modular home - it is, mostly factory built in 1956. The old tub is a non-standard size narrower than normal. The new tub won't fit. It's not too long, but too wide - 33 inches! There won't be room for the vanity if the try to put it in. Rats!

We discuss it for a while. They apologize all over themselves for the mistakes (made by the office) and offer to do all kinds of things to make me happy. We decide that the best thing would be to wait for the replacement for the liner to come from AZ - a minimum of 2 weeks. They put the fixtures back and calk the open corners of the exposed old shower paneling with all the glue lines on it from the surround plastic I put over it. It is serviceable, but ugly.

So we'll be roughing it until the 2nd week of Oct. anyhow. I told WonderMom I would put the lavatory back for the duration and she says, "Don't bother. I can brush my teeth in the kitchen! Just make the shower work." Isn't she wonderful?

I'll follow up on this when it happens, so check back.

Up, Up, and Away!

2008-09-06T23:43:00.004-05:00

This weekend is the annual Balloon Rally in West Forgottonia. We went there with Cricket and her kids (Paco was busy protecting us with his tuba)! Well, this year, the balloon glow got drizzled out. Only a few of the almost 30 balloons were inflated for the glow. I got a few videos of them, but it wasn't nearly as nice as in the past. Too bad! Here are some photos and a video of the event. Enjoy!

We're Home, Y'all!

2008-09-01T20:15:00.009-05:00

Can't spend too much time down here in tarheel country. Ya start to talk funny!

The visit with Socket and family was great. We got to sleep in their bed and they suffered the inflatable on the floor! That sure was thoughty of them, don't cha think! (See! I told you.)

We arrived Friday afternoon had a fun visit with Pickle who was happy to see us and gave us lots of hugs!

She delighted in showing us her bicycling skills and was so pleased with herself. She is a hoot!

We had dinner at a recently re-opened (after being hit by an airplane!) seafood buffet Friday night. The food was... filling! They (NC folks and southerners in general) have a different idea of what tastes good than we northerners do, so we don't usually appreciate their cuisine!

Socket drove so he could show off his new (to them) Camry - nice, and because I can't find my way around down there. Not a straight road in the state! Their system of roads was laid out by cows and wild game! And I'm suspicious about the source of the road names, also!

Saturday was rest up, get reacquainted (we haven't seen them since May '07), and grocery shopping day. Socket checked out the "Check Engine" light that came on in our van on the way down. He has the technology and knowledge to do these things so we're in good hands. Nothing serious, but we have to put up with the light being on all of the time. I reciprocated by rescueing stuff from the hard drive on his old (defunct) PC and getting them on his Mac. He also cooked some steaks on the grill for dinner.

After dinner we went to visit some of their neighbors, an older retired couple who treat Pickle like their own grandchild. She visits them on her own quite a bit and even eats lunch with them sometimes. It's good that she has someone like that around for her since we can't be there all the time (or very much).

Sunday was fun day. We went to t'baccy town to the Marbles Kids' Museum!

They have a magic machine that shrinks you down to the size of chess pieces so you follow the action close up! Here are Pickle and Gramma (aka WonderMom) at a tiny table by the chess board! (kidding!)

Socket and Pickle ham it up for the cameras at the fire station.

And they had a fantastic Thomas Tank Engine layout.

Pickle was the center of attention in the sockey rink.

And was pleased as punch with her sweet self!

After the Marbles Museum, the "grownups" got to go to their fun places... The Apple Store and Barnes & Noble book store.

Monday was Socket's birthday so WonderMom and Mistletoe fixed him a bodacious cake. Socket whipped up some homemade peach ice cream. We had the neighbors over for cake and ice cream and a little birthday singing after dinner.

Tuesday morning, after dropping Pickle off at day care, we headed home, with an overnight stay in Chillicothe, OH, same as on the way down. Wednesday we arrived back at the ranch about 1 PM, and spent the rest of the day resting up. The drive was fine as was the weather, both ways - except for the rain in the 30 miles closest to home - both ways.

We did get a little of the fallout from Gustav while we were in NC, an occasional rain, no wind. Looks like Hannah is heading up the coast with Raleigh as a target. Thankfully it looks like it is running out of steam, so the threat is minimal. We apparently had a brisk tailwind
heading up through VA and WV because the Snowbird got 27+ mpg!

So we're home again and ready to get on with fall.

Let There Be (less) Light

2008-08-25T23:14:00.009-05:00

WonderMom has had be working on a new (revitalized) project these last 2 weeks. She started by making an appointment with ReBath for an estimate on redoing our tub/shower area. She was happy with the proposal so we bit.

