The weather cleared so we could move back outside

 I got this epic pic of Andy practicing for our upcoming kendama competition ❤️

Some of the regulars for the festival

The stairway to the sanctuary

It houses this pretty railing and stained glass artwork!

A beautiful sanctuary

The church where they hold the Spin Top Fesitval is really pretty and historic.  It dates back to the early 1800’s.  The curved pews are really cool too.

A new skill toy?

Andy took the opportunity to learn the art of knot throwing.  Who knew…?!

They had dozens of retro “top games”

 

Time for the annual spin top festival

One of the past participants made everyone these origami spin tops to take home.  We had a nice lunch and birthday cake too.

Andy’s driving the boss’ truck!

His new van was getting lettered this past weekend so he got to take this one home.  Pretty snazzy!

Just a pretty shot of the moon on my walk

Julie’s making lollipops for Andy

She designed and printed these little covers for his mirrors to keep them safe in his plumbing tool bags.

Porch squatter

We noticed this guy (we call him Tux) enjoying sleeping on the back porch at 11p a few nights back.  I guess the cement was still warm there from soaking up the sun earlier in the day?

John was working on the Sake menu

It was fun that he got to update the menu for the location we frequent. He was just updating some prices and descriptions, but it was still fun. Maybe we’ll get to see his work when we eat there for his birthday in November? ;)

Andy finished his buildouts.

He created custom boxes along the lower sides.  He can keep his longer tools under them, and long “sticks” of pipe stock in the top of the one on the left.  Along the top of the one on the right he can house his threading tripod and stand along with a few other frequently used items.  He’s got a great setup and now just needs to use if for a few weeks before making final tweaks and adding a few mores things to take up all the spare room he has now.

“Feed me or else…!” 🔪

Interesting how some things trigger specific memories

This watch takes me right back to the twin tower attacks on 911. I was working at GCE and one of the managers and I were both “watch guys” and had these same style watches.  I remember sitting in the break room watching the coverage of the crashes on the TV.  It was while Julie was pregnant with Johnny.  We were just starting to have kids and wondering what kind of world we were bringing them into.  

For some reason, all that’s intertwined and I remember it fondly when wearing this watch.