More Tie Dye.....

I know, you've got to think I'm a real dork. I know my kids do....

We've got our next out-of-the-country sailing trip coming up soon. OK, it's in 6 months, but I'm excited about it....the 4 couples (Sharon & Buddy, Pat & Diane, Dick & Lindy plus Duane & I) are going to the Leeward Islands in May 2010.

Since I did the tie dye shirts for our 2008 BVI Sailing Trip... I thought it would be cool to do it again this year. Here's the link to that tie dye experience, if you're interested Screen Print and Tie Dye T Shirts

This time, I decided that I could skip the screen print step. Diane found a good catamaran boat drawing - I cleaned it up and added the wording - uploaded it to a tee-shirt company - and viola' - we had custom tee shirts. If you ever need to do something similar - I've got to recommend Queensboro Shirt Company They will print your custom designed screen print for less than $10 per shirt - and you only have to order 4 shirts - not hundreds like some printers.

OK, enough of that.


We named the trip the Leeward Islands because we will be sailing to several of the Leeward Islands - hopefully St. Martin, Anguilla, St. Kitts, Nevis, and St. Barts. Winds and weather will dictate where we get to go....but that's 6 months away - we're concerned now with shirts!


Here's what the shirt looks like straight out of the box. Nice quality.





The process requires soaking the shirts in soda ash to make the dye adhere to the fabric. Soda ash is just "PH-UP" for pools. So, the shirts went in the cooler for the 1/2 hour soak.


All the fixin's - dye, squirt bottles, salt, warm water, shelves from my oven over the trash cans...



Sorry, Sharon - I was antsy to get these done, so we did yours for you. Hope you like them!!

Diane hard at work -


Ditto for Lindy - looks like hard labor, doesn't it?



Yep, we're all sweating this one.




The hardest part was waiting till the next day to "unveil" the artwork...



Rinse, rinse, rinse....



Rinsed again in the washer and all dry now.



Here's a close-up of Sharon's shirt.



The next day, here's Dick with a shirt when he and Lindy came to pick us up for the ham-biscuit adventure.

I'm looking forward to wearing these in the Tropics!!!

NC State Fair and Ham Biscuits!!

Dick and Lindy "invited" us to go to the NC State Fair on Sunday....you'll see the reason for the quotes in a minute....

Beautiful fall day for the fair. It's been years since I'd been. Free tickets and close-in parking passes made it nice....


Busy day on the midway - all the usual rides and games.



Ah-ha - here is the destination.....the Pittsboro Kiwanis Club Ham Biscuit booth! Our home for the evening.....we'd been "invited" to volunteer for 8 hours of non-stop Ham Biscuit selling! All for the good cause, of course.



Duane was assigned the chief-cook position....I, of course, knew he would be great at this...


The position also included lots of cleaning duties. I'm looking forward to some help in the kitchen now that he's experienced in removing baked-on crud!!


I was the lowly sales-girl. Non-stop! I've never seen so much money change hands so quickly. The captive, hungry fair-goers are the perfect customer set. Great for the Kiwanis. This is their major funds-raiser.


Somehow didn't get a shot of my partner at the window, Lindy - but we all worked like a well-oiled machine!

Here's Dick - our ringleader and expert biscuit assembler.


Really, it was a fun time. Not something you'd want to do every day, but a good way to spend a pretty fall evening.

Sales were declining around 10PM when the fireworks finale brought us all out of the booth for a quick peek. Then a bit of clean-up and an late (early morning, actually) drive back to P-town!

Wedding Dress

Gottcha! No, not for one of the kids....

When I was looking for the previous "Chevette" picture in my old album, I ran across this photo of me that Mom took outside of my dorm room in 1982 probably a few months before our wedding.

And, in keeping with the strict diet I've been on for-ever....I thought I might be able to squeeze in....so decided to pull the dress out of the closet and see if it fit me now (it's been literally years since I've had it out).




Yep - although I must say it's snug! Teenage bodies are thinner (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) Fun to do once in a while.

And I think I look happier now! (Or maybe I was just trying to be the "demure" bride...hahaha - like I was EVER that!!)

Chevettes

Now, a few young people who read this blog (Miranda, maybe Richard or Robert, Bridget- do you drop in?????) probably haven't even heard of a Chevette........


