Life in Boatland

 The truck is all spiffed up for the drive back to the boat next week, new brakes, new freon in the ac, oil changed, tires rotated and a slew of other minor things.  Love those Toyota Tundras!  Got to see little Harrison today, I had some gifts from Kitty and Marilyn, I took Ashley’s repaired baby quilt to her, I think she was happy with it, she was very grateful, I’m glad she is a part of our family! Harrison was asleep when I got there but Mommy Ashley went and got him (he was all swaddled up and sound asleep) and let me hold him and watch him sleep in my arms.  We got to chat a little, using our indoor quiet voices, he eventually started to stir so Daddy went and warmed up a bottle for him which I got to give him.  The simple joys of life! I left and when I got back to Leslie’s house we went to the AZ Grand Resort, we booked a room for the night and got 4 passes for the pools and Lazy River.  Wow, what fun that was, the water was the perfect temperature ...

 One last doc appt, think I’ve covered all my bases for another year. David and I went to the fabric store to find some material to make drapes for the boat. The ones we have now have faded to some unnamed shade of yellow and I’m ready for a change.  I’ll tackle those when we get back to Virginia.  The boat yard is making progress on our honey-do list but still no word on the stabilizer fin being fixed, nor the rat status.  We have one more week here in Phoenix before we drive back to the East coast.  Tomorrow is pool day at one of the resorts, wednesday I get to spend with my Mother, one night is Pad Thai and fried rice night at Grant’s house, pre-4th of July fireworks one night with Uncle Grant and the last thing on the list is Pomo Pizza night.  Then back to Boatland👏👏👏

 It’s Sunday, time for R&R.  Jake played on his computer, which he does most days.  Leslie and David got out the strobe lights, tripods, cameras and lenses they decided to do a shoot of water droplet refraction with flowers. It was a very successful day, they got lots of great shots, she will clean them up on photoshop and I’ll post a few more.  Leslie was in heaven, my little photo geek.  I worked on Christmas ornaments for the Christmas tree we will have on the boat, I know it’s really early but it seems I have some spare time to work on a few projects👍 Trying to get the image in focus. My Christmas ornaments, maybe a little too silly. The photo shoot setup. Beautiful sunset. Enlarge this pic so you can see the flower reflected in the water droplet on the leaf stem.

 I got up early to make a birthday cake for Kitty, met Marilyn so we could carpool out to Kitty’s house for another girl’s day.  We all brought our lunches and had an indoor picnic.  We spent the rest of the time walking down memory lane and lamenting about what the world is coming to.  Grant sent me some cute pics of Harrison today and you’ll see them shortly.   I believe Daddy called this “Happy boy alert”. Mom, mom, mom, get up, get up, it’s time to get up.

I made more hot tamales this morning but instead of masa I tried old fashioned cornmeal, the Turley way.  They actually turned out better than the masa ones we made earlier, except for a few or quite a few lumps in the cornmeal.  I went to Mother’s after I got the tamale mess cleaned up.  I took her a nice sampling of fresh fruit, the retirement home she is in thinks that fruit is out of a can, yuck canned fruit cocktail.  I wish they would serve a higher quality of food for the residents but enough of that soapbox rant. Mother helped me reconstruct Mommy Ashley’s blanket from when she was very young. It was so cute, somebody had hand embroidered blocks with different baby animals and then sewn them onto a red background. The backing of Raggedy Anne and Andy had long since ripped down the middle so Ashley simply used it like a sleeping bag, perfect!  Mother and I put a new backing on it, a red and black plaid that baby Harrison’s room is decorated with.  I ...

