back home

We made it back to Gaithersburg by 4:00 pm today. No complaints from the cats, the corn has sprouted in the garden, and two Carolina wrens are still working very hard at fitting long sticks into the small opening on their bird house.

Lots of excitement in upstate New York while we were there. Martha had washed the drapes in the twin bedroom, and major disintegration problems surfaced on the hems. The good news is that mother's sewing machine not only works, it works beautifully. And, as we all kind of know, if you can't find it in that house, you don't need it. Orange thread? No problem. Seam binding? Miles of it.

The best discovery was the $1.49 cone at the Flavor Haus. It's worth the server handing over the "teeny weeny" cone.

Ellicottville was overrun with people intent on floating on the Great Valley creek on a beautiful day.

The reports were that around 3,000 people put some kind of floating vehicle in the water on Saturday, a percentage of them spent the night in a tent along the creek, and nobody had any qualms with floating with a six pack.

The picture I wish I had? Tom on the ladder in the dark with a power drill, Martha with a flashlight, an angry starling circling as he attached a perfectly measured board onto the corner of the porch to cover the hole the starling had found.