Happy Thanksgiving!

Jeannie and I are on her brothers farm in Virginia again this year (we were in Hawaii last year!). We arrived Wednesday afternoon, flew out from LAX on Tuesday (another long day of travel). Anyway, all is well, but it IS a teensy bit chilly here today. I think we got up to 41 today, I know back in Richmond they were predicting a high of 36. We were outside at 9am cutting and splitting wood for the cast iron stove...we stopped after a pickup load.

Dinner is in an hour or so, and I wont post this until I get our dinner picture.

 

As always I try to get an artsy shot of the old shack across the road...took this yesterday afternoon, the full moon was rising and we were less than an hour from sundown...always a beautiful setting.

 Here is the wood we cut this morning...John used the big Husky chainsaw cutting the downed hickory tree into chunks, and I used the 22 ton Hydraulic Ram/Splitter to break it into usable pieces.

And here was my station (sitting on the big round piece in front of the splitter). You can split a LOT of wood in a few hours with the gas powered ram...I cant imagine doing it by hand w/ an axe. One of his cows is peeking over the fence in the background.

While we were out  cutting wood Jeannie was doing her own artsy thing. This is her cheeseball turkey! I think its AWESOME! 

And finally...the masterpiece.

 And thats a wrap....Thanksgiving dinner, which was FABULOUS! Im STUFFED (as always) and sipping coffee, waiting for a bit of room to open up for Walnut AND Pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Asylum!

Happy Veterans Day!

Once again it's that day where we remember our Veterans. On a whim I pulled out my "Cracker Jacks" out of the closet and tried them on. Here are the results.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself...considering I retired in 1994 (24 years ago)! The picture I'm holding is my boot-camp picture taken when I was 18 years old....FORTY YEARS AGO!

I am however out of uniform here...no ribbons, medals or hat. I could have taken apart my shadow box for ribbons and medals, but that would be a lot of work. I was just interested to see if I could still fit, and I was (not saying I didn't stress-test those bell bottom pants buttons tho). I will be down in Los Angeles (for work) most of January and into Feb most likely, and will make a trip down to San Diego Naval Station and pick up a new Dixie Cup hat, and maybe a set of ribbons so I don't have to take apart my shadow box. Then NEXT YEAR I will do a fully uniformed shot.

Anyway, HAPPY VETERANS DAY to all those out there who have worn a uniform, and especially to those wounded or killed over the centuries...they are the ones who MADE AMERICA GREAT!

(on a side note, Jeannie took me out to Denny's for breakfast today.....woo-hoo!) I've been teasing her like FOREVER as she sleeps in every Veterans Day while THE VETERAN gets up and goes to work...so I FINALLY got a V-Day breakfast out of her! Oh, I know what you're thinking....what did I order you ask?

The Cinnamon Bun pancake slam! This is ALMOST a before shot...my pancakes were late so I had already started on the bacon, eggs and hash browns. The pancakes have the cinnamon bun crunchy stuff baked right into the pancakes...YUM!!!!

And this is of course the After shot. Done and DONE! 

(and I STILL fit into my dress uniform after this!)  

Sadly Denny's doesn't offer their "Free" Grand Slam breakfast to Vets TODAY (actual Veterans Day), only tomorrow. That just seems wrong...but I guess they won't have to give away nearly as many that way, as MOST vets are still working. We WERE going to go to IHOP as THEY were giving the free vet meal today, but of course they were "slammed" so we called the audible and went to Dennys and Jeannie bought (thanks again Jeannie!).

After breakfast we ran around stopping at other places giving free things to Vets...I got a free cup of coffee at Starbucks, a free "Hot and Ready" pizza and a soda at Little Caesars, and a free donut (which I will take to work tomorrow for my break snack) at Dunkin Donuts. There are likely a few other places but I have things to do today. Anyway it was fun to actually get to partake in a few of the "thank you to vets" specials for a change!

OK. I'm off to do my Sunday chores. Veterans Day or not I've got things that need doing today.

Later gaters!

Cheers!