Might-Be Tuesday

This was my Monday night poem I had drafted and not yet posted last Monday when we got the call that Karen was in labor. I'm posting it a week late just for fun. We all know that might-be Tuesday turned out to be right and the name is Sophia Katharine.

(loosely to the tune of Ruby Tuesday)

We can never say just when she’ll come
Monday now don’t matter ‘cause it’s gone
While the sun is bright Or in the darkest night No one knows
We just suppose

Hello, might-be Tuesday
We can’t hang a name on her
Megan Reagan or Caitlin Rose
Still we’re gonna LOVE you…

Don't question why she needs to be so free She'll be here only when she wants to be Don’t think that we complain She will come when she’s ordained Our fingers crossed She won’t be bossed

Hello, might-be Tuesday
We can’t hang a name on her
Megan Reagan or Caitlin Rose
Still we’re gonna LOVE you…

There’s still time for her, Karen did say
I just don’t know how long I’ll be this way
Growing all the time
We all know
This miracle takes time
It will be fine

Hello, might-be Tuesday
We can’t hang a name on her
Megan Reagan or Caitlin Rose
Still we’re gonna LOVE you…

Hello, might-be Tuesday
We can’t hang a name on her
Megan Reagan or Caitlin Rose Still we’re gonna LOVE you…

----------------------------------

We've been concentrating on the baby and the parents and not blogging - I did write a paragraph here and there during the week so I will send those along - so here is a summary of the past week:

I had my “well it’s Tuesday and still no baby” blog already on the website in draft form when we got the call that Karen’s water had broken. This was on Monday evening. It is now Thursday evening and as everyone knows little Sophia Katharine has arrived and is a perfect little baby.


Early Tuesday Morning-

We arrived at the hospital at about 3 AM and tried to drive up into the parking garage. When the kayaks hit the low clearance warning sign we remembered that they were on the top of the CRV (no damage-just duh!). We had to back out and find the parking for tall vehicles.

We got to see Sophie shortly after her birth. Karen’s labor lasted more than the 6 hours it took us to drive there. We were in the waiting room at the hospital for about an hour before the nurse came to get us. The nurse was smiling but didn’t tell us anything – and we didn’t ask. But as we entered Karen’s room we heard the baby squawk and knew she had arrived. Both Karen and Tim looked good. Karen introduced us to our granddaughter who was less than an hour old. Before I could even ask Karen how she was she said “Do you want to hold her?” I was a little overwhelmed but did take her. The first feature I noticed was her mouth. She was just learning how to coordinate mouth, lips and tongue and hadn’t quite gotten the knack yet so she had her mouth wide open and was thrusting her tongue down. Still she was beautiful.

A happy tear-eyed karen with her just-born daughter

The Rest of Tuesday-

Penny and I went to Karen and Tim’s place to get some rest and take care of the house and critters. We got about 3 hours of sleep before going back to the hospital. By that time Sophie had been all checked out and pronounced to be a very healthy baby. No problems at all. The day saw parents and baby adjusting to their new life together and visits from friends and family. It was fun watching Tim change a diaper. Karen took to motherhood naturally. It was heart warming to see Karen’s newly acquired maternal smile as she looked at her new daughter. Aunt Christy came by with Christian to meet her niece.

Wednesday

Karen was required to spend 48 hours in the hospital so all day Wednesday was a hospital day. More visitors, more getting acquainted with Sophia. Cousin Kerry stopped by with little Annie.


Thursday


Sophie came home today and is settling into her routine pretty well. Tim says that she’s a keeper. Karen keeps telling her how cute she is. Truman doesn’t seem too traumatized. We will see how the first night goes. Penny prepared a wonderful Come-home dinner of stuffed chicken breasts, spinach casserole and salad. Later - desert was provided by Ben and Jerry.


The first night was not bad. Karen and Tim did not get a lot of sleep. Sophie wasn’t crying all the time. It was just the first night and everyone’s schedule has to adjust to the little girls eat, sleep, poop and cry schedule. Karen is also sore from giving birth. For me, it’s hard to see her hurting even though so much good has come from it.


Sophie’s first days are being thoroughly documented thanks to the digital age. We have 3 digital still cameras and 1 video camera between us so we are not lacking for pictures.


Friday – the first full day at home.

