Dining Room Christmas Decorations

Thanks for all the cards, photos and newsletters. Our dining room mantel is festooned with them and, from his nearby vantage point atop the china cabinet, our woodland Santa figure gazes over at them approvingly.

What WE Want For Christmas

It would be a tight fit under the Christmas tree, but we still are hopeful! This is the house we have been trying to buy for the last six weeks. It is a brick Italian Villa with big rooms, tall ceilings and a great curvy stairway, and it sits on a hill on the other side of Lebanon.

The house had been on the market at a high price for four years but the owners had to give it up to their bank in September. The bank cut the price a lot (though still a big stretch for us) so we put in a bid and, lo and behold, got a purchase contract. There are problems to work through (title, legal description, expiring Fannie Mae incentives, etc) so it isn't a done deal but we are really, really, trying!

Our Thanksgiving

Here is our little group about to devour Thanksgiving dinner - except for Annie, who stood up from the table to take the picture. We had a very thankful day!

Our Pecans

We have a curiosity at the Tower House - a pecan tree. Last year it produced no nuts but this year it is loaded. I was turning the vegetable garden today and saw the pecans were popping out of their skins like the ones in this picture. In two hours I picked and dehusked 525 nuts, a total of seven pounds (still in the shells). Now my fingertips are black - I wonder how long it will take for that to wear off. But it was worth it, because now Lee Ann is going to make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving.

Wikipedia indicates that pecan trees are native to a large part of the south and as far northeast as Louisville Kentucky - and then there is a tiny dot of range up in Ohio, right where we are. Lucky us!

Air Force Museum

Annie is on her way back to Roanoke today after spending a week home on fall break. Unfortunately I was traveling for most of that week, but we did get to spend time on Monday visiting the Air Force Museum in Dayton. They sure have a lot of planes there!

Roanoke Weekend

On Friday morning, Lee Ann and Danny and I piled into the car and drove to Roanoke for the Family Weekend at the college. We had beautiful weather to drive in, and enjoyed the first tinge of fall colors on the forested hills of Kentucky and West Virginia. And then we were there with Annie.

Family Weekend is a series of organized events and activities designed (I think) to reassure parents that real, college-like things are happening on campus and that their children are in good hands. We went to a few of the programmed activities, including a historical walking tour of the town of Salem and a fun Honors College slide show of the wilderness retreat Annie and the others participated in a few weeks ago. We also just spent time with Annie, whose fondest wish after a month of dorm food was to get off campus and eat in restaurants. We were happy to oblige, since after a month of empty nestedness our fondest wish was to sit and talk to our kid, and restuarants are pretty good for that.

We stayed over in a pet-friendly Howard Johnson's and left Roanoke at noon on Saturday, arriving home at about dark. Now it is Sunday morning and Lee Ann is packing for five days in Lexington to work the Tack Trunk booth at the World Equestrian Games. It's all or nothing with this family - a nice weekend together, and then we scatter to the four winds.

Houston Jinx

It seems I can't just fly to Houston and back on business without some travel adventure finding its way, unbidden, into the works.

My last visit was in June. I flew in Monday, spent all week giving "Eye on Safety" training sessions (something we cooked up internally to teach behavioral concepts) to our hourly Texas employees, and had a Friday morning flight home. Everything went fine until Friday, when the first two Cincinnati flights of the day were cancelled and the rest filled up before I could rebook. I had been boarded and returned to the terminal twice due to mechanical problems with our plane, with a total of about three hours sitting on the tarmac before the flight finally was cancelled, while others gobbled up available seats on later flights. The best I could get at that point was a Saturday morning flight home, and I spent the night Friday in the airport hotel.

This week I am traveling to Houston again for the supervisor part of the training. My morning flight from Cincinnati proceeded on time until we got close to Houston, at which point our pilot was instructed to circle while controllers tried to get a stack of planes on the ground through the thunderstorms spawned by tropical storm Hermine. Eventually we had to divert to Alexandria, LA for a quick fuel stop, we were told. But as soon as we were on the ground, the pilot announced that Houston was holding aircraft due to the weather and so we deplaned. We proceeded to spend 2 1/2 hours at the tiny terminal there, where our planeload of Delta passengers overwhelmed the little snack bar like hyenas on a wildebeest. A fish sandwich and fries were a 45 minute wait - but hey, at that point we were just killing time.

