TGIBTF - Thank God It's Blog Time Friday -

Hello everyone... Today was another great day in East Tennessee...right now it is sunny and warm, earlier it was cloudy and warm.... Sandy and I had lunch today at the Firehouse... yummy... Tonight we are going to have Cornish game hens... they are smoking now...yummy squared.

Today, I did the wash and baked... Since I would imagine that our wash is about the same as yours - whites, lights, brights, darks, and sheets and towels - I will not show you a picture of the wash. Besides, that would be airing our dirty laundry in public.

However, here is the bread I baked:

Most people call it French Bread, but I call it Irish Stick Bread because I will not give the French credit for anything that I bake...




Sandy asked me to bake some cheese cookies - and I did - she had to find the recipe for me..but here they are - The recipe came from the Christmas with Southern Living, 2005 - 25 anniversary edition - They are called cheddar cookies.....flour, butter, sharp cheddar cheese, water, and the two ingredients that really make this recipe, ground red pepper and toasted salted pecans!!!! It is supposed to make 4 and 1/2 dozen cookies, I guess I made them too big because there are only 38 cookies - I will rationalize that I had to compensate for the large size of the toasted salted pecans, oh well, they taste pretty good, if I do say so myself. By the way, the pecans came from Georgia - making them Georgia pecans...

Pax vobiscum (that is Latin, not French) - and remember, take good care of yourself, cheers, john

Hi Ho, Hi Ho a blogging we will go.......... Today has been a lot of fun... Attitude is the main ingredient in many worthwhile happenings and I have complete control over my attitude... I made a pecan pie.... I got to use my new pie crust protector that I received for my birthday and it worked.....usually the edges of my pie crust are very dark brown - an expert would call them burned.......this time however, they are golden brown the way they are supposed to be..

While I have done other things today making these pies has been the highlight of me day so far. A little later, I will get to try to kill two yellow jackets nests and one wasp nest.... They have been attacking Jason when he has been out doing yard work (not the nests, the yellow jackets and wasps)................ and that is not fun........ and I want yard work to be fun for Jason so he will keep doing it.....

Ok, here is how it went.....after dinner as the sun was setting...day is done....I took wasp spray and gasoline and perused the yellow jackets and wasps....gone the sun.....I used gasoline to eliminate two yellow jacket hives and I used the spray to eliminate one wasp nest by the driveway and three in the shed........gone the yellow jackets and wasps!!! The end for today.

Thanks for reading, take good care of yourself..........seeya, john

Hi Blogskateers - Wow, I had a great day... more on that in a minute... on my birthday while I was reminiscing I wrote:

While in Lubbock, TX we (me and other numbskulls like me) would ride our bikes behind the DDT (poison to kill mosquitoes) trucks and pretend we were in a smoke screen playing war....it is not cool today to play war or to spray with DDT. It was ok then to play war and cowboy and indians...also not cool today. I also tried to blow up my hand with a fire cracker while playing war with my little plastic war figures, I particularly remember the one with the bazooka - I don't think they have those anymore, now they have hand held guided missiles...see, things have improved.

Imagine my surprise while in the pharmacy today I found a whole set of "soldiers" - AND, there was the soldier with the bazooka - I still don't think they make bazookas any more.... so I guess these are WWII, Korean, and Vietnam war soldiers.... surely not our more modern army...... of 1!

The company that makes these "toy soldiers" also make toy farm animals, jungle animals, cowboys & indians with a promise of more to come.............................. Good grief, I was completely wrong, you can still play army, and cowboys and indians - as well as - farm animal and jungle animal..."me Tarzan, you Jane".. maybe the next set of toys will be doctors & nurses and we can play "doctor", hummm.

Other than this really cool find, my day was pretty cool.... I had breakfast with Dennis and Marie, went to the grocery store, picked up the "not running" riding lawnmower (Dennis helped me) from the pastor's home (we got it running), delivered it to the lawn mower repair shop anyway, early voted, went to the pharmacy where I found the toy solders while talking with the pharmacist about the middle east mess, went to another grocery, took my bass to church - where I bought some shirts from the thrift store and saw Dennis and Marie again, went to my doctors office, came home and cut the grass.............and had a beer while writing this blog..... I definitely think my vacation is over!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, it is good to be home and be doing the things that help me be me.......

