Ladies Days at the bay

It's been quite a few years since we had an official "Ladies Days" at the bay. For the last few years we've been going to Concan to sit on Carole's front porch and play games. Or we would ferry kayaks and large tubes upriver and float back to the house. Or maybe we would just take chairs down to the river so that we could sit in the river and watch tubers and kayakers (if that's a word) go by. We had planned on going to Concan again this year, but a few days before our planned departure it became clear that things weren't going to pan out. We did manage to throw together a plan that worked for everyone and our last minute change of venue from Concan to Port Alto came together as well as if we had planned it that way from the beginning!

With very little consultation, the seven of us managed to each bring two or three snacks, meals or desserts that kept us well fed for the approximately 2 1/2 days we were there. We had a feast of fresh fruits, various salads (chicken, potato, pasta,) ham, cheeses, fresh corn, fresh tomatoes and desserts at every meal. We had watermelon margaritas and milk punch and regular margaritas. Trust me when I say that it was hard to fit three meals in the day when each meal involved so many choices. Janie had a birthday while we were there, so of course, we celebrated...with a cheese cake, lemon supreme pudding dessert, and two other cakes!

Then we had to find time for games...card games, scrabble, bananagrams, rummikub...tough job, but somebody had to do it. We only managed to get in the water one morning. We were too busy the rest of the time. The water felt like bath water that morning and the sky was very overcast, so even though there was not so much as a breeze...the water was almost slick...it was a very pleasant temperature. It was just about as perfect as it can get.

If it weren't for bad luck...

We got back from our annual trip to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels on Wednesday. Robin, Chad and Wayne came back on Tuesday evening, but the rest of us left on Wednesday morning.

Wayne got back into watering immediately and on Wednesday night probably got only about 3 hours of sleep between the trips out to the fields to check motors, change settings, etc. (You people in Connecticut...and you know who you are...have all the luck with so much rain!) Thursday night should have been better as he was going to be able to get 7-8 hours of sleep without having to get up in the middle of the night.

I was going around turning off lights about midnight when I noticed what appeared to be sprayed water on the master bathroom floor. After looking at it briefly, trying to figure out what could have caused it, I looked up and saw trouble...water dripping from the ceiling. I went upstairs and turned on the light in the bathroom above the master. Crap! Water dripping from one of the light fixtures had run off the countertop onto the floor, soaking the carpet runner in that room. Of course, water dripping from the light fixture meant it was coming from the air conditioner above that room...so, up into the attic I went. I could tell from the stairway that the drain pan was full.

Investigation over, I had to have help. I hated to wake Wayne up, but I couldn't handle it by myself. He's not as agile as he used to be, so going up to the second floor and then into the attic is not something he likes to do. Once in the attic, care must be taken not to slip off the floor joists and step through the ceiling below. He was wearing crocs, and I worried that he might trip. If he fell, I don't know if I could have been much help in those precarious locations. There is some flooring up there, but not enough. We need to improve on that when it's a little cooler.

First we used the ShamWow towels, but that was taking too long, so poor Wayne had to retrace his steps, down the attic stairs then down to the first floor in a quest for the shop vac that he hoped was in the garage. Soon enough, he was back up in the attic with the shop vac which was a big improvement over the ShamWow (not that they aren't good for more normal spills.) After vacuuming up all the water, he used the shop vac to first suck then blow (careful, now) the discharge tube that usually empties the drain pan. We poured a little Clorox down it for good measure.

I used the ShamWow towels to mop up the upstairs bathroom floor. They were very effective for that part of the job. Having finished upstairs, Wayne decided since he was awake he would go check on the watering.

As I was going back and forth downstairs, I noticed a puddle of water on the patio we had closed in several years ago. It wasn't anywhere near where the A/C drain problem was, so I had a bad feeling about it. But, I used the ShamWow (you'd think I was an advertiser) again and mopped it up.

After sweating it up in the attic, a cool shower was a welcome treat and then off to bed.