I had honestly never heard of Alexandria, and I was traveling with my boss Terry, who is a Louisiana native but had never been there. The military trained bomber crews there during WWII but it was turned over for civilian use years ago and now handles just a few commuter flights a day - plus the occasional plane diverted from New Orleans or Houston, like us. The terminal is brick and the control tower is built right on top of it, not separate like at most airports (see picture). It's a perfectly nice terminal unless you are being held there against your will.

Eventually we were called for reboarding and packed back onto our Canadair jet. Once we were onboard, the captain announced that we would be underway as soon as we got fuel. What? They hadn't had time to do that yet? So a fuel truck came out and, while we waited for that, we received another hold from Houston and spent 45 minutes more sitting on the runway before taking off. And instead of the 30-minute Alexandria-Houston leg the attendants promised, we flew a roundabout course well to the south (to avoid the storms, I'm sure) that took an hour.

So my nifty two hour direct flight ended up taking eight hours. I'm not complaining - I'm always glad when the airlines and air traffic control folks keep our plane from flying to our doom. But what is it with me and Houston?

Vacation Day 5

Back to the vacation narrative...so there we were staying over in St. Ste. Marie. The next morning we drove south over the bridge (Annie mercifully sleeping this time) and took the ferry to Mackinac Island. Here we are on the first deck of the ferry. The top deck was filled completely with a group of high school cross-country guys, all wearing the same t-shirts. We saw them later around the island.

While there we did the usual touristy things - looked at the Grand Hotel (from a distance - going inside costs $10 a head), circumnavigated the island on rented bikes, and bought things in the myriad shops. We stayed in a bed & breakfast on the island, which turned out to be a charming place. The big drawback was that both beds were small, so Annie ended up sleeping on the floor.

We had planned to take two days for the drive back from Mackinac but were antsy to be home, so we got up the next day, rode the ferry to the mainland and drove home with only a brief stop in Jackson to pick up college dorm stuff from Brian and Lorrie. All in all it was a great trip.

Empty Nest

I have to interrupt my slow retelling of our Michigan vacation with pictures from last weekend, when we dropped Annie off at Roanoke College to begin her course of study there.

It was a nice weekend trip. We left from downtown Cincinnati Friday as I was getting off work and drove to Charleston, WV for the night. Next morning we continued on to the college (total driving time: 7 hours) and Annie was moved into her dorm room by noon. She then attended a blizzard of onboarding meetings and ceremonies. We got to see her for lunch and dinner Saturday and lunch on Sunday before heading home.

The college was beautiful, and the people we met were really nice, including Annie's roommate Katrina. Lee Ann and I had a good time poking around campus and staying Saturday night in a nearby b & b. Except for the fact that we were forced to leave our only daughter behind, in the clutches of total strangers, it was a pretty nifty weekend.

Vacation - Day 4

From Petoskey we drove north across the Mackinac Bridge (which Annie managed with a minimum of terror) and on to St. Ste. Marie to see freighters go through the locks there. We stayed at a nearby Indian casino resort called Kewadin and played the starter tokens they gave us in slot machines on the gaming floor, but lost interest in gambling as soon as the free tokens were gone.

St. Ste. Marie is a fun town. We visited the county historical museum, which is down a side street that was all torn up for repaving, and according to their visitor log we were the only visitors in a week. There was an art fair going on and we bought a watercolor of a lighthouse we had seen at Betsy Point the day previous. Then we shopped on Main Street and ran into a lady whose husband was the mayor of Hillsdale at the time I worked for the city utilities department in 1992-93 and she regaled me with public employee gossip, 18 years after the fact. It sure is a small world - sometimes too small.

Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 was Dune Day at Sleeping Bear Dunes. We all climbed this starter dune, but then Annie climbed the dune beyond this one. We stopped a few places along the Lake Michigan shore to wade in the water. The weather was gorgeous.

We went from here to Traverse City for lunch and poked around there a bit before checking in to our historic hotel in Petoskey.

