Sunporch Floor

Kathie and I have been working at tiling the new sunporch floor. Here is my faithful coworker measuring and marking the perimeter tiles.

Here am I cutting one of those perimeter tiles with a wet saw kindly loaned to us by cousin Mark. If the picture seems blurry, it is because of the water vapor spewing into the air as I make the cut on the tile.

Here is what the floor currently looks like. We have now cemented the perimeter tiles into place and have cleaned all the tiles. Grouting comes next, then cleaning and sealing. This tiling business takes many days and lots of steps.

Catching Up on Road Trip

Picking up (late) from the last post...after leaving Nashville, we drove to Ohio to see Paula and Ron for a couple of days. Paula engaged us in helping to build "animal" forms for an evening class she is teaching as a community service to disabled persons. They were going to transform these forms into paper mache creatures.

After leaving Ohio, we traveled to the Chicago area. Kathie had a chance to catch up with her childhood friend, Karen, and Karen's mother during a brief stop at their home.

Later, we checked in at Pete and Betsy's for a couple of nights. Since we weren't going to be able to see Henry on his actual birthday, we gave him his gift early. When asked what he wanted for his birthday, he told everyone, "An engine that has a stick between the wheels to use on my wooden train track--not an electric train--one I can push on my wooden track." The boy has very specific needs these days. Well, I managed to find an engine with "a stick between the wheels", and he seemed to be happy with the result.

Meanwhile, Clara was busy eating "Os."

Although she does like the occasional hornet.

Henry and Grandma played games.

Later, back in Iowa, Paula and Ron stayed with us one night while on their way to see Sarah for Thanksgiving. We will see them next weekend too as they work their way back to Ohio. (Note the framed painting on the kitchen wall, which is one of my very favorite possessions. Paula painted that many, many years ago.)

"Holidays" in Nashville

Because Jessica, Mike, and Travis are all involved in the food services industry and cannot easily get time off around the holidays, we decided to schedule an early Thanksgiving/Christmas get-together with them now. So, we have been in Nashville for the last several days enjoying being together.

The evening we arrived, Jessica was still working, though she has had several days off since then. Kathie, Travis, and I drove to her restaurant that first evening to see her and to have some of the fine food they offer.

Mike and Jessica are still outfitting their new home. Prior to our visit, Mike had been busily working on a table for their kitchen. In fact, the reason he didn't join us for dinner at Jessica's restaurant was because he was putting some finishing touches on the project. He had found several pieces of interesting walnut and fashioned the table you see here, succeeding in getting it to a sufficiently complete state to allow us all to use it during our visit. The pieces of wood are just gorgeous, with one of them showing some burl. Here is Mike after just having moved the table into the kitchen.

Mike incorporated several of the interesting features of the pieces of walnut into his design. Maybe you can make out the burl in the piece on the lower right of this picture. I was very impressed with his work.

Here is the table in use as we are about to enjoy a meal of prime rib and crab cakes, which, of course, Jessica and Mike prepared for us.

Later that evening, we had tickets for a performance of the live broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry on radio station WSM (650AM). Shows are currently being broadcast from the historic old Ryan Auditorium in downtown Nashville. I used to listen to WSM as a kid and have always respected the place of the Grand Ole Opry in the history of American music. So, it was really fun for me to be there.

There were several well-known performers scheduled that evening, including Randy Travis, John Conlee, Josh Turner, Vince Gill, and Riders in the Sky. Maybe the most interesting, if not the most talented, was Kevin Costner and his band Modern West. Because of the traditional Grand Ole Opry format, no performer plays more than a couple songs, so we got to hear quite a few performers in addition to the ones I listed here.

Another evening, pizzas were created by the resident cooks. They were loaded with good things.

Meanwhile, Mike experimented with a blueberry-custard pie, which was really good. Of course, being the perfectionist he is, Mike was not satisfied with it.

This trip was also our first opportunity to meet the newest member of the household--Barney. Here he is. Barney is a good name for him. He is a very lovable pooch. I must say I'm impressed with how much training he already exhibits. He does a great "sit, down, play dead" routine already.

Barney and Josey got along pretty well. Barney didn't even mind when Josey tried to hog his bed. Ozzie (the cat) and Barney seem to get along too--maybe I should say that Ozzie tolerates Barney well. On the other hand, Ozzie isn't so fond of Josey.

Birthday Tree

Someone recently celebrated a birthday. I bought her a tree (and took her to Las Vegas for a few days). We have been wanting to replace some dying blue spruce with something different, and this should be a good start. The tree is a green giant arborvitae. We were assured that deer do not eat them. We shall see. They grow to about 25' with a 12' base. This one has a ways to go, as you can see, although it has a nice start. Maybe I'll post annual pictures so we can watch the tree outpace its owner in stature.