"Black Friday" The day after Thanksgiving!

I thought when I saw this that it was kind of true, maybe not for blogs as much as for facebook now, but not as many people are reading this now that everyone is doing facebook.


I must have been more worn out from Thanksgiving than I realized as I slept about eleven hours last night. It was almost 0800 when I finally got up...so much for early morning sales!! Actually I had not intention going any place early this morning, it was bad enough doing it when the children were little looking for a good deal on their presents.

Now it is worth it for us to avoid the crowds and pay a little more some other time. We did go out around 1400 as I needed to put three checks into the credit union and Kathleen wanted to check out Best Buy for their small laptop computers.

The credit union was just about empty and we were in and back out in short order. Best Buy on the other hand was still packed. One of the items that Kathleen wanted to look at was sold out but just getting around the store was a major task.

Both Kathleen and I were tired by the time we finished, I think we were in the store for a couple hours and the sales force were all running around trying to be helpful.

This morning I managed to wash and put away all the dishes that we brought to Andrea and John's yesterday. I also took some things down to the basement that had been sitting by the basement door for a while.

Well, it is getting to be time for dinner, so I think that I will remind Kathleen and see what kind of left-overs she is planning for tonight. Not much news today as it has been kind of a lazy day.

Started Tiling

This morning was rather clear out when the sun finally made it up but it was also cool feeling although the temperature was in the mid fifties it still felt like winter. This morning when Stan got her he and Kathleen discussed how she wanted the time laid out and what kind of border she wanted. This is how the tiles looked last night when Stan left:


So by the time Stan got started it was just about noon which was okay since once he finished with the main section there was nothing else for him to do until it had a chance to set a little. As it is he is coming back Friday morning to clean out in between the tiles and do a little clean-up.

Stan finished tiling around 1400 and when he finished I helped him load his equipment into his pickup and he got out of here before dark.

Tonight Kathleen heated up some soup for dinner; I had chicken gumbo and she had lentil soup. After eating I loaded up the dishwasher and asked Kathleen to turn it on when she finished eating and then turn it on.

Kathleen just took off for a grocery shopping trip, I would have gone with her earlier in the day but I am just too tired to go tonight as I usually am this time of night. Anyway here is a picture of what the tile looks like after Stan left:

And the Rain Begins Once Again!

This morning was very overcast when day brake came and later on this morning it started drizzling. It never did rain, but it drizzled off and on most of the day. I was out earlier this morning and it had not yet started drizzling but when I went out to bring the yard debris container it was just starting.

Stan arrived a little later than he normally does as he had stopped off at his parents place before coming over. This morning he made the template for the vanity top and we discovered that the sink that we bought was going to be too large so Kathleen took off to return it and ordered a smaller one. Here is the template for the vanity top:



Stan also had to leave to return the hearing aids that he had on loan. While they were gone I reheated up some of the pea soup and had that for lunch. Stan returned in a little over an hour and put the cement board flooring in place; once it was cut out and laid out, he took it up and then mixed up the glue and the put the boards back down. Here is a picture of the cement boards before they were screwed down:



After they were all in place he screwed them all down to make sure that they did not move and that they were well tied down. After the glue dried a little we started laying out the tile to see where everything would go.

We are going to have a boarder all around the room and we wanted to make sure that everything would look symmetrical and fit before we started putting the tiles down permanently.

When Kathleen came home she wanted to see how a couple other options would looks so we rearranged the tiles again so that she could evaluate the different looks. By this time it was getting time for Stan to leave so he told her to think about it tonight and whatever she decides he will start the tiling tomorrow.

Kathleen had stopped at the German Deli on her way home and picked up so sausage and German potato salad for dinner tonight. Well that is about it for today, Kathleen is watching Becca and Alexis tonight while Tami is in her class so we need to eat pretty soon.

Another and Perhaps last of the Nice Days!

I got a good night sleep last night and when I got up I felt pretty good. So after breakfast I loaded up the dishwasher, started it up, washed the crock pot liner out so that I could put it away, then I picked up the rugs in the kitchen, shook them our, swept the floor and gave it a quick mopping.

