Sunday, April 23, 2006

Another weekend at Tawakoni

We seem to have a lot of company visiting these days - which is fine, we're both pretty social and enjoy the interaction with other people. It's also pretty cool to share the enjoyment of our house with our friends and family.

As I mentioned in the post below, after the storm earlier this week, the Jon boat was a mess. We have to buy new lights for it, and the small lawnmotor battery that we kept in the boat for backup purposes is missing. Other than that, it came through fairly unscathed and got a lot of use this weekend.

Our friends, John and Michelle, came out with their two boys, Corbin and Taylor. As you can tell, a lot of fish were caught and we had a fish fry last night.


John and Corbin


Taylor with his 4 lb catfish


Another nice catch!


Collection of fish caught Friday night through Saturday afternoon


Taylor and his 5 lb catfish!


Your's truly with Scott (and people wonder why I hate being photographed - so unflattering!)


John and Michelle


John and Taylor


Shannon and Bethany


Shannon and Bethany

High Temperature: 83° F
Low Temperature: 56° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Updates

I haven't written in awhile - not much going on worthy of a post.

The deal on the Suntracker fell through - I'm pretty disappointed about that, but knew it was too good to be true.

The last time we used the Jon boat, Scott rigged the wet dock so that it would hold the boat. Last night (at 2:00 a.m.), we had a storm blow through here that was pretty bad, and when Scott went out this morning, the Jon boat was in the water, upside down. The new marine battery we bought was missing, the chairs had been torn out of it - must have been one helluva storm.

Fortunately, Scott found everything, except the oar, and the battery and Minn Kota trolling motor still work. Needless to say, we're rethinking how to store the Jon boat when we're not using it. ;)

Another storm is rolling through as I write, so I need to shut down. More later.

Friday, April 14, 2006

John comes to visit

Scott has a friend named John, that he met through work. John came out Wednesday night and stayed over so they could fish all day (while I was at work! hmpf!). They had some interesting catches as you'll see below.






I felt bad about this one :(





High Temperature: 83° F
Low Temperature: 62° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Sunset

Truly, the most beautiful time of day around here is sunset. Since my visitor Cathy loves them so much (Hi Cathy!), I thought I'd post a few gorgeous pictures that I took tonight.


















Monday, April 10, 2006

On the water

Before we even closed on our house, my ex-father-in-law, Jeff, gave Scott and I a little boat...a Jon Boat, I think they're called. It's all plastic. Since we got it, we've bought two chairs for it, and Scott's dad gave him a Minn-Kota trolling motor which needed a prop. The prop finally came in this week, and so we got to finally take the boat out! These are pictures I took from the water, most looking towards our neighbors' retaining walls.





Ducks on the water




Sunday, April 09, 2006

Housewarming

Friday night, just before dark, a wind storm came in. We were having 25 mph winds all night, and they continued through Saturday morning. When I woke up, I started freaking out because I was worried the weather wasn't going to straighten up - it was cloudy, overcast, cold, and windy. By noon, the sun came out and it warmed up a little, but it was still pretty windy most of the day. We had really been hoping that the prop for our trolling motor would come in (or alternatively, the news that we could pick up our boat!) before the party, but it didn't happen...dang it!

We had a blast - 16 of our friends and family. Some of them stayed for the whole weekend! Lots of talking, singing, eating and drinking of adult beverages (I wished I owned stock in Budweiser!!)...a good time was had by all! The guys caught a bunch of fish and I caught a baby striper and had to throw it back. Today, a 40 lb catfish washed up on shore...dead. Not sure what killed him, but the guys were disappointed that it wasn't their hooks that killed him!

We made some new friends, welcomed old ones, and spent time with family at our lake house...can life get much better than that? And now, the pictures. Hope you enjoy!


My son, Josh, being...well...Josh!


My boss, Carolyn, and her boyfriend, Steve. To the right is a new friend, Dan.


Our friends, John and Judy


Our friend, Dennis, making a new friend of his own


My ex-brother in law, Joey


My ex-mother in law, Betty (who is probably going to shoot me for putting this up!)


