Pedal, Paddle, Perambulate Triathlon

Ed and I did the First Annual Bush Pedal, Paddle, Perambulate Triathlon today. We were the only participants, and also got first place! (We also placed last!) We were going to invite more people, but Ed was afraid nobody else would want to do it. He was just going along with it to make me happy! Besides, we didn't know anyone else with a kayak registered to Liberty Reservoir.



We first placed the bikes by the boat dock and the kayak by the lake at the end of our street. We then went home and started running from our house to the lake. We jumped in the kayak and paddled to the boat dock, where we grabbed our bikes and road home!

Here is a map of our route. We added a little extra on Tally Ho Court to get over 4 miles. We did it in an hour and 7 minutes, with a good deal of that time dedicated to taking our pictures! It was a fun event, and we hope to repeat it next year. Maybe we can even improve on our time!

Party Planning BBQ

Ed BBQ'd steaks last night for the High Priests Group Presidency and their wives. It was his first time cooking 8 steaks at once, and he was happy they turned out great!

The weather was perfect for sitting outside and visiting over appetizers.
All the ladies had the same name except me. They were Susan, Suzanne and Sue. I felt left out.

After dinner we got down to business and finalized plans for the Eldersburg Ward Fall Festival.

Last year we had it at our house and Miss Carol's farm, but this year we'll use the church grounds.

On a sad note, Miss Carol passed away yesterday. She had suffered for many months from a stroke earlier this year. We'll miss her, and and are glad for the 4 years we enjoyed being her next door neighbor.

Movie Night in Pikesville

Ed invited me out to the movies this afternoon. We went to see Magic in the Moonlight, despite the fact that we didn't want to support Woody Allen, the director. We decided we liked Colin Firth and Emma Stone enough to go anyway.

We went to the Pikes theater, because it is only showing in a few theaters. It was a small theater with only two screens, but happily, with stadium seating. We arrived at 4:30 for the 4:50 showing, and got the last two adjacent seats not on the front row! There were already 45 people in the theater, and none of them under 70! We wondered if they all knew something we didn't know!

We loved the show and enjoyed seeing it with an audience where nobody was tempted to kick our chairs or crawl over us in the middle of the show to go to the bathroom. We might go back again someday!

Outburst at the Sheppards

Friday night we met at the Sheppards for game night. In addition to eating some great appetizers, we also enjoyed playing Outburst. It gave everyone the opportunity to yell at the top of their lungs for an hour!

We played men against the women, and I'm sad to say the women went down in defeat. We almost pulled it off. Our last category (X-rated movies and their stars) seemed an unlikely challenge for a bunch of Mormons. Happily, one of the ladies knew and embarrassingly large number of those! But don't worry, M! We won't tease you about it for the rest of your life!

Eldersburg Ward Talent Show at the DC Temple

Our ward had a talent show in the auditorium of the visitor's center Wendesday night. June and I took the opportunity to stop off at Cafe Rio for dinner on the way down. June only ate half her dinner. Singers have to watch what they eat. I was playing the banjo and finished my dinner!

The Big Bush Basement Band had their premier that night. I was really proud of them! They did a great job, remembering all the little details we had talked about in practice!

The Pearl Strings had to wing it without Barb, our bass player. We tried to pick songs where the bass wasn't important, but there weren't any! We hope Barb comes home from Florida one of these days!



Sorry about the shaky video (by me)! Here is Swallowtail Jig by B4.



And here they are again, on Country Roads!



Here we are on Shoo Fly Pie, the only song we have memorized! We also did Berry Picking Time, which was a lot of fun!

By the time we left it was dark, and the temple was so beautiful. Jen, June and Judy stopped for a picture. Helen, who was in charge of the whole event was still inside cleaning up! She did a lot of work on the show, but it turned out great. There were some other great numbers, and we really enjoyed the show!

Big Bush Basment Band Ready for Prime Time

The Big Bush Basement Band has been practicing weekly this summer to get ready for the talent show at the LDS visitor's center at the Washington, DC temple this week.

Today was our last practice, and we're almost ready for the big time!

Alex, for one, really knows how to play for the camera!





If you want a sneak preview of our performance, here is Country Roads, by B4!

Crabs Legs and Horse Shoes

We had another Crabfest, hosted by our neighbor, Brian, across the street. In addition to crabs, he had a boatload of food. He even had an ice tub to keep cold foods cold!

Afterwards Ed and I played horseshoes with Nick and Alex.

We were worried the teams wouldn't be fairly divided if Ed and I were on the same team.

We were right, but we shouldn't have worried about Nick and Alex. WE had the disadvantage!

The boys beat us 21-10!

If the score had been closer, we would have demanded a rematch! As it was we just tucked our tails between our legs and went home!

If a Tree Fell in the Forest...

Ed and I took a walk along the fire trail this morning. It is so full of downed trees! Nobody has been around to clean them up all summer.

But, lo and behold, we turned the corner to find, first, a pickup truck driven by a lady with a chain saw! One small woman and a chain saw to clean up an entire forest!

Right behind her was a bulldozer, trying to smooth out the ruts in an area that is a running stream bed in the rain! He was having a hard time getting traction in the soft mud!

We turned around at the swimming hole. The water was as high as we've seen it. Baltimore had 6 inches of rain on Tuesday, and it is still trickling into Liberty Reservoir! The weather was about 70 degrees. This has to go down as the best (not hot) summer ever!

