Happy Birthday, Julie!

Today was Julie's birthday--we've been celebrating her "almost birthday" the last few days. When I called to wish her a happy birthday, she said she planned to enjoy her special day by getting lots of rest. With a five-year-old and an almost three-year-old, that's a real challenge--but the kids did go to school today.

We started our journey south this morning. Our first destination after we pulled out of our site and dumped was the Lewisville main post office, where we mailed our cookie packages. Then we got on Hwy 35 south and drove for 180 miles before we turned off the highway. We did stop at a picnic area just north of Waco for a quick lunch of turkey salad sandwiches. We ate in Venture because it was too chilly to be comfortable outside.

We pulled into our campground, Berry Springs RV in Georgetown (just north of Austin)around 3 p.m. The host was friendly and cheerful as he directed us to our long level pull-through and gave us the code for the free wi-fi.


You can see that our bicycle cover held up well today with the new center strap. It was great to have a chance to do some sewing using Julie's machine. Ken got a shot of my new canvas shoe pockets. The bed is raised to show them off, but when it's closed, the bedskirt hides this nifty organizer.



This evening we spent some time again going through some of our photos, choosing which to keep and which to discard. That gives us an opportunity to remember some of our adventures.
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Last Day

We went over to Ed and Julie's home for one last visit today. We packed up the cookies to take to the post office on our way out of town in the morning. Julie was doing a massage, and when she returned, we all went to Costco and then to a Garden Ridge store. Ed described the store as having a very large selection of Christmas decor. It was quite an impressive display, and they were having a sale on artificial Christmas trees. Ed and Julie picked out a large one.


We checked out and rolled the shopping cart with the tree out to the Town and Country. It soon became clear that there was no way that tree was going in the minivan with the six of us. I ended up getting an opportunity to shop for 45 minutes while babysitting the tree. Ed and Ken came back with the truck, which worked out much better, especially since the rain held off.

Ed and Cate and Sam and I played the Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed game, which the kids enjoyed, especially when the bed popped up, knocking the monkeys to the floor. However, the game seems poorly designed for young children, since it's difficult to place the monkeys on the bed without knocking down the other monkeys.

The kids were exciting about decorating. Ed put up a small tree in Cate's room. When we left, he was putting the new tree together, with a little help from Cate and Sam.



Julie made some yummy shepherds pie with some of the Thanksgiving leftovers.
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Christmas in November

We decided to share our Christmas gifts a bit early with Cate and Sam and Ed and Julie, so that we could have the fun of watching them open their presents.

Ed and Julie with their newest nutcracker

Today was also the day to bake the second batch Marks Family Anise Christmas Cut-Out Cookies. This time the process went more smoothly, and Ken even began to enjoy himself a bit. Once the cookies were baked, the next step was to decorate them with colored confectioners sugar icing. We were very glad when Kelley came over to visit--her creativity was a welcome addition to the project. Ed went shopping for cookie sprinkles and decor to embellish the designs. Cate enjoyed helping to place the sprinkles and snowflakes. Ed and I even got into the act. It was easy to tell which cookies Kelley decorated, they were so cute and artistic.



Kelley had a small sewing project. She wanted to take in her bikini bottoms, since they were too large in the waist. The result was quite professional looking.

Kelley's friend, Tim Jackson, had put his Facebook page back up, so she showed Ed and me some pics. He's cute and clearly has a goofy frat boy side, but she says he has a more serious side too. He likes to cook.
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Black Friday

One of the best things about the Friday after Thanksgiving is that no one has to cook. There are always plenty of leftovers, and no pots and pans. One of the less appealing things is shopping amidst the crowds of bargain hunters on Black Friday, but because we needed an extension cord for the electric blanket, we stopped at Walmart. Christmas decorations and Christmas shoppers surrounded us as we walked past the toy department, and before we knew it, we were looking for Christmas presents for Cate and Sam.

Ken took the chilled dough for the Marks Family Cookies from the fridge and got ready to bake the first batch. Soon the kitchen was filled with powdered sugar and the smell of anise. Ken found dealing with the dough and cookie cutters rather frustrating--there was a definite learning curve. He mixed up a second batch of dough, and this batch went into the freezer, since it was clear that the dough was easier to manage if it was very well chilled.

