Look At Me!! I'm a Lamb!!!

You Are A: Lamb!

Peaceful and gentle, lambs have been used in religious imagery for millennia. Lambs are baby sheep, an animal tended by shephards since the dawn of history. As a lamb, you tend to stay together in a flock and graze on grassy land. Lambs don't mind being led and tend not to go off on their own.

You were almost a: Bunny or a Duckling
You are least like a: Squirrel or a ParakeetWhat Cute Animal Are You?

Sally had this cute quiz on her blog tonight, and I couldn't resist seeing what I most resemble! I'm sure it was the ears that did it for me ... what do you think Daddy?

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Tonight Eric called me outside the motel where we are staying to see somthing neat! I have to say, this is the first time I have ever seen a moth that was so beautiful. We watched it drink nectar from the flowers, and it was amazing. It looks so much like a hummingbird it is easy to think that's what it really is. I immediately came inside and googled moth that looks like a hummingbird, and there it was! Exciting to see something new!

Stuck in Houston

Well, Russell and Amy finally turned back after 12 hours of driving crawling in traffic on their way to Lufkin. In 12 hours they made 40 miles. Ridiculous! They are exhausted and have returned to Amy's parents brick home.

It's pretty obvious that Houston took some cues from what happened in Louisiana, unfortunately, too many people on the road, and the road were still only open in one direction until late afternoon. Russell told us they would try again if and only if the time frame for the drive to Lufkin changed. The highway (I45) to Dallas is a 100 mile backup and they were predicting the drive to take 23 hours.

Running Away From Rita

Russell, Amy and Skyler have left their home in Houston some time last night (in the middle of the night) and are headed for Lufkin.

I talked to Mom and Dad in Lufkin this morning and Russell and Skyler in his Honda, and Amy in her Jeep are on the road. They had been traveling over 4 hours (as of nine this morning) already, and just made it to Porter, which as many of you know, is not very far north of the Airport, no more than 20 miles. So their progress is really slow. I am hoping that their pace will pick up once they get a bit further north, as there will be fewer side roads feeding on to 59.

So, once again family members are in the headlights of a hurricane. Mike, Sally and Anne dodged at least three last year, Eric and I got one direct hit two years ago, family in Louisiana just three weeks ago and now this in Houston. Anybody up for moving to a mountain top in Colorado? We could have a commune!

Saturday excitement

It's two weeks to house closing, and it seems like the time will never get here. Meanwhile, I have had some fun moments here while staying with Rebecca and the kids. The biggest event for me (quite a new experience) happened last Saturday morning.

Tom, and now Becky, are long time fans of Bruce Springsteen, they love his concerts. Bruce announced a concert here in Richmond a few weeks ago, and of course the two of them were hot for tickets.

It seems tickets are a tricky proposition, requiring finesse and mind blowing strategies (To Becky and I). Well Tom, being up to the task, and Becky and I being game for anything, were up and on the road Saturday morning, with kids in tow, to be at the Coliseum in downtown to get tickets. But not tickets for the show, tickets to get in line for a lottery to try to get tickets for the show! We were each given a number at 8 sharp, 05, 06 and 07. You see, they do the line-up to buy a ticket by lottery, whoever's ticket is drawn is number 1 in line, and then the rest of the people line up in ticket order.This prevents scalpers from buying big lots of tickets. Online tickets are almost impossible without a high speed connection.

So, once we had our 3 tickets, we broke for breakfast, because the drawing for the lottery wasn't until 9:30. Tom went on to a ball tournament with Zack and left Becky and I (and Maddie) to take our chances, but not before briefing us to find someone to trade with for our number 06. The thought and logic being that if we had a group of numbers spaced out, we would have a better chance. If they drew 08 we would have been last in line. So, Becky went off to trade the 06, and I, looking older and innocent was offered another ticket by the man handing out tickets. He told me it was 55. I didn't even look at it, I just took it and smiled. We now had 4 tickets!!! becky traded for a 20, and my 55 was really a 14. We thought we were in good shape.

Well, the number was drawn, and it was 05. I thought Becky would stroke out, as it was her ticket. I ended up 3rd in line, and the man she traded with for the 20 slot was 3rd. He was almost as excited as she was. Turns out we then had to decide if we wanted floor seats (she and Tom did) or other regular seats. Tom had committed to buying 4 of the regular seats, so I was in charge of those four. The ticket gurus split the line to those wanting floor seats, and those wanting others, so I was first in the other line, Becky first in Floor. Then they announced the “others” would be given a 4 minute jump on Ticketmaster. Seems most tickets for his concerts are sold in about 10-15 minutes. Floor people got a 2 minute jump.

To cut to the chase, I got the first 4 tickets, very good seats, for Tom's friends. Then Becky got her two, and the number 06 man got two, and then, the floor was entirely sold out. Less than 3 minutes. She was so excited, as this will be the closest they have even been.

First Day of School -

We'll it's been busy and hectic the last few days. We ended up having to purchase a new set of tires for the truck. Not in our budget plans actually, but obviously needed. We did notice a vast improvement in the ride of the truck with these new wheels, lots quieter. Silly did not wail as we drove over the bumpy stretches of pavement around Williamsburg so if they make her happy that's all that matters. We picked up our TV's from Sears and managed to get them tucked safely into Becky's garage. I was a bit worried about unloading them, but Eric managed nicely and we had Tom's hand truck which made it much easier.

Eric has gone on to Baltimore and I have been busy being Nana. Zack went to meet his preschool teacher today, and a picture of his first day of school follows.

Sunday after Katrina

As you can see I have added a link to the Red Cross in my sidebar. I'd like to encourage everyone who might read this blog or come across it to help the victims of Katrina in some way. If not money, prayers. There are several knitting bloggers Wendy and Margene and Susan who have set up sites and made arrangements for auctions and prizes as incentive to donate to a good cause. Be sure and check their blogs out if you have not seen them already. Give a Little has more information. Every Little Bit Helps!

Not much has happened here on the boat this weekend. We are having beautiful cool weather. A nice breeze. However most of the boaters who when out on their boats have returned because it is a bit too breezy. Those that had three day plans came back yesterday because tomorrow is supposed to be so iffy. I guess with the cost of fuel and gasoline it might be better. I actually wonder why the president didn't ask everyone to stay home this weekend in order to conserve fuel. Of course the businessmen in this country would not have liked that.

Where will it end?

I don't think any of us have even an inkling of all the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. Today I heard two very different examples.The UPS man came into the office while I was working to deliver a package. I asked him how he was, etc and what was new. He said all the local UPS trucks are no longer using the fuel that is in the tanks at the UPS local hub, instead they are going to be buying their gas locally. They hope they won't run out, but just in casegas gets scarce, they will still have their reserves to fuel from.

