Ticket To Ride

Monday

Last night we went over to Robby and Ashley's to play the game called Ticket to Ride.

We played until about 10pm and then headed home.

Not much on the agenda today, but the day seemed to go by quickly.  I started the process to update the navigation system in the Ridgeline but once I got to Garmin Express it looks like they pulled the update until the 15th so will try again later in the week.

Then I got a call from my son this afternoon about going to the men's bible study with him tonight at Mt Zion.  So Bonnie made supper early and I met him over there at 6pm.  There were 20 or so guys and we had a good time and good discussion.  Then back home to relax.

Tuesday

No rain again today nice and sunny low 90's.  Bonnie got her scrapping booking stuff together and went to her scrap booking group.  She got one of her two books together but still wants to do some work on it.  While she was gone I vacuumed and did some dishes.
The USPS brought the knives I ordered from Amazon all for less than $40.

I also washed all the knives.  The knives aren't bad and good quality for the price but they certainly need sharpened.

Robby picked me up for Reagan's soccer practice.  It sure was hot but the girls all had a good time and no one passed out from the heat.  A lot of water breaks were taken.

Finally at home Robby rolled out the trash for me and borrowed my long extension cord.  Then we relaxed and caught up on Deadliest Catch.

Wednesday

Tuesday evening one of the LED can lights in the kitchen started blinking so I tightened it up.  But a few minutes later is did it again.  So today I switched it with one from the bed room.  Problem solved.  So that led to a trip to Lowe's to get a replacement.  I would normally go to Batteries and Bulbs Plus as they have a lifetime warranty but wanted to color temperature to be the same.  Well Lowe's had also changed brands but it was to GE a good brand.  So I matched up the 5000K color temperature and the Lumen output and brought it home.  Once I installed it good news it looks the same.

After supper we headed to church, tonight was a regular prayer meeting.  We started with sharing in the Lords Supper and then a message from the Pastor, which included pauses for directed prayer and even a video.  It was kind of a multimedia service.  Very good.

Then finally home to relax, read and then to bed.

Thursday

So Bonnie had a busy day planned for her.  She got a haircut then, did some shopping.  Does not sound like that much but it took hours.  I caught up on some shows and worked on a few things here around the house.

Then I got a call to see if I could take Grace our GD to Athens.  So once she got home from school I picked up her and Reagan and headed for the eye clinic in Athens.  She was in and out in a jiffy and we headed back home.

Bonnie was home when I got home and had a couple sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot.  Once they were done I fired up the CharBox on the Camp Chef grill.  I had prepared a couple T-bone steaks earlier with some Montreal Steak seasoning and once the grill was up to 850 degrees I threw them on.  Once they were seared on both sides I lowered the heat and finished them off.  The whole time it was looking like it was going to storm.

We enjoyed the steaks Bonnie said they were very good and they were quite tender.  It poured rain before the grill was cool enough to cover up so I will have to dry out the cover tomorrow and take care of it.  We got enough rain to so our sprinkler controller shows 110% moisture in all the zones.

Good shows tonight Big Brother, Mountain Men, and Alone (the last man standing won $5000,000) sounded like his family could really use it.  Now time for some reading and then some shut eye.

Friday

Well its sunny this morning but more rain forecast for this afternoon in the form of thunderstorms.  I did go out and uncover the grill.  I spread out the wet cover and dried off the grill.  With the sun out everything dried quickly.

Bonnie cut my hair out on the deck and afterwards I covered the grill up again and swept up the hair clippings.  Shortly after that we had the first round of rain.

Reagan was to have soccer practice this afternoon but we had thunder, lightning and rain that started just before I was to pick her up.  The coach canceled practice, tomorrow they are to play two games, that should be interesting, they have only had one practice as a team.

More rain tonight so we are in for the night.

Saturday

I was up to a leisurely breakfast and coffee this morning.  I planned to go to Reagan's soccer games with my son but he ended up working.  So I met my DIL and GDs up at the soccer field.  The schedule today was two short games against two different teams.  The girls did well  thought especially with the limited practice time they have had.

Grace and I made good spectators.

The girls scored goals and the other teams scored also I believe it was pretty even as I did not actually keep score.

As soon as the match was over Ashley took off with Reagan for the stables as they had horse back riding today.  I was on tap to pick them up and waited at home until Grace called and then dropped them off at home.

I finished my book this afternoon so picked a new one to start tonight.

Thats a wrap for this week.  Thanks For Checking in!





Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

Papa Murphy

Sunday

I don't usually write on Sunday but today is an exception.  First to day was Kids Fest at my sons church so we headed there.

We came to see our GD Reagan sing a song as the youth led worship.

There was also a family that put on a very good puppet show.

Last night we had decided to try a Papa Murphy's pizza special.  $6.99 for a x-large NY style sausage and pepperoni.  They build the pizza in there store and then you bring it home and bake it yourself.  We decided to do it on the Camp Chef grill.

Well the grill must have been hotter than the thermometer said as the bottom got a little overdone but otherwise I thought it was pretty good.  Here is one of the four pieces I had.

