August, 2004

	August 2004

Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four

Week One:

Although June looked like a promising summer, July began to be a disappointment, and I'm not certain just what August will be. The long-range weather prediction had said this summer was going to be long and hot; but instead it's never gotten really "hot" and now it's beginning to fade early. (Even though everyone thinks I spend all my time by the pool, I have really had to fight to get any "sun time". I've learned that a 72 degree sunny day it fine for tanning, though not for swimming.)

I had been planning on throwing a really nice b-day pool party for Jim, since we figured we'd be having some nice, hot summer days by the end of last month. However, things just didn't work out that way. As last Saturday approached the weather forecast got cooler and rainy with each prediction. Although we had to actually cancel Jim's party, by Sunday things had warmed up (and dried out) quite a bit and we ended up with a small pool party (with Linda and her kids, Kerrie and Kayle; Mike Poland, DO and John. Richard's family was at a company picnic) with cake and ice cream.

DO does her "Harry potter"-imitation using the purple water cannon.

Kerrie

Kayle


Linda seems to be having a great time chatting with Jim.


Mike, Do and John all agree that Cake and Ice Cream hits the spot after a hot afternoon playing in the pool.


These are the kind of pictures you get when the photographer takes a picture himself. LOL

Fun on a Saturday Afternoon

Fun on a Sunday Afternoon - with Rosita!


Not only did Saturday actually turn out nice enough for the pool; but Sunday was pretty good too. We didn't plan any parties, but we get some pool guests - and one of them had four legs!

Although not thrilled with the pool, Rosita was a real trooper and put up with us and all the water.

MouseOver CloseUp
of Rosita

Sarek and Rosie have a stare-down

Yard-Cam and the Morning Glories

Some of my Cat-ty Friends

Sarek	Tsunami
Willow plays dead	MouseOver GBS

Week Two:

Canton, Ohio hosts the pro Football Hall of Fame, and every year near the end of summer, we hold the HOF Festival. The celebration includes hot air balloon races, BBQ and Ribs Burn-off, a parade, musical guests, superb fireworks, and a lot of visitors and traffic. pretty fun for summer in a small city!

Of course, that means national TV coverage of the Exhibition Football Game, and that means a Goodyear Blimp will be down from the hangers just up the road in Akron. For most of the week, the Blimp can be seen hovering over the stadium or flying to-and-from Akron. Jim's house lies enough between the airport and stadium to usually have the Blimp fly over his house (and pool!) several times throughout the week.

The Blimp in Action

Every year along with the blimp are hot air balloons and fireworks. Of course, it seems every year that the Waikem Auto Group balloon flies over my house! Don't know if it's just coincidence or whether they are spying on me. ROFL.

DO and the gang
ready to watch fireworks

Jim smiles for the camera

	The cosmos seeds we planted along side of Jim's driveway are finally starting to spring up some. Let's just hope that we have enough summer left for them to grow up enough to bloom.
I almost forgot to mention that I got Jim this whale for his birthday. We go through sooo many pool toys that another one never hurts. Remember that everyone! Next year when you see these floats come onto the shelves, pick one up and you'll have Jim's birthday present handled in plenty of time for his next party!
	Hopefully, I'm not waving bye to summer!!!!

There has been a tree in Jim's yard that not only blocked the sun from the pool in the late afternoon; but was also becoming entangled in the cable lines. The latest summer project (which I did very little to help with since I have pulled a muscle in my back (from giving the dogs their baths) and couldn't help if I wanted to) was to chop this tree down.	MouseOver Action!!

Tomatoes from Do's

The Cosmos are still blooming to beat the band!

Earlier in the Summer, I was worried because NONE of my gladiolas were blooming. For no apparent reason, other than to make me happy, one sprig of flowers has finally bloomed!

MouseOver to see how much the pampas Grass has grown in 3 years.

The HollyHocks enjoy the Summer Sun

Week Three:


I've had some new visitors to my little yard. It seems these little guys looooove the Cosmos (can't tell if they like the seeds or all the various bugs (flies, lady bugs, ants, etc.))
MouseOver CloseUp	MouseOver CloseUp

	Any idea what kind of bird this is? These two look like a female and male, and this week I've seen two more of the brightly colored guys out there squabbling.

Click for MY Flugtag picture Extravaganza!	The RedBull company not only produces a "power drink" but they host a rather unique event - Flugtag (that's German for "Flying Day"). The object of the Flugtag Contest is to build a "craft" that is propelled off a dock and hopefully flies. Of course, most fall right off the edge! But that's not the object; the real objective is to have fun!
After having been bombarded by endless commercials for this event, Jim and I finally took notice. The whole idea is just kooky enough that we decided that we want to do this stunt too! Unfortunately the event was already booked this year; so we decided to go look at this in person and see just how hard a project this might be for us to attempt next year. (We've already started on several plans! They just HAVE to approve one of them. LOL With any luck, we'll have some good pictures of us flying off the dock next year. I'll keep you informed and you keep your fingers crossed that we will get selected! Thanks!)
please make sure to visit the official RedBull Cleveland Flugtag site. They got great pictures and movies from this Event all over America and the world. They've even got some special 360-degree panorama pictures just like me!