A man from the local plumbing company came in and said they have been notified by their distributor that there will be no more shipments of PVC anywhere on the East Coast. Seems all the PVC pipe for the East Coast comes from one plant that supplies all this area, and it is in New Orleans. Can you imagine what this is going to do to plumbers? Oh how about building? We speculate that getting anything related to building homes is going to be scarce and costly.

Spammed

Last night when I went to get email I had received a half dozen emails telling me of comments on this blog. When I read them they were all junk, advertizing other web sites. So, in order to remedy this, I have changed the way you are able to comment. If you make a comment, you will be asked to verify text before blogger accepts and posts the comments. It seems the spam that is generated by auto spammers can't pass this test. We'll see if it works or not.

New pictures posted

There are new photos at Flickr
See Family here.
See Househere.
Hope you enjoy the new pictures of the grandkids, Skyler, Maddie and Zack!

Look Out Below

Coming out of the yard towards the water.

In Position to begin lowering.

In the water.


This was the scene Tuesday as we put Auana Ke Kai back in the water.
The first picture might be a bit confusing, the red truck is not pulling the lift. The lift actually has a driver and it's own motor.

Inspector

Inspector
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

We took a new inspector to the job site today and after checking her notes she gave us an A-OK rating.

Back in Richmond

Just a short note tonight to let family know we are back in Richmond, after wrapping up all the paperwork for the furniture.We finally signed the paperwork for our furniture on Friday afternoon and headed back to the hotel. On a closer check of the contract we found that the computer had somehow reverted back to the original full price for shipping (we had been given a 25% discount) .... so a quick call confirmed it was in fact wrong and we would have to have the contract reprinted and signed again. So this morning we went back, met the salesperson who worked with us and got it all straightened out. She said the company has been tweaking the contract computer program and this was a glich that no one could figure out. It printed one number on one page, a different on a second for the same value. To make a boring story short, we did get the discount and we are done!

What about this color?

DH-studies
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

This was taken last week, when we were trying to pick colors for the second sofa that was just right - but also turned out not to be a finalist because it did not come as a loveseat. Since then, Eric has visited each piece of furniture we purchased and sat in it at least two times a day. We are amazed that some people actually buy sofas and chairs just by how they look, never sitting in them at all. Apparantly it is not at all uncommon.

Scene of Design

Our table in the design center at Furniturelandsouth. There is a design center in each of the two main buildings. Each is set up with tables for the customers to work. You are free to leave things on the table and a reserved sign assures you that everything will be there when you get back. A very nice serivce, they even supply paper, pencils, tape, graph paper and have copy machines and scanners you can use for a small cost. The unique thing about this place is the size of the area. There are at least 50 tables in the design rooms, and one entire wall is natural light. The fabrics are hung by manufacturer, and in the center bookcases are all the catalogs for each. It is always full of people hunched over floor plans. Some are customers and some are professional interior designers who come to pick out items for an entire home. Our designer said some of the homes she has seen are pretty amazing, especially homes in the Middle East where women have separate quarters for living and sleeping than the men.

Today we finished up all our selections and tomorrow morning we will sign over the $$$$'s and then go visit the bargain store. That's if we have any money left!

Yes, we are still here

More of the Furniturelandsouth Highboy
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

It's been quite a bit of time since I last blogged, so I thought it best to let everyone know we are still kicking here in High Point. Today we finished day 5 of the great furniture hunt. This place is so huge, it's hard to believe that there are still things we have not seen and that we still hope to visit! We feel like the prices are very good, and the selection is more than anyone could imagine.

The first two days of hunting were similar to the story of the Three Bears. I think we looked at every entertainment wall unit Furniturelandsouth had in stock. Finally, we found one like we wanted but then found it might not fit. We picked a second one to be safe and proceeded to sofas.

We sat on so many sofas, some were too soft, some were too big, ugly or hard, and very few were just right. We picked one, then decided overnight it might not be right .... so after a few more questions and thoughts we changed to a second. It fit right, the color was right. The price was right. But, you guessed it, no loveseat available and we wanted both a sofa and a loveseat. So we picked another. The third fit right, but the color had us stymied for many days. We kept wanting it to be like the first and second one, but no luck. We finally compromised on a color.

After each selection we would check our choice by moveing little scale pieces around, and often one change would lead to another question. We ultimately went back to the first wall unit. So now we are in the process of fitting in end tables and night stands. We had to call Rebecca to go measure the bedroom wall, since we didn't trust our plans. Turns out we had more room than we thought so that was nice.

So, we are playing musical chairs, musical nightstands, musical end tables .... you name it and we have tried it here or there! So far sin spite of the fact neither Eric nor I have ever done this before we are having a great time . . . Even if the days are 8-10 hours long. Our designer has been wonderful, patient, and has given us good suggestions. She certainly knows the merchandise, which is remarkable considering the size of this place.

The boat is finished, but the boatyard is closed until Monday, so we won't be back in Hampton until then. We also have to time the "splash" with high tide so we can get home.

So more adventures in furnitureland soon.

Furnitureland South

Click on the link above and see a better picture and some history of the world's largest highboy. It is 85 feet tall, and really pretty neat. Do you know how much difference less than 1 inch can make? We found out today as we began our search for the entertainment center for the new house. Of course, everything hinged on the size of the TV we planned to buy. Obviously that makes sense. However, the manufacturers of the type of unit we wanted seemed to think our intended TV was about 1 inch too big. The day turned out to be one of compromises. In short, we think we are going to go down to a 30 inch TV from the 34 inch we originally planned to buy. The only way we can get an entertainment unit with the diagonal ends is with the center being the smaller size. We wanted doors that close over the TV too. So, we think we are a step closer.

By the way, the designer who is working with us is very knowledgeable and worked right with of all day. Tomorrow we hope to finalize the unit, and then we will move on to couches. Ha, that should be easy. I'm sure it isn't and won't be! One nice think about this company is that they will work through everything you want, do the design layout of the rooms to scale, and then keep all on file until you are ready to purchase the individual pieces.

Getting ready to HAUL

Today was busy for us. We are one day before boat haul out, and had lots of details to take care of that really needed to wait until today. Besides packing clothes, and another batch of things to leave in storage, we also had to defrost the freezer and empty the refrigerator into our igloo chest. This is the chest we found on the dock that someone threw away. We sent it to Igloo and had the motor repaired and it works like a charm now. So it’s humming away. We took off the extra hurricane lines, so they are stowed away. Snacks are packed, and we’re both roaming around trying to think of what we might have forgotten. You’d think we were going to be away for a month.

While Eric was out moving things from the boat to the cart to take to the truck the boat next to us had a power malfunction and their power cord went up in smoke where it plugs into the pedestal on the main dock. Luckily he was there when it happened. So, during the packing we also had no AC for awhile as Jerry and Eric made repairs. Thank goodness today was overcast and we didn’t really get hot. Of course it rained, so now the awnings are wet. Not good.