Once I had the kitchen work done I went outside, mowed the front lawn, raked the back yard and mowed it as well. As I was taking the garbage can, recycling and yard debris container up front Stan drove up. He was talking on his cell phone so I went into the house and changed out of my flannel shirt and long pants and put on my shorts.

Then I helped Stan unload his truck. Today we worked on making a cover for the whole house fan so that the cold air from the attic would not keep coming down through the fall louvers.

While Stan was working on that I cleaned up the bathroom floor again and hung the door on the last upper cabinet. Stan had to pick up the tile and the cement board for the bathroom floor and also exchanged a box of almond outlets for white ones for me.

While he was gone I emptied the dishwasher and put everything away; then I made myself something to eat for lunch.





When he got back I changed out the odd outlet with the new one; I still need to get a dual cover for the switch and outlet but that can wait until after we put the tile up as we will just have to take it down anyway. After I finished putting in the new outlet Stan cut the cement boards and put them on the floor.



Now tomorrow Stan will probably start putting the tile down at least that is the plan tonight.

Well, tonight we have our small group so I am doing this early so that I can get it done.

Are we There Yet?

I just thought that this cartoon was somewhat appropriate because I do not think of myself as old as I look like in the mirror. Anyway, this has been a rather quite weekend; yesterday both Kathleen and I were so tired that we were not much good for anything.

I tried taking a nap yesterday and the phone kept ringing so I finally got up and sat down in my chair and for some reason I was able to fall asleep in the chair but not in bed...go figure!

Friday night I started making some pea and ham soup, I knew that I had started too late for Friday night but it was kind of a soup kind of night. Along with the peas I diced up some potatoes, an onion, a couple stalks of celery and four carrots fresh from the garden. Then I added a ham shank and turned the crock pot on for eight hours.

Since eight hours was in the middle of the night, Kathleen made a hot macaroni and tuna casserole; she put cheddar cheese on top of hers but I added feta cheese to mine for give it a more mature taste. I had the rest for Saturday and Sunday lunches.

So after letting the pea soup simmer for about twenty-four hours we had it for dinner last night. The ham just fell off the bones and just hit the spot last night. It was pretty overcast all day and so soup was a nice thing to have for dinner.

I slept really well last night and did not get up until almost 0700, which surprised me as I am usually up around 0530 or 0600. Kathleen got up as well, but she was not really awake so when it got time to go she could not get going enough to get dressed so I went by myself again. After I got back home I fixed myself some lunch and then read the paper and comics.

Since I knew that I needed to get the new bathroom window painted I changed into my painting shorts and tee shirt and put over the calf socks on over my compression socks and went out and put a coat of primer on the exposed new wood parts. There was actually more exposed wood than I had remembered so it took a little longer than I expected.

After I cleaned the brush and myself I changed out an electric outlet as it was the wrong color. Since I did not have the correct color I just put in an old one until I get to the store and can replace it with one that will match the rest of the bathroom style.

Then I took out the last piece of plywood that was on top of the new bathtub and then swept out the dirt from the tub so that it will be ready for the folks that are going to install the tub/shower surround for us tomorrow morning.

Since I was getting pretty tired I decided that I would do my weekend blog before I got too tired to do it. Well, this is kind of how I feel most of the time:

The Vanity Cabinets are out of the Living Room and Installed in the Bathroom

That is what the new bathroom light looks like without it being on early this morning. I think that it shows it much better than lasts nights photo.

The first thing we did when Stan got her today was to finish installing the switches and after checking out the wiring we reinstalled the new dimmer switches that we bought. I did not want to install the new dimmers until we checked the circuits with a regular switch first.

The new dimmer switches are digital and are rather expensive but they are really nice. They turn the light on slowly and it comes back at the level that it was shut off at. It also turns the lights off by dimming until it is completely off, which is really nice on the eyes and better for the bulbs.

After we finished that Stan installed the vanity cabinets; there are four lower ones and two upper ones. We did not install the one that goes over the toilet but the other one we put up, I just have not installed the door back on the one upper cabinet.

So that is about it for the bathroom remodel for this week. Here are a couple pictures of the cabinets.

Starting to Put the Bathroom back Together

For some reason the last couple days I have been waking up early, really early. I try to get back to sleep but by 0430 I decided that more sleep is just not in the cards for me and get up.

