Kayaking at OBX!

Myron had quite the day... we rode our bikes 9 miles, he read a beach book in a beach chair under a beach canopy. He swam and drank margaritas... and he kayaked in my ocean kayak and didn't even tip it in the surf... ( of course it was a very calm surf today!) Don't worry, I sprayed him all over with SPF 50 and kept his hat on! We topped the day off with Soft Shell Crabs cooked just right dusted with seasoned flour and sauteed in garlic and oil ( my special recipe) and a 2 mile walk on the beach.... Tonight is the meteor shower and we will watch it from the beach....
Here are 2 pix of Myron being an extreme kayaker!

Love you all
Anna

Finally OBX after a mild adventure!

Today I have been waiting for all summer long! Today I drove the short 3 hours to the Outer Banks to our beach house for a 2 week vacation. No need to hurry this morning as we carefully packed the car and put the bikes on the bike rack... we would be there by 2pm if we left at 11.... So off we drove on the empty Rt 64 due east. No traffic as usual and we were speeding along at 75-80 chatting and looking forward to our time at the beach. We came upon a short stretch of road work and the scarified road surface had some bumps and dips. I slowed considerably, but the dips were a bit more than the bike rack could handle and POP...one strap let loose and I started to pull over and then I hit another dip and POP the other strap let loose and the bikes were hanging on by a wing and a prayer as I made an abrupt stop on barely a shoulder with deep sand because it was being worked on..... It wasn't particularly a safe place to stop but I had no choice. We got out of the car and looked at each other and said ...ok now what? So we emptied the car ( cooler, suitcases, roller blades, dry goods, wine and margarita glasses of course, my special pillow, etc etc etc.. ( ThankGod for my Vibe). Then we struggled to get the 2 bikes in the car and put all the other stuff on top of them... Well, it all fit except for the cooler. So I said... put the cooler in the passenger seat, Myron, you drive and I will pretzel myself around the cooler ( one bigggg cooler). Somehow I got into a position wrapped around the cooler and Myron started to drive... Now we had 2 hours yet to drive optimistic me said we could do it. But within 15 minutes, I was hurting all over.. My side was cramped, my feet were falling asleep, my bad shoulder was on fire and I still wanted to keep going. Oh and by the way... the cooler kept slamming into the gear shift and putting it in Neutral.... so I had to pull on the cooler crouched with my butt against the window.. a picture!!!! Myron wouldn't stand another minute and got off the highway for Tarboro hoping to find a bike shop so we could buy a new bike rack. ( Oh btw, I put the broken strapped bike rack on top of all the stuff in the car too!) We get off and find a Walmart and I unpretzel myself as Myron opens my door and I literally fall out... I run into Walmart and find one bike rack meant for children's bikes and buy it for 30.00... It is flimsy and weak but it can make it the rest of the way and I can then sit in the front seat. We take all the stuff out of the car, put the bikes on this flimsy bike rack and put all the stuff back in the car head out again. We get to our house 2 hours late..... but we head to Dirty Dicks Crab House and have a bottle of wine and Dungeness crabs and then walk the beach and all is terrific again... You got to laugh... Anna and Myron

Home Design with OBI

Hiroko gave me some OBI to use for decoration/ home design.

Now that we have space to display them in the new house, I did some OBI display research and I have displayed 3 OBI. Here are pix of 2 of them. I purchased authentic bamboo OBI hangers to display one of them.

It Has been awhile!!!

Ok Folks.... I know it has been awhile since I have posted any news...but well... we bought a house and have been in home repair, renovation, restore and renew mode since. We bought this lovely house on 22 Pinestraw Way, Durham, NC, USA 27713 on June 24th after a nightmare of a closing debacle which I don't want to remember. It turned out to be a short sale just shy of a foreclosure... so we did well in terms of the price but constant anxiety. We were supposed to close on June 5th, but the sellers were short repayment to their 1st and 2nd mortgage... I guess they were overextended ..... Anyway "all's well that ends well" and we have a nice home on the end of a cul-de-sac in a nice neighborhood, close to work in Durham! I have painted 7 rooms! Many of the previous owner colors were dark and dreary and I required 3-4 coats to cover them!! UGH... I didn't have to go to the gym in 4 weeks working by day and painting by night, I lost 4 pounds! My Dad installed 48 knobs on kitchen and bathroom cabinets in one day!!!!! For some reason the previous owners didn't believe in knobs! Thanks to Home Depot we now have them! Myron schlepped back and forth from the apartment 3 miles away and over the last 4 weeks moved all our stuff while teaching fulltime in the summer session at NCSU! What a guy! We hired movers to move his heavy office furniture, but other than that we did it ourselves! I decorated and we are now ready for guests!

OBX starts on Aug 8th and Jim and Lynn DePaolo, friends from Vermont are going to join us there for one week and two of our sons and significant others will join us for sun, surf and fun! Today we put up 4 2" faux wood blinds and a shower rod and put books in bookshelves.

Here are pix of Myron with a bolt cutter... scary .

A few weeks ago we were in Vermont for a few days for Myron consulting and Anna visiting son and friends. Here is a pix of professional musician,Sean, playing at Cactus Cafe in Stowe, VT. He is sooooo good.... and Nita, a former student of mine from Vermont being Nita.

Anyway more pix of the house to come! Stay tuned.


Love Anna and Myron