before pictures....

Megan and Andy are in the midst of having their backyard torn up to begin contruction of a swimming pool, grassy area for their future son and new trees, landscaping, etc. The area behind the wheel barrow will be the pool location. The area of the BB court and hot tub will all be grass, landscaping. It will be fun to see the new look when we come back in December.....if it is finished by then.

I took Sox for a jog this morning then kenneled her and have been painting since. Just taking a break..... :-) When you are retired it is required that you take several breaks during the day. Actually, not unlike when I worked.....

My travels...

I left home yesterday around 7:30 and drove to Omaha to meet Matt. He took me along for a home appraisal and I got to see what he does for a living. In my second life I want to come back as Matt.....the appraisal took around 30 minutes, he will go back and type it up (perhaps another 30 mintues) and voila, he made some money. Repeat, rinse and more money. I had a great time with him doing this and then we went to the airport for lunch and my early afternoon flight. He will keep my car for these two weeks and thus save me around $140 in parking fees. Thank you son!!

My flight was uneventful and actually arrived early for once. Sister Sharon picked me up at the airport as Megan and Andy were still at work. I met dog Sox for the very first time. She is MUCH bigger than I imagined and her hair is unbelievable....it is a beautiful red and lays in wave upon wave!! I am sure the mix of golden retriever and poodle showing up there. She was very excited to see two new people so Andy had to hold her for a bit. :-)

This morning I rode to work with Andy and Sharon picked me up there and we headed to Pinnacle Peak for a great hike. Up and down and quite vigorous. I have enclosed some pics from this morning's hike and also one of Sox. I am now going to start painting....the main thing I am supposed to be doing here. :-)

Perfect time to go to AZ!!!

I leave tomorrow for two weeks with Andy and Megan. It is supposed to be quite cold here tomorrow, in the 40's, so it will be awesome to go to Phoenix where it is upper 80's. Ahhhhhh!!!

I am going to help them with some painting projects they have left and after that I will play with their dog Sox, hike and golf with sister Sharon when time permits. Sounds like a great two weeks to me. :-) My first priority WILL be the painting, though, since that is why they are flying me out there. :-)

Mark finished harvesting beans last Sunday. It is always a good thing to get a crop out of the field. He had some problems with his old combine and had to spend quite a few bucks, but it is much cheaper than buying a big new rig! Hopefully he will start corn this week and have no break downs.....

Well, I am off to do some packing. Tanks and shorts are my top priority.......

Colors of fall in Iowa

Cyndy and I met at Honey Creek for 18 holes of golf today. It was another beauty, near 90, sunny and the course was awash in fall hues. The pics should give an idea of the beauty of the back nine at Honey Creek. I had a birdie, 2 pars and the rest were....a bit more than that. :-) Great day though. After golf we went to the local Mexican restaurant for lunch.

Mark is busy combining his beans. Our local elevator has been "condemned so it is awfully slow to haul the wagons to town and unload where they are hoping will work. A mess, quite frankly! Oh well, whatever it takes to get these crops out of these fields.

The Harvester Golf Outing

Yesterday Mark, Cyndy and I drove to The Harvester Golf course for an 11:20 tee time. The course is absolutely beautiful! It is a difficult course and presented many challenges but its beauty was breathtaking. This was a result of a retirement gift from all my co-workers. We received a gift card for two green fees and $50 to spend at the course bar and grill. We spent every penny of it. :-) Also, the course photography asked if he could follow us a few holes and take pictures which would be worth a $20 gift card. We said YES and we used all of that gift card also. What a super fun and super free day of golf in all its glory. The weather was fantastic and perfect for golf. The pics are of the course and a pic of Mark and Cyndy with the Harvester Lake behind them. Fore!!!!!

yup....she's gonna have a baby!!!

waiting for a name........

Our first grandchild will be entering this world around the end of January. Until they officially name him, I am calling him Buck. :-) Matt thinks that is a good "football player" name but I don't think Megan and Andy agree with this choice! We will have to wait and see what he will be named. They found out on September 12th they were haveing a son and called us while on our way to the Clay County Fair with Rick and Maureen.

Our first cruise

Over spring break 2006 Mark and I took our very first cruise. It WILL NOT be our last, however. It was just awesome. We went with my sister Sharon and brother-in-law Arne.
We departed from Ft. Lauderdale and visited Key West, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Cozumel. I have included some photo highlights!

ahh....retirement!!!

Cyndy and I got sick of the computer work for awhile and decided to head to Dayton Golf and Country Club for a bit of----golf! It was absolutely gorgeous out there. No breeze, sunny, cool but not cold. It was actually the best golfing weather that I recall. Not that my game knew that, but we had a great time anyway. Cyndy easily broke 90 and I BARELY broke 100 but it was great fun none the less!! If I could wish one thing for myself it would be a better golf game, but like I said, great fun none the less. We are planning a tee time at Harvester Golf Course for next Tuesday, thanks to my great co-workers at Ogden. Cyndy is going to join us. Should be a great time, weather permitting at this time of the year. FORE!!!!!!!!!!

Cool and windy

My good friend Cyndy came today to pick up her brand new iMac and I showed her some basics of how to use it, etc. It will take her some time to get used to it but we all know how user friendly our Macs are!! We had hoped to go golfing but it was only in the 50's with a stiff wind bending the flag poles too far for us to really enjoy an outing. Instead we played with our Mac computers.

Mark found someone today to take ALL our cats off our hands. This was a blessing....for the cats! We are going to be gone too much to care for them so a new home was in order. Our apologies to all the Kalkwarf great grandchildren that seemed to enjoy these felines more than I did!

Here's a picture of me and my siblings after mom's funeral on September 5th. I think it is a really good picture of us all.

Hawks beat the Clones!

My beloved Iowa Hawkeyes took it to ISU during the second half yesterday and won 27-17. The Hawks have not fared well at the hands of ISU the past several years so it was good to finally get a win against the Cyclones. I predict both teams to have very good seasons but both also face some very tough conference opponents in the Big Ten and The Big Twelve. Good luck to both teams the rest of the season!!

July Family Reunion

Last week of July will be remembered by everyone in our family. Every member, and I mean EVERY member of our extended family made it to the farm for a very fun time. It was sweltering but we all managed to keep our cool. We rented two porta potties as the farm septic tank cannot handle this huge crowd. We even went so far as to ducktape the toilet seats shut from the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. :-) All got in to see mom at the care center. That is good because mom passed away on September 1, 2006. She will be greatly missed....