Harbordocks Again?

You’d think we would get bored always eating at Harbordocks but we don’t. Today it was a bright sunny day and we once again had Italian fried amberjack. No dolphins today.
I also took advantage of the nice day to take a real walk around the neighborhood. I walked for 1½ hours and that was about it. The river run is only 2 weeks away and I’m only ready for 1/3 of it.

We bought the book “The Five Love Languages” today also. 3 couples that we talked to for marriage preparation recommended it. Maybe we will update our talk about communication using some material from it.

Tomorrow is Waffle House—again!

Thurs- 25th

Only 10 months 'till Christmas!

I made good progress on the kitchen island today but that was all I did. I have all the facing done on 3 sides and I put the shelves in today.


I was saddened to hear about the Sea World Trainer that was killed. In 2005 I was going to Orlando about once a month for work and I went to Sea World many times during that timeframe. The trainer that was killed, Dawn Brancheau, was my favorite. I didn’t know her name until today but I looked back at pictures I took of her show in 2005 and was sad to see that she was the one in my pictures. She had a real connection with the whales.

Tomorrow is Target Friday.

Re-Routed

I didn’t get as much done on my project today because I ran into a problem with my router. The trigger quit working. I spent 2 1/2 hours opening the switch up finding what I thought was the problem-sawdust build-up on the contact- and then reassembling the unit. My fix did not work. I have a second router that also doesn’t have a working trigger. It starts up when it is plugged in so I have to be very careful with it. I usually use that router with my router table that has a switched outlet. I finished my routing with the backup. That was all I had time for today. The doors and drawer facings are cut to size and shaped by the router. Next comes hanging the doors and facing the drawers. That’s what I had hoped to do today in that 2 ½ hours.


That was my day. At least it was a beautiful weather day and I was outside all day. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning so I will do indoor stuff(my full time job of housework).

Triple Sized Monkey

Look what's new you Woot fans.
Tell Andrea not to worry--I'm not getting one.

NEW

Giant Screaming Monkey with Woot Cape

28 Inches

Lou, Lunch and Computer

My computer is back. After successfully making it look like my laptop I decided to try to install the correct factory image and that worked. So I’m back to my old settup and now must be careful about allowing updates. I already had the computer bomb after allowing an HP update. Fortunately the “restore to an earlier date” function is working and I was able to go back to the settup before the HP updates. Now we will see how long the computer behaves.


Today was another Louie day. He needed to get to the bus station to purchase his ticket with a 21 day in advance discount. I combined the trip with a visit to the boardwalk to look at the Gulf on a grey but pretty day. Then we met Penny at Olive Garden (she had been to the Drs). I got some movies from the library for Lou and then ran some errands with him. Then it was back home to continue setting up the computer.

I was supposed to walk today but I completely forgot. I got home around 3 PM and I’ve kept busy but I’m a little upset with myself for forgetting. It takes longer for me to make progress and the big walk is less than a month away.

I had downloaded this year’s Turbo Tax instead of buying a hard copy. I saved a couple bucks but I didn’t think my computer would crash a second time. So I have to buy another copy because the one I had is now in the great Blue Nowhere.

Tomorrow I’m planning on cutting the doors and shelf facing for the island and making as much progress beyond that as I can. It is going to take some time to put finishing touches on this project so I want to have the basic s done soon. I want to be able to deliver this project on our next trip East.

Computer Back?

I almost decided my computer had a hardware problem and my C: drive was dead. I was considering buying a new internal drive (they are not too expensive) and maybe Windows 7.

I gave fixing the computer one more try-- pulling out my non-Vista-compatible Norton Ghost software. I played around with some of the utilities on that figuring I couldn’t hurt what wasn’t working. Finally I decided to try to trick the computer into loading the computer recovery files from my laptop. I succeeded in doing that and now the computer is setting itself up with the factory image from my laptop, which is the same version of Vista that the desktop had.

The process is ongoing so I don’t know if some incompatibility will make it bomb out. So far so good. Windows came up and opened properly and the 60-day Norton trial is updating. It will be a while until I know how successful I am in recovering the computer.

