Friends and Some Family

I had a short work day on Sunday, 11-4:30 and Monday it was Dolly's song "Nine to Five". 

Tuesday Donna and Ron's daughter, Lorisa and son, Paul were on their way to Raleigh and planned to stop in Knoxville overnight.  So after a breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we mosied on over to Camping World for a couple of supplies.  My dishdrainer sits on the counter and CW had a collapsible one that might have fit in my smaller sink, so I tossed that in the cart to see if it would fit.  If not, Donna would try it in her sink.

We had a really late lunch at Panera, and found the local Hobby Lobby to browse while the boys hit Super Target next door.  Stores are selling fall and Halloween things already and I am ready for the cooler days and crisp fragrance of falling leaves.  Not wishing our lives away, mind you, but the humidity and nasty little gnats keeping us indoors instead of outside around campfires is getting old.

Finally it was time to head over to Buffalo Wild Wings to meet the family, and have some wings.  Paul is a swim coach and was looking forward to watching the Olympics on the many TVs.  And although he didn't play the trivia game, he is really good at memorizing stats, and answered every question right.  During the broadcast, a weather warning for severe storms were announced for our home area.  So after our dinner, we drove over to the hotel and helped put extra tarps on the furniture in the trailer that Lorisa was hauling.  Amid lots of lightning we said our goodbyes and started our trip home.  Fortunately the storms were east and ahead of us, so while Pigeon Forge was getting creamed, we had one sprinkle all the way home.

Thursday we were looking forward to seeing Don and Lois and their three grandchildren who were spending a couple days at Dollywood.  The kids were very excited to ride the Wild Eagle (except Clifford, who was a little too young) and the water rides.  We swatted away the gnats as we talked, and finally the kids were ready to go.  Hugs all around, with promises to stay in touch.

We were going over to Brenda and Larry's new home and bringing dinner with us, so we needed to get on that.  But just for fun, I wanted to see how difficult it would be to take off the wallpaper border.

Before:

After:

Not too hard at all. 
So all of that is coming off, too.

This is what most of our window treatments look like now:

So, as I work, I'll show you what I'm doing.

But it was time to get dinner started and drive the three miles over to Brenda and Larry's hideaway in Little Cove Mountain.  Gary navigated, until we made a wrong turn, and then I took over.  Kudos to Ron who drove his dually up those narrow, steep, hairpin turning roads.  As I was, they were in awe of their new home.  We had a very enjoyable time, even sitting out on the deck watching the sun set before dessert.  It was so peaceful, we didn't want to leave.

However, we Donna and I both had to work long hours on Friday, so we sadly said our goodbyes.  I was hoping there would be a storm rolling in, but no luck.  Brenda said if ever one was forcasted, just come on up.  Oooooh, that's a great invitation!  I might need to take her up on that!