Penny continues to feed us well – Pasta Pesto for lunch and chimichangas for dinner. Sophie is sleeping most of the time with Tim or Karen keeping watch and caring for her. Penny jumps in where needed and so do I – but only when they twist my arm ;). Sophie was put in the crib for the first time. She looks so tiny in there.


Saturday –

Penny and I left Karen and Tim alone for about 3 hours this morning to give them a break from us. We are being very careful not to impose. We spent some time in a used bookstore and did some grocery shopping. In the afternoon Karen and Tim had their friends Matt and Robin stop by with their 2-week old girl Ellie. It’s neat that their friends’ baby and Sophie are so close in age. Today Penny made meatloaf for dinner. To make sure we didn’t go hungry Tim treated all of us to soft ice cream from the local Dreamette. I had their banana split in a cup – and I ate the whole thing!


Sunday –

Penny and I went to Karen’s church this morning. An Asian family there has been anxiously awaiting Karen’s baby so we brought pictures to show them. I wish I had my camera so you could see their faces as they looked at the pictures. The mother had a huge smile and the daughter made Christy-faces of joy and excitement. We decided to do leftovers today so we had chimies for lunch and chicken breast sandwiches for dinner.

I talked to brother Lou, sister Kathy and niece Kerry today. Tomorrow Penny and I are running off in the afternoon to go make pizza at Kerry’s.

Monday, Monday.

(Read loosely to the tune of Monday, Monday)

Monday, Monday,
Might be the day.
Monday morning might see the call and we’ll be on our way.
But Monday this week may come and go and not change a thing.
Ah Monday, Monday will July 30th be the day?


Any other day, any other day, any other day of the week is fine – yeah.
But we know that it’s ‘bout time, it’s ‘bout time and we aint lying – yeah.


Monday, Monday,
Give Karen a break
She’s been patient, she’s been nesting, and she’s all set.
And Monday, Monday we know that your child is fair of face,
So Monday, Monday will you be the day the birth takes place?


Any other day, any other day, any other day of the week is fine – yeah.
But we know that it’s ‘bout time, it’s ‘bout time and we aint lying – yeah.

Monday, Monday,
We want to know,
How much longer will you let our sweet daughter wait.
Ah Monday, Monday if you’re not right we’ll understand.
After all it’s not in yours but in God’s hands.


Any other day, any other day, any other day of the week is fine – yeah.
But we know that it’s ‘bout time, it’s ‘bout time and we aint lying – yeah.


Oh Monday, Monday

Monday, Monday

Cat Update

The cats are all doing well. Their day-to-day routine is somewhat mysterious. For a while all 8 were around all day. Then one day Unsub and Meredith were gone. Two days later they showed up. Then one day only 3 of the kittens showed up. It varies from day to day. The number will dwindle for a few days and then suddenly all 8 are back again. I don’t know where they go. Hopefully someone else in the neighborhood is also feeding them. My MOD III automatic cat feeder continues to work well. So if for some reason we are called out of town the cats shouldn’t starve. It can feed them for about 14 days.


I’ve been playing with the cats in the evening with a cat toy on the end of a fishing pole. I am fascinated by the natural athletic ability the cats have. Izzy and Velcro are champs at jumping and twisting in mid-air. It is a little disconcerting to see how strong their predatory instincts are. One of the books I read while making the crib was about mountain lions. It described their quickness, strength, and killing ability. Compared to a house cat the lions were said to be 10 times as strong. When I see Marmalade’s kitten Buzz leaping at the toy and swatting it with a paw full of claws – catching it with one ultra-fast swipe it makes me never ever want to face a big cat. We like to think of cats as cuddly and playful. They are. But deep inside that predator lurks. Just try to take a lizard away from your cute little cat sometime and you will find out.

They Come in Threes,


OK Karen, You can have the baby now. Last night our house air conditioner died. In actuality only the blower motor on the outside unit quit. The timing was what you would expect – a Sunday service call with the additional fee. This is the 3rd thing to break this week. If this had happened when we were out of town the inside A/C unit would have run full time, the outside compressor might have been destroyed and we would have returned to a very warm house, monster electric bill and at least a $2,000 expense to replace the outside unit. So Karen thanks for waiting. I know it’s been rough.

Earlier this week the hard drive on my laptop started to die. I haven’t turned it off all week and so far it is still working. The new hard drive is in transit and should arrive by Tuesday. Yesterday I started straightening and cleaning up the shop after the big crib project and found my shop vac was kaput.

