Five Tons and What Do You Get?

The answer to the question is a garden six inches higher than before. That's what the nearby landscaping service figured it would take to achieve Bobbie's goal of raising the level of foundation plantings.

This morning at 8:00 AM the dump truck showed up with five tons of dirt. If the truck had been carrying paint, the driver would have been an artist. He placed his load exactly where we wanted it, next to the driveway, adjacent to the house.

The top photo is Bobbie getting started. The first order of business was to get the dirt off the driveway. We had expected the worst, a blocked driveway. So we moved both cars to the street about 7:00 AM. As you can see the driver left only about a foot of dirt on the driveway and the rest on the garden.

I helped move the driveway dirt and then grabbed the camera for these photos. Sarah really got her back into it in the second photo. I think she turned her back on me because she knows any photo has a good chance to show up here on the blog.

In the bottom photo, Janine is helping spread the dirt to it's new location.

So far Bobbie bought an azalea for one end and is considering what else to plant. We will give you updates as they occur.

(It really was a) Happy Birthday

This past Tuesday my family was kind enough to take me out for lunch for my birthday. We went to a nearby restaurant with outdoor dining. It was a 30 minute wait and hot outside, so we settled for this nice table indoors.

John already knew what he wanted to order at this point, so he got to take the photo.

Overall, I had a great birthday. I got a very nice card from my Mom and Dad as well as a singing card from my sister Barb. Then my brother Eric and my sister Louise called in the afternoon. (Sorry for talking your ear off, Weeze!)

In the evening Dan, one of my business partners, had John, Janine and I over for rhubarb cake. A nice ending to a nice day. (Sarah and Mommy were at dance practice.) Thanks everybody!

Birthday Party

John (right) went to a birthday party this afternoon for his friend Zach (second from left). This photo was taken at the very beginning of the party. There were 13 more boys to come at this point.

The guys were running down the hill on the Slip 'n Slide when it started to rain for about two minutes.

After fruit and popcorn inside, it was back outside to unwrap presents and the big squirt gun finale. Everyone had a great time. Zach's mom did a great job.

Latin Al Fresco

One of the great things about home schooling is that you have the opportunity to "carpe diem." On Tuesday afternoon Bobbie, Sarah and John did just that when they moved the Latin lesson to the front yard. It was about 80 degrees and very comfortable that day. Perfect for a shirtless lesson for John.

School will be ending soon, but Bobbie likes to keep the kids fresh with summer reading. Janine and Bobbie will read together for most of the summer while Sarah will read just about any fiction she can lay her hands on and John enjoys adventure stories.

Drawing Set

The other day, Janine and I sat outside and drew some of the flowers now just blooming in our garden. Janine wanted to try out the new sketch pad she is holding in the photo.

She has almost filled up the pad that came with the drawing set she got for Christmas from Uncle Eric. It's a really nice set too, with a wood case, pastels, oil pastels and my favorite, lots of colored pencils. I even borrowed one or two, after asking of course.

The rest of the garden will be in full bloom in the coming weeks. We will get back out and perhaps share some of our work with you.

The Bridges of the Merritt Parkway

This past Tuesday and Wednesday I was in New England for business. Along the way we drove along the Merritt Parkway. It is one of the only roads listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is even a Merritt Parkway Conservancy.

The Merritt Parkway runs through Fairfield County Connecticut. It was one of the first limited access highways and was finished in 1940. No trucks are allowed on it's 38 mile length. But as you can see each bridge built over the parkway is unique. If a highway can be called "civilized" this one is it.

For more information click here for Wikipedia or here for the National Scenic Byways Program

Dinner Out

Last night we thought we would beat the Mother's Day rush by taking Nana and Mommie out to dinner. We went to a 150 year old Inn located in the same town we bought the new washer. (See previous post.)

The town has a historic district that was originally settled before the French and Indian War by both. It was all but abandoned shortly after the Revolutionary War. A religious community resettled the area in the early 19th century only to leave after the Civil War. Apparently the whole place sat underutilized for many decades until it's historical significance was recognized about 40 years ago.

Thankfully the menu had no historical significance so John could order his usual plain hamburger. Nana and Sarah both had single lobster tails while Mommie had the crab cakes and Janine a baked potato. I had the Guinness Meat Loaf.

It was nice to travel 45 minutes north of town for a meal. It reminded Nana of the old days when they would take a Sunday drive and have a meal along the way. The concept of the Sunday Drive is of a bygone era however. We all spend so much time in the car going from activity to activity during the week, we would rather say at home on Sundays. But taking a short drive to shop and have an early dinner on a Friday sounded very attractive to everyone.

New Washer

Our old washer broke once again two weeks ago. The old Whirlpool just hasn't been itself for the past year or so. First it started making funny noises. Then it smelled like burnt rubber from time to time.

Just before Christmas, Bobbie used it to wash a rug and it broke. We called Charlie, our repairman replaced a part and admonished Bobbie to take the rugs to the laundrymat. But in February we had the same problem. Charlie repaired the machine, but this time he didn't have a quick explanation.

Finally, two weeks ago it broke again. So after 14 years and $250 of recent service calls, we decided to buy a new washer.

Bobbie looked at the high tech front loaders at Home Depot, but was put off by the fact that our nearest Home Depot only had two top loaders on the floor compared to several top loaders. She didn't think she was hearing the whole story.