It was raining when I got up and continued to do so most of the day. It did let up a little about the time that Stan got here but then it started raining again. It really poured for a while, but the ground is still absorbent enough that it sunk in pretty quickly.

Kathleen took off to pick out the tile and was gone until a little after 1800. She had gone to several places and brought home a few samples. As it turned out none of the samples that she brought home were what she wanted after she looked at them in the bathroom. They were all too light and she wanted something a little darker.

I had put insulation around the new window and when Stan got here he caulked around it so that it will be ready for the shower/tub surround Monday. After he finished that we started hooking up the electrical. We got most of the switches, outlets and lights put in. The only light that we did not put in was the one for over the mirror and we did not do that one because we wanted to wait until the vanity, sink and mirror were all in place.

Toni and Chucky called and wanted to bring over some dinner, Kathleen got home just a few minutes before Toni and Chucky got here. They also brought a movie to watch, I cannot remember what it was but neither Kathleen nor I cared for it very much.

Well that is about all for tonight. Here is a picture of the main light fixture; the one in the shower is just a can light with a water tight cover and not much to look at. The picture does not look all that great, maybe I will have to take one tomorrow with out the light on.

Started Painting the Bathroom

This morning was a little overcast but it was also warmer due to the cloud cover so I guess that we have to take the good with the bad. I also had gotten up around 0430 kind of unintentionally as I had thought that the clock read 0530 so I was not as rested as I would have liked to have been.

I finished eating breakfast around 0530, loaded up the dishwasher and started it up. then I read the newspaper and recycled it. The box that we put the recycling in was getting pretty full so I took it outside and also the garbage from the kitchen.

Kathleen made it downstairs as she wanted to start painting the bathroom before Stan got here and since she did not like the color that she picked up last night she took off for Home Depot to get some more tint put in it.

Kathleen wanted me to pick up all the miscellaneous things lying around on the bathroom floor, so after eating I went and did that. Then I emptied the dishwasher and put everything away.

After I had everything picked up I went outside and raked the leaves from the back lawn. The walnut trees have pretty much dropped all their leaves so I did not have to do the front lawn today.

y the time I finished the upper level enough leaves had fallen again from the cherry trees that I could have raked them again, but since it is suppose to start raining tomorrow I thought that I would wait until the rain and wind knocked the rest of them down.

By the time I put my tools away and cleaned up the mail had gotten here so I went out and brought it in and opened it up. Mostly junk mail so I started filling up the recycling box again.

Kathleen came back and started painting and just after I changed into my painting shorts and shirt Stan pulled up with our cabinets that he had picked up this morning.

While he was here we called the place where we are having our vanity top made and also the place that is making the shower/tub surround. In fact they just called back from the tub surround place and said that they would like to install it next Monday, so that will be really nice.

So after I helped Stan unload the cabinets, which we are storing in the living room, he took off and I grabbed a roller and started painting. Kathleen did the cutting in or the ceiling/walls and also the corners that the rollers did not get.

Here are a couple pictures, unfortunately the color did not come out very true; it is more of a medium green and the pictures do not look that way, it must be poor lighting and the paint still being a little wet.




We finished up around 1300 and Kathleen left after she changed her clothes for the lady from church that she meets with on Wednesday. While she was gone I stuffed insulation around the window so that Stan could finish it off tomorrow.

I am hoping that tomorrow we will also be able to start installing the vanity cabinets on the wall. There are a couple other things that Kathleen wants him to work on as well so I am not sure if we will get started with them or not.

I was taking some building material outside when I saw a couple police cars at the corner of Shaver and 109th, and then I saw fire truck and an ambulance go down the street. I started to walk to the corner, but I thought that I would let the fire and police folks take care of their business.

They were still there when I went out again so this time I walked down and saw what had happened. When I first looked down there I saw one car, but now I could see another so my guess was that some one did not stop and the other car probably was going a tad bit fast and could not stop.

Kathleen is still not home yet, but I thought that I would do my blogging now as I doubt that there will be anything else exciting going on tonight.

