As I was saying......

The quest house was occupied on the first nite of our arrival, and Pat told Sue and I that when we were ready to retire, just to let them know, they would drive us back to town. Our first nite was spent in a brand new hotel, that was right on main street next to a wine cellar! How fun! There is a crummy picture of the hotel, but a great one of our bed and the bathroom!





On sunday we went to the Guenther House, for a late breakfast, early lunch. It was an old flour mill, converted to a restaurant, it was very fun and very delicious!
Please note the best of times were spent just sitting on the porch watching the world go by, it is a piece of heaven. Hummingbirds a pallooza ruled the porch. That is a National Geographic shot if there ever was one, hummingbird in mid air!

o Mom, Pat, and Barb relaxing in front of the garden. Pat is holding the keeper of the estate, attack cat, Barney. He ruled the roost! With the help of Stubby and Sashi.
The evening was spent playing cards, and I unfortunately do not have any pictures of San Antonio Anastasia cleaning all our clocks at poker....
I continue to have problems posting all the pictures, so let me post this and continue with the saga.

Two-Steppin it to Texas

I am sure you have all heard about the minute men lining the Tex-Mex border. I think Gramma took the call to arms a little too seriously!
But let me digress. For our Mother's birthday, christmas, mothers day, anniversary, arbor day and easter, til 2010, my sister and I decided to take her to see her niece in Bourne, Texas. Niece, Pat and her husband Frank, have a ranch in Bourne, and at a party this past summer after she had had 4 glasses of wine, she meaning Pat said of course we could come! I am just kidding, we were warmly welcomed..
We boarded our flight, and for the flight down I had gotten mother scratch off's so she had something to keep her busy, it was a long flight, and I did not want her running up and down the aisles. also we had befriended the stewards, and stewardess's as we were sitting in the first row, they found out how old gramma was, announced it over the loud speaker, and told everyone on board she was going to San Antonio for the first time. My sister added that it was her birthday, and that way we got extra snacks! The plane errupted with applause and just about everyone stopped by and wished her Happy Birthday! It was cute, even though it was a fib
Our arrival into San Antonio, was uneventful, smooth flight and we were greeted by glorious sunshine! We were picked up by Pat and Frank, and the ride to the ranch was another half hour. Upon our arrival, Pat had cooked us a scrumptous meal, labatts was cold, and Frank asked if I wanted to see the Family Blog???
So here is cousin Barb, Mom and Sue huddled in Frank's office reading about Jeff. Needless to say I brimmed with pride over our family blog!
Pat and Frank have a guest house on their property that holds visitors, tourists and family members. It was warm, cozy, filled with all the amenities of a five star hotel, and was just for my sissy and me! What a treat, we giggled and laughed and sat on the porch and watched the humming birds, the cows grazing and the Texas sunset!
Frank and Pat were wonderful tour guides! I am sure we saw the best that San Antonio and Bourne had to offer! From the riverwalk boat tour to PoPo's for chicken fried steak and gravy, that had over 2,000 plates on their walls!
I am having technical difficulties, and can not post all my pictures and they are shutting down the blog site at 9 for maintenance,
so I am going to post this, and continue with part two when they are done with the blog server.
Believe me the best is yet to come.... stay tuned

BIRTHDAY QUEEN!!

Auntie B~ Let's not say you're getting older. Let's just say your pageant days are numbered!
Happy, Happy 50th Birthday. Here's a blast from the past.With Love~Auntie P

The CopyCats

Cousin Jnna has become quite the inspiration to all of us Holtz's over the past year...

As you can see, my lovely wife is hard at work on something... but what is that crazy paper she's scribbling on???



could it be????









Yes!!!
As of 4:45pm today, Amy and Adam Holtz became home owners. We now own a small piece of Quincy!





I'd write more, but its been an exhausting week.. from start to finish, the process was crammed into 12 days. The good news is, we don't have to move. Our landlord sold us our apartment as a condominium... And now, on to San Antonio pictures!

PS... for you history buffs, the land that our house is on was originally owned by abigail and john adams!

I Can't Believe This Happened

A true story by JT

Orchard Park, NY 3/23/2006
I look forward to Thursday night hockey every week. We have a good team and a fun team to play with. Our Tools (that's our team name) team has roughly been together for over ten years. Each week, with best friend and drinking buddy Tim, we make our journey down to Orchard Park to play in a very competitive floor hockey league. We've made it 4 times to the championship game over the years and have come out a loser all four times (ala Buffalo Bills) all by one goal losses, two in overtime. We won our first game 19-4 and this year we added a few players that was going to get us to that championship game this season. I started out the season with 4 goals and two assists in that first game and I was feeling really good about the season. Starting our second game I felt really good too, I had a groin pull the previous week and it was starting to feel much bettter. Due to a few players showing up late I started back on defense with Tim (we're known to the owner of the league as the "Bash Brothers", how nice) and the first few plays I had to make went smooth. We were playing last year's undefeated champion, I disrupted two rushes and cleard the puck. Then ,the third minute into the game the ball came rolling back to me and with no one around me I was ready to make a center rush and create a play. I took one step and BOOM! (that's what it sounded like inside my head) it felt like someone slashed me from behind. I went down like an overweight white guy playing hockey with younger kids. Not knowing what happened at first and the ball laying in front of me and swiped at it with my stick to clear it up to our centerman. No need ... whistle blows and everyone gathers around. "What happened Jeff, your knee give out"?, says Steve the ref. That's usually what happens, my knee will turn and I'll go down. "Nope", I replied. I knew right away what it was. Nick on the other team said he heard a pop. So after 30 seconds, I gathered myself and two of my dependable teammates carried me off to our bench were I had to watch the rest of the game. Rats!!! We're playing the best team in the league with only one sub now. We lost the game 5-8 and I would have made a difference. I told our team that they had played hard and had a good game and then some of the guys from the other team came over to the our bench after the ceramonial handshake and said good luck to me.