 I can see the light at the end of the tunnel finally.  The work on the boat is actually happening, the sanitary lines are getting switched out, the camera for the back deck is being installed, some software is being updated, the a/c in our stateroom is getting changed out.  Still no word on getting the stabilizer moving again though and that is the main reason we pulled in for repair work.  Also, no rat report.  I got to see little Harrison this afternoon, he will be 4 weeks old tomorrow.  When I hold him and talk to him he gazes at me, as if he is trying to remember something.  Mommy Ashley told me he can focus better so maybe he is just trying to figure out who I am since I am “not the Mommy”.  I’m going over to see Mother tomorrow afternoon, she has been in lockdown again.  Somebody had a stomach bug and they didn’t want it to spread but nobody new has had any symptoms so life resumes starting at breakfast in the morning.  Time for l...

 The day started early, 5:30am for a brisk walk.  The weather was 85ish, the sun was not up yet and the humidity wasn’t horrible yet.  I went to Grant’s house to drop off the baby blankets my Mother had made for Harrison.  They were thrilled! Then off to drop the truck off for a check up before we drive it back across country when the time comes.  Next, off to the doc, one last test before I get the gold star, and then as the dentist. It took almost 5 hours for the Novocain to wear off to where I could feel my nose, eye and lips.  I’ve never had my nose go numb before or my eye, that was a pretty funky feeling.  In the early afternoon, we ran some errands, stopped by for froyo and saw a fireworks stand that had just opened.  We had plenty of choices and managed to spend a few dollars.  We hurried back to Leslie’s to change shoes and then off for Mexican food with Brother Bob & Chris. We stayed for 3hours catching up a little, it has been ...

 Have you ever waited on hold for 1hr & 38 minutes to just make an appointment to see the doctor?  I figured waiting that long on the phone would mean his appointments would be weeks out, nope, tomorrow morning at 10am. I was afraid this one could hold up our return to Boatland for at least a month, phew!  David had his crown fixed this morning, his jaw is mighty sore but the man never loses his sense of humor!  I wanted to go to PF Chang’s for lunch for their Spicy Chicken (gluten free). I’ve missed any kind of Chinese food.  Leslie and Jake came along and Jake cracked us up for over an hour telling stories and making jokes. He was on fire today, ha!  It was so good to see him relaxed, he takes school very seriously so being off for summer has given him a chance to catch his breath.  We had a fun day! Hello to Jackie, Kitty, Marilyn, Mother, Kev, Granty, Tara, Anne, Pris, Aunt Nancy, Michael, Stan, Marcia, Chris, Bobo and all the rest of you that ...

 After 16 months I finally got to see my Mother! And it was wonderful.  She has not changed one bit in all that time.  She is still sharp as a tack, her memory is better than mine and she gets around her apt easily.  We got to catch up a little in person. Talking on the phone and through windows just isn’t  the same.  Those methods were better than nothing but just being able to touch her again was priceless. She keeps busy with crafts, crocheting and quilting. She made the cutest quilt for little Harrison and also a beautiful blanket for him, oh and a tiny little hat.  Harrison doesn’t have a pumpkin head so he may have to grow a little to wear the hat. I also showed her to get her emails, she hears the noise when they come in but now she knows what the noise is for and how to open them. Now I can send her pictures, yay!  Still catching up on appointments, docs, accountants and lots of lunches with friends.  We need to get back to the boat t...

 I started cooking at 8:30 this morning, getting ready for our Father’s Day gathering at Grant’s house. I started the dinner rolls in the bread machine, then moved on to the chocolate chip cookies.  Leslie had made the dough the night before,  at almost My favorite-ist 4 men in the whole wide world. Dino  Ribs, also know as beef ribs.  This cow must have been ginormous! Time for cards. Leslie and Jake, 2 peas in a pod. Dino Bones for dinner. They look kinda normal size, but they weren’t.  They were huge! Happy Father’s Day! The smoked chicken was amazing too! Cards. midnight, oh my little night owl, some things never change.  I baked the cookies, some were too done, some were not done enough but a few were pretty perfect.  Next was the Potatoes Trude, I think the Mormons call them funeral potatoes but we got the recipe from our good friend, yes, Trude, many,  many years ago.  Harrison and Mommy were napping at 1pm so we went later to le...

