Our family pizza dinner finally came about this last weekend.  Dad made the homemade pizzas on the grill and everyone got to build their own.  We haven’t had homemade pizzas in a while because it was always so hard getting them off/on the grill, but we got a Pizza peel off of Amazon and it made it much easier. Choices were bacon, spicy sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella, sharp cheddar, onions, tomatoes, pineapple and mushrooms with their choice of traditional tomato sauce or pesto sauce. Not quite like what we got in Rome, but close.  They were probably a little more rustic as we couldn’t get them quite round, but everyone enjoyed them none the less.  We also had homemade apple pie which looked amazing and tasted Ok, but as Paul Hollywood would explain it had a ‘soggy bottom’ and a little too juicy.   We will have to give the apple pie another attempt, but with the addition of the pizza peel the pizzas are definitely going to be more of a regular thing around the house. 🍕 😊

Lis: pineapple, pesto, mozzarellas, bacon, sausage

Dad: tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, mozzarella, pesto

Alex: tomato sauce, pesto, mozzarella, bacon, sausage and a little pesto

Sam: bacon, sausage, pepperoni, tomato sauce, onions

Before baking and before the top crust

Final Apple Pie

The onset of colder temperatures and winter just a couple of months away, Mom’s worm farm that she started in the spring has a new home in the garage.   She has been on the internet watching fascinating videos on how to start a worm farm and created this beauty pictured below. The original worms have grown a little over the last couple of months, but Lis was not content with just a few worms and has been going around the yard and the creek/brook on the other side of the golf course in search of more worms.  Of course she enlisted Dad come over and help, but he got a little bored and started taking photos. 😁

Sam had his last soccer game of the season on Friday and it was Homecoming weekend as well, so Sam was quite busy.  The soccer game was at 4pm, then there was JV and Varsity football games after his game (they all play on the same field), plus it was Senior Night.  Sam of course didn’t play in the match because he is still under concussion protocol.  He has missed the last 4 games, but it wasn’t like he missed too much as the team hasn’t won a game this season.  The school jumped into a different league this year and they played a lot of bigger schools.  Hopefully next year will be better as it will be Sam’s senior year.  This coming week he has a swim meeting and goes to the Doctor to hopefully get the OK to swim.  Oh, and not to forget the Homecoming Dance was on Saturday night.  Sam wasn’t going to go at first because the girl he usually goes to the dances with wasn’t available, but then he changed his mind and went with a classmate?  As is typical Sam fashion he was very guarded with the details but we did learn that her name was Carolyn… and that’s about all we got.  Just to get the one photo took a whole day of harassment from Dad. 😁 On top of all this, Sam had to work on Saturday and Sunday.. luckily they were just short shifts.

While Sam was busy with Homecoming, Dad had the weekend off he did get some projects completed around the house that he had been working on the last few weeks.  He mowed the lawn on Friday, moved the table/chairs back out on the deck after putting a new coat of oil on them and finished upgrading the trailer (new coat of stain, handles on the side and put varnish on the base).  In addition, we finally got Mom’s birthday present put up.  She got a new floodlight for the front sidewalk and driveway.  We had to hook the new light up to the switch over the garage, which meant we had to go through the attic over the garage.  Obviously it was way too hot to do that in August and it was still pretty hot even Saturday but we managed to get it finished.  The light is one of the Ring Floodlights with the camera built-in.

Sam trying to sneak off before Mom could snap a photo

Sam and Carolyn

Patio Table

Base Deck with exterior varnish

New Handles to help get side rails off

New Ring Floodlight

View from Ring Doorbell

View from Ring Flood light

Today was the first Fall day, but not the first day of Fall.  After 3 record breaking days of heat this week – including one that hit 100° in Raleigh (the hottest day in October on record) we finally broke the heat wave today.  Today is going to be mostly cloudy and only about 75°F – a perfect day to get some small projects completed around the yard.

Kitty took full advantage of the fall weather and plopped herself down on the fuzzy blanket on the sofa for most of the morning.  Meanwhile, Sam was supposed to work from 10am – 2pm today but late last night traded shifts to work 3pm – 9pm instead.  Unfortunately for Dad, as you will see in a minute, the other guy didn’t show up to work this morning and Party City called Sam to come in.  So Sam jumped in the shower and headed out the door and in his haste backed into the Honda… how do you not see the car behind you in the driveway?  Luckily (??) the spare tire hit the hood first and Sam was able to stop.  Of course he does have a backup camera we installed on his car, but it only works if he turns it on.  On top of all this, the other guy finally made it into work after Sam was half way there, so now he is going back to work again at 3pm.  Alex, of course, was in bed watching FIFA throughout all of the chaos.

Of course, all of this threw our family ‘homemade pizza’ dinner night into disarray so it will hopefully now happen next week.  On a brighter note, Mom found her warm pajamas and winter bathrobe today.