More Vacation

Later on Day 2 we visited the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park near Grand Rapids. We were lucky to visit during an exhibition of glass art by Chihuly, who positioned his really cool pieces throughout the gardens.

The permanently displayed pieces are pretty impressive too. In the second picture, Annie and Lee Ann get ready to put a twitch on Leonardo Da Vinci's horse. This sculpture is the largest cast bronze in the world. Leonardo designed it but the techniques for the casting did not exist until modern times.

We wrapped up day 2 by driving north to a little low-rent fishing resort motel just west of Cadillac and spending the night there.

Vacation Day 2

Having reached Jackson the night before and imposed on the hospitality of Brian and Lorri for a night, we rose early Sunday morning and hit the road. First stop was MSU campus. I had not been there for years, and since Annie is off to college in a few weeks thought it would be fun to show her my old stomping grounds. We spent some time in Beal Botanical Gardens, which is a really cool place, had a snack in the Student Union building, visited Sparty (the NEW Sparty - I didn't know he had been remade) and then motored up the road.

Family Vacation 2010 - Day 1

Part of the reason I am hopelessly behind in blogging about our lives is that we were on vacation for a week, arriving back home yesterday.

Last Saturday we loaded up the car and headed north, in pursuit of some cooler weather and good times in Michigan. Along the way we visited the site of Fort Jefferson, south of Greenville. This was one of a line of forts established in the late 1700s to protect the frontier from Indians, which is a little ironic since General St. Clair lost something like 600 men while on a sortie out from this very fort, a record for casualties inflicted by Native Americans in a battle. Nothing remains of the fort, but there are signs describing what archaeological digs on the site have found. And they have a cool stone monument there, so of course we posed in front of it.

We had a few other first-day adventures, including a visit to the Kitchen Aid Blender museum, but the real highlight was the McAlpine Corvair/GTO Museum in Jackson, whose curator is none other than my brother Brian. He is always gracious and let us tour the place yet again.

Rising Exec

Lee Ann has taken on more and more responsibility at The Tack Trunk. This year she was named to head up Breyer Day. Breyer is a maker of collectible plastic horse statuettes, and a hot item for the Tack Trunk crowd. The big day was last Saturday, and the turnout was pretty good. Here is Lee Ann serving up drinks at the Alex's Lemonade stand (proceeds to charity) and posing at the foam cutout she made for little riders.

Summer Projects

The Tower House garden is looking pretty good. Last weekend I harvested the radishes (not sure what you do with three pounds of radishes - suggestions?) Today I got the first of the banana peppers and a couple of okra pods. There are bell peppers on the vine (little), green tomatoes, and flowers on the zucchini and bush beans. The only disappointment so far has been the corn. I bought new seed, planted three 10-foot rows, and had about a dozen plants come up. That accounts for the blank area to the right side. I filled in part of the space with some last-chance watermelons that Lee Ann picked up at half off, and planted some more of the corn seed I had left over (what's that definition of insanity?) so hopefully that area will fill up soon.

My rainy day project is taking out the old kitchen. I disassembled the island and now am chipping up the ugly floor tile. Below that is cement board, and below that chipboard underlayment, and below that (hopefully) the original floorboards, waiting to be restored. I am using a spud bar to break up the tile but it's slow going and there are more nails and screws per inch than should be allowed by law. I'd like to strangle the people responsible for this mess! Lucky for them that they are probably dead already.

Annie - Graduating

That's Annie in the white.

We Survived...

...Annie's high school graduation!!! It's been a busy last few days, including the ceremony at Wright State's Nutter Center on Saturday and the party we threw on Sunday.

One fun thing was the graduate cutout Lee Ann made and stood up in our back yard during the party. She made this out of foam board, and painted it with chalkboard paint. Guests at the party had fun chalking in the names of their alma maters, and by the end we had gotten quite a few. Here is Lee Ann posing with her creation.

Latest Old House Crush

We are always on the lookout for some old house to buy that would screw up our lives even worse than they are now - call it a hobby. In the past year we have looked at maybe a dozen and made offers on two. We still have hopes for one of those, a magnificent house in Franklin, but the bank did not approve our short sale offer so we will probably have to wait until it goes through foreclosure to have another chance at it. In the meantime, we still are casually looking.

