Entry for January 31, 2007

Last week I was back to normal, health wise. The lingering effects of the cold were gone and I was back into my exercise routine. Unfortunately, Gin had fallen victim to the cold it stayed with her most of last week. Caris came home for the weekend with Thomas and she also had a cold. Monday Gin was feeling much better and I think she has turned the corner on losing the cold.

Saturday and Sunday I worked on cutting the rest of the pieces for the drawing file storage cabinets. I assembled some more trim pieces on the proto-type cabinet. All the major assembly pieces are now cut and ready for assembly.

We had dinner Saturday night with Patrick, Jessica, Caris and Thomas. Mexican was the choice of entrée. After dinner it was back to our house for a game of Aggravation Rummy. I managed to pull out a victory after Thomas had pulled ahead. I did have the help of a FREE tile to guide me along.

Monday was my Grandmother Jimmie’s birthday, she would have been 102. I did not know her real well, but always enjoyed visiting her house in Norfolk when I was younger. I know she was a strong person and did a lot to take care of her family.

The picture was taken at Granddaddy Mike's house, I'm not sure when. Grandmother is holding Patrick (PJ back then). Chris, Tony and yours truly are standing behind them. I love the smiles on their faces.

P@

Entry for January 22, 2007

Sick and tired was the theme of the week. someone at work brought a head cold in and decided to be generous enough to give it to as many people as possible. I was one of the gifted recipients. I ran Monday through Wednesday and planned taking Thursday off since we were expecting an ice storm. We only had rain, but the head cold started settling in first thing in the morning. No fever was involved, just congestion and head aches. I managed to work through the misery Thursday and Friday.

Saturday Gin went to Albemarle for Caris' wedding shower for Christmas. Patrick and I attended the Clemson/Boston College basketball game at Clemson. We sat in the top of the arena at center court. The place is pretty small so the seats were not too far from the court. The game was exciting as Clemson won by 20 points to beat the only unbeaten team in the ACC. We had lunch at Buffalo's Cafe in Anderson before heading home. Gin arrived shortly after 7 and we relaxed for the evening and watched "The Devil Wears Prada" on pay per view.

Sunday was definitely a day of rest. Gin came down with the cold and I handled the grocery shopping, cooking and laundry. It sounds like a lot of work but it really wasn't that difficult. The grocery store wasn't crowded, the cooking was simple and the laundry was done in short spurts of time.

P@

Entry for January 15, 2007

I started a new running routine last week. It is a four week program using intervals speeds for each work out. The cycle of days to run is 2 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on and 1 day off. So far it was pretty invigorating to run using a scheduled cycle for intensity levels. Since all the areas I run in are made up of hills, the cycles vary on where they will start and end. Before this I had tried doing speed changes up hill or down hill only. Now I never really know where a cycle will happen. It makes the challenge greater than before.

Saturday and Sunday I worked on a new cabinet project for the engineering department at work. The engineering manager requested for me to build some stick file cabinets for their smaller drawings. A stick file is a bar clamp that holds several 11x17 drawings. The stick straddles two parallel surfaces while the drawings hang down for storage. I built one prototype and cut out the pieces for a second cabinet. I showed the pictures to engineering this morning and now they want 4 of these built. I still have some minor details to work out for trim and finishing, but overall I’m satisfied with how they look.

Gin and I took a short break Sunday afternoon and drove around the county taking pictures of trees. She is going to make more stained tree paintings and sell them in consignment shops. We also helped Patrick and Jessica out with feeding their dogs while they spent the weekend in Gatlinburg.

P@

Entry for January 07, 2007

It's been several weeks since I last made an entry in the BLOG. Since then I helped Gin with making frames and attaching them to her tree paintings she made for Susan, Kate and Jessica. I also finished making the sundial for Susan. The last two weeks before Christmas went by so fast that I really didn't have much time to write or complete any other side projects.