Cold Walk

I worked on the kitchen island at an easier pace today so I wouldn’t overstress my thumbs. I adjusted the drawers and put the wheels on. Then I placed the top on it and took a progress picture. The top is not attached, the metal shelves are not screwed in, they are just in place and the drawers are in but do not have their faceplates. Here is what it looks like.

It looked like a good beach walk day so I quit early and headed to the beach around 3:30. The beach turned out to be very cold with a stiff wind blowing out of the west along the beach. I walked for an hour and a half facing that strong cold headwind for the 45-minute walk back. Because it was so cold I had the whole beach to myself.

Down by the jetties there was a good-sized sailboat sunk in the surf. Someone’s dream wallowing in the waves.

The sunset fizzled and I was cold so I headed home about 20 minutes before the sun actually set. At least I did get in a good walk and won’t need to hit the treadmill tonight.

Tomorrow is Target day and a Friday in lent (no meat). We will likely eat fish—at Harbordocks. Hey, somebody’s got to do it.

Happy Ash Wednesday

Once again I spent the day working on the kitchen island. Today I assembled and installed all the drawers. Next step is to make the doors and drawer facing. I may have to take a break tomorrow because these past 2 full days using my hands has made my thumbs flare up. Tonight they are very sore. I’ll see if they settle down overnight.
I had no success recovering my computer. I like the good old days when you had a bootable disk and a personal copy of windows software to use to repair the software. Now windows comes on the hard drive and Vista has quirks that make it difficult to recover. The methods outlined on-line don’t work and I can’t even recover the factory image the way I did last time.

That’s all I’ve got.

Avatar II

I took Lou to see Avatar on Monday. The movie is enjoyable the second time around. He enjoyed himself—especially in the candy shop we stopped in on the way back to the car.
My computer has crashed again—so far no luck in getting it back.. It crashed after the latest windows update and I can’t get the recovery program to even start up.

I spent all day today on the kitchen island. I’ve still got a ways to go with that project but it is going OK.

I’m on the treadmill and not in any shape yet for the river run!

Valentine’s Eve

We celebrated Valentine’s Day last Wednesday but that doesn’t mean all the celebration is over. I made Penny amaretto coffee with whipped cream topping and chocolate shavings. We had that with red velvet cupcakes that Penny got from our neighbor.

I dug out the turkey fryer we got at target 3 or so years ago to check it out for possible use the week of the wedding. It has a 30 qt pot and looked in good shape. It will now get stored with other stuff we are gathering for that week. I will have to fire it up between now and then to make sure it works.

Quilting Frame Together

My big accomplishment today was to finish assembling Penny’s quilting frame. We decided the sunroom was the best place for it. So Penny now has 3 rooms to work in.

On the kitty front, I was outside this morning doing some storage shuffling and Slash showed up looking cold and hungry. Of course I fed him and he wandered off only to show up a few hours later and camp outside the back door. I fed him some scraps we had. He’s learned that we are a food source.

The cold continues. There is ice formed outside every morning.

We are under a winter storm warning but the predictions for our location don’t include snow. It depends on how far south the cold air penetrates before the precipitation ends. If we get snow it won’t be until late morning tomorrow and it won’t be much (unless mother nature decides to pack a surprise). I think we will still do our Target run unless Penny doesn’t want to go outside. Happy winter!

I got myself a navy blazer for the wedding from kohls.com tonight. It was on sale for $76 less than their list price. I had checked out our local Kohl’s and sized the jacket I needed but decided to wait and see if it went on sale. It did on line and shipping was free.

Happy Valentine’s Day

We select a day other than Sunday to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Today was the day.

We started in an unusual manner by getting our H1N1 flu shots at Walgreen’s. It was a dual purpose visit as we are still searching for alum for a project Penny is doing. No luck on the alum but we did both get shot.

Next it was out to Destin for lunch at Harbordocks (of course). The visit to the restaurant was stellar. It had everything we go there to experience; the sunny view of Destin Harbor, Pelicans, cormorants, porpoise, good food (Italian fried grouper), jalapeño corn bread and happy servers. It was a great Valentine’s lunch date. For desert we picked up some of Penny’s favorite ice cream (jamocha almond fudge) at Baskin Robins.

