Halloween 2014

While Luann & I were away on Kim's 50th birthday cruise during Halloween, Katrina decided to set up the yard this year. We didn't want her to do the haunted house because it was getting too crazy and we have been getting concerned that somebody would be hurt with the size of the crowds we were getting and how the visitors were milling in the streets, blocking traffic and such.

Here is Willis, modeling the latest in not-so-scary wear. They are still working on setting up, then everybody will be getting into their costumes.

Apparently, it's what you don't see that is a key point to Willis' get-up.

This one is right up there on the 'Awwwwww!' level. Mommy's little vampire... She played the role well. Katrina said she did the makeup for Faerie's (sp?) daughter.

Ok, places everybody! It's time for the show!

And the 'guests' are arriving now. Katrina's friends take turns working different positions such as Melissa here, manning (womaning?) the candy bowl, which is mounted on a pair of witches' legs, as can be seen in the picture above. A big shout out of, "Thanks Conni!" for making this special bowl for us.

Ok, time for a break, and why not watch the show on the projector screen too?

And don't forget the table of food Katrina put out for her 'Volunteer Army'.

The Week In Review - 11/01/14

Well, life is still interesting enough for me to post a few things. First off, we took a cruise to the Bahamas with my cousins, Kim, Karen & Sharon. The reason we went cruising was because Kim turned 50 this year, so we celebrated the next family member making this threshold (I was first). And while we were cruising, Katrina put together a Halloween party / mini haunted house. Then we had to return to work.

Remember, Click-On-A-Pic to see a larger version of the image.

Well, we made it onto the ship by 12:00 and decided to rest at the café while our rooms are being prepared, but the birthday girl (Kim) and her husband haven't arrived yet, so we decided to take this picture. This is Karen Sharon and Luann.

When we finally got into our rooms, we placed Kim and Willie's cruise-shirts on their bed and a tiara for Kim was placed by Karen on the pillow.

Hey-Hey! Kim and Willie have arrived! Kim has on her tiara and Sharon handed her a yellow feathered boa.

Well, Kim and Willie decided to go down to the café for something to eat and Sharon went with them. Meanwhile, Karen and I finished decorating Kim's room. I know Kim was a little cagey about turning 50, but since I'm one year older than her, I decided to make it my job to rub it in...

Here is a wreath that Karen had made for Kim that has a neat nautical seashore theme.

This is a view through the porthole of Kim's room before we departed Miami.

This picture is for Kim. When we were up on the deck of the ship, Kim saw this silver yacht and told me it was hers, so I just had to get a picture of "her" yacht before we left port.

Here are several cruise ships, docked at Nassau, Bahamas. Thought is was pretty interesting that so many cruise ships were together like that.

Here is a picture of two of the three oldest cousins of the Stevens 'Clan' before we posed for some pictures with some large funiture.

Here is Sharon & Karen sitting in a very large rocking chair (or they shrunk).

Then Kim and I climbed up to the top of a lifeguard tower and then somebody made the comment that between the two of us, there was over a century sitting in that chair. This is a shot of our reaction.

I mentioned there was a geocache nearby at a church that I was interested in, so we headed there.

Say Cheese! Sharon, Kim & Karen struck a pose in this little pocket of the fence line at the church.

Next, we stopped at a little hut on the beach that had bottled beer, and made mixed drinks.

Sand Beer, the official beer of the Bahamas. Looks like Willie likes it.

Kim, out on a concrete jetty at the beach.

Awww, aren't they cute?

Awww, aren't they... Weird?!? TREE-HUG!!!

And here are some of my week's observations...

This is a 5-car crash on my way to work. Seems like I will be reporting at least one crash a week while heading to/from work.

I was surprised to see these two balloons taking off ahead of me on this cool morning.

Here is a close-up of the view.

Well, I was wrong about one crash a week, huh? Looks like a silver car backed into the ditch somehow.

Here is a closer look as I was driving up on the scene.

I'm assuming the guy in the blue shirt is the owner of the car, and the officer to his left is going to make his day even worse with a citation. Or at least, that's how it usually happens.

When I looked out the window of my office, I spotted this little black cat taking a dump in the leaves out there, then he stalked off.