So the set of 3 occurrences is complete now with the A/C quitting.

The A/C is fixed now and once again cooling the house. Penny and I slept in the sunroom last night because it has its own A/C unit. Neither of us got good sleep. Now that the A/C is fixed a nap sounds good.

Little Diapers

Little diapers sit unused,
All set to catch those little poos.
Little shirts and little onesies,
A mobile for her to peruse.

Heaven knows that you are ready,
But the waiting you’re not spared.
She will come when she will come,
A new love to be shared.

Little diapers full of poo,
She sucks her little thumb.
You gaze upon your little girl,
What both your loves become.

Together


They say when you’ve been married a while you begin to look like your partner.

Well, I was looking at our Italy pictures and I think That there is a slight resemblance between Penny and I. What do you think?


OK, so I need some distraction activity, too.

Little Hands


Little hands that hold the future,
Little feet to kick Mom’s rib.
A loving room prepared to meet her,
In pink and green with hand-made crib.

Her little cheeks, soon to be kissed.
Mom’s pregnant belly, soon to be missed?
We all await her soon appearance,
Karen, how long will this persist?

A little while and she’ll be here,
Calls will go out both far and near.
A little family increased by one,
Their little girl. so sweet, so dear.

Little hands to hold Mom’s finger,
Little feet to kick the air.
A loving family to receive her,
And God receives our thankful prayer.

Hard Rain, Hard Drives and Hard Waits.


Like Karen and Tim we are anxiously awaiting the birth of their little girl – but the waiting is hard. For the last couple of days I’ve been watching Penny slowly spin herself up waiting for that phone call. We don’t get many unexpected phone calls – or even expected ones. So every time the phone rings it might be them.


I’ve been trying to keep Penny’s mind occupied. Shopping almost always distracts her so yesterday we went to the outlet mall in Sandestin to look for a small camera for her. She wanted something to keep in her purse so she could take photos wherever she was. She doesn’t want her cell phone to do this because it has a lower resolution. The specs were – small, good resolution and relatively inexpensive. The Sony outlet was a good place to look. She ended up buying a 7.2 Megapixel camera and it is now in her purse full time.


Of course, we stopped at Fresh Market on the way back and got some fruit and snack mixes. Since it was about 1 PM at this point we stopped at Slick Mick’s for their Philly cheese steak sandwich special. It looked like rain so I parked in a slot right at the sidewalk in case it was raining when we came out. Shortly after we were seated the storm arrived and I watched the sideways rain and gusty wind while I munched my sandwich and homemade potato chips. We haven’t had much rain for the past 2 weeks so we needed this but we didn’t need so much all at the same time. The rain did not let up through the time when we paid the bill and were ready to go. We tried to wait it out but the rain wouldn’t stop. We bit the bullet and made the short dash to the car – and arrived soaked.


The drive back was almost a float. This is one time I was glad we had the extra ground (water) clearance of the CRV. I don’t think my old Civic would have made it through some of the puddles we crossed. Our town has decent drainage but there were substantial puddles everywhere. We arrived home safely and enjoyed once again the convenience of the automatic garage door opener saving us from another dash through the rain.


Today I spent most of the morning working with my laptop. For the past 3 days I’ve been getting a “hard drive failure imminent – back up your data now” type of message whenever I turn on the laptop. So I haven’t turned it off in 2 days while I back up my data to my external 80 GB drive. Last night I made a recovery copy of my disk using Norton Ghost. It took 7 hours for the computer to do this. This morning I went on line and ordered a new hard drive and increased memory for the laptop. We will see if we are still here when the drive arrives. I’m replacing the defective 40 GB hard drive with a compatible (and faster) 120 GB drive. I will blog on the remove and replace action when I complete the job. The blog will likely be titled “Pulling out my hair”.

For our Penny Distraction Activity (PDA) today (after I spent the morning on the computer) we went to a movie, grocery shopped and did a walk-through of the A C Moore store.


The movie we saw was “License to Wed”, a fun summer comedy good for distraction. Robin Williams plays a priest who requires couples to complete his special marriage preparation course before they can wed in his church. The movie was cute and not really overdone (good clean humor – nothing raunchy). I liked the ending the best because although most of the comedy was predictable fluff the movie ended up saying the correct things about marriage and relationships. It was humorous with a lesson and even gave me some things to think about.


