Thursday, July 28, 2005

Progressing Slowly

Overhead---07-24-05


Here is the latest overhead view of our house. As you can see, the garage has changed from last week, we have a window instead of a gable vent. Check the house set in Flickr for more pictures by clicking on the link in the sidebar.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Happy Birthday Mike

Little brother is 51 today. I hope he finds it less traumatic than last year when he turned 50. So, Happy Birthday Mike, have a great day. I do hope you got to get out of work yesterday to see the shuttle launch!

Thinking back, I hardly remember when he was born, as I was barely six. But I do remember seeing a picture of him in my lap sitting on the porch in Roseburg Oregon. I also rember his crib in the room we shared. It was shortly after he was born that we moved to our first new house and where I started first grade.

Once again Mike, celebrate with gusto and have a steak for me too!

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Waiting-for-the-Pizza-Man


Waiting-for-the-Pizza-Man
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.
Sunday after an afternoon of working out in the yard at Tom and Becky's we decided to let someone else "do dinner". So the vote was for pizza! I don't think anyone was more anxious for the pizza man than these two. After waiting patiently at the window they finally relocated to the front porch to sit and wait. They held the money! Pizza turned out good - Maddie by far ate more than Zack!

The only down side of dinner was that Silly and Maddie had another encounter of the worst kind, and this time Maddie got a scratch on the left side of her face and eye. A visit to the doctor confirmed all was well, but he did give her antibiotics to take just in case. Silly is now going to be confined to the room we sleep in on upcoming visits. We think Silly was startled and cornered, but still not acceptable behavior.

Eric and I spent about 4-5 hours at the new house, and I'll post pictures of it soon on the house blog. We're having high heat again tomorrow, heat index was 115 today. We watched the shuttle launch, and wondered if Mike and all got to see it. I hope so.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Maddie-and-Abe


Maddie-and-Abe
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.
You might wonder who Abe is? If you look closely, Maddie has a $5.00 bill she is trying to put back in the wallet she has already plundered!

We had to laugh this past week on out visit with the grandkids. We brought them a Fisher Price cash register I had found at the thrift store. Both kids loved it, though Zack thinks you make the drawer open and you give away the money in it to the customer!

Looks like Maddie thinks you are supposed to put money back too! Someone is teaching them right!

Monday, July 18, 2005

View of Front Porch


Porch-w-dormers
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.
I loaded new pictures taken in the house this past week to Flickr, they are in the house set of pictures. As before, it you open the set it can be shown as a slide show. Hope you enjoy seeing these updates to the progress being made.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Sunday and all is HOT

Front-07-14-05
The house is coming along quite nicely as this picture taken Wednesday morning shows. The scaffolding for the workers to be able to do the vinyl trim around the eves of the house was up and waiting. Great to see the progress. The houses up the street that are about a month ahead of us were getting their driveways and sidewalks. More evidence that things are moving!

Today (Sunday) has been really hot and humid. The heat index is well over 100 degrees, and the forecast for the next week doesn’t improve any. Eric spent most of the day online doing house research. The audio man’s estimate seemed high to us, and with Eric’s research we were able to get the man to lower his estimate almost $790.00. Not peanuts. The internet made Eric's research and the emails back and forth possible, easy and convenient. Eric got it all ironed out and that has been satisfying for him.

I’m about to begin a new knitting project, but just haven’t decided what. Sally and I discussed starting Christmas stockings, but not sure now if she will be able to work on something. I’ve got plenty to choose from so that won’t be hard to find a project to start. Meanwhile I am reading, it’s just to hot to do much else.

Check the house blog for another picture and more news.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

What I did today!


Detail
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.
Here is the detail of the Flower Basket Shawl I was working on the last week or two. Can you see the baskets? It's amazing what blocking does for lace. See more pictures in the knitting blog.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Socks for charity

CIC-Socks-Color-4-MeWhat am I doing? Here's what I have been up to in the last few days, if you want to see more, click the link to Floats, Knits and Purls in the side bar.

Tonight we are getting winds fron Cindy, the first tropical storm of the season to come near us. We're under thunderstorm alert until 3 am. Luckily the bulk of the rain is in Richmond. Of course, we're glad the roof is on and the new house is pretty well closed in. Hopefully we will miss the rain here.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Bottlenecks Averted (Right!)

Great news, if you are driving in our area – the state of Virginia has given all the road crews three days off so that there will be no construction going on during the 4th of July Holiday. How considerate.

One of the top news stories today in the local paper was about the traffic congestion in our area. Apparently, we are one of the 3 most congested areas in the country for bottlenecks in traffic. First was the Oregon Coast, the second we can’t remember, and the third was us. The seven city area here – Norfolk. Hampton, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Newport News, and Chesapeake are all at the end of the HW 64 corridor that has one way in, and one way out! Don’t we know that already? You’d think they would have solved the problem, but no, there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight. Those of you who have visited us know how the construction at Coliseum Drive has been, and it isn’t better yet. I think they are still two years away from finishing the project.

So, for our 4th of July, we will stay put and watch the fireworks at Ft. Monroe from the upper deck of the clubhouse. From there you can usually see displays from at least three different areas, the Ft.. Buckroe Beach, and Langley AFB. Last year there was a display down at Grandview also, so we were surrounded!