Silly knows something is up, and she isn’t excited about what she thinks is going to happen. Now whenever she sees a box in our hands she goes and hides. Smart Kitty! She’ll not like it in the morning when we crank up the boat engine. They she’ll be in her crate, and then in the car, and then back with the monsters grandkids and dogs. Oh what fun for her. Little does she know she’ll be back in the truck the next day for the trip to NC.

So, tomorrow is an adventure. We haven’t had the boat out in the bay since the summer after Zack was born. Hopefully it will be a smooth trip. It is supposed to be cooler, in the 80’s, so at least that will make standing around in the boat yard a bit better. They always tend to be hot places, obviously no trees for shade. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Like how hot is it?

. . . I'd like to turn the calendar back about 8 months - yes, I'd trade this August heat for snow any day! (Don't let DH know I said that though).

Not much going on because it is just too hot to do anything. We went to the grocery yesterday and have laid in enough supplies to last until we haul the boat on Tuesday morning. Then we will be homeless for awhile as the boat bottom people will be busy redoing the bottom. I am not looking forward to seeing how bad it looks when they haul it out, but I guess I'd really feel bad if I was the one doing the work in this heat! Anyhow, we are down to 1 package of meat in the freezer and a half gallon of ice cream! Good planning I think! We'll have to toss or ice down the refrigerator supplies, as they won't keep unless we have somewhere to put them, and since it might be a much a two weeks, it would be kind of pricy to be buying ice everyday. I guess it all depends on where we end up freeloading staying while the boat is out!

We plan to spend Tuesday night with Tom and Becky, and from then on, everything is up for grabs. We hope to go to Furnitureland South. This is in High Point North Carolina. it would be better if we had carpet and floor samples, but since we don't we plan to focus on looking for an entertainment center like the ones here.

Well the office is closing, so I'll head back to the boat, as Jerry says, "It's too hot for anyone to even walk up the pier to buy a bag of ice, so I'm going home."

Good Intentions

I out smarted myself this morning. I packed up all the laundry, library books, and computer and went up to the office and worked on the blogs. After finishing with the computer I went to the library and on to the grocery store to get a small salad for lunch to eat as the clothes washed. Drove all the way to the place and realized (at least before I parked and unloaded clothes) that I had forgotten my quarters. In my consolidation efforts for the morning I had only taken my car key and credit cards, so I wouldn't have to carry so many bags - thus no real money.

Guess what I'll do tomorrow?

Unless we head back to the house - so we can check those lists!


Latest and greatest from Henrico County building permit office

Progressing Slowly

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.

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!

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.

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!

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 and all is HOT

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.

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.

Socks for charity

What 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.

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!

Sunday the 26th - Roofing begins

Overhead---06-26-05
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

Here's this weeks picture of the progress at the house. The roof was only partially finished when we were there yesterday As you can see, some of the windows are installed, and the rest are in the garage. We expect to get a call this week to go for our electrical walk through, so we are seeing progress. Of couse after the roof is done and they move inside it may be awhile before we see brick and vinyl. And I don't know how much longer I'll be able to get into the house across the street for my overhead shots!

I'm Home at Last

We are all so excited that Michelle has gotten to go home with her mom and dad and grandma.We didn't go into great detail about the events of last week, but it turns out that Michelle wasn't really ill after all. Her one week of deluxe accomodations in NICU were just a event for babybook history now - only she had to endure all those pricks and sticks for nothing. What a girl doesn't go through for attention! NOT!!!
I hope her daddy doesn't mind me using his photo - but she just looks too cute and happy to be at home!

All Wrapped up and Nowhere to Go

Is this not a cute face?Michelle is going to have to spend the better part of the next three weeks in NICU for an infection found the day after her birth. All indications are she will be fine - she looks great doesn't she? Her mom is going to be able to stay in the Fisher House, which is available for the families. It is great that she got a room because they live 45 minites from the hospital. You can check the link to her blog - Michelle's Moments in the sidebar to keep up with her progress.

Tomorrow we will head for Richmond to check on the house. Tom ( DSIL) informed us we have a first floor. So we are excited to see some real action that we can walk in! Should be fun to take Zack over now, as he is interested in this house that isn't there yet!

Michelle Elizabeth Walters (Mitch)

Michelle Elizabeth Walters (Mitch)
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

This is my new great-niece - daughter of Christine and Brian Walters - who live in Germany. Brian is in the Air Force. Right now my sister in law, Sally is there to help with the baby, She arrived almost two weeks ago and was about to get worried that Mitch was not going to make an appearance until time for her to come back to the states! I know she will have a great time holding her in the coming week - and it will be hard to leave her.

Happy Birthday Baby Mitch

Welcome to the Walters Family! New Baby girl born to Brian and Christine in Germany. Brian is stationed there in the Air Force and baby Michele was born on the 16th, sometime in the early hours. Grandmother Sally Walters is there and will no doubt have all the more information soon via email!This makes 4 great-grandchildren for Earl and Annabelle - they are very proud. And now I am a great-aunt! Not to mention that my younger brother is now a grandpa too.

Pictures and news later!

The kitten is scowling at us again, she only got five shrimp for dinner and now she has thrown herself down on the floor in weakness. Of course, she keeps raising her head and looking up to see if anyone is watching her pitiful condition. I guess she is waiting for her nightly brushing too. She has gotten so spoiled to this new routine she rolls from side to side and even lets you brush her tummy. Pitiful, guess we need to change her name to the Pitiful Perfect Purring Princess with Prissy Paws. She was PPPPP for short, but will now have to be PPPPPP.

Well on a discouraging note, the house failed it’s first inspection of the foundation. It appears from what we can decipher looking at the permits online that the plans submitted don’t match what they actually build for a footing. Since we added a bay window and an extension, our bet is the plans the workers are working from are different than the set of master plans the county has on file. Since our plan is one of the variations, and the first to be built with this change, we are hopeful this is all a matter of a minor mixup. We are going to to to Richmond in the morning, so we can see what is going on ourselves.

So as they say, pictures and news later! We should have some shots of dirt and brick soon.

And now we have summer

Obviously we are now full into summer heat. I see the weathermen are already watching a tropical storm headed for the Gulf of Mexico. I can only hope that this year is not a repeat of last year or the year before. Mike and Sally are preparing with special window coverings, and we are prepared with extra lines! Not much else we can do.

Today started and ended on a cool note, but it was near 90 mid day when I was making my way home from doing laundy. I can seriously say I am not going to miss going to a laundomat. I can hardly wait for a washer and dryer! We even discovered last night (DH discovered) that with the house plan flipped we will not have the washer and dryer doors opening opposite each other(i.e. back to back). The dryer will be to the right, with the door opening right, and the washer will be on the left with the door opening left! A smooth move from one to the other! We thought we were going to have to swap their positions (as they place the dryer & its vent on the outside wall).

