Webster City eats

 Tonight we ate at the Grid Iron Bar and Grill. The food and service were both great! I had the Bourbon Burger -- yum! 

 I really need to get better at posting more frequently. It is so fun to read previous posts.

Clay County Fair - the Granddaddy of them all!

September 17-18, 2022 

It was time for another bonding trip with Terry and Rhonda.  We decided to check out the Clay County fair; none of us had been before.  We left Saturday morning about 8ish.  TerryM had a breakfast suggestion of the Hobo House in Britt, but we needed to get going since he said they closed at 11.  With TerryM driving and TerryD as co-pilot, Rhonda and I enjoy the backseat.  Brother Terry has eaten at probably every restaurant in most of the surrounding counties, so he had a few suggestions.  First we checked for a restaurant in Bradford; nope, not open.  Then over to Coulter; nope, not open.  So we headed west.  By this time it was decided that we were not going to make it to Britt before closing time.  Dudley's Corner at Hwy 3 and I-35 gained our business for our morning appetites.  The menu was small, but we each had an omelet which satisfied our hungry bellies.  

With paper map in the co-pilot's hand, we meandered along two-lane country roads, TerryD's preference so he can enjoy the field after field of corn and beans at a more leisurely speed than interstate speed.  We got to Spencer about noon and had to locate the fair grounds.  Which street "looked" like it might be a good choice?  Or maybe the cars in front of us were going to the fair too, so we should just follow along; Rhonda and I are just chuckling in the backseat at their choice of which car appeared as though we should follow to get where we were going.  Yes, we do realize that we are in the age of cell phones and google maps, but what is the fun in that??!!  The carnival rides were finally in sight.  We found a place to park, FREE, which is right up MY alley; I love that four-letter word!  The shuttle service, aka golf carts, picked us up and away we went paying our entrance fee along the way, $10 each, not bad.  We were dropped off at the Events Center.  We found the Information Booth first and the wonderful

volunteers there explained the lay of the land to us.  They had run out of "First Timer" buttons; we were not sure if we were sad or glad at that.  We walked along the dust-covered trails, taking in the sights of the fair.  Not unlike other fairs we'd been to, there were many food trucks and booths of folks sharing their wares.  We watched the draft horses for a while.  They are such a sight to see!  My favorite was a black pair with what I called 'fuzzy feet'; technically the feathering. 

Disc-Connected K9's was fun to watch for a few minutes, too.  We enjoyed a tenderloin sandwich and fries from a nearby stand for lunch.  We met up with a retired auditor friend of Rhonda's, Marge.

  She was a joy to visit with and gave us a few must-dos before we left.  The cut apples and caramel from one of the vendors was delicious!  Nitro ice cream was on the list of must-haves, but we didn't easily find the stand, so we opted to skip this treat.  Maybe next year Nitro IC!

Our evening was spent watching the horses in different competitions.  We had a snack of Tater Ribbon Fries smothered in cheese sauce.  It was delicious!  For supper we enjoyed sandwiches and fries from the Beef Producers stand.  About 9pm we decided it was time to head out.

Getting to our hotel; another adventure.  TerryM had made the hotel arrangements.  We left Spencer and headed to the Emmetsburg Super8.  We got there and No rooms for us??!!  Well, it would help if we'd been in the right city!  Back on the road to Estherville!  It was a long day and we were glad to get into our rooms and fall into bed.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. We nixed the fair and decided to take in some of the sights of Estherville.  First up with the Historical Museum.  It was a complex of various buildings.  It wasn't open so we just walked around looking for ideas for our museum in Wellsburg.  There was a gentleman there that we talked with a bit.  We told him about the connection of Wellsburg and Estherville, George Wells and his foreman, Robert Hamilton.  He knew a Mike Hamilton, but wasn't sure if he was connected to Robert or not.

