The above is a collage of Dino some taken just a few minutes ago. Top left though is what he did the very first thing when he came "home" -- he drank almost two bowls of water, and then ate one bowl of food . . . he seems just as if he had never been away. He quietly went into his routines of chewing his nylabones and looking out the front door and laying in his bed.
Dino was with other puppy raisers for 24 days. But at the meeting last night it was something like the Budweiser Clydesdale commercial as he recognized both Gail and me. We did not stay for the whole meeting as the walk through the campus of the school was much more than I had done as yet.
At home, we enjoyed a great comfort food dish -- chicken & rice -- that Carol, our contractor's wife fixed for us -- boy was it delicious AND we have enough for tonight as well. Dino had been fed and watered and was just relaxing as we ate and happened to watch the Westminster dog show, one of our favorite things to watch.
But his homecoming is "bittersweet" as we have to bring him to San Rafael on Sunday the 17th for his advanced training phase. He going to be evaluated as a breeder and/or a GDB . . . we'll keep up on his progress -- we feel that he'll make good on either position.
So What is the State of our Kitchen Remodel
As I may have mentioned, two days after I went into the hospital, our long planned kitchen remodel began. There was a lot of work that I "missed" out of -- good timing for me, not so much for Gail. Everything packed into our kitchen had to be placed elsewhere including the refrigerator stuff . . .
Above was/is our way outdated kitchen. Everything in the above picture is going -- anyone need a good running refrigerator, the other appliances are all of questionable quality. Click on if you want to see more detail.
So on January 16, work began on making the space suitable for the planned changes and to accommodate the newer items:
Right away you can see the beginning of the demolition. We are so lucky to have our current contractor -- Rich Ryan -- we had most of the same workers in 1999 doing our previous kitchen remodel. The above is now completely demo'd and we are in other phases which we'll showcase in upcoming posts.
Status of Current Genealogy
I am slowly getting back into family history work. I hope to develop a more focused effort this year. I have been all over the tree in the past few years, often getting the "low hanging" fruit. This week Family Search opened up a data base of Ohio Birth records and I searched on many of the HILES' that we are related to there:
I did not really find new folks -- but I did find evidence for many of the folks that I had identified including a lot of "Johns" (doesn't sound right) in our tree. From the birth records up might pop other proof sources once the birth dates were proven. FamilyTree.org is a great free site to search for records. I did voluntary work for the site on the 1940 census that became available this year.
From the Shoebox
I am still working on a lot of pictures I acquired from my brother Marv late last year. The below picture is one of those. It would be nice to know who everyone in the photo is -- I do not know the first two folks on the left -- the rest I certainly know:
It is possible that the first two folks are related to the "Cliftons" as this might have been taken in Texas . . .
And Now Some "Important" News of the Week
Growing up, the mailman in our neighborhood walked the route, carrying a large leather pouch and came to the doors to deliver the mail and parcels -- all mailboxes were at the door of the residences and I can not recall any curbside mailboxes.
AND -- guess what -- the mailman walked that route twice a day, as we got mail delivered once in the morning and then again in the afternoon -- WOW! Same as the daily paper, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
And so it came, not as a shock, but as a time to reflect on the direction of the mail service:
The above trucks will be much less active on Saturdays starting in August or so. In our neighborhood the mail truck runs wildly through the neighborhood often pushing mail into our curbside locked box including mail for folks that no longer live at this address and often delivering our mail to other similar addresses in the neighborhood . . .
So, will we miss the Saturday delivery -- maybe we will out of habit of "looking" for the mail delivery each day and pretty much enjoying seeing just what came . . . but it will make Monday delivery just that more enjoyable.
And Even More Important News
Growing up I really enjoyed playing "board" games. I loved playing games like "Star Reporter" and "Careers", card games like "Authors" and many others. But of course the board game most often enjoyed was of course "Monopoly".
At first I wasn't allowed to play because when younger I would ruin it for the older kids because it took more skill and more strategy -- but as I aged a bit I enjoyed everything about the game. And yes we changed some of the rules to fit our style (if everyone agreed) and to sometimes allow a lengthy game to conclude.
But now . . .
A major change has been made -- the IRON -- game piece has been replaced. When you think of it, most young kids of today may not even know what the IRON was even used for -- it was probably overdue.
So the new piece is a Cat, probably a good choice -- will that cause me to order a new game -- maybe not just yet. We haven't played for awhile and with all the new "toys" at our disposal it may be a tad more in the future before we replace our current edition. Maybe we could send in our IRON token and receive a replacement CAT . . .
That is the news and other happenings of this mid-week post. I'm hoping that you all are having a good week too. I just received a phone call from one of the home visiting physical therapists who is going to visit me tomorrow morning fairly early -- I better rest up some . . .
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