 Leslie said she’d like to make tamales while we are here, so we did.  I did some shopping to get everything we needed, the masa, corn husks, seasonings and foil to wrap the finished tamales into before we put them in the freezer. We made green chile pork with cheese and some cream cheese with green chiles. We wrapped some of them in tamale papers, others in corn husks so we are able to tell them apart.  It’s pretty much an all day adventure and even Jake pitched in, I think he had fun until it just got too messy and creeped him out.  I think we ended up with about 5 dozen.  We’ll share some with Grant tomorrow for Father’s Day. David had left his IPad at Grant’s house so,he went over this morning to retrieve it.  Harrison just happened to be awake so Chief got to hold him for a bit.  Oh, and a biggie for our little Sydney, she turned 17 today, (our Cairn terrier), I bet Brothy (Grant) gave her something special for dinner to celebrate. Tamales. Tamale...

 I got up early for a wellness checkup with the doc then sped to TeePee Mexican Food Restaurant. I met my new (46 years) BFFs. We took our time, didn’t fuss about the calories and enjoyed catching up.  I believe it’s 118 today so we didn’t chat too long in the parking lot as we were all leaving.  Went to visit Mr Harrison next, he and Mommy were sleeping when I got there so the house was very quiet but that didn’t last long.  Leslie met me there and she got to hold Harrison and have a nice discussion with him.  He is 3 weeks old today and I noticed he doesn’t have that scrunchy newborn skin any more as he is filling out. He is the cutest little punkin’. And of course I took lots of pics cuz that’s what Nanny’s do. Sydney Jean is 17 tomorrow, we love the hippity hoppity thing she does when it’s time for puppy dinners.  Also, Auntie Leslie discussing life with Harrison. Doesn’t he look different, our little cutie patootie. And we have a new bellybutton. ...

 Have you ever used an air fryer? They rock! David and Leslie made a Costco run today and came home with wings.  First we put them in the insta-pot on pressure cook then we crisped them up with air fryer attachment.  It was really fast and they were crisp but not dried out, perfect.  Thanks Grant for sharing that discovery. Ellie had spa day today, she went to see Kerrie who always does an amazing job with her.  We cut her hair a little shorter because of the unbearable heat on the East Coast, you do have to be careful that they don’t get sunburned with short hair.  She looks good and we can’t call her Smelly Ellie now.  We had a great dinner, did a little shopping and finished the day off with a beautiful sunset.  Ellie’s new doo. Sunset.

 Was it 117 today?  I didn’t notice, I spent most of my day sitting inside Jason’s Deli having lunch with my    2 BFFs from the 3rd grade.  We spent 5 hours catching up, the first one to mention their colon had to buy lunch.  We covered a lot of subjects, googled a lot of fact or no fact, politics, talked about those that have passed before us and gossiped about those still with us and what diet to try next, thank you Covid.  Grant had shared some gluten free lasagne that they couldn’t face eating one more time.  It was soooo good, he used Barilla GF no preboil  lasagna noodles, there for a minute I thought they were the leaded kind, they were that good.  Tomorrow is Ellie’s spa day, she gets to go to Kerrie’s for some brushin’s.  Hopefully Kerrie can fix the last couple of haircuts that I attempted.  Friday having lunch, TeePee again, with my new BFFs (only 46 years of friendship, ha).  Going to get another Covid test so ...

 Dont you love to get your teeth cleaned?  It keeps your tongue busy for hours.  After going to the dentist, We got invited to see Harrison today, I got to hold him and give him a bottle, boy he slurped it down and made the cutest little gulping noises. Then off to TeePee for dinner with Kevin and Anne, great friends and  great Mexican food.  We went back to Grant’s house to pick up my car, he sent a care package with us of brisket he had smoked and a gluten free lasagne, both were to die for good.  Home, dessert and bed, night y’all. Such tiny feet. Ellie. Mommy Ashley. Dessert tonight , blue raspberry flavor.  Snoopy sno cone maker. 9pm and it’s still 108!  But it’s a dry heat! Went to the dentist, came home with clean teeth and a new hairdo.