Celebrating our anniversary

Our 43rd wedding anniversary was on Thursday.  Since G worked that day, he was a bit too tired to really celebrate.  We did go out for dinner.  But last night we went to dinner and a musical.  The title was My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding.  It is based on a true story.  It was a comedy but had serious parts too.  Did you know that only four countries have legalized gay marriage?  Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada.  Who would have guessed Canada.  They did mention the states in the US too.

G has taken vacation until January 2.  We are just staying around home so I am hoping it will be relaxed.

Another holiday party

Last night G and I attended another holiday party.  It was the family party for the owner of the company where he now works. It was held on the campus of the University School which is a private high school for boys.  In attendance were a couple hundred of their closest friends.  As is the custom, the program was a report on Dan's latest motor cycle adventure.  This last year he went with three other men from the southern to northern tip of Africa.  You can read his blog at http://www.dantmoore3.com.  He has a separate blog there for each trip he has taken including the Continental Divide ride that G took with him. We met people who had known him and his family all their life, other motorcycle riders, and people currently working for him.

Playing with my sunrise pictures

Yesterday I was looking through some of my pictures and came upon this one.  It is looking toward the west but is a sunrise picture.  The sun is lighting up the trees from the east. I was standing on my deck.  This is a great memory picture because now the trees are all bare.  The grass is still green however.

This is a sunrise picture standing on the deck of the bedroom from the house we stayed at in Spain.

This view is standing on my front porch looking east.

Holiday celebrations

We have had a real full schedule of Holiday lunches and parties with organizations and clubs we belong to.  Saturday is the last one for a while.  One club actually has its party in January which is nice.

Last night a local service organization we belong to had their party.  For entertainment a women (immigrant from Russia) did a dramatic presentation of the story from the Nutcracker.  She had everyone in the audience help in acting out parts, like the march of the soldiers or fighting mice. The group were all adults so she told us to pretend we were children again and have fun.  It was a success because everyone had a smile on their face.

Annual Holiday party over

I finally feel like I can breath again.  The dinner for 18 is over. I had to clean the house, decorate two trees and the alcove above the stairs and make the food.

For the meal I set up a salad bar and had everyone make their own salad.  The entree was three soups, again served buffet style.  There was a  Chicken Tortilla soup, Beef stew with carrots, peas and rutabaga, and a Corn and potato chowder.  For dessert I made a "Lava cake"   where you make individual chocolate cakes in a large muffin tin, cut out a bit in the middle and fill it with hot fudge.  It is then warmed in the microwave and served with ice cream.  All my guests wanted to bring food but I told them no thanks, so they all brought wine.   So a good time was had by all !!!  I did have a helper for four hours.  She has come for several parties and says she enjoys it.  The alternative would be to be a home milking cows.

Two Thanksgiving dinners

Today we had our second Thanksgiving Dinner (which couldn't be beat according to Arlo Guthrie).

The first one was last Sunday at the home our our son and family.  B was dressed for the occasion and requested the drum stick.  The second was today when we were invited to our friend's home.  For each, I brought my famous candied sweet potatoes, a cherry pie and a pumpkin roll.  Also ice cream to put on top of any dessert .

When we were in Spain, we saw this dress that had K's name on it.  She loves red and loves to dance.

Fundraisers

This last week I attended two fundraisers for charitie.   The first was for Akron Goodwill.  A friend buys a table each year and invites me.  Various restaurants serve their specialty foods which then is your meal.  There are baskets to bid on as well as a live auction.  I was the highest bidder on a basket that included tickets for many events in Akron ( orchestra art museum, sports events, etc)  The program was a vintage style show.  Apparently when people donate vintage clothing, they are saved and used for this occasion   Hair styles and accessories matched the time period of the clothing.  Of course I always think of my daughter  (who is heavy into vintage style) when I am there.

The second was a "Dancing with the Stars" with 10 couples from the community.  It was a high energy event.
There was no auction or selling of anything at this one, just a nice dinner and the competition.  Each couple had taken 8 dancing lessons.  Some were obviously new at it, but a few were quite good.  What was cool was that they contestants were local people so I know a few of them.

Update on last weekend

G took a vacation day on Friday.  Projects that were completed included repairing a section of the roof where shingles had blown off,  cleaning under mowers (that involved scraping and using the power washer), cleaning several tillers and the garden shredder.  We then rearranged the garage so two cars and about six motorcycles fit in the area where one car would normally be. We used the Audi to pull down a pine tree that had died. We filled a 450 gallon tank with water and ran it where the downspouts drain to make sure there was no blockage (which would have explained the water coming into the basement last week)  But it worked fine.  More diagnosis needed. By Sunday night we were both complaining of aches and pains.  It is making me tired just writing about it.

