The Fair Report

Fair = Rain. 

That's the way it usually is, & this year only proved the rule in a huge way. The rivers are flooding & everything is soggy. The Fair also is the perfect time to eat questionable food (not that Navajo Tacos are in the least bit questionable!), watch hoardes of roaming teens (where did all these kids come from?), have a chance to chat with everyone you've ever known, say goodbye to summer (in the back-to-school sense, anyway) & mostly to have fun!

I had a great time hanging out with my young friends Sebastian & Talia. Here's our report:

                              

The animals are always great - this goat stack was my personal favorite!

                                

SUSHI in the cake decorating section! Combining 2 of my favorite foods - it doesn't get better than that!

                                 

Sebastian won a Big Blue Ribbon for his awesome Lego castle!

                                 

Talia won the Blue Mouth Award in Candy Eating - always good value, that one!

There is something special about looking at the Fair thru the eyes of a child. I'm so glad I had my chance this year - thanks for the fun, you two!

Retirement is Hard!

So, now that we're retired, we're working harder that ever. Well, we're not setting alarm clocks or getting up early, but we get really dirty every day, so that means Hard Work, right? As you can see by my picture, I have a very fetching work outfit. I recently added knee pads - really pulls it all together.

What we're doing is swamping out the crawl space under the house. It's actually more of a basement - no crawling necessary. There were lots of old building supplies mouldering away down there that we've now removed. Remember how much fun fiberglass insulation is to install? Removing it is easily as much fun, especially when it's old & dirty & overhead. 

Then there was the digging - Sada, the family digger, did that. He moved a lot of dirt & leveled the floors. I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that mostly what I've been doing down there is cleaning - the block walls, ceiling overhead & the dirt floor. A lot of my hard-to-come-by cleaning energy is going into that space. (and - "No one" - is the answer to the question "Who is cleaning the house?")

Why all this To Do? you might ask. Well, we are going to have the block walls spray-foamed & that insulation will help make our house warmer. It's been oddly satisfying work - destruction, filling trash cans, seeing clean space emerge. It's also tiring, sweaty dirty work - do not attempt this unless you have a hot shower to get into at the end of the day. So, the work had to be done - I guess it's like chopping firewood - it warms you twice. And I've listened to lots of interesting podcasts on my iPod - I love multi-tasking!

Yikes!

Oh brother, July is over & I forgot to post a blog! 

Well, not really that exactly - see I've been busy.  We had a big 4th of July party, we had visitors and oh yeah - I retired! 

Retired - isn't that a nice word? It is nice, unfortunately, it's not ~quite~ accurate. Let's say I've retired from Gulliver's Books - there will be more working for money in my future! 

I worked for Gulliver's for nearly 11 years - coincidentally, the Harry Potter years - & it was great! But now things are changing for us & it's time to move on. I had a great last day - lots of nice goodbyes with cards, chocolate cake, flowers, chocolates, more flowers, and then the last customer - Natasha - with more chocolate and champagne!