We spent most of the day just hanging out at Ed and Julie's, enjoying the chance to visit and see the kids.
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Happy Thanksgiving

Today we had a laid back Thanksgiving. On our way over to Ed's we stopped at Sprouts to pick up the free range turkey we had ordered. We made some stuffing and put the turkey in the roaster around 11.

Kelley came over, bringing Cate who had a sleepover with her last night and some cookies they had made. Of course the TV was on for the Macy's parade and the football games. Ed and I took the kids to the playground to run off some energy. Kelley had to go to Arlington to her Nana's for dinner. Tonight she is working all night at American Eagle, which is opening at midnight for Black Friday.

Swinging high!

Super Cate!

Ed added some mandarin oranges to some cranberry relish he bought, making an interesting concoction. We made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, orange glazed carrots, pea salad, and gravy to go with the rolls and butter and pumpkin pie and caramel apple pie and ice cream with whipped cream. We sat down to eat a bit after 3 and shortly polished our plates, and then cleaned up. There was actually enough room in the fridge for the leftovers.

Ed is the official turkey carver

My niece Stephanie called to wish us a happy Thanksgiving. Since this would be a first, I suspected some additional motivation for the call. Sure enough, Stephanie and Todd are officially expecting, probably in late July. Everyone is delighted.

Watching a Charley Brown Thanksgiving.

Tired and happy dogs

Everything seems like a traditional Thanksgiving, except of course that I miss my mom. Yesterday would have been her 83rd birthday.
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Pottery Anniversary

Today was Ed and Julie's ninth anniversary, which Geni announces is the "pottery anniversary."

Ed's fancy new shirt

Cate and Sam watch while Ed tries to guess

Ed wickedly put this present in the living room days ago to tantalize Julie

It's a rooster!

Kelley came over to visit and to pick up Cate for a promised sleepover. It's been quite a while since we last saw Kelley, so it was great to get to give her a hug. She's taking time out from her busy school, work, and social schedule to visit family for Thanksgiving.

After Kelley and Cate left, Sam stayed with Ken and me while his parents headed out for an anniversary dinner at Loft 610. They promised him a surprise when they got back. Actually they brought all of us special desserts from the restaurant, including bacon peanut brittle (odd, but better than it sounds), layered chocolate mousse cake, gingerbread with candied orange peel, and pumpkin cake--all delicious.

Chinese Checkers--Sam calls them "tiny checkers." He's dropping marbles down his marble maze.

Cate with her big cousin Kelley

We bought ingredients at the store for the cookies, and Ken mixed up the first batch of dough. It has to chill before being rolled out, so he put it in the fridge with the plan to make the cookies tomorrow evening.

Before we left for the night, I mentioned to Ed that we would pick up the turkey early on our way over in the morning and that we would need to get to work right away to prepare dinner. He pointed out that we don't actually have a schedule--it's just us, so the plan now is that we'll show up when we show up--and eat when the turkey is ready. Sounds like a much more laid back Thanksgiving than many.
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Droid Case

Ken's family has a tradition of making anise cutout cookies for Christmas, decorated with colored icing. Gord's wife Jan sent some to us for Christmas for a few years, and one year she included the recipe. Ken copied it, and this year he pulled it out, planning to finally actually make some of the famous Marks Family Cookies. The recipe seemed incomplete without sugar, so Ken called his sister Romaine to see if she had a copy. She didn't, but she suggested contacting Shellie, Gord's daughter. She's on Facebook, so I sent her a message and she came right back with the recipe and said she it wouldn't be Christmas without the family cookies. So now we have a shopping list for cookie ingredients.

The highlight today was the arrival of the new Droid shell holster combo case I had ordered from Verizon. It's a rigid plastic case that fits around the Droid to protect it and a belt holster it slides into. The holster has a swivel clip so I can wear it vertical or horizontal. So far I love it.


We took the electric blanket back to Macy's, since the one Ed and Julie gave us worked just fine. The whole mall is definitely into Christmas mode.

I finished my shoe holder and it looks like it's going to fit along the base of the bed just fine. Now I just have to sew some velcro on it to hold it in place. I also shortened the center strap for the bicycle bag, so I hope now it will fit correctly.
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Shopping

We set out today to get a new electric blanket to replace the one we have had for many years. We were hoping for one with reasonably small controllers, since our "bedside stands" are just large enough for a cup of tea. We went first to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but didn't like what they had. Next we went to J.C. Penney and Sears, with still no luck. Finally we ended up at Macy's, where we found a very nice low voltage blanket with very thin wires, and it was on sale--our lucky day. When we got to Ed and Julie's house, Julie was there and we told her about our purchase. She said, "We have a blanket in the garage you can have." Our double lucky day. It was a Sunbeam almost exactly like the one we had, except that this one actually works.

