You're probably wondering where I have been lately. Seems we had some intense thunderstorms a few weeks ago and I lost my computer to a major power surge. Tom thought he could just change a part but ended up having to replace my entire screen. So now I am back on line!
A lot of activities have occurred between now and my last blog on the 4th of July! We spent the 4th at our neighbor's house at their pool party. Lots of swimming, food and the kids shot off a few fireworks that night(poppers and sparklers).
On Monday I headed off to work while Tom kept the kids busy. I was happy to make extra bucks for working a holiday. Got to pay for those air conditioner repairs. As you may recall, our air conditioner fried in the 107 degree heat. Tom was out in LA while the kids and I were roasting in our house. I was tempted to stay at the neighbors houses but I was afraid I wouldn't get up for work the next day! Tom and I sweated over our decision(literally) to repair or replace. Tom brought in his secretary's son who repairs industrial air conditioners. He recommended we attempt to repair the old conditioner since the parts were still under warranty and it was only 6 yrs old. He also discovered that the air conditioner had never been properly installed. It was missing a valve which controlled the flow of freon. All the past repairmen thought we had a leak and kept adding freon to the system which in reality just flooded the system. After 5 repair visits and lots of money spent, we now have a well functioning air conditioner. Thank goodness since we had temperatures in the 100s for several weeks(not usual temps) along with humidity and it was pretty miserable. The kids and I were sleeping in the basement in front of fans which helped a bit. Tom even found a portable air conditioner for our bedroom which worked great until it leaked into the kitchen ceiling. He bought a floor model system at half price and it did not come with any info, including the fact that it had two drain hoses rather than just the one that Tom discovered. Looks like Tom has a bit more drywall to repair this year. But the portable floor unit certainly worked well! And our permanent air conditioner has never worked better!
Besides suffering in the heat, the kids have been busy with their summer camps. Allison enjoyed working at the Girl Scout Day Camp at the archery range. She found a whole new group of teenage girls that share all her same interests in books, movies and music. She also loved the archery program. While she hung out with the Girl Scouts, earning her mandatory 75 volunteer hours for High School graduation requirements, Scott was busy attending classes at the local community college. He was very excited to complete another year of Legos robotics and a Pets n Vets class too. He loved the variety of animals that kids and adults brought in, including his new love of ferrets. He has been very busy trying to convince us that Cookie needs a new buddy. Speaking of Cookie, she also attended the class on my day off, along with Yoshi our gerbil.
As soon as the kids finished their camps and Tom returned home from a work trip, we headed to Williamsburg to visit Busch Gardens. I wanted to go primarily to see the B52s in concert at the park. I had missed them when they toured through DC and Baltimore, but was happy not to pay extra for the same concert-the concerts are free in the park and we have season passes. Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one in the family that really appreciated their music. I was terribly excited to be able to stand right in front of the stage! I was also amazed that the last time I saw them in concert was at MSU about 25 yrs ago! Amazing, none of us has changed one bit! The park was a bit crowded that weekend, so we did not get on a lot of rides, but we really enjoyed the fireworks show at the end of the day. On Sunday we headed to the water park for a very relaxing swim day-we even caught the diving and gymnastics show. Our weekend started off a bit rough though with a rainstorm and we discovered a slow leak in my back tire. So we had to take a few hours out for a repair before hitting the road.
When we returned it was off to a whole new week of camps. Scott was at the YMCA and enjoyed the outing to the roller rink. He loves to roller blade which is allowed in the rinks now but first Tom had to help him pick out a new pair of blades. He had completely worn out his hand me down pair from the neighbor's son. He had a great time. Allison had an intense schedule as we signed her up for a Field Hockey goalie camp at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She got a whole new perspective on being a goalie. I we got a whole new perspective on driving around Baltimore. Apparently I got myself lost in a not so nice area on the way to pick up Allison.
I was busy in downtown Baltimore myself as I just started my Catholic Charities Dragon Boat race practices in the harbor. In September our company and other businesses around Baltimore will race against each other in a long boat with a Dragon head in the front and 20 paddlers to raise money for Catholic Charities. This will be my 4th race. They are held every other year. It's a lot of hard work and very wet but a lot of fun. I'll be busy practicing every week this summer.
