Christmas Pictures

These pictures are in semi random order, but represent a smattering of photos from Christmas gatherings.


This is a picture of A and C, while A was testing her new digital camera.

The above is a picture of my mother-in-law.

The above is a picture of K and niece B.

The above is a great (in my opinion) picture of sister in law L and her daughter K.

Above is M, L and K. Missing in this picture is A their son who was off playing with his cousin N.

The above picture is of my Brothers in Law, M, D R and B. This photo was taken at the family party on K's side.

The above picture is of the ladies of K's family, L, K, Mom A, L and J

This is a picture of my nephew N. Please look at N and ignore the feet.

Nephew A (the one with the cup) and N catch a snack after dinner.

Here is another of A and C. No C did not taste the Champagne. In the background is B-I-L R and nephew M

Here is the happy couple.

And a picture of Dad opening his newest technology, a Cell phone from us kids.

Another picture of niece B and one of her husband S below.

Below, Niece K seems to enjoy the present she is opening.

Niece S is also enjoying a present that she opened.

It was a quick trip, up Friday, back Tuesday, but we got to see most of the friends and family. It was good to hear all of the cousins trading stories of their college days, the good and the bad.

Merry Christmas to all.

Better Late than Never, Part 2

K and J sit and chat.
A and M read together.

Blogger would only let me post so many pictures, so here are 3 more from the trip to Toledo.

Better Late than Never

Although these are late, I thought I would at least post them to let everyone see pictures I took while in Toledo at Thanksgiving. As shown below, L (aka the King) did not spend the entire time mad! Of course when you have pretty girls holding you, it makes the day a little brighter.

Even though E and J get plehty of publicity, the west coast blogger can be seen, she does exist!




E and the Kentucky blogger get some sharing time.

One other thing

We did when K and I were in Virginia at B and K's Christmas Party was to teach B how to use his nice digital camera to take pictures of his salt water aquarium and the fish. We spent about an hour and a half taking pictures of his fish, starfish, crabs, etc.

B has a fully automatic Canon EOS Rebel digital SLR. It has auto-focus and can do many things. However the glass on the aquarium confuses the autofocus, so his prior attempts at pictures were out of focus. B learned how to use the manual focus and to set the aperture for proper depth of field for the aquarium.

I will ask him to forward some of the pictures and post them when I get them.

Digital Cameras

One of the best uses of the digital camera is documentation. When in the middle of some project, I can take a picture of something, send K off to the local Hardware store with the statement: " I need to have some of these". While K is very knowledgeable and helps a lot, she does not know all of the terminology, so she pulls out the camera and says" "My husband sent me to get this, can you help?" It saves 3 cell phone calls and an extra trip to the store by me.

It also helps me remember how things go back together. I am usually pretty good at disassembly and re-assembly, but sometimes back-up is needed. By taking a picture of the before, the after can get back to the way it was designed, with fewer extra parts.

Digital cameras are also good for parts identification without removal. By using the Macro mode, the ID label on parts can be viewed, even when on the wrong side of the part. And if the photo is taken with high enough resolution, it can be enlarged on the computer so that every digit can be interpreted properly.

Digital cameras are great!

Homecoming

A has come home from her first semester at college this past Thursday. Life is no longer quite the same here at home. There is much more drama here, with the comings and goings of a college freshman.

There are people to see, shopping to be done and all around disruption of the parents routines to do. All in the name of "it is what I did when I was at UNC!, Duh!"

We are glad to have her and happy that she is enjoying her time at school. Life is fun, and never boring.

Work Post

At this time of the year, the leaders at the company I work for severely curtail overnight travel for all people. This is fine with me as I get to spend more time with K, A and C.

C has to be either at the school at 5:30Am or at the practice pool (not at her school) at 6 AM. Since I can drive C to either location, get back into bed by 6:15, asleep by 6:20, I really loose no sleep. It is a trait handed down from my mom. Any place, any time, I can fall asleep. But never when driving.

