I usually don't go for sappy, sorry

Patrick Swayze died last night from pancreatic cancer. I know he made other movies but I remember him mostly from Ghost and Dirty Dancing.

A couple weeks before school started this fall we were in southwest Virginia for Dan's family reunion. As part of that trip we drove past Mountain Lake, the resort what was used for some of the exterior shots of Dirty Dancing.

At the time Dan suggested I write a post appealing to my women readers who all have that movie in their wheelhouse. He suggested I post pictures of the resort from the movie along with the ones I took that day. I hadn't gotten around to finding the "before" pictures but in light of Mr. Swayze's death, I'll post the two I have now.



This is the front exterior of Mountain Lake resort, complete with Kevin romping on the grounds.

This is the gazebo that used to be at the lake shore where Johnny and Baby were shown practicing the famous dance lift. Jennifer Gray was quoted this morning on the news about what a great guy he was and how cold the water was. The lake has been losing water for the past several years, though, the current level is as high as it is because of the winter melts and spring rains this year.

As it happened, Dirty Dancing was on TV a week or two later and Fern got to experience what every girl my age did back then, except this time I knew all the words to all the songs. She thought it was lame. I guess teenagers nowadays don't go for nice stories with hunky guys?

Rest in peace, Patrick Swayze.

Therapy

I woke up from a nap on Saturday afternoon to a husband who had just seen an episode of Hoarders on A&E. "You're not as bad as those people, but still!" Sheesh. I wake up and suddenly I'm in the wrong. Well, OK, I already had been in the wrong, but now I was in the spotlight for it. And right after a good nap, too.

I can't really complain about my husband because he's right, I have too much stuff, but I'm more of a pack-rat than a hoarder. I have to work up to being able to let something go. It's easier to just keep it than go through separation anxiety. I can usually let it go in the end, I just can't get rid of it without a bit of grieving first. I have to have a mini-therapy session and counsel myself "...it's OK... I haven't used it in years... I can buy another if I really need it... it doesn't bring me joy...."

Sometimes the "I-still-want-to-use-that-one-day" feelings surface when I find something I don't need but still want. Self-counseling is trickier in those cases.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were productive. My sewing room got a kick in the pants and I was able to get a lot done. I cleaned out a box of general crafty supplies without any heartache. I finished all my Girl Scout badge sewing jobs, ALL! Then I started to clean up one of my work tables and found another GS vest that needed work. Sheesh, I wonder how long it had been there? It wasn't with the others and the mom never called to check on its status. Oh well, it got done, too. I even got my sewing table cleaned off to the point where I was able to actually quilt for the first time in six months. I had Dan take this of me to prove it:

I'm trying out those blue quilting gloves for the first time. They have little grippy nubbins on the palms so you can control the quilt without having to grip the fabric to death. I can't believe how much easier they make machine quilting! Why did it take me so long to listen to my fellow quilters about them? I should show my progress to my quilt bee tonight, however:

My ceramics instructor called me on Friday to encourage me to sign up for another class session. Evidently, they want to get enough students in each section so they don't have to cancel any classes. I talked to Dan about me taking one more class and which night of the week is best. Monday night is the winner, so I'll be back to the studio tonight.

For this session my goal will be to get everything finished by the end, perfect or not, so I don't have any unfinished work and I can make a clean break from ceramics. Ha ha, that's funny: clean break from clay! OK, never mind. The problem is the mandatory lab fee is for a package of 25 pounds of clay. Do you know how hard it is to go through that much clay when you're still struggling to make decent pieces? I go into each class with the mindset of "practice" and not worry about perfection, but more than half of my pieces end up as a crucible-sized vessel or in complete ruin: a mangled lump showing no signs it was ever almost a coffee mug or bowl. When that happens I can re-wedge the clay and try again. However, I'm not using up the 25 pounds very fast that way. This session will be different, just practice.... This session will be different, just practice.... This session will be different, just practice....


And now I will finish this post with a complete nonsequitur: who came first (without the help of IMDB!) Wayne & Garth or Bill & Ted?

The Puzzle is Together.

There are three missing pieces. I hate that. I was so careful, checking my elbows and everything.


 

Puzzle Progress

I know you all are dying to know how this puzzle is coming along. I'm tired of it, tired of getting distracted by it, anyone want to help put the last bit together?