After the kids finished their camps, we were on the road again. This time to Michigan. We were running late since Allison's goalie camp was held on Saturday morning. No time to pack up the kayak this year. We got to Detroit on Saturday night and headed to Charlevoix on Sunday with a stop over at MSU. We love to walk the campus, visit the gardens, buy ice cream from the on campus dairy and shop along Grand River for MSU stuff. The kids enjoyed discovering two new plants-the buttered popcorn plant whose leaves smell like buttered popcorn, and the sensitive plant that closes its leaves when you touch them.
We spent our week at my parent's lake house swimming and fishing. We attempted hiking on a new path but could not get through the tall weeds and poison ivy. Instead we came across an archery range so Allison and Scott enjoyed an hour of shooting. Tom took on some projects at the house including repairing a bathroom light fixture and working on Dad Bozyk's lake pump(still a work in progress). At the end of the week my college friend Laura visited with her husband and two kids. We enjoyed swimming and the kids loved their tube ride behind Grandpa's boat. We caught a few movies including Despicable Me and Sorcerer's Apprentice during a rainy evening. And the whole group enjoyed dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and Putt Putt Golf at Pirate's Cove in Petoskey with a stop over at the Street Fair in Boyne City. And we did not let the week end without a bonfire, s'mores, and fireworks(our own and a show out of Charlevoix). On Saturday everyone headed out-except for Allison. She stayed to spend a few more weeks enjoying the lake and Grandma and Grandpa's company. I also signed her up for another week of sailing lessons in Lake Charlevoix.
So we are back to our busy schedule in Baltimore. In the news-we awoke a few weeks ago to a large rumbling sound at 5am. Seems even the east coast can have earthquakes-this one was centered near DC-a 3.6. Peanuts next to the shakers in Calf, but certainly a familiar feeling for Tom and I. The kids slept the whole time. Two quakes in one year for us! What are the odds.
Also, Ellicott City was named by Money Magazine as the #2 Best City to Live in the US for Families -right behind #1 Prairie Eden, Minnesota. Watch out Minnesota! We're shooting for 1st place next year!
And Allison celebrated her 15th Birthday this past month along with her cousin Nicholas Bozyk-also 15. I think Allison is a little disappointed that she wasn't able to start driver's training this summer like her cousins and friends in other states. MD does not allow teenagers to start drivers ed until they are 15yrs and 9mos old. Guess they don't trust the kids out here to be safe behind the wheel at a younger age. So next year she will be taking her exam and driver's training. Fine with us. Now if Tom can just keep Zippy going long enough for her to use it as her trial car.
More on our summer activities during my next Baltimore Blog installation.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy Fourth of July! Well I survived the week, but just barely. Tom took off last Sunday for San Francisco and returned late Friday night. In the meantime, Scott was off to cub scout camp for the week. He had a great time shooting BB guns and archery, and this year tackled the wood burning task. The boys decorated their own hiking sticks. Not to mention, half of them ended up with a burned finger(Scott included). As Dad Seitz says, the project is not done until you bleed on it. I car pooled with our neighbors whose son was also in cub scouts which worked out great. The Dad volunteered for a few days(I got a bit panicky when the camp called to say Scott was not signed in however). Scott had run off to his Den and the DAd did not know which group he was in. I was just glad he wasn't lost. I hadn't seen him for a whole day since I dropped him off the morning before and he spent the night at their house while Allison had her Twilight party. I spent all day Friday with him and the boys on my volunteer day. It was a very long day. I am impressed with how many activities the boys participate in-Shooting range, Field games, leather crafts, science projects and scout skills. We parents even got to play capture the flag too. And on Weds night we had our own special parent's night complete with BB gun shooting, archery and cooking our own dinner over the fire. I think we had our fill of camp skills last week.
Of course, I had a break in between the cub scout week with Allison's Twilight party. I rushed home on Tuesday night with pizza and balloons. The girls had already started arriving. Allison kept them busy with the Wii trivia game for Twilight and her Bella Bingo game. They all ate and we packed them up and off to the movie theater.We were there about an hour early, so the girls had their picture taken with an Edward(vampire) cut out and went in to see the end of the last movie, New Moon. The newest movie Eclipse started at midnite. Altogether we had 12 in our party including girls and adults. Everyone enjoyed their movie night and the girls stayed up until 7am. They had to crawl out of the basement though in the morning since a few parents had errands to run and had to pick up before 10am. The others stayed a little longer and enjoyed breakfast.
