ANNUAL WINE TASTING PARTY

Tuesday, July 12 - Marsha had her 5^th Annual Wine Tasting Party Saturday, July 2. It was another smashing success. Carrie was in town from Houston for the 4^th of July weekend. We sure enjoyed having her here for the wine party. We had many returning judges from previous years.

We started with a few games to work up a thirst and an appetite. We enjoyed several hours of cornhole, bocce ball, and the annual running race while the judges arrived. This year we divided into two groups…those 50 and under and the geriatric group. The younger group ran around the entire house… Jake was the big winner. The geriatric group ran in a straight line about 60 feet…lol Marsha’s brother, Rod, won, but Marsha wants everyone to know she came in second. What a speed demon.

The young ones getting ready for the race.

Marsha’s hair is flying, she is going to fast.

Paul was a far third.

Of course, what's a party without food. Everyone enjoyed tons of food prepared by Marsha, Kelly, and Carrie. Many of the tasters brought their favorite dishes to add to a overflowing food table. No one was going home hungry!

Once everyone was fed, it was time to get down to business. Dave, our son-in-law, again filled the role of wine guy announcer, sommelier,  and did a spectacular job.

We had 5 white wines and 6 red wines to judge. We chose the winner of the “white division” and one for the “red division.” We then had a final taste off. The 2014 Nouveau, a red, by August Hill Winery won the show. We notice many of the tasters are beginning to prefer the dryer wines. Does this mean their pallets are becoming more refined?

After the tasting, we enjoyed many more hours of visiting with friends and playing games. It was another great party, Marsha!  Now to begin searching for the next winner during our winter RV travels.

While Carrie was in town, and the weather was super, we took some new family photos. The last time we had a professional. This time we thought we would take our own photos. Nearly all the photos came out great. These are our favorites. What do you think?

Regular readers of our blog may remember that Paul had knee surgery in Houston this past February. Well the surgery did not solve the knee problem. Paul consulted the doctor that replaced his hip once we arrived in Canton, Dr. Lykins reported that Paul’s knee is one of the worst he has ever seen. So, Tuesday, July 19, Paul will have total knee replacement. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

THE DROUGHT IS OVER: CAVALIERS NBA CHAMPS!

Monday, June 20 – Yes, it is true. We lived long enough to see one of the Cleveland teams win a championship!

No team in 32 tries had ever come all the way back from being down 3-1 to win the NBA Finals. The Cleveland Cavaliers completed the unimaginable on Sunday night, a 93-89 Game 7 victory over the Golden State Warriors to win the franchise's first NBA championship. The Cavaliers are only the fourth team in history to win Game 7 of The Finals away from home. A game for the ages!

LeBron James flies over Seth Curry.

LeBron James was unanimously named the MVP of the NBA Finals.

A parade will be held on Wednesday. Cleveland will be celebrating for years and years to come. The curse is over!!!

By the way, Marsha wants everyone to know that HER Cleveland Indians are in first place. Go Tribe!

Besides watching basketball and baseball, Marsha is enjoying reconnecting with old friends and catching up on their lives. She has also spent some days volunteering at the church and working on her hobbies. She has joined the quilting group at the church. They make quilts to send to Lutheran World Relief.

She also is tying blankets to send to a church in West Virginia. Our church does a mission trip to Webster Springs each summer. The ladies are making blankets to send to the community at Christmas time.

She is still crocheting plastic mats for the homeless and making baskets and giving them away. Paul actually talked her into keeping her latest creation.

If that isn’t enough, she has another new hobby – Pleachet. This is a very unusually hobby. This is a crochet type hobby involving wool to make hot pads, trivets, or rugs. She really enjoys this hobby but has found it difficult to find 100% wool to use. This is required so the heat from the hot pan or dish does not catch the pad on fire! She makes visits to Goodwill and the Salvation Army stores. She buys skirts and jackets, tears them apart, cuts them into strips and then finally begins her next project.

Paul is trying to figure out where to add on to the 5^th wheel so she can carry all these hobbies this winter. :-)

Her first one. She said she has learned so much from her mistakes.

This is the first update of our June activities. We will do another one later in the week.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

 

GOINGS ON AT THE WEAVER’S SUMMER HOME

Sunday, May 15 - All is well here in Canton, Ohio. We've been here a month and have been pretty busy working around the house, enjoying our hobbies, and watching spring arrive here in Ohio.

Speaking of Spring, it is so pretty here in Ohio during the Spring.

Apple trees in full bloom.

Grape blooms making an appearance.

Even Bella is enjoying the outdoors.

Paul enjoys mowing grass, but with his arthritic knee it has become quite a pain. To overcome this he decided to buy a new riding mower. Didn't he once say, “Never again!” Ha Ha! He's really enjoyed zooming around doing the mowing. A little over-kill on our small lot but this getting old thing needs to be dealt with. :-)

During our full-timing years, Paul missed mowing the grass and having a workshop. He's using that workshop to do some improving to our summer home here in Canton. We returned to Ohio a little early so he could replace the soffit and fascia on the house before Marsha's flowers poked up during the spring. Wouldn't want to step all over them and ruin some of her previous year’s hard work. The previous owners were pretty sloppy do-it-yourselfers. Last summer, we replaced most of the vinyl siding so next on the list was the soffit and fascia. That only took a couple days so Paul moved on to a bigger project.

He is building a second bathroom down the basement. This is a common home improvement in our neighborhood of small bungalows. He's in the thick of it now having just finished installing all the underground and under the cement waste lines. That was hard work!

Before construction.

No way could he could have done any of the underground plumbing without a little help.

See the big pile of dirt in the next photo. We had two of those piles. Any dirt, rock or cement that didn’t go back in the hole as fill, we had to carry upstairs. We made tons and tons of trips up the steps and outside carrying two buckets at a time. We really are too old for this!

Installing a sump/grinder in order to “up flush” sewage waste.

It passed the test run….it works!

He now moves on to the “enjoyable” part of the work – building the walls. He's in no hurry to finish....he doesn't want to finish too early and spend the summer sitting around.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!