We noted tonight we have a foundation inspection scheduled for tomorrow, so we are excited about that! Progress! We still don't know when we are going to go up to Richmond, though it should be this weekend.

Nana Celebrates a Birthday

I didn't make it to the beach today, ... I had a better offer. Rebecca called this morning and asked if I wanted to meet her and Maddie in Williamsburg to shop at the Outlet mall. Seems the boys (Tom and Zack) had gone to play golf, so she thought it would be more fun to meet me than stay at home and do chores! Did I not teach that girl right? We had a nice lunch and toured the shops and braved the hords of shoppers out for a SALE of any kind. We decided we really liked shopping at the thrift stores more! After walking Maddie around and not buying anything we ended the day with Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream Bars. Maddie said "yummy"! (PS - She shared w/ Mom),


Be sure and check over at Floats, Knits and Purls for another birthday post!

Happy Memorial Day 2005

Happy Memorial Day to all! I thought this photo was fitting for a tribute to all who fought to make America the free country we love. This is the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C.

Well, the loop of weird cool weather seems to have finally broken and we are having lots of sun and warm (70 ish) temperatures. On our boat all the ports and hatches are opened up and we’ve been able to sleep at night with them open – it’s great! Being that this is a holiday weekend, there has been lots of activity on the docks, boats coming and going and people working on their boat projects.

Nothing more happening, I plan to go to Buckroe Beach tomorrow for a walk!

Sunday, and the sun is shinning!

Mom and Dad it’s good to hear you had a great time at Tonkawa, and are back home safely! I'll call back later tonight or Monday!

Ok, news from the boat – the sun is shinning today and we didn’t even have to turn on the heat this morning. Yes, we continue to have really strange weather. It was cool enough for a sweatshirt yesterday and tomorrow is supposed to be chilly again. If this strange mix is any indication, to those of you who know DH well, he is still wearing shoes, and long jeans and may be all Spring/Summer – whatever we are having!

If you go over to: Moving Ashore you can see the latest pictures from our lot.

And to my Mom!

Here Here !! A cheer for my mom, who I admire so much! She is so full of life and energy, I wish I had half what she has! She may be little, but she is mighty! I love you Mom! Happy Mother's Day.

Have A Great Day

I want to wish my daughter-in-law Amy a Happy Mother's Day! Dear grand daughter Skyler is one now and growing up so fast - I hope Amy and her Mom Candy are enjoying this special day with her! I wish I could be there now too!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day





Happy Mother's day dear Rebecca - you and your children bring such energy and fun to my life! Thanks for being such a wonderful daughter to me and mother to your children! Have an extra special day!

Slow Boat Week

This past week has been pretty uneventful, except for a wonderful Nor'easter storm that blew through here starting early in the a.m. Friday and is still blowing this morning (Saturday). At least the tides have diminished; we were about 2 feet above normal last night. That translates to mean if we had wanted to get off the boat we would have needed a parachute. At the very least, a step ladder. Of course with the wind gusting to 50+ mph at times, there wasn’t much chance that either of us were going anywhere. Silly went into her storm shelter early in the morning and only came out at 3 for a quick look around, then retreated back again until dinner. That’s how exciting it was! Hopefully this will be our last storm for awhile. We could still use some average temperatures.

Thursday I did take a trip to Barnes and Nobles, a thrift store, and Wal-Mart. We knew the storm was scheduled for Friday, so a few groceries and some reading material was in order. I picked up a new knitting magazine, a book about planting in containers and a gift. Also stuff for salads. Not terribly exciting in the grand scheme of things, but a good chance to get off the boat and get outside into the larger world. I also picked up a few more boxes for packing, as we are slowly removing more and more things.

DH is still trying to figure out when we will go to the yard to have the boat hauled. He is yet to call though, so I am not sure what kind of a schedule we will have. I heard a rumor at Yoga that the yards are all still very busy and behind, as the weather has delayed may people getting their boats back in the water from the winter. That makes us getting in soon seem more unlikely. We’ll probably need a diver to come clean the prop before we can even back out of the slip, or else it will be a really loooong and sllloooow trip over to the yard.

Next weekend we will head to Richmond to take care of the grandkids, while their Mom and Dad have a weekend away. I’m looking forward to it. The weather should be nice and we can all have a good time. B and T are going to a Bruce Springsteen concert in northern Virginia. It may be that DH and I will leave Richmond and head back north to Baltimore to visit there again. Those plans are still up in the air.

I am going to go to the library today, and make a quick stop at the grocery. Church tonight might happen too, if I can get organized and plan how to do all the little things in one trip. I also need to walk, as I have already missed two days this week. The weathermen say the wind will die down this afternoon, so we’ll see. DH said it was pretty nippy out, with winds blowing 20 mph now and temps only in the 50’s I imagine it does feel pretty cool.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the pond, you can see the sea grass is turning green and soon it will be a wave of green out there when the tides are out. The heron doesn’t seem to mind that it looks ugly, all he wants is minnows.

Unpacked again

Auana Ke Kai is not the only Island Packet on the block tonight, we have new IP neighbors across the dock from us. We are not sure if they are permanent, or transients that have stopped because of weather. We arrived home this afternoon, in the rain. Not unusual for this time of the year, but it would have been nicer if we had not had two loads of stuff to bring back to the boat. The funny thing is, we only left with one load. And we left things at Rebecca’s in storage. Strange? Well, we did stop at the grocery store, but it still amazed me we had so much.

Silly was pleased to get out of her carrier, but not ecstatic enough about being home, because she jumped off the boat onto the next boat over while we were busy bringing bags below. Obviously something about the accommodations or the service didn’t suit her. She was well behaved this trip, no howling. I guess it was feline resignation to her fate.

After 8 days in Baltimore we stopped in Richmond and stayed two nights. Zachary and Maddie were in fine form. Maddie has gotten even more affectionate and hugs, kisses and laughs at everyone and everything. Zach is trying hard to keep his space from her intrusions, but they actually do very well for a 3 yr old and one 17 months. The yard was in bloom everywhere we looked. Rebecca has potted plants everywhere on the deck, and of course the dogwoods, azaleas, and wisteria and lilac bushes were all in bloom. A riot of color and pollen! Fred and Shadow begged to play Frisbee. Becky and I walked the first afternoon, and the following day DH and I took Zack to see our lot and then on to the park.

Meadow Farm park is near to both Rebecca’s house and our house-to-be; besides the playground, it also had ball and soccer fields, and a museum and farm. We took Zack to see the train cars that I has spotted on our last trip. They have a mail car, baggage car and a passenger car from the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac RR. At dinner Zack told his dad all about the car’s he’d seen. I was amazed he remembered what they were. He is at the age he hears, see and repeats everything! There are a few new pictures at Flickr, so enjoy!

