more from Victoria Lake

One of our favorite pastimes this week is fishing.  Holding your fishing pole just right is part of the trick and "I do it" can be heard across the lake establishing that help is not needed --- just in case you were wondering.

Julianna who formerly was a bit intimidated by a flopping fish or even a well griped fish was quite the participant this week as she explored how a fish felt, and there is more --  check out the following photo

yes, what you see here is Julianna and Grandmama actually baiting a hook with a leech.  Julianna would capture one, cut it in half and assist in placing the leech on a hook.  -- with great concentration, as such a task deserved of course.  At the rate which we were pulling in little sunfish, perch, bream, and a seemingly endless supply of hungry little fish that were next to our dock - we were well entertained.  She also had no choice but to help bait her hook.  I mean how many times will a Grandma or GrandDad bait a hook -- (as long as granddaughter wants-  thats how long)

Another activity that takes concentration is puzzle putting together, note, Jen's effort.  She is pretty good at it too.  Julianna played well with her too- keeping Jen quite happy and entertained.

Craft afternoon was a busy time, Mom stole the show, but I think she has done this before.  My effort at making a table was a little rough looking and elicited no ohhs or ahhs -- much to my disappointment.  These baskets however were real child pleasers.

Cooking was a big deal, the house kitchen was very nice, large, well equipped and we had large  excellent and exciting ( surprised ?) meals.

At one of them we celebrated Stephen's and Lydia's July and August birthdays with cupcakes and candles.  To no ones surprise, neither of them won the award for messy eater.  Isaac got that every time.  There were occasions though where he was pushed for the honor.

you know I am not sure if I have mentioned just how beautiful this place is.  Well it is.  And it has been full moon week too.  The loons (real wild ones too -- hold the jokes, puns and so on here) can be heard outside the cabin across the lake.  Loons are Minnesota's state bird and have a beautiful "call" .  We also have seen a beautiful bald eagle who fishes along our side of the lake too.

Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and a lake with the Grandchildren

After I picked out the photos I realized what the title had to be. Uncle is quite entertaining, to no ones surprise.

The lake has provided boat rides and one one occasion an abundance of very small fish that the little ones were pulling in one after another.
games to be played with an aunt who kept attention of all

and across the street a small park with swings, slides and a great place to play
the morning and breakfast by the lake
or a cup of coffee and staying warm in the brisk early (well if 8 is early ) morning
and let me tell you - this is really a nice way to spend a little time. Next post I will try to have a picture of the actual parents of these grandchildren of ours.

restaurant Review #9 --for the beef salad

A new Thai restaurant is in the big city. and you know who likes chicken on a stick and I had you know who as a guest- so we had to check the menu and lo-and-behold, they had chicken on a stick, so we stayed and ate.

Note the careful framing of the photo below. I am thinking of entering this in some art contest or something if I can just get the photographer to grant a release -- we are in the clever range of getting a good picture - got a good subject -- me, and name of the restaurant, and jungle like plants - shoot, my shirt even matched.

now check out the table, we almost but did not over order, we did however over eat. and I mean we enjoyed over eating. Sure enough, we got chicken on a stick, but here is the surprise, little Miss adventurous palette, brought half of those home in a box.

My beef salad or larp like dish was the table favorite, though the steamed veggies with garlic (not on my plate) got a "going to get that again", and the chicken with peanut sauce was excellent too. however it too paled in comparison to the "beef salad" hoo- boy, that was gooooooouuuuud !!

The Big Party Day was here

Big doin's it was at our house last night. Patt and Beth hosted (with able assistance from Linda and others) the pending nuptials (don't you just love that word ?) of Dave and Anna. By the way, when that left arm of Patt's is whirling, -- step back. Just ask Stephen some day.

The food spread was beautiful and tasteful, featuring a smoked prime rib by Kelly -- as in "this one was really really special" -- like - "lets do this one again real soon" Kelly.
Since our kitchen is so large, and has those beautiful full windows overlooking the lake, people tended to just flock into the kitchen as indicated below
there was only one un-invited guest attempting to ride into the party, but right off we figured him as a bad guy and banished the potential evil doer - saving the evening. (hoo--rrray )
Chef extra-ordinair and cousin Janet observing the chaos and sampling grape juice
previously referenced chaos- in kitchen-with-a-view.
The children's table ( and as they are getting closer and closer to puberty and who knows what we will have to call the table in the future)
The honored couple - and cake.
It was a grand time. We partied till quite late -- yes it was late too- nearly 10 PM and for us that is quite late. A very good time was had by all, especially the hosts, the guests acted as if they had a good time too and put on a good show if they did not. Being exposed to this many of us at once can be a bit of a challenge has been noted on more than one occasion, but they did well.