K really appreciates the mandated no travel. Anytime K's feet hit the floor, she will be awake for 2 hours. This allows her to remain at home, saving for the time, after the first of the year when I start traveling again. I am happy to do it.

I will

Get more pictures soon, I promise.

Last weekend

K and I went to a Christmas party at B and K place in Virginia. I would show the pictures, but the camera chose that time to get weird and the photo's look like something that belong in a horror movie or ghoulish Andy Warhol painting. I think the CCD in the camera is becoming uncoupled.

Attending the party were K's sister Catherine, Mom S, and nephew A. A was the ring bearer at the wedding and is still very cute. S has custody of A while her son and D-i-L are deployed overseas in Kosovo. Also attending the party was V (best man at the wedding), J (bridesmaid) and another couple who are teachers at the local HS along with their children.

The food was prepared by K and S, and all of what I ate was great. The house looked wonderful and the conversation was lively. A good time was had by K and I.

New addition to the family

K and I have purchased a new to us auto to replace the last Civic that was wrecked. It will be used by A and C as a combined car. The car is a 1998 VW Jetta. It has a sunroof, electric everyting and is a 5 speed. It should be good for a while.

I have not

Posted for a while and am busy for the next day or so, but will post soon.

Over the weekend

I spent some serious time with BW and his wife K. It had been a while since we visited, but we talk at least once per week.

Anyway, B had asked for help putting some lights in his attic and basement so that they could see better. I volunteered to go to Smithfield and help him learn that basic wiring is not as difficult as he imagined.

The first lesson that was taught was: Make sure the power is OFF before working on anything. We flipped breakers until we made sure the power was off in the circuits we were working. We also caused most of the alarm clocks, microwave and DVD players to blink, but better to reset them than unintended electrical shock.

In the attic, there was one 40W light bulb on a pull chain, now there are 5 with a conveniently located switch. It took us about 3-4 hours to perform this work and B is really happy.

We next tackled the basement. In B's basement, B has a chest type freezer. The closest outlet to the freezer is operated by a switch located at the door. At one point, either B or K accidentally turned off the freezer, ruining some food, so B wanted to put an outlet right next to the freezer, dedicated to only the freezer. There was also only one 40 watt light bulb here as well, so B wanted extra lighting.

After turning off the power, I supervised B doing the work (so he could do other things later) and this took about 3 hours. It was relatively straight forward as there was a junction box near the switched outlet, making for easy wire connections. There is now proper lighting and electrical outlets for the freezer

The final thing that B wanted to correct/change was a switch that controlled an outlet to a fish tank. B wanted that outlet to be powered all the time, to prevent accidentally turning off the air/light to the tank. After discussing the way to fix the issue, B got a quick lesson in why Rule#1 is important. B forgot to turn off the power, and got a startling reminder. With nothing injured but his pride, B went and turned off the power to the switch, making the change in about 10 minutes.

Below is a pic of B and K, and of their saltwater fish tank. K was just about to leave to go to work.


The blob in the upper left corner is a star fish. It is a neat tank
Great seeing you B and K!

Over at University

A invited C to come over for a day of athletics.

First they went to the UNC/GT game. It was a close game, with GT winning 7-0 after 2 touchdowns by UNC were nullified by penalties. They cheered and had lots of fun, with A introducing C to many of her friends.

Next, they hung out in A's dorm for a while. C got to see what happens in a college dorm when classes are not in session.

Then it was off to the UNC basketball game. They sat in the 7th row, student section about even with one of the goals. They both had a great time with the final score 140-118 (or something like that) for the home team. There were zillions of people watching the game, as it was a sell-out. C had never experienced anything like that and was very excited. After the game, they went down to Franklin Street to have dinner and hang out with all the students. For those not in the know, Franklin St is the road fronting the campus with all the student type and trendy restaurants, typical to most college towns.

At the end of the night, K and I picked up C and brought her home as A had plans for the evening that could not include C due to age restrictions. C was tired, but had spent a great day with her sister.

