Norris Family Blog

Weekend & Birthday

On Thursday we had high winds and rain, so the town had postponed Halloween Trick or Treat until Friday night. Friday night we were getting a few kids stopping for candy when Pauline and Brent came in with their kids and dogs. All of a sudden it was 'pandelerium'! The door bell ringing, kids screaming, dogs barking, and who knows what else was going on?

Pauline and Brent's kids had definetly ate too much candy before they arrived. LoL After the 'trick or treaters' stopped coming, we calmed things down with a die hard game of aggravation and finally bed for Julie and Kyle about 9:30 PM.
Saturday morning Linda fixed Kyle's favorite, french toast, then we talked about a job for the day. Brent wanted to cut some trees that had been blown down earlier in the summer, so we hooked up the small metal black trailer to the back of the Mule and took the chainsaw and the tractor across the creek.

We began by cutting away the small limbs and debris and shoving them out of the field with the tractor. Then I used the tractor to lift Brent up so he could just cut the trunks of the trees into the proper lengths to split and burn in the stove. The girls helped by loading the trailer with the smaller pieces as we finished with the larger stuff. We pulled a full trailer to the wood shed and unloaded it, then we all went inside for lunch. A quick batch of burgers was cooked and ate, then we gave Stacey her iPad Mini for her birthday present.

After lunch the kids took naps while Brent and I went back to the woods and cut more pieces of wood, we filled the trailer and then unloaded it. We left some work for another day because we needed to get cleaned up to go to the Dixie Cafe to hear the Backroom Band play. We left the farm a little after 4 PM and Brent drove us to Byrdstown and the Dixie Cafe. We went inside and met Jennifer, then ordered our dinners. It takes a little longer since a lot of people show up right before the band starts playing and everyone is trying to get their food at the same time. They don't do too bad at getting it out to people though. The band's lead singer asked Stacey between songs if her birthday was coming up, she said it was on Sunday, so he led everyone in singing "Happy Birthday" to Stacey.

There was another person having a birthday too and it just so happened the Dixie passed out cupcakes to everyone that wanted one. We left for home a little after 7 PM as Kyle had lasted about as long as he could.
Sunday morning, Julie was having breathing trouble and was awake at 4:30 AM. Pauline and Brent had to pack their stuff and leave so they could get home and give her a breathing treatment.

Posted by Dave at 10:00 AM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Wood Work

This morning, after Stacey and I had finished our house work, we hooked up the trailer to the Mule, grabbed the chainsaw and loaded Daisy in the back. We crossed the creek and let Daisy out to run while I sawed some of the larger pieces of wood into a size that would fit into the stove. Stacey picked up the smaller pieces and loaded those on the trailer as I used the saw. I put the saw in the back of the Mule and we loaded the remaining pieces of wood on the trailer. Stacey took a picture of me driving the Mule towards the creek right before we loaded Daisy in the back.

We unloaded the trailer into the pile we had made Saturday when Brent was helping and then we took Daisy for a longer run.

It was such a nice day we just sat and watched Daisy play in the field and creek for a good long time.

Posted by Dave at 3:00 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Dell Venue Pro

My laptop PC is getting fairly old and some of the keys are sticking. It is on it's second battery and the life in it isn't all it should be. So, I decided to buy a replacement for the laptop. I wanted a tablet, but I wanted one that would do more than an iPad could handle, so I began searching around until I found what I think is a pretty good piece for the price. It is made by Dell and is called a Dell Venue Pro. I went with the Pro model because it will run Windows 8, which in turn will run most legacy Windows programs. The standard model Venue comes with 32 gigs of storage and I opted for an extra 32 gigs for a 64 gig total. This had been recommended by several reviewers since the Windows OS eats up most of the standard 32 gigs of storage. The only other option I purchased was an Active Stylus to use with the tablet. It is basically an electronic pointer because I have fat fingers. lol I've spent a few days using the tablet and I'm happy with the performance so far. I can access all the files on all of my other PCs on my home network without any problems. I have installed the usual programs on the tablet and they seem to work fine. I was surprised that even my Quicken setup works, will access my bank accounts and do all the functions just like it was running on a full size PC.

Posted by Dave at 11:00 PM
Categories: Current Events

40th Anniversary Trip

We headed for IN when Linda came home from work Thursday afternoon. We picked up a pizza and cruised on in to Daleville. We ate and went to bed after checking out the cabinet job. We knew it wasn't done, but was pleasantly surprised at how much was done. We had asked for the water to be on and it was functional... at first. We had to get Mark to come to the house and put on one brass band that was missing the next morning when we turned on the hot water. That took him about 15 minutes, so we were all set. I gave Linda her necklace for her anniversary present and then we went to visit Kim and Kenny Bourke. We spent several hours talking with Kim, Kenny and Hoadley, we also delivered an elliptical exercise machine to Zack's house, then returned to Daleville for the night.

Saturday we ate a light breakfast, then went to Pendleton to visit with Reba. I had called and let Nana know we were coming to take her out for lunch, so she was dressed and eager to go. After a hour of conversation, we took the truck and I drove to Frisch's Restaurant. I told Nana that this was the spot Linda and I had first met and I had asked her out on our first date. Linda and I had split a Hot Fudge Cake way back then and we also did this visit. We took Nana to Daleville and let her see the new cabinets and some of the other improvements we had made on the house, then drove her back to her house in Pendleton. She knew we were going to a Pacer game that night, so it wasn't upsetting to her when we left at 3 PM. We went back to Daleville, picked up the camera, put the dog in the cage and headed to see the Pacers. In Indy, I started to park in a $25 parking lot, but couldn't get the truck into the small spaces, so we left there and followed the crowd to another parking garage. Lucky for us, only $6 to park in there! We then walked down the stairs, across the street and into Banker's Life Fieldhouse. We were early enough to watch some warmups and hear the National Anthem be sung.


There was something going on at every stoppage of play, we also spied Larry Bird and the Pacer owner, Donny Walsh in their seats.

The Pacemates were on the court a lot of the timeouts and between quarters. Check out one of Boomer's Buddies getting ready to dunk the ball (his head is higher than the top of the bankboard).

The Pacemates kept the crowd fired up clear till the end of the game, it was pretty close until the last few seconds, but the Pacers pulled through and won!

We stayed and watched till a lot of people had already left, then we stopped at the Home Court gift shop and bought Stacey a Pacer shirt before walking back to the truck and driving back to Daleville.

Sunday morning we went to look for some tile to use on the back splash in the kitchen, then packed our things and made one more stop to see Linda and Imon before driving home.