There are many joys of home ownership. However, correcting past mistakes is not one of them and when you live in a home that is over 110 years old there are plenty of past mistakes. In this case it was using paneling to enclose a bathtub with shower..............

We have had a problem in our upstairs bathroom with ants.... it has gone on for several months and the pest control people have tried everything they know to get rid of the ants. Finally they suggested that the paneling (wood paneling) that surrounded our bathtub [the bathtub alcove] may be part of the problem.... it had some cracks and there was some mildew around the edges.... So Sandy and I decided that we would give our bathtub alcove a make over!!!!

The day after Christmas I began ripping out the paneling that surrounded the bathtub. Not to my surprise there was rotted wood and wall board and stinky old wall paper. Ugh!!!! Also, I saw what appeared to be a dead wasps nests in the wall.... Soooo, I took my reciprocating saw and cut into the wall just under the window.... Wow!!! There was an area about 9 inches wide and 12 inches high where there was indeed a dead wasp nest - a big one!!!! and it was full of ants.... so, I sprayed the ants and sucked out the wasp nest with a straw - just kidding - it was my shop vac.... The was nest had completely replaced the insulation.....

We have not seen one ant since I removed all the yucky (not a scientific term) wood and sucked out the dead wasp nest - go figure....

I replaced the rotten wood and wall board with plywood......................

then I covered it with a plastic wall covering that I bought at Lowe's - it came in a kit called a bathtub alcove replacement kit!!!!

It worked well except for the fact that there are no square corners or straight anythings in a 110 (actually 112) year old house!!!

Here is the covering without the trim or the window frame....

and here it is with the unpainted trim and the the window frame - I used PCP wood (I think that is a contradiction) for the window frame.

And here it is finished and ready to use................

It has been a fun project and I got plenty of exercise.... Upstairs to basement over-and-over and over-and-over ........................

Now I can get ready for my Sunday School class at church and my regular classes at work...

The joys of home ownership never end...

Peace to all in the new year.... John

brrrrrrrrrrrrr -

But not as cold as MN!!!!

shots from the upstairs windows - too damn cold to go outside!!!


And Jill dog from the front poarch.

Happy New Year -

Please keep praying for Matt as he continues to have chemo.

Peace, John

ps - more on the bathroom in a day or two!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Matt

I saw Matt on Thursday, he was taking a couple of tests so that he could remove Incompletes from his record from the semester a year ago. The university requires Incompletes to be removed within a year or the become Fs. He has some facial hair but his head was bald. He was more thin then the last time I saw him. He was in a cheery mood. I got to chat with him between exams, he had to take two that day. By the time he finished the second he was extremely tired.

He told me he was having one of his regular treatments starting next Monday, the 17th. This treatment is to hold his tumor where it is now until he can have a new treatment sometime in the new year. There is a doctor in New York at Sloan-Kettering that has a new, experimental, treatment for the kind of cancer Matt has. That doctor has had some success with the treatment. It is so new, and so experimental, that you have to go to Sloan-Kettering to have it. Matt's current physician is now in the process of getting Matt into that treatment program.

Matt continues to have a positive attitude..... I can't help think that on Monday while the 4 O'Clock Club meets for a chit chat and brew and companionship that Matt will be having that treatment to hold his tumor in check. And while we spend this coming week in anticipation of the coming of the Christ.... Matt will be fending off the effects of that treatment and once more be losing his hair...

I would ask you to pause for a few seconds during this week and pray for this young man has he battles his disease. Pray that he may find the treatment that will cure his cancer.....

God bless you all, john

The 4 O'Clock Club and the Acoustic Coffee House

Dennis and Michael have blogged about our 4 O'Clock Club's last meeting, yesterday, at the Acoustic Coffee House. I could not possibly add anything worth while to what they have said. However, here are some pictures from our special meeting in November that made up for Joe having to miss our regular meeting..... Unfortunately, Michael was abscent and I have been reluctant to post these pictures because he is not in them....... Here they are anyway with my apologies to Michael....

here we are: Form left to right Joe, Sam, John and Dennis...........

It is a wonderful time that we share.....priceless really!!!

Merry Christmas to all, john

Happy Thanksgiving To All....

Of course, it is the day after thanksgiving...... shopping is happening, bread is baking, etc., etc., etc.....

