The Suit

Kip has had a sport jacket before, but never a whole suit. He was invited to a girl's sweet 16 party at the country club, and the invitation said, "dress to impress!" The birthday girl asked Kip to wear a bow tie, and being the comedian he is, he wanted to find a big joke bow tie. I asked if he wouldn't rather knock them dead with how hot he could look, rather than always feeling like he had to be funny? So... After countless trips to dressing rooms in different stores, He found a suit that made me smile when he came out of the dressing room! The red shirt makes so much more of a statement than a plain white one would have, and although the red & black necktie that came with the shirt looks very nice, the white bow tie was the perfect touch. He did change his mind about the hat, though, and left it in the car at the last minute...

PS: Kip says the party was great, and girls danced with him all night. He didn't even have time to take any pictures!

Feeding the Birds

I got some cool new garden stuff for Christmas, which made me want to hang all my bird feeders out Here's a few of the visitors I had. The squirrels will eat up all the seeds if I don't open the door occasionally and let Blizzard out to chase them! I keep hanging the purple feeder farther out on the branch, but they apparently don't weigh that much more than birds, or don't care if they're hanging precariously as long as they're scoring food!

The welcome guests include chickadees, which came in full force and for some reason, remind me of childhood winters in Maine. We also have several female cardinals and a few woodpeckers. The woodpeckers are colorful against all the brown of the other birds. Looks like I'll have to buy a book to help identify the ones I'm not familiar with. Meanwhile, it's fun watching through the big breakfast nook window and trying to capture a really good photo. Birds move so quickly...

(Click on a picture for a large view)

Christmas 2010

This year we played hosts to Norma's son Dean and his friend Albert, who were on their way back to Conn. from Texas. They stayed for a few days, which made Kip very happy. Dean is like the older brother Kip never had, and still wants, ha ha. They jammed together on their guitars and played video games, and they gave Kip an XBox 360! Used, but still...

Christmas Eve, Lynne and her mom Sheree stopped by, which has become a tradition in the Prather house. We exchanged home-made gifts this year, which was fun and inexpensive! It was technically a white Christmas, since it did snow for awhile, but luckily it didn't stick here. As usual, everyone got way more presents than anyone needs, and the honeybaked ham was a simple but yummy dinner.

Catching Up

Seems that Facebook is causing the demise of the blog... I see I haven't been on here since April! It was a typical year until July, when my best friend Norma said she was moving from Texas back home to CT. Long story short, she decided to come back to Northern VA instead. I flew to San Antonio and drove back with her, in a rental car packed to the gills. She's been staying with us while she establishes an employment history here, and can't wait till she can buy a place of her own near us!

Then in October, my back started acting up; a disc was squishing a nerve again. This time I lost the use of my left foot, and the doctor practically rushed me into surgery. Five hours and a titanium screw later, I have an 8-inch scar on my lower back. My back is doing much better now, and I'm in physical therapy a couple times a week, trying to regain the use of my foot. It may or may not happen, they don't know, but every time I think "This sucks!" I see or hear of someone worse off than me. I'm on disability till February 2011, and the DMV issued me a handicap parking tag!

So that's the main highlights since April, now let's try to keep up going forward!

Whitewater Rafting

This was the most fun we've had in ages! I have to laugh because my mouth is wide open in every picture. But you have to realize that in April the water coming down from the mountains is FREEZING cold! The guide warned us that whoever sat in the front would get the wettest, but somebody had to sit there, right? So I'm either hollering at the frigid water splashing me, or screaming in anticipation of the next wave that's gonna get me, ha ha. I'm ready now for a class 4 river... once the water warms up!

Spring Break 2010

This year, we decided on the Cherokee, North Carolina area. Lon used to take the church youth group there, but neither Kip nor I had ever been. It was a long drive, over 9 hours, because of the detours due to rock slides on the major route we would have taken. So we ended up driving through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg in Tennessee, very touristy towns. The mountains were beautiful, with awesome views around every curve. There was even snow still left on the ground in spots, though the temperature was around 70 degrees! Unfortunately, the Cherokee Indian production of "Unto These Hills" only plays from June through August, so we were disappointed to miss that. Of course we walked around the town and bought T-shirts and other souvenirs. We spent Saturday whitewater rafting, and I'll post those pictures separately. On Sunday, after a scenic tour along the Blue Ridge Parkway, we drove back through the mountains to Pigeon Forge and rode go-carts and had "old-timey" portraits taken. Monday was spent driving home, but thankfully it didn't take nearly as long as the drive down!

Killian's Haircut

One day, Kip asked me when he could get his hair cut, as he was getting tired of it. In shock, I said I could take him when I got home from work. So off we went, after a few "before" photos. Kip found a picture in a book at the barber shop, and the barber, Stephanie, did a great job in copying the style. I was sad to see all those curls cut off, a good six inches of hair hit the floor. But Kip loves it, and it really does look good. The next day, he reported that everyone at school had something positive to say about his new cutting edge (no pun intended) fashion statement!

Snowmageddon!

