Last Full Day

We played outside with Ben some today. Except for a quick run to Kmart to grab some pictures and some blank CD's, that was the only time we left the house today. Oh, and Ben's gramma went to get something she left on the boat.

I sit watching David Letterman as I type this entry. They're putting away the Late Show bear. I already prepared and uploaded the photos for today.

Morning came without major event. Shannon got up with Ben today (yippee for me!), so I slept in until about 8:20. Grandpops woke up feeling bad and never felt any better all day. Gramma put pork ribs in the slow cooker mid-morning.

We tried to watch some photos on the TV by using their D-Link wireless DVD/media player. It's a DVD player that has media card slots and a wireless network card so it can stream music and/or video from a computer straight to the TV. We never got it working, and nothing we did would reboot it. It just sat there with the word "WELCOME" on its LED screen. None of the buttons, even the power button, did anything. Grandpops could not figure out which power cord to pull, so he saved himself a little time and just started flipping breakers and asking us when the power was off. When it came up again, it still would not work. That's a D-Link DSM 320RD, in case any of you thought about buying one of these nifty gadgets. You might want to avoid this one.

About an hour or so before dinnertime, we took Ben outside to walk around in the back yard. We walked out onto the pier over the cove, where we flushed out a great blue heron and a white egret. Ben was not happy about having to hold somebody's hand on the pier. He walked and ran in the grass, went up and down the deck stairs, and helped his gramma water her flower gardens.

After Ben lost interest in watering, Shannon and I took turns following Ben around. Along with the cove right off their back yard, there are a couple other spots that he could get hurt, so at least one of us always had to be ready to jump up and follow, and he's getting quicker by the day. At one point, he started headed full-tilt toward the pier. I caught up to him and said, "Ben, if we go out on that pier, you have to hold my hand."

He didn't like that idea, and protested. "No hold hand!" I stuck to my guns and held his hand all the way out. He stopped whining about halfway down the pier and was fine after that.

Later, he grabbed two toy cars and headed off toward the pier. As I caught up to him and asked where he was going, he immediately turned around and headed the other way. I guess he knew a hand-holding was coming.

Ben and I found a propane line access hole, and inside was a small frog. Ben liked seeing the frog there, but seemed more interested in rolling one of the toy cars into the hole.

We ate our homemade rib dinners outside, where as usual I was the first to start getting mosquito bites. I stopped eating long enough to find some bug repellant. In other words, I put some Off! on. Sorry.

We leave at about 2:15 tomorrow to catch our plane in Baltimore. We have only one flight, nonstop, all the way to Tulsa. It should be an adventure.