As a part of the ReBath proposal, I said I would take care of replacing the window that took up most of the wall in the shower, with a glass block window we bought 5 years (or more) ago with this remodel in mind. So for the last 2 weeks I have been working on said project, 1 week of thinking, planning, and collecting supplies, 1 week of actual labor! Sadly I didn't take any before or during photos.

Here's what the new installation looks like from the outside.
The window I removed was the same size as the one on the left. The new window is on the right!

A close up to show off the job I did on the aluminum flashing!

One of the things that helped was the fact that I didn't have to procure any weird materials to complete the job. The only items I had to purchase were some caulking cartridges (my old ones had dried out), and a piece of angled trim for the outside sill. Sometimes it pays to be a packrat!

The siding to patch the former window space came from the side of the garage that faces the same way, so the color matched (WonderMom's idea). The garage siding was replaced with some panels left over from the original siding job. They had been stored in my shed, and were darker than the installed siding and were covered with an 18 year accumulation of dirt, dust and oil. Cleanup will happen at some later date.

The aluminum flashing was from a coil I rescued from my folks garage when their house was sold back in the 90's. I was able to form the flashing by hand with satisfactory results. The white J-channel around the window was reused from the old window.

Here's a shot from the inside to give you an idea of the difference in the sizes of the old and new window. The ReBath boys will take care of the inside

Tomorrow and Wednesday we teach an AARP Driving Safety Program from 8:30AM til 12:30PM, a Dr. appointment for me and on Thursday we leave for hurricane country to visit Socket, Mistletoe, and Pickle for the weekend. Haven't seen them in a while so we're anxious to go. Pickle is growing fast and showing Daddy what it was like to be his parents when he was 5! Paybacks are... interesting!

Wii Have Been Assimilated!

2008-08-10T23:07:00.003-05:00

I mentioned earlier that our daughter, Cricket, had introduced us to the Wii game console, and that our daughter Shimmy has one, as well as one of our local friends. Well, as of this past Friday, we have become Wii! Cricket found one at her local China-Mart in Forgottonia and picked it up for us. They brought it with them Friday evening and spent Friday evening and Saturday morning making sure we knew the care, feeding, and usage of the beast!

I'm forced to say that Wii is an enjoyable pastime - so far. It may be less exercise than a brisk walk, but it sure beats sitting and computing, or watching the boob tube for working up a sweat!

WonderMom and I had our first opportunity to attack it on our own today, and it was fun! WonderMom cleans my clock in bowling, but I can still beat her on the golf links. Give her time! Tennis is still a challenge for us both.

Wii also connects to the Internet, wirelessly, and can provide news and weather channels that are usable. There are also Wii shopping channels available, which Nintendo would appreciate us using - NOT!

Well, WonderMom has gone to bed, so I think I'll get in a little solo bowling practice, heh, heh, heh!

Summer Wanes!

2008-08-03T23:24:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm back, if anyone is watching. July was a busy month, but nothing too interesting happened, thus the lack of posts.

Our daughter, Shimmy, and her family flew in from L.A. on the first of July. Sysguy stayed a week, but Shimmy and the Things stayed for 3 weeks. Mostly they stayed with Cricket at her place 'cause that's where all the kid stuff is... swimming pool, water slide, play set, and Crickets 3 kids! Thing 1 and Scooter got along famously, as did Thing 2 and Sweetie Pie. Cutie Pie just played with whoever would let her, which usually worked out OK.

We had a great visit with Shimmy - when she wasn't knitting. On her last weekend here, my sisters from UPstate visited as did Shimmy's old flame from her single days. Now he's been coming to see us about every summer. This is the first time their visits have coincided - he's from out of state - way out of state. He brought us some smoked, canned King salmon which he personally caught. They had a nice reunion, and spent a lot of time catching up an each other's lives. Shimmy was happy to have seen him. My sisters seemed to enjoy their visit and spent a lot of time with our grandchildren whom they don't see very often.

Now that everyone's gone, we can start working on our home projects!
We're getting tomatoes now, what a pleasure to taste real tomatoes again. The upside down beefsteaks aren't doing too well. Any fruit they've produced have suffered from serious blossom end rot. The Romas are producing a lot of fruit and starting to turn red. The grape and cherry varieties have been throwing red fruit for a week or so now. As usual, we have several volunteers from last year's plants, and they are also bearing good fruit.

Almost lost the potted flowers last week because I forgot to water before we went away for a couple days. They're still with us, but not looking as good as they did before.

