What's More Christmasy Than Red Green??

Here are two examples of why I enjoy watching this man's adventures.

New Pantry Cabinets

UPS brought these cabinets (in pieces) on Friday, and we assembled them yesterday.  Today, we filled them with stuff.

Scary Eyes For Halloween

I made some of these "glowing eyes" last night and put them in the bushes at the front of the house.

(Click on this last picture to see the "eyes" up close)

The glowsticks lasted all night, more than 16 hours.

Oktoberfest

We had a great time with Kris, Mark, Mike and Kim at The Columbus Oktoberfest over the past weekend.  Lots of music, beer and German food.  The Klaberheads, with Mark on drums, provided music on both Saturday and Sunday and they were great.  Sue, Kris and I even worked in a visit to COSI (Center of Science and Industry) on Sunday afternoon before we headed for The Ohio State Fairgrounds where the Oktoberfest was held.

Gemutlichkeit

Kris Anchoring The News At COSI

Sue Helps To Promote Rat Basketball at COSI

New Appliances

Here is a picture of our new Samsung refrigerator that was delivered earlier today.  Our old one finally quite working after about 15 years.  To the right of the fridge, in this picture, is the new GE microwave that we got a couple of weeks ago.  Our old microwave was still working but it was about as old as the fridge.  We donated the old microwave to Goodwill.

Fun With Fruit And Veggies

My Facebook friend, Gail Davis, shared these this week.  

Mystery Doll?? Clothes

This post is mostly to get help from Kris (and maybe Mike, who seems to remember stuff that I don't) to identify these garments that were in a bag in our basement.  Some seem to be clothes for dolls, but some also look like they were made for real babies (like underpants for some of the dresses have plastic lining).

Any clues about these items will be appreciated.

My Hangout

After spending a couple of days sorting through stuff in our basement (and finding more than a few interesting things we had forgotten that we had) the space down there is much more open and   homey.  This is a picture of Command Central.

Up On The House Top

Here are before and after pictures showing Kris and Mark's new roof.

Latest Thing In Cell Phones???

Big Pine Cabin Weekend

Sue and I spent the past weekend with Mike, Kim, Kris and Mark (and Wickett) at this cabin near Logan, Ohio.  It's a little more than a 3 hour drive from our house in Kent.


The young people did all the meals and everyone enjoyed the peaceful surroundings.  We watched The Olympics, played guitar music, played games, went in the hot tub and just generally relaxed.


I couldn't believe how fast the time passed.  Sue and I stayed over until Monday, so everyone could stay a little longer on Sunday.  

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Some Things From My Mom's House

On Saturday, Sue and I went to Malvern.  My brother Jim has done a great job of finding good homes for most of the furniture and other stuff from my Mom's house.  We had a few items that we wanted to bring home and as often happens, we brought back a bit more than we had planned on.  It's good to have some things that will remind us of Mom.  On our way out of town, we stopped at the St. Francis Xavier cemetery and visited Mom's grave and then drove by the house.


(As always, you can click once on any picture to enlarge it)


We bought this folding table for Mom and she used it to keep things handy next to her favorite chair while she watched TV.

This is one of several rocking chairs.  I believe this one was in her bedroom.

Here is one of the school desks from the original Malvern School.  The building was long ago torn down, but this is where both Jim and I started our academic careers.

An assortment of china and glass items.

Some sand dollars that Mom collected on a Florida trip that she took with some of her "girlfriends".

If anyone is interested in a full-sized church pew from St. Francis Xavier, contact my brother.


On a completely different subject, Sue and I saw a couple of hot air balloons while we we out running some errands.  She wondered if they might follow us home.  Well, they did.

KSU History and Downtown Development

This animated video shows the development of Kent State University from 1910 to the present, as well as the current and future construction for the downtown area.


(Double-Click on the video to see it full size)

Starting The 2012 Garden

This was the day I decided to get the garden planted.  The temperatures have dropped to make it more comfortable to work outside and we are supposed to get some rain for the next two days.  The picture below shows the results of cleaning and roto-tilling the plot.  

Then, Sue and I went to Pettiti's Nursery in Tallmadge and got our flowers and vegetables for this season.  They always have a good selection and, as it turned out, the tomato plants and some of the flowers we wanted had their prices reduced 50%.


We got three hanging baskets, two for the backyard, by the deck and one for the front.  Sue got four small plants for a plant stand that she puts on the deck and a kind of vining, Black-Eyed Susan that should be climbing everywhere soon.  There is also a nice, large pot with a variety of flowers that we place on the front step.


We used to buy other annuals, but over the years, these have been replaced by perrenials like coreopsis, hasta, daylilies, hibiscus, climatis, hydrangia, roses and , of course, mums for the Fall.  We also have a nice bed of wildflowers that came from seeds that we brought back from Texas years ago.


As for the garden, we have 6 Big Beef tomato plants and 6 Big Boy tomato plants.  These are supposed to supply the makings for a couple of batches of soup later this year.


I also planted 2 red pepper plants (mild ) and 2 plants that produce slightly hotter peppers.


By about 7:30 tonight, the garden looked like this.

Now, it's a matter of tender-loving care and sunshine.

Recent Picture Of Douglas

Here is a picture from David and Barbara's visit with the Apex Moomys

Pick-Up Quartet

At barbershop chorus practice, we often have pick-up quartet competitions.  This is where four singers form a group, either by choice or by simply drawing numbers and then pick a song and sing it for the other chorus members.  This video is of a quartet that Mike (tenor) and myself (baritone) formed last Fall, along with Terry Arman (lead) and Mike Hoover (bass).  The song we chose is an old barbershop favorite, "Sweet Roses of Morn".

A Puzzle

See if you can figure out the puzzle below.  My only hint is that creativity works better than mathematics, in this case.

Barbershop Cowboys

On Saturday, May 5, The Derbytown Chorus repeated the show "How The West Was Sung" at the Medina Performing Arts Center.  This was the same basic show that the chorus did in April as the annual performance at Cuyahoga Falls High School auditorium.  Here are a few pictures of the May 5th show.

(click on any picture to make it larger)

This is a video of "I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle".  Among the dancers, Mike is in the front on the right, wearing the black vest and hat.

The square at the lower right of the video screen will enlarge it when you click on it.  The video is a little less focused when it is enlarged, but the sound will still be good.