Fall garden

It was time to clean up the garden again!! About this time of year, I always seem to ignore the garden an it gets overrun with weeds.....

I meant to get a photo of Duane doing the mowing....but just did miss him "in action".....

All mowed/tilled.....ready for the fall garden....I asked him to just till up a small plot so I wouldn't go overboard.....I'm thinking onions, radishes, collards and lettuce!

Frogs at the airport

It is very "froggy" at the airport!!!

Miranda will love this one - it resembles the frog on Richard's tie-dye shirt!

The first two were outside - this one found it's way inside!  I got the broom and swept him out the door - and he "peed" every time I pushed him towards the door!!  Yuck!

Mom's Seventieth Birthday Makeover

Since Mom should be on her way back home now....it's safe to post this here!


And so it began!  Mom's birthday was coming up and we were searching for ideas for something special to do. Denise suggested new carpet for their living room...and then of course we had to do paint too! Sneaky timing - she and Frank would be out of town for a 5 day weekend for Frank's grandson's wedding in Missouri - so we had a nice window of time. Keith arranged to meet Lowe's at their house the Friday before to do the measuring while Mom and Frank were away from the house on their normally scheduled Grandma Hall visit.

These photos are a mix of my camera and Keith & Denise's camera, so you'll notice some slight differences.  Denise snapped this one before I arrived Thursday evening.  She snapped lots more of the walls, etc. so that we could put everything back where it was!

With most of the stuff out of the room, we started with the ceiling. 

Keith & Denise had gotten the paint to loosely match both the existing paint and the new carpet.  Kindof tan for the walls and a lighter tan for the trim.

Patched some holes in the walls

Took a few phone calls - texted Mom Happy Birthday!!

Started taking up the carpet because we couldn't paint all the way the floor with the old carpet in place.  Fun to see the old, original tile. 

Paint mostly finished.  Windows washed and repainted.

Burning the trash... beautiful weekend after some heavy rain.

Final cleanings, getting ready to re-install the blinds.

Keith took them down so we thought he needed to put them back up!!

Now for the miraculous part.  Three men and a van!

They made quick work of it!

Padding in place

They swept the pavement, then laid out the carpet and rough-cut it.

Amazing to watch this - and it re-affirms my belief that this should be left to the professionals!

Putting the seam in.

Stretching....

All done - they hauled the couch back inside for us.

Starting to put everything back in place.

Denise wanted to put stove black on...so we let her!

All done!!

Ta-da!!!

Banner and cards in place ready for Mom to walk in!

No more diet drinks

We decided to try to stop drinking diet sodas. It seemed like I was drinking them one after the other....more like a habit than for thirst. Too, too many. There are all kinds of discussions about the artificial sweeteners and their effects on blood sugar and the nervous system. None good....

So, I simply quit buying them for the fridge at home. And I refuse to get them out of the machines at work. Cold turkey.

Here is what I drank at work yesterday. Coffee and water. Never fear - they were bottles I rinsed and filled at home with tap water (the water at the airport tastes like rusty nails!)

And, when we want a little fizz, we're drinking seltzer water.

Tomato soup!

I was hungry this morning....but I didn't really bring my proper lunch today. So, I went foraging on top of the refrigerator at the airport. This is where various food is stored and sometimes forgotten by the various employees. There have been a couple of cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup there for, I think, a year or so. Hmmmm, thought to myself "it's a chilly morning, I think I'll have some soup!"....

Well, it's been literally years since I've had tomato soup. This is as far as I got - first few "slurps" were fun. If I'd had some saltines or Ritz crackers, it would have been pure nostalgia. But, the saltiness got the better of me and I could eat no more! Wonder how big the pile of salt would be if they separated it from the soup - scary, I bet!!!

More turtle

Just a random photo....this morning driving out I spied this turtle. It was kinda chilly, and he was just "frozen" with his legs out. I actually thought he was dead. I touched his shell and he jerked awake, hissed at me, and retracted his appendages! I moved him to the other side of the road in the direction he was pointed. Hope that doesn't confuse him.

Beef allergy finally explained!!

An article in our local paper was about a lady with a beef allergy. Turns out, after all these years that I have been dealing with this "mystery allergy", they've discovered that it's TICKS that are causing it! My symptoms exactly! The article also states that it's any "mammalian" meat, which I suspected. Since chicken and fish are not mammals, that explains why I can eat them with no problems. Interesting... I get about 200 little tick bites a year, so I'm probably re-infecting myself.

http://allergicliving.com/index.php/2010/07/02/food-allergy-beef-emerges-as-issue/

Another airport photo

I know, more airplane stuff......

I expected today to be really boring. The weather forecast was for cloudy skies and rain. Usually that makes me the "Lonely Maytag Repair(wo)man".

But, for some reason, it was busy all day! Interesting aircraft today!

Cool, calm morning at the airport!

I went to the airport early this morning because I had a King Air that needed fuel for an early departure.....

When I arrived, there was lots going on!

Neat way to start the day!!!

McCraw Reunion

It's reunion time again! This year, "our" branch of the McCraw family tree was responsible for the setup of the fellowship hall for the reunion.

We were up before sunrise (unusual for me!!) to fly up to Asheville for a very yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

Afterwards, there was a little bit of prep work before we went over to the church.

Always have to include an Obie photo....he's on a strict diet now (I guess he's getting old like the rest of us!!)  No more treats, poor thing!

All the usual suspects attended.  Great to see everyone.  Really great to eat all the yummy stuff....my blackberry pancakes from breakfast failed me.....I was hungry!  The McCraws are good cooks!

We made little "goodie baskets" for the 7 brothers and sisters to take home.

Lots of old photos were discussed - trying to figure out "who was who" in some of them.

Then back to the airport.....getting some fuel alongside all the business jets.  A beautiful pre-fall day!

Siler City Airport on our way home - a beautiful flight.  Fun day!