Here is hoping your kids enjoy this type of time together as mine do. Here is a picture of them at the game:

Way down south

in the land of cotton. As the song goes, it is cotton harvesting time. Today I was traveling over to Plymouth, NC and there were miles of cotton field being harvested. The fields look like a northern snow storm over a field of un-plowed corn. I should have also snapped a picture of a large bales of cotton. 8 fee tall, 8 feet wide and about 30 feet long. Very impressive. At least I thought it look picturesque, so here is my take.

Over the weekend

We spent some time at Myrtle Beach. For those on the other coast, this means ocean on the east. We rented a 2 bedroom condo in a 22 story building ending up on the 5th floor. The whole family was together and had an enjoyable weekend.

A and C spent, in more ways than one, much of the weekend together, frequently shopping. It is really fun to see how they get along together so well, 99% of the time anyway. (I am sure K gets tired of me every once in a while). Pic's of A and C are in another post. This one is for the beach type photos.

The above is the view from the rented condo. The temperature outside was in the upper 50's and lower 60's, so not swimming weather, but still fun to walk on the beach.

These two, (above and below) were snapped on the way to the beach, from the boardwalk.

Down the beach a little way was the standard pier. There was trinkets available for purchase from the pier, but we did not let them dip into the wallet.

I thought the view under the pier was an intriguing view.

The below picture was made specifically for my sister LFD, in remembrance of a trip we were on to California for CP's wedding. L took many pictures that trip, several of seagulls, but none of them could be developed as there was no film in her camera.

L, I hope you enjoy the picture!

A and C

As shown above, we spent some time at the beach this past weekend as a family. As always, it was fun to have A and C with us. Here are some pic's that K took of A and C while on the beach.

Halloween Redo.

I was out of town this past Monday on business, but A came home from the University to early vote. Among other thing, A had yet to put together a Halloween costume and she put K through many gyrations to help.

K, in typical fashion, was able to come through with flying colors, at much motherly sacrifice. K and A worked on her costume, visiting many stores to get the necessary supplies, putting the pieces together and then delivered A back to University at 12:30AM Tuesday, meaning that K did not get home to about 2AM. During this time, K also made the mask for A's roommate B.

C did not dress up for Halloween. Here are a couple of pic's of A's final costume.


The above picture is of B (room mate), A (suite mate) and A.

Among other things

that have happened recently, our riding lawn mower threw a piston connecting rod about a week and a half ago. As C was doing the neighbors lawn, it went bang. The thrown rod cracked the sump casing (no longer available), broke the cam, damaged the crank shaft, and broke an inspection cover. The oil had recently been changed (still plenty in the crank case now all over the ground), so it wasn't from bad maintenance. It appeared that a bolt on the connecting rod broke, causing the catastrophic failure

As we are still mowing our weeds, this needed to be fixed or replaced. I opted for the fix the existing lawn tractor.

I ordered an engine off eBay for the replacement. There were no exact replacement engines to be had, so I got one that was close, swapping a 21 HP for a 20HP. A new, exact replacement engine costs $1342, and I got an lightly used engine (looks new) for less than 1/3 that cost, including UPS shipping. It is a pressure oil feed, where the old engine was a splash lube.

It arrived and it took me about 15 total hours to install it, 2 hours at a time, because of other time demands, and at least 4 trips to the hardware store for supplies. Today, the lawn mower was completed and it was used for the first time, because of an electrical issues that I created ( knocked a wire off a terminal and had to find which one).

The guy I bought it from told me to mow the lawn one time ( or run the engine for 2-3 hours), then change the oil. I have also done that as well. The new motor worked great.

2 down

Last weekend, A was home from school for a brief 4 day visit. On Sunday, A and C went shopping at Salvation Army, Goodwill and other places looking for materials for Halloween Costumes. They were having fun looking for stuff until while driving from one location to another...

BAM. An 18 wheel truck stopped in front of them on Interstate 40 near the shopping. A stopped without issue, but the person behind her did not, hitting A's car from behind. It was a wet day and the other person accidentally locked-up the brakes and skidded into A. A's car was still drivable, but the other person's car was not.

