Happy Birthday to Me!

Well today I am 58! Thinking about years past I got the wild idea to scan these pitures from my babybook. And if you want to see larger pictures, as always click on the image!

Oh so fluffy now!

Oh so fluffy now!
Originally uploaded by Jobanna.

Friday Maddie had her first haircut. She was most excited, loved the chair and the fish apron, but most of all, she got a Lollipop!
There are a few more pictures on Flickr, so click on the sidebar link to see them.

Tea Pictures at the Jefferson

Afternoon Tea

This afternoon Rebecca treated me for my birthday to Afternoon Tea at the Jefferson Hotel. Built in 1895, it is a Richmond Landmark. We ate right under the watchful eye of Thomas Jefferson in the Rotunda, which is covered by a beautiful round stained glass window. Eleven Presidents have stayed there - and Sergie Rachmaninoff played in The Grand Ballroom! If I had known I was going there, I would have checked the Hotel out online and known what to look for - beyond the wonderful lobby and statue of Thomas Jefferson in the Rotunda. We enjoyed ourselves and the food was delicious. We had tea (The Richmond Blend - taken from a Colonial Williamsburg recipe, this spicy tea is a blend of black tea, cinnamon oil, orange peel and cloves) and an assortment of sandwiches, scones, pastries and chocolate. A wonderful time at a special place!

We pause for a Potty Stop

Yes, the information for todays blog is really scraping the bottom of the bowl. I had to search high and low for todays subject.
Move your mouse over the picture to see the new Silly drinking bowl.
Sorry about the poor focus, (sigh), it's hard to sneak up on a kitty drinking from the toliet!

Can you guess what this is?

Lets give you the rest of the story first.

One week ago, Monday May 15, 2006 - 08:41:02 am - In the back yard I present a man from Dominion Power working on the big green board. This man and the man in the picture below showed up to pull the cables between the box and the board. Supposedly for street lights and sprinklers! Yea. Progress!

In the front yard, the man working behind the big green box with the other end of the cable, yes he is there somewhere.



See here he is putting dirt back inside the holes. Great idea don't you think? They worked fast and were done within an hour.

Thursday, May 18, after lunch.

This really nice man showed up to actually connect the wiring. Eric fhad inally stopped someone from the construction company on Tuesday or Wednesday and said, you know the cable for this board is in. The nice place man said, sorry, no one told me the wire was here.

On Friday, May 20th I came home and the land crew, Horizon men, were preparing the area for sod. These are the same guys who were hauling wood in other pictures I took. Little guys with big toys, shovels and nice red shirts.

See what a nice job they did? The dirt is fairly smooth, all ready for sod.

And oh yes, the board is working and we now have street lights on both sides of the street near our house. But, contrary to what we were told, this board has nothing to do with sprinklers. Of course, even if it did, our's wouldn't be working right - yep, that first picture isn't wiring, it's one of our sprinker heads - beheaded, thanks to the little guys in red.

This week our major objective is OPERATIONAL SPRINKLERS!

My Amazing Mom

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Thanks for all you have done for me throughout the years! If I could be with you we would go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I hope you have a great day!

Still dry as a bone ....

The yards here in the 4100 Block of Coles Point in Chez Crossridge are still dry. The day Mike and Sally came, (10 days ago now) the sprinkler company showed up and ran the sprinklers manually. They apologized for the fact that EAGLE had broken their system and we had no water. They assured us we would have our system running that day, automatically. Eric politely pointed out to them that we still didn't have ELECTRICITY to the board to run the system. Oh? Gee! I see ... yes. Well ... then, "here is how you turn it on manually". Eric got a lesson. Of course, the man said, you are not supposed allowed to run the system, and if you do and break it ---- OH OH. You will flood out the whole area as there is no shut-off. So, the yards got watered, and they promised to be back in 2 days to do it again. That would have been last Monday. No show, no rain. Dry grass.
Finally this happened yesterday. Of course as you will read it could be awhile before it all works as advertized.

Meanwhile, Eric went out and ran the sprinklers 2 days ago. The neighbors all said they never saw it happen, it must have been the tooth fairy. At least we might keep the grass alive until "they" get everything up and going.

Views of Williamsburg

As you may not know, it rained while Mayellen and I toured Williamsburg on Sunday. This is pretty much what it looked like when we stepped off the bus at the gate to the Gouvenor's Palace. Rain, lots of it. We were dressed like the Bobsey twins, in matching yellow slickers. What we were most amused at were the people you said, "you came prepared". These were the one's wearing seatshirts, or trash bags. Like they were surprised it rained .... I won't say more.
After a tour of the palace, we walked down the Palace green, just us and wet trees. Not uncomfortable, just wet. We went into some of the open shops, looked at pottery, feathers, hats, soap and yarn. More about yarn in the other blog!
Neither of us saw anything we thought we could not live without.


After shopping we stopped at Bruton Parish Church which was built in 1863. More history if you click on the link. There were two very nice parishioners who were at the church giving tours. We visited with them and then went after some lunch. No, this is not my picture, it was still raining when we left the church! We missed hearing the church bell ring, as it rings 15 minutes before noon, and we were inside. I remarked that I thought it would ring at noon. I was told, no, it rang early to let you know it was time to come. If it rang at noon, it was too late to come. You couldn't hear it inside, because there was no need. If you were inside, you knew it was time. Love colonial logic!
Lunch was at Chowning's Tavern. To quote a blurb, "The "publick" that Chowning hoped to attract to his tavern was made up mostly of local residents, artisans, shoppers, farmers, idle bystanders and an occasional traveler. " I guess we fell under occasional traveler. We Had a great warm you up lunch, delicious Corn Chowder, Cornbread, and Pudding for dessert.
At this point, we headed back home to rest and dry out! Our evening adventures tomorrow.

Friends and Family

The last week has been filled with family and friends, and it has been wonderful. I am already a bit sad that the house is so quiet after so much talk and comotion. I certainly hope everyone had as great a time as they reported, and of course, I want everyone to know they are welcome to come back soon!

To the uninitiated, the top picture (left to right back) is my brother Mike and his wife Sally, myself and Eric, and niece Anne with Silly kitten, (obviously not a direct relation to us!)

The bottom picture is Mayellen, a long time friend from Lufkin. She goes back very far in my life and we enjoy talking about books, gardens and life. It was nice to have her visit for an extended period of time, as we usually only have a few hours once a year!

Click the pictures for a bigger view. Credit to Mike for the great family picture, and Becky for the other one!

The British are coming, the British are coming ....

.... No, I mean the Texans are coming, the Floridians are coming! Three by land, and one by air ..... drink more coffee Jo, don't be stupid!

Mike (Hurrah), Sally (Hurrah) and Anne (Hip Hurrah) will be here tomorrow, and Mayellen flies in on Friday evening. That will be the most company from foreign shores this old house has ever seen! It may be a logistical challenge, but I think we are all up for it. I can hardly wait!

And here is your laugh for the day. Becky brought me a disc with Sheep to Shawl pictures yesterday. I put it in the computer to check to see if everything was OK, and brought up one of the pictures of me. I asked Zack, who is that? (Remember, he wasn't there) He said, "Who, You mean that old women?" Jeeezsh!