The walk through A C Moore brought us face-to-face with Dara, who used to own and run TLC where both Karen and Christy went for day care. She was thrilled to see us and asked about the girls. She kept saying how special they were. She told us to say hi for her. She now lives in Defuniak. She said she still has the red fence from her ranch and the old TLC smiley face is in her green house. She can’t part with it, but she doesn’t know what to do with it. It was a special treat to see her after all this time – Penny should have whipped out her camera and taken a picture! We didn’t think about it. We both have camera cell phones. We’re just not used to having the electronics with us all the time yet.


Now as I sit here writing I haven’t yet conceived tomorrow’s PDA. Perhaps we will go somewhere and play with her camera. Maybe she will do some Egmont Key embroidery. There is always another movie. And of course, the surefire PDA of last resort – shopping. Is that the phone I hear?

Dog Days.


We are into the dog days of Summer with 90+ degree temperature and 90+ % humidity. It is just too hot outside to do anything – unless it is on the water. I’m leaving all my outside chores until evening time and blogging at mid-day.


We are all set to go to Jacksonville and we have modified our schedule to allow us to load the car and go in a relatively short time. We will be using my CRV so it is fueled up and ready. If you read my last blog you know that the 2 kayaks are sitting on top.


We use Penny’s CRV for our day to day transportation. We are not keeping more than a couple of days of perishables in the house and we have tended to eat lunch out instead of having something at home. Yesterday, after our venture into town to look at kayak cover material we lunched at Chic-Fillet- one of Penny’s favorite fast food places. I’m always impressed at the volume of traffic, both walk-in and drive-through, that this restaurant handles with ease. I got to the counter quickly, ordered, paid and as I was getting my change the order arrived. Penny and I had a great view of the drive-through line which, while constantly moving, remained long. Watching all those idling cars I couldn’t help but wonder , now that the global warming lobby has gotten popular opinion on its side, how long it will be until we get legislated out of our wasteful drive-through habits.


Today was our visit Target day. There haven’t been abundant bargains for the past few weeks. Today we did find a good and useful buy. They had all their outdoor furniture marked at 75% off and we got a small wooden stool/cooler/storage box for our patio. Christy also asked us to check if our Tuesday Morning had a sofa cover in stock that she wanted to get. We ended up going through Big Lots and Tuesday Morning and yes, they had what Christy wanted.


Once again it was lunch time so we went to a little Oriental restaurant called Tokyo that was there at Uptown Station.


Now our only issue with going out of town is library books that must be returned in a week. We can’t just renew them (they are new books on CD and they can’t be renewed) so we will likely bite the bullet and return them early and hope we can find them at a later date.

Now I guess it’s off to some indoor chores.

Double Your Pleasure.


Until today I could only carry 1 kayak at a time on top of the CRV. We wanted to bring both Kayaks with us to Jacksonville when we get THE call from Karen. Our thinking is that we can either use our tandem in J’ville or go down to Gainesville and I could use the single and Christy and Christian could use the tandem – or any other variation. I know it is best to carry the kayaks on their sides but I don’t have the rack equipment to do that. It is also quite difficult to safely flip the tandem kayak when it is lifted that high. I can also load and unload the kayaks unassisted when I mount them in the belly-down configuration.

It took me 2 days to get this done – part time each day – but it was nice to have the time to fix things that didn’t work out as expected. The problem with this configuration is the cockpit of the kayak is wide open and facing up. I already found out how much water can accumulate in the tandem kayak in just 1 rain storm. We are talking gallons. So Penny has taken on the task of making cockpit covers for the kayaks.


I currently have the kayaks on the CRV -ready to go- wrapped with stretch-tite plastic wrap reinforced with duct tape to keep water out. If Karen waits another week the Penny-made covers should be ready. Making the covers has also been an adventure. We are using the material from a gas grill cover that we bought more than a year ago at Target for $4.50. We checked out the hardware, fabric and boat stores to see if they sold bungee cord by the yard. Penny ended up going on line and then calling and negotiating a reduced price from a company in California.

So this kayak project is using the combined skill sets of Penny and me. What a team we make!

Us Day


Penny and I decided it was time for us to just spend some time together doing things we like to do – shop and eat. Penny also co-wrote this blog. See if you can pick out what she wrote!