Next morning, another puddle on the porch. Obviously, it's a pipe problem...somewhere...under the slab. Crap! It seems to leak less when I'm watering the lawn so I'm watering. Wayne has called three plumbers so far, but no one has come out yet. Who knows what it's going to take to find and repair this problem.

The ceiling in the downstairs bathroom and at least one of the closets in the bathroom will need to be repaired...probably new sheetrock and paint. The upstairs bathroom will need repairs, too.

We're too old for this!

Robin's Birthday

June 1 was Robin's 28th birthday, but we didn't have the official celebration until June 2. The kids (and Brent) played on the slip and slide and in the sprinklers for awhile and then we came in to eat tacos and have cake.

Carlee took off as soon as she noticed the cake was on fire...well, not really, just one candle...she didn't like it when the candles were lit on her birthday cake a couple of weeks ago either. She kept an eye on us from across the room until Robin blew the candle out and then she rejoined us. Carlee really likes to eat and spent more time at the table than anyone else. When she was all done with her cake she picked up the plate and worked on licking off any icing that had been left behind!

Chad wasn't able to be here as he's working down south this week. He did take Robin to Houston for dinner at Pappas Grill on Monday, though.

I have a video of Gage with a hula hoop on the Garner blog...well, not yet, but soon. I need to apologize...somehow I changed a setting on the camera and about 10 pictures were pretty unfocused and blurry. The video is one of them, but think it's funny, so I'm using it anyway. Most of the still shots had to be deleted. It's so annoying when that happens, especially annoying that I don't notice it sooner and take steps to fix it!

The slip and slide video is on the Bubela blog...or it will be in a day or two. Brent started sliding to show Gage how to slide into base...a great (and fun) way to learn I think.

Robin wasn't the only one celebrating a birthday on Monday. It was Virgie's birthday, too. I haven't called her yet...I hope she got my card!

Unwelcome visitor

When I got home from the babysitting gig last night, I thought we were in for the night. I hadn't eaten yet, so I made a sandwich and then decided a root beer sounded like just the thing. It was dark by then, so I switched on the garage light and stepped out to check the fridge out there. I stepped on something soft and got off of it quickly, thinking it must have been a frog or toad. You can imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw a snake, coiled between me and the door. As I looked, it slithered into the house and took a left toward the pantry. I didn't want it going in there, or anywhere for that matter, so I hurried around to face it. It stopped and opened it mouth and showed me it's tonsils. It was probably about an inch around and maybe 15 or so inches long.

I yelled for Wayne, who was in bed watching television. He didn't hear me, of course, so I yelled a couple more times, getting louder each time. Finally, he heard and yelled back, "What?" I told him, "Come in here." To his credit, he wasted no time and seconds later he asked where I was and I told him I was in the kitchen. He came up behind me and saw that I was having a stand-off with the snake which turned as if to go back out the door (which was closed by now...don't want bugs and mosquitos in the house, it's bad enough there's a snake here.) I could have opened the door, but I really didn't want it in the garage either, so I grabbed one of Wayne's shoes that was nearby and trapped the snake under it. Wayne came and took my place while I looked for something to use to get the snake out of the house and into the killing field. I got the tongs and Wayne was able to grab the snake with them.

We went through the garage and out to the driveway. I grabbed a shovel and Wayne proceeded to do away with it. We both noticed that it was pretty smelly, but Wayne didn't think it was a moccasin. It didn't occur to me until later that I should have pulled my phone out of my pocket and took it's picture while we were having the stand-off.

New apps I downloaded

I didn't go to see any of the grandkids today. I have actually done very little...I know, big surprise. I did start browsing the app store, though, in search of some new, fun app for my phone. I actually found several I downloaded.