Next up was the Oak Hill Cemetery.  George Wells' right-hand-man, Robert Hamilton, is buried here and I just had to visit and snap a few pics.  It was a big cemetery and we didn't think we'd find his grave; there was no directory that we could find.  A contributor on FindAGrave had the GPS coordinates which appeared to get us close to the gravesite.  We all walked around a bit and TerryD was able to locate it.  After a few pictures, we headed to the car.  But not before I had to pickup some of the fallen acorns.  They had a kind of fuzzy cap which I thought was kind of unique.  I'm sure I can figure out something that Audrey and I can do with them.

Then off to the Swinging Bridge.  Rhonda LOVED the swing in this bridge!  Ok, maybe she wasn't that big of a fan.  We enjoyed several laughs and some more pictures here before we headed out.  Rhonda had many tears of joy and laughter in her eyes on this bridge!

Now off to home.  Again the pilot and co-pilot, with his paper map in hand, charted our route on the back country roads of Iowa.  We took a short tour of Lakewood and Badger, a couple of towns where Terry resided for a few years in his youth.

Miller's Sports Bar in Algona was our choice for late lunch on Sunday.  Delicious burgers!  I had one with onion rings and barbeque sauce - yummmy!

We stopped by the old country school north of Wellsburg so Terry could check its "bones" to see if it would be worth us to pursue for the historical foundation.  He thought we could give it a go.  Would need to find a spot on main street and a mover.

We stopped at Trent's and met the newest addition to the family.  Bear joined the family yesterday.  He is such a cute and cuddly ball of Saint Bernard fur.

We had Terry and Rhonda back home by 6.  What a great weekend - again - with my brother and his wife.  Love love love spending time on the road with them.  Laughter is so good for the soul.

BUGS, bugs and more bugs

Where do all these bugs come from?  And I'm not talking about the ones that are outside my house!  Every morning when I get up and come downstairs it amazes me how many box elder bugs and bean beetles are laying upside down in the 'I'm dead, vacuum me up' pose.  And I never can find where they are coming in so I can plug the hole.  I just keep my little Craftsman 4 gal. vac (r2d2 as I very lovingly call it) plugged in and sitting next to the kitchen table.  Throughout the day I vacuum a dozen or so as well, including the living ones which haven't succumbed to the residual Raid bombing that we did a few months ago (at least this is the only reason that I can think of that these little buggers are dead within a short amount of time of making their way inside.  If they only knew what awaited them inside, they would stay outside!).  And did I mention those little mexican bean beetles are stinky??  They are not at all like the cute little red with black spotted ladybug.  These bugs are a dark burnt orange color with black dots.  I suck up one with my vacuum and my vacuum stinks every time I use it until I empty it then.  pew!

Our kitchen is in the southeast corner of our 100+ year old farmhouse.  It is white - with that less-than-desirable slate siding stuff.  The foundation, for this particular part of the house, is those brown hollow bricks (I'm sure there's a 'name' for them - I'll have to ask my Dad).  So the bugs love this corner of the house and they are thick on the foundation blocks on the warm, sunny days.  And since the basement is not what I'd call air-tight, they make their way in.  In the basement, directly under the kitchen, is where I find most of them in their upside-down position.  I have a bigger version of my little R2D2 down there for just them.

Box elder bug infestation

I could go on about several other things as well.  It's a rather chilly, drippy day here in central Iowa.  The past several days have been very nice, being in the 70s, with rather high humidity, but still nice for nearing the end of October.  Today the expected high is in the high-50s.  Rain gutters - why is it when a hole develops it is always above the door or sidewalk?  I'm sure these rain gutters haven't been replaced for decades.  There is more rust than non-rust on them, so they are pretty useless.  We would probably be better off just taking them off and let the water drip where it may, at least it wouldn't be funneled to the hole right above the door!

It's our 10 year anniversary today and I've decided to make Terry a chocolate pie.  Chocolate is his favorite.  2 years ago at Thanksgiving I told him I was going to make a chocolate pie.  Well, I still haven't gotten that pie made.  So, figure I'll really surprise him with it today.  Hopefully it turns out to be edible.  I'm even making a home-made lard crust, compliments of my cousins's blog.

