Sunrise EP 25 - Aunt Linda visited

After the hurricane Helene hit Florida on September 26 and moved up to Georgia and South Carolina, Ducky was sent to Greenville, South Carolina. This time he drove there.  He headed off on September 30 and stayed there until October 27. 

While he was there, the lawn crew leveled the front yard and the ground around the house and seeded the grass. Oh, I had to mention that Ducky had 19 trees cut in September and the stumps were glided so, the front yard was ready for the grass!

He drove back to water the grass couple times. I could imagine how tired he could be. 

Aunt Linda visited for 5 days from October 29 to November 2. Ducky took her to Dahlonega downtown, to Horseshoe Bend where he used to live with Kevin and Amber and to the Blood Mountain. We also went to hang out at Kevin's house on Halloween night. There, Aunt Linda and I met several new people. 

I did easy home cook for 2 nights as well; turkey stuffed acorn and fried rice with salmon. As long as it was not so spicy, Ducky and Aunt Linda could eat pretty much anything including my simple cooked meals. 😀

Aunt Linda had difficulty going up and down the stairs. I helped her go up most nights. Other than that, she looked very much in good shape at the age of 75 (she was born in 1949). She said she would be back again, maybe after the house is done done.  (When would that be then? 😁)

Hurricane Helene - Wikipedia
Hurricane Helene (/hɛˈliːn/ ^ⓘ heh-LEEN)^[1] was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction and numerous fatalities across the Southeastern United States in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record to strike the Big Bend region of Florida, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017, and the deadliest to strike the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.<sup>[2][3]


New friends
Mike and Dianne - Amber's next door
Bob and Dana - Pirate house
Rick and Natalie - Carribean
Kurt and Jennie - Schneider
Emma - Vietnamese Canadian American
Lisa - she brought chicken</sup>

Sunrise EP 24 - The Wood in the Bathroom

We spent hours after hours to pick bath towel hooks. Etsy has lots of cute stuff from around the world. It was funny that when I was ready to hit pay, then, the page started to show other similar items the customer like me might like. And indeed, I picked the other one instead and we really loved it! We now had a huge tree to hang our towels and also little bears to help clean up the toilet. 

Sunrise EP 23 - Master Closet

September 2 was the Labor Day of 2024. That long weekend, we talked about doing a short visit to Ashville in North Carolina or Greenville in South Carolina. But we ended up working on the house project instead. And here's the beautiful outcome!

Sunrise EP 22 - Bill and Jiang Hua (Hanna)

On September 1, Amber invited us for a boat ride. It was very relaxing. Then, in the evening, she had her neighbors visited. They were Bill and Jiang Hua (Hanna). Jiang Hua was using a translation gadget. She said it would be 3 years in February 2025 since she had come to US. Ducky asked if she had an English name and that how we came to know the name "Hanna". I remember spotting her English name in her phone and it was Hanna without an "h" like Hannah. What interesting was, Bill did not seem to know that name. 😀

Amber told us that Jiang Hua was a great cook, and she served like 10 dishes for them. Jiang Hua told me that before coming here, she was not that good cooking but because the lack of understanding English language here, she needed to find an alternative strong point to be able to stand out in a certain way. 

Bill used to work in military for several years. He had been travelling around the world. He always had lots of stories to tell us. Some seemed to be confidential matters in the past. 😜 I did not catch all of what he said and could not remember everything. He was holding 2 citizenships. I could not remember what was the other one. It was a small country with political issue or so. He mentioned obtaining the citizenship by helping their government (I hope I got this right). Bill married a Japanese woman who was his first wife who passed, he divorced his Thai wife who owned a Thai restaurant Kevin and Amber dined in from time to time. And in 2024, his girlfriend (or new wife?) was Jiang Hua. He sure loved Asian women. Oh, and he could play guitar and sing very well. Maybe he could teach me guitar lessons. 

Jiang Hua was a very smart woman. She used to work as a key management for a Chinese company supplying bottles to Coca Cola. (LoL, I needed to check with Ducky if I remembered that correctly.) She traveled around the world as well. I would like to know but did not ask how come she ended up in USA and what she was doing for living here. Bill praised her along with raising the point that her dad was the first pilot of some sort of an important plane. Jiang Hua refused to talk about her dad mentioning it made her sad. She liked Guinness beer. She could shoot as well. Wow! She sure was a smart woman. How come she did not pick up English after living here for almost 3 years. Or actually she knew English but could not let others know about that fact. There were still some mysterious points to think about her. LoL

Ducky and I met Bill and Jiang Hua 2 times during my one month with Ducky at Sunrise. 

Well, that's not Bill though. 😀

Sunrise EP 21 - Convection Range

After coming back on August 20, Ducky had not been deployed until September 30. It was unpredictable. I thought I would only have 1 week with Ducky, and we also rushed to complete the master bedroom and bathroom, and the 1st move from my house within the 1st week he came back. Then, he was told that he would not be deployable until after September 19. I was so happy to hear that. So, we spent time to arrange things in the kitchen's cabinets. We shopped grocery and we did our first stove top cooking. 