Pray for peace, even if you find some toy solders, God bless you and take good care of yourself - john

Hello friends - Well here it is the first day after vacation - getting adjusted to being back in the "normal swing of things." We were up b4 6am and Sandy was off to work at her usual time... As for me, I got to play with the dogs and cats.....do the vacation wash.....cut some flowers and pull off some tomatoes......finish my book....now I have a text book to read for the fall semester, ugh.

The highlight of my day so far was changing the Japanese Beetle bags..... I had put the traps out before we left on vacation and they were almost full of dead Japanese Beetles, rotted and rotting Japanese Beetles and covered with flies - flies love rotting things..... Don't worry, I do not have have any images and would not download them if I did...




I wore my new shoes all day today, breaking them in.....



Sandy just got home... she is leaving again for a meeting of her professional organization... I am home alone........ I will try to not get into trouble... but with those snazzy shoes, it might be difficult.... She'll be home in a bit for dinner..........

Bye for now..........and

May the road rise up to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back;
May the sun shine warm upon your back,
The rain fall softly on your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Howdy Dody........We're back........... Today I will get you caught up on Charleston on Sunday and our trip home....

We got up early on Sunday, did the things we had to do to leave Frank and Crystal's trailer ship shape........ate breakfast and went to Charleston, SC... one of our favorite cities... There is a new bridge, four lanes in both directions, which is just incredible....I was looking at my pictures and none of them do this bridge justice - four lanes in both directions and a lane for walking/ jogging/biking, etc........... wow, if you have ever been over the old bridges, especially the two lane bridge, you can appreciate this one.

Got to Charleston early and could not check in for several hours at the King Charles Inn. They let us park in their garage and we were off shopping.............. well, first we ate lunch at Stickey Fingers because I received a free 1/2 slab of ribs from them for my birthday and we are never where they are for my birthday.............yummy!!!!

The shopping...we bought some stuff on the street and in the Market... then back to check in, rest and go to dinner....




Tonight we went to Hyman's Seafood Restaurant a treat I have been waiting for for the entire trip............... Sandy had fried lobster tails and I had Krispy Flounder... That's what's lelt of it.... I have been waiting since the last time we were in Charleston for one of those dudes and I got it..................my vacation was a complete success.......

We left Charleston today and drove home - I should say Sandy drove home, she is a better driver than rider...so there you go......... we stopped in Ashville and ate lunch at the Boston Pizza...they have great greek salads and other stuff too............................ We got home and we are happy to be here. The dogs, cats, and Jason were happy to see us....that's pretty neat when you think about it...

Our vacation was a success and we are happy to be heading into a new week.............God bless you all and good night....

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Sitting by the side of the sea…reading, smiling, eating lunch, bobbing in the ocean. Bobbing in the ocean was very difficult today – heave seas, hard winds, pulling undertows… sitting by the side of the sea and reading was much more fun that bobbing in the ocean……. Great day by the sea, came home, sat on the porch, read, slept, went to dinner…….. Today we at Oliver’s Lodge since 1910…older than my mother, younger than my dad… after dinner we went to play Gilligan’s Island Golf – putt-putt… Sandy won, I lost… no comment……. Now we are at the trailer getting ready for our departure tomorrow. We will leave here and go to Charleston, SC… a favorite town of ours!

Tally Ho!

Friday, July 21, 2006

It is cloudy this morning with thunderstorms off the coast….it is only 7:30 AM so we are not worried…it will be off to the beach in a little while….

Today I had to go get quarters to feed the parking meters near our rented umbrella – 6th Ave North, Surfside Beach, SC to be more exact. Back to the quarters, first I went to the corner convenience store where I encountered the second wise guy in as many days…. I asked if he had extra quarters I could buy and he started reaching in all of his pockets to check, I chuckled and said does the store have extra quarters….I got a few but not enough so I went a block away on the other side of the street where the very nice teller was happy to trade my 10 spot for a roll of quarters without being a wise guy….good customer service wins every time.

Back to the trailer, load up and we are off to the beach……… pretty much the same as yesterday…sun, beach and all that stuff…….. today I did get some pictures of sea oats. They are a protected plant that grows between the beach and the houses…you can look, but you cannot take it home… that is pretty much the case for everything at the beach except the sand and the sea shell parts.

While we were at the beach, Dennis our friend called to tell us that Betty, another friend from church, had died on Tuesday. Betty had been very ill for a very long time and here husband, Bud, has taken such good care of her for so long. God is good, all the time; all the time, God is good.