Yesterday I grilled a turkey..... We went to Sandy's family for lunch at noon!!!

I was the only one cooking a turkey so the pressure was on....It was up at 5ish.....as you can see, my eyes were blurry (couldn't possibly be the camera...)

Then is was start the grill so is it could warm up... and get out the turkey..... the timer, the seasoning for the turkey, and some of the ingrediants for the gravey....

the turkey weighed 18.88 lbs...... Next we have the turkey in the sink after I washed it off and sprinkled it with seasoning.....

Looked pretty much like a turkey... at 6:00 am, I put the turkey on the grill..... this turkey had one of those little pop-up thingies....but not trusting that, I also used my tempature probe in the other breast.... Here it is on the grill....
The next step in cooking on my Holland grill is to close the lid and wait until the tempature probe tells me the turkey has reached the correct tempature...... So in the meantime I will start the gravey......I found this receipe in a Cajun cookbook - it is called Werstershire gravey... I am not going into a lot of detail other than it tasted good whein it was finished... and oh yeah, I did use the rest of the the turkey that came in the package.....

..... While the turkey was cooking Sandy prepared spinach salad and squash caserol and, I worked on the gravey......

The turkey finished cooking shortly after 10AM.... And here it is...

Inspector cob is looking over it....... We covered it with foil and finished our other preparations and left for turky lunch/dinner at Sandy's family..... We had a great time, ate lots of terrific food, gave thanks for the many blessings we have and came home.... It was a wonderful time.... Oh, and the turkey was a big hit, it was moist and tasted good too..... I used my grandfather's carving set to care it up before we ate

Then the fun started winding down, we packed up and came home at halftime of the first football game!!! When we unpacked we discovered the remains of the turkey....... and as you can see, inspector cob is pleased!!!!Well - happy day to all of you.... keep being thankful for all the wonders of this world and expectations of the next... and remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another. Love and peace, john

I don't usually ask for favors, but I am asking all of my friends to go to the blog about Matt Fay and leave a comment durning this difficult time for Matt and his family. I know that they appreciate all of your uplifting comments - and thanks M. for leaving yours..... here is the link - http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/

You will recall that Matt is a student at the college where I teach and he works in my department. He was within a semester of completing his degree. Last year he contracted a rare form of cancer, passed along genetically, and has been fighting ever since. He has been having chemo for over a year and apparently will continue to do so...... He needs all of our thoughts and prayers. So tell your friends to pray for Matt and his family.

Thanks and blessings to you all. John

There is new information about Matt Fay.. follow this link http://www.mattfay.blogspot.com/ Please keep praying.

thank you, john

This and That!!!

These are our inflateable gohsts...... we used them on our deck this year and also in the back of the truck for Trunk or Treat!!!

Our not so scary scare crow!!!

100 pumkins all in a row - all dressed up and ready to go -
To the Coalition for Kids!!!!

Jill on a field trip!!

Trunk of treaters getting some pumpkins!!

A trunk decoration..............

Another Trunk or Treator!!!!

Our less than spectacular fall colors!!!

Peace to you all, John

Dinning in East Tennessee - the bad and the good of it!!!

Yesterday after my PT session for my shoulder, I needed to go to Wal-Mart and wanted to go to eat... So I decided to try the Gondolier Italian Restaurant and Pizza a new place near the Wal-Mart..... Here is the e-mail I just sent to their corporate offices, after all, they do business in 5 states!!!!

I am writing to complain about the service I received yesterday at your Johnson City store. Actually it should be the service I did not receive.

I walked in for lunch at about 11:30 AM on Friday. I was seated and looked at the menu. I decided what I wanted to eat. Ten minutes later no one had been to my table. The hostess went by to seat some people and I ask her if anyone was working this section. She said she would send them right out. The people she seated received immediate service. I sat there for another 5 minutes and no one came to my table. So I left. I will never return and I will never eat at any of your stores. It’s really too bad, I love to eat out and I am a very good tipper.

Cheers, my name

PS: I am a professor at the local university and will be telling all my students about my dining experience, or rather lack of it.

I do not expect one thing from them, but I feel better now.................

The joke around here since I moved here in the mid 80s is that the food is good but the service is not that great!!!