Looks Like Fall/Winter is Getting Closer

This morning we had our heat vent put in in the downstairs bathroom, Stan's son, Kyle, works for an HAC company and came over about 0830 and put it in for us. We are putting it under the vanity cabinet so that it will not take up any floor or wall space so we needed to do it before we installed the cabinets. Here is a picture of the duct in the floor:

Kyle had do do some custom sheet metal work to get everything to come out okay, but he has done this for fourteen or so years so he knows all the tricks.

We also took out all the old ducting for this duct so he replaced it with new flexible ducting which is smaller and softer so that when I hit my head on it is does not hurt as much. Here are a couple shots from the basement that shows the duct work and some of the custom sheet metal work that Kyle did:



Kathleen had to go have some blood drawn so she left and since she had a doctor's appointment for a little after 1100 she just ran some errands after she had the blood draw and before her appointment.

While Kathleen was gone and after Kyle left I went outside and chipped the branches that I had cut off the other day. I finished the pathway in the rose garden and then went over a few areas that were getting a little thin. I did not realize it but I was out there for over two hours...my how time flies when one is having fun!

She was going to picked up my pain drugs and also the paint for the bathroom. While she was out Andrea called and I had her call Kathleen's cell phone so that she could talk to Kathleen and make whatever arrangements that they needed to make. She got home around around 1500 and quickly had something to eat as she had a fasting blood draw and had not eaten since last night.

Andrea and the boys got here around 1545 and Kathleen trimmed Brandon's bangs so that he could see. His bangs were down around his nose and he was always trying to see through his hair.

They all left a little after 1600 for Christian's nurses appointment. They are still gone, and I think Kathleen was going to pick up something to eat for tonight while they were out. We really need to go grocery shopping, but we only seem to do that about every six weeks or so, the rest of the time we just pick up odds and ends that we need.

Well, that is about all for tonight, I feel more tired than I think that I should, but that happens a lot to me these days.

This Would have been a Nice Indian Summer Day...

but we have yet to have a frost, so I guess that it is just a really nice day. Since it was so nice outside and since we did not have the paint to paint the bathroom yet, I decided to go outside and do some tree trimming.

First I got out my pole saw and put on the lopper head and then cut the branches out of the walnut trees that had the tent caterpillars in last summer. After I had them taken care of I went to the back yard and worked some more on the apple tree.

I took out three rather large branches and then cut them up and put them into the yard debris container. I managed to fill the container up, well full enough for me right now; there is still room for a few more things. I did not want to fill it completely up as the yard debris pick-up is still a week away.

After I came back into the house I made myself some minestrone soup for lunch. Since we have a small group tonight I wanted to do this early so that I did not have to worry about it before we went or after we got back. Kathleen took off a while ago to pick up some paint for the bathroom so maybe tomorrow we will get to paint it.

Andrea just called and wanted to remind Kathleen that she had agreed to go to the doctor's with her tomorrow and to give Brandon a haircut trim.

Well, I need to go take a nap for a while so that I will not be too tired to go tonight. I have missed the last two and I want to try and make this one since I feel much better than I have in a few weeks.

Warm Weekend

The temperature has been in the fifties and sixties just about all week, of course at night it gets down into the thirties and forties and it is usually pretty cool in the mornings when I get up especially if was clear during the night. The cloudless skies usually mean that the heat is not held in by the clouds and so it gets cooler; now if we could only cause it to be cloudy at night and clear during the days that would be almost ideal.

I was feeling better yesterday and so after breakfast I went outside to work on the leaves. Since it had been wet since the last time that I raked I knew that the leaves would be really wet and heavy so I thought that I would try the blower rather than the rake. It worked rather well in the back yard where the leave were not as heavy to begin with but in the front yard with the walnut leaves especially in the street where they had gotten clumped together I had to lift them up and move them with the blower in order to get the leaves to move.

After I finished I went inside and cleaned up and got ready for Becca's party, Kathleen wrapped the presents and then made a card for Becca, but that took a little longer than she expected so we did not leave as early as we would have liked.

Tami had the friends’ party earlier and this party was for the relatives, so it was just the grandchildren and the grandparents and aunts and uncles for this party. Tami's brother, Mike had made the cake, he and Tami had taken a cake making class a while back and they always come up with some interesting looking cakes.