The wise guy from Maryland was not so wise today….he and his wife are heading home today or tomorrow………..we traded pleasantries when they left….a regular summer friendship…

Home we came and we are getting ready to go to shop, dine, and shop some more….

more sea food - at Lee's Seafood Kitchen..... just a baby, since 1948 which is younger than me but older than Sandy....speaking of which, Sandy had a fried platter, and I had crab stuffed flounder...yummy................................

ta, ta

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Hi Ho, Hi Ho to the beach we go………down the block and around the corner we found the ocean….. normally for us it is not too hard to find.. go east and there it is. We can actually go west, but it takes longer to get there… Thank about that, we can go east and west in our own country and be at the ocean…. There is water north and south too, but not an honest-to-goodness ocean… Well that is our plan for today, look at the ocean all day long…

We rented an umbrella and two chairs for three days so we are ready to do what we came here to do, sit and do nothing. eeeha…. These are some of the things I like to do the most, look at the ocean and occasionally get in it, read a good book, watch other people and make-up stuff about them, and spend uninterrupted time with my wife, Sandy. This is shaping up to be a perfect day.

Our first encounter with the people at the beach was with Luci the Life Guard. She rented the umbrella and chairs. She is a young lady from the Czech Republic here working for the summer. She was very pleasant……..right after that we met a wise guy from Maryland who wanted to know how much we paid for the umbrella and chairs – when I told him he said we could have bought a lot of umbrellas like his for the same amount of money – I rationalized to him that I had a bad back and didn’t want to carry that stuff to the beach. He continued to be a wise guy – after he and his wife went in the water, I ask how it was and he said, “wet.” Lucky for him his wife wasn’t such a wise guy and said it was, “very nice and warm.” Later I would find out they were both correct, it was very nice and warm and wet….

In the every day work world or even at places like church you don’t tend to notice the differences in people’s physical appearance……Wow, but at the beach, you can tell immediately that physically speaking there are all sorts of shapes and sizes of people. No details here, but, the differences are obvious. If you are close enough to hear them talk, then you find out that there are a variety of different temperaments and psyches as well. That is why watching people at the beach is so much fun….

We also saw a parasail ride that looked like a lot of fun to me, but Sandy said she didn’t think is would be that much fun…so we watched that….it is the height of “the season” so there was parasailing all day long – we also saw some Do Do’s (Sandy says they are Sea Do’s, but I like Do Do better so I’m sticking with it). And, we saw a two person surf kayak – that looked like way too much work for me….. The rest of the time, we watched Bob, there were hundreds of Bob’s……people in the ocean….need I say more?

We stayed on the beach from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM….it was super great…

After the beach, we came back to the trailer and got ready for dinner……

I just heard on the news that in the summer time, the population of Myrtle Beach increases from about 30,000 to hundred of thousands…

We ate dinner at a Murrell’s Inlet place called Bovines. It is one of our favorite restaurants anywhere we go. I had flounder and Sandy had crab cakes. The food at this place is worth every penny and the food is accompanied by equally good service. A nice combination….

Day is done, gone the sun and night, night John and Sandy…..

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Hello blogos and blogettes hope your day is good.

Sandy and I left this morning at 5:07 AM for our trip to the beach. We are staying at Frank and Crystal’s trailer at Surfside Beach, SC…..here is a picture…





it is 5 blocks to the ocean…. Here it is too!!!





We took I-26 to Columbia and then we went on the back roads to Georgetown and then north on US 17…. There was a lot less traffic and we made better time then our usual route… We passed the USAF Gunnery Range…that is where they practice for the real war game…. We couldn’t see anything, but my imagination was going wild – and my heart was going boom-boom…. The back roads are definitely the way to go even if you have tiny bladder disease, like me, then you have to very vigilant, making sure that you do not miss any reasonable pit – as in pit stop… We still made better time and the grossest facilities were on the Interstate before we got on the back roads – go figure.


We ate lunch at the River City Café…here the walls are covered with license tags and graffiti on every possible surface…..pretty interesting actually if you select which ones to read. (Of course you have to read them first, before selecting them.) I had a Cajon Shrimp Po Boy sandwich and a Red Stripe (Jamaican) beer………Sandy had a BLT and coke…. Murrell’s Inlet claims to be the sea food capital of South Carolina… we will probably eat there again later because we are on vacation and will not want to cook…and because there are many excellent seafood restaurants in Murrell’s Inlet – as for being the seafood capital of SC, you will have to be your own judge.

Bye for now….