 

Photos from the Weekend

Abstract: Fern skating



Humpback Rocks, Blue Ridge Parkway, Va



The puzzle is coming along
It looked like this last week.

A Screw Loose

A week ago Thursday was my last ceramics class of the summer. I really love doing ceramics even though I'm not that good at it yet. There's just something about playing in clay that is satisfying on a visceral level. I want to take another class but I need to study the family schedule first to see if it'll fit in. I have a lot of unfinished pieces from the summer class I want to get done before I call it quits and move on to another hobby/activity.

So, last week at 10:00 pm my cell phone rings, my hands are dirty because I'm trying to finish cleaning up after myself in the studio. Fern is on the other end of the line, very distressed. Very. I'm trying to clean up, I'm trying to calm her down, I'm trying to hold the phone without rendering it unusable from the clay on my fingers. "Something bad has happened."

She is so distraught on the phone, wild thoughts are swirling and I can't help but think the worst: someone is dead, but because she's so distraught, it takes her, what seems like forever, to get the story out. No one is dead. No one is hurt. The computer is broken, she and Kevin were fighting over it.

Evidently, she moved the laptop to the other room so she could hook it up to the printer, but Kevin didn't think it belonged in the other room. He's very OCD like that. He'll get very upset when things are moved to places they don't belong, sometimes he'll be upset enough to become really agitated.

I've learned to bargain with Kevin, I'll explain thing needs to get moved here because reason and he can help me put it back when I'm done. That usually works, he sees an end to the discomfort of change and I've engaged him to help and staved off any aggression. Fern hasn't learned these tricks yet. Maybe this incident will help keep this trick in mind should she need it again.

So now we have a broken laptop. It turns out it's just a broken screen. Dan found a company that sells replacement screens and will even install it for you for $50. When we got our first Mac iBook, the memory upgrade was shipped separately and came with instructions for installation. I've seen the inside of laptops before, I was not afraid.

I took apart the laptop to get to the part number on the back of the broken screen, (I took out 12 minuscule screws to get there!) and ordered a replacement for $109 + shipping. It arrived yesterday and it didn't take me long to get the new one installed. It was quite easy and everything went back together nicely. Except, I had two screws left over. The laptop booted up so I'm not going to worry about it.





PS, I took pictures of the fix, but the camera battery died so you'll get them later.

Puzzling Randomness

The low-pressure-in-my-tires indicator light came on Tuesday on my way to work. I was ticked. I hate when dashboard lights come on. It was not paradise. It had only been 2000 miles since I had service done which I believe included a tire rotation, which means they should have checked the pressures in the process, but didn't. But then I recalled this happened last year when the nights got cooler, cold air==low air pressure. Monday night the low was in the 50's which explains the warning light on Tuesday. I added air and the light is off now.

My daughter bought a Lost puzzle at the Five-Below store over the weekend. She loves Lost. So do I, and I love puzzles too, but I wouldn't have bought a THOUSAND piece puzzle. She is not an experienced puzzle buyer, and didn't notice the picture on the box only shows a small part of the whole thing. Since then, she's declared she's no good at puzzles and now I'm the one glued to the table every night working on this darn thing, just one more piece, then I'll go to bed. I can see the TV from the puzzle table so at least I'm getting something done. Here's the current state of things:


Maybe I'll do a google search to find pictures of the completed puzzle so I know what the goal is.

Glee premiered on Fox last night. It's good, better than I thought it was going to be, hard not to sing along. Might have to add that to my DVR list. Good to watch while working on a puzzle.

Castle and Big Bang Theory should premier soon, I love those shows. More good things to watch while working on a puzzle.

There's stuff on the written on the back of each of the puzzles in glow-in-the-dark ink that fits all together. Maybe I'll need to find the other three puzzles .... maybe not.

The tree guy is coming tonight. They want to take down a bunch of trees in our backyard because they interfere with the power lines. They'll give us money to replace them with shorter varieties. Is it too late to get some crepe myrtles planted? I know it's not too late to plant trees, is it too late to find decent nursery stock?

I think I need a coke.

Weekend

My weekend went great until I stopped doing things on my to-do list.

Saturday I bought and installed blinds in my daughter's room. She has curtains in there already, but needed the blinds, too. I got 2" blinds in a coffee color; they look like elegant wood.

I bought new blinds for the hall bathroom, but didn't get them installed.