I spied a Chevy Chevette on the road today!!! It's been a looong time since I've seen one.

A few Chevette facts:

The Chevette replaced the Vega as Chevy's subcompact in 1974

The Chevette was the last rear-wheel drive subcompact for the U.S.

In 1987, Chevette's final year, a version was offered at US $4,995

Now here's a factiod - The Chevette was the best-selling small car in America for the 1979 and 1980 model years.



There were a couple of Chevy Sub-compact's in my family history - let's see....

We had a Beige Vega when I was a freshman in high school - I don't think that was our actual "family car" at that point - but I know Teresa drove me to school in it some....

Then we got a white Vega with "orange" stripes....I think that was the one Daddy converted from a manual to a stick-shift, or was it the other way around....my memory is vague. I'm sure Mom or Teresa can help out here.

Then Sharon got a Blue Chevette - and took it to NC State. I recall a couple of 'vapor 'lock issues. Back in the day of no-cell-phones, she had to be rescued a few times. Things were certainly different back then! (I don't have a photo - but that's why I perked up when I saw the one on my way home today - looks similar)

Then Teresa got a bright red one. She had it when she lived in Durham, she had it when she lived in Apex, she had it when she lived in Jacksonville, FL, she had it when she lived in Balsam Grove.....she had that little car for a LONG time!! I remember it being stuffed with books and papers....what was it's nickname!????


I couldn't resist - I remembered this photo from long, long ago. Camping at Jordan Lake when you could just pull off onto the old roads and camp. Circa 1983.

Sexy legs, Rafe!


Somewhere in there, Duane and I acquired a gold Chevette from an IBM friend when we lived at New Hill. The engine was blown and I think he just gave us the car and title. Duane got a used engine and got the car running.

That was just a project- I think we sold it - I don't remember even driving it much.

Funny how things like that just fade from memory....and it just dawned on me that my new little Saturn is sortof a "next generation Chevy Sub-compact"....so the trend continues!

Robert and the injured Subaru

A few weeks ago, Robert called Sunday morning from the parking lot at State on his way to work (he works every Sunday at Harris Teeter.) Apparently, someone had side-swiped the Subaru overnite. A classic dent-and-run from a blue-colored car...... Sad, sad little Subaru.....



Never fear!! Farm Bureau to the rescue! Glad we left the comp & collision coverage on that car. It damaged the front quarter-panel and the swipe continued down both doors.

I picked the car up this morning and took it back to Robert. (He had borrowed the courtesy car for the Asheboro Airport - and I needed it back!!) Looks good as new and a substantial amount cleaner than when he took it in thanks to their complementary wash-job!!

Sticker fun

Big girls get to have fun with stickers too! It was an absolutely glorious day at the airport! Look at that beautiful blue sky in the background. If I didn't know better, I'd say we were out west in the clear Rocky Mountain sky.....but I digress.......

I have a "Quality Control" inspection tomorrow - and one of the things they'll look at is my signage. Some of it is a bit on the dreary side.....



All faded from the sun - these have to be replaced every few years. I ended up replacing about 20 different stickers. The flying public is safer now.....



All nice and bright again....some of the stickers this time were a bit small, so I gotta get some plain white stickers to cover old ones. Should pass 'muster with the inspector though!

Chilly weekend at the boat

We flew down to New Bern Saturday morning - Duane made the instrument approach very nicely. It was 1200 ft. overcast, so it wasn't really low or foggy.

The weather forecast had been for mostly sunny skies and temps in the 60's. Not bathing suit weather, but we can handle that. It was not to be, though! Rainy, dreary and chilly....and 20-25 knot winds! Oh well, we've had some great sailing this year, can't complain too much...

A messy boat chore - the windlass (the motorized winch that brings the anchor up) wasn't working. Duane had to get to the motor/wiring - so the vee-berth had to be slightly disassembled.



Duane's feet - he's snugged up in the bow removing the motor.



Long story short - the motor manufacturer is no longer in business....so doesn't look like we'll get replacement parts. One of the "brushes" in the motor was stuck - so Duane freed that up, cleaned it up and reinstalled. (It's messy because the brushes are made of carbon and the carbon dust gets everywhere....)

