Well Carrie, because you didn't get to help me redo the bathroom, here is how it is done.

First strip all the walls of old material. Then clean the tub using a single-edged razor blade, followed by stripper scrubbed with 000 steel wool, followed by very fine wet/dry sandpaper and finished with denatured alcohol.

Have Cheri convince you to replace the faucets with new and very shiny ones. See how the new shower head will be firmly attached to the wall!

Do a pressure check on the installed fixtures before closing them in the wall and tile.

Then put up the wallboard.

Decide to change the drain, requiring a plumbing job along with the tub refinishing. But now I am out of screws and can't finish putting up the backing board for the tile.

Next time, Repainting the Tub.

Star Fright

Yesterday and today were record setters as far as the temperature goes. High 70s. Highest recorded temperature in the Triad for the month of December.

There is supposed to be a meteorite shower the 13th and 14th right after sunset. It is supposed to be from the area of Gemini. Not sure if I will be able to see it or not as it is supposed to start getting cloudy tomorrow.

Speaking of stars and such.


"Which Star Wars character are you?" quiz
-->
Your results: You are Yoda

Yoda 72%

Obi-Wan Kenobi 68%

R2-D2 68%

Luke Skywalker 65%

Boba Fett 64%

Qui-Gon Jinn 63%

Darth Maul 63%

Princess Leia 62%

Mace Windu 62%

Padme 61%

Wise and all knowing you are…yes. Tall, dark, and handsome? Not so much I'd say.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters.)
Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character are you?" quiz...

New family members

Well, it has been almost a year since I last posted! Recent (and not so recent) births have prompted this rare feat.

Ethan Reeves (son of Bobby and Joy) will be the next in a long line (as long as there are kids) of quilt recepients from Cheri. Here is what he will be getting.

And then, across the big pond, Jason and Mirka tried very hard to get us to visit them by enticing us with another baby! Zoe was born on Friday, thus securing her own birthday of 12-7-07. Jason's life has been turned upside down.

RESPECT

We beat the students at the Volleyball challenge. OK, now for the details to rub it in. The students won the first game 15-about 11, then we won all the rest of the games we played. We used rally scoring for those of you who care.

The kids were rather surprised, after all their bravo about how they were going to beat us. It didn't seem to matter who we put in or who was serving. Although, Grant softened them up with a run of about seven nice serves in one game. I had to follow his lead and finish them off with a large number of serves in the next game that left them with glazed eyes as they seemed to lose all semblence of order.

We did have two secret weapons: Grant came home and added some welcome height and serving ability, and a guy name Keith who was out for the day from jail, who demonstrated on the teens how a spike should be done.

We are already planning a rematch, should the students be brave enough to want one, for the first Saturday night of next month. So, if you are in the area, and want to be on the winning team, come on out.

Sorry there are no photos, but we wanted to spare the LOSERS.

Back at work, two committee meetings, semester grades to get out, coliform in the water we drink- was vacation really only a week ago? At least the break got rid of the flu going around the school. All the kids went their separate ways and gave who knows what to who knows whom as a Christmas present! But by the time they came back, it had run it's course.

We attacked the lighthouse.










Beach beauties in winter.







The early bird gets the ??????









Nathan Green's early work.

A sorting problem.

Caretakers nightmare,

nature lovers delight.

The beaver ponds.

Rest stop and a rare photo.

March on

Made it through another crazy shopping season! I really only endure that because it is fun to get things for other people. The part I like is the Christmas music. I think I know more Christmas music from memory than any other kind. I also like seeing the lights, especially with snow on the ground or falling through the air making the lights glisten.

That said, this year we didn't have much snow. We traveled almost 2000 miles round trip clear up to Gaylord, MI in search of snow, without success. Along the way we stopped at Berrien Springs to see my dad and Freda. We also got to see Chuck and David. I haven't seen Chuck in years, so it was especially good to see him. The house is familiar yet strange at the same time. I never seem to get over the fact that I planted most of the trees in the yard, and that at one time I could touch the top of all of them. Under one tree are buried all our fallen pets.

Carrie asked to go to the beach. That was exactly what I wanted to do too. We went to Waco Beach, Warren Dunes, and the light house in Benton Harbor, all pleasant memories for me. I used to go to the beach two or three times a week, when I had gas money. Having a digital camera made taking photos of the seagulls much less difficult, for an old spinthrift like me. I took more shots than I have ever done in my life.

We left Berrien Springs after Christmas and headed for Grayling. That is where Camp Au Sable is. On the way the sky became more and more overcast. It looked like we were going to get snow. Well, as long as we stayed on US 131 it did snow a little bit, but as soon as we turned east away from Lake Michigan, the snow stopped. Reminded me of the last winter camp I was at in 1980.