I wanted to get a timer for Kevin's room but couldn't find an adequate one at Target, either it was too fancy or took up too much space on the socket and you couldn't plug in anything else. Kevin will sometimes fall asleep with the light on, wake up later, and be up for hours. He doesn't know he's supposed to turn off the light and go back to sleep and not to wake up anyone else. I want a timer to turn off his light for him to try to curb this.

I wanted to get the patches sewn on the next Girl Scout vest I need to work on. It's a catch-up vest where the mom brought me two years worth of stuff to sew on and it won't fit. She bought a sash to sew around the bottom to add more space, but I can't get motivated to get it done.

I've started keeping a ledger of the vests I have to work on, when they arrive and when I'm done with them. I got a bunch, 10 or 12, to work on this summer and I would often forget which I've had the longest and which I should wait to do. The ledger is helping with that, but I still have a backlog of about five to get done. The nice thing is it's time for these moms to start renewing their plan so I've got a little bit of cash in my pocket.

I did get to play golf with Dan twice over the weekend, once Saturday evening and once Sunday morning also with Mark and CG. I didn't do too badly, my short game is getting better, but I still need to get some distance on my fairway shots.

Surfing

Have you ever been channel surfing and it always seems like the same thing is always on the same channel? Like TNT is really the "Law and Order" channel and BBCAmerica is really the "Gordon Ramsay" channel. What else? How would you rename the channels? Yeah, OK, there's always news on CNN, but that doesn't count.

College Prep

Tuesday in Fern's Algebra2/trig class she had to take a placement test. Huh? Wouldn't they already know which class the kids should be in? Didn't they do that last year at scheduling time? Apparently not. Yesterday she messaged me, results are in and she's been moved up to the top level class with an American, English-speaking teacher. That was one of my biggest worries about this school year for her, getting a teacher she couldn't understand and not doing well as a result. The subject is hard enough as it is.

Class requirement: a graphing calculator. They will be teaching the class to the TI-83 and although other models & brands are acceptable, the student is responsible for learning how to use it on their own. The TI-83s retail for about $150, though the warehouse stores have them for $100. I found many on eBay and tried to bid on one which had about 12 minutes left to go.

It had been so long since I'd bought anything on eBay, I'd forgotten my password. So I had to reset it. They don't let you change it to anything it's been before. Which just makes it easier to forget in the first place. And harder to reset. I had to keep trying new passwords until I didn't get the "you've already used this one" message. Finally, after ten minutes, I get logged in, and placed a bid.

The eBay interface has really changed since I was on last. Now they have a active count-down clock, you don't have to keep reloading the page to see how much time is left. The number of bids and the current price also automatically updates so you can watch your cushy bid margin dwindle away to pennies before you actually win.

I hate bidders who bid $xx.01 on something. Really? Why'd ya have to do that? Now that makes my winning bid $47.01. Where's the take-a-penny leave-a-penny cup when you need it? Sheesh. This isn't The Price is Right. Well, ok, maybe it kinda is. But still!

Hopefully the seller will send it ASAP so The Girl won't be behind in class by too much. Not a good way to be the first week of school.

Wonder what else I need on eBay?


 

Waiting Room

I'm sitting in the waiting room at my son's pediatric dentist's office. He's getting his newly erupted molars filled and sealed. Last time we had this done, it was done as an out-patient at the hospital because he had to be sedated. This time it's just a mild sedative and nitrous oxide.

The dentist's office is next door to a Nite-time pediatrics office with free Wi-Fi so I'm able to get some work done while I wait. I've been here since 10:00 am, it's 12:40 now. Except for the fact the free WiFi blocks some web sites with certain web content. Not unusual, but number one being government sites. Can you believe it? I can't log in to the work web sites. Really? Governments sites blocked! So I'm on telework status but can't check my email. Sheesh.

Then I take a break to blog. Except Blogger is blocked. I can get to my specific blog, just can't get to the write a new post. Really? I wonder if porn sites are accessible? Then I remember I can email a post to blogger, problem solved.

They gave him his sedative earlier and Kevin now is back in the treatment room with under the influence of N₂O₂ and doing fine. So fine, in fact, he doesn't want me back there. I sneak peeks to check on him every couple minutes. After a check a while ago I realized I was hungry. Oh, for some candy or gum. Oh, yeah, this is a dentist's office.