I played with the grandchildren, probably more than I should have and for sure harder than I should have and started getting pretty tired around 1600, and we finally left a little after 1700 and I was really tired by then.

On the way home we stopped for gas and it was about half the price that it was a few months ago. If we could use regular gas it was just a little over two dollars a gallon which seem almost surreal considering what it had been last summer.

Needless to say I slept well last night going to be a little after 2100 and I slept until a little before 0700 this morning. Since I was feeling I went to church this morning. Kathleen was still asleep when I left, which did not surprise me as she did not get to bed until after 0300 this morning.

For some reason when I got home I was really tired, really frustrating because this happens to me more often than not, I just do something little and then I am so tired that I cannot get anything else done the rest of the day.

Well, that is about it for this weekend, we still have not gotten any paint for the downstairs bathroom so we will have to do that tomorrow...I hope!

Last Night's Adventrue!

When we got back from Home Depot last night it was after 1900 so we heated up the left-overs from earlier in the week and while we were in the middle of dinner we heard police sirens and then a police car pulled up across the street and a couple other cars kept driving by.

About a half of an hour later I noticed what I thought were headlights shining in our driveway, but on further look it was four police officers and a couple police dogs coming from the long driveway next door. So I opened up the front door and asked them what was going on, and they told me that they were tracking someone.

This morning we learned that someone had stolen a car and was escaping on foot armed and dangerous. Luckily we never heard anything last night and the dogs next door were relatively quiet last night as well.

In this mornings mail I got some more paperwork from the Social Security office that I needed to fill out and get back to them. I knew that it was coming but they told me not to expect it until Monday, so when it came today I wanted to try and take it down there today if I could so that they could start processing my claim.

Before we had a chance to get out the fellow who is putting our tub/shower surround up called and wanted to come over to measure, so since he could come over in a few minutes we did that so that the surround could start to be made for us as it will take about two weeks before they can install it.

Shortly after he left we took off, and since the Social Security office had sent me a pass I did not have to take a number and wait for hours on end. In fact we were only there less than a half of an hour total. Now it is a matter of waiting months before a decision is made and then more months if I need to appeal it, and from every thing that I have heard I should expect it.

After we finished there we stopped back home and grabbed some dinner and then took off to find a present for Becca's birthday party tomorrow. I almost did not go as I was starting to feel tired already, but I did go and about half way through shopping I had to go sit as I was really starting to hurt. I sat in the SUV and dozed off after sitting for a while.

On the way home Kathleen asked what to make for dinner and I thought a tuna and macaroni casserole sounded like a comforting food for tonight. So that is what we had, it really hit the spot and I even went back for seconds, something that I have not done a lot of lately.

Well, I am tired, and I hope that tonight is a little less eventful than last night was.

A Better Change of Weather

This morning when I woke up and I did not hear any rain which was a nice way to wake up after a couple days of mostly on and off again rain. This morning it was nice enough that when I took the recycling outside I decided to stay outside and prune the roses.

I had not done that in a week or so and there were several spent flowers; several of the roses still have buds and will probably bloom in the next week or so. I was going to feed them one more time this year, but I really should have done that a week or so ago.

I thought about raking the leaves in the back yard, but I was hacking up mucus most of the morning and thought that I probably should not spent that much time outside since it was still pretty cool and damp feeling.

I cannot believe the temperature all week has been in the fifties and low sixties, so it is not all that cold out but it is definitely fall as it cools off pretty good at night. Although we have not come close to freezing yet this season.

Andrea came over with the boys this afternoon, she brought over her left-over lunch as she had lunch with one of her old co-workers from the Embassy Suites Restaurant days. So now Kathleen does not have to worry about what to make for dinner tonight!

Well, Kathleen just came downstairs and wants to run to Home Depot, so I think I will post this and say good night for today!

The Monsoons have Started!

I think that the monsoons have started as it really was stormy last night and it has been rather nasty all day today. Although from what I am hearing what we are getting is nothing compared to the Seattle area. I had heard that they closed Mount Rainer today so I am guessing that they are really getting blasted.

This morning while I was eating breakfast and reading the paper the local Social Security office called in response to my filling on line last night. I was a little surprised as I did not finish until after 2100 last night, but they called here a little after 0900 this morning.

