Visiting Battleship Park

Because we were in Mobile in the Spring, we finally had a chance to take the girls to Battleship Park. It was an absolutely perfect day for such an outing. Warm, but not hot, with a lovely breeze. Decidedly more appropriate than trying to wander around on an iron ship in the middle of summer!

First, we visited the battleship USS Alabama and its grounds.



We were greeted by a naval officer...



...and proceeded to visit different areas of the ship on our tour. Pretty cool how the ship is, by necessity, its own little town, with everything on board that could be needed during those weeks and months at sea. There were offices,



berths,



control rooms,



mess halls,



galleys, of course, for preparing all the food, and their ancillary pantries,



an alterations shop,



a post office (requiring a picture with Larry, of course),



a chapel,



medical and pharmaceutical rooms,



and lots of fun places to take cool pictures of the girls, just to spice things up.



After lunch at the on-site cafe, we headed to the submarine USS Drum. More compact, of course, than the Battleship, it sported the same amenities, just in tighter quarters.



Our children are no longer deprived. Sarah and Emily can now say they have visited one of the tourist attractions Mobile is known for.

Spring Break Travel

Anticipating a very busy summer, we thought we'd change things up a little bit, and travel to Mobile over Spring Break, hoping to ease some of the summer travel madness. Immediately, complications cropped up. A friend's son decided to get married that first weekend, and I was asked to sing at the wedding party on Saturday night. Of course! I wouldn't miss that for the world! We decided to simply take a red-eye out of Portland that night. We'd have everything packed and in the car, and leave from the party.

In typical fashion, it was decidedly cheaper to fly in/out of New Orleans than Mobile, so that was the plan. Everything was on schedule until we hit Detroit, where we were to change planes. That was where our first delay occurred. We boarded the plane, and were all buckled in, half asleep still, when the pilot came on the intercom and announced that we were disembarking. It seems they discovered a nick in a door gasket during their pre-flight check, and we couldn't fly until the problem was resolved. It was resolved 3 hours later when we were put on a new plane. Darn! That change in schedule meant we'd miss our opportunity to see the Mardi Gras Indians parade. Oh, well; we'd still have a chance to hit Martin's Wine Cellar and pick up some alcohol on our way through town. :-)

We deplaned in New Orleans, and treated ourselves to beignets at Cafe du Monde en route to our rental car. Ready to be on the road at last, tired, groggy, and really not looking forward to the three hour drive ahead of us, we made a quick stop at Rite Aid - and discovered we had a nearly flat tire! Back we went to the airport rental car lot and traded the car for a model with air in all four tires. Now we were really ready for a stop at Martin's!

Once again, we headed down Veteran's in Metarie - and ran smack into the Irish-Italian Society's St. Patrick's/St.Joseph's Day parade. And what a parade it was! There was no end in sight. Families were picnicking all along the route, pausing to catch candy and throws as float after float passed their spot. It continued for blocks and blocks and blocks - negating any opportunity to make a left turn at any intersection. Including the one we needed to take to get to Martin's. Grrr!

We finally made it to Mobile about 5:00 p.m. - too late to even crash. We checked into our room, freshened up, and headed to Mama's for dinner. What a treat! Some family members had already given up on us and left, but we got to see the sibs and - most importantly - collapse for just a little while. With a long-awaited and well-deserved drink!

Winter Formal

Sarah attended her first Winter Formal. She and a bunch of her friends met up and hung out together. They had a blast. It was held off-campus, at a place in The Pearl called Urban Scenes - quite posh!

If these pictures are any indication, I'd better watch out when she has a date to one of these things!

Is that a grave in your front yard?

Poor Larry. He hates plumbing repairs, and we have had one plumbing problem after another at our house over the past several months. Just when we thought things had settled down somewhat, we started noticing a wet place in the front yard that quickly morphed into standing water. Just what we needed - a leaky pipe!

The weather dried out a bit, and Larry started digging. Deeper and deeper and deeper he went before he got to the pipe in question. Pretty soon we had what looked like a grave in front of our house. What a mess!



We put up caution tape and tarps to keep children and dogs and Girl Scout cookie sellers from falling in...



Before he could repair it (or even see what it was that needed to be repaired) we had to turn the water off and let it dry out. Larry filled up bathtubs with water and equipped each with a bucket for adding to the toilet for flushing purposes. He filled carafes and pots with water in the kitchen for drinking and cooking. As a back-up we stocked up on bottled water, too.



The first day we fared OK, but didn't think (duh!) about using paper plates. We washed by hand, then realized, too late, that our water was going fast. After that, we saved up the dishes until our kitchen sink was filled with saved dirty dishes. Why did I even continue to cook? It would have been a lot smarter and easier to bring in fast/take-out food and toss the mess!



In the meantime, we also had the pesky issue of bathing. Sponge baths became the way to go, and we utilized our Girl Scout dishwashing bins to help keep our toilette organized.



Three days later, we were relieved that the job was done. Larry accomplished a neat repair...



... and our water was turned back on. Hurray!!!

Now it was time to fill in the hole again. In the meantime, of course, it started to rain. (At least it held off while he was digging and working on the repairs!) As he attempted to refill the trench amid the drizzle, he had to deal with the fact that it was again full of water, this time courtesy of Mother Nature.



Boy, are we lucky Larry is so handy around the house. Imagine what it would have cost for that job if we'd had to hire somebody... And the flower bed would probably have been destroyed. As it was, Larry did a pretty good job of salvaging what was there, and leaving it ready for Spring planting. What a guy!

It's Cookie Season!

"OMG! What did we get ourselves into?" That was the thought that crossed our minds at the beginning of cookie season this year. Larry and I took on the daunting task of being Cookie Managers for our daughters' two troops - one of which is rather large. We came back from the warehouse with 5 carloads of cases of Girl Scout cookies! In preparation for the onslaught, we took the table out of the dining room to make room for the stock. Good thing!



Xeda loved the new decorating scheme. She thought it was her own personal playground.



We hadn't long to admire our own personal warehouse; in two hours girls were coming by to pick up the cookies they pre-sold door to door. We had to fill these orders fast so we'd be ready. Thus, things started to spread out into the living room and family room of our house.



Emily ended up the troop's top seller. (Go, Emily!) Her order alone looked like this:



Four weekends, 37 cookie sellers, and 40 booths(!) later, we were down to this look. Xeda was so disappointed to see her playground disappear... :-(



Anybody want some Lemon Chalet Cremes?



After all the paperwork was complete, even the lemon cookies found a home - at the Oregon Food Bank. We finally have our dining room, as well as the rest of the house back.



Now we just have to move the furniture back into place!

Springtime in February

Sarah and Emily are skiing today at Mt. Hood Meadows. We spend our evenings lately watching events at the Winter Olympics. But here in Portland, Spring has sprung!

I just returned from a walk under a cloudless blue sky - unheard of here this time of year. I was astounded at the number of flowers I passed in full bloom. Bulbs were in abundance: crocuses, grape hyacinth, narcissus, even some early daffodils and tulips. And based on the green shoots I saw well through the earth, later tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils are not far behind. A bit higher off the ground were heather, azaleas, camellias, and pieris. Trees are even budding out; the maples, plums, and cherries will be beautiful if this keeps up.

Kids are out playing and riding bikes, people are walking, everyone wants to take advantage of this unseasonably early warm (and dry) spell. Let's hope we don't get a freeze that destroys it all!