It's Labor Day - so we'll do it ourselves

We're taking things into our own hands today. Still waiting for the tree man, but then after all, it is a holiday! We were a bit concerned about wind causing branches to scratch the big windows, so today Eric cut the offending branches away. Because of this we also got a better look at the damage. I climbed a ladder and took a few shots and movies, more for insurance than anything. The boards exposed are above the gutter, normally covered my siding and shingles.

And here is "THE TREE"

The calm after the storm

It is always ironic how beautiful the sky is after a storm. Of course, every bit of polution has been blown far far away, so I guess it is a natural result. (I wonder if the skies of our childhood before polution were this blue?) Anyway, this was taken today through the leaves of the downed tree. We are still waiting for a tree man to come and give us an estimate. It could take awhile, as there is a good bit of damage in Richmond and the surrounding areas. Of course USAA has some restrictions on quotes, etc. and we know we need someone with a crane. So, time will tell how long we'll have the tree as a guest. It actually makes lovely shade on the patio and florida room. Silly would love to climb it. I look at it like this, it's one less tree to worry about when we have the next storm.

Ernesto gets close and personal

Here's the tree that fell on the house this afternoon. Funny, when we first looked at those trees Eric thought there was a potential for this to happen! Crossridge is supposed to be sending someone over to check it out and get it off the roof.

Sheet rock and Sheets of rain!

Yes, I am up and awake at 5 in the morning. What's worse is I have been awake since 4. Once in a great while I have these insomniac mornings, and have found it's better to just get up. Silly is with me, purring away, so at least she is not running wildly and loudly meowing through the house thinking it is time to go outside. She is all rilled up because it is raining and she can't sit out and watch the world go by.

I can hear a steady rain outside, and checking the local forecast, I see that Ernesto has considerably weakened. Our inland winds should be below 30 MPH and that's not bad. North Carolina is taking the punch out of the storm for us, though the governor has declared a state-of-emergency, as flooding will be probable and the national guard can better respond. Since downtown areas flood in light rain, the 6-8 inches they expect could cause some big problems.

Did you all enjoy yesterday's sheet rock movie? I hope you found it entertaining! I was glad it was not Eric having to heft those sheets (or me on the other end of one of them.) The guy upstairs catching the pieces was doing a pretty good job too. He's the main contractor, his son was the small guy taking the sheets off of the trailer and handing them up to the two helpers who hefted and sailed them through the open window. Here's a view from upstairs. Today they should be back to start putting the 65 sheets up!

Up Up and Away!

A picture is worth 1,000 words it's said. So a movie must be worth 10,000 words. Here's how you get sheetrock in a second story window! Being young and srong sure doesn't hurt either!



These sheets are 4 feet by 12 feet, and each weighs about 60 pounds. Even the lift off the trailer would be difficult, not to mention the lift over their heads!

Good news got even better!

We had rain overnight, at least one half of an inch! The gully washer we had Saturday night was not nearly as nice a rain as this shower. It seemed to be gentle and steady, which is very good news. Ernesto is scheduled to make an appearance here today and tomorrow, with up to 4 inches of rain and maybe more. Even that would be good.

But the best news of the day is that the sheetrock men showed up (What a relief) as scheduled, and they had 25 sheets of sheetrock already on the truck and tucked nicely inside of a big blue tarp. Better yet, the rain had stopped! The men got all that load upstairs through the window (which I missed seeing) and have now gone back for a second load. The plan is that these two loads will give them enough to work on today and tomorrow, and then they can decide exactlly how much more (if any) they need. Those sheets will be cut downstairs and brought up the stairs. So far (it's almost noon) the rain is holding off.

Naughty Me

Yes, we are still here. Life is in a pretty set routine now. Not very exciting or news worthy!

Most days I am at the pool by 8:30 am, trying to stay in shape by swimming, water aerobics and yoga. It seems to be a pretty good combination, and I am feeling like I am in better shape, even if I don't think I look thinner. My feet are making more progress too, thanks in part to some Teva kayak shoes that I now wear in the pool at all times. After almost a year of constant pain and or at the least discomfort, I actually find a few days now where my feet feel normal.


