Friday, May 31, 2024

Me and Dave @ the PM

Dave and I met up tonight at 6:30 pm on the corner of Crescent and Russell and walked over together the couple of blocks to the Parkside Meadow. We wanted to sit at the bar and have a couple of beers. When we got there the bar was full as was most of the tables throughout the restaurant. They are busy of Friday evenings and especially at happy hour. At first we thought that we would stand at the wall counter behind the bar and hang out but I saw a table near the end of the bar that the waitresses use for their station. I requested that we have that table and of course the waitresses said yes so we sat there. It was actually a very good place to be and we could talk to each other without any distractions and we had a lot to talk about.

After about a half hour we moved to the end of the bar in the corner seats near the front door. They are actually great bar seats with a nice view of the entire bar area and the comings and goings of the front door but off to the side. Len the owner came by and hung out with us for a bit.

We were there until a little before 9 pm at which time we walked home and split at the corner of Crescent and Russell. This was our second time recently we spent some time hanging out together at the PM. We had a nice time and talked about all kinds of things. I had three beers over the course of the night and two and a half hours and they were all lagers. Dave had four or five.

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

New Dryer @ Orvilles

Over the past several weeks our clothes dryer has been having a hard time drying our clothes. They've been coming out a little damp. Sometime was wrong that was noticeable but not drastic. Then suddenly a few days ago it was drastic. It just wasn't working. I went down and cleaned out the vent system and the filters. I found a lot of lint in the system and realized I hadn't done any cleaning in quite a long time. Too long. I spent some time trying to fix the problem and got it all cleaned out. I ran the dryer again and there was heat. I did a lot and the clothes were dry... but only that one time. I put in another load and the clothes stayed damp. I tried it a few more times over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The weather was off and on sunny or rainy. I had some clothes on the backyard line to dry which is something I always do in the summer and I hung the towels and other stuff on the racks in the basement where it took much longer to dry.

I went online and did some research on getting old dryers fixed and to look at info on our dryer in particular. I found that our dryer's model and serial numbers indicted it was from 2002 and we probably got it just a little after that. Definitely over 20 years old. We had considered calling an appliance repair service but that might be expensive. Online resources stated that it was probably not worth getting a dryer repaired if it was over 12 to 15 years old. 

We went over to Orville's, a local appliance store, on this morning which was a day after the holiday. We had looked at their inventory and sales online. They had some good Memorial Day sales and we saw one that looked especially good to us. We only spent about 20 minutes in the store and got the Samsung Dryer that they had on a super special for just under $500. The delivery and installation fee was $79 which included removing the old dryer. The staff was very helpful and informative.

We scheduled the delivery and installation for Thursday of this week.

Sunday, May 26, 2024

Dinner @ The Steer

The Steer has always been one of our favorite go to restaurants for a good sandwich, maybe some pizza, and of course a nice selection of brews. We've been going there for years. We had been working in the garden all day along with some more clearing out of stuff on the third floor. I was also gathering a lot of different things that we are putting out on heavy pickup next week along with a bunch of other items that I plan to put online for giving away on the neighborhood buy nothing site. I have a lot of things ready for photo taking. Well, we were busy all day, the weather was great and we decided to go out for dinner.

The restaurant was very crowded and the service was outstanding. I had the knuckle sandwich which I've had many times over the years but not lately. I love the roast beef on a kimmelweck roll with the horseradish cream sauce and au jus. It was wonderful. Instead of the regular fries, which are always good, I decided on their really good sweet potato fries. Yum. Becky had a grilled chicken sandwich and fries. She had a Stella on tap. I started off with a Harp Lager and then followed it with a Peroni on tap. 

We were there about an hour and a half and really enjoyed ourselves. 

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Summer Day in May

It certainly felt like a beautiful summer day today the nineteenth of May. It was warm and sunny and a perfect day for gardening. 

I also got the sunroom all ready for summer. I opened up the last few windows and put the screens in. I took to out the flower pots and put them around outside for Becky to fill. Lots of other things too like getting out the bird bath, the sculpture stones and various other garden items that we normally have displayed around the garden. Wrestled off the winter cover from the air conditioner too. Always time to do a little weeding and weed whacking too.

At one point I was sitting out in the backyard after a busy morning and afternoon. I had some music on and had a book in my hand. Then a bunny came bounding over very close to me. This kind of thing has happened many times in the yard over the years with those rabbits that hang out back there. This little bunny sat down less than three feet away and just stayed there nibbling on the grass and watching me.

After dinner Becky and I took a very nice walk around the neighborhood that was actually a little longer than usual. It was a very pleasant walk.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

Bugs

Becky and I were sitting on the porch enjoying a nice sunny afternoon when suddenly this white cocoon like bug dropped from above and landed next to Becky. It really almost landed in her lap. The bug landed on it's back and it took awhile for it to roll over onto it's legs. Then it just stood there for a bit before starting to climb up the leg of Becky's chair. I knocked it back to the floor where it stayed there.

