Manatee Springs State Park 08-07

Of all the animals out in the wild
the most likely one to frighten a child,
the one which scares and fills them with dread,
the awful, awesome ManaFred!



Here are a few of the other wild things we saw today:



















If you think Merle looks unhappy, he was. He wouldn't take off his sunglasses and he was sitting on a pointy rock. Needless to say, I took the picture quickly.

Weeping Wednesday (New Labeled Picture)

Yep...that's what I did yesterday...weep...weep some more...and say ouch A LOT!!!! Using the infinite amount of talent I possess in this body of mine, I managed to bend my left foot backwards under my chair which allowed me to break my ankle in 3 places. Personally I recommend staying away from this type of talented maneuver as it is rather painful. I am, however, doing better today than yesterday because now it only hurts if you pick my leg up...just lying here is painless. Below are the x-rays that they took in the emergency room. I can find 2 breaks, but can't seem to find the 3rd. I have an appointment to see the orthopedic doctor on Monday at 3:00 at which time I assume they will put me in a cast. Right now I just have a splint until the swelling goes down.

Happy Birthday Fred

Happy Birthday Freddy! I hope you have a wonderful day. Don't work too hard...it is your birthday afterall.

Love Alice

Happy Birthday!!

This past Friday was also Keven White's birthday...happy birthday Keven!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

This past Friday was John and Amy's anniversary...sorry I didn't get this up sooner. Happy anniversary you two!!!!

Cathouse Sunday

We built an outside cat house this weekend. It's made of wire shelving
and held together with zip-ties. There are ramps and beds at different
levels and they go in and out through the livingroom window.

Update From Renita

I had sent out an update to several family members recently and received this back from Renita. Since she doesn't stop by the blog very often, if you want to answer any of her questions, you might want to email her personally.

-----------

Hello,
I was just thinking about you this morning. It's nice to hear from you again. It sounds as if you have all been quite busy.

Was Peggy able to get any sort of a retirement or anything for her years of govt service? How long has she worked for them? I know she hasn't been in Seattle long but she was doing govt work in VA wasn't she?

Does Eric work? I didn't realize he had diabetes.

I guess now they can both have some use for that service dog. I just think those service dogs are pretty great. I'm glad that Peggy finally got one.

Does this mean that David and Chunnan are no longer together?

I recently got a paying job. It's not the greatest thing in the world but I'll manage. I work for the city of Duluth as a human resources secretary. I'm not really a secretarial type - that's the first strike. There are just a ton of things to remember so I feel stupid most days - that's a second strike. It seems like I work from way too early in the morning until I fall into bed (mostly too late) at night - that's strike number three. However, it is a paycheck and my grand scheme is to get some bills paid before Mark retires from the Coast Guard. So, the pay is pretty good. The hours are very compatible with Mark's and Meghan's and that's good. I get to commute with Mark as we both work in the same general area. I get to be around people some more. That's ok. I miss my dog though while I'm at work and I know he misses me too. Too bad they won't let me bring him in with me every day! :-)

I guess the long and the short of it is that I have been forced out of my much loved rut. I'll adapt. We always seem to do a fairly good job of that.

We are in the middle of a bathroom remodel right now. We have a very tiny space to work with and we really can't expand because of other things that were done before we got here. The space is 6' x 6'. In that tiny little space we have to fit all the necessary bathroom parts and pieces. We had a small tub/shower combo. It took up the whole wall and half the space. There wasn't much room for being in there. The door swung inwards making for even less space. Now, we are going to have a shower that Mark's building from scratch (no pre-fab stuff would have fit, not even a shower pan) and we'll have a little more storage space. We'll also be assured of having better wiring and a working exhaust fan with a heat lamp (nice on cold winter days). We should also have a tad more room for sitting on the pot with the shower instead of the bath tub. We installed a pocket door as well. That should really do a lot to making the room easier to get in and out of.

Since we've been in this house we've remodeled the kitchen and installed a little gas stove in the basement. We painted the exterior and refinished the deck. We took up the carpet on the main floor and uncovered some very nice original maple floor. We need to refinish it eventually but haven't done it. Now we are doing the bathroom. Maybe we'll get to the upstairs bathroom next year. We'd also like to re-carpet the basement and put in some egress windows down there. I'd really like to remodel the whole basement somehow but haven't quite figured out what needs doing exactly. I guess we redid the hearth in the front room too. It's much nicer now. Mark likes to have projects. He's been being kept busy, for sure.

Meghan's getting ready to go into the 9th grade in a couple of weeks. School starts the 4th of September. I think she's really looking forward to going back and seeing all her friends.

We've had a bit of a heat wave here too. We got up to the 100 degree mark a couple days. Mostly it's been in the 80s and 90s. We've had a very dry summer. We did get a little rain last night. I think all that really did was to make the air a little steamier. Nothing like FL though. You can have it there. I'll stay in the colder climate. I wouldn't mind moving back to the coast of WA some day though. We still have a small lot there. We miss the area. Maybe owning that little piece of property will give us reason and incentive to move back.

It looks like I've written plenty. I guess I'll quit for now.

More later,
Renita

Testing Email Blog Post

Here's Chunnan singing to his iTunes while waiting for me to get his
Starbucks -- White Chocolate Mocha.

Some roommate changes

So, our roommate Bob has decided he can no longer live with us, so he is moving out at the end of the month. This does not break my heart, because the other night, he got really drunk and started lashing out at me and Dave had to defend me. Well, this fight he picked was the final straw for me. I made up my mind that I do not need to continue a "friend" status with him and have no desire to engage in conversation with him.

The move is for the best. Some people you just can't live with. Maybe people can't live with me, but I know I can no longer live with him. The story could go on, but I will just end my rant there. Thanks for listening.
T.

Pics of the new kitchen