Eric has been busy with the attic area. If you look closely you can see that the room in the second picture has insulation in the ceiling, and now the area is completely enclosed. Through the doorway he has framed in an additional "found" area, so we will have plenty of storage up here. The sheetrock man is due tomorrow. Hopefully he will have finished up the job he is on now, and will start on us. I know Eric is anxious for it to all be over, and I don't blame him in the least. This will finish up the final phase of the whole moving experience for us. In 30 days, we will have been in the house a year. One nice thing, the sheetrock crew is also going to do all the painting and trim work for us, all we will have to do is put down the laminated wood floor.

If I had a today picture, the room would be empty. Eric has had to being everything down to the garage again, until the sheetrock is up. Zack and Maddie were a big help, they carried all the small odds and ends down and were quite proud of themselves. This was during their weekly monday morning visit at Nana's while Mom goes to the grocery. They really enjoy coming, and I am sure Becky appreciates the help.

Silly is still the same, loves the outdoors and keeping her personal staff busy.

I'll try to get more news up, and pictures as the work progresses upstairs. As always, check the knitting/crafty blog for all things fiber related. I am most anxious to decide on a quilt pattern for the new baby so I can get going on it. This is always the hardest part for me. It needs to be special enough, but not impossible!

So, stay tuned, more news will be coming .... Ernesto is due here too. I have taken some beofre pictures in the back, just in case we get lots of rain and have more erosion. I am certain Eagle will have to attend to it eventually, but until all the house uphill from us are finished, I don't expect them to address the issue.

Let's see ....

First of all, there is a short Update over on the house blog. It's about news unrelated to what's going on here in the house.

The Henrico County Building Inspector came today and we have this news!!! We were pleased to see him, and it turns out he is the man who did all the first inspections on our house. Eric has been concerned the county would not allow him to sheetrock the two storage areas, as there is no fire egress (window) from those two areas. Someone previously had told him that any room that was "habitable" had to have a window. Since the two storage areas would be sheetrocked, heated and cooled, then they MIGHT be used for sleeping, and so needed a window in case of fire. This guy said, no problem, this is obviously a storage room. Duh. Poor Eric, all that worry for naught. So, now we wait for the insulation folks!

Butterfly Detectives

My creation
Originally uploaded by Jobanna.

The kido's came for the morning while mom went to the grocery store. Though she reported she went down the aisles slowly and got to read labels, the kids had more fun. No butterflies were harmed in this great hunt.

Happy Anniversary

I wish my sister-in-law Sally and brother Mike a wonderful anniversary! I do hope you both are celebrating tonight, and enjoying some of the wonderful cake left from yesterday's birthday celebration! What a busy week! We wish many more years to come for both of you!

Well I knew THAT ....

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Happy Birthday Mike

My brother is a year older and wiser today ..... back when this picture was taken I think I am about 8 or 9, and he is probably 3. That makes this picture almost 50 years old. Hard to believe! Where has the time gone? MIke is retired once now, but still working in a "secret type" job for the AF. Mike has lots of talents, math, science and physics being the formost, also music, and now photography too. I admire him learning and perfecting a new hobby. I'm glad he is so creative, and willing to share his knowledge. I was always jealous he could play the piano so well. Truthfully, he played better at the end of one year of lessons than I did in 4 years! He had a gift!! I wish I could share part of his birthday with him. I'll toast him with a good glass of wine and wish him amy many more! I love you!

Updates and sights from our backyard

We are harvesting about a dozen tomatoes a day now, and they are still coming on strong. I especially like the little grape tomato plant, it has groups of 6-8 little gems that ripen in succession. Some are green, some yellow, some ripe. Kind of fun to see. They have been delicious. We have been making a greek salad with marinated tomato, cucumber, feta, red onion and fresh herbs. Yummy!

Construction is going full tilt just 2 lots away from us. Eric reports that the concrete truck was there at 6am this morning. I love these big cranes that pump the mix out to the back parts of the lot. They can even go over the roof of a house to pump the patio, as the builder waits to pour it till last, once the house is almost finished. I guess they have had too many patios and sidewalks torn up by equipment.

Speaking of equipment tearing up things, we are without sprinklers again. Because of the work up the street, the water system pipes have been broken twice this week. They repaired the first break, and before the 24 hour waiting for glue to dry period was up, a second line was dug up somewhere else. Maybe we will have water tomorrow.

