Friendly visit

Our Japanese friends came to visit us this week.  Bob says they're not Japanese; I say that since they live in Japan, that makes them at least temporarily Japanese.  He says that using that logic, I was Scottish for 10 months back in 1995-96.  Exactly!   I'm glad he sees my logic.*

*(He doesn't see my logic.)

Anyway, these are old friends from when we lived in South Carolina and Merry-land.  Yes, both places!  Keep up.  They were in the country for a family wedding and swung by (6 hours out of their way) to see us.  We love them. 

We showed off the house progress (of course).   The last time they visited we only had about 4 courses of logs up.  Joanne's pushing for a climbing wall in the living room.  Ummm, no.

The boys laid out scrap wood trails through the house and had some sort of adventure...

 ... and stuck their hands in the lake and announced that it wasn't too cold and they might jump in. 

 Trust me.  It's too cold. 

And the girls wore matching party skirts and ran around outside.

Four days and 600 bottles of wine later, we said goodbye on Saturday and tried to think how fast a year or two will go by until we see them again.   Althouuuuugh...  they might just move to the North Country in another 4 or 5 years.  Good.   Cranky Anne could use more friends around me who remember my fun, younger self.  Hey!  There was a time....   

Fungus on a Thursday

Just... aaaah

Barnum Pond, Franklin County, NY

Driving Route 30 in Franklin County is a treat, pure and simple. 

Well, in good weather anyway. 

More Walls!

The Hubs came home tonight sporting THREE new pix for me of the new walls they framed up today.  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Partial dividing wall between front hall and staircase

Hallway from front of house to back.

Dining room on immediate left, then spare bedroom on left and across from that on the right is the bathroom; to the immediate right is the kitchen.

Standing in the hallway looking through the new wall into the dining room. 

Bob the Builder's list

I am a list maker.  The Husband is oh-so-decidely not.  I find extensive lists to be helpful in organizing my day, avoiding forgetting appointments, and bringing some structure to my otherwise haphazard and disorganized life.  The Husband figures if it's important, he'll remember it and it'll get done; and if not:  meh.  But I finally discovered the type of list Bob will make:

The list of building materials written on scrap lumber.  

Classic.

Bob the Builder's playground

While The Husband and I hashed out the new layout in the basement and he explained where walls will end and where doorways will be, the kids ran amok.  Well, not really 'amok,' but I like the look of that word.  And, truthfully, our children are quite wild.

They hammered nails into odds and ends of wood... right over our heads as we were in the basement.  They played hide and seek.  They dashed between wall studs pretending...  well, something I never could quite overhear enough of to understand.  I probably don't want to, frankly. 

And Baby M. expressed fear over the whatchamacallit saw:

So Daddy explained it all, very kindly, until she wriggled down and ran away to play.  Nice try, hon.

Little G. thought he might dash up and down the ladders --  until he got to the top and his inherited neuroses kicked in and he slowly backed down with shaky legs:

I can't tell if the kids' impatience and general craziness lengthened our decision-making conversation or if it cut it short.  Either way we all ran away a little frazzled.

And consoled ourselves with Pizza Hut.