All parties are sore, but there appears to be few or no long term problems currently discernible. A has a stiff shoulder and C is just achey, but otherwise ok.

To look at the car, the bumper is pushed up under the car, the trunk lid has been relocated slightly forward and there are some dimples on the rear quarter panels. Today, I took it to a body shop for evaluation and they indicated approximately $4300 damage, before they stopped counting. With a car value of $3200 we will see what happens. Below are some pictures.

Update: Last evening I had dinner with A as I was traveling through her town. She had gone to the University Doctor, who prescribed a muscle relaxant and Tylenol 3 (with codeine) to ease some of the muscle soreness. A is a little groggy from these meds, but otherwise doing OK. We had a very pleasant conversation.

Update 2 (10-30-06): The insurance company is giving us an equitable settlement for the car. K and A picked it up today, essentially the value of the car + one weeks care rental at $25/Day. A will have to get a note for the work missed and the $20 prescription copay (no problem with the receipt for A) and she can then settle for lost wages, etc.

The Kitchen

As many of you know, K and I recently remodeled our kitchen. We installed a huge (over 10 feet long) island that has been a great place for preparing dinner, folding clothes, doing homework and just leanin'.

K and I have discussed several times about placing various types of lighting over the island. As we were in the local big box building supply house, we saw what I wanted, on sale. We have installed (5) pendant style, track lights over the island. They have white glass "shades". I sought more color, but we could not find proper coordinating colors, but the white looks great. For A and K, the jury is still out, but I like them a lot.

The other overhead lighting was turned off to show off the new lighting, but here is a picture of the new installation

I told everyone

that I would post a picture of the float that C helped to decorate and here it is. Everyone had a fun time during the Homecoming Parade. This was a 2nd place float, another group got 1st, but it was close.

God's Army

C pointed this out on the way home from mass.

We were at church yesterday evening as we are regulars at the vigil mass. Our priest, Father Melo, is from Mexico and a really nice guy. He is rather short and speaks with a significant sing-song Hispanic accent. Father Melo is also nursing a sinus cold, creating further problems in speaking.

Anyway, during the consecration of the bread, Father was doing the usual prayers, but with a twist that went like this: "He took da bread, looking toward da heaven he gave you tanks and praise..." and then during the consecration of the wine, said: " He took da cup, again he gave you tanks and praise..."

If we have all of these tanks, be better win.

I woke

today and found the back yard like this. I don't want to rake leaves yet. We had a mild wind and rain storm last night that knocked some of the leaves off the trees. Our pecan tree is still doing well, but there will come a heavy frost and within about 5 hours, all of those leaves will be on the ground. The pecan tree leaf jump typically happens in early November and is fun to watch for a while.

For C, yesterday

was Pirate day at school. C, never the shy one, went pretty well all out to fit the part. Here are some pics of her outfit. She tucked the wing of the parrot into her head band so it would stay in place. She has the school spirit!

Although these

pictures are slightly dated, they are still good pictures of A and C. They were taken by L, K's sister in Aug when we were visiting Toledo. Glad to share them with you and thanks L. One interesting thing about the pictures of C is that her hair is getting more curly by the year. It looks great.

Updated information: The top picture was taken Christmas 2006 while at L's house during a family get together (snow can be seen in the windown behind A and C).

Fall Break

A is home for fall break. She has no school on Thursday and Friday, part of a planned break for students every fall. (I do not remember having one, but I rode dinosaurs to college, so it was a long time ago.) Before she came home, there was a list of requests/demands that needed to be met as far as food goes, things she misses about home cooking. Frequently, A did not admit to enjoying the cooking at home, but now that it is all institutional, all the time, it appears home cooking is great.

Anyway, here is a picture of A and C, taken today. Glad to have her home, if even for a short visit.

Homecoming week in High School

C's High School has various theme days during homecoming week. The goal is to promote school spirit through unity in dress, even silly dress.

