dead round

The front tree makes lots of shade and so too -- the grass dies. Thomas bought about twenty-four bags of soil using Marcus as pack mule. The grass seed might start growing in a week or so.

red

Lois went to Red Hat Ladies meeting and she wore this to go. They went to the Firefighter's Museum then to the genealogy department at the library.

cold day in ...

My car wouldn't start. Oh, man! I called the shop and they predicted, not seeing the car, that it was the starter and it would be around $200. Ouch! I had to call a tow truck to get it there.

I cannot overstate this: "GET an AAA Chicago Motor Club Membership". I have gone through a lot of miles with two cars breaking down.

The tow driver pulled the car up the ramp and popped my tire. The company, likely later the driver, then is responsible for getting me a new tire. I got to the shop late and the owner had a critical question: "Is that a 2.7 [liter engine]?" He reported that the 2.7L engines were junk and he had lots of them sitting, broken, unusable. Thankfully, I have a 3.2L, which is "less of a problem".

Yoikes!

Special

While I am thanking everyone for a great Christmas, I would especially like to thank Diane for hosting, helping us when we were out of power and for making Christmas for Tawnya and three of her kids great!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

happy note

I got to see and obviously photograph this ...
Simone gets baptized. She is the-love-of-my-life-Tawnya's elder daughter.
2008 and God is still great!

down time

Here you can see Thomas playing with Lily. It is a simple game. "I have it, you can't have it." Lily seemed to like the game, but not nearly as much as Beth & Tom's dog Sampson.

She's got a man

Ah, this was found on Zane's profile. Jessica has herself a man.

Tweet!

Tom and Lois have another nest near the front door. This little bird is weary of passersby, but stays. No one has yet seen chicks or eggs, but undoubtedly they are there.

The rummage sale

She ran the show. I think she would like to remain anonymous for the moment. She cannot be found on the net.

Well, my friend did a rummage sale and made, seemingly meager money, but it continues. When I was there the first day you could find tables filled. One was like this:

I hope that she does better this weekend. I donated a TV for sale. It garnered a pittance. It was worth a try anyway.

old photo, still a neat shot

and the rain rain rain came down down down

Tom and Lois had a surprise guest

Woof! A neighbor down the street has Charlie here. He was wondering and wondering where are the milk bones.

For Jenny

Have a cookie; have a smile.
Good luck with your new move.

ripped leg 3 days later

Lois learns to pay the bookees. No, this is the mark left from her fall on Thursday with the so-called Red Hat Ladies. They must be Mob, right?

U-Haul It

Believe it or not ... that is how the driver had to turn to go straight.

This shows how bad the alignment was. Diane and Marcus returned the vehicle for one that was "better". The first one also made the sound of grinding metal. Wonderful!
Two guys at the U-Haul confirmed that it sounded rotten when we pulled in.

It was Jenny's loading day and she was keen on not doing it.
Diane convinced her that loading was happening, either Jenny's way or Diane's way.

As an added bonus, Jessica's phone got wet++ and she borrowed Diane's cellphone for that day. It would have helped with our truck situation.

++ It fell into the toilet.

inside joke

Well Marcus helped Diane and family organize the hundreds of books in their house, returning them to bookshelves after the bookcases were moved during carpet installing and painting. Among the many books rediscovered was this one. The Spelling Book, which Thomas insisted that Jessica practice and complete during school and summer to ensure that she retained stuff during her youth. She did it, accordingly, but boisteriously protested. She hated it. She "lost" the book so that she could escape the duty. Sad for her, they are at Walgreens, so Thomas bought another one when hers was "lost".

We also found a workbook from school there that was likely, "Mommy, it was lost at school. I can't do my work, but can watch movies, right?" Clever.

Happy Birthday Diane

Diane, Tom, Lois, Joe, Marcus all met at Azar's for Diane's birthday. While short, sweet, I hope that we do something a bit more complete for her. This weekend isn't going to be it. She has too much to do. Love you Diane and I hope that your day was special!

no more?

I popped out to Diane's last night and helped her clean up a bit. There was drywall dust on cabinets downstairs, chairs were a bit messy and there were fuzzies on the floor. We cleaned up what we could, what we saw. We put on "over-sized" face plates on the outlets and put up the railing to the downstairs. It was a slower day for sure, but really I think my sister needed one.

will fall

Diane's locust tree has a torn limb.

cabinets

It took a lot longer than I thought, but ... Jim screwed in the screws to the cabinet. Diane moved dishes and glasses to the new cabinets and all are more secure and bear less weight.

Jim found that the old cabinets were either never straight or had slid down over time, much like people do when older.

growing trash problem

So National Serv-All doesn't serve her. This is week number two that they have failed her. I am thinking someone needs to die.