Taking Down A Tree

One of our backyard neighbors is having a big ol' tree removed.

Florida Updates

I'm sitting here at the computer with yet another thunderstorm going on outside and in yet another tornado watch trying to keep my mind off my weather worries by sitting here endangering my computer by having it on during all this mess. Go figure.

Lorraine and Doug left early this morning hoping to get far enough north to avoid the worst of today's weather before it got here. I don't think they accomplished that goal. Peggy and Eric are driving Cheryl to Orlando this morning to catch her flight home. I worried about that trip in this weather too. All I can do is leave them all, and us, in God's hands.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd post a few photos of spring blooms and the new patio cover in back. Enjoy.



Here is the Granddaddy Grey Beard tree everyone always asks about. It is not quite as white as it can be yet in this photo, and then all these rains came so it will never be as beautiful this year as in past years.






The Clematis are blooming.



This rose is from the bush at the telephone pole circle of flowers between the ramp and the shop. That bush is covered in buds this year, but I don't know how they'll survive all this rain either.



That's it for now. The weather radio is going off again. Tornado warning for Dixie county just north of us. Wonderful Florida weather!!

Made It Home

At Airport Almost Airborne

Had a great time in WA. Lots of game design work. Lots of time with David and Chunnan. Lots of food. Lots of affection given to Montega and Tag. Thanks for everything bros.

Fiesta... Then Siesta!

Fred Gorging On Colorado Burrito

Almost Time!

Roughly 38 hours until I am Florida bound! Have not packed yet but I will get it all done - I hope. If not - I am sure there is a Target or Walmart close that I can get what I need :)

The iPhone Generation

Lorraine and Doug's Visit

My sister Lorraine, her husband Doug and Bischon Barney came to visit on Tuesday. She went with me to my quilting group on Wednesday morning and to lunch and we visited the quilt shop. We went out to Bubba-Ques for supper Wednesday night and they left today about 3 pm so I'm now trying to catch up on my email and stuff. Most of their visit was just sitting around talking (or listening mostly while they talked). Lovely weather - 80's this week. Barney and Cody got along just fine. Oh, and they'll be in Orlando all next week and return here on the 27th to stay for three or four more days.

I've added photos of the Neon to the previous post about that for those who were looking for me to post them.

Hope all vacations are going well.

Luvuall, Mom

Dim Sum for Lunch

Replacing David's Headlight

This car has the absolutely least user friendly method of replacing headlights. I had just told David how easy replacing light bulbs are only to have him open his hood and discover no way at all to get to the lights You actually have to go in through the wheelwell in front of the tire and then stick your hand up in there and do everything by feel alone. Luckily someone had posted on the Internet how to do it.

Walked to Starbucks

It finally stopped raining so I took a 20 minute walk.

Vehicle Switcheroos

Okay, so I'm late adding these photos (thanks for the reminder Alice) but Lorraine and Doug have been visiting here since Tuesday. But, here's the Neon.







Merle sold his pickup truck to our neighbor on Sunday. He hated seeing such a good truck sitting around doing nothing and he really didn't need a truck anymore. He originally said he wanted to save the yearly insurance cost for the second vehicle as we only needed one. Then, after I had to spend a week at Peggy's a while back he got to thinking that maybe he should have "something" here in case of emergency when I'm out of town.

So, I looked on the internet for him and found a little 2005 Dodge Neon at Love Honda in Homossasa. It seemed to fit what he wanted so we drove down there this morning and bought that. We never thought about transferring the tag from the pickup to this other car (didn't even know you could transfer a truck tag to an auto) but the salesman at Love Honda said we could and save about $400 so we had to drive back home and get the truck tag and then drive back down there to pick up the car (about 65 miles each way - twice)! It's been a long and tiring day, but it's done.

I haven't got a picture of the new vehicle yet, but it looks almost just like the Honda in size and color, both that dark navy blue. I'll post one maybe tomorrow.

In other Chiefland news, my sister Lorraine is coming to visit tomorrow evening and will stay for a couple of days, then go down to Orlando for some sort of college reunion. She'll be back on Sunday to spend another four or five days.

The quilt show on Saturday went well on Saturday. You can see the photos by visiting the Springhouse web site and clicking on the 2011 Quiltfest link. Alice, I'll get your snowman quilt back sometime this week and mail it back as soon as I can. Thank you for the loan.

Enjoying this new activity of the family blog! Thanks everyone!

Love and Hugs,
Mom

Just thought I'd ask

Well as you all know, it has been my desire to get a pool lift, but had to give that up last year because of replacing the windows in the house.  However, this year's tax refund of $1,217 has been set aside to go towards the pool lift.  Thanks to a few very generous people that I used to work with at NASA, I have received an additional $500 to go with that giving me a current total of $1,717.  Assuming the price hasn't changed too much since I got the original estimate, I need around $2,600.  So, if anyone wants to and can afford to donate towards my dream of a pool lift, it would be greatly appreciated.  Please do not feel obligated.  I will eventually have enough...just may have to wait until after next year's tax refund.

Silliness in Seattle

While we were sitting at Starbucks Saturday morning I decided to start taking pictures of myself. So here is my stream of silliness, probably brought on by the fact that, yes, we got there at 6am.

BBQ Cabbage

Well I finally broke down and let Eric get a BBQ grill last week.  Well tonight he made us a BBQ Cabbage...yummy!! Here's a picture of it after he took it off the grill.

Day 1 in Seattle (Hey! Seattle has Starbucks!)

Chunnan Is Depressed...

...because the line at the Apple Store for iPad 2 is literally half-a-mall long and we have no time to wait :(

Hi From Seattle

Well, it's being noted that things are kind of slow around here, so I thought I'd jump in and say Hi!

Mom emailed me this morning saying to watch out for tsunamis. Huh? Seems there was the HUGE earthquake in Japan last night and, amongst all the local devastation, they're are tsunami warnings all up and down the west coast of the USA. Seattle area is probably safe, though. We're at the bottom of a north-facing sound and actually quite far from the Pacific Ocean.

So, how about a gaming update? The second printing of Alien Frontiers has finally been completed and 3000 copies left port in China on March 8th. The ship's first port-of-call? JAPAN!

The ship is currently docked in Yokahama, which, while far south of today's 8.9 quake and in a protected south-facing sound, is still in Japan! Say a prayer for the ship and our game :-)

On last thing...I want to thank Mom for all of her hard work at getting Swamp Mist published and in promoting it. You're amazing, Mom!!!

A Visit to Romeo's Bakery

Swamp Mist is Now Available for Kindle

Swamp Mist is now available for Kindle -- $3.99.

See it here.

Not Long NOW

Only 21 more days until I get to see FRED & ALIE!!!!! (really Peggy and Eric)