Fun for Chris and Cheyenne! :)



The neighbors copied me?

It's fun to see the path Zoe and I take.  It's also interesting to see that three neighbors (Steve & Janice, Rob, and now Ben & Stacie) have taken the same approach to cutting paths in their fields.  It makes a pleasant place to walk or ride.  I guess they agree. :)

Julie surprised me with refills of my teas

She knew I'd run out and had my back.  Highly recommend this brand and this particular variety.  Hot Cinnamon Spice!  Laura got me hooked on them during our Michigan trip last summer!

Happiness is warm pup snuggles…!

The sadness, but peace and joy of a Christian loved one’s passing…

Julie's cousin Barb passed away and we enjoyed her funeral service a week or so ago.  We will miss her smiles, hugs and warm welcome at church.  It was fun to catch up on family news during our monthly safety service times while she was working the welcome desk.  

See you again soon, Barb! 

Learning to sail…!

I got my introduction to sailing at our church summer camp, but Lakeside is where I LEARNED to sail!  It's fun to look back on this picture that was taken just after we'd been through the classes numerous times.  Skip Skolnik (left circle) was our instructor most of the time through our high school and college years.  His right hand man was the guy circled on the right, I just can't remember his name, John maybe?  Skip still lives in Lakeside near the cannons.  We had countless hours out on the lake practicing turns, playing tag, racing, and running to East Harbor once in a while.  It's fun that I've been able to take out my brothers, kids, and pass the fun along!  Johnny still dreams of spending a week at Lakeside taking the the classes one year.

I inherited consolidation from my mom…!

I was consolidating my Dremel tools from my dad's collection and my two different boxes.  I sent her a pic and this was the resulting thread, haha❣️

It’s fun to see the equipment in Jewels gym

She's gotten herself more trim, fit and strong these days.  I gotta keep on my toes cause she's passed me up!  I thought the colors and arrangement made a fun pic.

We got a dog tag for our dog’s tag ;)

Zoe wears it proudly. 

John and I had a quick Taco Bell breakfast at the park

 We threw in some Dunkin coffee for good measure.

You never know WHAT Andy will find plugging up peeps drains…!

This time it was Stitch of Lilo and Stich…! Hahahaha.

I just like this picture of my plumber that Andy posted… :)

Fun with organizing tools!

So much better than carrying around four different cases depending on what I needed.  AND, it makes a really complete set.  English, metric, shallow and deep well.  Like it!

I organized my FOUR impact socket sets into ONE!

 

The swarm of bees on a cement block was cool!

It was crazy hearing them too. Turn up the volume and give them a listen. ;)

Zoe’s always up to something…

Our neighbors swarmed to our neighbors for a minute…

 The bees from our neighbors decided they liked the cement block of our other neighbors one day…. They were there while I was riding my bike with Zoe.  A couple hours later, they’d moved on… Pretty cool to see and hear!

Trying my hand at my own Packout arrangement…

Now that Andy got me the right foam, knife and showed me how to do it, I decided it was time for a new wrench box for the set Julie got me when I first got married.  So I went to work figuring out a way to arrange them and try to get all my Metwrench set to fit in one slim Packout box.  This is what I came up with and I am really happy with the results!  Everything is held in place nicely, and I can see it all at a glance.  Best part, I can grab the wrench and the little box of sockets and roll under the Jeep or wherever to figure out what size I need.  I can do that with the 3/8" or 1/4" drive and my deep-well sockets.

This set is awesome and really the only wrenches I use 98% of the time.  They are both metric and English in ONE SET.  So you never have to worry about which version your nut or bolt is!  Even better, they grip the flats of the head instead of the corners, so you never strip the bolt or nut.  If it's already been rounded off in the past, these wrenches still get it out!

Pepper sitting like such a lady…

I found Andy’s toy in the backpack he sold me :)

It reminds me of the clicker clacker ball, string and loop things we used to have when we were kids.

I made up this cute little tool bit kit

I wanted a full set for my tool bag without much bulk.  So I repurposed these little boxes.  Now I have all I might need for my impact driver and a FULL set of bits for my drill.  Plus it still fits in my hand and doesn't add much weight or bulk to my bag.  I have them there "cause you never know…" ;)

It would be fun to have one of these tiny knives!