A week in Baltimore

The past week DH and I have been in MD, visiting family. We’ve used the time to try on “living in a house”, i.e. enjoying the modern convenience of water that is hot when you turn on the tap, having a bath tub, using a washer and dryer, and DH’s favorite, ice. Yep, our needs are pretty simple, but we are both in total agreement that living ashore is going to be a good thing. Aside from TV cable and Internet access, we’ve also enjoyed not being tied to daytime cell phone limits. Of course traffic, and crowds will be an adjustment, but one we’ll also adjust to. The boat will be missed, but living ashore will really be nice. Maybe we are getting soft, but even if that is so, I don’t think we’ll have too hard a time adjusting. The cat seems estatic with all the room to run around in, and furniture to hid behind. She seems to think going outside is her right though, so keeping her inside may be a challenge

Tonight we celebrated two Root birthdays by going to Outback for dinner with MIL and all her children. The food was excellent, one of the things I really like about Outback, their food and service is consistantly good. Since it was a birthday celebration we even had dessert, so it was a splurge all around!


My SIL is excited because her middle son will be graduating from Marine Boot Camp in NC in two weeks. He has done very well, and they will be traveling down to see the ceremony, and see if they can find their son in the throng of new Marines who will be showing their skills to the their visiting families. I know they are proud of him, and we are all proud of his choice to serve his country.

I worked on Blog buttons this morning, so if you see them, let me know what you think of the button I added to my knitting and house blog. Not really difficult, but then I have never really spent the time with Photoshop Elements that this new skill required. I’ll keep practicing!

We’ll leave in the morning and stop in Richmond to look at the lot again and check for progress. Who knows, maybe we’ll spend the night and look for furniture or attend to some of the other loose ends we still have to finish.

I’ll leave you with a marina picture taken two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see how much things have changed in the week we have been gone, maybe Spring will have decided to stay awhile. The weather across the country has certainly been strange this past week!

Crossridge progress

This picture was taken earlier in the week when we stopped in Richmond on our way to Baltimore.
Notice that the trees are turning green, which is a good sign! This truck is working about 1/2 a block away from our lot. In fact, the lot right next door to us is ready for it's foundation. All the spec houses (10) will be started and in progress before ours begins, as the permits for those houses were in place before the lots were released.


We have been busy helping Mary out this week, trying to get things orgainzed. So far, things are going well and we should be able to leave in a few days.

Spring For A Day

AprilWind
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

Doesn't this look nice? If you notice, the wind is blowing briskly, see the sea grass bending over? The water is really moving too, though I doubt you could tell this from the picture. What you can see is how high the water is, that's because the North wind blows the water in the inlet that is just visible in the top left of the picture - you can just see the rock jettys there. I took this picture yesterday, and today the wind is almost flat calm. Of course compared to the last 3 days, even 10 mph would seem calm. Unfortuantely, we are forecast to have rain again by the end of the week, and it will get cooler. So Spring seems to be very fickle this year.

Tuesday we leave for Baltimore for a short visit with family, Not sure if I will be able to blog while I am there, so if you don't see anything new, you will know why.

Wind definitely over Speed Limit

Speed-Limit
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

The weather men were right in their forecast, our wind is strong, and it is gusty. Our feline barometer says it is unacceptable. The weather combined with her shot at the vet day before yesterday has convinced her that the best thing to do is sleep it all off. She has been out to eat, to inspect dinner and little else. At least the sun is nice, but the wind if fierce, so our wind chill was 34 this morning. Not condusive to any kind of outdoor activity. How hard was the wind blowing you might ask? I think this picture says it all!



I can't say that we have accomplished anything in the last few days. Other than the trip to the base to take Silly to the vet on Thursday we have not been off the boat unless it was necessary. I feel like a hermit. I am ready to come out of hibernation and start walking and enjoying decent temperatures. The next week will be in the 70's, so maybe we will have mild temperatures for a few weeks and Spring won't be compressed to about 3 days and then leap to scorching summer.

Brrrrr

If spring is out there, it isn't anywhere near Virginia. The only clue that it is mid April here today was the mother duck walking down the side deck on our boat looking for a place to lay her eggs. She and daddy duck went next door and checked the next boat and the one two away from us before another mallard came and drove them away. Hopefully they will nest nearby, but not on our boat! Silly came awake from a sound sleep the minute momma duck set her little webbed foot on the deck though, nice to have such a good duck warning alert system.
I finished my fun project for the week. You can see it here It's complete all except for a tie closure and toggle, which I don't have. If I had all my stuff, I'd have one, but alas, the needed items are in Richmond. I'm not sure it really needs to be tied shut, I'll give it a trial run at Yoga tomorrow night and we'll see. It should be easier to get on and off the boat now with the matt slung over my shoulder.

Short Day, Long Night

We had another beautiful day today, but as I write it is raining and we expect more rain and cooler temperatures for the next week. That is, we will be more like normal, as the last two days were above normal. At least the pollen that is plentiful here will be washed away by all the rain.

I took a short trip to town today, went to Joanne’s to see if I could find something to use my coupons on. I think I spent a total of $2.09. I did much better at Wal-Mart and the grocery! Anyhow, pretty routine shopping followed by a quick run into the library to pick up a book I had on hold. I did get to share my knowledge of a long-tail cast on with two of the librarians that are trying to learn to knit. I have tried in the past to drum up some interest there for a group to meet in their room. Maybe we can get something going for the summer. Even with not being here too much longer it would be enjoyable.

We finalized some more questions we had concerning some of our house options, so tomorrow we should be able to get the addendum to the contract finished. We will also have to send them a check for half of what we picked. Our selection deadline is April 15, so we will be well under the wire for finishing. We also got a note today telling us what our address will be! SO if you want to know what it is, you will have to go HERE.

In case you look at the post time and see it is 2:35 am and wonder if it is really that late as I sit here typing, the answer is yes. I decided, as I was planning to work on the blog tonight that I might just as well stay up as I want to watch the funeral for Pope John Paul. So, that's what I am doing, waiting for 3:45 am. I have all day tomorrow to sleep if I need to. We had a very nice memorial mass last night at church (Wednesday night). I had planned to go, then remembered Yoga, and then in the end Yoga was cancelled.

Spring Comes to the Marina

Southall Marina is in it’s last long ugly days of winter. It never looks worse than it does this time of the year and especially at low tide like in this picture. With all of the salt marsh grass dead and even flattened by wind, the scene is bleak. However, there is a good side to this! If one looks carefully at the base of the grass it is turning green! Spring is coming. The pear trees in the parking lot are all in bloom and daffodils and forsythia are everywhere.

