Working Weekend

We FINALLY opened the pool last Thursday night.  I was able to wash down the driveway and then get the cover thoroughly scrubbed on Friday...much to my delight because I believe my neighbors think I'm crazy when they see me washing down the driveway every year.  When they see the cover spread out on the driveway later, it helps to explain away some of my OCD cleaning insanity.  (Well, kind of.)   It only took three days in the blistering sun and ten hours with the power washer to get our deck all sparkly clean...just in time for the next couple days of rain and thunderstorms.   I also pulled one over on Martha Stewart and did a little of what I call redneck sewing in the garage over the weekend.  I used an extension cord to plug in my sewing machine on a flipped-over bucket while sitting on a college-dorm-room-leftover recliner in the garage to sew straps back onto our RV cover.  Seriously.  All I needed was Daisy Duke shorts, a tube top, cowboy boots and it definitely could have been true redneck sewing in all its country-music-listenin', tobacco-chewin', NASCAR-lovin' glory.  

 

Keaton was in his techie glory and put his newly-acquired college computer skills to good use and built his very own computer.  He ordered all of the components separately and then spent Thursday night and some time on Friday night to put it all together.  Everything works and none of the lights dimmed, so life here is good.  Except for when he blew a fuse and my oven died right in the middle of cooking dinner.  But, everything is now back to working order and life is better than good.  It's great...I discovered the frozen alcohol slushies.  I'm trying all the flavors...twice just to be sure I can decide which one I like best.  I'm leaning toward Bahama Mama at this point, but I still have a few more flavors to try.  Twice.  Maybe three times just to be sure.

Keaton's girlfriend and I enjoyed a frozen cocktail while cheering him on during his computer building project.

 

 

Keaton's tower and all the stuff that makes a computer run.



Installing the cooling fan and other stuff.



Installing more stuff.



Putting all the stuff into the tower.
(And yes, I think that "stuff" is the technical term.)



Wiring all the stuff.
(I love the headlamp.)



Ta da! It works!!


 

 

 

 

Happy Father's Day!

 

This past weekend was all about Matt...and it should have been since it was Father's Day Weekend. You know, that revered weekend where fathers can sit back, relax, and be waited on hand and foot by their offspring.  Except for Matt.  He doesn't sit still for long.  He ran a 5k with Keaton after work on Thursday, went golfing with Keaton after mowing and fertilizing on Friday, went kayaking with me and some friends on Saturday, enjoyed some fishing on Saturday and Sunday, and finally was able to watch some golf on TV on Sunday after unloading the RV and drying out everything from a weekend of camping.  (I took a nap.  Is there anything more boring on TV than golf?  Oh, I know...fishing.  Yuck.)  Happy Father's Day to my favorite father of our son!  (Maybe one of these Father's Days you'll sit still long enough to take a well-deserved nap with me.) 



They ran a local 5k for a fundraiser. Matt placed second in his age group.
(I don't know if that's good or bad. I think it's awesome unless you ran with 70-year-olds.)



Keaton got his favorite father a new putter. They put it to good use right away.
(Notice Cyrus in the door. He doesn't like to ever be out of the action. He's afraid he might miss a bite of something good to eat.)



Matt caught some fish while kayaking in the Manistee River and didn't tip once.



11.2 miles of paddling down the Manistee River on Saturday wth friends.
Surprisingly, I could still lift my arms on Sunday.

Thursday Things

Whew, it's been a busy week...and it's only Thursday!  We took a trip down to Kalamazoo and loaded up the Durango and trailer with Keaton's college-life necessities on Sunday.  (It's amazing how much he can fit in a small space!)  He took a couple of finals and headed home with his vehicle full of the rest of his dorm-sweet-dorm stuff on Tuesday.  He remarked how much quicker moving back home and getting unpacked and organized was this time.  (I don' think he took into account that his favorite parents in the whole, wide world already moved and unpacked 2/3 of his stuff on Sunday!)  So, after cleaning three area rugs and a chair, washing six loads of laundry, cleaning every tote that came into the house, and strategically stacking his stuff in the basement I'm happy to say he's happily settled.

 

 

Last night (before we decided to hang out in the basement while the tornado sirens were screeching), Matt installed ANOTHER new dishwasher.  No, we're not collecting dishwashers.  (Matt does seem to be collecting tractors though, but that's another story.)  So, the brand-new dishwasher we bought and installed a couple of weeks ago died.  After one use.  ONE.  The repair service the company uses told us it would be six weeks before they could come out.  SIX WEEKS.  Yeah, right.  Other service centers didn't service our area.  (It's so frustrating because it's not like we're in the middle of no-man's-land...we're between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, which were actually established, domesticated, civilized cities the last I heard.  Shoot, I heard they even have that new-fangled internet thing now.)  Anyway, we decided to return the dishwasher and try our luck with another manufacturer.  It was delivered yesterday and it's now running its first load.  (My dishpan fingertips are thankful!)  While Matt was installing it, I decided to let my creative juices flow and I made some magnets to put on our new metal map of the U.S.  I made two different logos:  one for the states we've visited by RV and one for the states we've visited by plane.  We have 11 more states to visit and then it'll be time to conquer the rest of the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23!

We celebrated our 23rd anniversary of wedded bliss on Saturday.  We enjoyed the most expensive breakfast in our history at the casino (sadly, we weren't winners on any slot machines that morning), bought another new dishwasher (this is where it would have been really nice to be big winners at the casino...even little winners would have been nice), and enjoyed a lovely dinner and sunset on Lake Michigan.  After 23 years, we still make each other laugh every day.  Although, I'm definitely funnier than Matt.

 



Dinner took a little longer than expected, but we were still able to catch the last rays of a gorgeous sunset.
And there really was a gorgeous sunset behind us. This just helps prove my point of why I need a better phone.

Recipe Reunion

Years and years and YEARS of recipe collecting, sharing, and copying created a huge pile of yummy things to try.  But, it also created some paper overflow.  My little recipe box got so full that things spilled over into a second recipe box.  Then, recipes started to spill out of the second box.  I was not about to get a third recipe box.  My solution:  I bought a big cute box, made cute little dividers, and finally got all my recipes happily living together in one happy little home.  This has been bugging me for years.  It's funny what drives some people crazy.  Disorganization is definitely at the top of my list.  Well, maybe not at the top of my list, but definitely in the top 100 after: impolite people; people who don't use their turn signals; inconsiderate people; people who throw cigarette butts out the vehicle window; people who don't recycle; people who don't use personal water bottles (and those who only drink bottled water and think they're doing good by recycling them, but in reality create more energy to be used by having them recycled when they could just use one water bottle and just wash it daily instead of wasting energy to have dozens recycled); people who don't pick up after their dog; people who let their dog pee in my front yard while walking it; people who let their dog bark relentlessly OUTSIDE all day, every day; and the list could go on an on and on.  Maybe I really do need to be medicated...or I need to live on an island, far away from some of my neighbors.

I found this box at Hobby Lobby...and it coincidentally also matches my tablecloth!



All my recipes...reunited in one place at last!!
(Well, my handwritten recipes.  The ones I printed from the computer are in binders.)



All my recipes downloaded from the computer, printed, and neatly organized!

 

Dishwasher Obituary

Our dishwasher passed away last week after a long battle of sporadic computer board failure.  The dishwasher leaves behind a flat-top range, microwave, and refrigerator.  A public viewing is being held in the garage until Thursday (when it will go to the metal recycling center).

The new dishwasher.  The old one will be missed!!