On Feb 2, 2010 we got the blizzard Lon had been predicting all winter! About 30" of snow fell in Gainesville. We were without electricity for 36 hours. Luckily, we were pretty well prepared, although next time we will try to have more firewood on hand, and more food that doesn't need to be cooked. Lon used the grill to heat up his coffee water, and to cook our meals until the power came back on. It was so beautiful with everything blanketed in white. Poor Blizzard had a very hard time getting around in snow deeper than his legs are long, so Kip finally made a path for him through the back yard to his pooping place... It took us two days to shovel the driveway wide enough for my car to fit through, and by then I was really ready to get out to the rest of the world! If it doesn't snow ever again, it will be too soon for me...

New Year's Eve / Reunion

Happy New Year 2010! Our friends from Toronto, Laurie & Wendy, came to visit over New Year's. Bilbo was visiting family in NJ with his brother Jack, and decided to stop by on their way home to Florida. Soon, one friend after another heard that Bill would be in town, and wanted to know how we could all meet up. Lon was adamant that we not host a party at our place, so of course that's exactly what happened! Ralph, Mandy and the girls came by; Kevin Wykoff and his oldest daughter; Charlie & Ruth arrived unencumbered; and the shock of the evening -- Steve Linscott drove in from Southern Maryland! We hadn't seen Steve in about 10 years, and were amazed that he didn't look a day over 30, whereas the rest of us...well we do. Kevin brought a couple old photo albums which we all exclaimed and laughed over. There was one picture of me in a bikini that brought back memories....sigh. It was great having everyone together like that, and we made plans to do it again soon.

Christmas - 2009

Our first Christmas in our new house... It was fun decorating the mantle, which we didn't have in the old townhouse, and making a wreath for the front door. We put the Christmas tree in the foyer, since we never use the front door. It was a perfect fit. Jason, Robbie & Jarrett drove down from Connecticut to spend the holiday with us, and we had a wonderful time. Opening gifts in front of a cozy fire on Christmas morning with family around us... it couldn't have been more perfect!

Snowstorm!

We had heard it was going to be a harsh winter, and it started early in the season for us. On December 19th it started snowing and didn't stop until we had 16 inches here. So pretty! So much shoveling! I cleared a path from my car in the carport to Lon's car across the way. Then I started shoveling us out, down the driveway. Luckily a neighbor came by with a plow and plowed one side of the driveway for us! Otherwise it would have taken me 2 days to do it by hand... Lon got out there with the leaf blower, but it mostly blew snow all over him! He came in looking like the abominable snowman, ha ha. It was fun watching Blizzard leap around in it, but soon there were yellow spots all over the place :( Now it's so cold that it's taking forever to melt.

Catching Up a Bit

Since my last post, which actually occurred in September but wasn't posted until November, I've neglected my blog in favor of Facebook. But Facebook has its limitations, and I've decided to keep up the blog more faithfully from now on.In November, my older brother Malcolm stopped by on his tractor-trailer travels and spent an evening with us. Later that month we had a quiet first Thanksgiving in our new house, broke out (bad choice of words, ha ha) the Lennox china and good silver. When no one was looking, Lon grabbed a gnome from one of my flowerpots and posed him with the turkey for a photo shoot. Should have seen my face when I looked through the pictures and this came up...

Deal Island

My friend Lynne & I decided we deserved a girls' weekend away. We spent hours researching vacation rentals until finally she found this one and booked it for a weekend in mid-September. The price was right, and Lynne said it was not far from Annapolis, maybe 90 minutes away. She invited her friends Lisa and Trish, researched the area and made plans for us to hit the bars, and even got us invited to a catered party. The night before we left, she Googled the directions and discovered it wasn't in Deal, Maryland after all. It was in Deal Island, Maryland... three and a half hours away!

Obviously we had to go anyway, though we were disappointed that the place was at the end of nowhere, not even close to the parties and clubs we had imagined. When we got there, the cottage wasn't quite what the photos led us to believe, either! It was way smaller than it looked in the internet pictures. But we figured, what the heck, we'll only be here 2 days anyway. How big a space do we really need?

We asked Arby, the caretaker and guru of the island, where the swinging hot spots were, and he directed us to Lucky's, the local general store/bar. We made friends with the bartender there, who looked like Britney Spears might look in 10 years, and a couple of the 3 or 4 locals who popped in, and told them the story of how we ended up there. Before we knew it, the whole town had heard of us and was coming by to meet us. When we showed up the next night, because there truly was nothing else to do anywhere remotely close by, the whole town was there. Strangers were coming up and asking us, "So are you the Lost Girls? I heard about you!" It was so funny. The locals were friendly and real sweet. One of the crab men got us a whole basket of crabs for free, and I swear we didn't pay for one drink the whole time we were there.

We joked for a long time about being the Lost Girls of Deal Island, and Lisa & Trish actually talked about going back again, ha ha. But next time I get the chance for a girls' weekend away, I'm saving up and renting a beach house somewhere near civilization!

Housewarming

We waited till after school started so everyone would be back from vacations, and to give us plenty of time to get the house set up as much as possible. The party was lots of fun; the weather was perfect, and everyone enjoyed mingling on the deck. We cooked out under the carport so as not to take up space on the deck, which was a great idea. Everyone's kids played in the woods, and only came up for more soda, and when we made them come eat. They found a rope swing that I didn't even know was there, and cleared out an area to swing in. One of our friends went to test the solidity of the lean-to, and when he shook it, it fell down! Better that way than while someone's kid was sitting under it!