2018-01-01 - Monday - Cold

I spent New Year's Eve with my brother Dave, at his apartment. When I went back to Eva's at about 1:30 am, the temperature on my car thermometer was zero. Yes, zero. No windchill, no other modifiers, just zero. No wonder the snow was squeaking when we walked on it.

Thank goodness I was heading south.

Later in the afternoon, I was at Scott and Rich's. Their dog Sydney loves to be tucked in and in fact will whine in the evening until someone does it. We tucked her in for a nap in the afternoon. She's a big baby, and I mean big. She's a great Dane and weighs in over a hundred pounds, but she's still a baby.

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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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2017-09-03 - Sunday - Shoes and shore

Sunday we left for the shore. We're spending Labor Day week in Ocean City, NJ.

Before we left PA I noticed Eva's shoes growing grass.

The moon is hiding between the houses.

There it is.

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2017-07-17 - Monday - Butterflies and pottery

Monday it was time to leave Sylva, after a nice breakfast.

Before leaving, I noticed this dish on the coffee table in Eva's cabin. It's an interesting piece with an interesting surface.

Every time we left the cabins we encountered groups of butterflies on the driveway. They were so involved I had to get out and shoo them away with my foot to make them move.

I thought they were mating, but a friend on Facebook told me they were licking minerals from the ground.

Here's one of the labels on the water bottles from the wedding. Karen ordered a bunch of them.

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2016-12-30 - Friday - Out with the old

One of the last things we did in 2016 was to burn a bunch of old instrument boxes. In cleaning out the attic, we found a bunch of old height gauges and micrometers. Unfortunately, many of them had irreparable rust on them so they went off to scrap and the usable ones went to Eva's office where they actually use that type of thing.

After scrapping the bad ones we had a lot of wooden boxes that were impregnated with machine oil from years of use and also very dry from being in the attic. As you'd expect, they burned very quickly. That's also an old, pipe-framed picnic table for scale.

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2016-07-31 - Sunday - Cruising

Sunday we got on our ship, Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas to cruise the Caribbean for seven days. My in-laws came with us and we had eleven people all together.

We left out of Port Canaveral and were headed to Cococay in the Bahamas.

Our schedule was:
7/31 Port Canaveral
8/1   Cococay (Bahamas)
8/2   day at sea
8/3   St. Thomas
8/4   St. Maarten
8/5   day at sea
8/6   day at sea
8/7   Port Canaveral

These cruise ships are getting larger and larger and they carry a small city. The Freedom of the Seas is 1112 ft long, 185 ft beam, 28 ft draft, and has a crew of 1360. That's a small town by itself, add the passengers and you have a city.

Our cabin was 159 sq ft, and half of it was beds.
The kids bunks came down from the ceiling.

A Carnival ship left first.

Watching us turn around and head out.
Eva, Justin, Scott, John, Ryan, Meredith, and Stephanie.

The Flow Rider was fun to watch.

The main promenade inside.

Scott and Rich on the bridge.

Meredith and Ryan walking the deck.

Cruising off into the afternoon.

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2016-03-29 - Tuesday - Eva's Birthday

Tuesday we celebrated Eva's birthday a day early. We had a nice dinner and then shared her great pound cake from a local bakery.

Earlier in the day we took Karen's dad for a haircut and I was amused at the grammatical error rendered in neon. It's also painted on the window.

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2014-08-09 - Saturday - To Rehoboth

Saturday, we drove to Rehoboth Beach, DE for our summer vacation.  The drive wasn't too bad, about 9 hours with a few stops and lots of laughter with Karen and Stephanie.  It was an easy drive with almost no interstates.

After greetings and exploring the house it was time for supper.  We had a nice meal and caught up and then it was off to the boardwalk and some Kohr Bros. ice cream.

The house has an integrated music system with a control panel and Boston Acoustic speakers in every room all connected to a closet full of components.  We can listen to our choice of satellite radio, terrestrial radio, CDs, or even an iPod. There were two iPod jacks available so I plugged mine in to "iPod 1" and had my music in any room I was in, even the balcony and the screened porch.  Nice.

Eva (foreground)
Justin, Meredith, Ryan, and Audrey at the 'kids table'.

Eva (standing)
Mark, Angela, Rich, Scott's hands, and Karen.

Stephanie and Pop-pop.

Pilgrimage.

I know it's blurry.
It was before I upped the shutter speed, but I like the movement.

Scott, Mark, Angela, Stephanie, Meredith, Audrey, and Ryan.
Notice how everyone is studying the menu board except Ryan.
I guess he's not used to someone having a camera in hand.

Relaxing on the balcony.

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2014-01-24 Major Catch-up Again

Here's a huge catch up since work has been hectic and everything else is crazy too.

Take a deep breath and hang on...

Binkley gets his Christmas present.
Christmas Day.

 Saturday after Christmas we went to PA to see the relatives.

Audrey's boyfriend, Ryan, Stephanie, and Meredith having breakfast in PA.
December 29, 2013

We had great meals as usual at Scott and Rich's house.

Scott and Rich set a great table.
December 29, 2013

The kids love to spend time together.

Justin, Ryan, Stephanie, and Meredith
clowning around.
December 29, 2013

REALLY clowning around.
December 29, 2013

 My brother David and I went to see The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug in Imax 3D.  Amazing.


We dropped Meredith off at college.

Dropping Meredith off at college after the Christmas Break.
(Karen, Stephanie, Eva, Meredith)
1/2/2014

We had a fairly big snowfall.  The weather was so cold the snowflakes were like a mist and the snow never really melted, it just squeaked when you walked on it.  It reminded me of being on a mountain at a ski resort.

Big snow, really cold.
1/3/2014

That night.
1/3/2014

Blown snow patterns.
1/4/2014

The next night --REALLY cold.
1/4/2014

Zoom zoom, back home again.  Back to making pots.

Back in town, making pots.
1/8/2014

First batch of Empty Bowls.
1/11/2014

More Empty Bowls.
1/14/2014

Yup, you guessed it...
1/15/2014

Glazing first batch of Empty Bowls
1/16/2014

Redsky gallery is closing and the last opening Kellie had was Peter Rubino and Greg Scott's work.  I am sorry to see the gallery close because it really is a magical place.

Peter Rubino at Redsky gallery.
1/17/2014

Rob and Peter.
1/17/2014

Greg at Redsky.
1/17/2014

Peter and Greg.
1/17/2014

There.  Phew!  Now back to our regularly scheduled blog.


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