I had to clean up before lunch though since I took the cat to her yearly check up. Tom was even a bit worried about her since she looks like she has lost a bit of weight. Turns out she is fine, maybe a bit hyperthyroid. But they are running more tests to see if she needs to be medicated. Pika is 10 yrs old. They said she looks great, just about 1lb lighter. She just never was a big cat. I even tried to feed her extra canned food, but she is not used to it and turned up her nose.
I had to run home again in time to meet the air conditioner repair man. So far he has been out 3 times and it is still not working. It is completely fried. We are trying to decide on a new unit vs trying to patch this one back together. It is not a good time for the air conditioner to be out. Maryland is having a record heat wave. The kids and I did not sleep at all last Sunday night, it was just too hot and humid. Even in the basement. It has been about 100 degrees almost every day. I bought more fans to blow the hot air around and that helped a bit. Last Sunday I took them to cool off in a local lake called CAscade lake. The kids usually go there with the YMCA camp and have been asking to go back. They have rafts to swim to and a jumping platform as well as water slides in the lake. We had a great time floating in the lake and helping sink the rafts for about 3 hours on Sunday. It was a great way to cool off.
Scott and Allison also spent some time last week swimming at our neighbors house during the evening. Thank goodness for friends and pools. We even spent the evening at our neighbor's house cooling off after dinner last Sunday. They invited Tom and I over for Anniversary drinks, but Tom was already out in California. I enjoyed the drinks, as well as the air conditioning!
Besides putting on her Twilight birthday party, Allison arranged to meet with a few girls this past week to write up their presentations for next year's Confirmation class. Allison enjoyed volunteering last year and signed up again this year. The girls did a great job and turned in both outlines that are due next week. Allison also finished summer piano lesson number 2.
Tom made it home late Friday night and the kids waited to take him to see the Airbender movie on Saturday morning. The kids love the cartoon, and thought the movie was not as good as the series. Tom had a hard time staying awake(I think his long travel day had something to do with it). Plus I hit him with all our issues-dead air conditioner. Not to mention all our electronics were screwed up due to a power surge this past week. Looks like I need a new laptop-the screen on this one keeps flickering now. And Tom had to rebuild our TiVo recorder. And all this with the house surge protector in place.
Meanwhile, other sad news. Tom's mom called to say that Uncle Peter passed away on Monday after his fight with lung cancer. The funeral was Thursday in Virginia. We were very sad to hear about his passing, and our thoughts and prayers go out to Aunt Mary.
Some good news is that our friend John from Northrop managed to get a job with a company here in Baltimore that he previously worked for briefly when he first relocated to Maryland. At the time it was a small, new company and John thought he would give it a try, but opted to stay with Northrop for security(who knew). We are just so happy to hear he is employed and they have lots of work for him. Now we are cheering for Mike Bozyk to find a new librarian position in LA.
We are spending the 4th of July evening at our neighbors-swimming and grilling, and maybe lighting up a few sparklers. Last night we all headed out to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra play their holiday concert and shoot off fireworks. I couldn't believe how many people I ran into from work and school. We even took John with us for the night to celebrate his new job.
So keep your fingers crossed that we get air conditioning soon! I may have to work some extra hours after all!
Happy 4th of July! Kathleen
This is a shorter week since Monday is a holiday. The kids just have 4 days of camp, but Allison is looking forward to archery at Girl Scout camp, and Scott is so excited to be going to his classes at the Community College, including a legos robotics class and pets and vets. He can't wait to bring Cookie to school! We just got back from a neighborhood kids and dog parade in our neighborhood park. Scott ate his weight in cookies and popsicles.
