New Year's Eve 2020

 It is 10:30 in the morning, I am dressed and ready to go to work.  And here it is, finally, the last day of 2020.  We are planning for New Year's Eve.  Amy and Jane are going to do Tapas and I may do some fried rice.  I am nursing along my crownless tooth.  That is the crowning event (ha ha) of 2020, to be flossing at 11:50am on Christmas Eve and off comes the crown.  And of course, the dentist office is closed until Jan. 4.  And yes, I am their 8am patient on the 4th.

There were other crazy times in 2020 ~ someone stole our beautiful landscaping from the side of our garage, someone stole Amy's truck from the front of the house (she got it back later that day) and some old guy was caught on our ring doorbell opening the gate across our front porch entrance and then walking around on our porch at 11:30pm. Very bizarre!!!!

And never mind the insanity of the COVID 19, the non response of our government, getting up every day dreading what the president tweeted or said, quarantining, no toliet paper, our postal service falling apart, Army pounding Navy, no cleaning supplies........complete craziness.

But, we have done pretty well.  Amy and I did lots of landscaping to improve our yard, Amy moved her horses to a brand new barn, Carolyn and David had a beautiful baby boy, Val graduated from NYU and got a job and Emma started at the University of Washington. Jane was driving down Churton Street in Hillsborough and saw a lady dressed nicely wearing flats running down the side of the street.  Jane looked again and it was Maren!!!! We did inquire and she was chasing a defendant and she caught him!  She is her own Law and Order episode!!!!! Jane is finishing her senior year at Elon and has spent the holidays with us and she has been cooking!!!!! And she is very good at it.  Amy and I have asked her to drop out and stay with us for free, all she has to do it cook.  Surprisingly, she is not too keen on that idea.

So tonight we toast and hope for a better 2021.  

Love,

Leslie

Looks Like Christmas

 It is nippy and feels like Christmas.  Of course, it could be 80 on Christmas day and that will be alright.  But we are all decorated and I really enjoy all the lights.

It was tricky getting the wreaths on the windows.  

Finally trying Command strips to center the bow ~ so far success.

Does anyone remember if Sissy or Mom made this? I have it on the dining room table because it is too pretty to not have out

Had an epiphany and put the mystery tree skirt on the foyer buffet.  

                         

                                                         Very cool pop-up tree          

Waiting for Santa

And we are ready for the Zoom Christmas call ~ ugly Christmas sweaters are in hand.

Love,

Leslie

Did You Move My Truck?

 Amy asked me "Leslie, did you move my truck to prank me?"  I do like to "get" her occasionally, but I wouldn't mess with someones vehicle.

But Amy's truck was gone.  There was a big empty space across from the house.

The police were called.  USAA was called.  Amy said she had had some wierd calls early in the morning that she had not responded to.

Very unhappy because Amy is moving her horses on the 5th and she needs the truck.

I say the truck is halfway to Mexico.

But no.  Amy gets a call that the truck is found!!!!!!  24 miles away in Graham!!!! And they want her to come and check it out.    

Turns out, the car thieves took the truck, ran amuck with it ~ it is scratched up and it looks like something was hit with it, but it is driveable and they didn't take the back up camera out of it!  Anyway, they ditched the car at an apartment complex and left a door open.  Some guy comes out of his apartment, sees the truck, thinks it is suspicious and calls the police.  

The mysterious calls to Amy's phone? The Graham police calling Amy about her truck in Graham.

But all is well and the truck is home.  It is going to get an alarm system to wake up the world if it gets messed with again.

I love a happy ending!

Love,

Leslie

Happy Holidays 2020

 What a strange Thanksgiving!  We usually have these huge gatherings....lots of people, dogs, laughter, food and this year we were all in groups of three.  Me, Amy and Jane.  Nancy, Drew and Val.  Lori, Jim and Maren. Carole, Tony and Emma.  Carolyn, David and Thomas. 

At this house I cooked the traditional items ~ ambrosia and cream cheese pie.  I made the new traditional items ~ vegetable stuffing and cranberry relish.  Jane made vegetable lasagna and mashed potatoes.  It was delicious!  Yes, I forgot the cranberry relish and was making it right as the lasagna was coming out of the oven, but what the heck.  

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NANCY!!!!!!!!  

And of course, the leftovers are amazing!

Then the rush to get autumn out and Christmas in!

I don't know about you, but I try to take out the holiday, clean and put the new holiday in.  I gathered the pumpkins, decided to take the summer pillows out, washed them to get them ready for the closet ~ it seems to take longer but it is very satisfying.  And it is sunny and warm ~ rather put up the outside lights when it is warm and decorate inside when freezing.