They're from a company in Czechoslovakia and probably just as much as any nice butterfly knife.  Here's it's pictured next to s normal sized balisong.  Cute! But the combination of the shipping price, cost, and the fact that I can't read Czech, probably keeps them out of reach. Plus, how you gonna flip THAT?!

It’s tough to resist…

An animal that just wants to be part of your pack and be with you so much.  She has adopted me as HER dog for sure❣️I thought this POV made a great pic.

REALLY happy with the results!

This just might be the start of a new obsession of organization…. These packout boxes are really nice in how they all interlock together and keep things protected, organized, and ready at hand all at the same time.

Now Andy’s teaching me how he customizes boxes for his tools!

We started out by him making one up for all my knife sharpening stuff.  It was fun to pick out a box that would work, arrange a layout that we liked, then get two work on cutting the foam.  Plus it was a good afternoon of fun together. 

It’s fun to share in the baby excitement with Chris and Cheyenne!

They're calling the baby Bink for now.  Cute❣️

The cats don't look impressed, maybe even a little concerned hahaha.  

I used to laugh at my dad for saving things…

But when your sump pump goes down in the middle of the highest flow time of year, and the new float switches don't mount the same, you'll be happy if you have a bucket of parts that has the EXACT thing you needed to make the new pump work without having to completely redo the whole dual pump setup you crafted.  Thanks dad, YOU did this to me.  At least I know where I get THAT from.  Save stuff, "because you never know"… hahahahahahahaha.

My sump pump might not be submersible any longer…

I heard a beeping a little while back.  I go downstairs to find that the top half of our main pump had rusted through and fallen over… Luckily, I had a spare ready to go and swapped it out.  A second good use of my new tools in two days.  It was nice to have a lot of help from Jewels as I was laying up to m elbows in the pit.  She was happy to keep her distance while still handing me all I needed, turning things on and off, etc.  It was kind of fun to work on it together.  

We are sure going to miss Bob around the range!

My kids and I both remember him fondly as we all worked together (Jeff, the boys, Bob, and me) over the years of learning to shoot and participating in state and national competitions.  He loved us all.  The feeling was mutual. 

Ok, I have my drills set up the way I like them now!

95% of the driver bits you ever need, right there ready to go!

I saw this on a Dragon’s baseball add.

It is fun to see minor league play!  I remember watching Joey Votto and Adam Dunn crank hit after hit over the fence and into the windows of the Requarth Lumber building across the street!  The best part is the memories with the kids taking them to the games.  We've seen many games with our parents, siblings, and friends along the way too.  Looking forward to the game next week.  It's been too long. :)

I really like examining Andy’s isometric layouts for work!

He does a great job with them and is enjoying the design aspect and also seeing it come into shape in the field.

Fist use of my new impact driver drill Andy set me up with.

Part of my "Dad tools" order. :) I have to say, their are a lot of really nice features on these little beasties!

I found these in my bag…

I had forgotten they handed out the Harry Potter Jelly Belly beans at our company meetings.  These were the same idea as the bamboozled packages they used to have when the kids were little.  The box is full of two types of jelly beans that look similar.  One set is yummy, and the other set (while looking just the same) is terrible… For example lemon and rotten egg!

We used to use them as punishment for the kids.  If they misbehaved they had to go grab a random one out of the box.  The unknown of pulling one of the horrible flavors was by far the BEST way to straighten them up!

I found these one night while we were at Lakeside so we decided to pass them around and take the dare.  It lasted until a couple of us had pulled the first terrible ones… hahahahahaha.

“Dad Tools”

Andy's got me set up at his supply house.  The best part was the customer order # they used, hahaha.  Even better, when I walked in to pick them up, they immediately said, "you must be Andy's dad"?! They thought we resembled each other.  Sorry Andy!  Haha.  Fun!