Ed sold the side table they had posted on Craigslist, the piece he had felt was least likely to sell.

Ken and I have been fascinated with our new Droids. Ed teases that they can count on some of their visitors to be glued to the TV--and us to be glued to our computers.
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Sunshine

We were very happy to wake up to sunshine this morning--the rain is gone, although it's still rather cool. We had our usual lazy Sunday morning, and then we went over to Ed and Julie's. I played with Cate and her friend Faith, who were drawing a hopscotch layout on the sidewalk with different colors of chalk.

I did actually spend some time sewing on my shoe holder project today, but it's not quite done yet. And I still have things to do to improve the bike cover.

Ed took photos of the furniture in the garage that they are hoping to sell on Craigslist. I helped him get the first couple of things posted, but now he's an experienced poster. He got his first nibble almost immediately, on a large oak table.

Ed and I made Betty McDonald casserole for dinner with leftover chicken. Ed whipped up some refried black beans and rice, and Ken shredded the lettuce and chopped the tomatoes. The casserole was a hit--even Cate liked it.

Cathy called Ken this morning to thank him for her birthday present. She was, of course, at Disneyland yesterday all day (where else). Later Ken talked with Jeff about potential plans to meet up next summer. He also talked with his sister, Romaine, who is recovering from hip replacement surgery. She evidently did very well in the rehab facility but finds that her recovery will be longer than first anticipated.
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Happy Birthday, Cathy!

Today is Cathlene Marks' 13th birthday! Ken tried several times to call his new favorite teenager, but had to leave messages.

Today I got a few calls and email messages about the items posted on Dallas Craigslist last night. Someone came by and bought my LG8350 cell phone with car charger for $35. That's a good start, and I hope more items will sell.

Had some quality time with the kids, reading Purplicious. You can see they are engrossed in the book (even though they've heard it maybe 100 times or more).


I made butternut squash soup and parsnip muffins for dinner at Ed and Julie's. Ed confessed that he had been rather skeptical since he doesn't normally care for squash, but the soup was tasty. Everyone loved the parsnip muffins (thanks, Terri, and Alton Brown). Read more!

Sonogram!

It rained during the night last night, a fair amount, and we were quite relieved to find no water leaking in any of our former wet spots. We're beginning to be hopeful that the leaks have been fixed finally.

We picked up our truck from Park Place Lexus this morning. They had washed it, but we didn't get the full effect, since it was drizzling. It was great to have brakes that just stopped the vehicle with no grinding or squealing.

This afternoon Kelley came over to go with us to see the new baby via 3-D sonogram. Ed and Kelley and Cate and I watched entranced as the tech pointed out the cute cheeks and nose and hands and little boy parts as she moved the sonogram over Julie's tummy. We could see the baby (Jackson or Jesse?) moving around and kicking. It made him seem so much more really present in the room. I've never seen a 3-D sonogram being performed before, and it was a real eye-opener.

He's a contortionist!

Tonight, I finally got around to listing our excess electronics on Dallas Craigslist. Since we got our new Droids, we don't need our old LG8350s, and Ken doesn't need his old Samsung MP3 player. We replaced both of our old routers with a new Cradlepoint router that can handle both ethernet input and the cellular broadband modem. We hope at least some of these things will find new homes.

Our old Mr. Coffee has a burned out power indicator, and I've managed to burn myself twice now after leaving it on accidentally, so I think we need to replace it. I brought it from Texas with me 14 years ago, and it wasn't new then, so it's about time.
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Truck Woes

The truck must have been feeling jealous of the money we were putting into the rig. We took it over to Park Place Lexus this morning, where Ed met us at the service queue. We had noticed some brake problems and we knew it was due for an oil change. At 37,098 miles, the service writer mentioned that it had gone out of warranty at 36,000 and we might want to consider an extended warranty, since we could get Ed's employee discount. We signed up for a 4 year 48,000 mile warranty with a $100 deductible for about $1,400. If anything major goes wrong, it will pay for itself, and if nothing goes wrong, we will have bought peace of mind anyhow.