Gin and I enjoyed Christmas with our children and their partners on the Saturday before Christmas. We spent the day at Patrick's opening gifts and having lunch. After our get together Gin and I had the rest of the evening to pack for a 9 day outing with family.

Sunday morning we attended church in Albemarle with Caris and Thomas. We had a quick lunch together at Arby's and then we were off to Rocky Mount. We made it to Mom and Dad's around 4 and relaxed for a while with them. I went with Dad to a meeting where he spoke to a small group on Christmas Eve. I learned a lot of things about my father that I had never known. I also learned more about myself during the speech.

Christmas morning we attended church with Mom and Dad in downtown Rocky Mount. They have a new Irish priest who provides an uplifting presence in the church. After the service Dad treated us to his skills in the kitchen by whipping up a big breakfast. Gifts were exchanged after breakfast and we spent time together catching up on time past. Aunt Ginny made it there later in the day and we proceeded into a game of Aggravation Rummy. Ginny was the unfortunate recipient of a difficult card that she kept trying to play with no luck.

Tuesday morning we prepared for our travels further east to the Outer Banks of NC. We left Rocky Mount around 1 and were in Corolla by 4. The traffic was very light and the weather was perfect. Kate and her family had arrived a few hours before us and had already begun to settle in. Joe and his family made it there shortly after us.

We spent the next 5 days eating, touring places on the island, eating, walking on the beach, eating, jogging, eating, reading, eating, playing whiffle ball, eating, shopping, eating, exchanging gifts, eating, taking sunrise/sunset pictures, eating, hot-tubbing, eating, playing pool and did I mention eating. There was definitely plenty to dine and snack on during our stay at the beach house. David prepared a seafood pasta, Ingrid made several fresh apple pies, Gin baked her famous cookies, Ingrid and Mom made tacos, Richard baked a ham, Jessica made peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate and Laurie made her graham cracker candies. If I didn't mention someone and what the made, I do apologize, there was just so much to enjoy. I did manage to get two of my east coast favorites, first I had a meatball sub from Zeros and toward the end of the week I enjoyed a 7-11 Slurpee. We did have a slight scare on New Year's Eve when Patrick called informing us about a tornado being spotted near our home. After several calls and weather checks, we were relieved to find out from our local fire department that all was well.

We left the beach on New Year's Day and stopped in Rocky Mount for lunch with Mom, Dad, Chris and Alecia. We also played an abbreviated game of Aggravation Rummy. It was great to see my brother and parents once again. After leaving Rocky Mount we headed back to Albemarle to pick-up Caris' bird, Stetson. We made a quick in and out stop at Thomas' and were home by 9. Unpacking the truck took about an hour including putting things away.

I took off on Tuesday, knowing that an extra day to recover would definitely be necessary, and it was. I worked a short 3 day week in the office which ended up being like a full week with 53 emails and a page long to-do list at hand. I made it through without working overtime.

With intentions of relaxing this weekend, I had thoughts of catching up on mail and reading. I was wrong. Gin showed me the water bill which was double the normal amount. I spent part of Saturday morning under the house tracing out all piping for leaks. I found none, yet the meter was still running. I shut off several different sources and still no luck finding it. I finally narrowed the search down to the underground pipe from the meter to the house. After digging several holes in the front yard with the help of Gin, we found the leak. The copper pipe coming off the meter looped down then back up to a compression fitting. From there the pipe changed to a flexible gray plastic and then to white PVC plastic. It was the compression fitting that was leaking. I tried to tighten it which resulted in breaking the fitting. I made a list of materials needed, then Gin and I went to the home center for parts. I finished the repairs right at night fall while Gin started filling in the other holes we dug up earlier. After testing the line for leaks and a few adjustments, we were back in business. We partially covered the hole and monitored the meter until this morning. I checked the meter again this morning and all was still. I completed replacing the dirt and spread some grass seed over the bare spots.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing after our weekly trip to the grocery store.

P@