This is cool - my friend Bobbi gave me a goose egg....I haven't used it yet. I'm temped to just fry it up and serve it beside a regular egg.

Yay!! the Impala is back on the road! I know this just looks like a tangled mess, but it's MUCH more clean and neat. They finished up LATE Saturday night...like 1AM...I was asleep....always nice to have a project finished. Wonder what's next?



Here is Richard's arm - replacing a front axle....so the car got a new engine, new transmission and both new front axles.

As many of you know, Grandma is a religious person. She studies and debates about religion with most anyone who will..... She has a friend who is a Jehova's Witness. Grandma has told me on several occasions that she is struggling with that friendship due to their differences in philosophy. She wrote this poem (for the friend) to try to bridge that gap. (There were a couple of lines before I got the camera turned on....)

I caught Grandma playing the piano! Pretty neat for 92 years old!

Her comment when she saw the video on my camera "Oh my, I need to sit up straight!"

I went home for a short visit yesterday with my sister who is down visiting from North Dakota.

One of my employees, Bobbi, was off work and wanted to ride with me. She had never been west of Winston-Salem. It was a nice, quick trip.



We stopped in Winston for the "Hillary" show. Had really good seats and enjoyed the experience. Interesting speech - first political speech I've seen in person. It was neat to watch the Secret Service and all the campaign staff.




Very long line - we were there early and got some of the last seats. Many of these people in line didn't get in....


She seemed very sincere. Don't know if she could actually do what she's saying she can....


Very tired looking also. I guess I would be too.

Bobbi had never seen the mountains up close before, so Teresa, Bobbi and I went for a nice long ride from Brevard back to Asheville.

We stopped at Looking Glass Falls....



Then we headed up the Parkway - the trees are still mostly bare. I like it better with leaves!!


The famous Cold Mountain....was chilly!
The plan was to meet all my "girl relatives" on my Mom's side in Asheville.

Pretty trees on Wall St. while we were waiting on Mom, Grandma, Denise and Trudi.
Silly wig shop - we were just wandering around the little "artsy" section..





We all agreed that we could eat at a Vegan restaurant that Teresa knew about.

Grandma and Mom

Trudi and Teresa

Denis and I - I'm sure there are some better photos of this as the waitress took a "group shot".

Group shot at Grandma's of the 3 generations.


The daughters and in-laws! Aren't we cute?

We had a fairly busy weekend - Saturday was absolutely gorgeous weather....

Duane and Richard are plugging away at his car "refurbishment"....

Here is the old engine - they're "disassembling" it to transfer over the parts to the new engine. I guess it's not just "unbolt one, bolt on the new one"...

Old parts that got thoroughly cleaned and de-greased.

Assorted other parts to be re-installed...an amazing amount of these...I don't know how they keep track of it all.

But, I know that it will eventually be all packed back into the engine compartment just like new!! Here's the gapping hole!




Now on to sunnier subjects!!

I went to Lowe's to pick up some solvent for the above project....just couldn't resist getting a headstart on the flower beds because it was sunny and 75 degrees.


I came home and started working on the deck - weeding out the weeds and plants that made it thru the winter.

I was over-run last year with Dianthus - I think they are supposed to be an annual plant - but they seem to make it thru the winter every year. I'm tired of them on my deck, so I scooped them all out of there pots and took them down to the flower beds near the hangar.



This is the last of the Dianthus - it looks a bit spindly in the ground right now, but it will take hold and be a source of much prettiness this summer!
Couldn't resist a shot of the latest addition to the daffodil family - strange how I have 4 different sets of daffodils that bloom at different times....The "cup" is actually quite orange. The photo is not true to life here....

While I was doing some digging in the flower bed, a beautiful butterfly wandered up and "flitted" around. I snapped about 30 shots of him(her) moving about.

This one was the best, in focus shot!


Here are the "spoils" from Lowe's...petunias, pansies, snapdraggons and a few marigolds.