Later as I get around to it I will probably try and post 'past' events so everyone knows what we've been up to since moving back to the country nearly 5 months ago.  We have been up to a lot and somethings are pretty amusing.  But for now, it's time to get my work computer fired up and earn that paycheck.

Back at it ...

Well, I've decided to try to write on my blog again.  My cousin, Mindy, has a wonderful blog that I look forward to every week.  I just don't have that writer's gene, so I have to depend on the 'creative juices' to flow in order to be able to write, and those don't seem to come very often.  So we'll see where this leads ... once again ...

Reunion time

It cooled off a bit yesterday. I was able to have the windows open all day without hot air blasting in.

Found out yesterday that our family is in charge of the Deters reunion this year - July 10. Need to get the invites out today!
The Nederhoff reunion is the day before - July 9.

Headin' home

Our 10 days of vacation went by way too fast ... don't they always?

We checked out of our room and headed to the airport to return our rental car. It was bumper to bumper and slow going on I-93. Maybe we would miss our flight and have to stay longer??!!! No such luck ... we got the car returned and the shuttle dropped us off at the Southwest check-in with plenty of time to spare. We even got to experience the full-body scanner!

Bye-bye Boston. It was a great time!


We had never flown Southwest before. It was interesting that there are no seat assignments. It's a free-for-all. There were several empty seats on our short flight to Philadelphia where we had a short layover. From Philly to Denver we were loaded down. No seats to spare. It was a long flight. We were early by about 30 minutes. Yay!

Chad picked us up and we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Park Meadows with him and Carrie. It was very good and the company was great. We got home about 7:45. We were beat. Our babies were sure glad to see us! and we were glad to see them too.

Ahhh ... it's good to sleep in our own bed again.

TTFN! Hope you enjoyed our trip with us!

Sunday - Our last day in Boston

Checking out of Manchester we headed back to Boston for our final day of sightseeing. We parked close by the Charlestown ship yard for a tour of Old Iron Sides.


We took a guided tour which took us below to the gun and berth decks.




Please don't let Terry drive this ship ... he's dangerous enough with a car!


There is a walking tour of Boston where you follow the red brick 'road'. Several of these sights we saw on our trolley tour, but this way we could visit them up close and personal.

Bunker Hill Monument. Unfortunately we couldn't walk to the top as it was closed for renovation.


One if by land, two if by sea. The Old North Church (officially known as Christ Church in the City of Boston) was built in 1723. It became famed on the eve of the Revolution, April 18, 1775, when Paul Revere relayed the message to Robert Newman, the church sexton, that the British were marching by sea and he gave the signal of two lanterns.


Paul Revere's house. (Wish it were a no parking zone in front ... would make for a much better picture!)


We ended our day by dining at Mother Anna's ... very good Italian food. Why does it seem the appetizer is always better than the entre? The stuffed Portobello mushroom was wonderful! Delicious meal!


For dessert we had cannolis from Mike's Pastry shop. We had about a 15 minute wait in line, but it was well worth it. Unbelievably decadent!


For our last night we headed to the Super8 in Weymouth, a short drive south of Boston. They must've hired 3rd graders to remodel and paint this room. They had repainted and about a one-inch space was left around fixtures, etc. The furniture in the room was way too much for the space. One of the bedside tables drawer couldn't be opened due to it facing the bed since there wasn't enough room to face it the right direction. It was quite humorous to us.

Saturday - Sightseeing!

Our week in West Yarmouth has come to an end. We checked out of our room and headed to Boston for some sightseeing. We set Gabby (the nickname we gave our Garmin GPS) to direct us to parking by the Old Town Trolley Tour. Public parking for the day was $35!