Yesterday I had lunch with Louie. He just arrived back in town from Phoenix and needed to restock his bungalow so I offered to take him to lunch and provide transportation. He was in his usual “better than fantastic” mood. They had a very successful campaign (68 people “obeyed the gospel”) and he didn’t have to spend a dime the whole time he was out.

I also started to assemble Penny’s quilting frame yesterday but haven’t gotten back to it since I got the call from Louie.

There’s a chance that we will get some snow here on Friday. We haven’t seen that in 13 or 20 years depending on who you believe. In any event it’s been a while. They’re not expecting any accumulation, just rain mixed with sleet and snow.

All 4 kitties have appeared since we have returned and 1 little raccoon. I surprised it yesterday when I went out to feed Meredith. He backed away from the feeder still chomping on a mouthful of food. He didn’t leave till I stepped outside. I set the trap for him but like last time he hasn’t been back.

Monday 8 Feb.

I drove back from Jacksonville yesterday. We got home about 4:30 and I unloaded the car and did laundry while I watched the Super Bowl.
Penny and I got to spend 4 days watching Sophie. She couldn’t go to day care with her broken arm.

Here are the activities that Sophie likes:

Play dough-- Currently she likes to make food, celery, steak, spaghetti and especially corn dogs. Either she or I make the food then it goes into the pan and on top of the play oven. Next it comes out of the pan and into her “plate” which actually is a small square plastic cookie sheet for the oven. Of course the next step is to put it in the oven. When she removes it from the oven she says, “it’s hot, feel it” at which point I must touch the food and rapidly remove my hand crying “ouch”, thus confirming the food is hot. Then she announces that it has cooled down and we must pretend to eat it. Her other game is to simply cut up the play dough into slices with her plastic knife.

Reading--A big activity is reading with her. She has had some books read to her so frequently that she has them memorized and she will literally take the book and accurately “read’ it to you

Blocks—She is in the build-it –up and knock-it-down phase. We build a tower. She knocks it down enthusiastically. We rebuild.

Little people—She has a set of little people that she uses to play various games. I put them in a circle and asked her what they were doing in the circle. She said they were singing (that’s what she does at music class in a circle) and broke into song. I got a rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus” followed by “Jesus Loves the Little Children” Then it came to the knock it down time and little people were scattered all over.

As a diversion to keep her from getting upset, I made as if it was amazing that when she blew into a flute she could make a noise. For the rest of the week she would periodically pick up the flute and say, “watch this” and blow into it. Of course, I had to make a fuss over the fact she made a noise.

Sophie required attention 100% of her waking hours. That’s normal. Both Penny and I were worn out by her—but it was worth it. She will never be exactly like this again and our prolonged exclusive period left many pleasant memories.

The trip to Jacksonville interrupted my river run “training” so right now I am on the treadmill. I finished the laundry this morning and then worked on the table top for the kitchen island. It is ready to go on top of the cabinet.

Kitty Update—2 cats showed up our first night back—Buzz and Meredith. The feeder worked fine and wasn’t cleaned out by raccoons while we were gone.

Broken Arm and Midnight Ride

Monday evening I had just finished feeding the outside cats and was about to get on the treadmill when we got a call from Karen. Earlier in he day she had called us because Sophie had fallen and hurt her arm. This phone call was a confirmation that Sophie had broken her elbow. Karen wanted to know if we could come over and baby-sit Sophie. She and Tim didn’t have enough leave and Sophie couldn’t go to day care until she got a real cast on so------Grandma and Grandpa were mobilized. This was the 2nd time in less than 2 weeks that the trip checklist proved its worth. We got the call at 6:30 and were on the road at 8:30.

Now it is Wednesday night and Sophie is doing well. She has occupied both Penny and me 100% of the time. Lucy goes to day care and Sophie has us to herself.

So we are getting an unexpected treat of spending time with the Feagins and watching the grandkids grow.

It still feels funny to be able to drop everything at home and take off for a week with no advanced planning. I’m adjusting to it though.