There is a McD's next door. I check on Kevin again and let the staff know where I'm going.

The customers were lined up only one-deep at the counter, even though the drive through line is very long. "Can I help the next customer?" barked a gravelly older woman at the end of the counter, who clearly did not want to be there today. In my bubbliest voice I said, "Hi, how are you today? Can I have a number one, please." Medium or large? "Medium." Here or to go? "To go, please." She had started smiling a bit then, then became crestfallen. Oh. The nice ones always have it to go. I'm glad I could make her day a little better.

Now I'm back in the waiting room, Kevin is still doing well. It looks like they've finished drilling and are putting the sealant on the teeth.

They are done, and I just got the post-op information form. Kevin is eating the rest of my fries and slurping down my coke. Sheesh.

The boy is unphased, and I will recover, too, I'm sure.

Buying In

It took me a long time to learn this, and I'm almost embarrassed to admit it took even longer to put it into practice.

When Kevin runs out of deodorant he'll use what ever he finds in the bathroom (mine). He'll latch on to it so it becomes his and it doesn't matter where I hide it, he'll find it. It didn't matter if I got him a new stick, mine was his. Then I got the bright idea to have him with me when I bought him more. And it worked. He helped me pick out a 4-pack at the warehouse store and my deodorant is now cootie free.

It's so much easier for me to shop without him, he tends to have his own agenda in stores, but it's so much easier to get him to buy-in to a purchase when he's there. A while back he took my phone and took 60 pictures with it. I decided he needed his own camera. I took him to Walmart to pick one out, but he wondered off to toys to browse. I got a low-end Kodak camera without his approval and he won't use it.

So now, I'm learning. Or remembering, as the case may be.

I took the kids out Friday with stops at Old Navy and to get new shoes for Fern. Kevin lounged on the hassocks while she shopped for shoes. I saw a pair of brown Chucks in his size on the sale rack and remembered to get him involved in the purchase so he'd take ownership of the new shoes. Which he did. He picked out some shirts at ON too and was wearing one before the night was through.

He likes crew-height socks, which, in my opinion are not quite as fashion-forward as anklets when worn with shorts. I've tried to get him to wear some of his dad's with no success. So yesterday I had him help me pick out some new low-cut socks. He completely accepted them.

Kevin went off to the first day of school today wearing his new shoes, by choice, and I have high hopes for the socks next time he's in short pants.



 

time, flies, and bananas

The afternoon goes by much too slowly when the battery is dying in your desk clock.

Jus' sayin'.


 

Quick Weekend Roundup

Kevin doesn't have day camp this week, therefore Dan and I are splitting the workdays this week; school starts next Monday so I might be back on a "normal" blogging schedule then, if I ever was on a normal blogging schedule.

This past weekend we went to Dan's family reunion down near Blacksburg, VA at Claytor Lake. Sunday the four of us hiked up to the Cascades. It was two miles each way and I am so bummed I didn't have my "walkometer" with me to record the hike's distance and elevation. I took pictures instead:








 

Randomness

Eight days until the premier of Project Runway on the Lifetime channel. Wonder if my DVR will find it?

I'm collecting MyCokeRewards points, those codes on the inside of bottle tops and cartons. If you're not collecting them yourself but are a coke (or related product) drinker, email or text me your codes. I'd appreciate it. It's like collecting S&H green stamps, remember those?, except I don't have to paste them into booklets before cashing them in. I'm saving up for a shiny new mixer. No, wait, that was for the green stamps.

I've volunteered to bring in bagels to the office tomorrow so I had the secretary take everyone's order so I don't have to stand there in the morning trying to decide which ones to order.

I'm in need of a large table or clean floor so I can finally baste my mother's quilt. I can't find a 9 x 9 foot table. The tables in our conference rooms are 5' x 10' but there are too many people around and I'd need to drag in tables from another room to make it big enough and there are too many people around.

I'm still so far behind with girl scout badge sewing, probably about eight or ten vests in the queue. This summer has been full of activities and when I do have evenings at home, there is Top Chef Masters and Better Off Ted to watch.

The fabric shop where I bought my sewing machine is closing at the end of September. The repair guy there has a fabulous reputation, I'd like my machine to have its annual cleaning before he's gone. I called Monday about machine service. At that time, there was a line of 35 machines waiting for service, they would stop taking machines on Saturday. I asked if there was a waiting list so I can bring it in when it's my turn. No. Fabric is 40% off though, might need to visit the shop anyway.

