Subject: Weekend Update: August 23-26, 2002
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 13:18:25 -0400

All last week, Miranda has been going to school for teacher
orientation.  She, Jess, and Joy took a tour of Mandy's school
and new office last Thursday before shopping for back-to-school
items.  It must have been interesting to check out a school for
your child who is going to WORK there!

Andrew attended a meeting at the high school for people interested
in high school football. He said it was boring and a waste of his
time.  On Monday, however, he began physical training; the real stuff.
He said four boys threw up during practice (but not him!).  He related
that the coach asked another young man, "are you going to be sick?
Well, go over there! Don't barf on my field."  Andrew was tired
afterward but is ready to go at it again.

I took Joy out to dinner on Friday night.  It had been a stressful
week for her for one reason or another and an evening out helped
to drain the strain.  We really enjoy getting out on our own from
time to time.  After a T-bone and chicken salad, we went to the Mall
and ordered a shed to store the lawn tractor this winter.  It will
take some tmie before it is delivered but that helps us to prepare
a place for it in the meantime.

Summer turned the corner last week in our area.  The crops are
ripening fast, the pool shed ten degrees, and even a few leaves
are blushing on the old maple tree out back. Cooler daytime temps
and nighttime window-closers prompted us to bring the hot tub out
of its summer hibernation.  On Saturday morning, before we headed
out back to prepare the site for the shed that we'd ordered the
night before, we stuck a hose in the tub and asked one of our girls
to check on it in a half hour and at fifteen-minute intervals after
that.  About half way up, I'd turn on the heat and hopefully have
the tub ready for use that evening.

Out by the basketball court, Joy and I diverted the 8x8 railroad
ties to outline a smaller rectangle near to the honeysuckle bushes.
That's where the shed will go and we have to fill the rest with
compost and top soil and eventually more grass to mow.  We finished
off the site with much of what was left of the pea stone but still
had plenty to huff and puff three wheelbarrow loads up to the top
side of the house to the front of the barn. 

After some time of working on the site, Joy asks, "Did the kids
shut off the water to the tub?"  "I'll check," said I.  As I
approached the spa room, water was cascading from the base of
the clapboard outside the room.  The spa was filled to overflowing
and the water was finding whatever exits there were underneath it.
I shut off the hose, unscrewed it, and promptly began to siphon
water back OUT of the spa.  The girls had gotten busy with their
own work and it slipped their minds that the hose was still
running.  The mess was cleaned up and now we know that the spa
room can handle a flooding!

Unrelated to the overflowing of the spa, Jessica packed up her
belongings and headed back to college on Saturday.  Her job has
her back to school early to set up her area of the school library.
Mandy went with Jess to help her set up her room at ENC.  They
stopped by the church to pick up Andrew to help also; he was doing
fund-raising work for the youth group to help himself and others
to go Nazarene Youth Conference.  He and two others cleaned up the
parsonage yard (to my limited knowledge).  Emily stayed behind
to help Joy and me with the household chores.  She also is spending
quite a bit of time with some of her local friends so house chores
enabled her to do both.

Jessica had some trouble hunting down her room key, but finally got
it, unpacked and headed back to the Manor for the rest of the weekend.
Also, Jessica's computer monitor didn't work so she took Andrew's;
he has the ancient 486 computer up in his room; now he is without
a monitor but wins the "selfless sacraficer" award for this past week.
The college movers arrived home just in time for dinner with Grandma
and Grandpa, (with garden vegetables including more of our own corn)!

After dinner we started in on the loft because we needed to rearrange
things in the barn. Joy and Andrew pulled and sorted all of our games
out of the closet to keep or to discard the obsolete, unwanted, and
broken ones.  We then moved the game cabinet so that the sleep sofa
could go up into the loft into semi-storage until Jessica and David
can use it. 

On Sunday afternoon, most of us spent time soaking up late summer sun
by the pool.  We jumped in and out of the cooler water, and it wasn't
as bad as we thought it might be at 72 degrees. 

After church, we stopped in at the Papes where an ecclectic bunch
had gathered for food, fun, and fellowship.  But before we could go
to bed that night, we had to remove most of the barn furniture so
that Joy could shampoo the rug the next day.  Andrew and I got the
sofa-bed up the stairs but it took five of us to heave the couch up
and over the railing. We may find that we like the new arrangement
up in the game loft and have to get something up there when the
couch goes.  The empty space left by the couch on the main floor
of the barn would be occupied late Monday with a new sectional
that we ordered some weeks ago.

Emily was headed into marching band camp on Monday.  I guess Emily
and Andrew will be going to the same games.  Hmmm, I think I might
want to find some heated seat cushions for Joy and me.  We connected
with Mark and Joyce Hamlin for lunch at Garrisons in Billerica
- nice restaurant, good menu, large portions.

I asked Eric Pape to loan me his muscles and pickup truck on Monday
night to pick up the furniture that we had ordered.  I brought The Boy
along with me and we met at 7-11 for Coke Slurpees but I was distressed
to find that the machine was in its melt down cycle.  We went to the
pickup place with the promise to return on the way home.  The furniture
was loaded into my van and Eric's pickup and the lads at the furniture
place broke off one of the legs.  I was surprised because these were
plastic legs! I mean, I bought the pieces I did for the quality leather
only to find that the legs were plastic?  To me, it was like having a
bumper sticker on a Lexus.  The service department was very good about
getting me replacements, but I intend to write a note about this to the
furniture store. 

This week, Joy is in the process of putting the house back together
after the moves and disruptions.  This Thursday, the Youngs bring David
back to college and they all will be staying with us for a few days.
Three-day weekend coming up!  Plans anyone?

Mark

P.S. Today (8/27) is my parents' 48th wedding anniversary!!  Woohoo!