Last night we went shopping for a new suit for Gerry.  We have a few formal occasions coming up and he does not have a suit that fits.  Since it has been about 25 years since he bought a suit you can imagine the sticker shock!!!  We were successful in that he now owns a beautiful dark grey suit and a wool topcoat.  Pictures will be posted when he wears it.

Post Election

There is NOTHING on my calendar for today. That means I can look at my very long "to do" list.  Gerry and I did not stay up to watch election results as we get up at 5:30 AM each day.  It works better for him to leave early to beat the rush hour traffic in Cleveland.  The hard part is making sure we get to bed early.

A couple of things about the election results made me feel hopeful:  I was happy Obama won, and Sherrod Brown kept his Senate seat.  Outside groups (including Karl Rove) spent $40,000,000 against Sherrod.  I am also hopeful to see three states passed initiatives to give equal rights to gay people in allowing gay marriage. :"Go Minnesota" where they voted down a constitutional amendment that would have said marriage was only for a man and woman.  Yesterday I received three phone calls from Obama workers. When I told the first one he had my vote, her spontaneous responses was "Praise the Lord"  which shows Christians voted for him too.  :)

There has been frost on the windshield of Gerry's car the last two mornings.  The birds are all over the feeders.  It seems that Winter is approaching.  The fields that we rent out still have soy beans in them. Last night we saw two small dear munching on them.  He will have to wait to harvest until the ground is frozen since it is so wet now.

Water everywhere

It has rained day and night for several days.  The wind gusted up to 60 mph.  And water steadily came into our basement.  I  used the wet/dry vacuum every few hours for a couple days and nights.  I estimate I sucked up 40-50 gallons of water.  The next step is to find out what the problem is and fix it.  But thankfully, nothing is ruined.  It was not that the sump pump wasn't working, the water just was not running thru the tile to the sump pump.

But I still am thankful that we only lost electrical power for about three hours.  When it came back on, I think if fried our router for the computer.  I have the laptop hooked up directly to the modem  so at least I can get on line.  It is amazing how much one relies on being on line.  Compared to what others suffered in the East part of the country, this is not much.

Outdoor preparations

Well, by the calendar I knew Fall ( and then Winter) weather was coming.  So over the last week, I did outdoor preparations.  I tilled the garden, turned the compost, weeded, emptied flower containers, drained hoses, shredded a pile of weeds for the compost and planted some tulip bulbs.

We have had several inches of rain over the last few days, with a couple more inches predicted.  When the ground gets so saturated and the wind blows the rain against the house we get some water in the basement. So last night and this morning I have been using the wet/dry vac in the basement.  No serious damage, just an inconvenience.   I worry that my landscaping and bulbs will drown out as I see puddles of water everywhere, but cannot do anything about it.

Halloween 2012

Cowboy Bryce and Witch Kyla.  They both tried to look fierce, but it was hard.  It was cool Trick or Treating (like around 45 degrees, but thankfully the rain held off.  FYI: The boots Bryce is wearing were his mother's when she was little.

Attending a Pavlo concert

I don't have pictures for this so will try to use my words.  On Sunday I invited my granddaughter to come with me to a concert.  The musician's name is Pavlo.  He plays in a four piece band. The music is Mediterranean .  She had listened to some of his music on You Tube and thought she would like it.  During the concert, (we had front row seats) she had a notebook in which she drew what she was seeing.  At the end he came down to the audience and gave her a guitar pic with his name on it.  When we were looking at CDs later we showed his wife some of the drawings.  She took a picture of K and the drawings for their Facebook page.  K then received a free CD.  We bought one for her and they were all autographed by Pavlo.  This was such an exciting time for her.

MC Rally

Gerry and I rode the motorcycle to the Finger Lakes Region in New York over the Labor Day weekend.  We decided to camp along with a lot of other people.  At first we were going to put cots in our tent, so had to set it up to see if they fit.  They did and we were getting ready to go when I remembered we had a queen size aerobed.  G has some kind of inverter that he could hook up to the motorcycle to make electricity so we could plug in the mattress.  So that is what we used.  Really roughing it , I know.

The water falls was pretty much dry.  But the forest were green.  This was a BMW motorcycle rally . We have been at rallies where people are drinking and partying (loudly) most of the night.  At this one, everyone was asleep in their tent by 11:00.  You could hear snoring all around.  They even have a section where there is electricity for CPAP users. 