Oh my Auana Ke Kai

As you all know, we sold Auana Ke Kai on June 23rd of this year. It was indeed a sad day for us, as we have lots of wonderful memories of our time on the boat. Not only was she our home, but our mode of travel and exploration for nearly six years. But it was time to move on.

You may remember that our first Auana Ke Kai was the boat we sold in Florida in 1999 to a man from Texas. She was sold when we purchased the new boat, and never renamed by him. So Auana Ke Kai and her predecessor shared a name, and also our memories. This original Auana Ke Kai sailed to Hawaii from Californian with Eric and his friends. In Hawaii, she sailed the Pacific, and then came to Florida via the Air Force packed full of Eric's belongings. The day Eric and I married, we moved aboard this Auana Ke Kai, and ultimately sailed down the Inter-Coastal Waterway and found our way to the west coast of Florida. She had many fine adventures and made memories for us too. That's her on the left!

Two days ago I received an email from Australia, out of the blue so to speak. They asked if we owned "Auana Ke Kai" as they were interested in bidding on her and wanted to know what equipment was on board. We immediately knew it was not the boat we had just sold! A quick Google search, sent us to the same web site they had seen, and sure enough, the original Auana Ke Kai is in a salvage yard in Mississippi and being offered up for bids. As best we can determine, she was a casualty of Hurricane Katrina somewhere on the Gulf Coast. The pictures on the site show the damage, though as you can see, Island Packet builds one tough boat! She still looks good, and as the salvage yard says, she can be sailed, just needs repairs. But, it is sad to see her damaged like this.

We find it a strange coincidence that both our homes were on the market at the same time. We think our Auana Ke Kai is happily docked in Maryland now being sailed by her new owners. Hopefully someone as excited about sailing and Island Packets will bid and buy our first Auana Ke Kai.

Visit Ended

Mom and Dad are on their way home to Texas after their visit to Virginia. We had such a wonderful visit, it flew by and seems like they were only just here and then gone again. I know I enjoyed having them here so much ( as did Eric ) and if they ever decided to come this way again ( after they rest up ) we'll have the guest room ready. I do hope they will consider coming on the train next time, as they know, I worry about them out on the highway. So until next time, I love you Mom and Dad! Have a safe trip back!

Happy Birthday Anne

There once was a child born this date,
Who's age we can all calculate
She traveled far away
but was at home today
So all her talents we can celebrate!

Have a great birthday Anne and enjoy your Chinese dinner!

Pyramid in Hollywood Cemetery

Here's the Pyramid Monument to Confederate Soldiers in Hollywood Cemetery. The Plaque reads:
"A Memorial to the Confederate Women
of Virginia,1861-1865

The legislature of Virginia of
1914, has at the solicitation of
Ladies Hollywood Memorial
Association and United
Daughters of Confederacy of
Virginia, placed in perpetual
care this section where lie
buried Eighteen Thousand
Confederate Soldiers.
Move your mouse over the picture to see just how big it really is. If you click on the title, you can see historical information about the cemetery.

Hollywood Cemetery

I thought this picture really turned out nicely. That is the James River in the background, which is in flood stage because of the recent rains in Virginia. This is taken inside the Hollywood Chapel Mausoleum, which is of course on Waterview Avenue. It is a beautiful site. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of President Monroe's grave, and the Confederate Monument among other items of interest.

What's going on?

Today we visited Walkerton Tavern in Glen Allen. Built early in the 1800's it is one of the oldest original buildings in Henrico County. One of its interesting features is a folding partition wall in one of the bedrooms that was used to open up the upstairs room to accomodate more travelers. It was a popular meeting place in early Glen Allen history and the county has recently restored it and it serves as a community place of interest as well as being available for rental for parties and weddings. The picture above was taken in the gazebo where many weddings are held.

I think Mom and Dad are having a great time. Dad and I plan a trip to Pamplin Park either tomorrow or Monday. We are also planning to go to the Botanical Gardens for lunch on Saturday or Sunday.

Beetles, Basil and Bait

On the home front, we have had an invasion of Japanese Beetles , who have taken great delight in eating my basil. So, following the example of neighbors and relatives, I have set out a Bait bag trap. It contains something that smells wonderful to these little critters, and seems to work. You place the bait downwind of the object of affection (basil in this case) and they absolutely run over each other in their haste to get to the bait. You can watch them swarm in! This morning, I had one lone beetle feasting. Of course, the plant already looks like a free smorgasbord sign was posted there, but luckily they only ate number 1 plant, and ignored 2 others.

