2018-01-02 - Tuesday - Trip home

On Tuesday we said our goodbyes and drove back to North Carolina.

It was a pretty chilly trip to PA overall. Here are the highs and lows we experienced during our time there. It was briskly refreshing.

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2017-12-31 - Sunday - Moravian Tile Works

Sunday we went to the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown, PA for a self-guided tour. It has a fascinating history and the tour was great, even if there was no heat in parts of the building.

Main entry room.

Main entry room.

Fireplace in main entry room.

Old potters wheel.

Better view of the whole fireplace.

More above the fireplace in the main entry room.

Stairs to the factory.

More of that wall from upstairs.

One of the thousands of tiles.

A test kiln.

Large 4-5 foot tall molds.

We spent about 30 minutes in the gift shop before the tour and I was taken with several tiles. I purchased two of them. They are made of locally dug terracotta clay and are about 4 inches square.

Crab.

The harvest.

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2017-12-30 - Saturday - Snow

On Saturday it snowed in our part of PA and we enjoyed it quite a bit. It's been cold here. Saturday's high was 23 F and the low was 18 F. This snow was not sticky at all, it was powder.

It was fun watching it come down when we had nowhere to be. It was so quiet...

Video taken through the kitchen window.

My walk to Eva's house.

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2017-12-27 - Wednesday - Death by chocolate

I think Karen is trying to kill me (with kindness). This is just some of the chocolate Karen got me for Christmas. She also got me almonds in dark chocolate with turbinado sugar and sea salt. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of chocolate.

We drove to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with the relatives and see our kids. When we got there, Eva's water heater was not working so I offered to help her change out the thermostats. We got the water heater fixed and while we were working on it I noticed the bottom of her cellar staircase. Each board has been individually wedged. That's some nice work.

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2017-12-24 - Sunday - Festive shrubbery

On Christmas Eve I was outside grilling and noticed that the Harbor Belle dwarf nandinas were fruiting. It made me think even the shrubs were in the Christmas season (even though Karen and I are spending Christmas alone and I was grilling).

It was odd without the kids. Stephanie and Brett spent Thanksgiving with us, so they spent Christmas with Brett's family. Meredith couldn't get time off for Christmas until the 29th. We will all meet up in Pennsylvania after Christmas. That will be nice.

I love Karen, and we love spending time together, but it was a strange Christmas without the kids here. Binkley isn't here either, and he always LOVED Christmas.

We discussed going someplace for Christmas next year, possibly a cruise.

We'll see.

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2016-12-29 - Thursday - Good fortune, prosperity, and happiness

During our trip Pennsylvania Christmas trip we spent some time sorting through my late father-in-law's belongings. He had an extensive tie-clip collection and one of them had what appeared to be Chinese characters on it. I snapped a photo and sent it to my friend Ju-Ian who informed me that they mean "Good Fortune", "Prosperity", and "Happiness".

While it's a nice sentiment, I wonder how he came to have this clip. He was in the navy during the Korean war, but I'm not sure he got to Asia. Perhaps it was a gift from someone along the way; maybe one of his many students in the colleges where he taught.

We'll never know now, but it's a pretty neat item.

Good fortune, prosperity,and happiness.

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2016-03-27 - Sunday - Easter In Pennsylvania

We went to PA for Easter to see family. It was a short trip, but fun. It's always good to spend time with family. We spend a lot of the time with Karen's family, but I also got to see my brother while we were there.

We went to church.

Later, we had a big holiday dinner.

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2016-01-07 Where have I been?

It's been a while and life has been very busy. Here we go with some updates.

When last we left off, I was getting ready for the holiday sale.

On Friday 12/11/15:

Getting set up for the sale.

I finally figured out where to put the hydra light --in the ceiling.

I went to Sears to get some staples for hanging the drop cloths in the garage and found a bunch of bag worm cocoons in the junipers outside the store. Quite a few of them.

Bag worm cocoons.

A huge hillside of them.

On Saturday 12/12/2015:

The sale was good, especially for a holiday sale in 75 degree weather.

Kim's banner.

Our snacks for the sale (and sunscreen).

 Saturday night:

Karen's company Christmas party.

Me and Karen.

Sunday 12/13/2015:

Taking down the sale.

Saturday 12/19/2015:

Monday 12/21/2015:

I found some TINY mushrooms growing out of the maple tree out back. I also found some brown lacewing larvae that cover their backs with moss and lichen. Cool stuff.

I used my clip-on macro lens for my phone which has a really short focus length so bear with me on this.

These are really tiny.

I like the barnacle-yness of the lichen.

Zooming out to show the scale.

REALLY tiny.

12/25/2015:

Our Christmas was pretty quiet. Meredith came home for more than a week and it was nice having a full house again for a while.

Meredith with Binkley and his Christmas bone.

Stephanie throwing wrapping paper at me.

Overnight cinnamon rolls.

12/31/2015:

The day after Christmas we went to Pennsylvania to visit family for the holidays. We had a great time for the week.

On New Year's Eve, my brother Dave took me to his favorite Thai restaurant where they decorate the plates with various sauces. The woman there really does beautiful work.

Tofu in mango sauce with a beautiful design.

A closer look.
I love the addition of the swirl with all those geometrics.

For dessert we had the dream bomba which is
chocolate covered peanut butter ice cream with a caramel center
--and an umbrella.

Dave's dessert plate artwork.

Mine.

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2015-05-08 - Friday - Stephanie's graduation preparation

Friday we all converged on Cullowhee, NC for Stephanie's graduation from Western Carolina University on Saturday. We gathered from Charlotte, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Some came by plane, some by car, and some by RV, but we all came to share the joy of Stephanie's accomplishment.

Friday was also Scott's 50th birthday so we had a cake and celebration for him. He likes lemoncello so we got him a lemoncello cake from Just Simply Delicious Cakes, Desserts, & Confections in Waynesville, and it was wonderful. Debi does all kinds of specialty cakes, too. Check out their website.

Everyone had a good time and things got a bit silly --as usual.

Relaxing after a long trip.

Stephanie has a balloon baby.

Yum... lemoncello.

The birthday boy.

One candle is all you need.

Horseplay is normal.

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