They had a few questions to ask me and they even filed a request for Kathleen over the telephone this morning. Between the two of us we were on the line a little over a half of an hour. Now if they just grant my request for disability that quickly; from what I understand this process usually takes several months and they usually deny the first request.

Kathleen washed a few of her winter jacket this morning and I put them into the drier for her. They finished drying just as she was getting ready to leave to meet with the lady from church.

Shortly after she left I took off for Costco, I have been running out or running low on several of my supplements and so I needed to replenish my stock. While I was there I picked up some ZiCams as Sue's suggestion and put them upstairs with the rest of the over the counter cold medications.

Well, it is after 1600 and Kathleen is still not home yet. I was hoping that she would get home and that we could go pick out some paint for the downstairs bathroom so that when Stan gets back we could start installing things and have the painting out of the way.

Well, it is early yet, but I do not think that anything else exciting will be happening so I think I will just go ahead and post this and call it good for today!

Well I finally did it!

Today was kind of a dreary rainy day and so I did not do anything outside...or for that matter much inside either. After I washed, dried and put away the dishes in the sink I read the paper and since today was Veteran's day there was no mail so I got on my computer and checked email.

This got old after a while and I decided that I would start something that I have been putting off for a long time...I filled for Social Security disability. I guess I finally had to admit to myself that I was not going to get better and that I needed to start making it official.

I am not sure if it is the stubborn German in me or what it was but I just could not bring myself to admit it to myself; I guess I just did not like the mental picture I was seeing in my head and I kept wanting to go back to that youthful twenty-five year old I have always pictured myself as.

So after some four hours straight I finally finished all the online "paperwork" and submitted the forms to the Social Security office. Right now my butt is just about numb and my hands hurt so much from keyboarding so lone that this is about all I can write for tonight.

Wish me luck!

Getting Better?

I felt much better today when I got up, still a little tired feeling but my throat was not as sore as it has been. Kathleen came downstairs after I had finished breakfast and was saying how tired she was and then proceeded to go back upstairs and went to bed again.

Shortly after she went to bed I felt the need to get something done so since I had not raked the leaves in several days I went outside and raked the front lawn, the lower and middle sections of the back yard and then realized that I was getting tired. So I surprised myself and put the rake away and went into the house and cleaned up.

It was close to 1300 and I decided to make myself something to eat; I was going to make myself a cucumber sandwich but when I was getting the things out of the refrigerator I saw the baby spinach and decided to make myself a salad instead.

So after adding the spinach, red pepper, yellow pepper, onion, mushroom and sliced up a cucumber I thought that I needed some tomatoes so I went out to the garden and picked a few cherry tomatoes, some roma and beefsteaks. I also dug up the rest of the carrot patch and brought them into the house.

I added the cherry tomatoes to my salad and then added a little oil and balsamic vinegar for a dressing. After I finished eating I cleaned up the carrots and put them into the refrigerator and then washed the dishes, pots, pans and cake pan that Kathleen made the pineapple upside down cake in.

Kathleen got up a little before 1500 and felt better; I on the other hand was getting sleepier and sleepier as the afternoon progressed. I did manage to get a little nap in but not enough to really help.

We are suppose to have our small group tonight, but I am tired enough that I do not know that I will make it and I am not sure if Kathleen is awake yet enough to go either.

It is getting close enough to dinner time that I probably need to remind Kathleen. I have a feeling that we might have the rest of the left-over chicken soup for dinner tonight. With that said I think that I will just publish this and call it a day!

A Not so Productive Weekend

Yesterday I felt worse than I had, but we needed to get the downstairs bathroom primed, so I put on my painting shorts, shirt and put some over the calf athletic socks on over my compression socks and got out the Kilz primer. I started doing the corners of the ceiling and wall and also the corners of the walls using a brush.

I also painted around all the electric boxes and plumbing with the brush and then went to a roller to paint the large areas. I realized that I had gotten more tired than I should have and let Kathleen finish up. I had to go sit down and rest for a while as I really was not feeling well and having trouble breathing from my sinuses being stuffed up.

I heated up some of the left-over chicken and barley soup from the night before for dinner and as usual the chicken soup made me feel a little better, but not well enough h to blog anything last night. I took a really long hot shower before going to bed, I usually do not take hot showers but I thought that the extra heat and steam might help my sinuses.

