Turkey Day this month! Mmmmm!
The 11th is Veteran's day!! It's Luigi & Maria's anniversary on the 2nd! Davide Esposito's birthday on the 3rd. Barry's Dad's birthday is the 23rd. He would have been 85 years old (he died 27 May 1984)! Our good friend Bruno Calo was also born on the 23rd! And the 28th would have been the 67th anniversary for Barry's mother and father!
Monday - 02 November - Kinda cool down here today. Was supposed to be in the mid 60's but it feels more than 50's. The son of a friend of my brother Mike received an invitation to the National Youth Leaders Forum on National Security in the Spring 2010 and needed some info on the program. I did find the web site for it (www.nylf.org/ns) and recognized several of the people associated with the program. The kids will visit the State Department and NSA, among many other places. It's a good deal for a kid who wants to get a great introduction to the various U.S. government agencies and maybe find out thats/he wants to work there after college.
Tuesday - 03 November - I plugged in the D-Link 802.11G wireless adapter that Chuck gave me and was able to hook up my new Dell laptop to our wireless network. I also just bought a PC/PCMCIA wireless card for the laptop a few minutes ago (811b/g 54MBs) for $8.98 and a wireless mouse too. I'm going to go out in the yard now and transplant some zebra grass, a rose bush and nine crepe myrtle bushes. Last month, sometime, I brought in all of my hibiscus plants and stored them on our porch. They're in pots, and the enclosed porch should be warm enough to protect them over the winter.
Thursday - 05 November - I have to have some serious dental surgery done. Went to the surgeon today for a "consultation". Surgery set for 19 November. Oh well. We haven't been to our favorite italian restaurant, Nico's, in months so karen & Chuck met us there for yet another great meal. Rob, the owner, told us that he is moving to a new location in Pawley's island, about 8 miles further south.
Saturday - 07 November - Our community sponsored another yard sale this morning. Anyone who wants to particpate just brings their junk out to their driveway and buyers crusie around the neighborhoods, stopping when something interests them. Dale and I cleaned out a large amount of "stuff" in the attic area over the garage, and some furniture that we didn't want anymore, and put it out for sale. Made about $80 or so, and gained a lot of "space" in the attic and house! In fact we cleared out so much space in the attic that I can now cut a new hole in the garage ceiling and install our attic pull-down stairs there. The current location is too close to the washer and dryer. This evening we met Karen & Chuck at Broadway at the Beach. They were having a free concert by the Irish Tenors, and lighting the Christmas Tree. Hundreds of people showed up. Crowded!
Sunday - 08 November - Dale noticed that our 80 gallon water heater in the garage was leaking a bit. It was installed back in 1986 or so. I went to Lowes and got a replacement. Had to dig out my plumbing equipment (blow torch, flux, etc) to connect new 3/4" copper pipes. Haven't done that in years but everything works fine and no leaks!
Monday-Wednesday - 09-11 November - Cut the new hole for the garage attic access (pulldown stairs). When I moved the washer and dryer to the garage last year the pull-down stairs kept hitting the washer. I used 30-40' of 2x6 boards to frame the new access hole and plug up the old hole. I've installed the insulation and sheetrock and will use joint compound and a sponge to cover the sheetrock with a pattern that matches the existing ceiling.
Thursday - 12 November -
It's been raining hard here for the past two days (remnants of Ida). Started to fill in the ceiling around the new attic pull-down stairs with joint compound. I started another project that Dale's wanted me to do for at least a year: I removed glass sliding doors that separate one of the guest bedrooms from the Sunroom. We've had it "blocked off" with a heavy bedspread and now I'll build a wall there. Took the glass sliding doors and the aluminum frame to the local recycling center and got four sheets of gypsum/sheetrock from Lowes. Dale's bike tires have leaked for the past year so I got some green slime and filled both tires with it. Seems to be holding air now so she can ride it for exercise when she wants.
Friday-Monday - 13-16 November - Framed the new wall, inserted insulation and installed the sheetrock. Started the joint compound on the 16th and continued to compound the attic ceiling too (I've been waiting for the previous coat to dry).
Tuesday - 17 November - I figured that I might as well do the job right, and I ripped out the old sheetrock and pressboard that formed walls under the windows in Dale's Sunroom. Every winter that room is very cold so I figured that when they built it they didn't use insulation. Sure enough! No insulation! Took the old stuff to the recycling center, stopped off at Lowes and bought the insulation rolls. Installed it tonight.
