NEW RING

After dating for 4 years my 24 year old grandson finally "popped the question". Crystal says she was very surprised. She has 2 more years of college before she can become the middle school English teacher that she wants to be. When I asked how she made her decision about the age group of children to teach she said, " Elementary grades are all over the place and run around a lot, highschool students are "mean" and I don't want to have to wear a bullit proof vest, so middle school seems just right. CY says he's about ready for more great grandchildren anyway. No pressure there.. Bryan and Crystal....no not much!

TURNIPS

We had hoped for a large garden this year. CY put a lot of new dirt on the area that had been taken from the pond. BIG MISTAKE The dirt was sandy and dried out as hard as a rock....We had a fair amount of turnip greens but then the bugs, weather and soil condition did them in. Next came the decision to mow the greens down, fertilize, poision for worms and allow to regrow. As we mowed, we noticed that the turnips were being pulled from the ground so we harvested all that we could and had a delicious few meals from the results. This fall MAJOR conditioning of the soil will be done.

FRIDAY: Part 3..Stocking up

Time to replenish the fridge and freezer with good old country sausage. The ham bones were two for the price of one and will come in handy for all the greens I'm planning to cook.

FRIDAY: Part 2..Celebration

I finally got the results of my last lab work. My sed rate (amt. of inflamation in my body) had dropped from 36 to 28 in 30 days. Yea! When I reach the rate of 15 which is normal I will be doing the "happy dance"
Because of the drop, my doctor decreased the predinisone to 9 per day and we celebrated with whole baby flounder, baked potato, slaw and iced tea.

FRIDAY: Part 1..Yearly visit

Bruce (CY's X-brother-in-law) came to North Carolina early this year to attend his granddaughter's (Alicia) graduation from high school.

He was more interested in asking questions about different family members than he had been in years past. So I pulled up pictures of 2008's family reunion and CY attempted to identify for him children he had never seen and adults he remembers as children.

THURSDAY: Back in the saddle again

THE OLD WAY: In the past when we wanted to bid on a job, I would contact the GC and request plans. Most times a set of plans would be fedx'ed to us. This was time consuming and with only 5 to 6 days lead time we were always pushed for time in gathering the figures for our quote.

A NEWER WAY: Then came the day of the computer and e-mail. I receive a full set of plans as an attachment to an e-mail. At this point, I forward the plans to Staples to have them printed at $3.00 per page. Ouch! That is expensive and there is still a wait time and plans have to be picked up.

THE BEST WAY: Then we discovered this big jewel of a machine. Thanks to Duncan-Parnell, we now have a "plotter" or as I call it a printer that prints plans and it can do it right off of my computer. However, I've had to call the repair/service man out twice in as many months. Power failure has been the culprit. I'll just have to breakdown and get another battery backup. Mine died six months ago. It's so rewarding to see the blueprints rolling off this machine. I can print the pages we need (I don't deal with the architectual pages) and leave the rest.
The only draw back is that it came with it's own little cp, moniter and keyboard which I had to make room for in the corner. This is the controler and my cp has to talk to the printer's cp.
I don't deal with all that cp stuff either.. I'm just too old to learn all those new tricks.

WEDNESDAY: Fragrance for the House

I am particularly fond of the dwarf gardenia bushes that I have planted in front of my house. I had trailing gardenia at the last house but when they weren't available for this one I "settled" for dwarf. I am liking the dwarf even better than the trailing.

The fragrance is amazing. It also reminds me of bible school when I was around 10 or 11. The church which I visited because our church had the bible school at night, had gardenia bushes planted around it.

My one dislike is that the blooms are so short lived and turn brown. I am just not up to much dead-heading these days so my bushes are not as pretty as they could be.

TUESDAY

What better way to watch
tv at Grandma's house?

MONDAY

The pond isn't completed, the boat has no title but there is a lot of potential here.

SUNDAY

We inherited this clock from Wendy's cleanup. It came with 2 bent hands and was very much off time. With a few minutes of "TLC" CY had it keeping time like a champ.

PANIC - POST

I couldn't find my old blog so I panicked and started this new one. My daughter, as usual was the inspiration for this. Along with a blogger that used the phrase "thinking in bullets". I can do that. I even talk in bullets, thanks to a medication that has me talking a lot and talking in half sentences.

My health has improved to the point that I am taking pictures again. I hope to take a picture each day of my very mundane life and share it with the world.

Here's blessing this blog and my ability to carry this through.