After awhile I noticed more ants on the porch floor than usual. I came back later and the white bug was gone but there were still more ants... lots more and they were swarming along one side of the door and up along toward the top. Then I saw there were flying ants swarming around a crevice along the top of the door and a line of ants climbing up the side of the door. There were also ants going into a crevice at the bottom of the door too. I put an ant trap on the floor next to the door.

I went down to the basement and got out an old can of Raid. I put on a different shirt, a hat, my big sunglasses, gloves and a mask. Then I sprayed some Raid into both of the crevices and along the path of the ants and along the bottom of the door.

In a little while there was a pile of dead ants at the bottom of the doorway. This all happened a few days ago and I've been checking for any ant or bug activity around the door. There has been nothing but I have that can of Raid ready just in case.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Flowers for Mother's Day

Becky got a delivery today of flowers and a cake for Mother's Day. Sean and Katie got together to make it happen from Wegman's using the InstaCart service. The flowers were spectacular and the carrot cake is delicious.

The delivery came without anything written on a card. I got a text from Sean saying that a home delivery was happening in the afternoon so when the flowers came we assumed they were from Sean. Later we found out the gifts were from the both of them. The came a day early because it much easier to get a home delivery on Saturday than on a Sunday. 

I took a picture of the flowers from both sides of the table.










Mother and Grandmother

We were up on the 3rd floor moving stuff around and came across this old framed photo of my mother as an infant with her mother. Mom and Mom-Mom. 

I tried taking some photos of the picture but it was difficult because of the reflections in the glass frame. Actually this picture was framed at the Koenig family's art supply and frame shop Arttree some 40 years ago. I was working at the store at that time too.

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Dave & Donna's

Dave and Donna had us over yesterday for a Saturday evening hang out with Jimmy and his son Sonny who were in town for the weekend. No Cassie as usual. It was great seeing Jim and his little two-year-old was very cute and fun to be around. We were over there from a little after 5 pm until about 8:30. There had been rain expected but it turned out to be a very beautiful evening weatherwise. When we first arrived Donna said we would be eating inside but by dinner time we were all outside eating.

Dinner was simple. Dave ordered pizza and wings and a salad. A mix of pizzas from Mr. Pizza and La Nova. Wings were regular and BBQ. Folks brought desserts... pies and of course Donna had an assortment of his cookies laid out. We enjoyed every bite of the food.

There was a nice group but not as crowded as usual. Jimmy and Sonny. Dave and Donna. Mary. Amy and Doug with the two teenage girls. Eric and Amy and their little one Ivy. And Tom and Diane. Sonny and Ivy played together nicely.

No pictures. It's amazing how many people we know do not take any pictures of diners, parties and actually any gathering of friends and families at their homes. There was only one time when phones came out for pictures and that was a staged shot of Jimmy with Sonny standing alongside of Eric with Ivy. The two sons with the two grandkids. Sadly they are the only grandchildren for both of those families. One and done. 


Thursday, May 2, 2024

Dinner for Two - The Terrace

It was a Thursday evening and we decided to go out for dinner. We considered several places including going down to Canalside and almost went to the new restaurant in the Richardson Complex but because it was such a nice day we went over to The Terrace in Delaware Park. We didn't have reservations and we couldn't get a table on the patio. That wasn't so bad because they still had the winter protection up and it wasn't as nice as it would be when in full summer mode out there. We had a good table in the main dining room and the place was very busy.

One of the reasons we wanted to go there was do have some pub food sandwiches and we did good. Becky got a shrimp po' boy with fries and I had a delicious chicken sandwich with fries. I had a couple of nice Lunch IPAs on tap from Maine Brewery.

We had to park down the street a couple of blocks and had to walk through the park on an angle past the rose garden to get to the restaurant. The park was very crowded and we really enjoyed that walk. It was nice on the way back too. There was also a very large crowd at the Albright-Knox because of the free live music that they now have every Thursday evening. We thought about going in to check it out but it was getting near the end of the music by the time we were done with dinner. Maybe another time.

Got Trash

Becky made arrangements with the Got Trash company to remove a lot of stuff from our third floor. The price was reasonable considering how many things had to be carried down the stairs and out to a truck in the driveway. The two guys doing the lifting were great but they did get quite the workout. 

The items carried down the stairs included two CD shelves, one small and one large, my old computer table, the desk from the studio, the old sewing machine, an old book shelf and the treadmill which fortunately folded up in half. Then there was a stack of old paintings done on wood panels that Becky wanted to get rid of. They were several trips.


We had cleared out the stairway landing that had been a storage area and we took down all of the artwork on the walls along the stairs and out the door. Cleared off lots of pottery too just to make sure there were no accidents. They came around 10:30 in the morning and were done in about an hour. Everything that was coming down was marked.

When they were finished and sitting in the front seat of the truck writing up the bill I had gone to the refrigerator and got two plastic bottles of some cold water. They were both very excited and thankful to get that water. The look on their faces was priceless. They certainly deserved it.