A Crazy Few Days

It all began last Thursday when I received the new condo information from Steve. After researching the location, I thought to myself, I bet I have a photograph of that building, or at least the area, from my visit to Vancouver two years ago. Those photos are stored in Picasa, the Google place I used for the previous nine years.  I've been having problems with it for a while now, however, I tried once again to view my photo history with no success, even though I'd shut down everything else on my computer. Remember when I joked about how many photos I had a week or so ago? I lied. I've got more like 200,000!

So,  because Picasa was freezing on me,  I decided to call Apple Care which I paid for when I bought this new computer about 18 months ago. First I spoke with a young woman for about 45 minutes, and when she had no success, she transferred me to Will in Oregon. It is a long convoluted story, but the upshot is that it is still not working, in spite of hours upon hours of conversation, during which time I learned everything there is to know about Will, who is 25 years old, btw.

And you know what? I think I see the building in this blog post!!! Deep into the post, if you see a photograph of the Granville Street Bridge and some buildings across the water on the right hand side, I'm thinking it is in one of those. We will be on the 20th floor, so not quite as high as the other. When we get there, I will be sure to post photographs of our surroundings. But you knew that already, didn't you?

In between time spent with Will, I did a few things, but not much. Perhaps I'll go backwards in this post. Bruce was only home on Friday, and left again Saturday morning. Guess what?? We actually had rain Saturday afternoon, much to everyones relief. We are 9 inches behind normal rainfall this year. Hopefully a new trend has started, but no one is holding their breath.

Bill and Dave took me to lunch on Mother's Day at the newly renovated Julie's Waterfront.

We learned it was purchased by a restaurant group from downtown, and the new menu reflects that change. Our food was scrumptious!

I began Mother's Day with a Facetime call from Matt around 7:30AM. While I was chatting with him, and thanking him for the lovely bouquet that arrived on Saturday afternoon,

Bruce called from Dallas. No sooner had I'd hung up the phone with Bruce, telling him I'd call him back after my visit with Matt and Tom, then the phone rang and it was Will apologizing for not calling on Saturday. We spent most of the next five hours on the phone. Finally I told him I needed to get ready for my lunch date and we agreed to get back together when I got home. That did not happen because I was gone for so long, but maybe on Thursday when he is working again we can pick up where we left off. Yeesh! I will say, at least I learned a bunch about how my computer works during these marathon sessions.

Bruce came home because we were having blinds and shades installed on Friday afternoon. It was a crazy scene with four men here, including the sales rep of the remote control devices. He's the big guy...

With this heat wave we've been having, the sun room was SO hot in the afternoon, that I am absolutely thrilled with the new shades. Bruce and Mike making preparations..

Now, it looks like this:

The shades are tucked up into those little headers for most of the day. Woo hoo!

Irene had a friend, her former sewing teacher, Susanne, visiting from Portland. They both are wearing sundresses with patterns made by Susanne. Pam, Lynn, and I shared a lively dinner with them at K Restaurant in College Park.

It might have been that same morning that I went out early in search of my birds, and I was in luck, but before I rode over there, I rode down to the lake after seeing the beautiful morning full moon. Not to mention that it was shining on the lake as the sun rose.

That was just crazy good. Eventually I found the youngsters on the same branch, taking care of one another.

There's just something about this shot that I love.

Driving down Pershing recently I noticed a sign advertising an event that is either good, or bad, depending on how you look at it. Yes, another long-time elementary school is being torn down to make way for a new K-8 school.

If we had any kids on our street this is where they would attend. Personally I'm always a little sad seeing history wiped away. Then too, I thought this sign out front was utterly ridiculous.

Since when do we need to give parents a gold star for just doing what they should do anyway? Is it any wonder our schools are in trouble if the parents are like this? Never one to shy away from voicing an opinion, I believe that school success rests not on the teacher's shoulders, but the parents. If you are going to have children, you have a responsibility to do everything you can to help them succeed in life. At least that's what we did. Do I sound like a curmudgeon? Sometimes I guess I deserve that description!

I was so fortunate to quickly find some guys to cut the seed pods out of our palms, which are the bane of my existence because they drop into the pool, clogging up the cleaner. It is not good when I'm here, but disastrous when I won't be.

I finally got out on my bicycle today. This is by no means a great photo, but I finally saw the hawk babies. Use your imagination...

I suspect it won't be long before they leave the nest.

Finally, here are some super cool shots, or at least I think so, of that hive I showed you in a previous post.

I'm pretty clueless about hives, but I'm thinking this is full of honey? Absolutely an amazing transformation from the last time I took some shots.