one more helper person

Once again from south of the border comes another helper person / worker. Isabelle showed up, a little late one evening and proved to be another helpful person to have around. Early she showed signs of having seen work done before. Once I pointed out that payment for work-- followed work, not merely being present or around work (providing moral support as she referred to it). She was quite the domestic as we had rain most of the day.
Rain let up late in the day providing opportunity for me to find out if dog washing was a transferable skill. It is --with sufficient coaching.
window washing / interior detailing had to move indoors due to rain --
and it is never to late for a V-8 ..............or a Bud- light------ - I forget

restaurant Review #8 --for the retirees

Some of you may know I am considering retirement. If so, I need to be looking around for appropriate dinning opportunities. I will need spacious, level floor, of course not overly crowded, plenty of seating, and plenty of lighting type of place. I am thinking food court ! ! I mean where else can all these features plus security, variety, and a people watching opportunity merge.

The menu options are nearly endless, tending toward routine fast and tasty
There are plenty of familiar logos, and in this particular food court
places where you can still find interesting people to share a meal with
imagine my delight, with my mid eastern kabobs, (not from one of the chains) along with fried rice - go figure - and cucumbers/tomato chopped up stuff, and some kind of pretty good yogurt sauce.

more help for my helper person

Juan showed up with a new yard assistant yesterday - Sofia, who confessed to having never run a lawn mower before, appeared to work pretty hard and was apparently adept at doing yard work -- like she had seen it done before. I am thinking that after years of expensive private school, college and now some training here in Raleigh, this recent immigrant finally is acquiring a useful skill.
Sofia, may now have some useful training and ability to make a contribution to work efforts in other venues.
There is a real joy in seeing young people gain such skills.
Upon further review, the cushions indicated an adaptation to work that may not be transferrable far beyond an uncle's employ

wild Saturdays in Raleigh

Patt and I are known to enjoy wild times, travel to exotic places, go on Treks, speak French -- in Russian, and though we don't always drink beer - when we do we drink ... You know the drill, well Patt and I are not necessarily the most interesting people in the world. A recent Saturday found us wandering a local mall, (and not one of the flagship malls either). On our adventure (sic) unfolded as follows:

This guy and his son were day dreaming about riding the wave runner, or I am guessing at least the guy had at least a fleeting thought of how nice it might be - I know I did
and I was accosted by these thugs/gang members/terrorists/well "almost teenagers" who asked to sing happy birthday to me in honor of one of these threatening types who was turning 12 this day. (Told you we were frequenters of wild and dangerous adventures).
I will tell you one thing though- we were not dressed alike though we observed at least one pair of dress-a-likers and were able to document said pair as presented here. We are somewhat interesting- at least a little bit- I think. --

See this Stone Wall

See this stone wall, people tell me it looks nice, I think it looks nice, it should I built it about four times before I finished, I loaded the stones on a hand truck and I moved them down to the back yard, I dug the foundation for the wall, I set and re-set the stones, I cussed the wall, and then I cussed it some more. I sat on the deck and drank beer looking at the wall. After building the wall, my back hurt. Notice the use of the pronoun "I" - well that wall you are looking at is the last one I build. However I can give advice on how to build a wall

and now that my helper people practiced yesterday leveling flagstones in the front, and dug out the bank and were ready to learn about building a stone wall.
They moved stones down the hill on the hand truck, they dug out the foundation, leveled the ground, picked up and moved the stones, leveled and re-set them one more time. If they cussed, I did not hear it. James and Maddie stayed at it. (It was another very very hot day.)
See these stones - I did not carry one, not one of them down the hill, might have carried one over to the work area, not more than that, (I had helpers) and besides
when I needed something done, I could point
since I was sitting on the steps, my stone masons had to build their own seats.
Later they even moved and transplanted perrywinkle from the front to the back. I got to water the freshly transplanted ground cover. There is a skill level required here.
and this wall got built, without my lifting more than one or two stones. Love having helper people. and if you are in need of stone masons - do not call me unless you need help pointing or watering - call James and Maddie - they may or may not answer.