Treats, No Tricks

Sunday night was a treat for me. The plan was to chat with Mikey and Heather on webcam, but Yahoo Messenger seemed to be having problems so we consoled ourselves with a phone conversation. It would have been fun to see them, but it was still nice to talk to them on the phone for a few minutes and hear their voices and my daughter's. I don't know how other people are, but I imagine it's the same for most people; it always makes me feel better to hear my kids' and grandkids' voices when I'm away from home. I slept like a baby Sunday night.

Monday night was another treat for me. Cindy's mom and dad stopped in Atlanta on their way back to Orlando from the mountains of North Carolina and we had a chance to visit when they invited me to dinner at...wait for it...wait for it...CRACKER BARREL. That was a surprise, wasn't it? We all love eating there. If that chain ever closes we'll probably just drift apart, lol.



I've said before I'm very fortunate to have the in-laws that I do. Most people just endure theirs but I enjoy mine and always look forward to an opportunity to spend time with them.

We caught up with each other over dinner and I was able to get photos from them that they had taken on Sunday of the cabin progress. I had brought my laptop and we put my father-in-law's camera memory stick in my reader and downloaded away, then enjoyed viewing them on the laptop screen. I'll have them uploaded soon. And my mother-in-law suggested that when we move to Maggie Valley that I write a blog about the adventures of a pair or flatlanders during their first year in the mountains. I'm kind of liking that idea. What do you think? Would you read such a blog?

Our time together was over much too quickly, but it brightened and lightened my spirits.

So far this Halloween week, it's been all treats and no tricks. Just the way I like it.

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Things That Make You Feel Good

The highlight of my day today was when my grandson text-messaged me from my daughter's phone to ask if I could chat with him on Yahoo Messenger this Sunday. We coordinated a time and I'm looking forward to it so much. As I told him, I was thinking the other day that I would like to chat with him on the webcam. And now we will!

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The Art Of Life

I should catch up on my life here a bit over the past week or so. Here's part 1.

Mikey came to spend Friday night with us last week. His dad dropped him off on the way to work and Mikey and I had a few hours to ourselves before Grandma got home from work. We went through some computer magazines I had on hand and I introduced him to the digital versions of some, plus I gave him some Photoshop lessons on certain procedures.

When Grandma got home we went to Mikey's favorite restaurant and my least-liked...McDonald's. Saturday morning we joined Granny, Grampy and Aunt Amber for breakfast at Cracker Barrel and had a very good time. We were going to go to the Science Center Saturday afternoon, but Mikey decided he would rather not do that activity, so we made trips to Barnes & Noble and to IKEA as we looked for some furnishing ideas for the cabin.

We had a good time looking at books and magazines at Barnes & Noble. We spent a lot of time persuing the computer magazines, heh heh. Here's an iPhone photo of Mikey and I with the books of the writing section on shelves behind us.

At IKEA we didn't come away with much that was helpful since IKEA seems to be geared more to furnishing college dorm rooms or starter apartments, but Mikey offered his thoughts and preferences on some of the beds and couches. After a lunch at Smokey Bones, we returned home for an hour or so until Daddy came to pick him up and take him back home.

Monday morning I had an appointment with my doctor. No good news there to share.

Monday afternoon I got to have lunch with Denise, a friend and co-worker (though we haven't seen each other in almost 2 years...wow, I can't believe it's been that long) who I really enjoy spending time with and conversating with. We spent an hour and a half eating and catching up on what's been going on in our lives (at least the parts that don't appear in our e-mails, blogs, Facebook posts or Twitter tweets) on the road and at home. Truly, there are very few people I enjoy spending time with and Denise is among that small number.

Throughout the week I did a lot of reading, some writing and a bit of work around the house such as taking down our old window blinds and hanging new rods and curtains that Cindy had picked out. We bought some of those "Eclipse" curtains and, let me tell you, they live up to their name.

More in tomorrow's post.

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Congratulations Mikey!