School starts in a week and a half. Both kids will be out of the house by 7:30. Unless buses are missed. I'm not sure about the stress levels of getting two teenagers up and out at the same time. Which saint covers things like that? Probably St. Jude.

I learned about remote-controlled golf carts yesterday. I want one. Look here and here for examples. Of course I really don't need one, but wouldn't they be fun? But why stop there, I could go to the grocery and Fern could drive this to school. If I let her.

I think I need a snack. And maybe a coke.


 

On Being Thankful

Eunice Kennedy Shriver died this morning at 2am. She created (right here in Maryland!) the Special Olympics for which I am thankful. Kevin enjoys the programs very much and I enjoy watching him doing his thing and appreciate the giving nature of all volunteers involved.

The athlete's pledge, "Let me win. If I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt," makes me misty-eyed.

What touches you?


 

Sorry I haven't been blogging much. Last week was vacation, this week it's been work. We have a ticket system now where the testers will find something wrong and put in a ticket to get it fixed. The tester started testing my survey while I was away so I came back to about 15 tickets to attend to on Monday. Some were easy and got fixed fast, some more complicated opening up a whole can of worms and are still not completely resolved. But now I finally have a few minutes to blog before the next thing comes along.

---

Vacation was nice, we spent a week in south Myrtle beach, Surfside Beach, to be exact. I attended a two-day golf school Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. There's just so much to learn, or re-learn as the case may be. The school makes a individualized CD of your lessons so you can remember things and practice them after you go home. Check out Ritson-Sole golf school.

We arrived at our rental on Saturday, a cute little 3-bedroom house up on stilts with a carpark underneath. Sunday we spent at the beach and I got burnt where I missed with the sun screen at the edge of my bathing suit. Grrr. Monday Dan golfed while I took the kids up to Wilmington to pick up Fern's friend who was spending the rest of the week with us. Fern's so much easier to entertain when she has a friend along. Anyway, Dan calls me from the golf course. He thinks his camera was stolen out of the car. His work badge was not were he left it, which had been on top of the camera in the central console. Grrr.

The rental house did not have internet. Grrr. Tuesday Dan went out to a Dunkin Donuts with free WiFi to surf the web for a while. He came back with a newspaper someone had abandoned. There on the front page of the community section was an article about how the Surfside Beach police arrested five persons for breaking into cars, estimated 30-50 cars, on Sunday night. Really now? I just knew that's were our camera had gone, Dan was skeptical. He feared it would look like I was just "shopping" if I just went there looking for a camera we hadn't reported missing.

Later that afternoon I took the kids out to the dollar store and Walmart for sundries and swung by the police station on the way home. I told them our camera was missing, and yes, the car had been unlocked, shame on us. The girls wanted to go in with me, experience the whole police station thing, so we were escorted back to the room where they had the collection of the stolen property.
"What kind of camera was it ma'am?"
"A reddish-maroon little Nikon."
"Like this?" as he pulls out a camera fitting my description.
"Yes, exactly like this," I said. I turned it on and reviewed the pictures in the memory. "Hey, there are your pants you painted," I said to Fern, and "There I am golfing." The officer in charge of the property looked at the image of me and had me sign the form stating our property was returned to us.

We were escorted back out to the lobby where I had to fill out a report of the incident. I texted Dan: "At police station, got camera." He texted back "Wow!!" Oh ye of little faith.

The rest of the week was pretty tame. Thursday Dan golfed and I took the kids to Le Grand Cirque, which is a cheaper version of a Cirque du Soleil. Friday I golfed and Dan took the kids to the water park.

Dan got a 15 minute head start on the drive home on Saturday, and went to I-95 via Wilmington and I-40. I went to I-95 via US-701 & US-421. When we were both on 95, he was about 30 miles ahead of me and his lead grew even more when I had to stop for gas and lunch. I was not going to win the race home, not that we were speeding or anything. At Richmond I took the 295 beltway, then US-301 to Bowie, he stuck with I-95. I beat him home by 30 minutes. Yay me.

Now it's back to the real world, and there are two more weeks until school starts.


 

I'm back from vacation.

I'm trying to tame the laundry beast.

659 new email messages were waiting for me at work.

My back hurts.

I haven't been sleeping well.