I decided that I should plant them in pots and set them out in the flower beds. This way, I can retrieve them for the next few weeks if we get a frost warning.



Pots in place - they don't look like much right now, but in a few weeks they should be full and colorful!! Fun day - but I was actually quite tired from all the gardening!

Nothing much going on....Richard is off on spring break this next week. Duane is staying home today to work on Richard's car...

The lovely Impala - all decked out to look like a cop car. I can't really figure out why, but it seems to make Richard happy....

Anyway, we had to go have it towed home a week or so ago - the transmission just gave out. It's got 175,000 trouble-free miles on it, so I guess it was a decent deal as cars go.

Since the car is still in nice, shiney shape, Duane decided to order a new (rebuilt) transmission and engine (what the heck, if you're gonna do it, do it right,,,,right?)

Here's the before photo of the engine (exciting...) They will be taking this out today and putting the new one in.



Here's the new engine. Glad they know what they're doing. The transmission's not here yet.



Told ya nothing much was going on!!!!

There was an inspection due on our airplane - so I flew it over to Asheboro to the avionics shop yesterday. During the day, I took the "courtesy car" - (Robert's old Blazer, that is) into town to run my errands. At the end of the day, I loaded up all the "stuff" - Duane's shirts from the cleaners, some groceries, and all my paraphernalia - in the back just like a station wagon (hehe - guess that's why they named our airplane a "Cessna Stationaire"!!

OK, now my sister will not be happy with the rest of this post...yucky for the vegans of the world!! I only did this for Richard...

He had read on the internet on some undoubtedly male website about a "baconburger" - not a hamburger with bacon on top, but a burger made COMPLETELY out of bacon...

The idea was to grind a pound of bacon in the food processor (or meat grinder if you had one, which I don't). Amazingly, it comes out looking pretty much like greasy hamburger.

Shape this into a patty and fry it up!



As I suspected, it didn't hold together so well - but I was careful with the spatula.


Pretty ridiculous, really - I didn't have any buns, so it ended up being a sandwich instead of a burger. He enjoyed it - as I handed it to him I said "this is a heart attack waiting to happen!"

We buzzed down to Oriental on Thursday for a long weekend. The weather looked nice enough, so we set out to Ocracoke on Friday morning....the wind was great, we were making 8+ knots part of the way (really good speed...) but the air was a little chilly. Here's my solution.

More "chilly sailing solution" - hot soup! Here is our gimbaled stove - the stove is level in this photo - the rest of the boat is not!


Soup ready to be eaten on deck - really warmed us up!



Soon, the sun peeked out and the air was very nice. I hung our string of colorful flags..



Aren't they pretty!



Land ho! after 7 hours, the sandbar near Ocracoke comes into view.



The ferry uses the same channel....


We were apparently entertainment for the folks on the ferry - they all waved as they went by...



Going, going, gone - they were faster than we were...



This is the view going into Silver Lake at Ocracoke, very quaint.


Glory Days all cozy on the dock.


We got the boat situated an took off on foot for our favorite establishments.....Howard's Pub....I was kindof thinking I'd order a soft-shell crab sandwich, but alas, they are out of season. So I opted for a crab cake sandwich and the naughty fries. (And the hefeweizen beer....) Yum and so much for the diet!






The interior of Howard's - eclectic, I think they call it....



Then it was a walk back to the Pelican - another favorite...
They had installed a pool table since we were there last.


A nice 2 person band was playing low key, oldies.

Duane and I played a game of darts

Here I'm giving Duane the "OK" signal for some reason.


Duane explaining about some wonderful shot, I'm sure.


I think this was a shot of Duane's winning throw.

He won, but not by THAT much!!


Back to the boat....long day!



We had a nice sail back on Saturday before a big storm system moved in. I felt a little queasy, so I didn't take any photos.


Here I snapped a photo of the new addition at the marina. They are adding about 100 slips to the marina - pretty amazing process to add a deep hole where none existed before!