Pretty car - Fan experiment

Gerry bought this.  Said he got it for Bernice.  However, I noted that he put the title in his name. But I am sure he will let me drive it.  I have a friend who sells antiques.  I asked her where she finds the antiques to sell.  She said friends just know she is in to it and call her when them have some.  It seems the same things happens with Gerry.  A motorcycle friend learned that this car was for sale and knew Gerry collected cars as well as motorcycles so let him know about it.  The rest is history!!  It is a 1976 Triumph Spitfire.  It has about 20,000 miles on it and has been stored indoors.  It has not run for about 25 years however so needs a bit of work on the engine.  But interior and outside are great.  Since G likes the mechanical work better than body work this is great for him.

We were complaining to a friend about how the second story of our house does not get cool when the air conditioner is on.  He told us the front entry way acts as a chimney bringing the hot air up.  He suggested a ceiling fan where the chandelier is.  So Gerry conducted an experiment.  It actually did the trick. The upstairs bedrooms cooled down.  So now I get to shop for a new light and fan!

Harvesting trees

This morning G and I were out in our woods at 7am with a Forester.  He is marking trees to be harvested.  Since all of our Ash trees will die do to the Emerald Ash Bore infestation we need to cut them while they are still alive.  There are a few other mature trees that will be cut too. This actually is quite positive for the woods as other trees will then grow better.  He marks the trees, estimates the height, and makes a list of the trees to be cut.  This is then sent to about 30 cutters for bids.  Our woods is not real mature so we do not have a lot of large trees other that the Ash.  He said we probably would not harvest again for 15 years.

Let the fun begin

In six days we will have are annual Pig Roast.  We have 80 people who have said they are coming.  On Saturday and Sunday G took all of his motorcycle and antique car out of the garage and power washed the floor.  We picked up tables and chairs that we borrowed from neighbors.  I have my detailed to-do list made up. Little things keep happening. Like there is a detour on our road so I have to send out another email to guests telling them how to get here.  Then this morning I looked closer at my field of sweet corn and realized some was ready to pick and freeze.  So I will do that this afternoon.  But all in all I feel it is under control.  We will see later in the week.

No tent needed

 

As I mentioned in my previous blog, G went for three days to the MidOhio Racetrack for Vintage Motorcycle Days.  He brought his tent but it seems it was too late at night after all the events to put it up.  So the bike on the trailer was moved and here he is sleeping .  His friends who saw this and took the picture, made comments like"too much beer?" But if you know Gerry that would not be the case.  He just can sleep anywhere.  Now you can see why I did not go along!  

While G is gone, I work

G is at the Vintage Motorcycle Weekend at a local racetrack.  The guys bring tents and campers and hangout together for three days.  Since we had two inches of rain (desperately  needed) I spend the last two days weeding. I am able to pull out the 1-2 foot weeds (I am embarassed to say) with relative ease.  The garden and yard is looking better.  Friday night I treated myself to the band concert at a local town.  They have a gazebo in center of town and everyone brings a lawn chair or blanket.  Today I am attending a program where Ian Adams is the speaker. He is a well known photographer of Ohio parks and nature.  http://ianadamsphotography.com/news/  Hopefully I will get inspired to take more pictures.  This has been on the back burner for some time now.

Four fun filled days

The grandchildren were with us for four days.  K built a house for our cat.  She put treats in it, which the cat ate, but could not get the cat to stay in the house.

  One day we visited a neighbor who has horses.  It did not work out for them to ride.  

They could just be close.

We had a busy time:  picked blueberries, spent hours at a park/playground, had a bonfire, rode the four wheeler, picked peas and shelled them.  I am tired, but it was great as usual.

"New" car

This is Gerry's new acquisition.  It is a 1966 Rambler car.

It seems to need minimal work:  brakes and maybe the idle fine tuned.  It has new tires, but the back two seems to have a slow leak.  Probably from sitting in a parking lot for two years.  

This car has no air conditioner so we will be driving with the windows open!  It has bench seats and the seat belts were removed but are in the car so can be re-installed.  

More yard work

On the weekend we worked on our geothermal bed.  We spent hours tilling, then G dragged a heavy pole around it to get it level.  If it ever rains, we will see if it is smooth enough or if there are areas where the water sets. In the Fall we will plant the grass seed.  At least we will be ready.  Yesterday I put weed killer on my entire lawn.  I have a sprayer that I pull behind the garden tractor.  It is quite dry here with very little rain in the forecast so it probably will not be  lush green color.  At least our livelihood does not depend on rain like it does for the farmers.

