Tuesday, January 12, 2010

There are vikings in those woods...

One of my favorite memories is our family visit to Lily Fest a few years ago. Lily Fest is this amazing arts festival in the Hocking Hills. The property is beautiful, set in a clearing in the woods and has one amazing garden after another. The drive is a bit treacherous up and down many hills on curvy, narrow roads but totally worth it.

A few years ago when my parents came to visit I suggested we go to Lily Fest. Mom was a bit leery because she thought it would be a crappy craft fest. She was pleasantly surprised that it was a lovely fine arts festival! Dad bought a copper sculpture to mount above the gate on the bridge at their house that leads from the road back to the house and Mom got a life sized fairy for her garden.

After we looked around we sat on a quilt in the grass to listen to dulcimer music and have a picnic. While we were having our chicken salad sandwiches with the crusts cut off when I said to Dad, "there are vikings in those woods."

"What?"

"There are vikings in those woods" I said a bit louder because Dad is hard of listening. (He hears fine when he wants to...)

"Vikings? There aren't any vikings in the woods, you don't know what you are talking about."

I told him to come with me. We left Mom and Samantha on the quilt and walked along the winding trail through the woods. Dad bitched the whole time about how I had no idea where I was going when suddenly, around a bend, there they were: VIKINGS!

Dad's face lit up like a kid at Christmas. The Vikings, about 6 of them, had a tepee (not really sure why a tepee... maybe they pillaged it from the Indians?) a cauldron over a fire, tents and various areas with games and crafts set up.

After we were done chatting with the vikings and purchasing some crafts we went back to Mom and Samantha. Dad sits down and says to Mom, "There are vikings in those woods!"

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Backyard Sheds

Recently we had a storage shed built in our backyard. It is just adorable, matches our house and made our garage even tidier than it was.

Well, last night I discovered the down side to a backyard shed... when you need something that had previously been in the attached garage you now have to tread through the snow in the back yard.

I suppose it was funny but not at the time. It was around 8pm and we were watching TV when we heard one of the smoke detectors beep that it's battery was low. It took a bit to figure out which detector it was coming from, living room or bed room. We have cathedral ceilings in our bedroom and even standing on a chair didn't quite reach.

So, we had to go out to the shed to get the ladder. Yuck, snow in my boots! There were icicles on the shed door that made it hard to open and it was cold... whine and complain. John tried to throw a snowball at me but I quickly pointed out that the person who stayed in the warm house had no right to throw a snowball at the person who went out in the cold to the shed. Then I poked him with one of the icicles I'd carried back in.

John changed the battery in the detector with our last 9 volt battery. About 5 minutes later the darn thing started beeping again! I offered ear plugs but it wasn't much help so John went to the store for more batteries and he changed them in all the detectors.

The ladder is still in the house... anyone want to come over an take it back out to the shed?

Monday, January 4, 2010

Happy First Monday of 2010

Here I am at my desk at work taking a little lunch break.
You all know I love Mondays but you know what I love even more?
A New Year!
It's like one huge giant Monday all wrapped up like with a big red bow like the perfect present!