Relaxing 3 day weekend

After spending the past two weekends on the road, it was nice to have a relaxing weekend at home. We hosted a small bbq on Sunday evening for Geoffrey's work friends and a good time was had by all. Thank goodness for the sun porch, as right as we started to grill, a huge thunderstorm rolled in and poured down on us for about an hour.

Before setting up for the party, we let Phillus, Geoffrey's ring necked dove, fly around on the porch. Phillus and the finches (named Sarah and John, named by a child from the bbq), were recently moved to the porch and seem to be enjoying their new home.

Phillus quickily found a place to hang out. Luckily he flew down to the couch so Geoffrey could place him back in his cage.

The new home for the bird cages. During the winter, the birds will be moved to the hobby room, as it gets too cold outside.

General curled up on one of his favorite spots, the top of the soft sided crate. I like to refer to it as the "pug hammock."

We were lucky enough to have the famous Tyler Byers (see http://just12finish.blogspot.com/2007/01/people-you-meet.html) attend our bbq.

A small sampling of the yummy food we enjoyed. We had Geoffrey's favorite, guacamole, to make cheddar-guac burgers. Oh so tasty!

Craig & June's son Sawyer is 9 months old and the happiest baby I've ever met. He loved the dogs, even when they tried to lick his face, and the only noises that came from him the entire night were giggles.

Peggy & Ryan.

I finished off the 3-day weekend by stripping the stain off of the dining room table legs that Geoffrey is going to finish for me. Hopefully he can get a good start on it next weekend, and we may have a "new" dining room table by the end of June. I also made a tasty batch of chocolate chip cookies. Hope everyone is having a wonderful and relaxing Memorial Day!

South Carolina Wedding.

This past weekend Geoffrey and I packed up the Jetta and headed to Beaufort, South Carolina, for cousin Amy's wedding. Our first stop was Jerry's apartment, followed by the Walmart in Emporia, VA where we picked up Peter. HBO really should have been along for the ride. The trip went fast as there was constant brother bantering. I don't know that last time I laughed so hard. Anyways, we arrived in Beaufort mid afternoon. It is a beautiful little down, on a small river and had a lot of charm. A few hours later we were off to Amy & Cory's rehearsal dinner. It was by far the most fun I've ever had at a rehearsal dinner. Instead of the usual formal style dinner, Amy & Cory invited everyone over to their house for BBQ, beer and CORNHOLE! As you can see from the pics below, we had a great time. And if you don't know what cornhole is, well you are missing out. I'm sure google will be able to point you in the right direction, should you need to know more, or even make your own cornole boards.

Saturday morning we wandered around downtown Beaufort, at lunch at a place along the water and then it was off to the wedding. The wedding & reception were held at an old southern home which has been converted to a B&B. The location was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for the weather to be more perfect.
Cory and his groomsmen finish some pre wedding shots. The Beaufort River was directly across the street from the wedding.

Introducting Mr. & Mrs. Tressler...or is it Mr. & Mrs. Lutmerding Tressler? Its pretty neat, but Cory is actually taking Amy's last name and Amy will take Cory's. Mad props to Cory for having to go through all the nonsense of changing one's name legally. Its a royal pain!

Finally, a shot of my dear husband, who thought the lovely program/fan worked best stuck in his belt above his rear. .. he always manages to make me laugh.

Hope everyone is having a great week and looking forward to a long and relaxing Memorial Day weekend.

Graduation

This weekend we celebrated the last of the Buescher-Schaeffer graduations from Virginia Tech. Eric graduated with his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering on May 12th. It was a beautiful graduation, and the speakers did a great job of recognizing the great accomplishments of the graduates, while remembering those lost in the events of April 16th. After the ceremony, the family headed to the horticulture gardens for some pictures.

After taking an afternoon nap, we headed out on the town (minus mom and dad) to help Eric celebrate properly.

Eric & Kevin at Rivermill.

Cheers!

Geoffrey and I even got to meet up with Geoffrey's roommate from his senior year, Matt. It was great to catch up with him on the past few years.

Pugs!

As requested, some pictures of the crazy pugs.

The dog's favorite spot is sitting on opposite ends of the loveseat. This way they can watch out the window and stare at all the cars and people that might be passing by.

General investigating Stella, his dog-in-law.

Work In Progress

Well, after a long week of moving dirt, hauling crushed stone, stone dust and thin stone...we have a patio! It turned out great and hopefully Geoffrey and Kevin agree that the effort was well worth it. Later this week I'll be adding dirt and plants to the flower bed between the patio and rear wall of the garage. I'll also be adding a border along the outer edge of the patio, to making mowing easier. The sun was not at a great angle for picture taking, so hopefully later this week I'll get a better close up. The fire pit makes a great addition and I'm also revamping the patio furniture with "black hammered metal" Rustoleum spray paint. I used it on the table and it turned out great.

Of course, after the patio I just couldn't stop, and moved right onto various yard and landscaping projects. Here is an older project that was begun at the same time the patio was being dug out. We have quite a lot of "rock islands" surround the trees in the main yard, and would like them to be grass. Using the grass we dug out from the patio area, we removed the rocks and are hoping the new grass will take. So far, so good.

We are hoping the pugs are enough to keep the deer away from our house, and the vegetable/herb garden we'll be planting. I started laying out where the beds will be. The garden will be 4 rows wide, with eventual stone walls creating a small terraced effect. It doesn't look like much now, but hopefully with the rock and plant addition, it will start looking like something!
The herb garden will start at the edge of the bay window and wrap around the side of the house to meet up with the vegetable garden. Hopefully the herbs will grow big and strong, and also block the view of the compost pile. Not the most beautiful sight, but the compost pile is great for all the vegetable scraps, and when mixed with the right amount of yard waste, you can't beat the compost it will form.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll be able to spend some more time in the garden after work and get things on their way to looking nice.