2012 - Dec 01 Adi's Gymnastics Meet in Salem, IL

It took us about two and a half hours to get there, but it was worth the trip. Adi got first place in her normal (intermediate) class on the double-mini trampoline.

Because she won the national championship in the intermediate class last year on standard trampoline, she was required to move up to the sub-advanced class this year. The routine requirements and the judging are much more difficult in the sub-advanced class than in intermediate. That, coupled with the facts that she just completed her routine correctly for the fist time three days before, it was her first competition in sub-advanced, and her coach told her not to expect high scores, gave here severe jitters to the point that, at the last minute, she told Faith she didn't want to compete in the event.

After reassurance from her mom, she sucked it up and competed. She got SECOND place out of eleven competitors!!

On Sunday, she got third place in floor tumbling, but we weren't there to get a picture.

All in all, it was a good meet. Needless to say, we are very proud and Adi was ecstatic!

2012 - Nov 25 Our Thanksgiving with the Kids

We had a sort of nontraditional "Thanksgiving" today. Since the real Thanksgiving has passed and most had eaten their fill of the traditional fare, we had chicken and cheese enchiladas. We did, however, have a traditional desert of Marsha's Homemade pumpkin pie. Deeelicious!

It's always nice to have our family together. We had a good time.

2012 - Nov 15-18 Mark, Mike, & Gary at Marks Lake House

We left town on Thursday afternoon about 2:45. My friend Mark, his old college buddy, Mike and I headed for Mark's lake house on Lake of the Ozarks. The plan was to drink some beer while we cleaned up the leaves around the yard, fixed the latch on the back door, relocated an electrical outlet on the boat dock, and put an extension on the sewer vent.

We stopped for a sandwich on the way down at the Thirsty Hog Saloon south of Fulton, MO. Nice little spot, but everyone was keeping their eye on us. We got to the lake house about 8:45 after a stop at a grocery store to pick up some provisions. I was particularly attracted to a bottle of Ardmore Traditional Cask single malt Scotch in the liquor department, so I took it along for the ride.

We got the car unloaded and our stuff stowed away before settling down for a few cocktails, including the Ardmore. In bed by 11:00 to get a good night's sleep before starting our chores in the morning.

When I got up Friday morning, Mark and Mike were already sitting in front of the TV telling lies and making comments about one of the shows on HGTV. It was probably 10:00 by the time we headed outside. As we went out the back door, there was a deer between the neighbor's house and us that had a nasty gash on her right front leg just below the shoulder. The leg looked like it was hanging on by the skin. It wasn't bothering her much when she ran up the hill and out of sight on three legs just as fast as if she had four.

We got outside and fired up the leaf blowers. Mark and I ran the blowers and Mike tended the fire. A bit over two hours later we were finished and it was time for a beer.

About 3:30, we arrived at some bar, the name of which escapes me, and had dinner and a couple of beers. Then we went to The Glory Hole, then on to the Branding Iron to top off the evening. The party started when we got there and was still going when we left. I'd say that place was probably the highlight of the trip. So much so that we went back for dinner on Saturday night!

Saturday morning, we went over to the other side of the cove to check on Mark's jet ski and boat trailer to make sure they hadn't been stolen from his storage shed. All was well, so after a short drive around the neighborhood, we went back to the house to start our electrical project.

All of the wiring on the dock is encased in metal conduit. The object of the game was to move one of the outlet boxes from a post on the left side of the fish cleaning table to a post on the right side of the fish cleaning table. We disconnected the length of conduit leading from a junction box to the outlet box, moved it to the new location, filled in the gap with a new piece of conduit and fished a new length of wire thru the conduit from the junction box to the outlet. No one was hurt, no sparks flew, and no tools were dropped into the lake. It was a good day!

So, again around 3:15, we were looking for a place to eat. It was back to the Branding Iron where we knew we'd be welcome because we made such a good impression the previous night. The food was good and we were remembered!

We were home and in bed by 10:00 so we could be awake and alert for Sunday's drive home. No pictures were taken on Sunday because we all looked older by then.

The pictures after the kayaker came from Mike's camera, so the chronology starts over again at that point.

It was a great time with a lot of laughs. We're already looking forward to doing it again next year when we'll take a shot at putting the extension on the sewer vent.