How are you?


 

What the heck?

Putty in My Hands?

I've been taking the summer session of ceramics on Thursday evenings. Last night I took my camera with me and did another time-lapse movie. This movie is a frame taken every 30 seconds for almost 3 hours. My goal this summer was to make a small teapot, but at my current rate of success, my goal really should be to make a lidded vessel and worry about handles and spouts later.



If you're reading this via the FaceBook feed and you can't see the video, it's posted on my blog, you can watch it and comment there.

It's OK, I'm with the Band

I drove out to Barboursville, West Virginia this past weekend for a 30 year high school reunion even though I didn't graduate from there. The kids had things going on, Fern had to get to the airport to fly to North Carolina and Kevin had swim lessons, so Dan covered them and I drove out alone.

(Dad worked for the Army Corp and we moved several times, so I attended a bunch of schools:
Davis Creek Elementary: 1st grade
Sukuran Elementary, Okinawa: 2nd and part of 3rd
Davis Creek: part of 3rd
Pea Ridge Elementary: the rest of 3rd through 6th
Barboursville Junior High: 7th-9th
Barboursville High School: part of 10th
James Wood High School, Winchester, VA: rest of 10th-12th)

I started band when I was in 6th grade and stuck with it until after high school. The whole band experience created great opportunities, wonderful friends and lifelong memories. It's unifying, no segregation by gender or athletic ability. We went to band camp together, football games, shows, competitions, exchange trips. By the time it was all said and done, you spent a huge hunk of your life during those seven years with your band mates. Like living in the Sousa House at Hogwarts.

Dan asked me whom I wanted to see at this reunion, why was I bothering to go, since I actually didn't finish school there. My answer: the band kids. I guess if you're not part of a group like that, you don't get it, you don't get the camaraderie.

It's not just me, either. The other band folks enjoy seeing each other too. It turns out there always seems to be a solid core of the band who show up at the reunions. One of my fellow flute players complemented me, although I'm not sure she knew she had. She told me she remembered I always had a pretty high-up chair, I was always pretty good. I had forgotten that and I appreciated her mentioning that. I remembered not being first chair or even second chair, so of course in my mind I remembered failure. Now I see it wasn't.

I'm amazed how time alters our memories, like how good of a musician I was. But in addition to that, my memories of the town of Barboursville, my neighborhoods, school buildings don't match reality. Since we moved away from there during my sophomore year, I never drove there, I didn't go out there. All my memories of those places are visual, how they looked, the landmarks where you turned to get places. I never learned the names of the streets.

I drove around to see the sights, where the schools were, to the houses I lived in, and the shops I went to. I didn't know how small my street was at the time, it seemed spacious where us kids played hide and seek and kick the can. It is really barely wider than one car. I drove around to all four schools and was disappointed. Many years ago they closed the high school and turned it into a middle school, and they razed the junior high and made it into a park. One elementary is boarded up, the other is the only one still open.

I had a great time reviving memories and friendships. And with Facebook it's easier to keep in touch than it used to be.

And now for some pictures:

233 Daughtery Drive. This is the first house we lived in in West Virginia. My bedroom was the window up on the left. Those trees weren't nearly as big back then. I think my folks bought this house for about $23,000.

Davis Creek Elementary, the only one of my four schools still open.

6159 Rosalind Court. We moved in here in the middle of my third grade when we came back from Okinawa. It was white back then and had a covered front porch, and no cutesy picket fence.

Pea Ridge Elementary School, what's left of it.

Main Street Barboursville. Looks pretty much the same as it did when I was at the junior high was across the street.

This is all that's left of the junior high, these steps go up to the park now.


The library is still blue.

Camden Park is still there. Barboursville is on the east end of Huntington. Dad's office was in Huntington, my orthodontist was in Huntington to which I'd ride the city bus. On the west end of town was the amusement park. We didn't go very often so it was a treat when we did go. It took several visits over several years to work up the courage to ride the big roller coaster. Looking at it now, it's just a rinky-dink old wooden coaster, nothing to be afraid of. But that's all part of that altered-perspective-of-youth thing.

When I went down town for my ortho appointments I'd often stop in the peanut shop afterward for a quarter pound of roasted pumpkin seeds, my favorite. Nice to see the shop is still there and open.

Here are some of kids from band. I guess we're all adult now, huh? Or pretend to be, anyway.