She had to fly back to Texas before the rental period ended, so the accordion has stayed here in the house since, and on a few of those days when watching TV and doing laundry isn’t enough to pass the time, I’d pick it up and try to figure it out.

I played “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and “Jingle Bells” and even took a semi-successful crack at “San Antonio Rose” following an afternoon of having Patsy Cline stuck in my head. But, since it has to go back tomorrow, while waiting for Grandpa’s med-time to roll around this evening, I picked it up for one last round and worked out the melody – and some of the bass line chords – of “Oom-Pah-Pah” from Oliver! (with help from this guy).

Thankfully, Grandpa is nearly deaf, so me pumping out notes dug up from memory isn’t as painful for him as it would be for a healthy set of ears. Although I have no idea how or even if you can play the accordion quietly, Grandpa slept right through the whole practice session.

But I didn’t go completely without audience. Batman was there to help iron out the melody.

But a close friend from the hometown (practically an adopted sister) visited this past week, and where she goes adventure is sure to follow. So, since she knows so well how to show Batman and me a good time, I thought I’d share some excerpts from our week:

Here’s a “Before” and “After” of a Black Widow we found on my back door:

I was way too nervous to get close to the Widow and certainly didn’t want to put Batman in peril. (Although – interesting side note – my ex-SO found a stunt double for Batman. I have a feeling the new little guy’ll have plenty of upcoming gigs.) Thanks for killing the Deadly Spider for me, Chica!

Now, onto the park:

Unfortunately, due to his perpetually flexed arms, Batman is cartwheel-challenged.

But, obviously D would make a great sidekick.

She’s got all the moves Tiny Plastic Batman can’t muster.

Plus she talked him into joining us for Ladies’ Night at the local bowling alley:

Unfortunately, none of us are that good at bowling, so we focused on messing around with the camera instead.

The Sepia-toned ones didn’t make the cut, but a some B&W’s ones came out neat.

And though negatives make terrible pictures, we both liked this one.

Due to the traditional low alley lighting, most of Batman’s pics didn’t come out well (the light of a flash tends to bring out his cheap, plastic nature), but that didn’t stop us from taking ten’s of photos of him.  We drew the attention of the management and some neighboring lady bowlers. All in all, a good night for Batman.

Earlier in the week, D joined me on an errand to the Bacchetta office and while we were there, Mike helped her take her first recumbent test ride.  Later, after a couple laps on my power-assisted recumbent with me hanging onto the back rack (parent-style) to help her balance, we figured she was ready for a real ride.

So the morning after bowling, we took off down the bike trail to visit the Bacchetta guys.  (As my Corsa is in California with my dad as he trains for RAAM – it’s his backup bike – I had to borrow a ride from a friend.  This Corsa (the black bike in the back) was provided courtesy of Jim Dibble. Thanks Jim! It’s a great ride!)

Mike was gone, so D didn’t get to show off her progress to him, but Jeremy, John and Mark visited with us and helped me work on convincing her to buy a recumbent and move to Florida. Afterward, to reinforce the brainwashing, we headed to check out the beautiful (not yet oil-soaked) beach:

Batman posed with the local pirate ship, then laid out to catch some rays.

After we had had enough sun, we packed up and were heading back to the car when a dragonfly landed on our beach bag.  Either he really likes green or he was just in desperate need of a lift down the beach. Either way, he stayed with us for quite a while.

Finally, we rounded the trip out with a trip to see Grandpa.

Grandpa certainly enjoyed his kiss goodbye and I enjoyed my wonderful week with this fun, encouraging, vibrant woman.  Now we both look forward to the next time D whirls into town to lift us out of our lives, if only temporarily.

]]> http://www.ifyouwerewondering.com/wordpress/2010/05/resurrection-visited/feed/ 1 http://www.ifyouwerewondering.com/wordpress/2010/04/join-us-on-a-journey-to-sign-and-lake/ http://www.ifyouwerewondering.com/wordpress/2010/04/join-us-on-a-journey-to-sign-and-lake/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:08:37 +0000 admin http://www.ifyouwerewondering.com/wordpress/?p=1361 A major perk of the new house is that it’s located near a beautiful park with a lake.

The park is haven to a variety of species of water fowl (help me out if you know any of these):

"Duck" -Jim Dibble

And as with every other lake in Florida, this one has alligators.

Obviously it’s a bad idea to go swimming in this lake, considering the size and abundance of alligators.  Strangely enough, it’s only visibly prohibited in one place, with one sign … and trust me, the alligators I’ve seen roaming the lake don’t strike nearly as much fear into my heart as does this sign:

I’d hate to know the secrets hidden under these waters…

Welcome to the living room:

It’s pretty roomy and not too unique, but it leads to the kitchen which has an avacado-green oven, range and venthood!:

The owner even kept the manual for the range:

Attached to the kitchen is the family room which is also roomy and semi-normal:

From there you can see the backyard which has one big oak that has swallowed a metal hook and is home to a strange, huge fern as well as some Spanish moss:

The 2nd bedroom is nothing crazy, but the guest bathroom has some interesting decor to go along with the squash-yellow (or is it “Harvest-Gold”) toilet and sink which are not pictured:

And finally, my coup de coeur, the delightfully gaudy master bedroom & bath:

Not pictured: the avacado-green sink, toilet and tub.

A few friends and contractors have encouraged us to remodel (or “at least take down the wallpaper”) but if we ever do, we’ll have to sell or donate it to something. We can’t simply trash these amusing trends.  In the meanwhile, this house and it’s decor are a blast. =)

Here are some of my favorites (all of the titles & captions are reproduced from the original Flickr photo pages):

And since everyone loves Batman:

What’s even more impressive is that, according to this photo’s caption, he tamed a chipmunk with almond offerings, then proceeded to name it Billy and include it in his photo shoots:

Who knew almonds could get you so far?