This morning I woke up around 0800 which is several hours after I normally wake up and I still did not feel as rested as I should have after that much sleep. Once up I knew that I would not be going to church as my throat was still pretty sore.

Kathleen got up around 1000 and so she did not make it either. We were suppose to go to some friends for dinner around 1130 but Kathleen thought that it was 1230; finally around noon they called and so Kathleen took off.

I stayed home as I did not want to make my throat any sorer by talking and by this time I had started coughing again. I dozed in my chair for a while as I just could not keep my eyes open and when I got up I decided to wash the towels.

Kathleen had made a pineapple upside down cake to take over to our friends house, but since it was still in the oven when she left I took it out and let it cool and then put a plate over it and turned it over so that if Kathleen decided to come home and get it, it would be ready for her; but she did not come back.

I was a little restless so I took up the rugs in the kitchen, shook them out and then swept and mopped the floor. When the floor dried I put the rugs back down and then took the towels out of the drier, folded them and put them away.

By this time it was 1430 and I was getting hungry so I opened up a can of hash and added some Lea and Perrins' Worcestershire sauce to it. I usually add a little ketchup to it, but we were low on ketchup so I thought that I would try the Lea and Perrins' and it was pretty good, it added a different flavor but I liked it.

Kathleen came home around 1600 and had a good time; by the time she got back I was feeling better, but that probably had something to do with not having to talk for several hours and resting my throat.

Well, it has been a pretty unproductive weekend, I got a few things done, but not as much as I would have liked to. Since I cannot think of anything else I think I will call this good enough and publish it.

Finally I got to go Outside.

Yesterday I woke up and did not have a very good night; I did not get very much sleep and I felt like it when I finally got up. My sore throat was worse and my cough was getting better.

I wound up taking about three naps yesterday and I think that helped some; also taking drugs before I went to bed last night helped me get a much better night sleep last night. I still did not get up very early but I felt more rested. My throat was still sore and I still had a cough but I felt better.

I did not get anything done yesterday and this morning was not a lot different. For lunch I made myself a cucumber, onion and mushroom sandwich on dark rye; kind of clean out the garden and refrigerator meal. This afternoon after eating lunch I went outside and pruned the apple tree and the raspberry plants for a couple hours and worked up a pretty good sweat.

I do not think that being outside helped my cough or sore throat but it sure did fell good being outside and getting some fresh air.

Kathleen made some homemade chicken soup with barley and so I added some ground nutmeg for that good old comfort food taste. I remember growing up Grandma and Grandpa always ground nutmeg on Grandma's chicken soup and every time I do that I think of that.

Well my nose is running and my throat is sore when I talk so I think I am just going to call this a day.

I Think that the Rainy Season is Here

It was raining when I went to bed last night and it was still raining this morning when I got up so I think that it is safe to say that it is officially the rainy season. If it was not raining all day it certainly was overcast all day.

This morning after breakfast and reading the paper Kathleen and I went upstairs and move the Select Comfort mattress back onto our frame and then made the bed. We had been sleeping on the frame with the mats that we used for camping on top.

Once we had the bed made up I brought Kathleen's and my night stands back into the room and then my dresser and the drawers; Kathleen's dresser was in the walk-in closet and we had not moved it out.

As I brought my drawers back in I decided that I would go through some of my sweaters, as I had three drawers full. I got rid of five sweaters and decided that since I was going through things I went through my shorts and tee shirts and got rid of ten pair of shorts and fifteen tee shirts and three pair of old jeans.

Kathleen left to meet with the lady from church a little after 1300 but I kept working on getting rid of things. Around 1400 I stopped and made myself a fish sandwich using the left over fish from last night; and after I finished eating I went back upstairs and finished sorting things out. I finally finished by going through my old socks from one of the extra drawers that I had for just old socks.

I think that I wound up with a couple empty drawers and the rest of the drawers are not as jammed packed as they were before I started. After I finished I took a great big box downstairs for Goodwill and then I lay down on the sofa and took a nap.

