Last night we were watching “America’s Got Talent”. Kelly was amazed when she found out that Regis was in his 70’s. “He looks young for being in is 70’s,” Kelly said. “He’s like Grandaddy. Grandaddy and Regis both look young.”
One odd thing about the Mac5 blogs is that the moments of crisis we’ve experienced around Grandaddy’s misadventures at the hospital this year are really not recorded here. Kelly’s comment is especically appreciated on this side of Dad’s third hospital event.
The dogs were quite excited that we came home from Anna Maria Island. We had quite a long trip back and arrived at our destination at about seven. We began to unpack immediately. It was quite difficult with the dogs jumping on us and running circles around us. It was raining. Dad decided to lay our coconut outside by some bushes. Clyde went over to it, sniffed it, and picked it up crying. He decided that we had brought this lovely specimen of coconut back for him. For what seemed like hours he pranced around the house showing off this coconut to anybody in sight. If you were not looking, he would come and stand right in front of you, if that did not work he would bang the coconut against your hand. Then, when his jaw got tired, he began to gnaw on the coconut like a bone, we were forced to put the coconut outside so Clyde did not make a mess.
Photos are starting to appear under the Fiveforks gallery. More to come:
We all converged on Anna Maria Island without incident, although Dad’s trip down the day before involved a 3 hour delay in getting a flat tire replaced. Carol had FOPAB shirts ready for us. The houses are much nicer than we expected. Bob bought a wireless router to hook up to cable, and we now have 5 laptops with internet access (in case in rains.) We look forward to Nicole and hopefully Ted joining us.
When we moved into the house there was a square plot of ground raised with a border of landscape timbers. It only contained tomato cages and weeds. Kathy attempted to grow some vegetables, but we have too many rabbits living in the neighborhood. So she converted it to a flower garden.
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Over a year ago Kelly decided to grow her hair long enough to donate to Locks of Love which is a program that helps poor kids suffering from long term medical hair loss get free hairpieces. She needed an extra 10 or 11 inches. She was a bit worried about getting it cut short right before entering high school for the first time. You know high school. Wouldn’t want to be pegged as part of the “short hair crowd” day one.
One advantage of the program is that you get a free haircut with any stylist that supports the program. The stylist handles proper cutting and submitting of the hair. However, Kelly’s regular place was not part of the program. This meant she had to go to “Studio 21 Hair Salon” which is the fanciest barbershop in Snellville. The girl that cut Kelly’s hair was very careful and did a great job. Kelly ended up getting a $60 haircut for free. She looks older and more sophisticated with her new haircut.
Just in time for high school where they will peg her day one as being part of that “sophisticated crowd.” I just think she looks like part of the cute crowd.
Claire is also growing her hair for Locks of Love but reports her haircut will likely be in January. (Future link.)
Kathy decided we should remove the low brick wall at the end of the driveway. The basketball was putting cracks in it and she thought it was a hazard to playing kids. She has never really liked the wall. I think it was put in place to force water to run down the sidewalk instead of through the back yard, which was a mess, so I ended up taking a piece of the wall out years ago.
One advantage to no longer having the wall at the end of the driveway…
Posted using Fedora (Linux).
CONNECT FOUR
CALENDAR CHALLENGE
January – Andrew
February – Uncle Jeb
March – Uncle Jeb
April – Andrew
May – Andrew
June – Andrew
July – Uncle Jeb
August – Andrew
September – Uncle Jeb
October – andrew
November – andrew
December -andrew
Andrew 8 months
Uncle Jeb 4 months
Nicole writes:
…Sometimes I forget I have a camera. Here is a funny picture from the tour. Have you heard of South of the Border? It is 0.1 mile south of the North Carolina border, in South Carolina. There are billboards for it that stretch 40 miles before you get there. You may have, it is 40 years old and one of the silliest places I have ever been.
*see hippo attached to e-mail.
I’m getting pretty good at catching bullfrogs. Number 4 moved in a few weeks ago. Not quite full size yet. With the discovery of the little yellow-bellied-slider, which we’d like to keep as a pet, I was concerned that a bullfrog might eat him while still small.
Bullfrogs are real pests and bad for almost everything alive around them their size or smaller. I put him in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to let him slip into a permanent hibernative state. I’ve tried this before, and it didn’t work this time either. Sure enough a scream from the garage. Kelly thought it was a dog yelping. Nope. Kathy had found a Belk’s bag in the refrigerator and wondered what was in it. As she started to untie it, the bag moved. That’s when she yelped like a dog.
I let the chilly bullfrog go in the storm drain, as I did with #3. He hopped in just fine.