Happy Fourth of July! Kathleen
Of course, I had a break in between the cub scout week with Allison's Twilight party. I rushed home on Tuesday night with pizza and balloons. The girls had already started arriving. Allison kept them busy with the Wii trivia game for Twilight and her Bella Bingo game. They all ate and we packed them up and off to the movie theater.We were there about an hour early, so the girls had their picture taken with an Edward(vampire) cut out and went in to see the end of the last movie, New Moon. The newest movie Eclipse started at midnite. Altogether we had 12 in our party including girls and adults. Everyone enjoyed their movie night and the girls stayed up until 7am. They had to crawl out of the basement though in the morning since a few parents had errands to run and had to pick up before 10am. The others stayed a little longer and enjoyed breakfast.
I had to clean up before lunch though since I took the cat to her yearly check up. Tom was even a bit worried about her since she looks like she has lost a bit of weight. Turns out she is fine, maybe a bit hyperthyroid. But they are running more tests to see if she needs to be medicated. Pika is 10 yrs old. They said she looks great, just about 1lb lighter. She just never was a big cat. I even tried to feed her extra canned food, but she is not used to it and turned up her nose.
I had to run home again in time to meet the air conditioner repair man. So far he has been out 3 times and it is still not working. It is completely fried. We are trying to decide on a new unit vs trying to patch this one back together. It is not a good time for the air conditioner to be out. Maryland is having a record heat wave. The kids and I did not sleep at all last Sunday night, it was just too hot and humid. Even in the basement. It has been about 100 degrees almost every day. I bought more fans to blow the hot air around and that helped a bit. Last Sunday I took them to cool off in a local lake called CAscade lake. The kids usually go there with the YMCA camp and have been asking to go back. They have rafts to swim to and a jumping platform as well as water slides in the lake. We had a great time floating in the lake and helping sink the rafts for about 3 hours on Sunday. It was a great way to cool off.
Scott and Allison also spent some time last week swimming at our neighbors house during the evening. Thank goodness for friends and pools. We even spent the evening at our neighbor's house cooling off after dinner last Sunday. They invited Tom and I over for Anniversary drinks, but Tom was already out in California. I enjoyed the drinks, as well as the air conditioning!
Besides putting on her Twilight birthday party, Allison arranged to meet with a few girls this past week to write up their presentations for next year's Confirmation class. Allison enjoyed volunteering last year and signed up again this year. The girls did a great job and turned in both outlines that are due next week. Allison also finished summer piano lesson number 2.
Tom made it home late Friday night and the kids waited to take him to see the Airbender movie on Saturday morning. The kids love the cartoon, and thought the movie was not as good as the series. Tom had a hard time staying awake(I think his long travel day had something to do with it). Plus I hit him with all our issues-dead air conditioner. Not to mention all our electronics were screwed up due to a power surge this past week. Looks like I need a new laptop-the screen on this one keeps flickering now. And Tom had to rebuild our TiVo recorder. And all this with the house surge protector in place.
Meanwhile, other sad news. Tom's mom called to say that Uncle Peter passed away on Monday after his fight with lung cancer. The funeral was Thursday in Virginia. We were very sad to hear about his passing, and our thoughts and prayers go out to Aunt Mary.
Some good news is that our friend John from Northrop managed to get a job with a company here in Baltimore that he previously worked for briefly when he first relocated to Maryland. At the time it was a small, new company and John thought he would give it a try, but opted to stay with Northrop for security(who knew). We are just so happy to hear he is employed and they have lots of work for him. Now we are cheering for Mike Bozyk to find a new librarian position in LA.
We are spending the 4th of July evening at our neighbors-swimming and grilling, and maybe lighting up a few sparklers. Last night we all headed out to hear the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra play their holiday concert and shoot off fireworks. I couldn't believe how many people I ran into from work and school. We even took John with us for the night to celebrate his new job.
So keep your fingers crossed that we get air conditioning soon! I may have to work some extra hours after all!
Happy 4th of July! Kathleen
This is a shorter week since Monday is a holiday. The kids just have 4 days of camp, but Allison is looking forward to archery at Girl Scout camp, and Scott is so excited to be going to his classes at the Community College, including a legos robotics class and pets and vets. He can't wait to bring Cookie to school! We just got back from a neighborhood kids and dog parade in our neighborhood park. Scott ate his weight in cookies and popsicles.
Happy Fourth of July! Kathleen
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