A few days ago this poor, bedraggled former farmhouse built in 1897 went up for sale. It sits on three acres just two blocks away from our Lebanon house. The land is zoned commercial and whoever buys the property probably will tear down the house, but it is the sort of place that appeals to us so we scheduled a showing. We went through it yesterday with Peggy, our intrepid realtor. (Think - what would it be like to be OUR realtor?)

We found out that the house is sound, despite pretty bad cosmetic damage from bad renters and a lot of deferred maintenance like we expected. But this house has two really cool features. There is a brick barrel-vaulted tunnel that runs out through the back basement wall and is filled with rubble about 25 feet out. And there is a shaft, as if for a small elevator, that runs from the basement to the attic, with doors opening from it into the adjacent main and second floor rooms.

I don't know that we would buy and renovate this house but I hope someone does - it is way too interesting to tear down for another quick lube place.

The Gardens

Things are sprouting in the "big garden." In the foreground are radishes and carrots, plus some onions in the back, covered by my "bunny buster" chicken wire cage which hopefully will keep non-human nibbling to a minimum. Behind that are pepper, tomato and okra plants with more traditional fencing to keep the critters at bay. I also have corn, bush beans, cucumbers and zucchini planted in the open garden area beyond that.

And wow, does the Lee Ann's pond landscaping look gorgeous. It seems everything decided to bloom at the same time. It could only look better if we had blue skies in the background, but the cool and misty weather has been good for the plants.

Roof After Pictures

Here is the flat part of the Tower House roof, newly resurfaced and ready for twenty years of leak-free service. These shots are from the tower room, a handy vantage point.

Christine's Big Day Out

Here's the story of a little black cat named Christine, and possibly the last big adventure of her life.

Christine's family moved in to the house next to us a year ago. We knew them very slightly - the mom Laura, and her four children. Laura had lived with her husband in England, and lately in a house on Hart Road, she told us, but was going through a divorce and was lease-purchasing the house to get a new start. She rode horses, which gave her common ground with Lee Ann, and even shopped at the Tack Trunk, where Lee Ann works. This all came out in our across-the-back fence chats with Laura in the first week of her residence, a year ago, and we have hardly seen her since. Later, when we really could have used this information, we had forgotten almost all of it. And we never knew she had a cat.

On Saturday I had been doing work on our back porch, fixing trim and installing a gutter. It was a nice day and I left the back doors open so our cats and dog Danny could pass freely to the back yard. I was inside for a while, upstairs, when I heard cat spitting and yowling in the kitchen and found our cats, fat-tailed and snarly, facing off with an unseen feline holed up under our stepback cabinet. This is not so unusual for us - the neighborhood tomcat comes in sometimes and plays variations on this scene.

Later Lee Ann came home and lured the cat out of hiding with smoked turkey. Lo and behold, it was not the tomcat but an emaciated and lethargic little black girl kitty that we had never seen before. But this is not unusual either. Our town is overrun with strays, and we have taken in a string of them. So we decide to feed and shelter this cat for the rest of the weekend and then take her to the vet on Monday to see what could be done. She looks like she hasn't eaten for weeks and might have one of those fatal cat diseases but want to give her every chance. What a poor kitty - dumped by her owners, homeless, hopeless, facing starvation and danger, grimly hanging on until finally she found her way to us.

So today I am at the vet. He checks out the stray, notes serious jaundice and remarks that she is "no spring chicken." Then he absently scans her with a gadget and finds to our surprise that she is microchipped. A few calls and we know the cat's name, owner's name (Laura Hodge) and that the cat was registered in London, England but there is no current contact info - so that's a dead end. I OK lab tests - but I am reeling from the microchip, and the fact that this cat is from England. How did she get here? Numerous improbable scenarios run through my head.