Later the service guy called and told Ken we needed a complete brake job on the rear--the calipers were scraping on the rotors--so today's service bill will be over $1,000. Ouch!

Kate is feeling much better today, but she had to stay home from school. She spent some time on the computer on her class's web page, using the learning to read software. Sam came home from school wearing the turkey headdress he had made and carrying another turkey and a snake he was quite proud of.

Julie had a massage client this evening, so Ed and the kids came over for pizza and marshmallows and pineapple and blueberries with whipped cream. Cate does not care for pineapple, but she loves blueberries.




I worked on my canvas shoe pockets for the base of the bed. It's a challenge for me to sew, and especially on this heavy fabric. This will clearly be a multi-day project.
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Back in Venture

This morning we went over to May's RV to check out the repairs to Venture. Phil pointed out some of the things they had done to stop the leaks, including removing screws and putting silicone on them. He said they really hosed it down and didn't see any leaks, so we'll see.

The water pump had been sounding almost like a machine gun in the basement, and now it's much quieter. We have reasonable water pressure again. The 1" Never Kink hose we had installed last year was kinked inside the E-Z Reel. This time we had a short piece of hose put in so that we can swap out the hose on the reel easily. They replaced the defective propane regulator and checked for leaks--none found. They checked the suspension, axles, and brakes, and adjusted the street side front axle brake. Now all we have to do is get the truck in for service. We're pretty sure we have a brake problem.

We hitched up with no problems and towed Venture over to Lewisville Lake Park, Site 39, which we had reserved some time ago. Ken even got the Qube to find the satellite through the trees on his first try. We also made a reservation for next April for Site 66, which has 50 amp electric service. They don't usually let 32' rigs in the 50 amp area, but we talked them into making an exception. We've had problems with running the electric hot water heater along with an air conditioner on 30 amp service at that park.

After lunch we drove back over to Ed and Julie's, where we were supposed to take care of Sam and Cate while Julie went for her O.B. appointment. Unfortunately, Cate's school had called to have her picked up because they thought she had pinkeye. Julie took her to the doctor, who determined that what she actually has is strep throat, which she has had several times before. The timing worked out that Julie had to take the kids with her to the O.B. appointment, so we missed some quality time with the grandkids.

We finally located a clinic with actual flu shots. Mission accomplished--we are now protected for the regular flu anyhow, and we are not in the priority groups for the H1N1 vaccine.
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Visiting

We woke up this morning to the sound of my Droid alarm clock. Ed and Cate had left for work and school already, and we had a leisurely breakfast. I played with Sam, building a marble maze and dropping marbles down it, until he was picked up for preschool. Julie's friend has a son, Andrew, in Sam's class, so she drives the boys in the morning, and Julie picks them up in the afternoon. The 2-3 year old class attends on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 1.

Julie got out the sewing machine and tackled a zipper repair job on a chair cushion, which I was able to help her with a bit (although it's been probably 30 some years since I sewed a zipper). We found her zipper foot and got it on the machine, and then Julie found the manual because we had run into a dead end. If all else fails, read the directions.... I am really mechanically challenged, but between the two of us, we managed to get the job done.

Then we went shopping to Costco, Joann's Fabrics, and the Dollar Store, before going to pick the boys up from school. At Joann's I got the 10 feet of webbing needed for the center strap on the bike cover, so tomorrow I hope I can get the velcro sewn on it.

This afternoon Phil called from May's RV to say that Venture was ready. He is pretty confident that they found and repaired the leaks--but only time and a good rainstorm will tell. We'll go over in the morning to pick it up and move to Lake Park.

Cate is very fond of her new polar bear, "Poley." It's a character in a Barbie movie she has (actually, she has all the Barbie movies), and it talks. Tonight she asked me to hold it while her dad read her bedtime story. Sam mainly wanted to hear the Big Mouth Frog pop-up book again....

Ken has been kept engrossed by his new toy. The Droid has more capability by far than any of the previous Blackberries or Palms he has had.
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Tyler to Lewisville and Beyond

We got all ready to leave Tyler State Park. Ken lined the truck up in front of the rig. I pressed the button to raise the front of the rig to match the height of the hitch. And pressed some more...until I realized that despite the motor sounds, nothing was happening. What to do? We started by calling a nearby RV place, but were put on hold for a long time waiting for their service department, which turned out to be a good thing, because it gave us time to think.

We realized that we could raise the rig using bottle jacks. We had to do that once before, when we first got Venture, so we knew that we could handle it, but we had given the bottle jacks away since we didn't foresee needing them again. Mistake. We went to AutoZone and got two new 6 ton bottle jacks. After only an hour and a half delay, we were on the road. At least we had an appointment with Mays RV in Lewisville, so this would just be one more thing for them to fix.

We were near our destination when someone in a passing vehicle honked and pointed to the rear of the trailer, so we pulled off the freeway. It turned out that the bike cover had somehow come free at one end and was flapping about. Luckily it was still all in one piece. We knew that we needed a strap on the center, but hadn't been able to find the webbing we needed. Now that's a priority.

When we pulled in to Mays, Ken said, "I feel like I've been through the wringer today!" We took our list of repairs needed in and talked to Phil, the service manager. When he came out to look at the rig and check out our issues, the front jacks operated with no problem. The bed slide was fine too, so that's two items we could cross off the list. Phil assured us that they would be able to take care of everything, and we headed over to Ed and Julie's house in Flower Mound. We'll be staying with them for a couple of days while the rig is in the shop.

When we got there, Julie was at the dentist's office with Cate and Sam, so we let ourselves in. She pulled in shortly, so we got hugs all around. Ed came home later and got his hugs.

Julie fixed quick cheesy pasta with mixed veggies for supper. The mixed veggies were different than any I had seen before--asparagus and carrots and green beans and corn.

We had gotten a message from Millenicom, our Verizon broadband reseller, warning us that we were about to go over the 5 GB per month limit for November--but how and why? I emailed them--they said we were at 4.85 GB, much higher than ever before, and that indicated we must be streaming data or doing major downloads of some kind. Ken came up with the answer--it must be our Mozy backup service. Mozy regularly updates its record of our files--2 GB for each of us. We were careful to do the original upload while at Terri's to use their network, and I had figured that the updates, which were supposed to be only changed files, would be relatively small. Oops. We're using Ed's network now. Fortunately, our Droid service really is "unlimited," and we can do almost everything on the Droid.
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Picnic

Today, instead of our driving in to Tyler, the Tyler folks came to visit us. Dick and Carol came in Carol’s Prius, and the Friths arrived in their car just before 4 p.m. The campground was pretty quiet by then, since most of the weekend campers had left. The arrival of Christine and Robby definitely livened things up.

Robert, Debby, and Dick at the picnic table

I made a big pot of veggie chili, Ken fixed some coleslaw, and there were raw veggies and grapes. Carol supplied brown bread and butter. For dessert we had homemade applesauce. Afterwards we walked over to the lake and watched the ducks and the paddleboats. Robby was concerned that one duck was all alone, but later we saw that duck and another heading towards each other until they met in the middle of the lake. Christine skipped stones.

Fun by the lake

Ken built a nice fire, and I went to get the makings for s’mores—only to find that we didn’t have any marshmallows, drat! So we had popcorn around the fire instead. Everyone enjoyed just gathering around and looking at the fire.

Carol snaps a shot of her favorite subjects

Dick and Carol made their goodbyes and left before it got totally dark, but Robert and Debby and the kids stayed for a while. Robby ran around with a flashlight, shining it on everything. Christine gathered leaves and pine straw to thrown on the fire, which was burning down. When they left, it had been solidly dark for some time, so I was surprised to see that it wasn’t even 7 p.m.!
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Fun in Tyler

This morning I got up early to go garage saling with Carol. She had scoped out the ads and knew where each sale was located and was familiar with the neighborhoods and with the people who have regular sales. As you can see, she has this down to a science, and she has lots of garage sale finds to show for it. We each found several good items. My prize was a boxed set of David Sedaris audiobook CD's, which Ken and I will enjoy listening to as we travel. The morning brought back happy memories of old times in Nacogdoches when I would often accompany Carol on her garage sale forays.

Afterwards Carol invited me to go to aerobics with her. I was glad to have a chance to exercise, and I even remembered a lot of the step routines, but after about 20 minutes I realized that I was tiring quickly. It's clear that I'm really out of shape!

Ken came in to town around 11 and he and I went shopping. We had some things to get at Target, and we wanted to check Best Buy for Droid cases. We looked several places and finally decided to wait until more Droid accessories are available, which we expect they will be soon.

After a quick lunch we watched a DVD that Debbie had brought over: State of Play starring Russell Crowe and Ben Afleck. It was a fast paced political action thriller that we all enjoyed. I was especially glad to see Helen Mirren as the editor.

Then Dick and Carol took us to Luby's Cafeteria for a yummy dinner and then to a rhythm and blues show at Caldwell Auditorium. Lead singer Edwin Holt belted out songs from the repertory of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. We all enjoyed his rendition of "Under the Boardwalk" with backup singers reminiscent of the Raylettes. The concert was unusual because members of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra played along with the sax, drums, trumpet, and electric guitars, so on one side of the stage was a dais where the conductor stood.

Edwin Holt and his group entertain the Tyler crowd.

Ken was having a problem with his Droid today--the sound had almost no volume, even turned up as high as possible. He finally called Verizon customer service
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Missing Day

It's 4/10/11, and I just noticed that I had no blog entry for 11/13/09. What to do? I checked my email, Quicken, and our photos.

One thing that evidently happened this day is that my new Droid was activated--yay! I got a "Welcome to Android" message from the Android Team.

We spent time at Dick and Carol's--I found one photo taken this day, of Ken with Robby in their living room. We didn't spend any money, so I guess we didn't go shopping.
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Arrival in Tyler

We left Livingston this morning after a very restful and enjoyable stay of nine days with no sightseeing beyond going to the library. We were glad to be "home" and really surprised that it had been 17 months since our last visit.

Our journey today was through the East Texas woods and small towns like Diboll and Alto that I remember from my years in Nacogdoches. We traveled north on Highway 69, which is a high speed four lane highway for most of the distance to Tyler, but is not limited access. We stopped just past Alto at a nice picnic area and ate lunch outside, enjoying the sunshine and mild weather.


After arriving at Tyler State Park and setting up, we headed over to Dick and Carol's house for a happy reunion and homemade pizza. Debbie's daughter, Christine, was there already, and Debbie stopped by later for a visit with Robbie on her way to Messiah practice. Robbie stayed and entertained us all.

We played some Boggle, and Christine held her own quite well. She is allowed to use 3-letter words, but found several longer words too. She is really growing up.

Our mail and package were waiting for us, and Ken could hardly wait to see his new Droid, but he did hold off on activating it, waiting until we could both do it together.

Activating our Droids turned out to be rather frustrating, since the signal at the park is not too strong. Ken was able to get his activated, but activation failed numerous times on mine, and then the screen went blank just after the advice to dial customer service from a landline. Maybe tomorrow.
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Last Day in Livingston

Today is our last day here for this trip, so made some preparations to leave. We returned the DVD of Bowling for Columbine we had borrorowed from the library here. We picked up our mail at the mail window so we wouldn't have to pay to forward the junk. Then we went downtown to the library and returned the DVDs and books we had borrowed (except that when we got home, we realized me had missed one, oops, so we'll have to take it back tomorrow). We picked up some groceries and some windshield washer fluid with bug remover.

The last item is not to clean windshields, actually, but to dissolve bugs on our end cap. Pretty much every time we travel, some bugs splatter on it and are a pain to get off. I found a suggestion on a forum to try the windshield cleaner. When we got home I put some in a spray bottle and checked it out. It did seem to work, but we'll have to wait until we have a full crop of stubborn bugs to see how well.

We've been having an ongoing problem with our refrigerator, with water dripping from the fins into the refrigerator compartment. The drip tray seemed to regularly overflow or freeze rather than directing excess condensation toward the drain hose at the back of the fridge. We had looked at the back of the fridge before but were unable to see what was wrong. Today we just reached in and pulled the end of the hose out so we could see if it was plugged up. Sure enough, it was. Curiously the plug was a molded plastic piece that looked like it was made to go in there, but we could see that the water couldn't drain with the plug in place, so Ken pulled it out with a pair of pliers.

We nearly tossed it at that point, but I made one last search of the web and chanced upon a forum discussion that mentioned that the plug should have a small drain hole. I poked a needle through, and now ours does. It must have been defective from the beginning. The plug is in place to keep insects out of the hose. We are so proud of ourselves for solving another problem through persistence and detective work, especially since we don't see ourselves as being especially handy.

During lunch we watched the bonus material DVD that came with E.T. The footage and description of making the original movie were very interesting, especially the way Spielberg worked with the kids. The material on the creation and working of the alien was quite amazing. We always know that what we see on the screen is an illusion, but seeing behind the scenes to view the ingenious ways that E.T. was animated was really eye opening.

This afternoon I won an Ebay auction for a Corning spouted saucepan to replace the one I broke a couple of weeks ago. Yay! If I'd realized how hard it is to get these things, I'd have been more careful with the original one. I lost another auction for one last week when someone outbid me by 50 cents at the last minute, so this time I was glued to the screen as the seconds ticked down.
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Bike Ride

We got out on our bikes today, just around Rainbow's End. We like looking at what various people have done with their property. We stopped at one home that is for sale and almost bought it (just kidding, but we really liked what we saw!). It had 3 hookups, so all our friends could come visit.

We also dropped off our applications to be Escapees CARE volunteers next October. We'll spend the month here helping with things like driving people to doctor's appointments, running errands, helping with meal prep and cleanup, etc. We think the work CARE is doing is really important--and we might need it someday!

We stopped by the club library and picked up a DVD of Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. We had not seen this documentary before, and it had quite an impact on us. These are things we usually put out of our minds so we can get on with our lives, but of course the young people who were wounded at Columbine, like the multitudes of other victims of gun violence, can't so easily ignore it.
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Better Day

Today was definitely a better day. I even went out for a short walk and to the store.

We watched the DVD of E.T., the Extraterrestrial that we got from the library. The case included the original version and a 2002 version, released on the 20th anniversary. We decided to watch the 2002 version, with enhanced special effects. The story requires a lot of willing suspension of disbelief, but the performances and the special effects were still magical.

I made it to page 211 in the Dawkins book, which is at 95 million years ago, but the book goes back 4 billion years, so there's lots to go yet.
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Sick Day

I spent most of the day today on the couch, reading, doing sudokus, watching TV, or resting. In the morning I did not have a fever, but it was back in the evening. I'm reading The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins, a 600+ page book. I started it in Portland, but didn't get very far, and was glad to find it again at the library here. Maybe I'll get further this time.

Ken has been reading a biography of John Adams by David McCullough, which he finds especially interesting since we recently visited his birth home, his later home, and his library and other historic places in Boston.

We watched a Nature episode on the black mamba. It was especially interesting to see the snakes being anesthetized to have surgery to implant radio transmitters.
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Not a Great Day

The morning started out okay, except that I seemed to feel tired out from breakfast and a shower--never a good sign. As the day wore on, I felt worse and worse and finally took my temp. It was elevated, so I took an aspirin. A couple of hours later, it was 101, so I decided I am officially sick (but hoping that I don't have a serious case of the flu). We called all around over the last few weeks, looking for flu shots, but there have been none available.

On the other hand, for Ken it's a red letter day. He ordered our Droids online to be sent to Carol's house, so we'll probably have them in hand next Thursday. As a partial offset, we suspended out Hughesnet internet service for 6 months. We won't be out in the boonies during that time--in fact, we'll spend most of it in the RGV. At Bentsen Palm we can get a cable modem and have highspeed service, and other than that we'll be in EVDO territory, so the Verizon broadband modem will work fine--and hopefully the Droids will too.

We are trying to get some of our routine maintenance done. Today, Ken drained and flushed the hot water heater.
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Gorgeous Day

We ate lunch outside today, remarking on what a gorgeous day it is (76 right now and sunny). Unfortunately, some pesky bees thought our lunch looked good too.

We did our laundry this morning. At the laundry room I saw a card on the bulletin board offering haircuts (your place or mine) in the park, so I called and scheduled a haircut this afternoon. How convenient is that? I sat outside of Bonnie's motorhome and chatted with her while she cut my hair. I biked over to her site, and along the way my wallet fell out of my pocket. Ken called to tell me that some kind person had returned it to him. I felt very lucky to be in an Escapees park (and made a note never to carry my wallet in those pants again....).

We finally got around to sending in an application to join the Boomer BOF. BOF stands for Birds of a Feather, and is what the Escapees call their interest groups. The Boomers describe their group as "primarily a self-actuating social group of active, 'younger' full and part-timers." They use a website and bulletin board to let members tell what they are up to and issue invitations to other Boomers in the area to get together.

I made spicy black bean cakes for dinner, inspired by a recipe from the Splendid Table. They turned out quite good--just as promised: crispy and brown on the outside and creamy inside.
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Busy Day

Ken started out this morning volunteering at the CARE Center helping to set up a model railroad for the holidays. He spent most of his time putting track together. I went to the morning line dance session and had fun learning a few new easy dances. I was glad to find that I still remember the basic steps.

I guess you're never too old to play with trains...

This afternoon we went out to get groceries. We also stopped at the Red Barn Builders Supply. They offer Escapees a discount on propane, so we got our empty tank filled. We also got some treated lumber to use for leveling boards.

This evening we went to the Activities Center for dinner. The menu included meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad, and pineapple upside down cake. We chatted with some of the people at our table. One couple, Johnny and Dot, are here for the RV Boot Camp that starts tomorrow, and then they are on their way to the Rio Grande Valley. They've been RVing for 20 years, so we're a bit skeptical that they'll learn much. We also talked with a widower who owns property here at Rainbow's End. He indicated that he plans to sell soon and buy a stick house in Pennsylvania, where he used to live.

Our neighbors moved out today. We noticed the guy was tying their bikes to the bumper in addition to having them on a platform rack similar to ours. I went over to talk to him and found out that they had had one bike come partially off the rack. He also said that it helped stabilize the rack (ours is very wobbly). He had had a welding shop weld some of the joints that had too much play in them.
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Chores

We had another unexciting day today. We reorganized some of the stuff in our basement storage (we always enjoy organizing). Ken replaced the batteries in the atomic clock and remote thermometer.

I defrosted the refrigerator/freezer because the temperature of the refrigerator compartment had gone up. When I talked to Terri later, she said that she had never defrosted a fridge . . .

We heard that Debbie Frith (Carol's daughter) had an ultrasound and found out that she is having another boy, to join daughter Christine and son Robby. Congratulations to the expectant parents and grandparents.

We watched parts 1-3 of a Peter Whimsey show on DVD, the Five Red Herrings. I think Ken has figured out the murderer, but we'll have to wait until we watch part 4 tomorrow to be sure.
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Back to Rainbow's End

We headed back to Livingston today to spend a week or so. After we set up we ate lunch and then drove to Murphy Memorial Library. I got a library card when we were here in April, 2008, more than 18 months ago. My objective today was not only to browse the collection to find some books and DVDs to check out, but also to sign up for access to online resources. I couldn't do that last year, because the library requires that you have a card for at least 6 months without having too many fines or overdue books. Since we haven't been here, it's clear that I haven't incurred any fines.

We are camped in a wooded area, very attractive. We thought we might not be able to get a view of the southern sky for our Qube, but Ken was successful in finding a hole in the trees.



When we took the bike cover off the bikes we discovered that Ken's bike had come loose from its clamp and had gotten pretty badly banged up. It's fortunate that the cover was strong enough to keep the bike from falling, but we'll have to figure out how to insure that the bike doesn't come loose again.
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Another Quiet Day

Not much happening around here today. We played some pool (Ken whupped me), and I went for a short walk. We did some research and made a reservation for a campground near Georgetown, TX, where we expect to stay November 29 (now that's advance planning). It's called Berry Springs RV Park, and sounds like the sort of place we might want to stay a week at, but we'll actually just spend the night, since we'll be making tracks for the Rio Grande Valley. It's an Escapees discount park and the very first one we've encountered that offers complimentary laundry facilities.

Chris invited me to try out Google Wave, which is in limited release while it's being tested. It's billed as a "an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration." The demos look very interesting, but unless you're doing collaborative work with documents and visuals, it may not be very useful. It was very cool to be able to drag a photo into a conversation and have it just appear there. I could see using it as an enhanced instant messaging system, but it doesn't have some of the very positive features of IM--like, for example, a useful alert to tell you that something has been added by another person.
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Sunny Day

We had a quiet day today, with only a stroll by the lake to get us out of our chairs. We both worked on cleaning up some computer files, made a couple of phone calls, and watched a little TV. (This is for all you folks who say we are busy, busy, busy ....)

There's still a big empty space we are aware of where Sweetie used to be in our lives, and it's thrown me a bit off balance. I'll have to make more of an effort to get out and meet people and get some fresh air and exercise, since I no longer have a sweet dog to walk.
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