I spent a lot of time on the crib in the last 2 months and Penny has been doing crafts and handling some health issues. Now that the crib is done and we are in the “alert” mode for the baby – we have a chance to relax.


We started the morning off with blueberry pancakes made with fresh blueberries that we got buy one get one from Publix. Then we tried to go to Haverty’s but they weren’t open yet. Off to Destin. We shopped at Beals and Tuesday Morning. We lunched at Fat Clemenza’s. I had a brick oven Pizza with hot salami and basil and Penny had the Fat Clemenza combo sandwich (sausage, beef green peppers, yum). We split the sandwich and half the pizza. We ate the second half for dinner. We cruised through the Destin Antique Mall looking for furniture (a chrome and Formica dinette and an armoire) and ideas for Christy’s new house. We didn’t find anything interesting. Then we topped the afternoon off by having our hair cut at Barbara’s. (which allowed me a few minutes to go to Home Depot to check out more stuff to help transport the kayaks. I’m searching for the best (and least expensive) way to carry both kayaks on the limited real estate on top of the CRV. I purchased a set of kayak saddles and tie down ropes at half-price at West Marine yesterday that will help also.)

Not an exciting day, but it was fun and relaxing. Who knows, maybe we will get the kayak in the water this week again.

Time to Contemplate.


Now that the furniture is finished and the kitty adventure is over I find myself back to a more relaxed schedule. It’s a good thing, too. It took Penny and me 2 days to recover from the trip to Jacksonville and Gainesville. Here on the third day I am doing some catch up on the front yard landscaping that I ignored while finishing up the crib. I’ve made a long “To Do” list of things I have to accomplish – but except for some hurricane preparedness stuff nothing has a deadline. We are, of course, keeping an eye on Jacksonville awaiting Karen and Tim’s baby.

I’ve also been thinking about Karen’s pregnancy and life in general. We are now seeing our daughters moving through their adult lives doing things that we have done. It is a sort of passing the torch to the next generation. Just seeing Karen pregnant evokes so many different feelings in me – love, concern, happiness, wonder… I’m fortunate in that Karen expresses her thoughts and feelings so well in her blog. At least I know how she feels about it.

Just for fun I did an internet search on quotes about babies. So here is, for Karen, an exploration of what a new baby does to your life through quotes and experience.

Knowing what the final weeks of pregnancy is like you can gain some perspective from Irma Bombeck:

“If I had my life to live over, instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished ever moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle. “

Many baby quotes are appropriately full of hope and wonder.

“A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities."

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for"

”A baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race”. ~Barbara Christine Seifert


“If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.”- Vincent van Gogh


“A woman can learn a lot from holding a new baby. It is life beginning again—sweet possibilities! No problem in the world is big enough to be remembered.”
- Susan McOmber


Of course, everything has it’s down side.


"Diaper backward spells repaid. Think about it." ~ Marshall McLuhan


"Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare." ~ Ed Asner

"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit." - Bill Cosby

“Now the thing about having a baby - and I can't be the first person to have noticed this - is that thereafter you have it.” - Jean Kerr


But there is a great deal of satisfaction, too.


"Getting a burp out of your little thing is probably the greatest satisfaction I've come across. It's truly one of life's most satisfying moments." - Brad Pitt


"Babies are always more trouble than you thought - and more wonderful." ~Charles Osgood


Your world will never be the same.


"Children reinvent your world for you." - Susan Sarandon

But you have to admit:

“ Babies are such a nice way to start people.” ~Don Herrold

There are quotes like this from a parent’s point of view:

"It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't." ~Barbara Kingsolver


Unlike the quotes Penny and I found about marriage the overriding sentiments in baby quotes are positive. A new baby just fills the world with joy and hope.

So, Karen, I end with one last quote:


"If your baby's "beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time," you're the grandma." ~ Theresa Bloomingdale

Kitty Trek IV – We Deliver!


These are the adventures of car-ship CRV on a 4-trip journey across the Florida universe to alter the state of 8 feline carbon based life forms. The final chapter of our Kitty Trek has come to and end. All the kitties survived the adventure after going where no cat has gone before (traveling 700 miles to be fixed). All 4 of the little kittens turned out to be boys. At least now their voices won’t change and they can remain in the soprano section of the kitty choir.