Later the vet calls to advise that the cat is negative for HIV and leukemia. Either of those would put us in obvious pull-the-plug territory, but now we have to decide what to do next. I OK more tests. Lee Ann calls me to see how things are going (she is at work, conveniently) and I tell her what I know. The name Laura Hodge rings a bell. "I think we have a customer by that name," she says, and checking the Tack Trunk records finds an address on Hart Road (a few miles away - not as impressive a trip for a cat as from England, but still a remarkable distance for a feeble stray to travel) and a phone number. No answer on the phone, but finally this evening a woman answers. I am thinking this won't be the right Laura Hodge, but here's the conversation:

LA - "Hi, I'm calling for Laura Hodge."

LH - "This is she."

LA - "Oh, hi, my name is Lee Ann McAlpine, and we have your cat Christine."

LH - "You have! I'm so glad! We've been looking everywhere for her. Where is she?"

LA - "Believe it or not, she got all the way in to town, to 437 East Main Street in Lebanon."

LH - "Really? Well, we live at 435 East Main Street."

So all mysteries were solved, but in a most anticlimactic way. Christine is 18 years old. She has been around the world with her family, our next-door neighbors, registered and chipped in London, and is pretty close to the end of her corporeal tether. Her physical condition is not a result of extended time starving in the wild, or disease, but age. And her time as a 'stray' was probably about one minute's travel time from her house to ours on Saturday, so there was no thrilling stowaway trip across the Atlantic or cross-country epic through the farmland of Warren County.

Gourmet canned cat food - $4. Vet check and blood tests - $187. Two days of entertaining "Incredible Journey" cat scenarios - priceless.

Lindsay's Graduation Party

On Sunday, Lee Ann and I made an up-and-back trip to Jackson to attend step-niece Lindsay's graduation party. We had a nice three hours at The Hunt Club with about 30 friends and relatives of Lindsay, who attended Michigan State and now has a degree in food science.

I managed to take one photo the whole time, and this is it. This is during gift opening, when brother Brian (who kinda emceed the event) has stepped back to watch and made a nice grouping with sister Karyn and her husband Mark.

Roof Repair

Rain has been leaking through the flat section of the roof at the Tower House. Here is a picture of the roof earlier this week as I was about to begin repairs. You can see the leaky joints were patched with a gray roofing compound, but that kind of fix never lasts long. The rolls you see are "Peel & Seal," an aluminized roofing material that I am using to cover the old surface completely.

After I took this photo on Thursday morning I got half the roof surface (which is 8' by 18' overall) covered, and I also fixed some leaks around the flue stack. When I finish I will post "after" pictures - but that won't be today, because it's way too windy to go back up.

Luck of the Scottish

So there's Annie, attending the prom last night. She was lukewarm on going at all, but as it turns out, just for showing up she wins a mini-fridge. As a door prize. Value $100.

I can't remember if we even had door prizes at our prom, but if we did they would have been things like ball caps, or McDonald's coupons. Definitely nothing in the kitchen appliance league.

So, prom night had a happy ending. Like I always say, there's nothing to take the edge off a night of marginal food and teen social angst like a free mini-fridge.

Prom Night

Annie and Eli are off to prom tonight. Here they are in our back yard, pretending they wanted to be photographed (and being good sports about it).

Eli asked Annie several weeks ago in a way guaranteed to succeed - he spelled "PROM" in sushi for her. Wow, he's good.

In Kansas City

So here I am in exotic Kansas City - well, really Independence, MO. I flew in Monday night and have spent the last two days in safety training sessions with groups of our scrapyard folks. We have an affiliate headquartered here with 17 facilities in Kansas and Missouri, so I visit pretty often. Others in my party stayed at nice hotels but I am in a Motel 6 down the road, setting the standard for thrift as usual.

The highlight of this trip is that I got to see a Kansas City Royals game last night. The Royals lost to the visiting Mariners 3-2, but I wasn't particular about who won anyway. What was really great was our seat location - lower deck, ten rows back between home plate and third base (but closer to home). The former owner of our operations here has season tickets but never goes to the games so we got $45 seats for free. We were so close you could talk to the players in the on-deck circle, if you wanted to - and we had a good angle to call balls and strikes too. The weather was nice, and there was enough action on the field to keep your attention. It made for a late night, and I was groggy during my training today, but it was worth it.