Even the ducks and herons are convinced spring is here. The white herons finally came back a few weeks ago. However, even 3 weeks ago the male ducks were courting. In fact, we almost were chosen as a nesting place by one of the females. Eric went outside one morning as momma duck was sitting on the dingy with her head poked down one of the holes in the cover, checking out our accommodations. Luckily she decided we were substandard. You can’t imagine the mess a nest of duck eggs make, not so much then, but once they hatch. We’ve seen firsthand nests on decks, in cockpits and even inside sail covers.
And the final sign of spring – cat stretched out full length in the cockpit, catching rays. No more accurate barometer of the changing season than a happy cat.

We went to Richmond on Monday to pick out house details. I had worried that it might be difficult, but we actually enjoyed the experience. We also went to see Maddie and Zachary and celebrated his 3rd birthday. Tomorrow we’ll do pictures of Play-Dough. A big hit. Maddie was more interested in the plastic vegetables.

Kitten goes psychotic

They say animals know when a natural disaster is coming, If so, it must have happened while Silly was cleaning, eating or out and someone just forgot to notify her to pull her off alert. For some reason, unknown to the humans who live here, she has had ants in her pants all day long. I mean, this cat, who normally sleeps 6-8 hours during the day, has not sat still 5 minutes. She has paced, looked startled, and gone in and out of the cockpit about 10 times an hour since early this morning. She has wanted to go in the bilge, behind the drawers, behind the cushions ..... What ever she is looking for she can’t find. What ever she hears, no one else hears. We thought at first the pile driver working across the way in the housing development was upsetting her. It stopped at noon, and she still is checking for boogers at midnight. She has not had a cap nap, or even a mini cap nap all day.

So, what have the rest of us done today? I can say, proudly, I have finished two pairs of socks. Not one, but two! DH now has a spare, significant now that the temperatures are moving beyond sock weather. At least he will be ready for next winter!! He played on the computer, picked up mail, and let the cat in and out of the door 500 times. The cat paced. I knit. Then, I went out in the sunshine. Then I went to yoga! It was all in all a fine day, inspite of psychotic kittens.

Happy Easter to Everyone!

Happy Easter to Everyone! Here's a picture of Zack and Maddie sent to me this morning by Tom and Becky. Sorry I have't gotten one of Skyler yet, but expect I will before the day is out!

Mom is 85 Today

Let me be the first to say, Happy Happy Happy Birthday Mom!! Since it's 12:13 am I should be the first! Of course I know you'll be asleep right now, but you can't say I didn't try! I do hope you are going to have a wonderful day and have good things to eat! I only wish I could be there with all of you to celebrate and enjoy all the fun of watching you open your gifts. I know it will be a great day.



Here's the scarf unwrapped, so if the presents haven't been opened yet, don't let mom read this! (LOL) Anyhow, I enjoyed this project alot, and think I'd really like to do it again sometime.

Monday, Monday

Things are moving along here, it actually seems like Spring has decided to head in our direction. The sun was shinning brightly when I came up to the office today to work on the blogs. Anyhow, I don’t see any sun now, a few hours later, so I hope it is not cold out there when I head back to the boat.

Eric and I received the hard copy of our home contract in the mail, so I guess it is official. We also got an information letter telling us about selection. We have received an appointment, for April 4, at 1:30 in the afternoon. So, we’ll head to Richmond and pick out all the fun things, like carpet, paint, flooring, fixtures, counters, tile, etc, etc.!

Zack turns 3 on the 3rd, so we are thinking we might go up to Richmond then and spend the night in a motel, as Beck’s house will be full with Tom’s parents. They are flying in this Friday (25th) and staying until the 6th of April. I think this will be the first time they have not driven up. Tom will take the week off while they are visiting, so much fun should be had. He will get a break and the kids will have lots of entertainment.

Not too much happening here, as the weather warms up we will begin working on the boat again, scheduling the repairs that have to be made and trying to outfox the weather as we plan to take the boat to the yard. We are also thinking we might make a trip up to Baltimore to visit with Mary, maybe at the end of this week.

Erin-Go-Brah

Well Erin Go Brah to all of you Irish out there .... This fellow may really be flipping that coin to see if winter is over here as advertized today on the news.

The noon TV news today, St. Patrick’s Day, retired the “snowflake” the weathermen wear on their coats during newscasts to show they are predicting snow. I’d say not a day too soon, spring is coming this weekend some say. The news anchor said, “we have seen the last snow until next December”. Well, I don’t want to go crazy here, but that would be a nice change! We have had really ugly weather the last two days, and a change would be nice. Although we only saw a few flakes, the area has been getting on and off snow for two days because of very cold high altitude temperatures. Hampton Roads has been about 17 degrees below normal for weeks and weeks. A very long winter. Not ugly, but long.

Water – frozen snow, right? Well in this case I am referring to running water. Yes!!! We now have water to the boat again. Since January 11th, we have had water 4 days. Both those times it was turned on briefly to allow people to fill their tanks. I figure that is about 60 days without water this year alone. Oh boy, maybe this is the last time to be without water!

Other news of note, in case you didn’t notice, there is a link now in my main blog for the new house news. I thought I’d separate it too, as how exciting is a house to some people. Anyhow, the link is in the sidebar .... Just a click away.

Mom and Dad, I know you’ll be excited to be at Mike’s house. I say, next year, we all meet in Richmond! Maybe in April, we can celebrate Mom and Dad’s birthdays together.

New Blog for New Home

Here's the promised blog about the new house.

Confucius Says . . .

I’ve always been one to eat the cookie and read the fortune after a Chinese meal. I’ll even take the one's left behind if others don’t want theirs. I like the cookies, but always get a laugh from the fortunes. Even the funny joke of always adding “in Bed” to the end of the fortune verse cracks me up. I guess the fortune’s are fun because they are all so generic – it seems like they always applies somehow. Of course, if they are closely on target, that makes it even better and keeps the fun alive. And then you wonder, could this be true?

Yesterday we went to Richmond to CrossRidge to sign the contract for our new house. Right outside the gate to the development we stopped at the local Chinese Take- out for me to get some hot and sour soup. I thought (hoped) the soup would open up my head and calm my throat, as they were still bothering me. I ate the soup as we drove over to take a look at the lot again. We wanted to calm those jitters you always get after you’ve made a big decision, and then doubt yourself. Anyhow, the lot looked fine, actually better than we remembered. We were excited! I climbed back in the truck and picked up the trash from my lunch and saw in the bottom of the bag the fortune cookie. So this was my fortune:



I guess the big question I have now is, “how long is the statute of limitations on a fortune?

