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!

We're back from Oriental/Ocracoke..but our internet is pretty slow tonight. Richard downloaded a game last week and our satellite provider (wild blue...ugh) has told us that we are over the f.a.p (fair access policy) which means we've downloaded too much --14 gigabytes in one day, apparently....and they reduced our speed SIGNIFICANTLY....no photo uploads tonight. I'll do it at the airport where I have Roadrunner Business Class (and no FAP!!)

WILD BLUE IS TERRIBLE, but it's better than dialup (slightly)

Weirdest thing - the deer are eating all sorts of things in my flower bed this year!

Here are my regular old bearded iris's I've had for 20+ years, thru the various residences...chomped off close to the ground.


The deer must be hungry because of the drought or something....never before have the iris's been touched. They're eating the red-hot poker vegetation and my "burning bush" leaves also.

Strange also because there is still plenty of green grass around - maybe it's not tender enough. Hope this doesn't hurt the blooms this summer. That's another point, though - they are eating the summer blooming items, not the items in bloom now. I oughta write in to one of the horticulture columns in the newspaper!!!

I know, it's been a while since I posted....I've been busy partying lately!!

We had our pre-charter wine tasting event Saturday night. Buddy and Sharon came up from Greenville - and Dick & Lindy and Pat & Diane came over.


But first - I'll show you the wonderful Painkiller Cake that I made. Here's the link - http://www.bvipirate.com/IslandRecipes/PainkillerCake.html -
It's a really, really moist pineapple/coconut cake named after the signature beverage of Jost-van-dyke in BVI. Yummy.


Here's the ridiculous sweet glaze for the cake -rum, orange liquor, juice, etc.


The finished cake...

I set up the wine tasting bottles - these are all available from the wine shop in BVI. You order your food and beverages ahead of time there. I just wanted to taste them before hand so that we would have an idea of how to provision the boat.


We tasted each of the wines separately and "scored" them on a grid. I think it was a tie between two Australian reds- Penfolds brand. Of course, the girls all liked the white zinfandel wine, so we'll probably wimp out and order that very generic wine also!

Our wine-pouring expert, Pat:


Everyone is happy:
Yep, very happy:

And very relaxed- watching the Duke/Carolina game:

Just sending some more spring to the north!

It's a warm rain here now - I just noticed my weather pixie - she's got a pretty rain drop background with an umbrella. (Of course, that may be gone when you see it.) Cool how she changes....

We spent the good part of the day "dragging brush". The area between the house and the runway had alot of underbrush and extra little trees. Duane cut out the large ones with the chainsaw and the small sprigs/grapevines/briers with "nippers". Now it looks all nice and "manicured". Where you see brown here is newly cleared...



Most of my "regular" daffodils are in full bloom now - didn't get hurt by the recent cold spell. The "regular" ones are from Mom's "border" next to the driveway (I don't think the border is still there like it was when I was growing up...) I took some to New Hill - then dug some of them up when we built this house.

This is a patch of daffodils that I planted from store-bought bulbs. They are much thicker stemmed and bloom several weeks after my others. They are pretty and interesting though- they've got more that one set of petals. They're not quite open yet....


The "thrift" is blooming - this stuff blooms all summer long - and seems to be fine in a drought. Good stuff!

Teresa had this on her blog - cute

You Are a Frappacino

At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low

What Kind of Coffee Are You?