First order of business ... a bathroom. We saw a 'Public Toilet' close by where we would purchase our trolley tickets, so off we headed. It would cost .25 to go to the bathroom???!!! At least we got to choose the suitable position of the toilet bowl! LOL The trolley tour ticket agent saw us and told us it was out of order ... whew! We had a good chat and chuckle with him, bought our tickets and headed to the trolleys. We were directed to the bathroom in the Boston Marriott Long Wharf - much nicer facilities than the public toilet ... and we didn't have to pay .25!


Since we hadn't had internet in our room on West Yarmouth all week, we didn't yet have a place to stay Saturday and Sunday nights yet. We inquired how much it would be to stay at the Long Wharf ... it would be very convenient to what we would be wanting to do this last weekend. $534 a night! My quick math figured that out to be about 53.40 an hour since we probably would only be in the room about 10 hours a night. No thank you!

We headed back out to the trolley stop and boarded Mr. T's trolley. He would be our guide for the trip. Our trolley tour was most enjoyable with the main points of interest being ...
- Rose Kennedy's rose garden (104 roses were planted honoring her on her 104th birthday)
- Historic North End
- Paul Revere house
- Old North Church (One if by Land, Two if by Sea)
- USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides) and Charlestown Navy Yard
- Bunker Hill
- TD Garden (current contender in the Stanley Cup Playoffs)
- Historic Faneuil Hall
- Cheers (Where everybody knows your name!) The popular sitcom from the 80s.
- Copley Square
- Fenway Park
- MIT campus in Cambridge

After spending nearly two hours with Mr. T, who was a great narrator on the tour, we got off at Cheers on the 2nd trip around. We got a bite to eat at the restaurant upstairs and then we walked down the infamous stairs and through the big wooden door that many of us probably remember seeing on the show. Nobody knew our names though. :-(


We walked our way back, stopping and reading more about the history of the area and historic sights. Paul Revere is interred at the Granary Burial Ground (1660) as well as those from the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. Several signers of the constitution including John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Robert Paine, as well as several governors of the state of Massachusetts are also buried here.

King's Chapel Burial Ground also has many important people in the early history of our country.

It's getting late, so we'd better find a place to stay for the night. We headed south. We exited I-93 looking to score a late afternoon Dunkin Donut snack and to find a hotspot to connect and do some searching for a room. A Dunkin Donut store can be found about every two blocks in the cape and Boston area. Terry and I got a good chuckle out of that and it became a joke calling out a DD that one of us had spotted. Turns out that DD was founded in Quincy, a south Boston suburb ... hence why there are so many in that area. We only saw a handful of Starbucks there!

Terry ended up finding a Super8 in Manchester, New Hampshire, so we programmed Gabby and we were off. The room there was very nice and we enjoyed our stay. We had a pizza delivered and nodded off to sleep after a long day.

Boston Public Library

The Boston Public Library had lots of first's in the library industry.
1st publicly supported municipal library
1st large library to open to the public
1st public library to allow the borrowing of books and other materials to be taken home

There is a beautiful open-air courtyard in the middle which is host to several concerts.


We enjoyed lunch in the Maproom Cafe.

After spending a couple of hours here, we decided to head back to the New England Historic Genealogical Society as we felt they had better records for what we were looking for.

Closing at 5 made it an early day for us. But also put us smack in the middle of rush-hour. Taco Bell for supper tonight!

Thursday - Back to the Sturgis Library

We weren't up very early today, so we opted to visit the Sturgis library again.

We had a delicious dinner at The Marshside which was recommended by MaryAnne (Thanks, MaryAnne!). We should have just skipped the main course and went right to dessert. I had a blueberry dessert and Terry had a chocolate cupcake that he said was the best chocolate cake he has ever had ... and he has had a few. LOL

Wednesday - Off to Bean Town

Wednesday we headed to Boston to the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Terry figured we should park at a station and take the subway in. Good thing there are customer service people floating around the terminal ... so he helped us know what we needed to purchase and pointed us in the correct direction.


We arrived where we intended. Whew! We had a bite to eat at L'Aroma Cafe just down the street from the society. Pretty tasty and pricey! Most expensive lunch for two that we've ever eaten I think.

