Dec 12 - 19, New Bathroom floor, SNOW & Cinnamon Rolls

    We finally arranged to have a new floor put down in our main bathroom.  It took me a long time to find just the right color and grain of LVP (Luxury vinyl planking).  I didn't want the project to expand into replacing the cabinets, fixtures and repaint.  I just wanted a new floor to replace the old one that was curling up at the edges and was stained.  I think the old floor came with the original condo.  They had to remove the toilet and move the washer/dryer combo out of the closet.  And the crew that came didn't speak English hardly at all, so it was hard to communicate.  It took them 1/2 hour to get the toilet to work again, and I had to call the Flooring place the next day to come and fix the washer/dryer, as it wasn't exhausting to the outside anymore, but into the bathroom.  But, the floor looks great.

   We had another big snowfall--around 10 inches.  But it was fluffy and windy, so no snow was left on the trees, making it less likely to take down the power lines.  And, easier to shovel.  We don't shovel the drive or the walkway, but we did need to shovel the deck and a path to the fuel oil intake valve.  I am now allowed to feed the birds (from Dec 1 to Feb 28) again, so I need to be able to get to the birdfeeder.  It nice to see the birds out the slider again.  

   I took all of last year's photos and collages off of the refrigerator, and from my wall photo frame.  I usually keep them, so went downstairs to the bookshelf where all of the photo albums were.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, I noticed that the albums where I have been stuffing the prior year's photos was overflowing.  Thus, I spent 2 days organizing all of the collages and Xmas letters, by year, and the old refrigerator phots into a new album.  It is amazing to see how the grandkids have grown from year to year, and to remember.  I also happened to notice how young I used to look.  Sigh!

   Today, we did our traditional cinnamon roll baking, for Xmas morning, as a Zoom call with Quinn and Anica.  Claire joined in later.  Quinn kneaded the dough all by herself.   And she helped roll and assemble the rolls.  Yummy!  I made 3 & 1/2 pans full of rolls, so I will take one to Tamara and one to Claire, as I do not want to eat them all myself (Peter doesn't care for them).

New bathroom floor photos:

Cinnamon Roll Zoom call photos:

Nov 28 - Dec 11, Opacum Woods and Pond Trail, Claire's Wedding

    Nov 28th was Shanti's 46th birthday!  How can he be that old, or should I say, how can I be that old?  Since Sunday, the 29th, was a beautiful, cool, sunny day we discovered a new nearby trail to hike.  Opacum Woods is a 300 acre land trust, with a large pond and trails all around it.  Perfect walking/hiking trails -- around water, in the woods, up and down some hills, nice views, well maintained trails.  Nice day.

    We had around 5 inches of snow, and cold weather.  But on Dec 6th, Claire and Ian got married, legally.  They had Ian's sister become an officiate-for-day, so she could legally marry them.  They "signed the papers" in their snow covered backyard.  They still want an complete wedding, ceremony, reception and all, when we can all gather together in person again.  Whenever that will be.  

   I watched a movie on DisneyPlus/Zoom with Quinn (Tangled) and did a Zoom call for the 1st night of Chanukah lighting of the menorah with Anica's family.  Otherwise, our excitement has become going out to doctor's visits and grocery shopping.  Ugh!  Since the weather has become wintery, my exercise is braving the walk around the neighborhood, or I have started doing Jazzercise again with Aimee's Jazzercise studio online.  

   Since we won't be celebrating Christmas with all the families here this year, I couldn't see setting up the Christmas tree and doing all of the decorations we usually do.  Claire always helped set up the tree, and the grandkids always helped decorate it.  So, this year, I have done a minimal effort, just to remind me that it is a holiday.

   Finally, Peter wanted me to post a photo of our newest "friends".  When we do our neighborhood walk, we end up at a farm, with a horse and goats, who come out to greet us each day, before we turn around a walk home.  Photo below.

Opacum Woods trail photos:

Claire & Ian's "wedding" photos:

2020 Christmas approach to decorations photos:

Our new walking "friends" photo:

Nov 16 - 27, All around home

   The last two weeks have been pretty uneventful.  We have definitely settled into a Covid-19 routine, of sorts.  Daily walks around the neighborhood, sometimes going  to a nearby nature spot to walk instead.  The weekly excitement of going grocery shopping to Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Stop & Shop --woo hoo!  Peter working on his various blogs daily.  I have been helping him consolidate and update his blogs into one website/blog-- yourtaxmatterspartner.com  I have also been starting to get my photos ready for my annual Xmas letter collage, and my refrigerator photos.  I also want to create some Photo Books, one for each leg of our RV travels - southeast, northwest, and southwest.  In addition, I have taken up knitting again, and am slowly knitting a blanket to donate to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for premie babies.  And, in order to keep exercising here in New England, with the weather not suited to outdoor walking throughout the winter, I have restarted doing Jazzercise sessions.  This time, online, with Aimee's Jazzercise group.  I love just going into my basement and doing a workout there.  No driving, no need to "dress appropriately".  I hope they continue with online classes, even after Covid-19.  And, it's fun watching Aimee teach.  Almost like being there.  Then, of course, there's cooking-breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Everyday.  Being retired and with Covid-19, there's more kitchen time.  We used to go out to a restaurant usually once a month or so.  I have also started to bake more than I have in a long time.  I've started baking breads, muffins,  and cookies.  However, I stopped the cookies, since we are trying to reduce our sugar intake, and the cookies were going really quickly.   