Seems like ice cream making was the summer's big adventure. All 3 of our children expressed an interest in an ice cream maker attachment for their KitchenAid mixers. So that was the birthday gift of the year. We bought them each one and had it sent to their respective homes. We were also bitten by the ice cream bug and have made a few batches of it in different flavors; vanilla, chocolate malt, and English Toffee (Heath Bar bits). So far OK! The grand kids liked it well enough.

Flowers of Summer

2008-07-16T19:53:00.007-05:00

Time to show off our summer flowers which are in full bloom now. We don't have to plant anything anymore, these are all perennials. We do plant a few pots of bright petunias to add some color while we wait for the lilies, purple cone flowers, and black-eyed susans. Enjoy! We do!

Purple Cone flowers Provide a meeting place for the Bumble Bees!
Later the dried seeds will give the birds a change of diet.

This stand of Moonbeam Coriopsis has been around a long time.

Asiatic Lillies make splashes of color.

Day Lillies add their color too.

A Black-eyed Susan vine and Clematis adorn the mail box.

And the Petunia pots are bursting!

The tomato and pepper plants are bearing fruit, but not quite ripe yet, but we did get a couple of ripe grape tomatos yesterday - mmmmm! Even the upside down tomatoes have fruit on them, but they don't look as healthy as the regular plants, which are also planted in pots.

Winging It Solo!

2008-07-09T20:32:00.002-05:00

Shimmy and her family have arrived from LaLa land. It's always good to see them. Sysguy was only here for a week and returned to CA yesterday. Shimmy and the 2 Things will be here for another 2 weeks.

Well, not here exactly. She is staying with her sister, Cricket, in Forgottonia! That's where all the kids are. WonderMom has gone to spend a couple of days of quality time with her daughters unencumbered by spousal demands! Well Paco will be there to manage the combined broods - he has a great way with kids. Anyhow, I'll go pick WonderMom up on Friday, before I starve to death!

We spent the 4th of July with them and went to their local celebration and fireworks in the evening. Paco played in the municipal band and performed a solo.

We (WonderMom and I) were introduced to the Wii game platform by Cricket and Paco. I'll have to admit, the Golf and Bowling games are very realistic, and provide a surprisingly accurate challange. Some of the other games, not so much. Sysguy brought a Mario game with him and we watched him and Paco play that for a while, but it held no interest for me. Both Cricket and Shimmy have Wii now, as well as a friend or 2 of ours. We're being surrounded! Don't think we'll be indulging though. Too much computer and quilting stuff to keep busy with.

I'll be back in a few days with photos of the summer flowers and my upside down tomato plants.

Happy Summer!

2008-06-22T23:44:00.004-05:00

Summer is finally here! We can trade those wet gloomy spring days for hot humid days!

The past week has been a busy one. I put on a little dog and pony show with my MacBook Pro laptop for the Miller Senior Center Computer Users' meeting. I am one of only 2 Mac users in a sea of PC users, so I like to get Apple products on the agenda once a year if I can. The show went well, except I couldn't get connected to the wireless router.

WonderMom and I ran an AARP Driver Safety Program class in Minier. We had the largest class we've ever run, and the folks were great. The only problem was, the class was at 8:30 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday, in Minier! Have I mentioned I'm not a morning person! Well, in order to drive the 30 miles to Minier and get there around 8 AM, we had to leave home by 7:30. That means I had to get up before breakfast - twice!

I made it through the class OK, but came home (after stopping for lunch) on Tuesday and finished sleeping! Wednesday was better.

On Friday we had our monthly dinner engagement with some friends from UPSTATE! We meet in Bloomington to share the driving distance. They used to live in Morton, but moved "back home" after he retired from CAT. We really enjoy these monthly get togethers.

That's about it for the week. I did put up some additional fencing around our paltry tomato & pepper garden. The deer are voracious this year. They've done a number on some of my tomato plants, our potted petunias, tulips, iris, and Osteospermum! Anyone in the market for some pick-your-own venison? Come on over!

It's Her Birthday!

2008-06-07T22:39:00.008-05:00

Today was Cutie Pie's 3rd birthday and she was just adorable about it ALL DAY LONG! What a doll! She is having a hard time winding down. It's 10:40PM and she is still singing to herself (and her siblings) in bed.
Mommy took her and Sweetie Pie and Scooter to see KungFu Panda at the local cineplex. Cutie was all excited about that, too.

We watched her open presents after Daddy got home from work,

then went outside to watch her open her BIG present!

The pizza man came so we had dinner, then it was on to the cake and ice cream!

An exciting (and exhausting) day was had by all!

I'm Baaack!