We enjoyed our day at the society and didn't realize what was brewing outside. A tornado watch was in effect! Our walk back to the subway was a very windy one. Our subway ride was about 40 minutes and our drive back to West Yarmouth would typically take about and hour. It was raining so hard the wipers couldn't keep up and visibility was pretty tough. Terry was only able to go about 40 mph. We hadn't eaten so we decided on Taco Bell. We found one and ran inside in the pouring rain. Off to wash our hands. Just finishing drying my hands and zap! the lights went out! No Taco Bell for supper ... off we headed ... Wendys instead.

We finally made it back to our room about 11 pm. It was a long day.

Tuesday - To the Top of a Lighthouse!

I wanted to see some lighthouses. Our map showed a couple of lighthouses at the tip of the cape. About half way there was a sign for the Cape Cod Lighthouse. Little did we know that it was open and we could tour it! ... and came to find out it was likely the only one we would be able to get in to see, let alone close enough. It was the first lighthouse on the cape and built in 1797. We went to the observatory at the edge of the Atlantic where the lighthouse used to stand. Originally 10 acres of land were purchased for this lighthouse and today less than 4 acres remain, the rest being lost to the ocean due to erosion. In 1996 the lighthouse was moved 570 feet inland in order to not lose this historical marker to the ocean. The guides there were very knowledgeable and interesting to listen to about the history. We bought the needed trinkets and off we went.

Off to the tip we continued. Our map indicated there were 2 lighthouses. We were not able to get close to either of these. Glad we stopped at the one we did! We took a short driving tour of Provincetown and saw the Pilgrims Monument and back to Barnstable we headed.

It was mid-afternoon when we stepped into the historic Sturgis Library in Barnstable. It is the oldest library in the United States. It originally was a house that was built by Chad and Brendan's 12th gr-grandfather and was later given to the town to be used as a library. Very interesting history in this old house. Lots of great genealogy records too!












The library also houses the 1605 Bible that Rev. John Lothropp brought with him to the United States in 1634.

Memorial Day Monday ...

Off to Rhode Island and Connecticut ...

The East Haddam Genealogical Society had a book signing today, so we figured it was going to be open. So off to Connecticut we headed. Getting off the cape proved to be interesting. Where were all these people at? The Cape isn't that big! Bumper to bumper traffic took us nearly an hour to get off the cape what should take about 20 minutes.

The society was open as we had hoped. The folks there were very nice and helpful. Charlie gave us the name of a gentleman who is researching some of the same folks we are. We left there with contact information in hand. Another nugget of information that Charlie shared with us was the directions to the house of an ancestor! Off we went in search of this 200+ year-old house. It would have a plaque with the name Moses Rowley. We drove up and down North Moodus Road, unable to locate the house, even stopping to ask a few residents, but to no avail.

Off to a few cemeteries now. Old Cove Burying Ground was on a dirt road. It's interesting that there is a home at the end of this road and these people have to go thru the cemetery to get to their home! Mount Parnassus and Duck River Cemetery also have ancestral burials that we visited and photographed. The Duck River Cemetery needs to have a 'Watch for Crab Crossing' sign! The cemetery is in a slightly marshy area and the little crabs loved the area. We crossed a little bridge and the crabs were scurrying in front of us to get out of the way.

We had pizza at Teddy's Old Lyme Pizza Palace before we headed back to the cape. The beach-goers were enjoying the beautiful day. The businesses there are very particular about who parks in their lots and who uses their bathroom! I'm sure the tow trucks are very busy on days like this towing those who are parked where they shouldn't be. Thankfully our car was still in the lot when we left ... we kept a close eye on it! Beings we were a business patron, it was safe.



We took a scenic drive back. We crossed the very high Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge.









This sign really made us laugh!













The traffic getting off of the cape was backed up for miles. Glad we were going the other way!

Catching up ...

