Janine and...

...just about everyone...

(Sorry about the framing. Picasa slideshows are not designed for vertical photos.)

Beach Puzzle...Done!

Here it is in its final form...this year's beach puzzle in all its glory.

Biz and Grace stayed up until 1:30 the night before we left determined to finish it.

As you can see we gave them a pass on the bottom border. But that's OK. Great job girls!

Red Hot Poker - 2011

We didn't miss the red hot pokers in the garden this year despite being out of town last week. When we returned they were at their peak.

These are one of my favorite flowers in our front garden. They are colorful and remind me of fireworks, two weeks before the Fourth of July.

Bobbie has done a great job of arranging the garden to bloom in stages. Those are shasta daisies in the background. As the red hot poker looses it bloom, the daisies will come out spectacularly for about four weeks or more.

Beach Puzzle

Cascading Failures Part 2 will have to wait because we just got back from a week on the Outer Banks with the extended family. It was great to just spend time together on the beach or at the pool.

Because most of the group was new to the area, we introduced them to one of our traditions, the beach puzzle. It is not necessarily a picture of a beach, but instead a puzzle we start when we arrive and finish by when we leave.

Here's Biz, Grace and Janine just starting the beach puzzle. It is a roughly two and a half foot square puzzle collage of various Vincent VanGogh paintings. Everyone got their turn at the puzzle, but the kids worked on it the most.

Cascading failures - Part One

If our house was a space ship we would be in "Houston, we have a problem" mode. Two weeks ago our high-end washing machine failed after only five years of service. Then last Monday our hot water heater pilot light would not relight. So I was off to the nearby YMCA for a shower.

"YOUNG MAN...you can get yourself clean... It's fun to stay a the Y M C A..."

Tuesday morning the GE repairman arrived and pronounced the washer motor dead. "It's $275 for the part and you already have $80 for the service call, but I can give you a $100 coupon to buy a new one online. I recommend taking that $100 it's pretty good."

"No. That's really only $20 isn't it?" I replied. He didn't like that one. He went on to tell us that the motor failed because "People don't read the instructions. You shouldn't leave the lid open when it's running."

"Where does it say that in the instructions?" I asked, getting more irritated by the moment. "Everybody opens the lid on a washer. If I had known that in the store, I wouldn't have bought it!"

"Naah, they are right under the lid. Where does it say to open the lid when it's running?" was his riposte. Clever one, that yinzer.

"Well, it doesn't say NOT to and besides, if the washer is running with the lid down, I can't exactly see that can I?" More scowls.

He went on to belittle stainless steel tubs as "extra cost you don't really need." Oh did I say we have one? Clearly he didn't care.

GE...hmmm, as we think about replacements, we can forget about that brand. What we really need are a bunch of guys in white short-sleeve shirts with skinny ties and pocket protectors. Especially when you read the next installment.

We are a little late in posting, but here's a very elegantly dressed Janine at the piano recital two weeks ago. She played Music Box Dancer, albeit at a slower rate than the recording.

Nonetheless she practiced hard and did well. There's the real point of it all.