Now the hard part, going home and telling Sandra what happened. I've got to lie, it's my only chance. A pack of wild dingos... no.





Some tree huggin' hippy liberal was demonstrating... no.
Nahhhh, no lies.







Next morning an appointment was made for me by my referring doctor to go see Dr. Rycyna. So being in good spirits I made my way (with Mr Fixit as my chaffeur) over to the new Sheridan Medical Center to get some x-rays to confirm the bad news. We arrived safely at the center with only a few complaints and driving suggestions by me from the passenger side. After the good Dr. touched my leg for .2 seconds (and referring to a digital image X-Ray) he determined that it was torn and scheduled surgery for 2PM that same day.















On to the surgery:
Being the man that I am I asked only for a bullet to bite down on. Not really, but the local that I did request was not nearly strong enough to block out the pain that was coming from the back of my leg. Stitch, stitch, staple, staple and he's done. The Dr. and nurses were very nice and did their best to divert my attention. At one point I asked the Dr. if he had the whole hand in there. That's a lil' "Fletch" joke. Moon River.

Now I'm home with my family that is more than willing to take care of me. Emma made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich yesterday and has made me tea and corn for breakfast six times this morning.

I'll need someone to clip my toenails iin a few weeks... Sandra refuses to do it.

A Blissful Trip South

One of the very nice things about being retired is having the flexibility to be able to travel whenever you want. There are many places to go and things to see but it is important to have a plan to make sure that you make best use of your time.

I am fortunate that Auntie P. loves to travel with me. As in the case of any wife of almost 40 years, she loves to hear me tell stories of the historical events of the area we are passing through, and hangs on my every word. The conversation flows non-stop as the miles pass.


Traveling on the back roads requires vigilance because you never know what local critters might run in front of your car.

With so much driving, we stopped for gas often, always looking for good service at the best possible price. This was one stop that Auntie particularly enjoyed.

It is always a tough decision to decide where to stop and eat along the way, but I had researched some of the best values available, and we always found the company to be enjoyable.

We always found time for a little shopping. Auntie enjoys negotiating with the locals in an effort to get something unusual. The young lady here almost got the best of Auntie in trying to sell what she called “a very well trained dog that excelled at playing dead”.

The high point of our trip occurred in Lexington, Va. On the campus of Washington and Lee University, we came across Mustafa, I don’t know for certain, but since W and L’s law school is quite well noted, I suspect that his next assignment will be related in some way to what he is learning here.


All in all, it was a fun trip, one that broadened our interests and only brought us that much closer as a husband and wife. I know that she is already looking forward to our next chance to spend an extended period of time together in the car.

P.S. Not to brag but this one place we stopped enjoyed my wit and historical knowledge so much , they renamed their town after me.

The Adventures of Flat Grandma

It has always amazed me how this family is so obsessed with sports and how loyal they are to each other. I suppose this starts at the top with Grandma. I learned very early that she will defend "her own" at all costs. So, I don't think that this event will surprise you at all. Well...

It all began a few days ago when Gram decided to watch an Olympic hopeful play the game of soccer. Yes, it was time to visit her great-granddaughter's soccer field and Gram was set and ready (she started tailgating by 7am (bud and dogs) and was primed in time for the 12pm game).

As Gram watched the game, she was amazed at how intense the game became. She also could not believe that her granddaughter was getting pushed and shoved by a mean-lean 4yr. old. Well, Gram would have none of that! She flew out of her chair and took the kid out! Unfortunately, the game continued and Em got the ball and nailed it in Gram's direction...ooopps!

















She didn't know she was there...REALLY! "Ahhh...sorry G-G", she replied.





















Being the dutiful granddaughter that she is, Em rushed her to the nearest ambulance and set the google directions for the hospital. As you can see, she was really concerned for her great- grandmother.



Em tried to get the drivers out of Dunkin Donuts, but they refused to come out for an 89 year old. So, Em took it upon herself to save her G-G from permanent flatation.















Gram had other ideas, however. She quickly exited the ambulance and found her own transportation. She kept muttering something about "George" and "Cake".



















Apparently, she didn't care what she looked like or how much damage might have been done with the squishing... a party she couldn't miss!


Rumor has it that there were many "pops" at this party and they led Grandma to a great idea! Why wait for her daughters to get her south...it may never happen! So, with a little help from me, she is off and away...more adventures to come!


















An interesting side note...Apparently Sue & Betsy paid for the tickets south afterall--non- refundable ones... some might think this funny...