Too bad this wasn't the dance of the sugar plum fairies! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xa2wVBza98&eurl= oh, well. It is still amazing. BTW it's Mozart.

Night Ramblings

Went to let the Lynk out tonight and found a surprise on the back porch with its head in the dog food dish. I held the cat back and it quickly went down the steps and, much to my surprise, instead of leaving by the quickest hole under the fence it climbed a tree next to the porch.

I let Lynx out and she didn't care. I let Maggie and Oreo out and they went around smelling the ground getting more and more excited as they smelled more and more scent. Finally, since neither had the brains to look up, I said "squirrel" which slowly soaked through Maggie's head. She finally looked up and after about 2o sec of looking began to get excited. She finally got so excited she jumped up onto the bench on the porch, which is next to about a 15 foot drop. This is when she finally realized where she was.

This Too Shall Pass

It was such a nice day out we had both dogs and almost all of the cats outside. Lilly and Sheba soon tired of the wide open areas and asked to be let back inside where all was safe. Myrrh, on the other hand, continued to explore. We spent the rest of the day removing all the beautiful leaves that fell in our yard. Along with the oak leaves came the largest quantity of acorns I have ever seen. The squirrels should have a comfortable winter! These had not been raked together at all, I just removed the leaves and this was underneath! I cleaned the leaves from the gutter while Cheri blew leaves off the front yard using the electric blower her mom and dad got me for a present last year. It really does the job, blowing at over 200 mph, according to the directions.

Then we burned the leaves under the trees in the front woods so the shrubs and weeds would be cleaned out. After Cheri blew off the drive and went inside, I figured out how to use the blower to suck up leaves in the back yard. It really does a good job turning the leaves into little ground up parts that will be good for mulch. A friend said I need to add lime and nitrogen to them because they are mostly oak leaves.

Lynks followed me around the house as I worked. She finally found a safe place to watch what we were doing without fear of being blown or mowed up.

Last night we were entertained by the antics of our three female siamese cats. Here are Myrrh and Lilly pretending to be bookends.

Fall has fell

Well, since more than a month has passed since my last post I guess I have been busy! Last week I spent with the students from our school who are in the AE21 program. That is a distance learning program sponsored by Forest Lake Academy that I teach Geometry for.

We went on a fieldtrip to Chicago and the surrounding area including Andrews University. I really didn't see much of Andrews as I high tailed it to my old stomping grounds on Snow Road to spend a quick hour or so with my dad. He has been very busy during retirement and has several designs for trellises that I would like to copy, or better yet, have him make.

It was interesting to watch the students meet for the first time with other students they had only seen on the conference room TV or on IM. I also enjoyed watching as they discovered new things - the height of the buildings in Chicago or the size of Lake Michigan and the dunes.

The leaves had really started to change by the time we got there in Valparaiso, Indiana. The colors were almost all shades of yellow. When we returned home, the trees had started changing south as well so we had a 12 hr scenic ride through the autumn leaves. Weather forcasters say the leaves in the south are better this year than anywhere else in the nation, according to satellite views and subjective reports.

The Evening Passes

Well, at least she's not making a goofy face!













Carrie keeps carrots out of the cushions by intertaining Ethan.












We took some goofy mug shots for whatever reason.




But all good things must come to an end. Safe traveling, Jason.

Clicking and Grinning

We had a really nice weekend. It was so nice to spend time with "old" friends, Jaclyn, Stephanie, Holly, and Asher, and Del and Elsa Patton; new friends, Randy and Mary Jane Heilman; and family - both those we see frequently (Grant, Carrie, Cheri's dad, my mom and Tonda, Jeremy, Allison and Ethan) and Jason - who we have not seen often enough. I'm not sure where to put Ryan!




While Jaclyn juggled, Carrie played on the picnic benches. Stephanie really was just being polite... she really wanted to be trying out her new car.

Stephanie's Blog

Now how did she get those photos of it before the car arrived?






While Grant patiently waits for the ball to drop, Ryan hides his identity from innocent passers by.





We moved to Talge for the next course of food. It was like being at the airport on Sabbath. People moving in and out on schedules, rushing here and there. We didn't have time to just enjoy the good company at the pace it needed. Maybe another time.








My nephew Jason had come just in time for his 33rd birthday. He is departing Oregon for a stint in Prague. He insists that is the place to spend our vacations next year. I don't think so!




It was nice to have the air conditioned room to escape the heat, at least Jason, Grant and I thought so.


Let's see, have I forgotten anyone? Wonder who Jaclyn is talking
to?