Viola, it works again. Don't know how long it will work - but it's good right now!!

Put it all back together and she's ready for the next visitor!

Jazz at the General Store Cafe in Pittsboro

I know, it's been a while since I posted....nothing much of interest this week going on in the World of Karen. That is, until Miranda invited me to join her at the General Store Cafe in Pittsboro for their jazz night.

The Tony Galiani Band was there - playing a nice mix.






Miranda picked up my camera a got this cool, "artsy" shot....too bad, I didn't snap a photo of her...




Robert told me to request "Milestones" - they played it very nicely...a good time!

Why Customers Quit

While cleaning out a drawer in the airport office today, I found a very old and weathered piece of paper that had obviously been posted on someone's desk for many years:



In case you can't read it it says:

"Why Customers Quit"

- 1% Die
- 3% Move Away
- 5% Develop other friendships
- 7% Competitive Reasons
- 6% Product Dissatisfaction
-78% Quit because of an attitude of indifference towards customer by dealer or some employee!!!


Good to think about no matter what your business is!!

-

Fishy, Fishy, Fishy

My poor Oscar, the 2 year old oscar-fish (one of the original fish that Richard and Miranda stocked the tank with...) committed fish-suicide the other day. That means, he jumped out of the tank and was on the floor. Boo, hoo. I had been treating him for an unknown illness - I think the medication must have bothered him because he actually had to lift the cover of the tank to jump out.



So, I had the local pet store in Asheboro order me some new ones - pretty stripes on these! No too easy to see because they are still in the plastic bag getting acclimated to the bigger tank temp. I hope they do OK with the large chileads that are in the tank already! So far, so good!

Aaron visited!

Nephew Aaron was in Raleigh for a business trip (am I really old enough to have a nephew on a business trip???) He phoned and said he could swing by on his way back to Charlotte. All my boys were working, so it ended up only me being able to meet him. We had a nice little meal at our local pub - with the added bonus that it was "poker night"! Aaron says he hadn't played in a while....he won some big pots - not sure if he was bluffing or not. He ended up calling my "all-in" bet and giving me all his chips. Nice of him to do that! He needed to get back to Charlotte anyway. (by-the-way, I ended up winning the tournament for the night! Aaron must have been my good luck charm!)

Ants on a Log....

I don't know why I found this so amusing....my baby boy -- going on 20 now --- asked for this snack....

Funny sight on this rainy morning!

Hope you can see the detail in this photo....on my way to the airport this fine, foggy morning, I happened upon a blue light in the distance with cars backed up. Fearing the worst - I was met with a kindof happy surprise. As I got closer, it was clear that the Deputy was herding a big cow that had escaped his pasture. The cow was not happy and kept turning around towards the patrol car. Nice to know that we're protected from all sorts of things in this county!!!

Gardneing Weekend

We worked the entire weekend on flower beds!

We've got a few rock-lined flower beds that have been ignored for the past few years. They've got lots of perennial flowers and bulbs, so alot of attention is not required.

But, they've started to look a little under the weather.....sorry for all the shadows - seems like I only had my camera with me early and late in the day.

Here's the "before" photos of a couple of beds.






The impetus for all this gardening is actually a load of mulch.... this wonderful pile of fibrous material was delivered Friday night by one of our poker-buddies. He just drove his dump truck to the poker game! (He runs a home/landscaping company....Mom has some strawberry planters from his store.)




We dug up the beds and removed all the plants. Then we decided that we needed a little more dirt. Lucky us, Duane knew where there was some topsoil piled near the runway....so, he just fired up the front-end loader and got me some!




Here's the first bed all ready for re-planting.



And here it is after I've planted various blubs/plants. It looks kindof bare - but there's lots of bulbs down there that will be really pretty come this spring! I have no idea why this is underlined!!



And here it is after the mulch was put down. This is pretty much the end of Saturday!




Sunday, we made a new bed - amazing how many bulbs and plants we dug up from the first bed!!



We had many, many, many Japanese and "Swamp" iris plants/tubers. We decided to have one bed just for them.



I had lots of "Lamb's Ears" left over - so I made a new little bed under our little holly tree.
I'm tired!!