Well, that was the bad - Here is the good -

I have to say that is not always the case. Last night we went out to dinner with our friends Marie and Dennis.. We went to a local place called Cootie Browns.... We were seated and immediately served by a cheery helpful waitress... The food was good, the company was better, we had a really nice evening.... Unfortunately, I spent more space telling you about my bad experience then I did about my good experience...... but the day ended on a positive note and life goes on!!!

I hope you have a nice weekend in blog land or where ever you are.... and remember, take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another........ Peace, john

This past summer Dennis and Marie and Sandy and I went to the beach.... We had a wonderful cabin on the beach!!! We had a great time...... If we had gotten to the Outer Banks and found

these conditions, I would have..............But we did not....... These images and the next bit about Thomas Jefferson I copied form other bloogers around the world..... Google/blogger has a nifty feature that displays images that are posted on blog pages, be careful what you post, it might be seen by the whole blogger world.... I have a lot of fun watching it when I need to relax and do not want to read.. check it out at:

http://play.blogger.com/

In the mean time here is Thomas Jefferson:

and his ten rules!!!

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

Never spend money before you have earned it.

Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap.

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.

We seldom repent of having eaten too little.

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

How much pain the evils cost us that never happened.

Take things always by the smooth handle.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

Thomas Jefferson

So, thank you bloggers for sharing these thoughts and images.

May we have peace on earth, john

Please pray for my sister and 5 of her 6 children and their families who live in the San Diego area as they cope with the horrific fires of Southeren California.......... pray also for the many thousands of other people who are suffering with this nightmare.......... Thank you.... Peace, john

Cherokee United Methodist Church

Youth

the patch

A pile o'pumpkin

Can you find the el(pumpkin)mo?

Ten little pumpkins all in a row

All lined up and ready to go!!!!

Oh Wow, we are so happy!!!
Because..............
Will soon be here!!!

So, remember to take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another,

Love, John

Fall break in Gatlinburg -

Hi everyone, we are back..... We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Gatlinburg with our friends Dennis and Marie.... we were in a condo near downtown Gatlinburg

We had a lot of fun being together and shopping and eating...... We had hoped for the colors of fall, but we got mostly green and brown....

We ate at the Alamo Friday night; on Saturday, we ate breakfast at the condo, then Dennis and I ate lunch at the Fox and Parrot pub and Marie and Sandy went to a tea room, then for dinner we ate at the Greenbrier; on Sunday, we ate breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, a late lunch at the Black Mountain Brewery in Pigeon Forge, and we had cheese and crackers and bread; on Monday, after packing the vehicle, we ate at FlapJacks and came home.......... We had a good time eating ........ Here is the Alamo - it says so on the sign!!!!

Before we went to many, many craft shops in a lengthy loop of such places, we went for a ride to find the Tanasi Lodge - Why you ask? Well in February the Greer's are having their retreat there and next summer, we are celebrating my 65th birthday there.... We got lost (even though we could see the place up the mountain), and drove around places where the signs said private property do not enter, and other such inviting commentary's........... we were close........ we asked someone if they knew where we were and they said "you are right here!!" - no, not really.... the fellow I talked to knew where it was and told us exactly how to get there.... my GPS system was about a full block off..... anyway, we drove up this mountain and at the end of the gravel road, we found the Tanasi Lodge.......... And here it is and after the lodge is the view down the mountain into the valley!!!

While we were relaxing in our condo..... the ladies would be doing knitting and crocheting...

Somebody took off his shoes!!!
And was later seen floating in the wall behind the mirror!!!!!

Since the foliage was less than spectacular, we did not visit the woods!!! However, on one of our shopping trips, after outletmalling until we nearly dropped, we ate at the brewery in a shopping area that was sorta interesting.... I was able to purchase something called smoked venison trail steaks (a type of jerky - no comments please)....... and we did encounter a friendly black bear.....

We had a wonderful time with our friends..... we are home now, with all the new stuff found here and there, and tomorrow it will be back to work for Sandy and back to normal for Dennis and Marie and one more day of Fall break for me!!!

Oh, yah! After we got home we went and picked-up Jill at the spa... she had a bath and got a new boo rag.....

And she wishes you a

season!!!!

So, we had a great time - and we are closing in on Halloween..... so, remember to take good care of yourself so you can take good care of another. Peace, john