Back to Work and Surprise Event

Monday was my first day back at work.  I had been scheduled easy hours:  11 am to 4:30 pm.  Sweet.  There were some new people to meet and some old friends to catch up with.  It was good to be back.  But it was a hot day and working around the griddle was grueling for the others.  I was on the register every minute as it was a popular day for our guests.

Tuesday I continued to caulk the roof.  I needed to remove our vent cover over the bathroom to clean the fan cover.  Ugh, oh, the back of the cover was completely broken apart from the top from age.  I'm surprised our vent cover even works.  It is holding on by one screw.  We'll have to replace that some day.  It was hot work, but I don't EVER want a leak, so this is one of those preventative maintenance things.  I got a third of it done, and had to call it quits.

We got cleaned up, and decided to go to our fave restaurant for lunch: McAllister's where the sandwiches are so huge, Gary and I always share.  Today it was a Turkey Ruben - yum.  Our big adventure for this week was Oconaluftee Indian Village in Cherokee, NC.  As we still don't have our A/C fixed, Ron was kind enough to drive.  One of our perks was free admission to the village and Unto These Hills open theatre performance.  However, a special presentation was playing that night, so we waited to see if we wanted to pay for that until later.  Meanwhile, we were taken down to the re-enactment of the Attack on the Village in the 1700s from the French. 

Honestly, not so impressed with that performance, mostly because we were crammed in on outside seats halfway through the performance.  However, what happened next was serendipity.  A large group from Polynesia were part of Folkmoot (www.folkmootusa.org) an organization founded in 1984.  But please read about it as it's inception is remarkable. 

This group decided on an impromptu performance for the Cherokees and proceeded to sing and dance a polynesian cultural act.  We were very impressed, and asked one of the guides about the group.  We were in luck!  They were performing at Folkmoot in Bryson City, only 15 minutes away tonight.  So we asked someone to take our picture (and we took theirs) in front of the sign, and slowly worked our way over to Bryson city. 

Thank goodness for our iPad, becuase we found the highschool auditorium where the County Theatre was, and found our seats.  I wish I could relate how absolutely wonderful this performance was.  We were blown away.  What a surprise!

Peru and France also performed, but the Polynesian Islands were hands down the best.  There was an intermission at 9:15, but we waited until the PIslands performed again, and then left for our hour and half drive home over the mountains.  Ron did a superb job driving and we all slept well.

Wednesday I worked some more on the roof. 

After I cleaned up, we all headed over to Dollywood for Donna to pick up some tickets for Dixie Stampede for family and for us to see DW's newest ride sensation - the Wild Eagle.  We stopped along the way to see a great Western Music show, and slowly walked up the mountain visiting shops that had cowboy hats.  Nothing Gary wanted, however.

The head index was 105 and it was so humid everyone was dripping wet.  But we made it to the top and watched crazy people screaming on the brand new, 'never before seen style roller coaster in the United States. Featuring a wing style train where the riders are on each side of the track, this new coaster thrills all with its amazing layout and 4 inversions'! I haven't decided if I'm going to be one of those crazy people or not.  Probably not.

We rode up to the Smoky Mountain Opry to purchase tickets for this evening's show.  This used to be the Miracle Theatre which closed last year to many people's chagrin.  But the show we saw was really entertaining.  The cast did music from the big band era, country, a little gospel, patriotic and rock.  There were some good voices up there for sure.

Thursday I completed the roof - yay!  I love preventative maintenance.  So much nicer than having to fix a problem, doncha know.

Gary removed the anode rod to see what it looked like after replacing it a year and a half ago in Florida.  Here is how much deterioration occured with the various water sources we've used:

Not too bad, but he installed the new one anyway.  Interesting that we're drinking this stuff...

A fun part of the day was deciding to re-do the window treatments in Bella.  They are dated (she's a 2003) and I love to decorate anyway, so Donna and I wandered over to JoAnn's to look at fabric.  Last year I made two punchneedle chickens and was always planning to put them in the kitchen.  Donna kindly brought the fabric I had chosen to use that she had bought years ago and put in storage.  When I showed her the fabric swatch, she said "I have 5 yards of that in storage and you can have it".  Our tastes are very similar, obviously - one of the things that make us like to shop together.  But I needed a background fabric so we went searching.  I found the perfect fabric right away, however, we couldn't just leave.  After a while we had chosen fabric for the living area, chairs, bedroom valences and bed shams.  That night at dinner, we continued to visualize where what fabric would go where and began taking off the valences.  The boys got involved when we couldn't figure out how to get one off.  It turned out we needed to remove the light fixture - never would have thought that!

So now we have valences lying all over the place. 

Friday I had to get to work at 11 am, so Gary tried to get the fabric off all the valences with pliers, screwdrivers, knives, etc.  He said half the weight of Bella must be because of all the staples! 

When Ron got home from work, the boys went for pizza while Donna and I tuned into the Opening Ceremony.  One of the most memorable ceremonies was Beijing 's and everyone was wondering if London's could meet or exceed that bar.  There were awesome moments, but I still think Beijing's was a little bit better.  So now the TV will be tuned to the Olympics for the next 16 days.  I'm watching Woman's Basketball as I type, and they're up 11-4 against Croatia.

For those interested in the Polish Noodles Recipe here it is.  For those not interested, please skip down a bit.

Need:  16 oz. sausage (any kind, cut up), 1 small head of cabbage, shredded; 1 bag of Pennsylvania Dutch Kluski noodles.  Cook the sausage in very large skillet till browned.  Drain, saving 4 T of liquid.  Add cabbage to sausage with some water (about 1/2 cup more or less), cover and steam for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, cook noodles and drain.  Add noodles to cabbage mixture and mix.  Cook uncovered for 5 minutes.  S&P to taste.  I think it's even better the next day.  Enjoy!

Finally it's Saturday, and Gary is working at the office, and I'm working on those valences again.  But right now I'm going to bring lunch up to my hubby and work on our Gate Guarding papers.  We should get those sent in, because, once again, we're making plans to do that next year.  That's the plan, anyway...