Up, Up, and Away!

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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.