It's now Sunday and we'll be going home tomorrow ... the week has flown by. We were without internet at Cape Code so I wasn't able to post the rest of the week ... so I'm playing catch-up now ....

Plymouth Rock ........ really???

Our day got off to a late start ... sleeping in until almost 10! Guess we made up for the 4 a.m. yesterday. Half the day already gone. Terry pointed out ... it's only about 8 back home. A lot of good that does us here!

We finally decided what we would do today ... off to Plymouth we went (at noon! sheeeesh).

It took us about 45 minutes to get to Plymouth. We drove along Water Street ... it was busy ... convenient places to park were taken. You know what they say 'The early bird gets the worm' ... and we were NOT the early birds today! Alas we found a spot. Beings it was lunchtime, we opted to eat before taking in the historic sites of the day. The Lobster Hut was nearby and looked enticing. More fried food ... I'm already tiring of it.


Off to see Plymouth Rock! Really? That was the infamous Plymouth Rock? I expected something a little more grandious. Took the obligatory picture and moved on.








The Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, was very interesting. As part of the Plimouth Plantation, those very knowledgable with the history were scattered on board to answer our questions and relayed other interesting information.












Across from the street we happened upon the monument of the first burying ground of the passengers of the Mayflower. Edward Fuller and his wife were among those that died during that first harsh winter spent in Plymouth and their mortal remains are those likely buried here. The Fullers are Terry's 10th great-grandfather/mother and Chad and Brendan's 12th great-grandfather/mother.













We also visited The National Monument to the Forefathers. It is the singlemost largest granite monument in the United States.








Our next stop ... Burial Hill cemetery. Those who have been laid to rest in this beautiful ground have a spectacular view.














We meandered our way back to the resort, crossing the Bourne bridge this time. We drove through Hyannis and saw the JFK memorial. Maybe another day we'll visit the museum. We were back to our room by 8.

What will tomorrow hold?

Cape Cod or Bust!

Over 2 years since I've blogged. Is my life that boring? Guess I just had other more important things to do ...

The radio blared and I'm certain the neighbors even woke up! 4 a.m. it was. Shower and finish packing. Put the shower supplies in the suitcase, remove a cat from the suitcase. Brush the teeth, put the toothbrush in the suitcase, remove a cat. This continued until the zippers were zipped. The cats really don't like when we go places and leave them home. I'm not sure that they like it so much when we go places (to Dad's in Iowa) and take them along either. They just want to be at home and us not go anywhere! Spoiled ... yes, very much!

We actually left the house a little ahead of time ... if you can believe that. Not usually our style.

We headed to School of Mines in Golden. Chad is to take us to the airport and then pick us up when we get back. About 20 minutes out, I start calling him, hoping to rouse him. Call three, voicemail ... call four, voicemail. Hopefully a door is unlock at the fraternity house when we get there. We pull into the parking lot and Cape Cod Catering is there! The chef at the house has a catering business and he was preparing for his day ... luckily early enough that a door was open and we were able to get in and wake Chad. Zeus was so happy to see him ... and Chad equally to Zeus. He really does love that dog. And who wouldn't? He's a great dog and sooooo cute!

Off to the airport. Chad and I sat in the backseat and he detailed all of the pictures he took on his field session that he had just gotten back from. I was interested in the scenery he saw and he was interested in telling me in detail about the inner-workings of these oil rigs and drills and fracturers ... I'm not even sure if I have the words right since I'm not a petroleum engineer like him!

Security at the airport was a piece of cake. Short lines, nice people ... nothing alarming there ... except somehow Terry lost a shoe! We looked around and it was nowhere to be found. Did it get stuck in the xray machine somewhere? Nope ... the wife had picked it up with her coat and it was in her arm the whole time! LOL Oh well, at least Terry won't have one bare foot!

United flight 744 leaving at 9:01 a.m. was right on time. YAY! And Terry was even cleaver enough to put us in a row with an empty seat. So we had room to spread out! It was great! The captain announces that we would arrive into Boston a half hour ahead of schedule. YIPPY! I planned it out well enough again to not have to use the bathroom on the airplane. I've yet to have to use that, so couldn't tell you what the inside of one looks like or how much lack of room to do your business there is! OK, I know ... TMI!