  Something new since our return from traveling --we've decided to reduce our coffee consumption, so each afternoon, we are now drinking hot tea.  Claire & Ian were definitely our inspiration for that change, as they only drink tea.  Our evenings after dinner are usually-- read, I work on my jig saw puzzle, we may play a game, then do a sitting meditation, and watch something on the Netflix, Amazon Prime or DisneyPlus.  Maybe even a DVD.  We've gotten into watching some TV series.  Not super exciting, but OK for now.

  We did go over to Claire & Ian's new house (formerly aka Orion's).  We had to deliver some items to them, and did a game day and dinner, while there.  They have fixed up their space very nicely and seem very comfortable there.  

  Finally, this week was Thanksgiving.  It was the first time in 45 years that we have not been with family for Thanksgiving.  Thank you Covid-19.  We did have a great Zoom call with all the kids, and Scott, Amy & Adelle joined in.  We also had a great Zoom call with all my siblings and cousins, and Lisa & David joined in on that one.  It felt nice to connect with everyone.  Dinner was a lot easier, as we didn't prepare nearly the variety of foods that I would cook if we had had company.  I did, however, for the first time in my life, prepared a turkey, for Peter for dinner.  It was a Trader Joe's precooked, half breast, that I just needed to warm up in the oven.  It even had garlic butter juices  that I made into gravy, to serve on his mashed potatoes.  I, of course, had garbonzo loaf.  And, I made him super wash the pans used to cook anything having to do with the turkey.

Some daily walk photos:

Daily activity photos:

Jazzercise:

Peter Blogging:

Evie's computer station:

Evie's Jig saw puzzle area and knitting photos:

Evie's life in the kitchen and meal photos:

Evening entertainment area photo:

Claire & Ian's game room (their photo):

Thanksgiving day at Anica's (Owen & Quinn baking) -their photo:

 

Nov 8 - Nov 15, Home, Home, Westville Dam Recreation Park-Southbridge, MA

    We are "enjoying" the effects of Covid-19 stay-at-home edicts.  Learning to deal with the challenges of going stir-crazy.  Finding joy and excitement in the adventure of going out to the grocery store.   I am also starting the project of replacing the linoleum in our main bathroom, as the old one is stained and curling at the edges.  Trying to find samples of LVP (vinyl planking) online is rather difficult, as the colors are off, and I actually need a sample to put in the bathroom and see what it looks like with the cabinets and wall color that is there (I am not a great visualizer).  So a few stops at Home Depot, and the two neighborhood flooring stores (all with masks on, of course).  I may have decided on one--we'll see.

   For one of our daily walks, we decided to try to walk the woods behind the condo.  We have never stepped foot into the woods in the 9 years that we have been here.  Now I know why.  It is a wetland, with swampy, mushy areas.  But the real deterrent was all of the prickly, viney,  underbrush.  And, the very uneven, bumpy, root-filled ground.  We couldn't walk very far before needing to turn in a different direction.  So, we decided to skip that experience, and just do our regular neighborhood walk.  It is a nice view to look at, though.  

   Our once-a-week hiking excursion was to the Westville Dam Recreation Park in the nearby town of Southbridge/Sturbridge.  The Army Corp of Engineering built a dam there for flood control, and a very nice park, to go with it.  There is a longish lake, with a 1.8 mile loop trail around it.  It was a delightful walk.  We may go there again.

 With the poor weather, I have started  doing some of Aimee's online streaming Jazzercise classes.  It's really nice to be able to them in my own home.  This morning I did a class that Aimee taught, from her basement studio.  It felt like I was visiting their home--something I really miss doing.  And, Aimee is a great Jazzercise instructor.  And, I got a good work-out to boot.

  I finally finished my 3rd 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  This one was slower, because it was just me doing it (Claire & Ian helped on the other ones) and all the pieces were mostly the same shapes!  And, there was one piece missing!  How frustrating.  But I did it.  Now on the next one.

Back deck photo:

Back woods hiking attempt photos:

Westville Dam photos:

3rd Jigsaw puzzle photo:

Nov 2 - Nov 7 - Mom's birthday and Walden Pond

  We have been keeping busy working on updating Peter's "Your Tax Matters Partner" blog.  He is consolidating his posts from Forbes.com, and two other blogs he has.  He has over 2,000 posts since he started in 2010.  And we needed to check to see if they were all there, had the proper category, tags, publishing dates, and images.  Slow going, but it needed to be done.  

Election day came and went.  Peter managed to watch the proceedings until midnight, I could only check in periodically throughout the day and evening.

Nov 6th was Mom's birthday - born 11/6/1919, she would have been 101 years old.  She is in our hearts always.

  Nov 7th - today was a beautiful 74 degree, sunny day.  Perfect for going on a day trip for our daily hike.  We decided to go to Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond in Concord, MA.  I had never been there.  It is s State Park, and has a 1.7 mile hiking trail around the lake.  It takes you over to the location of Thoreau's cabin, and has side trails down to the beaches that are all around the pond.  There is a reconstructed cabin by the parking area, that shows what Thoreau's cabin looked like, but at the actual site, there are just some plaques.  I was AMAZED to see how many people were sun bathing on the beaches and SWIMMING in the lake.  Some had wet suits on, but many didn't.  There were also lots of paddle boats.  And this is the first week of November, and we had 5 inches of snow last week!  Fortunately, everyone walking the trails had masks on, and people kept their distance.  We took a scenic ride home, so it was a very enjoyable day, which gave us a break from staying at home all the time.

Mom's birthday, remembrance photo:

Walden Pond photos:

Election Day results: