Ada and Arthur

Arthur likes to point at things... Mostly airplanes, but a bird or tree will do.

Before bedtime, Ada raced against the clock to run to the pinwheel at the end of the garden, and back.

Ada and her Mum played "catch the Aerobee on your arm".

Arthur likes to point at things.

A lot.

Arthur and Ada

Arthur likes to be wherever everyone else is.

Ada's Dad brought her a fireman's outfit when he came home from his business trip. She rescued her Mum's rabbit which was stuck up in a tree.

Mimi is enjoying being with Arthur, needless to say.

We got to watch Farmer Hugh combining his field next to the back yard (barley, we think), and bailing the straw.

Over Here

Chlly this morning - high 72F today. (Just sayin' -- not trying to rub it in! :)

Beautiful sunset this evening.

The Rest of the Party

Great Grandad's actual day-of-birthday party was pretty low-key. It started with a cup of coffee.

We had lunch. (Ham.)

His big present was a microwave. (To re-heat his extra ham.)

Happy Birthday, Dad/Grandad/Great-Grandad!
Keep up the good work!

Birthday Party For The 8/4's

Waiting for the party to start. Hooray for electronics!

Pretty good range of ages!

All parties begin with blowing something out...or up.

What a nice-looking birthday pair.

Birthday cards often have a nice surprise inside...

Presents are good, too - especially a chapter book about a Hamster!

Great Grandad did pretty well, too.

A great celebration. Ready for next year!

What's Inside That Micro-SD Card?

I had a non-working micro-SC card, and decided to look inside.

Couldn't peel off the plastic cover, so I broke it in half.

Nothing much to see - just some shiny bits, which I take to be the edge of a silicon integrated circuit chip.

Oh, well.

It's Really Difficult...

To get all the toothpaste cleaned out of a toothpaste tube.

Toothpaste doesn't really dissolve in water. It kind of sticks like paste, and you have to really scrub (like with a toothpick) and rinse and shake a lot to get it all out.
Why do that, you ask?
Well, I need a small tube to take with me on a trip, and I don't like the minty stuff that comes in the small tubes, and the baking soda toothpaste doesn't come in small tubes. So, I emptied one out, and refilled it with the good stuff.
It turns out that the small tube holds a surprising portion of the contents of a big tube...

It Has A Name

Not long ago, I was called out for using the term "bluebearings" to refer to a common fruit eaten in cereal (quite intentionally with tongue in cheek, I might add.)

Well, todayI learned while listening to NPR "Weekend Edition" that such word-bending has a name: "Eggcorn."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggcorn

Another eggzample you may have heard around here is "It's a doggy-dog world."

I am so happy!
:o)

Creek View - First Attempt

Here ya' go, Jenny:

If you watch really close, you can catch a glimpse of the far edge of the water just before the end.
Not very exciting...

Clemson Boys

Today was Pa And Mimi Day With The Boys.
We started with Terraria on the Kindles.

Mimi and the Boys went to breakfast.

Then we went to the Children's Museum in Greenville. John raced the Formula One car.

John and Mimi raised John in the hoist chair.

Christopher helped John at the drive-up teller window.

Christopher raced the Formula One car.

After we got back, James and Andy dropped by to play 4-way Terraria on Kindles.

Henry dropped in to see what everyone was doing. Then June dropped by to invite everyone to her Earth Day party to hunt for earthworms. Everyone went down to Henry and June's house and collected earthworms for a while.
Then it was Taco Bell, baths and bedtime.
We had a wonderful day!

Smokies Motorcycle Ride

A group of motorcycle friends from Louisiana arranged their annual ride in the Smokey Mountains. Tony and I were invited to come along, so we rode up to join them for a couple of days.
After we got there and they got back from their day's ride, we sat on the porch.

Pat rides a custom bike he built himself.

Gene rides a regular bike. Except for the flags and bear.

This is the house we stayed in.

In the morning, an elk family wandered by. This is the baby.

During the night, some stealthy person wrapped Milford's Gold Wing with crime scene tape. After Milford cut it all off, it somehow found its way into Tim and Rick's side bags.

Bob and Chris and Tony waited for time to head to breakfast.

Afterwards, we stopped by a store so Alvin could shop for a replacement helmet.

The whole group. Except we seem to be missing one.

Pat.

Gene.

We got to sit and wait for the one-way ferry truck at a road repair job.

We had lunch at a really good restaurant in Hot Springs, NC.

Getting ready to ride after lunch.

Another road repair.

We visited another store, which sold Indian motorcycles and Polaris Slingshots.

On our way home on Thursday, we stopped by Cherokee to visit Wilder, one of Tony's students. He is running the sound system at the outdoor drama "Unto These Hills".

We had a very enjoyable time.

Back Yard After Trip

This was our newly planted Zoysia grass back yard...after our 4 week trip, during which we had record rainfall.

Fortunately, the grass underneath all the weeds was fine. After mowing a couple of times, it is looking much better.

Also fortunately, we have great neighbors, one of whom mowed the front while we were gone.