We head to baggage claim and our bag was waiting for us. We were in the 2nd to last row in the airplane, so they had plenty of time to get our luggage out, so no waiting at the carousel.

Now to find where to get our rental car. Off to find the shuttle bus. The first National/Alamo bus just drives on by ... hmmm, what's up with that? We showered and didn't stink! Wait another 10 or so minutes and the next one arrives and stops and we hop onboard. The kiosk at Alamo dispenses our paperwork, we pick out our car and we were off ... or so we thought. I think we took a right when we should've taken a left. We were back into the freight area of the airport. Ooops! U-turn! OK, so now we're off ...

Can't see the ocean through the trees on our drive to West Yarmouth. Only a few times we came to a stop. Overall the drive was pleasant and we traveled at the posted speeds (or at our usual 4 mph over). Our place here is a motor lodge that was converted into a timeshare. It is OK ... definitely not the best room we've ever stayed in. It is a place to rest our weary heads though. We arrived here a little after 5. Only a couple of times we had near misses with an accident!

Lots of people and traffic here!

For supper we headed to Orleans for what Kenny says is the best fish and chips at Sir Cricket's. Cash only. Terry tried out their Chowder soup ... he said it was pretty darned good! The fish and chips were pretty darned good too!






We meandered our way back and stopped to see the Atlantic Ocean. Oooed and aahhed at the view, clicked a couple of photographs and jumped back into the car.





Blondie's enticed us to turn in for an ice cream a few blocks from our place. Cash only again. Hmmm, hope we brought enough cash with us for the trip! We're credit card people. But thanks to MaryAnne for cluing us into this so we did bring some along. Nothing struck our fancy, so across the road to DQ we went ... and they take credit cards. :-)

Back at our room, Terry unpacked and organized. We got our electronics up and going. Couldn't connect to the wireless for the resort, so connected to a random unsecured wireless. Ahhh, we're connected to the outside world again.

9:55 we crawl into bed ... a queen-sized and we're used to a king. can we survive the week having to sleep so close to each other? Oh yes, there are no four-legged friends ... we'll be just fine in a queen then. Good night Cape Cod ... glad we've arrived safe and sound, see you in the morning.

Countdown to Graduation day ... 3 days to go ...