I wish I could find a better way to shoot it though,  but it is high up in an Oak tree, with poor lighting. I suggest you click on the above photo to view it larger. Of course you may not have any interest in nature in action, but I'm pretty confidant that for my readers, that is simply not the case.

Another long week without my honey, but it isn't the first time. That said, it is getting closer every day to being the last time. :)

yours truly,

Gail

A Breath of Fresh Air

Angela, after seeing a photograph much like this one,

proclaimed that the paint should be called, "A Breath of Fresh Air" and I tend to agree with her. I am in heaven around here, in spite of the long days of work!

We left off when Bruce was making the wine cabinet which in truth is a box with the lattice work fastened to the inside. I told you he would be doing moldings and such, but first he had to paint it. I suggested spraying, however, he opted for a brush, and I'm glad I was not the one doing it, that's for sure.

While he was working on it, I moved back into the finished cabinets. During the emptying process I did just a wee bit of purging. What is it about mugs that make them so hard to do away with? We had way more than we needed, however, lots of them are gifts, and it pains me to give them away. Do you have the same problem?

Some I could not bear to part with, including the adorable Santa mug on the top shelf, a remnant of Bruce's childhood. Hot chocolate anyone?

You know it is taking you a long time to do a project when even the girl at Goodwill asks, "are you done with the kitchen yet?" Why, no we are not, thank you very much.

We are, however, making great progress.

The tubs in the forefront look way better after I sorted things out. One is for baking stuff, while the other is filled with all types of pasta. Running up to Ross, I was hoping to find more of the same to get the rest of the cabinet looking neat and tidy, however, I had to content myself with some other types. My sister Nancy will be so proud, as she loves an organized cabinet.

To better understand why it is taking so long, here's a close up of the banding that Bruce is adding to each and every door. See the lighter colored wood along the edges? Glued, stapled, spackled and sanded before it comes to me for the de-glossing, two coats of primer, followed by two coats of paint.

Finally I had the pantry doors primed and one coat of paint;  then began the laborious process of hanging them again with four sets of hinges each. The final coat to be done while they are hanging.

While Bruce worked on that, I DUSTED!! Every surface in our living area, not to mention my neglected bedroom was covered in dust. Won't last long, but it feels better for now!

Tuesday afternoon I finally got my hair cut after a six month hiatus. Figuring if anyone could tell about my hair loss, it would be Monica, and indeed it is the sad truth. Running her hands through my conditioned hair she came away with a hand full. I've finally got an appointment with Bruce's doctor, having waited for return calls from my former doctors for nearly a week. Bah humbug on them!

With the dusting and the door hanging out of the way, it was finally time for some fun. Steve and Kirsten Vaughan are the greatest hosts in the world.

The food is always scrumptious and the company? Fantastic!  The occasion? Steve's 60th birthday!

A large deck out back basically hangs over Dickson Azalea Garden, a city owned park. Good for them that when a gigantic, and I'm not using that term lightly, part of their neighbor's tree fell on their beautiful deck, they were not hom,e as they spend lots of time out there. I could not get a good photograph of it, well because it is slightly dangerous, however, Kirsten and Steve were giving tours of what is going on right now.

Do you see what is going on? Incredibly, after the half-tree fell, Kirsten noticed an inordinate amount of bees flying around, so, after finding a bee guy on Craigslist, they went about trying to figure it out, which required cutting a chunk out of the tree. Discovering thousands of bees inside, the bee guy really wanted the queen who as it turns out is up in the part of the tree still standing. The towel is stuffed into the hive area to keep the bees from returning and an artificial hive is what that white box is all about. Here's the nearby bait.

Honey bees were flying around like mad, but apparently, unless severely provoked they will not sting. Good news for me as I'm no good with any sort of insect bite, swelling up like a little balloon at the bite site.

Back inside it was so good not to be painting, AND, for Bruce to hear from folks how much they miss him at Darden. One of the guys told me he always called Bruce the Admiral. :)

Not only do they have that super sized island, but a big square table as well. Nice!

So, it's a good thing that we tackled this project now because in the last week or so, four, if not five different folks have called with job offers for Bruce. I'm afraid I will soon have to be sharing his talents with others once again.

This afternoon, when he returns from errands, he will put the knobs on the pantry doors, and then we are taking a much needed break to go to the beach tomorrow!! At the moment we are debating about the paint color for the brick wall. Should we go with the green of the living room, or the yellow of the kitchen? I'm inclined to go with the green, however, the paint is not purchased yet so weigh in if you have an opinion!

Not counting the wall paint we are getting there as you can see. Only twelve doors and two drawers left to go! That is what is known as positive thinking my friends, which is easy to come by when you are living with a breath of fresh air. :)

p.s. B's finger is not hurting and after a day or so the tetanus shot site is feeling fine once again.