Well we are back and settled in, make that real settled

Been back going on six weeks and life is routine.

— going to the gym
— eating oatmeal for breakfast
— James and Maddie came and did some yard work - I mostly watched and made suggestions
— put in new mailbox as old one was storm damaged when a tree limb fell while we were traveling.

The above replacement of the box and piece of carpentry took me the better part of a morning, several trips up and down the drive way to find tools, find other tools, figure out how to remove old box, get new box affixed — this is not simple folks - and the base is not real secure so my usual means of fixing things with a large hammer was off the table.  (the base I am assuming was put in in 1974 when the house was built and is reaching it expected life expectancy)


— read the newspaper
— visited my in-laws
—while in Charlotte met with Patt's high school friends from years past. Here with Ruth and Paulette.  Glenda was out on the phone planning summer of 2016 wedding — got that right. Apparently "South Charlotte" weddings require 24 month planning.  (I did not visit long - I was being "St Paul the good husband" and waited in nearby Bojangles drinking ice tea.)

oh while in Charlotte we went out with Patt's family to a fish house.  I had a Brown Plate Special — I did go healthy at the last minute and got the baked potato instead of french fries to go with my fried flounder, fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried oysters crab cakes, and deep fried hush puppies.  I got the small plate.  It was huge and spilling over.  I asked for a and got a second plate just to scoop shrimp onto.

— mowed the yard
— went to church and had meetings with church committees (both of us)
highlight — went for bike ride on Greenway with Mark and Marie  — went out to eat with Robin and Michael

— went to Graham and met with Patt's in-laws and my cousins

— enjoy photos of the grandkids — gotta love Raleigh's hair

— Big Highlight  Stephen surprised us a with a visit and staying over for a night between a business trip to Houston and a short weekend trip to the beach with his friend Charles.
— enjoyed photos of Clinton — like this wink —  Jen has been awesome about sending us photos of Raleigh and Clinton.

and likewise Laura has kept us in the loop of their vacation in the mountains too.  Very high mountains I think.

 —  also found a left behind treasure that has been hiding in utility closet in the basement — been there 18 months — fear not host of next years Christmas party this baby is on the way to Goodwill.  (yeah-right)— found it cleaning the basement which had not been done in a while.

—did the 2014 taxes (we filed an extension before we left)

—caught up on lots of paper work

—met with a tree guy today to come and cut down a couple of trees and trim some others.  

 — also have eaten at both Snoopy's and Char-Grill two of Raleigh's finer establishments- that is Patt there in light blue— we always order take out — like there was a choice.
— been to a couple of movies — Woman in Gold is great and Spy is funny.

so as is obvious, life now is a tiny bit different from the previous posts — you may ask yourself why we like traveling so much.  

— we are planning trips to the mountains and the beach in August, to Panama in September so stay tuned and football season is not far off either.  Time to get moving.