Got an early start today - 4:30. It's only 3 days til graduation and I'm starting to feel more stressed. Mostly due to the events which transpired yesterday.
Terry was cleaning up/rearranging the garage and getting things ready to work on the outside of th house. Well ... are you ready for it??? He knocked over the railing which we painted on Saturday and BROKE IT!!!!! I was in tears ... the stress-button got hit big-time. We contemplated what to do ... get the welding on the wrought-iron fixed, leave it 'for now' and put it up broken, what to do? ... so off to Home Depot we go. That store has got to LOVE do-it-yourselfers like us! I can only image what 'little' amount it would have cost to have someone else do all this work that Terry and I have simply because they prob wouldn't have had to make many trips to the store to buy 'another' of something because it got screwed up. But, where's the fun in that?? Just think of the peaceful evenings and weekends we would've had, the amount stress I wouldn't have to go thru ...
Now we'll have the wood railing that Terry always wanted between the kitchen and family rooms (hmmm, ulterior motive?). Then while we're in HD, we see the gazebos ... how nice would it be to have one on the back deck? Our back deck faces the West and gets unbarably hot in the afternoon ... so hot, we cannot be out there. Our thermometer consistently reads over 100. Would a gazebo help thwart the heat and make our deck usable? Well ... we think so! However, we're not going to be impulsive and buy the first thing we see! Plus, silly us, we took the CAR to HD! So, we purchase the material for the railing and home we go. We jump outta the car and into the pickup. Off to comparison shop. Planning our trip, we thought of Sears ... and we wanted to check Target and Home Depot again and maybe Lowe's and Costco. Well, of course, all of these stores can't be nicely clustered in the same area of town! So, we head southwest to Sears and there's a Target there and a Home Depot. Costco is on the east side of town, so we'd check everything out and then make another trip back to get what we decide on.
LOL ... we are SO compulsive! We ended up getting our stuff at Sears. Not without a HD gal trying really hard to gain our business on this ... but we really were sold on the Sears. A gazebo and table/chair set. And a grill! WAIT! A grill too? Not like we needed one of those - we have one and it works. Now how to get all of this home. Luckily the grill needed to be assembled (for free! woohoo - the best price). Yeah, yeah, I know ... nothing is free. I'm sure that was all built into the price. But at least it isn't something that can get screwed up and we'll have to buy more parts or something. So, home we go with a truck load.
Terry worked late last night getting things ready for me to sand and stain this morning. I thought I was done with that ... but silly me for thinking that!
So, I get up at 4:30, come downstairs to use the bathroom. I notice that the garage light is on ... don't think much of it ... I'm in the bathroom and here a light switch click (thinking - oh, the big light got hot and clicked off). I get done in the bathroom ... and now the garage light is off! Uh-oh! And I think Terry is still in bed. I open the door to the garage and the garage door is WIDE OPEN! I shut the door and lock it and go running upstairs to see where Terry was. HE'S IN BED! Someone was in the garage! Terry checked things out and nothing appeared to be missing! Whew! My heart was pounding! (Granted, if someone wanted to steal something, they'd probably have broken a leg trying to get something out of that garage - it's rather a pigsty!)
Oh Honey ... I know you'll read this ... I do love you and I just keep telling myself 'Just think how dull and boring my life would be without you!'.
OK ... now it's time to get to work!

Sorry, no picture today ... not even time to click the camera button. I'll try to take one and post later.

Did I say only 3 days til graduation? And the 'to-do before graduation list' is still quite long ...

Onto the next chapter ...

Well, the time has come ... Chad has officially walked the halls of Palmer HS for the last time today. No more scrambling the night before on the assignments due 'tomorrow' (he works best under pressure and late at night you see - at least that's his reasoning) ... no more tests to study for (well, the little amount of studying he did have to do). This is all true at least for now ...

Next year he is off to Colorado School of Mines. Will he repeat these same habits? Hopefully not ...

But what does all of this mean for me??

No more ...
- phone calls reporting him tardy or absent from one or more classes
- phone calls to let me know he has a D or F in one or more classes (and, yes, this has happened on occasion)
- going to Target or Home Depot for supplies for the project due 'tomorrow'
- phone calls or emails from D11 transportation to discuss his behaviour on that big yellow school bus (granted, these haven't happened for a couple of years since he's been driving, but his folder contains a few of these treasured items)

He set his goals and achieved them. For now I'm sure he's glad it's all over. Years down the road will he miss these days? Probably so if he's like so many of the rest of us. But for now ... Congratulations Chad! It's over and you did it great! I'm so proud of you. I love you. - Mom

then and now ...

Oh ... you'll all love this ... It's 6:15 and I just got a phone call from Palmer HS that Chad was reported missing or absent from one or more classes today! That'll be the last one!

Terry's workshop

OK ... well, you get another post today ... who knows, maybe even another later. Terry has told me numerous times "Don't you have some scanning or something to do?". I don't think he enjoys my 'help'!
Things are coming along!
Since my last post about the house we have gotten a few more things done actually. The living room is COMPLETE! The painting is done, the baseboards are new and painted and put in. The dining room is almost finished. We have the chair rail to finish and the window frame to put up (it is just waiting for drying time after I stained and polyurethaned it).
The oak stair railings are stained and waiting for the dry time so I can poly them. The oak ledges are now ready for me to stain and poly.
The weather is gorgeous today (around 60 or so). We sure could use some rain though. It is very very dry and we are under high fire danger.