This was a multi-tasked journey. Karen’s crib and dresser being finished needed to be delivered. Karen had a sleeper sofa for Christy so we hauled that from Jacksonville to Gainesville. 5 kitties were in Gainesville awaiting the final journey home. Christian has just bought a house in High Springs and this was our first opportunity to see it.


Delivery #1

Delivery #1 Arrives Safely

We once again packed furniture on the trailer – protecting it from bumps and scrapes and inclement Florida weather. Driving to Jacksonville was uneventful. The trailer is easy to haul. I drove about 10-15 mph slower than normal so the journey took about an hour longer. We also used almost double the amount of gas. The furniture survived the trip with no ill effects. We only hit one small stretch of heavy rain on the trip. Nothing got wet. After unwrapping everything Penny and I moved the furniture into the nursery. The crib is a couple of inches wider than the doorway so I had to disassemble it to get it into the nursery. Reassembly went smoothly(fortunately). There is a potential for the assembly process to take a long time if the little threaded dowels fall out. The trip over must have secured them in place and none of them budged - so the reassembly process was as simple as inserting the bolts and tightening them up.


Karen proceeded to set up the room and after Tim and she finally decided on the arrangement of the furniture we all stood back and admired the work. As I told Karen, I don’t get excited about many things but I got excited about delivering the furniture. First of all I was quite relieved that I didn’t screw up the crib. Second, after seeing the final product I again had a rare feeling – pride. I am so pleased with how the crib and dresser came out and then to see it in the nursery with the skirt, mattress and bumper pads in place – it looks so much better than the “bare” furniture. Karen’s baby is now full term and her nursery is ready for business.


Delivery #2 - Day 2


We loaded the sleeper sofa on the trailer and wrapped it in a tarp. Fortunately we hit no rain on this leg of the trip. In Gainesville we delivered the sofa, trading it for a cage containing 5 cats. No, we did not put the cats in the trailer. They went into the back of car-ship CRV.


Delivery #3

Now it was time to return the cats to their home planet. We made a side trip to High Springs to see Christian’s new house. I liked it. It’s a beautiful little house sitting on a good sized lot in a nice section of High Springs. The house is old but it has been kept up well. It felt comfortable and had character. Christy and Christian should enjoy it. It will be such a complete change from where they live now.

The House in High Springs

We arrived back home at about 1AM. It was a long day. I left the cats in the cage until morning and went to bed.

After sleeping in and having breakfast it was time to release the cats. I did this by feeding them and opening the cage door while they ate and letting them discover they were free. Izzy was first out. Unlike the last batch these cats were comfortable on the back patio. They did not dash off. Instead they wandered around noticing what had changed on the patio since they last romped there. The weeds were bigger and things were moved around but they remembered this as home. Some of them went back in the cage to get another bite of food. Meredith, who had lived under the shed did leave the patio.


The 4 kittens stayed on the patio all day. They were so thrilled to be able to run farther than 3 feet that they ran and chased each other all over the patio until all 4 of them were panting.

Velcro Panting

Getting Reaquainted

At 6 PM it is feeding time. I set out 4 cans of soft food and sat to watch them eat. Everybody came to dinner – all 8 cats. There are still some pecking order issues to be worked out but there are no problems between any of the cats. I was able to pet Izzy and Velcro (Christian and Christy named the black cat).

Everyone Came to Dinner

Hopefully our cat population is now stable. Meanwhile our family’s human population is ready to be increased by 1.

One Last Time

We've got the furniture loaded on the trailer to transport to Karen. I thought I would show the final product one last time. After this maybe the furniture will show up in some of Karen's blogs about the baby.

Fireworks


T’is the season for fireworks and I feel like lighting off a few. The crib and dresser are officially finished. I put the topcoat of Bistro White semi-gloss on yesterday and touched up as necessary today. I still need to put the back on the dresser (it needed to be off for painting) and actually assemble the crib but the work is virtually finished. The paint job came out all right. It’s not perfect, but that’s what makes it special. I think Karen and Tim will like it.


Here is the dresser with the headboard and footboard in the background. Tomorrow the crib goes together, the back goes on the dresser and the refurbished toy box gets the top attached with new hinges including a safety hinge. I will post pictures of the finished and assembled products.