Crazy Crazy Weather

When we drove to Richmond on Saturday it was snowing, enough to stick to the ground, but the roads were clear. Zach already had a snowman made, which was waiting at the curb. By afternoon it was sunny and most of all the snow was gone. Sunday, Rebecca and I took the kids to Maymont, a park, zoo, garden and more in downtown Richmond. It was chilly, but the sun was shinning. Monday the temperatures were close to 70. Beautiful day! Tuesday we drove home in more snow, and the closer to home the heavier it got. The wind blew up to50 MPH, and even blew down a hanger in the red-iron stage of construction – obviously a tornado. As we got out of the car we heard multiple claps of thunder, as this as it snowed like crazy. By mid afternoon the snow was gone and we were in the 50’s. Crazy crazy weather.



Monday, as we were getting ready to pack the car and drive home I decided to made a call to CrossRidge and our agent said, “when can you come pick a lot?” As you can imagine, I said, “when do you want us to be there?” So at 2:30 we were out in that beautiful sun, looking at our choices. We were fortunate in that only one lot away from out first choice, we were able to pick one that was in the first phase of construction. As it turned out, Phase 1 contained 10 spec homes and only 2 free lots. Phase II and Phase III had the majority of lots. The base price of the homes went up $7,000 from Phase I, to II and again to III. You can imagine we were very pleased to take advantage of being in the first Phase. So lot 21 is ours and we go in the morning to Richmond again to sign a contract.


I won’t bore you too much with lot details, how exciting is a piece of dirt anyhow? But, (LOL) our lot will back to an existing neighborhood with 1950-60 era brick homes on big deep lots. Between our neighborhoods is a buffer of woods and a protected area that is watershed. To my understanding, it has to be maintained and CrossRidge even has to do more plantings behind us . We feel like this will be a better view out the back of our house where the living areas are. Had we picked across the street we would also have been backed by a neighborhood, but of multistory homes, with a fence and rather sparse trees between us. These existing homes look right down into the back yards of the new homes. So, we hope our home site will have more privacy, and afford some wildlife because of the woods, water and protective vegetation. Time will tell.

Tomorrow we go back to Richmond and sign on the dotted line. Whew, lots to think of and Eric (bless his soul) has been crunching numbers and we have compiled lists of choices, questions, etc. I think we will both feel better when we get past tomorrow. The final selections (colors of carpet, walls, counters, hardware, etc....) is April 15. The projected closing date is the first week in September. Of course all this is subjective, and depends on you know what, crazy crazy weather!

Trip to Wal-Mart

It’s Wednesday and Yoga night again. The wind today is still fierce, the wind chill was about 28 degrees this morning. The only good thing is that usually the wind dies down as the sun sets. The weather men are not being optimistic, they say it could be two weeks before we warm up. Jerry is contemplating turning on the water tomorrow for a few hours, I guess some of the other boaters are getting pretty low. We have only used half of our tank. Anyhow, if he turns it on, we can fill the tank and take showers onboard. What a concept!

Today was uneventful, though we did go to Office Depot to pick up a few disc’s that were on sale. Since we were near Wal-Mart we chose to go there for groceries. While DH looked for Aspirin (only 50 kinds with 40 prices he said) I picked up groceries. Mom and dad, for your information, the Pillsbury Biscuits I mentioned the other night were there, and at a much reduced price to the ones in our store nearby. Check out ended up being more than it needed to be. It turned out that the lane we chose had a change over in checkers. We got the fresh checker .... First she ran up my tomatoes with the wrong code. Not a huge deal, but I refused to pay for Vine ripened tomatoes when all I got was Roma tomatoes. She couldn’t get them to void, you know the drill, called for help, etc. etc. Finally got that cleared up and I paid. Meanwhile Eric looks at the receipt and found she had scanned the Fritos twice during the tomato confusion. SO she had to call for help again, and we had to wait for a refund. You know, everything is coded, you only pass things through once, how hard can it be?

No news from Eagle construction. No comment.

Tonight we are going to watch GIGI, the old movie with Maurice Chevalier. I remember going to a theater and seeing it, I think. I know it is something I saw a long time ago! We finally finished up the Winds of War, and now have requested that the library get War and Remembrance, the sequel.

Quilted Birds

Another colorful quilt. These birds with sunglasses were pretty funny. I think this quilter had a great sense of humor, and I loved her colors. This looked like fused applique, but I won't swear to it. It was very neatly done and would be great as artwork in a child's room.

The Quilt Show revisited!

Best-Machine
Originally uploaded by Joanna Root.

I went back to the quilt show today after church. It was not at all crowded, and most of the vendors seemed to be winding down and had time to chat! I found more things to buy, fabric mostly. One of the shops I visited were ladies from Dayton Ohio. I'm anxious to check with Sally to see if it was one of the shops she and I visited while I was there for Mike's retirment.

I have posted several pictrues from the show to the Flickr site, so if you's like to see highlights of the best quilts there, just click on one of the quilt pictures, and you can start a slideshow at the Flickr site.

I talked with Russell and he reported that Skyler had quite a fun day for her first birthday. He said she wasn't much interested in the cake though! She added to her toy and clothing collection - I can only imagine what all she received! Anyway, they had a great day, wish I could have been there. I look forward to them posting pictures.

Getting cold here, a winter storm is coming our way.

Saturday, 2 AM!

Happy Birthday to Skyler, today she is one! I wish I could be there to join the festivities in Houston and give her a big hug and kiss. I know her mom and dad are sure proud of her, she is a blessing for them! Happy Birthday Skyer, your grandma in Virginia loves you!

I am wide awake, yes I am writing this at 2 a.m! I guess it comes from all the stimulation I got today being at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show here in downtown Hampton! I couldn't ask for a better location because it couldn’t be more convenient. The show actually opened on Thursday, but since our weather was beyond yucky that day, I stayed home. Friday was dreary, and great for being indoors, as it was cold and dark outside. Inside was the usual riot of colors and textures, enough to make anyone stay awake!

The Coliseum here in Hampton was a great place for this show which was previously held in Williamsburg. Everything was under one roof here (compared to 4 different hotels last year in Williamsburg) and so it seems to made more sense to move it here. The booths seemed roomier and the aisles were wide enough that you were not scrunched up trying to move around. Of course it is not nearly as large a show as Houston, but I think they do a good job and there is a good turnout of vendors.

Tomorrow I'll post a few pictures of some of the great quilts I saw. Several were really incredible, the amount of work in them leaves me tired just thinking about them.

Oh yes, the appointment for the lot selection has been put off again .... seems the entire main office of Eagle Construction has been hit with the flu. I knew it was too good to be true!

Smart Kitten Trick

It's a very chilly Sunday morning here, but there is sun. The weather Pixie says it is 36 degrees and wind only 3.5 mph and not out of the NORTH! I’ll be going out to church soon, but expect it won’t be too bad, as at least I do not hear the wind honking! I don’t have much to report as the weekend has mostly transpired without incident. A trip to the library yesterday and a visit to the grocery store and you have all the excitement we have going here. DH (you know who) had to reload the system on his computer last night, so that at least got his mind off the house and lot. Not that it made him happy!

