Oh, my! Five weeks? Really?

Well, I did it again. Failed to post for just over a month even when there's plenty to tell you about.

First: Terry did get her new Rav4 and drove it out to St. Louis for a SAGA event and then down to Lake of the Ozarks to visit with her sister (and do some fishing!). Now that she's home, she's got all kinds of local meetings for EGA. Most are of the sit-and-stitch variety but a few are either picnics or luncheons or classes--some of which she teaches beading to the ladies.

Second: I finally managed to nab the last kitten, Collar, and get it to the Animal Care Sanctuary to get "fixed." Turns out Collar is a female--just like the other two kittens. What are the odds?! Three kittens in the litter and they are all female. Getting all of them, and their mother, spayed probably helped keep the cat population limited next spring! I mean, Mom, a.k.a. Coffee, was just one year old when I took her in to the vets in June(?). If all four had litters next spring, it could have gotten very, very crowded around here.

Third: We harvested more than enough peppers and tomatoes from our garden this year. Way more than we expected to get from two pepper plants (one bell and one banana) or four tomato plants (2 cherries and two Early Girl). In fact, we are sick of eating tomatoes! We've canned enough tomato sauce to get us through the winter and spring even if we eat Italian twice a week. And there are numerous bags of peppers in the freezer.


 Fourth: My 8-year old Dell laptop gave up the ghost this week after I dropped it. It was acting a little wonky before hand but this damaged the hard drive beyond repair--or, at least, that's what the tech folks said on Friday. I went and bought a new Dell Inspiron17 7000 Series even as I dropped the old laptop off for diagnostics. Now comes all the fun of installing software on the new machine. The tech folks were able to save my pics, documents and a couple of other folders from the damaged drive and have said they will load them on the new one for me.

Fifth: My daughter has been forced to move from her apartment of the last four years when two of her roommates (a married couple) decided they wanted out and wanted to do so by breaking the lease. Luckily, Jess was able to find another rooming situation a short distance away. It's not close enough to walk to Disney but she will be able to drive to work without too much of the LA-Anaheim traffic.

Sixth: Rick, Sandy and the kids, Chelsea and Justin, traveled down to Anaheim and Disneyland to visit with Jessica. It was the first time the little ones got to see their Aunt Jess--and all the Disney folks. I understand they had a good time.

Seventh: My granddaughter, Chelsea, started preschool this week. I must say, she's a lot older than her years!

I guess that's about all the news fro now.

The Week That Was at the Aerie

Last Sunday, Terry and I drove into New Jersey to attend a surprise 40th Anniversary party for my sister Ruthann and her husband Al. Her daughters had set this up with family and a couple of friends. A quiet little backyard barbecue is what it was. Ruthann and Al had no idea and were completely surprised. A good time was had by all.

Monday and Tuesday were lovely days of little activity except for a few mundane things. Terry had a meeting with one of her embroidery groups. I think this one was up in Corning. Then she had to take the Aveo in to have some warranty/recall work done and get the sir filters replaced. (Smelled like something died in one of them!) I ran around on Monday to get a new battery for the RV's engine. I had let the old one sit int he vehicle too long last December and it lost charge and froze apparently cracking one of the cells inside and creating a short. Tuesday Joe came up--although I told him he didn't have to--to help me put that new battery (which I had already put in) and the axillary batteries into the RV.

Wednesday was a blah day with drizzle and rain showers all day long and temperatures in the low 60s. Compared to the sunny 80s of the previous days, it was a real downer. So I made some chocolate chip cookies.

Thursday it was back up to the 80s with a forecast of even higher temperatures on the way. Terry and I put the AC in the bedroom window just in case. Then we went down to Lowe's to purchase some perennials and some vegetable plants which I, of course, had to then put in the ground. (Terry did put the peppermint Joe brought up and the couple of herbs she purchased into the garden, but I did the rest.

I noticed the radishes, lettuce, carrots, some of the beets and snap peas that I had planted as seeds were finally popping up out of the soil. There's going to be a lot of thinning in the very near future!

Friday afternoon, I drove Terry up to the Corning-Elmira airport so she could catch a flight to Portland, Oregon to visit Rick, Sandy and our new granddaughter, Chelsea Rose. Terry will be there until the 19th or 20th and will do some cooking, teaching about the cooking of certain dishes and a lot of cooing over Chelsea Rose. I cut the lawn for the first time this year when I got back from the airport.

Saturday I attended the morning bird walk at Hills Creek State Park (I listed 36 species), did a brief walk over at Darling Run (another 17 species but many of them overlapped the morning list) and then went back to HCSP for the annual Audubon picnic. I'll put the bird lists in the next post.