Our annual ‘Blow-Stuff-Up’ party was small this year. Unfortunately schedules kept most of our friends from being able to attend. Most of our family was there, and we all had a good time. It was a hot day and many enjoyed the coolness of our new pool. We gave up on the pop-up pool with the inflatable ring. The plastic had degraded significantly, and it wasn’t worth keeping up with the patches any longer, so we got a metal frame pool. So far, this pool is working a LOT better, and its bigger and deeper, as this month’s water bill bears out.
We had our normal type of display with the majority of our money being spent on the mortar-launched aerial bombs. We like those a lot! Not all of our stuff was up in the air, though. We also had a fair assortment of fountains including one that we really liked from last year called Lava Lamp. Similar, but bigger, than the Lava Lamp is the Solar Storm fountain. With a SOHO image of the Sun at solar max, how could I not get it? All of our fireworks this year, and for the third year running, were purchased from the Fireworks Supermarket in Odessa. They have demos of their stuff on-line if you’d like to see a video of the fountains.
The following weekend, Higginsville had its fireworks display at the Fairgrounds Park. Being a small town with a smaller audience, they can do more than just the standard aerial bombs that you typically see, although they have plenty of those too. They have a lot of large fountains and roman candles, and their finale is just awesome! Unfortunately this year, the wind was blowing straight toward the crowd, so we had to endure a lot of smoke and cardboard shrapnel. It was worth it!
Just in time for our St. Pat’s party, we got most of the new kitchen floor put down. The only parts of the floor left to do are under the fridge and the china cabinet. To see the rest of our progress on the kitchen, check out the permanant page, Kitchen, linked on the right sidebar. Here’s a couple of quick pics of the new floor. This is the same product we used in the bathroom except in an 18″ size instead of the 12″.
Tab and I would like to wish everyone a happy St. Patrick’s Day! Toss a pint o’ Guinness or have a couple fingers of good whiskey and enjoy the company of friends and family. We had an Irish dinner last Saturday (pictures to come) and it went very well. Good friends, good food, good libations, good times.
A Traditional Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
My aunt did something extra special for the family this year for Christmas, and especially for us grandkids. She put together a collection of Irish crystal and porcelain, some of which belonged to our grandparents, some of which was purchased for their similarity to items my grandparents have. Heres is a picture of what we received to begin our own collection of Irish linen, porcelain, and crystal.
The Belleek pieces can be easily dated by the nature of the stamp on the bottom of the piece. Our two vases have the 2nd and 3rd Green Mark. You can learn more about Belleek Pottery and the meaning of the marks at Marion Langham’s site.
We haven’t done enough reading to know how to date the Wade pieces we have, but they are from Wade of Ireland factory which is no longer around. You can still find Irish Wade being sold, though, so it will be easy enough to grow our collection.
Well, at long last, I’ve gotten around to taking pics of the new bathroom. The demo started in July and the fixtures were in place and working within a month, but it took me a bit longer to finish all of the drywall work, the floor, and trim. We ran into some strange surprises during the demolition. Here’s some quick before and after shots. You can read the whole story about the bathroom remodel on the static page Downstairs Bathroom.
Here’s the bathroom before the fix (notice the lack of any bathing apparatus).
Here’s a shot from the same angle as the one above. We put in a 48″ shower stall and moved the washing machine downstairs next to the dryer.
The old vanity didn’t fit with the new shower, which was fine because it was old and water damaged. It needed replacing anyway.
Best of all is the new sign on the door. …not that people will need a sign to know what the room is once they open the door.
Here is Tab and my new blog dedicated to what’s happening with us, the house, and family fun. Tab still maintains her personal blog at http://www.mstabbycat.com, but my site died recently. For now this is it. :) All of the house remodeling pictures will make their way here as I rewrite all of the pages.
Not all of our stuff was up in the air, though. We also had a fair assortment of fountains including one that we really liked from last year called Lava Lamp. Similar, but bigger, than the Lava Lamp is the Solar Storm fountain. With a SOHO image of the Sun at solar max, how could I not get it? All of our fireworks this year, and for the third year running, were purchased from the Fireworks Supermarket in Odessa. They have demos of their stuff on-line if you’d like to see a video of the fountains.