Josh's friend, Spencer


"Papa Scott" and my granddaughter, Alyssa, checking out the day's catch.


"I'm so shy...not!"


No comment.


Dan's wife, Shiela; my daughter, Jennifer; Alyssa, and Betty


Shiela singing karaoke to an appreciative audience



The big one of the day...


...which was actually caught by Joey!


Jennifer, showing a turtle to Alyssa


Josh's dog, named "Quick"

High Temperature: 72° F
Low Temperature: 50° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Hey, Big Oil!

Here I am, about to pollute my sweet little blog with politics. Yuck.

Dear Big Oil Companies:

You made billions upon billions of dollars last year. Our combined household income was $100k. Like others, we have house payments, insurance, energy costs, food expenses, and the ever-popular credit card debt.

What the hell is up with a 20 cent increase in gas prices over the course of 4 days? Weren't the billions you made last year enough to give us a little bit of a break? Gas was $2.09 in our area two weeks ago. Today, it's $2.59. I looked - there was no hurricane this time, so what's your justification for raising prices 50 cents in a two week period? Explain to me how your profit lined pockets are more important than the ability for the working people to be able to afford the gas for them to get to work. Please. I'm listening.

High Temperature: 78° F
Low Temperature: 51° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Backyard

A ton of work got done around here this weekend. I made significant progress in our laundry room, which has been playing "catch-all" as we put stuff away, and found the tops of both our dressers again - funny how they always seem to end up covered with utter crap.

Scott busted his ass cleaning the backyard this weekend. It was severely overgrown and had been for a number of years. We discovered a few weeks ago that there once was a path from the bottom of the hill to the top, and will eventually restore that, but this weekend's focus was just trying to get it cleaned up enough to tell what was what, and have it look presentable for the housewarming next weekend.

Our yard actually has five different levels. Level one is the patio right outside our guest room, and where I eventually would like to put a hot tub. Then, the yard has three distinct levels, each bordered with railroad ties, which we'll probably have to replace, if we don't do something else with the yard, as they're pretty rotten. Their purpose is/was erosion control, we're sure. The last level is the hill itself.

It turns out we have a 12' x 12' brick patio, that we thought was only about half as wide. We thought the bricks on the other half were broken or missing under all the debris. Nope, all there, and in one piece.

So, here are today's pics.


This was taken from the second level. Behind those two trees used to exist these hideous bushes which were half dead. We think they were originally used to separate that house (shed) from the rest of the yard.


We're not sure what this was supposed to be. It's possible that it was used to hold a statue, or a small table and chairs. It's on the third level.



Although you can't tell from the angle of the picture, this is actually about 12' x 12' square. We didn't know the left half of it was all there and in one piece! This shed and that patio are on the third level.


This was taken from the lower left side of the third level, looking up to the right side of level four.


This was taken from the center right of level three, looking up.


This was taken from the lower right of level one, looking up to the left of level four.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but it looks so much better than it did. It was seriously looking like a jungle.

Does anyone know if Round-Up can be used around here safely?

Finally, I had to drive the Kidlet home today, and passed by the Walmart site. I realize all the negative crap about Walmart, so don't slam me here. But Quinlan is a very small town. If I need to buy anything other than what can be found at the one chain grocery store (which isn't a national chain), then I have to go to Walmart - and the nearest one is 17 miles away. It will be really nice having one here.

Now, I'm off to see what's on the Tivo tonight.

High Temperature: 83° F
Low Temperature: 65° F
Precipitation: trace

Saturday, April 01, 2006

I want my AC fixed!!!

Please note that it was 84° F yesterday. I'm not a happy camper :(

Our AC friend is supposed to be out sometime this weekend to recharge the AC (apparently, he did the heat side last time he was here *sigh*). I sure hope he makes it!

Today was spent rediscovering our backyard. There is all kinds of good stuff back there that we weren't aware was there, because it was buried under many years of leaves and dirt. Pics tomorrow.

Yesterday (3/31) in Quinlan
High Temperature: 84° F
Low Temperature: 68° F
Precipitation: 0.00 in