A little "fix-up" at the Siler City Airport

The airport terminal building is in need of some TLC....it's gotten cluttered over the years.  Plus, the "decor" has not been changed in almost 20 years!!

Here's a view from this morning.  Duane and I painted the entire terminal building and put up that wallpaper border when the boys were 6 and 7 years old!!! 

The clutter just "happens" over the years.

But, we're doing a "ribbon cutting" ceremony in a few weeks - to "open" the new runway.  I wanted to get things a little "spiffy" for that.


So, I got busy - tearing off the wallpaper border.  Patching holes in the walls.  Removing clutter.

I chose a grey-ish color that I thought would blend well with the carpet/baseboard.

And that's about it for now!  I'll do a little more "decorating" to spruce it up a little.

And I've still got plenty of painting to do.....that was just all I had time for today!

Thanksgiving visit to the mountains

After having a great dinner with Robert, Richard/Miranda and Sharon/Buddy on Wednesday night, we flew up early Thanksgiving morning to the Asheville Airport for more fun!

Robert flew up with us....and he has a weird "dome" camera lens that takes really cool wide angle photos.

Approach to the Asheville Airport - beautiful day!

We had a fantastic visit with Granny and Cordy - Carolyn/Tommy and Sharon/Buddy joined us for a nice dinner.....I asked if Granny could make her "biscuits" (which are actually succulent yeast rolls)....thanks!

Visiting Grandma Hall - she's 99.75 years old!!  100 celebration in March!   Four generations pictured here.

We all went outside to the gazebo....what a wonderful late November day in Asheville!!

Mom fixing Grandma's hair.  Both seem to be enjoying it!

Next up was the baby shower for nephew Aaron and Ashlee's baby shower up at Keith and Denise's house.  Fun visiting with Aaron and Ashlee as we don't see them often!  Best of luck to them with their new baby girl in March!

We all wandered down to the Mills River bank to walk off some Thanksgiving yummy food.  It looks more overgrown than I remember it from my childhood.

But we wandered further upstream to our old "swimming hole" - and found that there is still a rope-swing!!!  I'm sure it's not the same one, but it is certainly in the right place!

Overhead shot at Mom's house - fun dinner!

Fun visit!!!  And beautiful weather for late November!

Vegan Tur-duck-en

I needed to serve a "main dish" that was vegan for our early Thanksgiving meal. 

A standard "tur-duck-en" is typically a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken......

The vegan version was a butternut squash, stuffed with an eggplant, stuffed with a zucchini....

Basic ingredients...

You slice the vegetables in half and scoop out the insides.

Put the scrappings in the food processor along with a few mushrooms.  Add some thyme, salt and pepper.  Saute that with Earth Balance until tender.

Spoon the cooled vegetable paste into the butternut squash.

Press the eggplant into the butternut squash.  Add chopped, toasted walnuts and more of the vegetable filling.

 Press zucchini into eggplant, add vegetable filling, walnuts and melted butter/maple syrup.   Top with green onions.

Put the two halves together, tie with cotton string.

Bake at 350 for about 2 hours.

 Nice and tender

Vegan Tur-duck-en!

Sliced and ready for the Thanksgiving meal!  It was very good!

Honey Baked Ham Store Madness!

I told Granny that I would pick up a Honey Baked Ham and tote it to her house for Thanksgiving dinner.  That way, there would be easy-to-serve meat available (to those who could eat it!!)

The Honey Baked Store is in a little strip mall between Chapel Hill and Durham.  As I approached, I started seeing a line of cars parked on both sides of the road.

It was really strange seeing that many cars since there is only a muffler shop and a couple of other small shops nearby.

But it was soon clear that they were, in fact, headed to the same place I was.  A heated tent - I thought it might be a extra sales booth.....but it was just a sheltered way to stage the customers to enter the actual store.

But, hey, I'd already driven 45 minutes....so I got in line.  This is the scene inside the store.  I only waited about 30 minutes.  Had some nice conversations with folks standing in line.  Everyone was in a holiday cheer and I didn't hear a single complaint about the way!

 The store is actually run pretty efficiently.  Plus they had some nice samples handed out along the way.  I, of course, couldn't try the ham....but their streusel cake, blueberry crumb cake, and cranberry relish were delish!  Hope those who eat the ham enjoy my sacrificed time!

Bike ride in Oriental

Pat and Diane came down to their boat - and we had a nice visit with them.

We all hopped on our bikes and rode into town for a bit of touring and a quick appetizer at Nel's.  A.D. is getting a easy ride on her "doggie-trailer".

Friday movie night at the Old Theatre in Oriental

Occasionally, we're in town for the "Friday Night Flick".....

As usual, there is a live introduction to the movie, along with history and fascinating facts about the old flick....

And there's always a short film first - a "Green Lantern" or "Flash Gordon" short. 

I guess if you went to the movies every week, you'd keep track of Flash's adventures.....

Yes, there was a lot of terror!

Lot's of underwater terror in this episode!

And then it was time for the feature presentation!  A funny murder-mystery.   It was Shirley McClain's debut movie.   Neat to see the oldie's and for $5.50 each (including all the popcorn you can eat!), not a bad deal for Friday night in Oriental!

Fuel quality seminar

Duane and I attended a seminar on aviation fuel quality control put on by our fuel supplier at the Elizabethtown airport (near Fayetteville).

Good info, met some other, nice FBO folks!  (Mostly we went for the free lunch....just kiddin')

My Emmie Food Processor

I know, blog posts about appliances are a little lame......

But I love my little Emmie food processor that my brother gave me some Christmas in the 1980's.  He gave my sis an identical one and we both love, love, love them!

We've repair a couple of items over the years, but now the bowl itself is cracked.

Here is the little wonder (this photo was from the blog entry Thanksgiving 2009)

Amazing what you can find on eBay!! $12 bucks and free shipping.  Absolutely worth it to me since my little Emmie is just the right size and is so simple!

 New and old side-by-side.

Good to be "back in operation"!

Grandma and Frank visit

Mom and Frank came "down east" for a whirlwind visit.

We met the kiddos at a Mexican place in Chapel Hill - nice brief visit.  We have a nice looking family!!

And then Robert has to get silly, of course.....

Fun visit!