Left click on the pictures to make them larger.

Comments or laughs, email us              

August 16^th, 2008   We ate crab. Well Nancy and the rest did, I had something else.     Far side of the table, left to right,  Christy's arm, Bill, Lisa, Steve, near side of the table, Nicky, Jeff and Tessa.  It was $2.00 crab and beer night at one of the local restaurants so we cleared the dock and went.

We just got back from a trip to see the family in Washington State.  Great time again.  Nancy's folks were the best of hosts.  It was great being with them and the rest of the family.    The little angels (sometimes).  Left to right, Grandson Trevin, Nephew Thomas, Grand Niece Ava, and Niece Emma. 

We started our trip by flying nonstop to Seattle from Baltimore then renting a car and driving to Bellingham, WA near the Canadian border.  The next day, Nancy picked up our Grandson to spend the weekend with us.  We had a wonderful time with him.  What was so nice is that on the second night, Trevin asked if he could sleep with us.  What a treat.  Probably the last year for something like that (kids getting older etc.)   Nancy took the kids to the park and kept pace with them on swings, slides, climbing walls and trails.   (Trevin and Niece Emma)   (Trevin). She also spent time shopping, swimming and just doing things with them - including bowling, golf and boxing on Wii.  I couldn't keep up with them so I spent that time visiting with mom and dad.

Nancy's brother, Robert  and his wife Teri came over a couple of times with son Thomas    hard to believe that he is 12 years old  - always good to see them.  Robert's daughter Liz came by with her daughter Avah, who is six going on sixteen.    . Here's me with the clan.    Thomas, Me, Emma and Avah.

On our last night in town, the whole bunch of us went to Boundary Bay Brewery and Bistro for Reggae/Hoola Hoop night.   Left to right, Me, Emma, Nancy, Teri, Liz and just seen over her head is the bald head of her father Robert (Nancy's brother), Emma, Lisa, Mom, Dad, and Thomas.  The dinner was good, but we left the hoola hooping to the youngest generation and went back to Nancy's parents house to watch the Olympics.

Early the next morning we said our goodbyes and flew back to Baltimore.

August 2^nd, 2008  We have just returned from Florida.  The offer we had made on a condo was accepted and we had the closing last Monday.  So here's how it all happened.

We left Maryland by car (with the cats)  and drove for about 13 hours to get to a pet friendly Motel in Florida.  Slept good that night (long drive).  The next day we had an interview with 2 of the directors of the condo assn.  Great visit with them.  They arranged to have a letter of acceptance faxed to our closing so that hurdle was taken care of  (closing requirement).  After the interview we started what seemed to be an endless task of shopping to furnish our new place.  Going from store to store to store to store etc.  We managed to buy a kitchen table and chairs.

Next day was closing.  The sellers agent never did show up.  They were to supply us with the condo keys, club house key, mail box keys, utility room key,  etc..  So without keys to get into our new place, we got the combination to the realtors lock box and got the key from it.  I then went to Home Depot and got a new door lock set and installed the new locks.  They  might as well throw their keys away because that just what I did with the old locks.  The President of the condo assn. found extra keys for the club house and utility room (sometimes referred to the electrical room) for us and the Post Office said that they would replace the locks on the mail box at no cost to us and call us when that job was done.  All that went just as fast as it took me to type it, NOT.

The grounds around our condo are filled with native Florida plants and trees.  Really beautiful.     That is one of the things that really attracted us to this place.  It was so well kept and pretty.  Oh, forgot to mention the Florida welcome we had as we were driving to the closing.  The sun was a little above the horizon as we drove south.  We looked to our left along and slightly above the road and there was a formation of Pink Flamingos along side of us.  The sun coming through their feathers made them a bright pink that we had never seen in them before.  Now we have seen many Pink Flamingos before but nothing like this.  Flying in formation like Canadian Geese and just colorful as can be.  What a sight.

The next day it was more store to store to store and we finally bought 2 bedroom sets.  Queen for the guest room and King for the master room.  The kitchen table was delivered and it was to big for the little eating area.  So it ended up in the dining room and it fit perfectly.    We toasted the first night in our condo.    Our beds had not arrived yet so we got a Coleman blow up bed and set it up in the living room and fell asleep watching TV.  Another long day.

The next day I started patching old nail holes in the walls from the previous owners pictures and what ever they had hanging on the walls.  It took almost 6 hours of patching before it was all done.  Our next trip there will include painting of all the interior walls. 

The beds arrived and were set up and ready for use.    We also bought a patio table and 2 chairs and set those up.  The TV is a LCD with surround sound and it took a while to hook all that up.  We had to buy another table for the kitchen and set it up.   The only thing we haven't bought is a living room set.  We have a lot of accessorizing to do but we did get some plants for the window box.