Wednesday - 18 November - Got an E-mail from Dot saying that she and Courtney had met an Evelyn Crotty who lived in Somerville, MA. She's looking for information about her Crotty family too and we may all be related, especially since she lives in Somerville where my Great-grandparents lived. I've e-mailed her with a lot of info and expectto hear back soon. Still in the low 70s down here although 40/50s at night. Trees still have most of their leaves and I just planted a bunch of flowers in our hanging baskets out front.
Thursday - 19 November - I had major dental surgery today. The pins holding my front caps can't sustain the pressure any more (the underlying teeth have cracked). Am very glad to say that I didn't experience much pain at all, during or after the surgery. Might have to end up with expensive, screw-in implants in the future but will wear a temporary bridge at least until everything heals up. Dale is scheduled for surgery on 01 December. It's tough growing old :-)
Friday - 20 November - Dale bought a DVD Recorder a couple of days ago and today I hooked it up to our cable box/DVR. Now we use the cable box/DVR to initially record a TV program or movie to its 80GB hard drive. If we decide that we want a permanent copy, we replay the movie and copy it to our own recorder on a DVD+R/DVD+RW disc. We can also skip over the commercials/ads ! It works great, and we have it set up just in time to put some of the TV Christmas movies on DVDs!
Sunday - 22 November - I played around with the guestbook programs that Chuck created for my web site. Linked everything to my main menu and we're now ready for people touse the guestbook! Tonight we went to see the movie "2012"! Fantastic graphics! I've never seen anyuthing like it! Excellent!
Monday - 23 November - Dale got a new haircut! She looks 20 years younger. It's a style that she used to wear but for some reason we couldn't find a picture. When she went to the salon they just couldn't match the description. Anyway, last month I found a model's picture in the newspaper/magazine and she kept it as an example for the hairdresser. This time Dale used Karen's hairdresser and the woman took one look at the picture and was able to duplicate the style with ease! Looks great!
Tuesday - 2 November - I am now off to Lowes to pick up some sheetrock for the Sunroom. I have some 3/8 sheetrock that I picked up as remants on sale last year, but decided to throw that stuff away and get new 1/2 inch stuff.
Wednesday - 25 November - I've been working in the Sunroom. Added a new electrical outlet and rewired the locations for the TV cable, adding another box so we'll have flexibility in the future if Dale wants to change the location of the TV. I decided to caulk every little crevice, crack and hole I could find, both inside the room and outside, to eliminate as many winter drafts as possible. Got tired of working the "same project" so decided to start another one :-) I spent today moving three desks and computers around in my office. Am getting rid of a large couch (Goodwill) -- that will make the room look MUCH larger, and now that I have repositioned the desks and computers I can run three computers at the same time :-)
Thursday - 26 November - Happy Thanksgiving Day! Chuck's parents are in town and we're all invited to Thanksgiving dinner at Teri & Rick Baum's house in Conway. We met up with Chuck, Karen, Charlie & Pat at the local Food Lion parking lot and drove to Conway. Teri and Rick had other friends there that they had met in Germany many years ago. TOne of them is a retired German Air Force Colonel. Another friend is in the Navy Reserves and was currently on active duty at no other place than NSA, Ft. Meade (what a small world)! We all had a great time (and we're STUFFED)!
Friday - 27 November - Dale, Karen and Pat (Chuck's mother) went to see the new vampire movie "New Moon" at the Market Common (the center of the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base). They stayed afterwards for the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony. I stayed home and put the first coat of joint compound on the new walls in the Sunroom.
Saturday/Sunday/Monday - 28-30 November - We went to the local Habitat For Humanity retail store to see if they have any white bookcases. Once I get the sunroom finished Dale wants to move all her books, DVDs and other stuff into that room. She also has a 26" flat-screen TV, VCR and DVD that I removed from the sunroom and stored in my office until the sunroom is done. Dale took down some Christmas decorations and palced them around the dining room and living room. Looks nice, especially at night with the inside lights turned down. Since we're going to be in Kentucky this Christmas we're not going to go "all out" and decorate this year. I cleaned up my office a bit more. I now have 6 guitars (the Freestyle/Hardrock Park had a huge sale before they closed for the season). I guess I should start practicing guitar again! Sunday I put the second coat of joint compound on the sunroom walls. One more should do it and then I can start sanding. Spent most of Sunday and Monday working on one of my desktop computers trying to get the router to allow me to update from any of my computers (no luck) and to allow sharing of files between computers (some luck, but Dale's laptop still can't access files). Tomorrow (01 Dec) Dale goes in to the hospital for outpatient surgery.
| Love, |
&nbs; |
Regards, |
| Dad & Mom |
&nbs; |
Barry & Dale |
