Fun With Rob and Jayne

Back on August 19th we had some friends come into town on their way south. Rob, Jayne and their daughters Julia and Emma. They arrived a little after 9 pm that night and we proceeded to help Jayne celebrate her 50th birthday. Due to alcohol being involved there are no photos of Thursday night.

Friday evening when we all gathered back at Chateau RS, Emma got Richard to put on her clown nose while she massaged his scalp.



Richard, being his normal fun loving self, posed for this wonderful shot of him.



Later on we gathered in the kitchen to serve up some birthday cake, a day late.



Jayne was having a wonderful time celebrating her birthday. Mind you this was after a cosmopolitan or two.


Rob and Jayne with their birthday cake in the dining room. Jayne is not smiling because she has a mouth full of chocolate cake.


The girls really enjoyed their cookies and cream ice cream with their cake.


Saturday morning Richard had the girls help him making bacon and pancakes for breakfast. Emma is pretty good at flipping pancakes.


After they left this is how Richard and Morgan spent the bulk of Saturday afternoon.



While the call of a nap was strong, the call from the kitchen was much stronger. So while he slept I watched a lot of John Wayne movies on AMC and made stuffing and then stuffed about 6 Anaheim peppers from my garden, then made 8 pints of Bread and Butter pickles with all my cucumbers.
Bedtime was about 8:45.

Too Long Between Visits

Pictured below is my friend Shri. We used to work together at Northwestern Mutual Life in Jacksonville, FL along with Leslie, Lori, Cindy, Tiffany and several other neat people.

I had not seen Shri since right before I moved to North Carolina in the fall of 2003. It was so good to see her and catch up on the goings on with all our mutual friends and acquaintances.



Shri and Richard on the porch while she and I were partaking of Cosmopolitans,,,,yummy.



In the afternoon Shri and I went to the local produce stand and picked up some great peaches to make a Deep Dish Pecan Strusel Topped Peach Pie. It was sinfully delicious. Shri took more pictures than I did and maybe one day I can add them to this blog entry.



Hopefully it will not be almost 7 years before I get to see her again,,, or any other friends from Florida.

The Neighbors

Being the social butterflies that we are, we always love to have friends over

On Friday, August 6th our friends who own the house across the street but really live 3 hours away popped in while we where hanging on the back deck listening to bluegrass, folk and Harry Belafonte. We love Jim and Beth and will be sorry when they sell their house across the street.

Jim having a conversation with Richard,


Richard listening to Jim,



Jim and Beth.


This neat candle holder was a gift for us from Jim and Beth. It really helped to light up the night.


Just another wonderful night on the back deck.

Friends from Arizona

Early in August we had some friends pop in for cocktails and dinner. They had flown into Greensboro, NC for a seminar and had a night to come up and see us.

Of course we had to feed them, which if you know me was a pleasure. I made an Apple-Dijon Mustard Pork Roast in the crockpot so dinner was just about ready when I got home from work.

Brook & Yvonne at the dining room table


After dinner we sat on the back deck. Even though it was a bit warm early on in the evening we lit a fire in the chiminey.


"Honey, why can't we do this in Arizona?"



Richard was the perfect host, as always and loves his photo ops.



We even took one with Yvonne and I together so people would believe that I was really here also.


We had a wonderful evening with them and we hope they come back again one day.

Without You, What Do I Do With Me?

That makes a great blog title. My thanks to Tanya Tucker who actually had a hit with a song named "Without You, What Do I Do With Me?"

So what do I do,,, I have a lot of little around the house projects to do. Some will have to wait for cooler weather and some for a rainy weekend, but until I get motivated or the weather cooperates I do what I do best,,,COOK!

I started out on Sunday by cleaning the second floor after my house guests left and got it ready for the next round. I think I have two sets of overnight guests next week.


First up I made a Blueberry and Peach Cobbler for my co-workers. They love when Richard goes out of town because they know I will bring in some goodies.



At one point I had both ovens on. This is really neat having two ovens to play with.



I had purchased a beautiful eggplant at our local farmer's market on Saturday so I decided to make some parmigiana with it. Instead of frying the eggplant slices, I bake them on cookie sheets that have been sprayed with a non-stick cooking spray,like Pam. Bake them for a few minutes, turn them over and bake for a few more.



While I was playing with eggplant I had a tart crust in the lower over and used it for a Lemon-Blueberry Tart for dessert for my dinner company on Sunday night.



As I was putting the eggplant parmigiana together I went out and picked some fresh basil from the garden. I put several leaves in between the layers of my parmigiana. When I eat this I will remember the abundance of fresh basil I had.



In the end one eggplant yielded 4 individual portions of parmigiana. They are now wrapped and frozen, awaiting a cool day when I can pull one out and bake it for my dinner.

The Rest of the Story,,,,,,,

A few posts ago I talked about all the hard work Richard and Fred had done, splitting and stacking wood in the shed for us.

Richard has since pointed out that I did not post any photos which showed all that firewood they split and stacked,,,,,so without further ado,,,,,,,,,,

Below is a shot of all the stacks of wood as seen from the front of the shed,, but that is only part of the story


Here is a shot showing how they stacked the wood all the way to the ceiling of the wood shed. Every stack is piled this high in the shed. Wish I had all this wood last winter.


Great job guys!!

The Symphony at Chetola

Every year we have been together Richard and I head to Blowing Rock for "The Symphony at Chetola". We have a wonderful time seeing friends and enjoying the music and fireworks. This year however Richard could not attend with me,,,,(huge sigh) but I did my best to have a wonderful time.


Below is our table which is our little red wagon with a folding top on it. This was during the cocktails and appetizer portion of the evening.



Here is Debra and her husband toasting Richard,,,


Peggy saying "Hi Richard"


This year there were 5 minute hot air balloon rides.


But after a few minutes we all started digging into all the food. We had deviled eggs, guacamole, grilled shrimp with sausage, cheese, some wontons and pickles. Stella made a killer relish tray with pickled carrots, asparagus, huge martini olives, artichoke hearts and marinated mushrooms with garlic and black olives. As I said this was just the appetizers.



Our good friends Harry and Melanie were able to join us this year and I am pretty sure that they will be back next year.


Here is a group shot with the balloons in the background.