Speaking of fireworks, Penny and I watched them on the 4th from Malcolm and Kitty Page’s back yard. They live on a 17 ft bluff overlooking Choctawhatchee Bay and called and invited us over. From their vantage point you can see Ft Walton Beach, Destin and Sandestin fireworks and all the non-professional fireworks for miles around. I found the sheer quantity of store-bought fireworks being shot off to be incredible. I never had the desire to do that myself but there obviously is a huge market out there.


Malcolm and Kitty are doing well. Their daughter was there and a few of their friends. We got to see Jeannie nee Waite and got caught up on local happenings in the Catholic Parish. We learned that there is now and Angel of Hope statue at Bob Hope Village dedicated to the memory of Father Howie Lesch. Penny also brought everyone up on the latest news from the McClures.


For the past 3 days I turned our garage into a painting booth and spray painted the prime coat and topcoat onto the furniture. Our cars are sitting out in the hot sun until we deliver the furniture to Karen next week. If you want to do a lot of sweating close yourself in a hot garage for a few hours – guaranteed to lose some water-weight.

Before all the painting I also finished and assembled the full size bed configuration. It barely fit in my shop. I was pleased at how sturdy it felt when assembled.


Today I only spent ½ day on the furniture. The 2nd half was spent on the yard and lawn. I seem to have aggravated my back a little with the yard work so I’m relaxing for the 3rd half of the day – at least it gave me an opportunity to blog.

I'm happy to see 7/7/07 passing quietly. The terrorists like dates with 7 in the as well as 11. I'm glad they didn't like this multi-7 day.

Brie is very excited about the furniture being finished.

… For Tomorrow We Paint.

All that is left to do on the crib / bed is to put together the full size bed and drill 8 holes. After that it’s all over except for painting. Today I finished up the toddler bed configuration and assembled it to make sure it all fit together properly.

It’s gotten dull around here with no kittens to watch. I was getting used to all the entertainment they provided. It will be interesting when we bring them back here and release them. Will they stay around the patio or find some other area to take up residence? Christy has informed us that the white kitten, which we tentatively named Izzy, is a male. We may have to rethink that name. Meredith did turn out to be female.


Tomorrow is the 4th of July. In this retirement mode the holiday just comes and goes like any other day. We got a call from Kitty Page inviting us over for popcorn and fireworks at their place. We did that a few years ago and had a fun time. I was bad and got their neighbor’s dog in trouble. I’ll have to behave this year. The rest of the 4th will be spent finishing the full size bed and then painting everything. If all goes well I will have the prime coat on everything by day’s end. Then it will be 1 or 2 coats of the semi-gloss paint on succeeding days and the furniture will be ready for delivery.

We are also refinishing an old toy box that has been in Penny’s family. Penny sanded it today.

The lid for the box has bowed over the years so we are trying to straighten it some. Lacking a steam bending set up we set the lid on a damp carpet and wrapped it in plastic. Then we set it in the sun with clamps on it to try to straighten it out.

After a day in the sun the lid was unwrapped, dried off and clamped straight again in the workshop. After about 24 hours we will unclamp it and see if we succeeded in straightening it at all. We got new hinges and a safety latch to put on it before it goes to Karen and Tim for use with their new baby.

Kitty Trek III – Baptism and Altered States


It was a full and productive weekend. We went to Jacksonville for Anne Brophy’s Baptism and used this trip to bring the 2nd load of cats to Gainesville for their alteration.

Our next trip will be to deliver the crib and dresser and pick up the cats for the return home.

We stayed with Karen and Tim in Jacksonville and were able to run some errands for them using the space in our CRV to carry a carpet and some new trash cans. The main event for the weekend, the baptism, was wonderful. We don’t get to see the Brophy clan too often and all of them are just nice people. Little Anne barely made a sound through the whole ceremony, even when water was poured on her. Anne and Todd Taylor were Godparents.














After the ceremony we gathered at Kerry and John’s house for a brunch. Lots of good food and nice people.


On the way back home we stopped in Gainesville and picked up a wooden chest from Christy that we will paint the same color as the crib.


When we arrived home the inside of our house was 92 degrees. Something had caused the reset switch to pop while we were gone. We’ve been home now for about 3 hours and the house is down to 86 degrees and the compressor is still running. That A/C unit is many years old and I’ve been expecting it to go – but it would be nice if it hangs in a little longer.


While we were at Karen’s she had a problem with her ankles swelling with her pregnancy. She talks about it in her blog. I couldn’t resist taking this picture of Tim getting a picture of her ankle for the blog.