One, is called "Rotator." Sometimes, when I take a photo with my phone, it wants the orientation to be opposite of what I want to see. If I turn my phone, the photo flips, too, so I have to hold the phone at an odd angle to view the photo the way I want. Rotator changes the orientation for you. I was able to use it today when I posted a couple of photos of Jax on the Bubela blog and they didn't look right. Actually, those pictures were fine to view on the phone, but they all seem to show up portrait style when I download them to the computer. Even if I change them in the file, they still download in portrait mode in the blog. When I saw that had happened today, I thought, "Aha! I have Rotator!" So, I used the app on the phone and then downloaded them to the computer and voila! they showed up the right way in the blog. Too technical? Well, maybe not too technical...but probably too much information. "Don't tell me about the labor, show me the baby!"

Another app I downloaded today is called "iWrecked." I had seen an insurance company advertisement on t.v. that described an app that lets you use the phone to enter all pertinent information in case of an accident. I don't use that insurance company, but I found this generic accident form app which does much of the same, including areas to fill in your own auto information, including VIN # and license plate number among other things.

The last app was fun! It's called "Stylish Girl." Now, you know that's me! I spent half the afternoon dragging things out of my closet, photographing them, describing them, and putting them in "my closet." Things like accessories, tops, bottoms, shoes, etc. Once you have all your items documented and in the closet, you can put together outfits and save them. There's an area for packing a suitcase, where you select things from the closet and put them in the suitcase. Also there, is a place to type in things you need to remember or want to do while your on your trip. After a couple of hours of pulling things out of my real closet so I could photograph them, I tired of it, but I think it's a pretty neat app and will be handy while shopping.

Another benefit of Stylish Girl, is that while you are documenting your wardrobe, you can see how much crap you have and whether or not the stuff that's not crap needs attention.

Tell me I didn't do it!

I bought $123 worth of 41 cent "Forever" stamps about a year ago. Today, as I was peeling some stamps off one of the strips, I noticed that there were stamps on the other side of the strip. I thought, "Oh, s**t, tell me I've been throwing away about half the stamps!"

Fortunately, I did not follow through on my intent last week, and take the overflowing trash bag in my office to the dumpster. I started going through it, and found 6 strips, all with stamps on one side. Mostly, it was the side with 8 stamps, and they were all there. Strangely, however, there were a couple of cards with only 2 or 3 stamps left. What was I thinking? Or was I thinking at all?

It was interesting...well, interesting isn't quite the proper word...to excavate downwards in the trash bag. I usually didn't even have to find an envelope with a postmark on it to tell where (in time) I was. Some of the layers were obvious...the tax layer, where Form 1099 envelopes we had received were found; the late November layer, where numerous iterations of the invitation to the Wendel/Rioux Family Christmas were edited and reprinted; the Halloween layer, where a quantity of snack size candy wrappers lurked (a testament to my bad behavior.) There was the layer with multitudes of notes I had taken during phone calls with Dee, giving me information I could email to the friends on the "Gary Group" mailing list. A Schlitterbahn layer was evidence of our strategies for booking rooms for the 2009 trip, along with grocery lists and food plans for the 2008 trip.

The earliest layer was in May of 2008, so I'm hoping that means I didn't waste too many stamps. I'm going to give myself credit for using all the rest. In all, I rescued 35 stamps.

Jax Wade

This has been quite the eventful week for our family. Carolyn and Brent presented us with our fifth grandbaby, a little boy named Jax Wade. Jax was born on Wednesday, April 29, at 7:46 PM. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 19 1/4 inches long. He has dark hair. He's just about perfect!

His first pictures, taken immediately after his birth, were not so flattering...he looked a bit like a garden gnome. But, it's amazing what a change a day or so can bring. He's starting to look pretty cute!

He seems pretty easy-going. At least, he's been that way when I've been there. Sleeps till it's time to eat, then sleeps again. I haven't asked what he's like when I'm not there. Kate and Carlee are both really excited about "Baby Jax".

If you really want to see him and the first meeting of the sibs, I've posted a couple of videos on The Bubela blog. The link is somewhere to the right on this page.

Jax was about 2 1/2 weeks early and was eager to meet the family. They checked into the hospital about 5 PM on Wednesday and he was born at 7:46 PM.

All is well and we couldn't be happier to welcome this precious little boy to the world!