It's Our House!

We returned from an outing last weekend to find a package on our porch.

Inside was a framed cross stitch sampler with a house, the legend "Lee's Crossing" and the date: 1980.

There was also a note reading, "This is your house. If you want to know more, please give me a call."

The house was still there so we knew it wasn't a ransom note and the sampler looks good and a lot like our house.

Cathy gave a call and found out the lady who delivered it lives in east Cobb and was cleaning things out before moving to Florida. She had been one of the original sales agents of the subdivision in the early 80's and the company presented the samplers to the "plank owners" or first residents of the subdivision.

Our house was the model home -- everyone in the subdivision we know says they signed their deed papers in our dining room -- so they had at least one sampler left over.

If you haven't taken a look,, check out the little slide show at the bottom left. That's the house in summer and winter, along with a look at our kitchen remodeling efforts. The sepia photo in there is the Lipsett homestead in Decker, Manitoba, in the early 1900s.

The former real estate lady was happy to know that we were the first and only residents of the model home and have been for 20 years.

It will be a nice addition to our wall.

Meet Digory

There's a new addition to our family.

Digory is the newest member of the Long household in Charlotte. But we just met him this weekend. He's short and furry and and a ball of energy.

By the way, Digory is a dog (but I don't think he knows it).

He was a birthday present for daughter Katie from husband Drew; but it took a couple of trips to the pound -- er, animal shelter-- to find the right breed, a Havanese. Digory has been with them since early June, but we didn't get to meet him until now. This is my second phase of Father's Day, just two weeks late.

According to Cathy, we have always been cat people, except for Charlie who traveled with us from Decatur to Warner Robins to Kingsland. Her comment was that Katie had now gone over to the dark side.

But after two days, Katie is going to have to make sure to check the luggage before we leave, because Digory has bcome Cathy's new best friend.

He's a cute bundle of fluff who loves to chase his star-shaped ball, have his tummy rubbed and go for walks.

So now we are both cat AND dog people and we are looking for Digory to bring the Longs to Marietta soon.

We just have to have time to explain this to Toby the cat.

The Tale of the Tire

How many cousins does it take to change a tire?

At last count, it was more than seven, with others watching through windows or dropping by to take a photo.

Sunday was a family gathering at the Bell family cabin at Jackson Lake. We had 30 people in attendance as we gathered for some good food and the chance to "shower" a cute young couple who are getting married in August.

Shortly after we arrived, I looked out the kitchen window and all I could see was a flat tire. Looking again, I realized that it was on my truck.

Luckily, I have cousins who are willing to help and some of them even had some experience in changing a tire. Most were gathered around for moral support and made pithy comments like: "yep, it's flat" or "you got a jack?"

So we found the spare, the jack and figured out the instructions and got the tire changed.

By the time I took it to the tire store on Monday and told them the story, it was obvious that they could charge me whatever they wanted because, of course, I had no idea what I was doing.

Embedded in the tire was a strip of metal about 2 inches long and a half inch wide. We must have picked it op on the dirt road, because I didn't feel any problem on any part of the ride south.

My thanks to family members who helped with the project, whether – like me – they knew what they were doing or not.

A Father's Day To Remember

I got my wish for Father's Day. At least most of it.

We got to visit with our son and daughter-in-law at their new home in Arlington, Va. We celebrated Father's day together and had a wonder meal along with the other set of in-laws.

(A perfect Father's Day would have my daughter and her husband in attendance also, but at least I got to talk with her by phone a couple of times.)

As I said, everything turned out wonderfully. We love their new place: it's conveniently located, landscaped with shade and a back patio, decorated nicely and it's very cozy for a young couple. But, visits by relatives are, of course, not without concern.

The Va. In-laws were getting ready to go the beach and sending a son to New York 9while the airline lost his bag); the daughter-in-law was worried about her in-laws visiting (that's us) and what they would think of the place (as I said, we loved it); and the visiting family curse had struck.

What curse?

It seems that every time one of us visits the other something extraordinarily bad or weird happens:

· Last summer when both children and their significant others visited; my mother was in the hospital.

· In the fall, all four were back and a squirrel decided to get stuck and die in the attic, stinking up the upper floor.

· A couple of months ago, Peter was visiting and his mother was rushed to the hospital.

· It extends to the Arizona side of the family – as we arrived for our niece's wedding a few years ago, so did the need of the services of the Roto-Rooter man while my sister-in-law tried to make candy while fighting pneumonia. (But that's their own curse, far worse than ours.)

So it wasn't a surprise to learn that the lights and power in the young couple's condo bathrooms had gone out and in trying to fix the problem, they had also lost power to their air conditioner.

We brought flashlights for the facilities and opened the windows while the home warranty repairman was summoned. The problem was easy to fix, just push the circuit breaker past "on" to reset it.

It took some effort to find out what had happened. As the repairman explained: "If I tell you how to fix it next time it happens, how will I earn a living?"

The power was fixed, the dinner was great, the visit was wonderful and the curse was averted. Till next time.

The Tomato-less Salad Bar

It looks like tomato season may have been cut short.

One of the high points of my summer is visiting the farmer's market on the Square for fresh, ripe tomatoes (see post below).

But an outbreak of salmonella has pulled tomatoes off of McDonald's hamburger buns, salad bars and the salsa bar at the Crazy Chicken where we got lunch today.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to play Russian Roulette with black market tomatoes, but I may rethink my plan about not setting out a few tomato plants.

My reasoning against planting this year was that for $10 I could buy enough plants, watch them grow for 8-10 weeks – carefully and surreptitiously watering them (because of the watering ban) -- and fight the birds, deer and insects for a few tomatoes.

Or I could spend $4 - $4.50 a week for enough tomatoes to last the whole week and enjoy them now.

Where did I put those tomato cages?