I made easy fried rice as the first stove top cooking meal! My first time using convection stove! I also fried salmon and cooked beef stew with Chinese Five Spices powder on stove top. I was a bit surprise that when frying salmon, the oil did not splash like crazy.

My first bake good in the oven was Red Lobster Biscuits bought from Costco. I forgot to buy cheese to mix with it. I had to learn the oven, and the rack position being used was too close to the top. I later swapped the rack position and finally the biscuits were ready!  I needed to learn the oven more.

We made chicken casserole together. Ducky is my whipping cream maker. The casserole was a success with the oven. 😉

We did bake goods couple times; pumpkin bread/cake, banana bread/cake, and blueberries muffins. Some of these bake goods taste better the following day. I guess it takes time to absorb all the ingredients together. 

Ducky bought temperature measurement to sit in the oven. He learned that the oven is off by 14 degrees. I have learned that to wait until the oven is at the set temperature said in the measurement, and stick the mixture in, outside get burned in no time before the inside is cooked. There are several things that might contribute to it as well: the type of baking tray, the rack position in the oven, etc. When baking the banana bread/cake, we did our own way by setting to 350 degrees and waited 10 minutes to stick the mixture in and waited 30 minutes then, it was done nicely.  

I will definitely read about convection oven before I go to the Sunrise home next time. We have to practice couple more times to understand the oven. 

Oh, and I cooked Greek Chichen with yogurt and beef stew in the crockpot. We also enjoyed yummy salads. Apart from that, Ducky introduced these new drinks to me, Caucasian 😁 (White Russian), Daiquiri, and Umeshu with peach sparkling water.

Our first stove top cooking!

Our first oven cook!

Sunrise EP 20 - The 1st Moving to complete the Guest Bedroom

On August 24, we rent a moving truck from Home Depot and went to move the guest bedroom suite from my house to Sunrise home. We also moved couple other things like the black storage shelf from the piano room to the storage room at Sunrise. Kevin and Amber came to help. Phew. Thanks Kevin and Amber! 

I am writing this EP on October 12 and Ducky just told me that Aunt Linda is coming to visit from Oct 29 - Nov 2. I am glad we have the bedroom ready for her. I just ordered couple of queen size bed skirts. I hope one will fit!

Sunrise EP 19 - Tada! Finally, the Master Bedroom was ready!

I went to the Sunrise house on Sunday August 18 with lots of kitchenware and other stuff from Marietta house. Ducky came back from Kansas City on Tuesday August 20. I took 3 days off from work from Wednesday to Friday so, I could help Ducky to get the Master Bedroom ready for the first furniture move from my Marietta house. 

Wednesday August 21 - I worked on getting kitchen cabinets and drawers liners ready. Ducky worked on the master bathroom vanity. Ducky accidentally drilled a hole in the water pipe, so, he ran back and forth to Home Depot to find the parts to fix it. 

Thursday August 22 - I helped to fill the trim holes, caulk the trims and paint them. Ducky continued to work on the master bathroom vanity. The water was still shooting out from the pipe behind the vanity, this time the 2nd hole.  It was a fun day as I got to practice Opera by screaming out loud as a signal for Ducky to know to turn the water main off. Phew...at last after Ducky's magic touch, the pipe was happy again. Kevin and Amber stopped by. Kevin helped to lift the super heavy stone sink with Ducky and Hooray! Done!

Friday August 23 - I put away kitchenware that I brought from my house and continued to paint the trim. Ducky helped to caulk the ceiling trims and paint them. Later, I mopped the wooden floor and gave the master bedroom a nice clean sense.  Then, Ducky and I moved the temporary furniture from the guest bedroom down to the master bedroom. I vacuumed the guest bedroom and made sure it was ready for the new furniture from my house. 

Wow! Finally, the vanity installation was completed, and we started to use the master bedroom for the first time. 

(Pictures TBD 😁)

Sunrise EP 18 - Kitchen Backsplash

It has been a while since my last update. Let's rewind my life events back to the time when we had the kitchen's backsplash installed. Ducky went to Kansas City on July 22. I went to Sunrise home on Thursday July 25 and the contractor came to do the backsplash template on Friday July 26. I then went back to Marietta to continue to purge and pack stuff back to Sunrise again on Tuesday August 6. Then, the crew came to install on August 7 but they could not continue due to the lights under the cabinets. Mike came to take the lights out first on Friday August 9. I went back to Marietta on Thursday August 8 and yep to purge and to pack stuff back to Sunrise again on Sunday August 11. Finally, the backsplash got installed on Wednesday August 14. Hooray! It's so beautiful!  I went back to Marietta the following day. Mike came to install the lights under the cabinets on Friday August 16. Oh My!  It had taken almost 1 month to complete the kitchen backsplash project. 😉 

Pictures taken right after it got installed! Beautiful!

