Mialkowski Family News

We went up to the Dillard House in Dillard, Georgia yesterday and ate Easter lunch. They bring you a dozen different dishes (lamb, fried chicken, ham, salisbury steak, various veggies and salads) and you get refills on whatever you want more of! Even let you take all the leftovers home! After lunch Lily rode a horse called Chocolate Frank and we participated in the Easter Egg Hunt at 2pm. As if that wasn’t enough, we walked some trails at Tallulah Falls State Park and got to see the falls from a couple of viewpoints. Tall cliffs for sure. We’re in the market for a used mini-van/suv/wagon-type vehicle so if you know of any good ones for a couple of grand, lemme know! In February, we went to Jekyll Island to scatter ashes of a member of my wife’s family. We rented a 9 passenger conversion van and I drove everyone to the island and back to the Atlanta area. About 7 hours each way but we stayed down there the whole weekend. We all had a good respectful time. I was able to start my ’94 Honda TRX300 (4WD ATV) a couple of weeks ago and it ran like a champ. I’m getting someone to check out the electrical charging system on it because it drains the battery. Soon I’ll get my ’84 Honda ATC200 (3 wheeler!) running with the help of a good man called “Possum”. That thing is a monster that can’t be stopped. I’ve driven it through mountains, streams, deep in the bush. Looking forward to using that for yard work around the compound.

Well, well, December 1st, 2010 is upon us. It’s been almost a whole year since I last posted something on the blog. What have we been up to? My mother died in February, sold my Harley to pay for the trip up to Chicago and funeral expenses, turned 41 on April 7th, Easter at The Dillard House and Lily hunted eggs, camped at Rabun Beach Campground which included swimming, canoeing, and fishing. Lily got a free t-shirt from the water cops for wearing a life jacket – like I’m gonna let a toddler loose in a canoe on the lake! Went tubing in Helen a couple of times. Took Lily fishing at a couple of places and caught 1/2 a dozen trout while she napped. Had a multi-family vacation in eastern Kentucky (dry county – drag!) and then moved onto Bowling Green and hung out there for a couple of days. There was a real nice amusement park called Beech Bend Park around Bowling Green that had fun rides and a water park too. Let’s see, what else, Katherine has been showing her art at a few events/auctions, the girls have gone to the Atlanta Zoo a couple of times along with Yellow River Game Ranch, Gwinnett County Fair, Lily turned 4 years old in October, Katherine got rear-ended in the Volvo, twisted my back a little bringing down Christmas gear, just the usual day to day, year to year stuff. What’s new with you?!?

It’s gonna be a wet one down here in Georgia tonight. Lily and I went food shopping to get tonight’s and tomorrow night’s dinners. Tonight we are having a fillet of Scarlet Snapper. I’ve always heard it called Red Snapper so I’m not even sure that this is really Snapper. We are done with all of our Christmas gift shopping so no last minute runs to the stores are required this year. Tomorrow’s dinner consists of a leg of lamb so that should be quite tasty! I’m off until January 4th, 2010 so that’s gonna be a nice break. I need to finish (start, actually) working in the yard to get the leaves taken care of. I think I’ll be burning them this year as my back yard trail has a couple of downed trees in it that I haven’t had a chance to chainsaw up yet.

I, for one, would like to truly show my thanks to my wife and my child, for putting up with me and my antics! We had to have lunch/dinner at our house this year with just the 3 of us because Lily has an ear infection and I have a snuffly nose. That’s OK! Katherine had us buy a fresh (not frozen) turkey the other day and that bad boy cooked up in 2 hours and 15 minutes flat! Needless to say, it had some counter time to “mature” while Katherine made us some wonderful sides, i.e. shredded beet sautee with apples, delicious – no MSG – stuffing,  and Italian green  beans. It was all very tasty! Oh, what? I forgot to mention desert? Why, yes, my wife also baked both, a pecan pie and a pumpkin (no, scratch that, Paula Deen calls it a Thanksgiving) pie. Good work to all on this day’s work! I’m taking a few days off to enjoy this meal.