And a little bit later, this gray tabby was hunting for lizards around the air conditioner outdoor unit. Turns out, there are a bunch of little kitties running around the facility and they are visiting from the house next door.

I showed you an image of my office 'console', but the chair was a bit firm and my butt would 'go to sleep', so they got me this office chair which has an 8-hour rating. I figure this is pretty good, unless you had beans last night, then the chair will not provide essential filtering of sound or odoriferous gasses... Oh well, I guess that's technology for ya!

The Week In Review - 10/26/14

Hello everybody!

Remember, Click-On-A-Pic for a larger version of the image.

We went to a British Vehicle Show in Safety Harbor, and it was a great experience. It got us wanting to get back to work on the Volvo P1800 we have so we could join a Volvo owner's club and display our hard work too.
But, it's been a busy week, so I'll complete this post in a day or two from now with lots of pictures and such, because for the second time today, a police helicopter is now buzzing our neighborhood, looking for something. This afternoon, the squad cars were searching the neighborhood looking for a teenager that attacked a little kid and stole her bicycle. Turns out, it happened down the road from our house and we saw the officer with the bike in his trunk as he returned it to the little girl.
Well, as I'm typing this at 9:30PM, the 'chopper' is circling the neighborhood again, but for about 30 minutes now, and we have seen patrol cars go by several times with their spotlights on. Not sure what it is this time, but I am really getting a Miami 'vibe' over this. Luann & I remember this going on practically every night when we were living down there. Seems to me that the Tampa Bay area is slowly turning itself into a something of a northern version of what we moved away from 25 years ago...

So, this is the inside of our dishwasher, and I'm showing this to you because under that disc-shaped section is something called a macerator which is responsible for chopping up food particles so everything can go down the drain.

This is why I had to crawl up in there and take the guts apart in the dishwasher. Somehow, a screw made it into the macerator and both of them took a beating, but thankfully, the macerator came out better than this.

On the way to work, traffic came to a standstill on both sides of the interstate due to an accident on the opposite side of the road. This is a shot of the medical helicopter that had landed on the roadway to transport the injured. Definitely not a good thing to see.

Here is the actual accident, where a red pickup was wedged underneath the Publix trailer across the roadway. Hope the driver comes out of this alright.

I happened upon this popup camper headed down the interstate on the way home from work. It's unusual to me because now that we own one, we are more aware of these campers and look for them. This one is called an Aliner. It's a bit different from the 'tent-on-wheels' like we have because you when you open it up, it looks like a small A-Frame house on wheels. Pretty neat engineering.

I received this hand-made birthday card from my In-Laws, and it is neat to get something that is more than something that was bought at the store and signed. And, there was a gift card inside to the Home Depot, so they know me well enough that I'm always shopping at home improvement stores.

Here we are, at the British Vehicle show in Safety Harbor. We liked how this motorcycle sidecar kind of looked like a bomb.

This motorcycle is from the beginning days when these were only a little more than a motorized bicycle. The belt that drives the rear wheel is made up of rubber links, bolted together.

So, the first image about is of a little red Morris Mini, the ACTUAL Mini car from England. This vehicle is a Morris Mini Pickup from the 60s. Yeah, the little 10-inch tires are what you got with this 1000cc-engined car/truck.

Across from this Austin Healey Sprite-Bugeye is Gwen and her daughter, Crystal. They came out with us to see this awesome display.

This green bugeye caught Katrina's attention, so she took a couple of pictures like this one. The owners talked to us and she showed them pictures of our work in repairing her car, a Saturn SC1, and she just happened to have pictures stored on her cell phone to show them. They seemed to be truly interested and asked her quite a few questions. They were surprised by how much she knows about cars.

This Lotus Elan can be seen in the movie, "Honey, I Blew Up The Kid!"

This old Rolls Royce was impressive, we really liked it.

And here is a view of the engine bay. Some seriously old technology in there, but it worked!

Katrina worked hard to get this lineup photo of Triumph TR4's with the hoods raised.
Well, that's it for this week, we should have quite a few pics for next weekend, since it's Halloween and such. C-U then!