Here are some pictures of C on Toga day and C on Cowgirl day.

It was a Dad moment

C is part of the group making the HS Sophomore Float for homecoming. They are trying to make a pirate ship out of a flat bed trailer and doing a pretty good job of it. Well a pirate ship needs cannons, and someone donated some carpet type cardboard tubes for the barrels. The sophomores did not know how to mount them to make them look right, sticking out of the side of the pirate ship.

So C says: "My dad will know how." to her friends, then calls me on the cell phone with a "Dad, we have a situation."

I am just glad I can help, and yes we were able to quickly put something together that will work. Pictures to come after the parade.

If you are in the area...

We're having roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans and fresh from the bread machine bread. The bread is just started, 'n I'm peeling potatoes. I may add some carrots to the green beans, for color. Plenty of food if you want to stop by, dinner will be at 5:15 today.

Random thought:

As I have been in the work world for over 25 years, my business writing skills have gotten significantly better. Business information should be conveyed in a factual manner, typically without personal pronouns, ad hominem discussion and emotion, nearly in a Joe Friday manner. This way, decisions can be based on as little feeling and more information.

Thus, blogging has begun to help restore the narrative type of communication, seeking to convey feelings, not just fact. Carl Sandberg and Dave Berry are in no danger from my posting skills. I'm still a work in progress.

Another Reason..

We cannot begin to miss A is her HS Senior picture. It rests on a shelf near our kitchen. The picture is 16x20, nearly life size. In the place where it has been strategically located, it can be seen from the living room, kitchen, dining room, hall, and master bedroom. Nearly no matter where one is in our house, you are under the watchful glare of A.



It feels like she is always here.

Saturday,

K and I went looking through a few the boutique and antique shops in downtown Greensboro. This is while C was working with friends on the HS homecoming float. K and I had a lot of fun looking at junque (fancy junk) and high end antiques imported from France. As most people know, K is fond of teddy bears. As we were walking through one place we stumbled upon this:

We already had the bear under the stair. It was only $10 for all of the bears and the wooden stair. It stands about 9 inches tall. It fits well into our current decorating scheme. It now rests in our home.

Popcorn Tonight!

In my daily life, I ship many things, frequently, through trucking companies and package delivery services like DHL and UPS. I go through much tape, many boxes and much packaging materials.

A box recycler opened recently near the UPS terminal which are both located about 3 miles from home. They buy and resell box overstock supplies and used boxes from cardboard manufacturers and industrial companies that send or receive thousands of boxes. The sell each box for about $1 to the walk in public. Since I have discovered them, they are now my preferred box supplier.

As was said earlier, I go through much packaging material. If bought from Office Depot or the like, a large bag of popcorn lasts two shipments. I was commenting to the lady at the box place about this, whereupon she indicated that she had a bigger bag of popcorn, for about the cost of a large bag at Office Depot.. I took that to mean it was about twice as big as the standard big bag (assumption: me) so I said that I would take two.

The two bags filled up the minivan. To get them into the van and home, one had to go in from the side, the other through the back hatch. And it was a fold down the rear seats and tip back middle seat kind of pack it in. No room for any passenger other than a co-pilot, but she was not with me this time.

Below is what is left of one bag having shipped about 15 boxes of equipment (with our dining room table in the background for reference) and I have used about half of it. I still have another full bag, stored in the shed. C has said that it looks like it would be a fun place to dive.




K and C have not stopped kidding me about being the Popcorn King. I deserve the kidding, in this case.

Friday

was a wonderful day, with highs in the mid 60's. We are to get a slight cooling tonight, with lows in the 30 and possible frost. We will be covering the plants tonight!

C seems to be really involved in school right now. The SGA activities for Homecoming (Float, Powderpuff Football) are keeping her hopping.

There is no swimming right now as the year-round team had a melt down over a coach having an affair with one member of the college team. The student suddenly quit and the coach was fired, and now the program is defunct. We are investigating other teams as C enjoys the workout.