2233 miles

I just returned home after driving a total of 2233 miles on my trip to Minnesota and back.  I took two days coming and going, stopping in Kankakee, Ill where I stayed night with friends.   That made it a much more enjoyable (and safer) trip.  After checking my calendar for appointments or obligations tomorrow, I may go out and pull weeds.  The seven shrubs and five flower pots I planted before I left have been nicely watered by Gerry.  But mowing the lawn and pulling weeds does not happen.  But that is fine, as I enjoy it a lot more than he does.

I attended my 50th (yes 50) high school class reunion.  I enjoyed reconnecting with classmates.  I also was able to see my mom, brothers and sisters and one of Gerry's brothers.

Pictures

I don't think this story will win any awards for high interest or excitement.  Or maybe R was reading in French and Bryce did not understand all the words.

Meanwhile his sister was hard at work, sweeping the steps of their playground.  Again note the helmet - it seems to be needed for this dangerous job.

Moral dilemma

I have a small garden for vegetables.  There is a "rabbit fence" around it.  A rabbit fence has smaller openings on the bottom so the rabbits cannot get through.  The other day I noticed a rabbit inside the fence and saw a hole in the gate.  I put something in front of it to keep the rabbit out.  Yesterday I was weeding (weeds were quite tall) and noticed that something had come under the fence, so decided that needed repairing.  But as I was weeding I came upon two, not one but two, nests of baby rabbits.  These were inside the fence meant to keep them out.  I know if I would move the nest the babies would die.  So I now am providing great food for the whole family:  lettuce, peas, beans, etc.  My dilemma was should I choose the rabbits or the vegetables in the garden.  Guess it will be the rabbits.

Twinkies and baseball

A box of Twinkies mysteriously found its way into my pantry.  Yesterday I opened it and ate one.  I am surprised I am here to tell you that. It was awful!!  I then looked at the expiration date: sometime in 2011.  I thought daughter threw out all the expired stuff when she visited.  It seems that some of DH's motorcycle buddies brought it when he had them over several months ago.

On another topic, last night R, our exchange student, and I drove to Cleveland to see a Cleveland Indians baseball game.  I think both of us feel we do not have to do that again for a few years.  It was an hour drive, a four hour game (Indians did win) and finally home by midnight.  As someone from Europe, he much prefers rugby, football (as they call soccer) or volleyball.  Much more action in those games.  I agree.  But I felt obligated to have him experience baseball at least once.

Driving the Porsche

Which of these two drives would you choose to take you for a ride?  I would be a bit worried about the one with the helmet on.  Seems he knows something I do not.

Life goes on

Life goes on at the Goertzen's.  Gerry started his new job yesterday.  He was quite tired last night, having to leave the house at 6:30 am and getting home at 6:30pm.  Last night he read some articles online about what you should do in your first 30 days as a supervisor to get off on the right foot.

I spent time today trying to get him signed up for Cobra for his health insurance.  They will not even send me a blank form to apply without talking to Gerry in person. He does not have his new cell phone yet so it is hard to communicate with him at work.  I am frustrated with all the paper work and legal stuff we have to do because Gerry's job was taken away.  But I am trying to focus on all that is good in our lives.  Guess this will give me more empathy for others when this happens.

Visiting the Raptor Center

A camera club I have joined had a trip to a local raptor center.  They take in injured birds, nurse them to health and if they can survive in the wild, release then.  Otherwise this is their permanent home.

This picture shows the "houses" that the birds live in.

We have Red Tailed Hawks like this in our woods. 

Love this guy's expression.

What do you think this buzzard is thinking?  Dinner?

This eagle cannot be released.  This is his home now.

All Fired Up

For Kyla's 6th birthday party she chose to have it at All Fired Up.  The guests each choose green ware to paint and then have it fired, which gave them each a gift to take home.

The birthday girl.

Bryce took this very seriously.

Stacey made the cake, finding a way to have Kyla's name on it.

The shock is wearing off

I have decided to post what is happening with us even though I have told several of my readers already.  Last Thursday Gerry was told that his position as Director of Research and Development was being eliminated.  He was then escorted out of the building.  He had to make an appointment for after work hours today to come back in with
supervision and get his belongings. Needless to say he was in shock. He was completely blindsided by this.  Now after a couple of days, the shock is wearing off.  We are taking stock of where we are financially and thinking about what he might want to do.  Our family and friends have been so supportive.  Great to have at a time like this.  It also
has caused us to think about what is really important in life.  Gerry and I are so grateful to have each other, our health, family and friends.  We do not have to worry that our house will be in foreclosure, like so many people have had happen.  Se we are hanging in there. Will keep everyone posted.

