GRANDCHILD NUMBER ELEVEN

Debra and I now have enough grandchildren to field a football team. With ten grandchildren already in the mix, Alexia Ashley Jade Vallo took the number eleven spot today at 10:58 a.m., tipping the scale at 8 lb. 3 oz. and standing (so to speak) at a height of 21 inches.

Mother and daughter.

Aunt Ashley holding Alexia Ashley.

Closeup.

Papa and Nana with Alexia.

ELVIS, JOHN, LESLEY, TERRY AND JUDY

Everybody knows who Elvis Presley is, but nobody remembers him singing a song called "Judy".

Nobody knows who John Fred is, but everybody remembers his catchy tune "Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)".

Everybody knows who Lesley Gore is, and everybody also remembers her hit song, "Judy's Turn to Cry", which was her sweet-revenge sequel to her other hit song, "It's my Party".

Nobody knows who Terry Stafford is, and nobody remembers his song, "Judy", either.

Judy is my big sister. Today is Judy's birthday. To hear Elvis, Terry, Lesley and John sing about Judy on her birthday, click...

here

FLOORING PROJECT REPORT #2

Yesterday I woke up at about 3:00 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep because my mind was active with anticipation of installing some of our laminate flooring this weekend. After running a few Saturday morning errands and attending a meeting, I started installing the floor in the family room.

The carpet had already been pulled up and hauled away a couple of weeks ago and the olive green linoleum has been eager to hide under something more attractive ever since. This weekend the olive green linoleum almost completely disappeared.

This is how far I got Saturday.

Sunday morning I reached the hearth.

Later in the afternoon, one strip remained to complete the family room floor.

By Sunday afternoon I had completed everything in the family room except the trim. I installed one baseboard so that I could set up the entertainment center which sits in front of it.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye, olive green linoleum.

NEW FLOOR IS IN

IN the house.

Not IN-stalled.

Lots of labor still looms in my future.

Unloading the laminate.

The new floor is in the house.

BAGGENSTOS FARMS (PART FOUR)

Today we visited Baggenstos Farms for the fourth consecutive year as part of our annual pumpkin patch/corn maze tradition. This year, armed with an aerial photo of the maze (shown below), we navigated our way from the maze entrance (shown at the line under and to the right of the letter "T" in "FLIGHT") to the maze exit (shown immediately below that line).

The hayride wagon took us to a pumpkin patch where Silas and Devon each selected a pumpkin to take home.

After leaving the farm, we stopped by a 7/11 and bought six Slurpees on the way home.

The maze as seen from the air.

How tall are Naomi, Devon and Silas this fall?

Four farm animals.

Sitting in the hay maze.




Airborne brothers.







Monkey bar maneuvers.

Still airborne.

Sorta airborne.

Silas, Naomi and Devon with Papa.

Starting the journey through the corn maze.

Naomi walking with parents while Silas and Devon have already reached the exit.

Pumpkin lifting power.

FLOORING PROJECT REPORT #1

Insomnia awakened me at about 4:00 a.m. this morning. Just before 6:00 a.m. I arose from my bed to get started on what was to be a busy day.

After downing two cups of coffee, I disconnected our TV, DVD player, VCR, and satellite receiver and removed the empty entertainment center from the family room. While waiting for the guy who responded to my Craigslist posting for free carpeting, I began pulling up carpet tack strips and baseboards. When Denny, the Craigslist responder, arrived to get the carpet, we rolled up over 400 square feet of carpeting along with the carpet pad and loaded it onto his van.

After Denny left, I finished removing all the carpet tack strips and baseboards, ate some Ibuprofen and soaked in a 102-degree hot tub. I now hurt and I have a long way to go before this flooring project is completed. But it's a good hurt.

Two views from the living room facing the dining room.

From the family room facing the dining room and the hallway.

From the dining room facing the living room and the family room.

The family room.

Denny arrives and we move furniture to get to the carpet.

The carpet is rolled up to haul away.

Denny and I load the carpet into his van.

After removing the carpet, we then remove the carpet pad. Since I had the project prepared and staged before Denny arrived, the whole process took us only about fifteen minutes.

It wasn't until removing the carpet and the carpet pad that we discovered the original flooring material: Green linoleum from 1969. Laminate flooring is on the way.