BRRRRRRR!

I know, I've just become a "weather blog"......but this is not something I see every day, ya know!

The forecast was for 7 degrees. 

I was surprised driving to work this morning!   (Notice the minus sign!!!)    Do I live in the South?  Ummm, no, apparently not!

Snow Day!

We have a little bit of snow - maybe 2 inches...normally that would be melted in a few hours.  But the temps never reach freezing today and the low tonight is 5 degrees!

Spices, spices, too many spices!

I have two cabinets completely filled with spices.  There's stuff in there I don't even remember.  And multiple jars of the same spice.  I don't know how it all accumulates, but I know I have to move stuff around all the time to find what I'm looking for. 

So, today, I decided to do something about it!  


Right side cabinet before:

This is the contents of the left side cabinet....

I had multiples of garlic powder, onion powder and chili powder....so I combined them to make a lot of room.  I also tossed some old, old, old spices that no longer looked or smelled good enough to keep.  (I'm pretty sure some were from New Hill - yeah, that old!!)


And there we have it -  with the help of some 2 for $1 plastic crates.  I'm pretty pleased with the results!!!

 

Fuel Analysis

Ever see one of these trucks on the highway?  They sortof look like they've got a moonshine still in the bed....

They are from the NC Dept of Agriculture.  Once a year, anyone who dispenses fuel for sale has to be tested for meter accuracy every year.

Unfortunately, I'm on the list in January.  So this morning, at 20 degrees, we did the testing.

Your meter must read accurately within a couple of tenths over 100 gallons.

Both the avgas and the jet pumps passed with flying colors.  Almost exactly 100 gallons was dispensed per our meter and per his very accurate calibrated container.  

Good for another year!

OK found a little snow

So I found just a dusting of snow at the Siler City Airport....brrr!

No snow :-(

Well, I guess the weatherman was wrong once again... Looks like zero inches to me!

Red, red robin and cardinal!

I don't know what it means to have lots of birds in the yard on a January morning.....maybe not a good thing!  (Since we have a little snow forecast)!

Do-it-yourself French Manicure

Miranda gave me a neat set of "French Manicure" polish as part of my Christmas. I feel lucky because Richard gave Duane a Despicable Me "Fart Gun". I think I got the better of those two!! Anyhew.... today was the first time a sat down and did my nails. Good fun and I think it turned out really neat. Before -

During -  paint white on the tips using little "masking strips" of tape....peel the tape off when the paint is dry.

Top-coat with the flesh colored polish.  Cool!

The last "Brooks Girl" solo'ed on her 16th Birthday!!!

We had a "special" private pilot solo at the Siler City Airport.....Miss Monika Brooks solo'ed on Thursday...

While that is special - it's special for a couple of more reasons....

She joins a minority of pilots that are female - just over 5% of the US pilot population is female.  

She solo'ed on her 16th birthday - BEFORE she got her drivers license!

She is the last of the "Brooks Girls" - the three sisters that all solo'ed on their 16th birthdays.

And, she did the flight in her late-grandfather's (Gyles Brooks)  Cessna!   Congrats to the whole family -  mom and dad - Alan and Carole,  the other sisters - Bridgette and Skye, and Grandma Becky, of course!  Gyles would be so proud!

Getting her "shirt-tail" cut by dad/flight instructor Alan.... look at that beautiful Carolina sky!!

Well done, Monika!  

Such a great day!

Everything "came out OK" haha

Well,  since turning the big 5-0.....my doc says that I needed a new mammogram, a bone density scan, and....drum roll.....a colonoscopy.  

Mammogram, ouch....but  'check'

Bone density - no ouch - easy/peasy - 'check'

And that leaves the yucky one.  Yep, if you've been there, no explanation required.  If you haven't....well, you figure it out for yourself!!!  

Had the procedure this morning - that propofol anesthesia is terrific, by the way!   No polyps, nothing abnormal, they'll see me in 10 years.  Glad that's over!  What do they make you do at 60??????

Aren't you glad I'm only showing my evening meal from last night???

A little sprinkle of snow!!

I was a little surprised this morning to see a dusting of snow!! I think it was forecast, I just didn't believe them!!

McCraw family holiday at Myrtle Beach

We had a very nice time at Myrtle Beach this year with the McCraw clan. As usual, there was a puzzle.

The place Carolyn picked out was roomy (8 bedrooms!!!) and just perfect.  About 100 yards from the beach.  Not that we could see the beach thru all the fog....

The photos loaded up in an odd order, but I'm not going to bother putting them in chronological order.  You'll figure it out....

Granny had sewn together the star pieces for this quilt several years ago....put she put it aside and gave it to Sharon.  Sharon pieced it all together an added all the trim - then did a fabulous job with the actual quilting.  The other children gave them the bits and pieces to freshen up their bedroom with all new linens.

Puzzle work.

We posed for some "formal shots" for Granny.  Somehow, everyone was in a silly mood!

Finally finished the puzzle.....that sky and ocean was really tough!!

Some of us went over to the Boardwalk on Broadway to play putt-putt....and imagine our surprise when we parked next to a vehicle with our "hometown" realty tag.  Small world!

Ahhh, the memories!!  It's been about 10 years since we played putt-putt with our kiddos!!

Haha - pretty Miranda on a silly-stool!!!

And the sun finally came out on the last day!!!

Art!

Richard and Miranda gave me this neat Chinese watercolor art instruction set for Christmas.

Some of my attempts at the first lesson....it's harder than it looks to get all the wonderful shading that the book instructs.  It's all about how you "load" the brush and the pressure you put on the paper.  Lot's more practice is in order!

Cold!!

OK, it's cold.....I know, about half of you saw much colder temps....brrr.  I hate the cold!

And because it's cold, I'm having HOT lentil soup and HOT tea for lunch!!

Replacing our trusty gas cooktop

After almost 20 years of fairly constant use.....my gas cooktop was on it's last legs.  It was a really good one - we've replaced a few parts over the years, but now several of the gas tubes have corroded thru and two of the igniters don't work anymore.  The replacement parts would cost more than a new cooktop.  So, we did what all good Americans do!   Called Lowe's and ordered a new one!  Note the jumble of pots/pans in the cabinet below.  My trusty mechanic (AKA Duane) fixed that for me too!

All done now.  Most of the day was spent on the retrofit.  It appeared to be a "drop-in replacement", but it proved to be larger than my old one.  So, we had to carefully measure and cut the counter top out to fit.  While the cabinet was opened up, Duane built a nice sturdy shelf for my pots/pans also.  Very nice!