I didn't update the LOT report in the blog, but our “lot pick” date was put off again. I won’t go into long boring details, but there are still problems with paperwork and numbers on their end, so they will not launch until they are completely set up to back up their data with hard figures. Can’t blame them, but then, why not just say so and not pretend things will be ready soon. We did hear there will be 40 lots, and 10 of them will be spec homes. We don’t know if all the spec houses will be in the first phase or if it will be a mix. The only difference this makes is that each phase involves a price increase, and we already know the base price increased $10,000. Since November when we first saw lots.

Most exciting, don’t hold your breath here – a new kitten trick. Last night we were watching "White Christmas", the old movie with Bing in it. Yea, we are weird. We know, it isn’t Christmas. But anyway, the cat was trying to get our attention. Darting around, running from front to back of the boat. She jumped up on the sofa and rolled over on the laptop (where the movie was playing) - and yep, somehow managed to pause the movie! Now wasn't that a neat trick???. She managed to step right on the mouse pad and click on pause. Didn’t I tell you how smart she was?

24 Hours

Twenty-four hours can be a long time. Just ask Rebecca, or me for that fact. On Friday night Maddie came down with a stomach virus and threw-up in the car on the way to a hockey game. Zack asked if they could take her home and then he and Mom go back to the game themselves! That was the only humourous moment of the next four days.Saturday night Zack caught the bug, in the middle of the night. Backy was still nursing sick Maddie, Tom got to take care of Zack. Sunday night it was Rebecca's turn to be sick. She called me on Monday morning to please come watch the babies. I went for the day while she stayed in bed. When Tom came home from work, I came back to the boat. Later that same night, Tom fell in line with the rest. It was like domino's falling. Every 24 hours a new person was sick.

Tuesday morning I went to the laundry, and then when back home about two o'clock, ate a meatloaf sandwich. Well, within an hour I was as violently sick as I can ever remember being. We decided it wasn't the 24 hour bug, as it had only been 12 hours since I had been in Richmond and it came over me immediately after eating. I don't think I will eat meatloaf again anytime soon. I may have escaped the real bug running around at Rebecca's, but I don't think it could have been any worse than the food posioning.

Everyone in Rebecca's house is well again! I am fine! All is well!

Found At Last!

I’m certainly glad Mike is not losing his mind. If he was, then I would be in trouble too. Especially since he is youngest of us! I think he can probably roast the pistachios slowly in the oven and get a crunch back in his nuts .... If he hasn’t already eaten them all in celebration of finding them! It’s funny how things get misplaced isn’t it? I don’t think he can blame the cat either.

Our week has been slow. I went out one day and mailed off the packages I had ready. I had fixed the buttons on Maddie’s sweater and also had all of Skyler’s birthday presents wrapped up. So, I went and purchased paper and cards and got all that taken care of. A short trip to the library netted a new book to read (that I have read one page of so far) and nothing else new. We still have not watched the DVD of Apollo 13, so it is scheduled for tonight.

We heard from the agent in Richmond yesterday and our appointment for picking a lot has been moved from Tuesday to Friday. Seems there is some hang up getting all the options for the new house plans priced out and printed. So, we will now go to Richmond on Thursday instead of Monday as we planned. We have been discussing options every evening; since this floor plan is new and different, it obviously presents some different elements. I wish I could visualize better, as one of the main issues we are presented with is deciding if we want carpet or what (wood, tile) in the living room and the adjoining sunroom, that is not really a separate space visually. One room runs into the other. Since there are no houses built that are exactly like this one, seeing a model will not help. Any ideas? We have found out that the lots being offered are near the center of the area they are opening, not up on the hill under the ugly power lines, nor down near the main road. We don’t know if the one lot we have seen and liked is in this release group or not. Time will tell.

I guess Brian and Christine should be getting excited as they have her sonogram on the 15th! So soon we will all know if we should be thinking pink or blue. I am excited. I like making things more when I can visualize the gender! I have collected a few things for them and will be sending them off once I can add something the right color!

As a last note, two pictures from the newest members of the Bruce Springstein Band - in a one time performance last weekend.


Maddie on Tambourine and improvised horn!


Zack on Bongs and Duck Call!


You wouldn't believe the sound these two can make!

On the Home Front

After another visit to the development on Saturday morning we are back on track again! We actually have an appointment to pick out a lot! Isn’t that exciting? So on February 15, the day after Valentine’s Day, we will finally, finally get this show on the road. The scuttle butt at Crossridge (the development) is that there will be 40 lots released, so we should get a good chance at trees or a view of water, albeit not like a forest or a lake. Of course, since I put it in writing, something will probably change. Our agent said she will advise us of everything she finds out in the next 10 days. Let that phone ring!!!

While at Crossridge we also saw the plans for the newest home, which they call the Fisher. and we have decided it will suit our needs. The architects added a 3rd bedroom downstairs, and the upstairs is now available as either a guest suite, or as a large unfinished area. We want the area for DH’s train layout, so we hope we can convince them to finish it (not as a suite) but as a heated and cooled (and electrified of course) open space. Worse case scenario is we will have to contract the sheetrock, etc. ourselves and add it after we move in. If we can just get them to wire and heat and cool there, which seems simple enough, we will be set. There is also an additional storage area up stairs that will work great as an office.

We had a nice visit with the grandchildren, (and Backy and Tom) and kept very busy. Rebecca had appointments for a variety of reasons (preschool for Zack, dentist, etc.) and we watched one or both of the babies several times for her to accomplish them all. Zachary is still a busy little person. His energy level is always on high. I love it when you ask him if he’d like to do such and such and he says, “That’s a good idea Nana, come on!” Maddie is right on his trail, learning all the tricks. She calls Zack and her dad, DA DA, though it seems like one is DA DA, and one Dah, Dah, you got that difference? She also says mama, and Nana, but the latter is like a fluke. She is fascinated by Silly and tries to get his attention by making little kissing sounds with her mouth. I’m posting new pictures, at Flickr and will tag them February 2005.

Maddie also thinks blowing raspberries is funny, consequently I think DH and I both picked up baby germs while we were there, though we are both better today. Baby sniffles. It’s hard to not pick up something when you are being kissed and hugged all the time.

We arrived back to the boat anticipating water. HA HA. I guess this last freeze did major damage in several areas, some of the ones that were just newly constructed after the last big freeze. So, we had a dribble of pressure and we were able to fill our tanks, but dreams of unlimited water directly on the boat were dashed. Bah! There is a pretty wicked North wind going too, so we know nothing will be done about repairs in the very near future.