Here's a big shout out to my 7-year old grandson, Mikey, who won awards for reading and math at his school's Awards Ceremony earlier this week. Grandma and Granddad are VERY proud of you and all that you have accomplished!

I haven't received photos of the event from his mommy yet (hint, hint), so here's a picture of Mikey I took during our visit to Disney's Hollywood Studios this past April.



Love you Mikey!

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Can We Upgrade?

My daughter IM'd me today while she was in the waiting room at the doctor's office with both my grandchildren to tell me that my 7-year old grandson, who is a computer whiz, asked if they could "upgrade to a Premium account so we can see the doctor sooner?"

That little guy just cracks me up.

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My Grandson's Blog

Getting ready to go to Kentucky has left me with little time for blogging. Ran several errands today getting things I need before the trip and filling the refrigerator and pantry with food for Cindy. I also bid a tearful "adieu" to my office late this afternoon when I finished cleaning it out and converting it into a storage room.

I wanted to mention that my 7-year old grandson Mikey has started a blog. He has his first post up and it's how to do a file check in Windows. He's like a little Bill Gates, lol. His Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amber each gave him different programming language books for Christmas and his mom tells me he has been putting them to good use. Last I heard he had written a program in PHP to create a calculator. He simply amazes me.

Anyway, because of his young age I don't want to make his blog address public, but if you want to stop by and see it and I know you, feel free to send me an e-mail and I'll reply with his URL.

Obviously, he makes his granddad proud, and not just because he is smart and has an insatiable need for knowledge, but because he is a good kid with a good heart who pwns his granddad's heart.

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Working On Social Skills

My daughter e-mailed me on Thursday that my grandson, Mikey, had finally agreed to upgrade his Yahoo Messenger chat program and that I should log on and chat with him. So when I returned to the hotel room after work, I logged on and initiated a chat session with him.

Now, it's important to know that Mikey's Asperger's seems to be responsible for contributing to his being very obsessive about computers. He always has computers and operating systems, especially Windows, on his mind and can talk to you non-stop for hours about which OS version is better and the various dialog boxes you can find by committing errors. He's only 7, for goodness sake, and he knows more about the subject than a lot of adults and it was all self-taught. As with a lot of Asperger folks, social skills are something that always require a little extra attention since it's an area of difficulty for them to integrate into their thinking and lives.

So I really shouldn't have been surprised by the beginning of our chat session, which I screen-captured and altered for privacy concerns below, when I started to chat with him.




My little buddy keeps me smiling. I miss him, and his sister, all the time when I'm on the road.

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Mikey's Birthday Celebration

Saturday Cindy and yours truly joined Ann, Jason, Mikey, Heather, Amber, Jeremy and Wendy at Downtown Disney to celebrate Mikey's upcoming birthday. We took Mikey to his favorite store, The Lego Store, and he picked out two new Bionicle toys that grandma and granddad bought him, then we had an early dinner at the McDonald's next door and afterward walked down to one of the Disney toy stores where he picked out another toy with money from other family members.

Walking to the toy store Heather saw the large scale choo choo train and cajoled mommy into taking her on the ride, while the rest of us sat in the nearby shade (well, except for me...I was taking pictures and shooting video of course) and we all had fun looking at all the toys (Jason, remember "Darth Tater"? lol) that sometime make you wish you were a kid again. Mikey picked out a Nerf Ball shooter and had the law laid down by mommy that he would lose it if he ever pointed it at his sister or anyone else.

By this time he was pretty much ready to call it a day, so he'll use the rest of his birthday money later at some other store. Here's one pic from the outing showing Mikey and his daddy having a good time.



I haven't had time to get the photos uploaded to Flickr yet (or work on the video footage I shot) because I've had to get ready to fly out to Des Moines, Iowa on Monday morning. I'll be in Iowa for a month and that's where my next post will be coming from.

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Mikey's Award Ceremony Video

Here's the short video version of Mikey's First Grade Award Ceremony. Thanks so much to Mikey's dad Jason for shooting the video while I took a few hundred stills with my camera.

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