General Updates

Here is the latest on our handful of slow-moving McAlpine news stories:

IT'S ROANOKE: Annie has committed to Roanoke College in Virginia and will enroll as a Freshman this fall. She had a very difficult time choosing between this and Ohio State. In the end it was the great scholarship Roanoke offered which tipped the balance. Next step - Annie and her bud Meghan are driving over on June 14 for "Spring Into Maroon" day, a pre-orientation for new students.

BUSINESS TRAVEL REDUX - SCOTT: I still work my slacker three-day schedule, but am traveling again with some frequency. In early April I visited two of our Florida locations with a videographer to shoot for a training video we are putting together. Last week I was in Kansas City helping with a behavioral training course we are trying out, and I fly out again today for more sessions this week. I have a pretty full slate of onsite safety reviews to do in the summer and fall, mostly in Kansas and Missouri, plus some other trips are bound to pop up. Two years ago I was pretty burned out from the road warrior thing, but now that I have had a break my upcoming travel schedule seems manageable.

LEE ANN DOES ROLEX: The Tack Trunk runs a vendor booth at the big Rolex horse event at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington every year, and this year Lee Ann got to work it. She spent three days there, returning home late last night. It was a pretty good time - the store put her up at a hotel, bought all her meals, and she found time to visit other vendors and even see some of the events. It's a good bet she will work again at the World Equestrian Games this fall, which lasts two weeks and is held at the same place.

LACROSSE FAN ALERT: Annie got her doctor's permission to play again as her mono has wound down. Her team has three games scheduled for this week, so hopefully she will see some playing time. Go Lady Warriors!

Upstairs Bathroom - New Paint

We have a bright new color scheme in the bathroom. Previously Lee Ann had painted this room in vertical blue and white stripes, which looked great, but we were ready for something different. I picked out this tangerine orange paint and we unboxed the shower curtain, rugs and other items Jana bought Annie for her bathroom at our last house. Here you see the result. I love it - Lee Ann and Annie are waiting for an excuse to repaint.

Little Veggie Garden - Planted

This weekend I weeded out the raised bed behind our Lebanon house and set in some plants. I have the traditional four peppers but cut back to two tomato plants. I have to keep telling myself how big they will get in this small space.

I still have some space at the near end for more plants. What will I put in next? Hmmmm.....

Annie Turns 18

Annie's senior year at Lebanon High School is winding down, and so is her childhood - she turned 18 on Monday. We had her birthday dinner on Sunday and her big surprise was Uncle Brian and Aunt Lorrie, who appeared as if by magic to help her celebrate. Here is our girl posing with Brian and showing off the dress she will wear to the prom next month. There is so much going on with her these days, and nearly all of it good. Happy Birthday Annie!!!!!!

The Diagnosis...

Now we know that Annie has been suffering from mono. The doctor called on Friday and told her not to play any contact sports for four weeks. Apparently mono inflames the spleen, which then is prone to bursting with life-threatening potential. What bad timing - this will keep Annie on the sidelines for almost the entire lacrosse season, which begins with a game on Tuesday.

Annie's coach has given her responsibility for coaching Sierra, the sophomore who will be playing in goal for the Warriors while Annie is out. On the bright side, being the goalie coach is something new for Annie to learn, and will keep her involved as a member of the team right through her layoff. But watching from the bench for the first 13 games still is a bitter pill for her to swallow.

Well - THAT Was Unpleasant

Apparently Google has taken over Blogspot, the original host for this blog. Nobody asked my permission. Instead, when I tried to log in one day in mid-March I was hit with a cheerful greeting from GoogleBlog, or whatever they are calling it now, and curt instructions that I now would need a Google account for access.

That rubbed me the wrong way, so I stopped even trying to post for a while. Then, when I resigned myself to compliance with the new requirements, I found that the re-registration process was not working - the system did not recognize my old password. More time went by.

Finally Annie asked why I was not posting and I told her my problem. She had it fixed in about eleven seconds, so now I am blogging again. But I'm not so happy about it. Stupid Google.

So here are the highlights from the past three weeks:

ANNIE IS SICK. She has the mother of all flu bugs and is suffering through day eleven of a shifting multiplicity of symptoms which have included severe body aches, a sinus infection and a week's worth of fever/chills. Her sole remaining complaint is an upset stomach and the accompanying vomiting. Two doctor's visits and three prescriptions have failed to give much relief - to her or the rest of us.