2008-05-25T22:51:00.006-05:00

Stagnate! I think not! Material is just harder to come by this month. I'm not getting much (any) help from WonderMom, either.

Where to begin? Oh! I know! New toys! Technophobe Alert! This next part is geeky!

As mentioned earlier, our ESR was 'earmarked' for a new digital TV so we could watch our many recorded Movies and TV shows on a better display. The delay in making the purchase was deciding how I would get the recordings, which reside on the MacMini's disc farm in the basement up to the TV in the living room. I didn't really want to move all of that computer hardware into the entertainment center. There was also the question of fitting a new wide-screen TV into the corner entertainment center that was designed to hold a 27" max normal screen TV.

Solution one: Purchase an Apple TV unit from the Apple refurb store. This unit has a 160GB internal hard drive for storing videos, a high speed (802.11n - you were warned!) WiFi card built, and takes up minimal space in the cabinet (7-1/2 inches square by 1-1/2 inches high). It is controlled by a small Apple remote control. Files are transerred from the MacMini over WiFi, so cables was needed.

Solution two: Find a TV whose widt would fit inside the cabinet from inside the doors to the corner of the wall behind the cabinet. Then build a platform on heavy duty 18" drawer glides that would allow the TV to be turned and pushed back into the cabinet. Clever, n'çest pas? The TV turned out to be an LG 32 inch purchased from a local merchant (not a big box or Wal-Mart) so some of the ESR money would stay in the country. I paid a little more for it, but hey, it was Dubbya's dime! Turns out the Olevia I talked about in Homeward Bound earlier is made by an American company, but is manufactured in Asia! Photos follow!

The TV is turned to face the right here, but can be turned to face full forward or to the left. This model LG has a built in swivel base and an exceptionally wide angle of view. The Apple TV is the white horizontal stripe in the middle of the upper right hand glass door.

Close up of the rolling platform. The outer drawer glides let the platform roll out in front of the cabinet. The inner glides let it roll back out of the back of the cabinet.

Here is the set pused all the way back into the corner of the wall so the doors will close. This was taken before I cleaned up all the dangling wires.

Next toy! This is my first blog written on my new (to me) from the Apple refurb store MacBook Pro 15" laptop. The new operating system, Leopard (10.5.2) is taking some getting used to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK! Well, the iris really haven't bloomed much yet, but I better put som photos in here to stop your head from spinning from all the techy stuff.

Here's a shot of my black (really deep purple) iris.

All of the little pinkish buds you see here will become blossoms soon, like the ones on the left.

This is one of my new blue iris that I planted last fall.

That's it for now. More when something happens!

Scooter's Turn!

2008-05-04T21:05:00.005-05:00

Saturday was recital time again, this time it was Scooter's first piano recital. He did a great job! I think he was pretty happy with his performance too! Here's a video of the performance:

Cutie Pie is taking all of this in and plotting for her turn in the limelight.

Wish we could attend recitals for our CA grandsons, Thing 1 and Thing 2. Hopefully Shimmy will record and post them for us.

OK! So I Lied!

2008-05-02T20:46:00.014-05:00

I said I wouldn't post anymore flower photos until the Iris bloomed. I lied! The Iris haven't bloomed, but our scrawny little flowering crab tree is just bursting with beautiful pink blossoms this year. Just gorgeous IMHO. What do you think?

And this little guy showed up! A mutant (double) tulip! I don't remember planting it, and there is only one. It sure looks like a tulip from the foliage!

Oh! Those pretty purple tulips I showed in my last post; the deer thought they were good too! Hope they tasted as good as the looked!

More Pretty Flowers

2008-04-26T23:08:00.003-05:00

Can't help myself. The bright colors after a drab winter just beg me to photograph them. And I m compelled to share! So here are the latest blooms in the yard. There are still some tulips that haven't bloomed yet, so you'll have to wait a bit to see them!

OK! That's it 'til the iris bloom (flowerwise!).

Flying Tree Trimmer

2008-04-22T22:16:00.004-05:00

OK! Hadn't planned to blog today, but the flying tree trimmer came through here today. I have this compulsion to share the experience with the world.

This appears to be an MD 500 D or E helicopter trailing an eleven-bladed gang circular saw from a 60 foot shaft.

It flies in dangerously (IMHO) close to the power lines to clear the tree limbs hanging out over the powerline right-of-way. He didn't spend as much time here as last time and I didn't get much video footage, but it's interesting none the less. Enjoy!

Here is the same setup taken in October 2005, the first time he was here. I didn't expect it to be back so soon. This has to cost a bunch of $, but how else would you do the job in inaccessible locations like the deep valley here.

