Answer to last blog question

Great guesses as to what we are building, but it is nothing so exciting as storage for cheese or wine. We are insulating the walls of our basement. Which I hope will some day be covered with dry wall and look great. The pink is polystyrene which is adhered to the walls with "Power Grab" adhesive. The wood frame is to hold it tight to the wall while it dries. We have heard a few creeks as it pulls away from the wall once the frame is removed. We'll let you know how well this great invention of DH's works. It was great fun building it with our friends visiting. The friends from Illinois have the philosophy that they should never visit us without STARTING a project with us. Note the starting, not completing part. We try to return the favor for them.

My employment will end on the November 4 th, when I am a judge at our local voting precinct. I work from 5:45 AM to about 8:00 PM on election day.

Guess what is happining "In the sticks"

The minions at work. They were immigrants from Illinois (I won't say if they are legal or not).

Looks like one of the immigrants was put in jail. And is not too unhappy. It must be the pink walls.

Look! She is out of jail and now has a job as Vanna White.

Apologies to K's Daddy

I am sure most of you will look at this picture, scratch your head and say "what is that?" Of course there is a story behind it.

You will recall a couple of weeks ago we had our granddaughter, K , here for a few days. Her parents came on Sunday to pick her up. The next week DH and I called her father and asked what he had done with our speakers. The only ones that worked were the ones positioned behind us when we sat on the couch and they had a terrible echo. He didn't call us back to tell us how to fix the situation because he did not have clue what we were talking about.

We now are quite sure K was the one who moved the speakers and pushed many buttons and dials on the stereo. And we were blaming her father. The biggest clue is that she loves to line things up in neat rows. So, K, we need you to come back and fix our stereo. (I don't feel too bad about blaming her father, because he has done things like that in the past.)

Sweetest Day

Saturday was Sweetest Day in Ohio. Rumor has it that is was started by a greeting card company in Ohio. I think American Greeting Cards. Anyway, people in other states apparently do not celebrate it. I decided to work on Saturday, so my DH did something great for me. He got up at 6:30 AM to hook up the trailer. We then went to the recycling place and loaded 1400 pounds of compost for my garden. Any of you who know DH know that he definitely is not a morning person and surely not on the weekend. So for him to do that was a great "Sweetest Day" gift. I then went to work from 9:00 AM to 6PM. In the eventing I unloaded it and spread it on the garden, and then he tilled it in.

In the Work World Again

When I went to the training to be a poll worker on the day of the election, they informed us that they could use extra help in the Board of Elections Office prior to the actual election. This year the State of Ohio has Absent Voting without giving any special reason. They have advertised it a lot because they feared the lines would be long at the polls. So a lot of people have requested absentee ballots. I told them I was interested in working and received a call the same day. I can work 8-11 hours a day and on Saturday too. It is incredible how much hands on work it is to get a ballot out. There are all kinds of controls at each step of the way. I think it will be incredibly expensive because each ballot is handled about 8 times to get it ready to send out.

I started on Friday and have now worked three days. It doesn't take a lot of skill, you just stuff envelopes, file applications and double check all items before sending them out.

I am finding it interesting being in the work world again. Like there isn't a lot of time to get anything else done. Other than being tired, I am enjoying it.

S'mores

In response to a previous blog, where there were questions from a certain person from the UK, I will expand on what S'mores are and how they are made. I will also use links for the first time, so this posting is a big experiment. There are two links which describe S'mores and Graham Crackers. The Graham Cracker entry at Wikipedia is especially interesting.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%27more

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_cracker

I was at a bonfire with a few friends last night and it was a perfect opportunity to take pictures of our S'more making.





The marshmallow is being roasted over the fire. It actually was quite dark, but I had to use the flash on the camera to get a good picture.


After the marshmallow is all puffed up from the roasting, it is place between two graham crackers with a piece of Hershey's chocolate. There is always debate as to how "burnt" the marshmallow should be.

In order to get a good picture I ended up eating at least four. That was two too many for my taste, but I could not let them go to waste and no one else wanted them.

Just a couple of pictures of the friends at the bonfire.

Fall preparations

The neighborhood picnic went well. We had 8 families come from inviting about 25. I was told that was a good turn out. A few called and said it was a great idea and they would have liked to come but had other plans. I did not take any pictures. I'm thinking we will do it again next year. One of the neighbors has a pig she slaughtered and froze and was looking for a way to roast it. We volunteered DH's pig roaster, with the understanding that we would be invited. So there may be another neighborhood party yet this Fall.

I am concentrating on the usual Fall preparations. I've planted perennials, DH tilled the garden so I could spread compost on the it. That involved loading 1000 pounds of compost into the trailer and then spreading it on the garden. It is half the price if you load it yourself so I saved a whole $20.00. Next is planting tulip and daffodil bulbs.

The joys of being a grandparent

It has been way too long since K has stayed at our house. We have been having a great time as the pictures show. Of course, the keyboard will be sent home with her. Her parents are already shouting, "Thanks."






The train ride is at a local outlet mall. We took the ride once and then Grandmother succumbed to "Just one more time, Grandma."

She and our cat, Mollie, who she calls "Maui" had a great time. At least K did. She tried to get her to stay on the seat of the swing, but to no avail. I was amazed that Mollie let K carry her around.