Sweet Day in Hershey

Yesterday was Northrop Grumman Day at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, so we took the opportunity to go up with the Hartmanns and check it out! It is a clean, pretty amusement park with a German architectural theme to it. I guess chocolate and Germany have a long history together!

We decided we wanted to ride at least the three wooden roller coasters. Carla, as you can see was a little nervous.

Tom, however, was fearless!

Judy loved the first one, and half of the second one. But, by the third one her stomach gave out on her!

The ferris wheel had a beautiful view of the park, as well as a calming effect on Judy's queasy stomach.

Ed is still smiling in this picture, as he had not yet found out that he had lost his car keys somewhere in the park. They must have gotten all shook up on one of the roller coasters!

We all went on a tour of the chocolate factory, after which Ed and Tom went out the parking lot to get the license plate number of the Audi and Carla and I made chocolate bars.

It was fun watching them roll along the conveyor belt. Mine had butterscotch, toffee and crispy rice!

We ended the day with a taxi ride to the airport where the nice people at Budget fixed us up with a rental car in which to drive home.

The happy ending to the story is, that today Ed and I retrieved both the car and the car key, which was found last night in the park. So, aside from some inconvenience and expense, all is well that ends well. (And I have something to tease Ed about for the next 20 or 30 years!)

Gettysburg with the Hartmanns

Our friends, Tom and Carla, from Colorado, dropped by to see us yesterday. We were lucky they were cruising out of Baltimore and saved some time at the end of their trip to see us.

We enjoyed going up to Gettysburg yesterday and going to the museum and the battlefield.

We missed Ed, who gives a much clearer perspective of the battle than I do, but we still enjoyed taking the auto tour and putting together the events of those three days in July of 1863. We ran into some soldiers in period costume at Little Round Top.

I enjoyed my first trip to Gettysburg in which the red bud trees were in full bloom. It was so beautiful. I was glad the Hartmanns chose to come in the spring!

When we got home, Ed joined us and took us out to dinner at CJ's Crabhouse in Owings Mills. It was our first time there, but not our first time for crabs! It was fun showing Tom and Carla how to eat them, as they're game for anything. I had to take this picture before the eating began. We spent the next hour licking our sticky fingers and trying to pick out succulent pieces of white meat seasoned with Old Bay spice. Mmmmm. The taste of summer!

A Cut and a Trim

Our landscapers showed up yesterday to edge our gardens and trim our bushes. They finished everything with a fresh coat of mulch. They brought some annuals for the front beds, and replaced several dead holly bushes. They even brought some clematis for the back of the shed. It's like the yard finally took a bath after a long hard winter! To top it off, they even cleaned the dead wood out of our copse!

Spring Cleaning

There is nothing like more shelves and drawers to get you in the mood to clean! My craft cabinets are finished now, and ready to be put into service.

It didn't take long to fill up the drawers. I still have some room on the top, and intend to let them fill up naturally. Where there's an empty shelf stuff will find a place to land!

While I was at it, I purged the storage room and re-arranged it so the ping pong table could be flat against the right wall when it's not in use. Ed has room in his workbench once again for a project, should he find one!

The two white cabinets that were previously in the great room migrated to the Christmas closet.

They have become the repository of video tapes, game systems, controllers and video games.

It took half a cabinet just to store CDs (stacked three deep on each shelf! I'm so glad I'm now buying digital books and music. It's so much easier to store!

Cooking with the Pearl Strings

The Pearl Strings had a gig Tuesday at the South Carroll Senior Center. I finally got around to getting the videos uploaded. I know most of you don't have time to watch them, but for those of you that care (Joan), here they are. We are missing the first three songs, Blackberry Blossom, I'l Fly Away and Shoo Fly Pie, but we got everything else!

The picture of us at Panera is after the fact. We're kicking back and relaxing!





Jen sings the solo on Dream a Little Dream of Me.



Judy (with Ed's help) doctored the words of Chattanooga Chew Chew to fit with our food theme.



June sings the solo on Bye Bye Blackbird.



Judy plays the guitar solo in Tennessee Flat Top Box (that's a guitar, in case you didn't know).



June milks the Harry Belafonte solo in Day-O.



Barbara does her first solo in Hey Good Looking. Judy also has a dobro solo.



Everybody sings Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby!



Jen sings the solo in You Don't Know Me.



Berry Picking Time gave us all a chance to sing along on the chorus.



We finished up with June's solo on Always.

Horse Care

Coda and I have been taking care of the horses this week. She's in heaven about going to the farm at least twice a day. Because of the rain, we've had to go over at noon, too!

Lenny had an accident Monday and fell through the hay chute while he was throwing hay down. He was able to call for help, but has since been through a lot. He didn't break anything, but hit his head and has been in the hospital all week. His condition seems to be improving.

Lockey and Thomas came over to help with the horses yesterday afternoon. That was fun. It was also fun trying to get a good picture of them with Bali, who was either too much in the stall or too much in Thomas' face!

That's a Lotta Water!

It rained so hard the past few days that it's hard to believe we're still dry in the house. The bigger miracle is that it's dry in the shed!

Our shed has leaked at the foundation during every storm for the past 8 months. Our contractor hasn't found a dry week to come over and dig up the foundation. They finally came over last Saturday. Although they're not done yet, it looks like the fix is good. Despite the fact that we got 5.5 inches of rain in just the past 24 hours, it still didn't leak!

Here's hoping William and Willmer come over today to finish up the job, so we can reclaim our steps!