And yes, everything is plastic on the tree and all the decorations will be up ~ hopefully too high for Gypsy to get.  We lost some pumpkins this year.  I really thought they were too high for her, but no.

It was balmy and warm doing all of this and right now.  And apparently a lot of the neighbors had the same idea.  Jane, Amy and Rhonda took the dogs to go see the lights.  We will all go look at the lights next week ~ and ride in Amy's new car.

Here is the newest photos of Thomas:

                                                    Happy Birthday Nancy!!!!!!

I am being very lazy and I need to get ready for work.  And today it does feel like winter ~ windy, rainy, and the temperature is dropping.  Our high of 44 tomorrow will feel just fine while inside doing more decorating.

I miss all of you.

Much love,

Leslie

At Long Last.....the Garage

 Everyone has one.  Amy and I decided that we are going to get the garage in good shape.  I ordered the shelving.  But as you know, that apparently is the easy part.  Now you have to get everything either out or to the other side. So, I shifted stuff to the other side, to the porch and to the dining room.

I have rented 3 guys from TROSA who are coming tomorrow to help move the glass topped table and one of the wooden shelves into my room.  I will have them for a hot 2 hours.  Well worth the money.

Then we can get the garage ship shape.  Cross your fingers.

And in honor of the Biden-Harris victory,

Much love,

Leslie

Happy Halloween

 Summer really left with a bang last night!  It was in the 30's last night and very cold for the Trick or Treaters.  I had a table at the end of the driveway and bags of candy ~ it started at 4pm and was finished by really 7, I hung out until 7:30 in case there were stragglers.

I got a banner for the fence and Halloween lights that turned out to be more red and green that purple and green.  And thank you to Hurricane Zeta who ripped thru my carefully hung banner.  Luckily, a staple gun saved me.

Could have used a real fire ~ it was COLD!  

Amy 

Elliot and her mom and Dad

Drew as Captain Obvious, obviously

Jesse and his girlfriend as ...... I thought Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus.  Carole thought Sunny and Cher.  

Rhonda's Corgi, Blue, was a Duke Blue Devil

And from Minnesota, my friend Mary Lamb!!!!!!

Me, Rhonda and Elliot

Fun was had by all, and now it is time to put away Halloween and get the turkeys out.  Hope everyone had a good time!

Love,

Leslie

Why Am I Up This Early?

 Who knew life could be so exciting?  Yesterday (Monday) I was getting ready for work and Amy told me that the SmokeAlert people who were scheduled for November, where coming in 15 minutes.  Great ~ good to get that chore done early.

Nice guy, a fireman from Durham came and cleaned our dryer vent, replaced the transition duct because an 8 foot one was installed and it is not to code.  So he replaced it with a 4 foot one.  Then, he changed all the batteries in our smoke detectors.  Very nice.

Oh, I forgot ~ prior to him arriving at the house, I was out on the front porch because there was a pickup truck in front and two BIG dogs in the yard.  The biggest Rottie and the biggest Pit I have ever seen.  Both wet, no collars.  The guy in the truck turned out to be a neighbor who had seen the dogs and was trying to corral them while waiting for Animal Control.  Amy got the dogs in our back yard so they would be safe.  Our neighbor told me he had his gun in case the dogs got aggressive.  Not good.

Anyway, Animal Control came ~ he was the nicest guy.  Said he knew the dogs.  Both were chipped.  Both lived on a big piece of fenced property BUT their owners had 2 little kids who would let the dogs out.  Animal Control said they were taking the dogs to their home.  

Luckily that was the most excitement we had on Monday.

15 hours later, at 4:22am, the smoke detector in my room and the one in Amy's room started chirping.  I got the big ladder and two new batteries and replaced mine.  No luck.  Amy got up there and replace the batteries ~ no luck.  Lots of cursing.  

I called SmokeAlert and left a message saying we were not happy.

    

My complaint:  (1) why are the + and - signs so tiny in smoke detectors?  (2) why do we have smoke detectors in the same house that use 9 volt and AA batteries?  Why aren't they all the same?  

Anyway, I left to BUY new batteries.  I wondered what is open during COVID at 5:30 am where I can buy batteries?  My brain was clicking along so I went to our local Sheetz gas station.  Bought new 9 volt and AA batteries. Tried to buy lottery tickets but you can't get those until after 7am.  

Got home and looked at my phone ~ 3 messages from Amy starting at 8 minutes ago saying No chirping.  Well, we have new batteries.  And a quiet house.  For now.

And, to end on a happy note, here are the newest pictures of Thomas:

This quilt was made by our neighbor, Rhonda.  Love it!!!!!

Hope everyone has a beautiful day!

Love,

Leslie