Sunrise EP17 - Colors

😆 We had purchased maybe 12 sample colors for our house sidings. Ron started to paint the sidings around August 9, 2024.  Let the pictures speak our story. 😉 

I purchased 2 more colors not in the picture below.
Our finalist "Rococo", not in the picture. 😄

Testing the samples

   

The back of the house before painting

Our finalist's "Rococo" and "Berry Brown"

Ta Da.... Looking really good!
This 👇was on Aug 11, 2024

Sunrise EP16 - A Room with a View

"A Room with a View" on our Sunrise 2nd floor was painted gray.  The window is big enough to give a nice view of the lake and the neighborhood. This is our office. Ducky told me that when the sun shines through the window in November, sitting and working while facing the window would be difficult as no leaves blocks the sun and it would be super bright.

So, Ducky had been planning to order the blinds for all 3 rooms on the 2nd floor. 

After ordering samples from SelectBlinds.com couple times, we finally picked the finalists, and Ducky ordered the blinds over July 4th holidays. The order finally arrived during his Oregon trip to see Jesse. After he came back from Oregon on July 17, on July 18, he installed the blinds right away.  Amazingly, his measurements were all perfect and all the blinds fit the windows just right!  He was so happy, "It looks more like a home now," Ducky said with a big smile. 😄 

Beautiful Sheer Shades Blinds!

3 inch Lifestyle Room Darkening Sheer Shades | SelectBlinds

Sunrise EP15 - Working on Master Bathroom Vanity and Kitchen

While still feeling exhausted from the Oregon trip and the CrowdStrike effect with 4 trips back and forth to the airport in vain and the fruitless results of the two 6-hour calls to chase the luggage, Ducky was still smiling!  😄

Don't Worry Be Happy

Ducky never let go any minute to build our Sunrise home when he was at home. He spent entire Saturday July 20, 2024 to work on the master bathroom vanity, connecting the dishwasher, putting together the faucets for the butler's pantry sink and the kitchen sink. 
He ran back and forth to the Home Depot. Then, Ta Da!  With his magic touch, we now could run the water in the butler's pantry, and in the kitchen, and the dish washer worked!  

The Master Bathroom Vanity was not perfectly fit the water pipes. Ducky needed to cut and saw and rebuild the pipes coming from the wall. I could help as a photographer and ensured to capture his smiling.😁 Ducky was so handy, and very efficient. He got things done within a short period of time. I was glad that on Sunday, after coming back from the airport, he decided to just chill out with me. He deserved a day break. My Super Ducky!

 Hey Baby, I'm your handy man

 

Sunrise EP14 - Here come the Emperor Blue Countertops

Ducky joined Jesse at the Oregon Country Fair from July 9 to July 17, 2024.  The fair was held from July 12 to July 14. After coming back, his work scheduled him to fly right on July 19.  I could feel how exhausted he might be. July 19 was also the day the fabricator came to install the countertops. I drove to Sunrise home on July 18, so I could be with Ducky even for just one night. And I could also be there when the fabricator install the countertops in the evening of July 19. 

Ducky left to the airport and was ready to fly to Kansas City on Friday morning of July 19. And BAM!  Delta got hit hard by the ironic CrowdStrike who was supposed to heal and not harm Windows operating system.  Ducky had waited patiently at the airport and finally came back home around 5:00 p.m. He came back without knowing where his luggage might be. He explained to me that, the airport was so crowded and chaos like this. 👇

An AWESOME thing was when he came back, the Emperor Blue countertops were right here for him to enjoy. Hooray! Hooray!  Looks how pretty our kitchen had become. 

I just could not help to record more about his Kansas City trip saga.  On Friday July 19, he was put on hold for 5 hours until an agent answered his phone which then told him to call another number. He then, took another 7 hours on Saturday to follow up on the luggage with the outcome that did not help at all as he needed to show up in person at the airport to then again chase his luggage there. His flight was changed to Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and he left home at 4:30 a.m. and again came back home at around 2:00 p.m. And then, again the flight was changed to Monday at 9:00 p.m. and was delayed to 11:00 p.m. which was then again delayed to 2:00 a.m. and finally at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday July 23, he arrived at the hotel in Kansas City. My poor Hero Ducky!  Pat Pat Pat BIG HUG BIG HUG BIG HUG.   

Oh, his luggage got first class seat on the CrowdStrike day and already flew to Kansas City waiting for him there!  😂

What is CrowdStrike (CRWD), and how did it cause global IT outages? (cnbc.com)

Sunrise EP13 - Van Halen Night

On Saturday July 6th, 2024, we went to Boot Barn Hall in Gainsville, GA for Van Halen Tribute concert with Kevin, Amber, Chad and four others. It was my FIRST live ROCK concert!  Before the concert, we went to have dinner at a fancy restaurant nearby which was very yummy. Ducky and I shared Sea Bass dish. YUM!  At the concert, I danced with Ducky. We did hip bump and we laughed and enjoyed ourselves. Ducky took me to the dance floor, and we did silly (fun) things exactly as what concert goers were supposed to. I was also Chad's dance partner at one point.  Amber rocked along but Kevin just stood still. 😄 

P.S. Ducky put on elephant pants Amber bought for him from Thailand trip. I also wore mine to match as a couple.  Ducky's elephant pants got admired by people at the restaurant and at the concert.  Super Cool!