Book sale again

An organization that I belong to, AAUW, has a very large used book sale every year to make money for the scholarships we give out.  This last week I spent 8 hours helping sort books.  Then I will work at the actual
sake next week too.  The neat thing is that I am making some good friends doing this. I donated two boxes of books this year and hope not to bring home more that I donated.  It is a challenge to decide if a book is worth selling or if we should just throw it.  People do donate everything: medical or text books that are 24 years old-out they go.  We do have a member who finds the value of actual antique books so we don't just give them away.

No pictures of this

This post will make you shutter.  Last Thursday I was slicing raw potatoes with my mandoline.  I was in a bit of a hurry and did not use the shield until most of the potato was sliced.  You can see where this is heading.  I sliced my right index finger resulting in getting 10 stitches.  Do I know better?  Of course.  You can be quite sure I will not do that again. I am happy that there has been on infection.  My guess is that I will have a nice scar to remind me to slow down and be careful, When it happened I wrapped it tight with the help of our exchange student, who cannot stand to see blood, and then drove myself to the ER which is about 5 miles from our house.  I am bummed out because everything takes twice as long with one hand, but have no one to blame but myself.  I labeled this "No pictures of this" but G did take some pictures. Don't worry I will not post them.

Think like a child

Kyla wore her winter boots when they came over for Easter.  At the end of the day when they were getting ready to leave they were no where to be found.  We looked all over the house (upstairs, basement) and out side too, thinking she had carelessley thrown them somewhere.  After they left I kept looking.  They were foumd in Gerry's closet on the shoe shelf.  Right were they should be if you were being a neat, consciencious child.  I later recalled seeing Bryce wearing them.  I am sure he was the one who put them away.  To give you another example of how organized he is, when he helped me put the silverware in the dishwasher, he lined up all the forks in one row, all the spoons in one row and knives in another.

Finances

I am breathing a big sigh of relief today.  It is only April 4th and I have finished doing the taxes.  I was considering paying off the mortgage on our house but wanted to make sure there were no big surprises with the taxes before I did that.  Well great news.  There were not surprises and we were able to pay off the mortgage.
Gerry always said he would not retire until it was paid off.  But this does not mean he will retire tomorrow.  He seems to be quite challenged by his job (that may be an understatement) so there is no word when that will be. When I told a friend that we had paid it off, she said you then paint the front door red to tell the world that you no longer have a mortgage.  I have never heard of that tradition.  Gerry is all for it, but I just do not think red would look good with the maroon shutters and I have better things to do than pain all the shutters red.

Surgery on right eye

Today I had the cataract removed from my right eye.  A new lens was put in.  So now the right and left should "match" each other.  I have started the every two hour regime of eye drops.  I am just glad to have it completed.  Of course it will up to a month before I have the new glasses, but am now using "cheater" glasses from the drug store. I can see great at a distance but need the glasses for close up. The actually surgery takes about 10 minutes. Of course it takes a day to recover from having the eye dilated  and from the anesthesia.  It is amazing.

Last week I was able to start my outside yard work.  I pulled up some spreading Juniper that was under the flowering cherry tree.  It had become about a foot deep and was causing problems with fungus on the tree so that the leaves would drop prematurely.  Then I dug out all the day lilies in front of the house, tilled the soil, added more soil and compost and replanted a fraction of them.  They were completely overgrown.  We had had beautiful weather to do this, but last night had a frost.  That was not a problem for my yard, but I worry about the blueberry bushes where I pick each year.

Trip to Minnesota

The silence on the blog is due to a 10 day trip to Minnesota.  On the first leg of the journey I stayed three nights in Kankakee with friends.  My friend there, J, is a Master Gardener and loves to draw landscape plans.  I had previously sent her a drawing of our house, deck and area around the house drawn to scale as well as several photographs of each side of the house.  We spend two days on her drawings.  It is about 350 miles to her house.  The next part of the trip is 550 miles.  I was in MN for 5 days and was able so see my 90 yr old mother each day as well as all of my brothers and sisters and G's bro and wife and son.  All in all it was a great trip.  I didn't take too many pictures, but may have a couple to post.

Tonight is check emails, snail mail and look at calendar for the next week.

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.

What goes up must come down.  It took me about six days to put up all the Christmas decorations and now it is taking two days to take them down.  I try to repeat what I did the previous year but always add some new area.  I am also trying to mark all the boxes clearly and edit out what  I did not use.  I am still on the editing and "getting rid of" kick.  Probably will be for all of 2012.  Guess that should be my New Year's Resolution.  Not an exciting post, but that is what is happening here today