We also stopped at Lowe's on the way home and I picked up a new toilet flapper.  The one in our bathroom leaked and we have noticed the toilet refilling occasionally.

An easy fix and it only took a few minutes.  Next was a stop at the Walmart Neighborhood Market for Bonnie to pick up some bread.  I had what is becoming my weekly telephone call with my sister while I waited.  Then it was home.  Hope to watch some of the race.

Monday

Happy Anniversary to my favorite daughter and son-in-law.  A year ago today I walked her down the aisle Happiest and Saddest day on my life.  But its been a good year and they are Happy.

Bonnie had bought some country style ribs and wanted me to do them on the grill.  But after researching it appeared that the best thing to do with them was to use the instant pot.  More on that later.
The toilet flapper was still leaking a little, so I turned to YouTube.  Best solution seemed to be to put some silicon grease on the seal and hope that it sealed better with that.  I also took the Fluidmaster fill valve apart to clean it and see if that would eliminate the high pitched sound Bonnie was hearing.  Not sure what happened but the valve would not shut off after that.  I turned off the shutoff valve and headed to Lowes for the rebuild kit.
Back home I put in the kit but no joy, it still would not shut off.  Put that project on hold for a while.

I seasoned the ribs and and put them in the instant pot will some onion, water and BBQ sauce.  I set the time for 45 minutes.

Once it started to cook it was off to Lowe's, unfortunately the afternoon rush hour had started so it took a while to get there, pickup a new valve and get back home.  But it was less than 45 minutes because the ribs were still cooking.  Back to the toilet project.

Inside the box it looked like this.

I adjusted the height, got a few tools together and went to work.  I used sponges to get all the water out of the tank, removed the old valve, and installed the new one.  Time to test, good news no leaks and it shuts off.  Hopefully the flapper is not leaking but just in case I picked up another style while I was at Lowes.

The ribs were done and I fired up the Charbox and took the ribs out of the Instant Pot.

The ribs were falling apart and the Charbox put a little bit of crispness to the one side I did not attempt to flip them over.  Bonnie got the plates ready and we had them with coleslaw.

I am not usually a fan of this style of ribs but I thought they were yummy.  So far no leaks, my feet are a bit sore and I have the heated corn bag on the right one.  Time to relax.

Tuesday

Nothing much on the schedule today.  The toilet flapper is still slowly leaking but the new fill valve I put in is working and no leaks.  So I put the more expensive flapper in that I had bought yesterday.  I think that may have fixed the leak.  Time will tell.
I did a little work in the den on the computer today and watched some TV.  Then I prepared some chicken to smoke and do on the grill.

I set the dial to low smoke and put the chicken on to cook.  I flipped them after a half hour.  Then again at the hour mark.  I checked the internal temp 125.  So I turned up the grill to 350 to allow them to get up to at least 165.  When I checked again 15 or 20 minutes later they were done.

Both of us thought they were just OK.  Neither of us liked the BBQ sauce that I had used so next time we will just use the dry rub.  Bonnie made a nice salad to go with the chicken.

There was rain all around us.  We did get a downpour early this afternoon but tonight just a few drops.  We took out the trash and I wheeled the tote out to the curb.  Thats about it for today.

Wednesday

I have been having trouble with FaceBook working properly on my computer for about the last week.  I worked fine on my other devices but it still bugged me.  Google did not provide any clear answer.  But I finally got a hint from one of the forums.  Another person had a problem similar to mine caused by a Safari extension.  So I disabled all of mine and low and behold everything worked properly.  I narrowed down my problem to my AdBlocker.  I deleted it and downloaded a newer version and everything still works, Problem Solved.

I received a phone call from a cousin this morning that my Aunt Katharine passed away this morning.  I am so glad that my cousin set up a FaceTime session with her a few weeks ago.  We had a great chat and she seemed as sharp as ever.  She was 95.  Sadly we won't be able to make the trip to Pittsburgh for the funeral.

Bonnie worked some more on her tubs today.  The mail woman brought the batteries I had ordered the other day for my Ecobee room sensors.  It was easy to change and reconnect just like it was supposed to.  I have four other sensors so I expect them to need changed soon also.

Potatoes, green beans and the last of the chili for supper.  Now to watch the last night of Yellowstone Live and of course Big Brother.

Bonnie bought a chair a while back and her cousin offered to recover it, if she could enter it in her county fair.  Well she finished it, entered it and it won a Blue Ribbon.  Thanks Lydia.

Thursday

Another lazy day for me but Bonnie continued to empty totes and was rewarded with a few surprises. She found some things that she had forgotten she packed.  One was the meat grinder for the Kitchen Aid mixer.  Now we can make ham salad, maybe even sausage.  It was very hot again and there were storms West of us also North and South of us but we ended up with no rain here at the house.

Reagan had soccer practice tonight so I met Ashley and Alyssa up there to watch her.  She seems to have some hustle.  It was still hot and humid and the kids took a lot of water breaks.

Of course Millie was a big hit with the kids.

Back home and winding down.  I did go out on the back porch and watched the International Space Station fly by and it was visible for over 4 minutes high in the sky, very cool.