Happy Father's Day

This is one of my favorite pictures, even if blogger thinks it needs to be sideways! It is a very appropriate picture of what today is all about for I think!

Happy Fathers Day to my dad, son, brother, nephew and son-in law ! Hopefully next week at this time Dad will be here and we can celebrate with a real cake, and maybe some crab cakes! Sounds good to me! I also hope to be able to connect with Russell later today. I hope Skyler is taking him out for a fabulous sushi dinner somewhere! I love all of you, and as far as I am concerned, you are all the best there are! You all are great examples of being a father and in my dad's case, also grand-father and great-grandfather. Enjoy your special day!

Nothing too exciting going on here, though yesterday I did go to a plant sale at the the garden . (Held, gratefully after the ball game in the last post). This was an impromptu sale, not one of the usual huge vendor sales they have twice a year. They were given 1,000 bulbs to sell by a vendor in VA., and they also cleared and cleaned out starts from their own greenhouses. There were so many people there, most just snatching up what they could carry. Almost everything was $1.00, so I could not resist getting some at that price. I planted about half yesterday, and will get out in the back today and plant the rest as soon as I decide where!

Last game of the season

Once again, remember to allow time to load!

Making Cookies

You do need to allow time for this to load fully before you attempt to watch or it will be jerky. I suggest hit load, then pause button and wait for gray slider bar to show fully across bottom.

New Camera Pictures

We had a day of rain today from Alberto, and it was welcome here. Tonight as you can see from the picture, the sky is clearing and tomorrow we will be back to normal and by the end of the week, into the high 80's. I guess at last we will have on the AC. It's been enjoyable having the house open, so we'll miss hearing all the crickets and frogs at night.

This is one of the pictures I took this evening with my new camera. I have a hard time with the Macro, but if you look closely at the raindrop, you can see a reflection! Pretty cool I think! Happened entirely by accident, believe me, I could not see the reflection! There are a few more pictures at Flickr, so be sure to hop on over and see them.

We picked tomatoes

Yesterday afternoon we picked the first tomatoes from our plants, and there are lots more to come! We have about a half dozen banana peppers almost ready and the japalenos are doing nicely too. Tonight we used some of the herbs in a marinade, so it will be interesting to see the difference if any between fresh and dried.

Not much else is happening here. We are still wishing for rain, yet loving the cooler temperatures we are having. We have not had the AC unit on except for 3 days in late May. That is welcome. it's nice to have the windows open and hear the birds outside.

Tomorrow I am planning to go to the Botanical Gardens with Rebecca and the kids in the afternoon. I'll go for my scheduled swim at noon, the earliest the pool is open for free swim. A neighbor and I have started going together on MWF and we have almost worked up to swimming 30 minutes. Good progress for us.

It's been great talking to Lufkin and hearing all the news and activities. I know everyone will be sad tomorrow when Brian and Christine and baby Michele leave to go home. They will move into their new house this week, so I am sure they are excited about that.

Mom and Dad, we are planning for you to come, so be thinking when. I think anytime you want to arrive after the 19th will be fine. If our neighbors are true to form, we will have fireworks right here in the back yard!

Hope this isn't happening!

Not quite a perfect shot

I am posting this because only a few weeks ago I mentioned I never saw butterflies, or if I did they were going too fast and it was impossible to get a shot. This isn't the greatest shot, but it is a first for me! Oh, by the way, this is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Very common here.

Herbs and Peppers in the Garden

I promised herbs yesterday, but didn't get time to post them. Enjoy the pictures, wish you could smell them, they really have a nice scent.

Farmer in the Dell

I'm feeling very much like a farmer these days. Every morning and every night I am outside watering my garden and flowers. I'm already counting my tomatoes before they ripen and all that. That could be bad luck, but I hope not. I have NEVER had a crop of tomatoes like these, so I am mighty proud of the results so far. Of course, we haven't had one ripen yet so we haven't had a taste. I do hope they are good!

Tomorrow I promise pictures of the herbs and peppers!

Mike how do you like the detail on these shots? I love those hairs!

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!