Another son

Last night at our family video chat we informed Shawn that we now have another son.  He recalled the times in the past when this happened.  Hopefully he will not feel as displaced this time.  On Tuesday we welcomed into our home an 18 year old young man from Belgium.  He is an exchange student in our local school.  He will be with us until the first part of June.  The most radical change in our lives so far is that Gerry has to get up almost two hours earlier to take him to school on his way to work.  In the great state of Ohio (note sarcasm) most of our school funding comes from local levies that are voted on by the citizens.  And as you may have guessed  the levies do not pass.  So in cost cutting, busing for high school students is the first to go.  I always voted for the levies even though we no longer have students in the system so I can complain.  But we are happy to have him here.

When a sewing machine sounds like a sewing machine

When I bought my first car (a 1958 Ford) I was told it was owned by a meticulous mechanic.  It actually was in pretty good shape except for two issues.  First of all the gas gauge did not work properly.  I learned than when it ran out of gas and the gauge showed some still in it.  Secondly, it used a lot of oil.  I would know it was time to add oil when it started to sound "like a sewing machine". I mentioned to G yesterday that one of my projects was to oil my sewing machine.  He asked if it was "sounding like a sewing machine".  Well it was.  According to the manual there are about 15 places to put a drop of oil.    It was interesting seeing me with a flash light looking for these tiny spots.  Remember I can only see close up with one eye at this time.  But I got the job done.

Yesterday I sewed on a project for about 5 hours.  I took some pictures and will share it on a future blog.  It is a gift for someone so I need to give it to them first.

"I can see clearly now" sort of

Yesterday I had the cataract removed from my left eye.  It had gotten so blurry that I was pretty much reading with just the right. The lens was removed and a plastic one put in.  I now can see in the distance with that eye without glasses, but need reading glasses for close up. My right eye is just the opposite.  I need the glasses for distance but can see close up better without.  I hope this will be remedied when I get new glasses in a few weeks, but for now I have to think about which eye to close for a specific distance.  Gerry keeps thinking I am winking at him!  I must remember to not look that way at strangers. I go the the eye doctor today so will ask how to deal with this.

In the mean time, there is a light snow falling, and I will spend most of my time studying landscaping.  Right now I am going through all the newspaper clipping I have and organizing them by topic, reading them as I go (with one eye of course.)  The pressure is on - Spring is only three months away, which means time to  plant.

Friday recap

This week I finished sending out our "Christmas" letters. My dear daughter and her husband helped me with this project.  She helped with the writing after I did the rough draft and gave her the pictures that I wanted to include.  He helped by reducing the size of the pictures so that people could actually view them.  If I did not send one to one of my readers, please let me know.  When I sent them by snail mail, I requested the person to send me their email address and several people have responded.  We also received a phone call from one of G's uncles who 85 and lives in an assisted living home. He did not give us his email address but talked about using Skype with grandchildren.

We have been having spectacular weather, temperatures in the 40s and 50s.  When I am walking it feels like Spring. G went for a motorcycle ride one night this last week. Tonight we plan to grill hamburgers outside.  I made homemade whole wheat hamburger buns that have garlic powder and ground pepper in the dough. The pepper gives it a nice kick. Making bread is such fun when I can the Kitchen Aid mixer to do the kneading.

Landscaping Plan

I have decided that my "Big" goal for the next couple months (or until it is finished) is to draw up a landscape plan that I love.  Then I will be ready when spring arrives and I can start to execute it.  I have two plans drawn to scale, one by a landscape company and another by a nursery.  The first is more detailed and the second seems to just use what they have in their nursery.   A friend of mine who is a Master Gardner has volunteered to put together a plan too.  She does a great job of asking the right questions, like "When you plant things around your deck, do you want to see it while sitting on the deck or is it for the neighbor to see?"  "How much maintenance to you want to do?"  G says none but it will be my job I am sure.  Today I am printing out pictures I have taken of all sides of the house to send to my friend. These will be my "before" pictures.  My next job is to make a list of which specific shrubs, trees and perennials I like.

I love shredding and crepes

Today my compost pile will increase in content.  I have been shredding items from my files.  I then mix the shredded paper with the food scraps and it makes great compost.  Since we have no deciduous trees I never have leaves to add so this works.  I hope I can keep up the momentum with the editing.

Gerry is attending his annual motorcycle riding planning meeting.  They plan events and rides for the entire year.  You can see what his passion is.  So if your date with him is not already on the calendar you are out of luck. 

For our brunch on Christmas morning, we requested that Andrew make his famous crepes.  He has a wooden crepe tool which he twirls around on top of the batter to spread it.  Somehow the handle did not make it in his suitcase to Ohio.  So Gerry spent some time in the shop repairing it with a new handle.  It turned out quite nice as did the crepes.  We had fillings of a mushroom sauce, cheese sauce as well as Nutella.      As an aside, Nutella has become such a favorite with the grandchildren that they both received a jar in their stocking!                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                        
  

There are two of these shelves

A video store in the city where DH works went out of business. They were selling VHS videos for $ .20 and DVDs for $ .80. He brought home over 100. I had just cleaned off these shelves for my stuff in the basement, but could not bear the thought of just having bags of videos on the floor. Some day when I am bored I will put them in alphabetical order. He really likes foreign movies so if there was any mention of the Cannes Festival or Sundance he bought it. So come on over and join us - I have lots of pop corn.