Ghost Walk of Gettysburg

Ed and I drove up to Gettysburg yesterday after work. We live so close that you can drive up in under an hour--that is unless you run into a parade down Main Street in Littlestown, PA. After waiting for a steady stream of parade vehicles to make the left turn in front of us, we finally flipped a U-ey and found another way out of town.

We joined up with the Original Gettysburg Ghost Tour at 8 p.m. Our guide, Sandy, was dressed in period costume and had a cool lantern!

We met Suzanne and Ross there, who were celebrating their anniversary. They were staying overnight in Gettysburg, but were nice enough to let us crash their anniversary for the Ghost Tour.

Sandy pointed out that orbs in photographs are really ghosts. If, so, we caught one last night! (See upper left of the photo).

She said arms and legs from amputees were buried all over the city, and pop up now and then. Ross said they should have put them in the Armory. Ed said they could have put the legs in the Leggery. What would one keep in the skullery?

It was a perfect summer evening to walk through such a cute town. We would have enjoyed staying overnight and doing a little shopping in the morning, but we decided to let the Rigby's have the town for themselves today!

Stop and Smell the Black Eyed Susans

I slept about 11 hours last night, and somehow it feels like it's still not enough. We tried to to take a relaxing vacation, but it seems it is not in our nature. We pepped up enough to take a walk tonight.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of our Black Eyed Susans. This is a beautiful time of year and it's so great to be able to get outside and enjoy it.

Go Bonsai!

We got home last night to find my bonsai plant had flourished during our absence.  We had left it in a giant Zip lock bag and well watered. It created it's own ecosystem. The second one had passed away peacefully just prior to our trip. I hope we can keep this one alive another year or so.

Last Day at Brady Bay

John got up early and went for a long walk with me. We tried out his new fitness watch, which seemed to be shortchanging him on steps. I like my fitbit. It gave us 9000 steps!

We stopped in a cotton field to check out the crop. It made us feel like we were really in the South.

For our last day in the fun in the sun, Ed took me out on the Sunfish, a two person sailing boat. I was a little nervous that we would flip it or become becalmed, but we (Ed) did just great and made it safely back to shore.

Everyone was happy to get right into another jigsaw puzzle. This one, however, they didn't have time to finish. Rachael's family is so good at jigsaw puzzles that they consider looking at the picture on the puzzle lid cheating!

After lunch Joan and Bobo came over and made music with us! We just barely made a dent in our books, but had so much fun singing, playing and harmonizing. It was a beautiful thing!

Some of the ladies made some extra scarves. Joan’s turtles were a work of art! She had some help from Verlene, who filled in all the blue while we were singing songs!

Our house was in charge of dinner. We made peanut curry and chana masala on rice. It turned out just great despite the fact that I forgot the main ingredient—green curry paste! Oh, well! The festive seashell and fish plates made it seem like a great meal!

After dinner we had a sibling meeting with the four of us that were there—David, Joan, Verlene and myself. We talked about planning for Mom’s 90^th birthday party in 2018. Mark your calendars for Labor Day weekend that year. We’ll try to get some place to stay in Fairview for the week, but try to see if we can get everyone to show up at least on Saturday of that weekend.

Joan and Bobo had their ukuleles at the pier tonight, and we sang some of my favorite songs from our jam session, The Sloop John  B., Twist and Shout, and La Bamba. The dolphins must have loved it, as they swam right close to the dock.

To close up the evening, Kate taught us how to tango. She was lucky that her brother Sandy flew in last night, as she had taught him a few of the dance steps so they could demonstrate for us. We were impressed with the elegance and stateliness of the dance.

This was a wonderful get together and I feel so grateful to have time to spend with family and learn more about their lives and pursuits. We took one last family picture on the dock. I thought we were a terrific looking bunch!

Crabs, Water, Crafts and Music

We popped on over to the big city of Washington, North Carolina, this morning to pick up a few things. We enjoyed a little stroll down the riverfront. We even stopped in at the Estuarium where we learned about the difference between a sound and a bay (the first one is bigger).

Afterwards we stopped in at a seafood store to pick up some crabs to supplement our harvest from the bay.

We picked up some hammers and had a whacking good time eating crabs seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning. Half of the group had never eaten crabs that way, so it was fun teaching them. One member of the group had to leave the room, as it grossed her out!

After lunch Joan, Rachael and I did a little water ballet to cool off. It worked so well that it started to sprinkle on us!

So we dried up and joined the rest of the group making scarves. Verlene had brought the craft--silk scarves, markers and alcohol to transfer the colors to the scarves.

Verlene is always so clever at thinking up crafts for us to do. This was no exception! Each scarf was completely unique and beautiful! We laid them out in the boat area to dry. It was great having such a good place to do the project.

I like the way mine turned out!

The women finished the jigsaw puzzle this afternoon. That went fast! It's a good thing they're quick, as tomorrow is the last day of the reunion!

Joan, Verlene and Mom were in charge of dinner tonight. We loved the Zuppa Toscana.

Then, because it is the law in Bradyville, we sat on the pier to watch the sun go down. It’s a beautiful thing!

We ended up with a little music at our house. If the Internet weren't so slow I'd upload our version of Home on the Range on bells. But, you'll just have to take my word for it--we rocked it!