So we set a lunch appointment for two Fridays ago. We left John and Sarah to do homework and took Janine to lunch with us then washer shopping. We returned to an appliance store in a small town north of here. We bought a very nice Bosch dishwasher from them seven years ago. Based on that good experience, we returned only to find their showroom torn apart for remodeling.

But after a few moments of finding out how Bobbie preferred to do laundry and a lot of subsequent discussion, Rose, our sales lady determined that a higher-end top loader would be best. It took almost a week for delivery, but we wanted to make the right decision on a washer we would keep for many years, than a quick and regrettable one.

We ended up with the GE Profile you see in the bottom photo. It does just about everything but whistle Dixie. Most importantly it has the cycles and temperatures that Bobbie likes to use. She is a very idiosyncratic about laundry. She does many small loads at specific settings.

Later Thursday after the washer was delivered Bobbie was on the phone with Rose. It didn't sound as if the machine had started the load. Rose assured Bobbie that this new washer REALLY was that quiet and then said that she could schedule a repairman if Bobbie wanted. The first load really did get clean, and so will many more, we hope.

Darth Pajamas

Requires no explanation...

Car Wash

The kids washed my car last week and did a pretty good job. Here's John making sure the last of the road salt is washed off from under the car while Sarah cleans the tires. Up in the far left you can see Janine rinsing the front of the car.

This was entirely their idea. It was a nice sunny day as you can see. They were inspired, got out the bucket, sponges, car wash soap and went to town.

It was sunny for the next few days, quite a change from the cold and cloudy weather we have today.

Next time, we introduce the concept of wax!

Long Shadows

John took this picture just a hour or so ago. It's that time of year when the shadows are long late in the day. We haven't been able to see any shadows this past few weeks with cold and cloudy weather. But that all changed in the past two days.

Tonight, all five of us took a walk together. It was great to get out in the fresh air with the sun shining.

John said that he had wanted to take a picture of his shadow for a while and tonight he got his chance.

Sports Works

Now it's motion photos from last Friday's trip to the Sports section of the Science museum. Mommy was completing our taxes so I took the kids out for the afternoon. The weather had been terrible for over a week so we all needed to work off some energy. For all of these reasons, the Sports Works was a much better choice than the science museum. It was almost empty to boot.

Here's Janine in the top photo on the trampoline trapeze. All three of them got on it at one time or another. It's quite a contraption, a large trampoline with a harness structure on each side. This structure holds the bungee cords that the attendants choose carefully to match the child's weight, or at least they want the watching parents to think so. As you can see that harness means business.

In the second photo Sarah and Janine are running a race against a video of Jackie Joyner- Kersee. Gosh, Jackie seems to win every time! Actually she give a lesson on how to get out of the starting blocks properly and which leg to use to push off to get a fast start. The girls ran this one about twice and got tired of it. John watched Jackie a couple of times then ran several times throughout the afternoon.

It was great to work off the extra energy and thankfully Mommy was done with taxes when we got home.

It's All About the Food

While we were eating today a baseball game took place in front of us.

Yesterday a friend gave me four tickets to today's afternoon game. So, we went to the ball game, while Mommy stayed at home to do taxes. But as every parent knows, it's not about baseball, it's all about food. From the hot dogs we had for lunch when we arrived to the cotton candy, nachos, peanuts, and ice cream there wasn't much that Sarah, John and Janine missed.

I made the mistake of buying an Italian sausage for myself. The portions were so large that the kids didn't finish their hot dogs, nachos, etc. so Dad got to eat the rest. Yummy.

Here's Janine and the mascot. She got a hug from him after he danced on the roof of the dugout. Our seats were incredible. We sat straight up from third base 15 rows off the field. We also got the see a triple and two double plays, both of which I had to explain to the kids. I saved the five bucks for a scorecard because I knew that it would be hard to concentrate on the game. Next time I might try however.

Finally, there was the weather. It was overcast and 45 at game time. Everyone was working to stay warm, including the security people. We left when it started to rain in the top of the eighth. We listened to the rest of the game on the radio in the car. The Pirates lost in the top of the ninth, but the other 9900 souls who braved the weather had fun, especially the four of us.

Vintage Audio

Here's a photo of my latest project, shelves for my office stereo system. I used the leftovers from our old massive IKEA home entertainment center. I "downsized" it with a circular saw last year eliminating the stereo shelves. (Now we use it just for the TV and DVD player.) The left upright is a new piece of laminated pine from Lowe's that I finished to resemble the other shelves.

Yes that is a turntable on top. The newest piece in this stack is the black CD player which we bought in 1992. The oldest is the turntable which dates from 1978. It has been in storage for almost 18 years! Unfortuneately the damping mechanism on the tone arm is stuck so it needs to go into the shop. Naturally it was the item I was most looking forward to using.

The CD player and tape deck still work, but both have suffered from kids' use. But they are made to be used and appreciated, not encased and forgotten.

Right now I am listening to the local classical music station. Reception has been spotty, but better once I adjusted the powered antenna you see to the left of the turntable.

Overall it's great to be able to listen to music in my office and have these items working again.

Spring is Here

Spring is here and Janine got on her bike this past week. As you can see she's about to outgrow it. I think it's time to get working on learning to ride without the training wheels. The nice thing is that Sarah's old bike is a Trek, so it's well built and in great shape.

Now if we can get the rain to stop for an hour or so...