THE COLLEGE APPLICATION/ACCEPTANCE PROCESS IS DONE. Of seven schools, only one did not offer Annie admission. That was UCLA, which accepts few out-of-staters. But her real stretch was applying to Washington & Lee in Virginia, an elite school well beyond our means, and she got an acceptance from them last week.

YESTERDAY - NEWS OF THE BIG SCHOLARSHIP! Roanoke College (also in Virginia) hosted a competition on campus three weeks ago to select the winners of their large academic scholarship awards. Annie got the news by phone yesterday that Roanoke was awarding her a four year full-tuition scholarship. WooHoooooo! But she is waiting to get final offer letters from all six schools (the others are Ohio State, Miami (Ohio), Kent State, Earlham and Washington & Lee) before she decides which to attend, and should have those in hand by the end of next week.

DEVELOPING - Lacrosse season starts with three games next week. Lovely spring weather is here, allowing Lee Ann to start garden and landscape work. I untarped the tractor today at the Tower House and started 'er right up - mowing season looms. I painted the upstairs bath walls here at East Main a couple of weeks ago - a tangeriney color, not nearly as bad looking as you probably think - but now can switch to outside projects. Lee Ann has her project horse Nick in pretty rideable condition, and his training is progressing.

And that's the news.

We Know An Author!

My co-worker Eric's wife Rachael has written a book about her experiences as a breast cancer survivor. I preordered the book and was one of the first to receive a copy after the initial print run.

That was yesterday, and last night I stayed up late reading it. The verdict - really good! The subject is a serious one and there are plenty of low points described, but it is also surprisingly funny and warm. And there is a lot of practical advice on how to get through the maze of chemo, surgeries and doctor's visits from someone who has been there. $20. Order online at http://www.wheresmyboob.com/.

Nick - Getting Fatter!

Here's Nick, two months into his rehab program under Lee Ann's iron fist. As you can see, he looks a lot better. He is growing (currently 16.3 hands) and filling out (note that neck muscle!) but still has a ways to go.

Real Winter!

It continues to snow in Ohio. We are getting 4 to 6 inches today, then another one to three inches overnight. And there is another storm tracking toward us that may bring more snow at week's end. All this is on top of the snow from the last couple of weeks which, because of below-normal temperatures, still is on the ground.

This reminds me of winters in Michigan when I was growing up. And I'd really rather have snow in February than just dead grass to look at, that's for sure. But it has been too cold to work at the Tower House so I am feeling restless and unproductive - and ready for the weather to break.

At least I got a little breather a few weeks ago. I spent Feb 2 thru 5 in Houston for a work-related training event at my company's facility there. It was rainy and overcast a lot of the time, but temperatures got to the mid-sixties. And I may go to Florida in a few weeks. And then, it will be almost spring!

Annie now has been accepted for admission at five colleges, with two still pending. She has gotten merit aid offers from some of the schools, so we are getting some idea of cost, but probably won't have the whole picture until mid-April. The deadline for picking a school is May 1, so she has about two months left to pull all the facts together and decide.

And Now...The Greener Version

I finished painting the island cabinet. It is now the same green as our built-in kitchen cabinets around our sink. This project is done now, except for replacing the pulls. Lee Ann really likes it!

Kitchen Island - With Top

We still have some work to do, but this is the general arrangement...

Kitchen Island Top

Our little kitchen at East Main has never had a lot of counter space, and cabinet storage is minimal too. When I started disassembling the 1980s kitchen at the Tower House, I saw that the cabinets were nice solid wood and figured I could use them someplace else. Eventually I hit on the idea of building an island from a couple of the base cabinets.

But I needed a top for the island. Lee Ann and I kicked around several ideas for it. Then I saw a Craigslist ad for a guy that works in butcherblock. I called him and he agreed to build the top I needed - and here is an "in progress" photo he sent me yesterday. Looks pretty good! He uses alternating red oak and poplar, 1.5 inches thick. The base cabinets are already in place in our kitchen, and I hope to have the completed top set in place sometime this weekend. More pictures soon.