K went to see A yesterday. It is only 45 minutes door to door, so we find it hard to miss her when we see her so often. I think it has eased the transition from home to school. A likes to sees us too, and that is good. A's roomie has not been home nor seen any family since school started.

Fall break is in a week and a half, so A will be home. She has already put in "orders" for specific foods, specifically pancakes for breakfast every morning and home cooked dinners. I guess she is tired of eating out.

Paper Mill

Left the house about 5:15AM and spent most of yesterday in a Weyerhaeuser Papermill in Plymouth, NC. I find papermills very interesting. They bring in fresh cut trees and from that, make nearly everything, power, lumber and paper. And papermaking is a neat process. The paper is made at about 30 miles per hour and 33,000 gallons per minute, on these machines. I was standing on top of a pulp "chest" ( a tile exterior tall tank containg paper pulp) about 350 feet above the ground. I had a great view of the Albemarle Sound and could see the ocean about 50 miles away.

BTW, I did sell some pumps too. They are for adding color to the paper.

Today, I am at NutraSweet in Augusta, GA

Tonight was..

an evening where I made dinner. We had lasagna and bread fresh from the bread machine. I got the timing just about perfect with the bread being finished within minutes of the lasagna coming out of the oven. Now the challenge is: since there are only 3 of us now, and I am leaving on a business trip, what to do with the leftovers. A full pan of lasagna is only tasty for a couple of days, when every one gets tired of the leftovers. So I took about half of the leftover, wrapped it in plastic wrap, then put it in a freezer bag and am freezing it. That way we can have some later and it will still be good. With the college kid coming home for fall break in a week, she will like the leftover pasta.

The bread did not last. It was the best we have made with the new bread machine.

Tonight was...

dinner with A for the whole family. I was coming through on business, and at K's suggestion, she brought C over to have a family dinner. A wanted to go to Chili's, so off we went. It seems when we get together, we push a button on A and she just starts talking. She talks a lot more about more interesting stuff since she does not see us every day. It is really fun to talk with her.

A also indicated that she misses K, C and me. Some of it is sucking up, but I know she misses C. They are good friends and share much. It could not have turned out better, to have 2 kids that like and look out for each other.

The love of dance is so great in A that she is helping to arrange a dance marathon at her school as part of a fund raiser to help pay for healthcare for kids without insurance. They expect the total take on the dance marathon to be around $100K, total fund raiser of $3MM. This, among other things are keeping A really busy.

Visiting Family

Yesterday, after work, I stopped in to see R, J and AJ. As always, it was fun to see them. Since I let them know that I was going to stop by, J included me in their dinner, really nice of them. She made a chicken casserole, green beans, and banana bread. For dessert, there was a pumpkin roll. It tasted very good. She is a good cook.

I also went to see AJ play soccer, at least for a half. I watched her score a goal and her team lead 1-0 at the half. It was at that point that I left to drive 7 hours (home thankfully).

There are no pictures because my digital camera batteries died. Maybe next time.

And what did...

The mulch pile create? Previous posts showed 3 planting areas that K created with help from me. The last area is now shown. In total, there were over 80 large wheelbarrows full of mulch moved from the pile. In this planting is an ornamental pear, some azaleas, a Hawthorne, and other things that I do not remember.

The concrete square in the picture is part of our septic tank system. It contains the pump for transfer to the drain field, up hill 13 feet and about 300 feet of pipe away. The plantings are to hide this when things mature.

This bare spot...

Is where the pile of mulch sat since spring. The pile was about 6 feet high and covered an area about 10 x 10. Since it sat over the summer, the grass has died at the bottom of the pile, but it will return next year.

Greetings...

from Chillicothe, OH. I came here to visit the paper mill on business. Yesterday, I went to Eaton, OH to see a medical device manufacturer (pumping adhesive and conductive goo) and to Wilmington, OH to go to a drug company. I will be back there later today, then on to see my brother R's family. Hope your day will be as fun!