Dave and Karen's Spring Visit

The past few days have presented us with some serious winter weather, once again. We've had temperatures as low as 19 degrees, freezing rain, hail, thunder and lightning. Our friends, Dave and Karen, have been here visiting from Alaska, in their annual two- to three-month-attempt to escape the worst of the winter weather there. Ha! It didn't work so well this year.

Last year they were here on their motorcycle. This year they have shown up in the truck that Dave uses, in the winter, for snow-plowing.

After a 5-day stay, they left us this morning and are headed up to see our mutual friends, Steve and Sharon, where they will hook up their newly acquired 22-foot trailer, in which they will haul a large load of various hardwoods back to Alaska. Dave has taken up woodworking/furniture making as a retirement hobby, and has found it nearly impossible, and very expensive, to satisfy his hardwood needs in Alaska.

I wonder what kind of vehicle they will show up in/on next spring?

We had a great time together. We ate dinner on Monday evening at The Gin, in Belton. On Tuesday Karen and I went antique-shopping in Belton. We each found a few treasures. Mine were for Clara. Kelsey, Clara and I are looking forward to a girls' day/night out later this month. We'll be going to the American Girl Store, out to dinner, and to the Andrew Lloyd Webber production of the Wizard of Oz! So when I found these three porcelain dolls I thought they'd make a nice little memento for Clara. Now I need to keep my eyes peeled for the Tin Man, which was missing from the group.

After our morning of antiquing, we had lunch at the Sarsaparilla Saloon and Cafe, also in Belton. Yum! Great homemade soups! While we were out having our girl-fun, Dan and Dave did some handy-man things around the house, including adding some more flooring to our attic, making more room for storage. Dave also fixed the defective hinges on a couple of my kitchen cabinets! He's one of those people who goes crazy if he doesn't have a project in the works, so we accommodated him with a few things from my honey-do list.

Since Dave and Karen were needing some road-supplies from Costco, and since it was about time for our every-other-month Costco shopping trip, we drove to Austin on Wednesday and filled up the back of the Tiguan with supplies. We got home just in time to stow away the perishables and to hop back in the car to go to an afternoon matinee movie. We saw 3 Days to Kill, with Kevin Costner. None of us were expecting it to be very good, but we all agreed it was better than we expected! It had a quirky blend of action, suspense, humor and humanity. Not a movie I'd put at the top of my list, but it made for an entertaining afternoon.

Since the weather had moderated by Wednesday, Dan grilled up some steaks and fresh asparagus (from our Costco trip) on the grill for dinner, before we went to our mid-week Bible study. After church we came home and played a couple games of Farkel. As you can see from this scorecard, it appeared that Dan had sealed up the win on our first game, surpassing the game-ending 10,000 points before the rest of us. But, as the rules stipulate, everyone gets one more chance to roll the dice until they farkel, and Dave ended up stealing the game from Dan by getting 7,350 points in that single hand! That has to be some kind of a record!!!

After the game, Dave and Karen presented us with their cute little Ferry Farkel set, which was bought on one of the Alaska Marine Highway vessels ("the ferries"), on their trip down.

So, this morning, we exchanged hugs and said our good-byes. They don't have to be home until the end of April, so they are on their way to see more kinfolk and friends around the country and to pick up their trailer and load of hardwood. Safe journeys, Dave and Karen!