Collecting the gang…

One last picture of our Lakeside trip… I'd walked out to grab Andy and enjoyed seeing John and Savannah enjoying the Adirondack chairs on the pavilion just like Julie and I usually do.  We sure enjoyed our short time up there and look forward to the next visit.  It was fun to do together, relive old memories, and make some new ones.  

I guess I better walk out and gather us up to head home…

I'm always impressed but the size of the rocks and the effort required to keep the lake from eating away the shore.

One last trip to the Dock before we head home.

It's fun that Andy is sitting against the flag pole at the end of the dock. :)

THIS is exactly how I remember the gate in my mind.

It has such a late 70's, early 80's feel.  I looked forward to seeing it so many times!

Julie’s version of enjoying the eclipse

While we went through all the hassle of a trip to the lake for such a short time, she just drove over to her mom and dad's old house and enjoyed it from the driveway.  Our friends that bought it from her mom and dad invited her over to join them.

It was fun from her since she'd enjoyed the previous one from her grandparent's house in North Carolina.  Fitting.  

This reminds me of my dad and Ian a LOT!

The timing and a couple of the details aren't right, but it still makes me smile to think about all the various fishing trips with my dad over the years.  From renting 9.9hp boats at Cowan lake on our camping trips, to the green duck boat at Caesar's creek, to sitting on the side of the dock just like this, and even sneaking out of the cottage for a couple early morning trips out to the quarry or a charter boat.  And I can't forget to mention our perch haul with Dave Bloom… Good memories! And even better, I have the same memories that I've made with my boys and even nieces and nephews. 

No two-week Lakeside trip is complete…

…without an afternoon spent at the laundry mat!

So many memories of shopping at the Giftique!

We would save our money up just to be able to go in and browse the selection of candy and other goodies.  Here is is in 1983 which would have been right at the prime of our vacation times there.  I remember the book store too.  We usually found a book too so we had something to read during our down time, or at least the ride home. ;)

WE visited the stone quarry…

Look how big the dump truck is sitting next to a full size Mac Truck!  The wheels are as tall as the roof of the "little" trucks cab…

Stick gun rev 2!

At the lighthouse, Andy found an upgraded version of Johnny's stick gun.  He carried it all the way back to the car so he could "pull" it on Johnny before he gave it to him.  Hahahaha.  

A different view of the lighthouse

 And John still managed to be in the shot. ;) Walking away from me, to the right of the bushes.

Savannah got the best perspective on all Andy’s climbing action…!

Imagine her surprise when she looked up to see THIS…!

Andy showing off his bouldering strength at the Marblehead lighthouse…!

Andy can hang from any which way apparently!

His rock climbing hobby has turned him into quite the bouldering monster!  He made this look easy…

Brothers goofing around.

Of course, Andy had to take the opportunity to play on the rocks. Hahahaha.  I like this shot of the two of them enjoying and capturing the moment!

After lunch in Marblehead

We decided to grab lunch in Marblehead at one of the local seafood grills.  It was the first time I ever ate a meal in town.  It was really good.  We mostly had perch and catfish.  Then we headed to the lighthouse since Savannah hadn't seen it yet.  It was a beautiful day.  That's john on the rocks, just to the right of the baser of the lighthouse.  Savannah's there too, enjoying the view.  Of course, I headed over to see dad's memorial brick too.  I always like this location and view of the lighthouse, but my favorite angle is always going to be the one my dad used for his award winning pic. ;)

I like to compare the early 1900’s to now at Lakeside…

I find it cool and interesting how similar the current views are to these old ones.  The way the dock widens out, the ferry running to Kelly's, the people enjoying the boats and boat house.  I didn't realize the current pavilion building was so representative of the first one.  All we need is drugs and cigars back and they'd still be selling all the same wares in Lakeside too, hahaha.

It’s always good to enjoy the bells while relaxing on the dock at Lakeside!

 

I love this shot I got of Andy at the lake.

I wanted to capture him, the light, Kendama and plane in the shot.  It came out nicely. 

Camera phone progression

This is the first time I've been able to capture a recognizable and semi-useable pic of Perry's monument with a phone camera from Lakeside.  It's over 8 miles out there.  Not great, but better than nothing I guess.  They've sure come a long way since their inception!