I woke up about 1730 and went and checked my email. Kathleen came home a little after 1800 and had brought home a couple steaks and so we had that with mashed potatoes and peas for dinner. I cut my steak in half so that I would have some for another meal and Kathleen did not finish hers either. There are plenty of potatoes left-over so it looks like we will have that again tomorrow night.

Well, that is about it for today!

Election Day 2008

Other than doing dishes several times today and raking leaves I did not get a lot else done. Stan came over for a couple hours today and did a little bit of work upstairs that had not gotten finished before and now he will be gone for the next ten days or so. He has a hunting trip planned for the rest of this week and then he is going to visit our former pastor next week.

The last thing that I heard was that Zander was doing well and that he and Alyssa would be going home tonight.

Well Kathleen had the camera with her when I wrote this last night and could not include the pictures of Zander from his surgery yesterday, so here they are:









I think that Zander's Popcicle is causing his toe to glow red!

What happened to Monday?

This morning when I got up it was still dark even with setting the clock back over the weekend, but I could tell that it had been raining during the night. When the sunlight finally came through it had stopped raining but everything was still soaking wet.

After eating I went outside and took the recycling and garbage out I decided that I would try to see if I could rake the leaves from the front lawn, but Stan came by to see how the drywall folks did over the weekend. He was very pleased as were we.

Stan had another job to finish up today so he took off; Kathleen also needed to go to the hospital to pick up Hayden for Alyssa. Alyssa had to get to the hospital early this morning for Zander's surgery and took Hayden with her as Natalie had spent the night with a friend.

Eliud, the guy who owns the company that did the drywalling stopped by to check up on the work and I asked him if he would like to get paid. He said that he would, so I asked for a bill and when he gave it to me it was about four hundred dollars less than his estimate which was a nice surprise.

After he left I went out and raked the front lawn, the leaves were so much heavier than they were just a few days ago, that is one reason I wanted to get as much raking done before the rain started.

Kathleen came home with Hayden a little while after that and Hayden was asleep; so she put him on the sofa and he slept there for a couple hours. I guess all the early morning rushing around took its toll on him as well.

I heated up some left-overs and finished them off so that now there is more room in the refrigerator. After awhile my throat started getting sore so I went upstairs and took a nap for a couple hours.

I just got up a little bit ago and do not feel much better. We are suppose to be going to our small group tonight, but the way I feel I doubt that I will be going.

Well, I made myself something to eat because Kathleen had not gotten home yet; she called while I was eating and asked me to call the people whose house we were meeting at and tell them that we would be late, so I did.

She just left and since I do not feel any better I stayed home. I could not find her camera to download the pictures from the hospital so maybe tomorrow.

Weekend Remodeling Activities

I did not get much of anything done Friday outside as it was pretty rainy most of the day and we also had the drywall guys here. Saturday I did get out and rake leaves in the back yard since I had not had a chance to do that for a couple days.

There were lots of leaves fallen and they were still nice and crisp and light so they raked up pretty easily. I did this while the drywall guys were finishing up; they did a very nice job and even primed everything that they hung.

Well, I did not get much done this weekend but here are several pictures of the drywall work that got done this weekend.

All Saints Day!

Well this is the day after Halloween or as the calendar calls it All Saints Day. We only had a total of fifteen people; five of those were the guys that were doing the dry wall, seven more were related to us: Andrea, Brandon, Christian, Aaron, Tami, Becca and Alexis; and finally three "Trick or Treaters".

I made sure that the dry wall guys got several candy bars, Aaron helped himself to a couple handfuls and Becca and Alexis took a couple each. Then today we gave the dry wall guys several more candy bars so now we just have a couple left from the two bags that I had opened for last night.

Today the dry wall guys did the finish work on the dry wall, primed the dry wall and cleaned up. The walls and ceiling look much better now than before they started and if where they painted did not look so much better than the rest of the walls and ceiling we would not even have to paint, but the difference is too obvious and so now we will have to paint the bedroom and probably the living room and kitchen as well.

Well, since we slept on a make shift bed last night I did not get as good a night sleep as I would have liked to and now I am rather tired. The house is coated with a thin layer of dust from texturizing the bathroom walls and ceiling.

So I think that I will close this for tonight, here are a couple pictures of our cuter Halloween visitors.