Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated with just ten of us the year: our girls and their families, and newlyweds Gavin and KC, who drove down from Nashville. David bailed on us when he came down with the flu. 

Daniel got carving lessons from The Professor, who learned turkey-carving many years ago from his father-in-law.

After our early afternoon dinner, we had two game tables going - the big kids and the little kids.

And, late in the evening, after all the family left, The Professor and I stood in line for a Black Friday sale. Yes, unheard of. Even more unheard of, we bought a TV, the only new TV we've ever bought.  

Handymen We Are Not

Ever since we had our little outdoor closet or shed built on the side of our house, I have been meaning to get out there and add a tier of shelves on one end wall. Saturday seemed the perfect day: not too hot, not too cold, and nothing of importance planned. 

I first cleaned out all the boxes, pails, bottles, and whatsits, swept it well, and then I started planning the layout. I envisioned buckets on the floor, a shelf, then tubs of yard chemicals, another shelf, bags of fertilizers, another shelf, small bottles and cans, another shelf, and misc at the top. I sketched, measured, did the math, measured and marked the walls, and thought through the problem areas. With a list of lengths, I went to Home Depot and chose the lumber, awkwardly trying to muscle a 10 ft long 2x4 AND a 12 ft long pine board to the power saw all by myself. Someone finally rescued me. I asked to have the pieces cut to size, which they did. 

The Professor was relieved to hear that he didn't have to do the cutting, because, well, power saws just aren't his friends.

So far, so good. Nothing I couldn't handle yet.

I eagerly got out the hammer, nails, screws, power screwdriver, the level, and several other tools. I even thought to drive the nails part way through the first 2x4 shelf support, to make the final hammering easier. Soon I was frustrated that the nails bent, the 2x4 slid, and I couldn't get any space to swing the hammer no matter which position I stood. So I pulled the nails out. 

Then I thought screws might work better. But I stripped the heads on those just as they got within an inch of being driven in completely. So I took the screws out. The Professor tried too, but he did just as I did. There may or may not have been a few bad words scattered in here. There were definitely bad thoughts, and grumping, and a bit of head-scratching.

Next we decided that what we really needed was a nail gun. We went back to Home Depot to find one, but all we found were a few tools that spit out tiny brads, nothing that is long enough to go through a 2x4. Hummpf. 

I was determined to conquer this. My only other thought was to hire someone to install the shelves but that seemed utterly ridiculous. Next I thought I would try installing the shelf support on the opposite side, the one going into 2x4 only, rather than 2x4 and then hardboard siding. Finally, I had success. I bent only one nail! Yay!

From there it was reasonably smooth sailing to pounding and even at appropriate times, toe-nailing, the support pieces in place. We found drilling a starter hole in the siding helped when necessary.

 A few final details and it was near-dark and time to get the last shelves loaded.

 DONE! Just don't look too closely at the supports please.

The Last of the Tomatoes

So sad to say goodbye to summer. Our tomato plants are gone and these are the last of our crop.

"You Can't Make This Stuff Up"

David made that statement on Facebook earlier this week. He was flying home from a convention in Las Vegas, and he decided to check his suitcase because Delta had insisted that everyone gate check their bags on the flight out. David was just trying to avoid that hassle on the return flight.

He goes on to say:

"Delta lost my luggage on Saturday. No big deal - buy new stuff and file receipts with Delta to get reimbursed for half of it if you're lucky. That's life. 

But 11alive news called me a few minutes ago saying they found my suitcase, along with a bunch of other people's suitcases, littered in a field near the airport. Apparently Atlanta police have just busted some luggage theft ring - the thieves have been grabbing bags as they come off the baggage carousel, and then dumping them in fields. 11alive volunteered to deliver my suitcase to me at home, but I bet it's all trashed."

Channel 11 arrived at his apartment with a film crew and a van full of suitcases. They had David identify his bag, search it, and then give a statement. David thought that was the end of it. But on Monday evening they began airing a special investigative report about the luggage thefts. It turns out that Delta tells everyone that their bag is "missing" and it will probably turn up eventually, just like they told David. 

On Monday, one of their viewers saw this luggage mess in the field and called the police. Three hours later the police still hadn't shown up, so she called channel 11 to report the police ineptitude. They filmed the field littered with clothes and suitcases, (they panned across David's open suitcase and white and blue dress shirts several times), and checked the luggage tags, and realized what was happening. That's when David heard from them.  

Last night, Wednesday evening, David's segment was on the news. We saw him look in the van, identify his suitcase, and look through his clothes briefly. Then he made a statement about Delta having no security at the south terminal carousels.

I quote the online news:

"David Noren, of Dunwoody, who flew in on a flight from Vegas on Saturday Oct. 27, wanted us to deliver his missing bag.

"See your bag there?" we asked when we showed up.

"Yup," he said, as he reached into the van and grabbed it. "So, I got a call from Delta. They actually didn't say anything about it being stolen or lost. They just said, 'We apologize'."

We turned over all of the other bags to Atlanta Police, at the airport"

David is bright enough to not pack valuables or electronics in his suitcase, so nothing was missing. But his two most expensive pieces of clothing were ruined: his suit pants were ripped and his leather shoes were gouged with holes. 

Hopefully Delta is feeling the effects of their bad press. Today they told David that they will replace everything at replacement cost, plus give him skymiles and travel vouchers. If only it was for international first class...

All photos taken from 11alive.com news clip.