That's it for today. Oh, went to the dentist today - "Look, Ma! No cavities"!

Sweet, Sweet Music!

2008-04-20T00:53:00.002-05:00

OK! WonderMom here. First time blogging so bear with me. This morning we were on our way to Cricket and Paco's house when we got a phone call from Marble in Minnesota. She had arrived home but it was cold and damp. When she left AZ it was 98 degrees and heading higher. It may be raining in Central IL but we can wait a few more weeks for the hot stuff. Besides, April showers bring May flowers. Marble and I discussed how big our respective homes seem to be after a few months in a trailer.

Although, what I have found is that it is time to downsize. We have waaaaay too much stuff. Time to get rid of things we never use and don't really need. Superdad and I seem to be those kind of people who keep things just in case we may need them. Time to let go! Now, understand, I am not talking about my fabric stash here! There is never too much fabric!

Quit laughing Cricket and Shimmy!! Shimmy feels the same way about yarn.

The occasion for our visit today was a violin recital for Sweetie Pie.

She is doing quite well, seems to enjoy playing, and doing so in front of an audience does not seem to bother her at all. BTW, Sweetie had the privilege of having Daddy for an accompanist

Scooter read a book during the recital (Harry Potter) and Cutie Pie was her usual impish little self. I was informed that Sweetie Pie has finished the first set of Junie B. Jones books and is ready for more. Amazon will soon have an order. We are delighted all our grandchildren seem to be so interested in reading and are doing so well.

No news from SuperDad except to say that we were both really pleased with Sweetie's performance, and proud of her for the effort and enthusiasm she has put into learning the violin.

Spring Has Sprang Here!

2008-04-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

Our tulips are heralding the demise of Old Man Winter!

Our daffodils are trumpeting the arrival of warm(er) weather!

Our little Magnolia tree is celebrating the sunshine - three weeks later than last year!

Hopefully the cold is over until next winter and springtime can proceed forthwith! I even got out and cleaned up some of last year's floral debris.

After scurrying around for a new cable modem, our old Motorola unit having bought the farm unexpectedly Thursday morning. Alas, we are joined at the hip to the Internet for our news of the outside world.

Since the Chicago Tribune decided they could no longer afford to deliver their product to "our area"! I'm guessing the wages paid to their delivery people ran smack into the escalating gas prices in our area! Did I mention that Tuesday PM, every gas station in our area suddenly jumped up to $3.43 from a variety of previous prices. Can you say "price fixing"?

And yes, the ground shook for us this morning! Actually only a few glasses in the cupboard rattled about 10:30, to signal a small aftershock of the rare geological event. We slept through the "BIG" one at 5:30!

No new stuff from WonderMom this week. She's been busy getting us back to normal after our return from AZ. She says,"We're all unpacked. The washing is done and the house is clean - ish!"

A New Beginning

2008-04-13T23:15:00.000-05:00

This is the first issue of a new blog to chronicle the goings on at our spring/summer/fall home in the midwest for the benefit of our far flung family and friends who might give a damn!

It will primarily be a forum for WonderMom to showcase her quilting and sewing achievements. We may also use it to show off our grandkids and maybe some of SuperDad's achievements - if he ever has any!

We returned from our winter home in AZ on 04/04 with a little sunshine clinging to our bumper. That weekend was warmish and sunny, thank you very much! We spent much of it helping Cricket look for a new car. Since then, however, the weather has fallen back into it's Midwestern habit of being cold, wet, and miserable for far too long. What'd you do with Spring while we were gone?

Anyway! Here are some of WonderMom's latest creations in quilts. The first one was actually created last fall and left with the quilter over the winter. They did an excellent job with a vines and leaves pattern. Hope you can see the details in the photo. Here's "Crazy Quilt" a log cabin strap quilt. (click on the photo for a larger image)

This one is her finest achievement to date IMHO. She created it over the winter with her "winter" sewing machine. Here's her "Stained Glass" quilt. It is not complete or quilted, but worth showing off a little.

So far, SuperDad has cleaned out some of the flower beds and replaced the OTR microwave which died suddenly last Thursday. Replacing it was an emergency as this appliance is used only slightly less than the refrigerator in our home! Normally this wouldn't be a noteworthy accomplishment except the mounting system was different from the old one, and the $*@! power cord had a straight plug, not a right-angled wall-hugging plug for which the original installation was designed. So everything had to be redone, in close quarters, over the range, with my left hand!

Well, that's all for now. I'm trying to get WonderMom to do some blogging here so you don't have to listen to my bitchin' only! We may post more often than weekly, but don't count on it.