Friday

I have been hunger for a Gyro so we headed out to the 5As Greek Restaurant again for Linner.  Bonnie had the Chicken Souvlaki and I had a Classic Gyro.  Both were good again.

Then we headed back home for a while.  We headed to my son's church at 7, our youngest GD was getting baptized.  I am glad that we were able to attend and witness it.

Then back home and soon headed to bed.

Saturday

Nothing really to report on today, as we did not have anything on our calendar.  I made a few phone calls and checked on my sister who is headed home after attending my Aunts funeral.  Good to hear that she made it home.

The Newsboys are coming to Huntsville in October and we bought tickets today.  Then Bonnie wanted me to grill some pork chops.  So I put some dry rub on them and put them back in the refrigerator for an hour or so.  Then fired up the grill.  It smokes until it gets going.

Just put the chops on the grill.

Almost done.

Finally done and they were gone in short order.

Well thats a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"

August Back to Blogger

Monday

The kids down here head back to school on Wednesday so they are down to their last couple of days of summer vacation.  One of the neighbors posted a color plat of our neighborhood showing the different phases and common areas.  I found it interesting.

I have been looking at kitchen knives for quite a while, I even ordered some at Amazon but they are out of stock.  Then I found this one with a lot of good reviews and the post woman brought it yesterday.  Its an Orient Damascus series, nicely balanced and super sharp.

We were expecting rain today but none, maybe tomorrow.  The girls and Robby came over for supper, just sandwiches and leftovers.  Millie was here too and her and I played with one of her toys for quite sometime.  Robby and I went upstairs and fixed two of the issues the AC tech had pointed out.  I put a plug in one of the drains and insulated the drain line.  The kids headed home and we relaxed.



Tuesday

Tuesday and its supposed to rain.  Well it was overcast and cooler most of the day but the rain went South of us.  I fired up the grill around 5pm and our Alabama family came over with German sausages to grill and we also had Germain potato salad and sauerkraut.

Supper was good.  They all headed home early as tomorrow is the first day of school.  It actually sprinkled a little as I put the cover on the grill and took out the trash tote.
We watched TV and read and right after 10 the promised rain started.  Its now just after 11 and we have had .88 inches of rain and its still falling.  Time for me to hit the hay.


Wednesday

So it is August 1st and I am back to using blogger instead of my Wordpress site.  Hopefully I will remember how all this works.  It rained most of the night and we ended up getting a little less than an inch of rain.  Then no rain today.
I did get my water bills today.  The house usage was about the the same as usual.  But the sprinkler system used 13,300 gals which I thought was high, but Robby said it sounded about right.  He did come over to clean the spots on the carpet with his cleaner from Millie.  We went out and looked at my meters and neither of them were moving so that means no leaks so that is good.  I guess it just takes a lot of water to keep the grass from dying here in the summer.
Other than bringing in the mail and trash tote I was not out at all.  Oh I also read the electric meter while I was out.  It was cooler today but it is very humid.  But the heat is coming back.


Thursday

Not much to write about today.  Mostly bills and money.  Got the Electric bill, highest of the summer as expected but not too bad considering how hot it was all month.  I have also been moving some financial stuff to our credit union here.
Bonnies new RX was finally approved and filled, cost was $875, I don't think so.  Bonnie called the Dr office and they suggested we get a copay card.  So she called CVS and they said look online for the copay card.  So I googled it and signed up for the card/coupon.  Bonnie took it to CVS and good news the final cost was around $75 for a 90 day supply, good for a year.  But the birthdate was wrong and so I called and got that straightened out.
Then I was off to take Reagan to the Stables, then back home and an hour later time to take Grace to the staples.  Then back home for the night.  Did some computer work and watched some TV.

Friday

Today was a big day for GD Kaylee.  One trip to the oral surgeon, 4 wisdom teeth removed.
In the waiting room.

In the chair.

 Almost time for lights out

All done in 30 minutes and on the way home, just a little drowsy.

Finally home on the couch with Bailey.  In her happy place.

While all that was going on I headed over to the Madison County Service Center.  My vehicle registration letter came today and I wanted to get it taken care of right away,  I lucked out and was next in line when I got there.  Good timing as 4 people followed me in.  Ten minutes later I was out of there $275.00 poorer.  Registration is only $25 each and then there is the Ad Valorem Tax which is like a property tax on the vehicles.

Then I headed home and for supper Bonnie fixed corn on the cob and kielbasa with coleslaw.  A very good supper.

Reports are Kaylee is doing good.

Saturday

Nothing much happened today it was rather hot and we stuck around the house.  I have heard the toilet in our bathroom run on its own a couple times.  Today I could tell that the flapper in the tank was leaking a little.  I tried cleaning it but it has hardened so put a new one on my Lowes list for the next time we are over that way.  Other than that I caught up on Facebook (which is not working right on my computer but is ok on the iPad).
Its August so I am posting this on blogger but the link should have brought you here.

That's a wrap for this week.

Thanks For Checking In!

"Some people try to turn back their odometers, not me, I want people 
to know why I look this way, and some of the roads weren't paved"