Happy Spring! Updated List 04/18/12

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday!

The Easter Bunny visited us and our girls had a hunt around the house (21, 17 & 14). Some traditions just won't die! Then off to Easter service and home for a quick nap (didn't quite happen). Off to the mother-in-law's for Easter lunch. Lots of good food, as always, and family gathered around.

Injured my right arm helping my parents out a few months ago. My mom broke her ankle and they needed some help for a few days. Glad I was able to do it. Had an MRI last week and the doctor said yesterday that I had a small tear in my bicep and tendonitis in my elbow. He gave me some different drugs to try for the pain and said to come back in three months. He didn't feel like surgery was necessary, at least not at the moment.

This past weekend, Dan and I went with some friends to Fredericksburg (TX). The wife wanted to see some wild flowers so we went down the back roads and stopped at a couple of really nice areas with lots of pretty bluebonnets and other wild flowers.

We also stopped at Enchanted Rock, near Fredericksburg. I went here as a kid with my grandparents. The rock is huge (a little over a 1/2 mile up). When I went up as a kid, I got to the top, but never looked at the view. Since we were so close, we stopped and decided to make the trek. I told everyone that this was on my "bucket" list. It cost almost $25 to get all in which I thought was a little pricy.

From the entrance of the park, people at the top of the rock look like ants. Now I must say, I am afraid of heights! We've gone to Oklahoma and there is a place the kids like to go that has a house at the top of the hill and it's darn scary trying to make it up! I wanted to do it and off we all went. I did stop quite frequently, because I'm not quite as young as I was back then. Dan kept telling me that we didn't have to do it, but I said that I had to. We finally made it!!!! I enjoyed the beautiful view all around. From the top, there was a small plateau that you could go down on the back side of the rock. Going down it was easy, but then Dan reminded me I had to go back up! Talk about a workout! But now, I've done it and can mark that off of my list of things I need to do!

On our way home, we stopped at Wildseed Farms. It was raining a little, but it was a very cool place to visit. The had fields where they raise their own wild flowers, several stores where you could buy plants, seeds, taste and buy food. If you're ever in Fredericksburg area, you should stop and check it out.

Hope everyone has been safe from the tornadoes! We had several hit very close to us. One about a 1/2 mile from us and another down the street from our girls high school. Our middle daughter, who is a junior at the high school, was on her way home at lunch and saw one of the tornadoes. The youngest was still at the high school. It was a pretty wild day.

On a brighter note, we just put up a new list on the website so please check it out! We've got some box lots that need to go sooner, than later. One has almost all rock/pop and two others have mostly all country/western. Priced to move!

Have a great week and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Kathy

Updated List 01/20/2012

Hope everyone has recovered from the holidays!

Sometimes I think you need a break from the break.

It's winter, but our temps today were in the 70's! It's supposed to cool down a little over the weekend and into next week (low to mid 60's). I guess we can't complain to much. Our oldest daughter's friend is up in MN and she said it was -2 today.

We'd love to hear from you as to what your weather is like where you live. If you want to send pics, that would be cool.

We put up a new list today so check it out. Since it's winter and you may be stuck inside due to weather, we've put some of our repair supplies on sale.

Stay warm!

K

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with Christmas and New Year's!

We enjoyed our time off to be with friends and family!!!!

Santa brought me a new telescope that is pretty nice. I'm enjoying looking at the moon and Jupiter. Will be checking out some of the of the other coolness of the night sky. I'm thinking of getting a few more filters and other items to help me take pictures of the night sky. My parents gave me a gift card for time at a website that allows you to look at the night sky through some powerful telescopes around the world - www.slooh.com. Pretty cool!

We have put up a new list up today so be sure to check it out. http://www.katestrackshack.com or our mobile site - http://www.katestrackshack.mobi.

Let us know what cool toys you got for Christmas!

We're looking forward to another great year and wish you all the best for the same!

Kathy & Dan

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! New Updated List 11/27/11

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We had Thanksgiving with my parents out in Ranger, TX! Smoked turkey, dressing, corn, mash potatoes, gravy, rolls & veggie tray. I made a buttermilk pie and an chocolate buttermilk pie. Yum! Ate too much, but I think that's one of the things that just goes along with that holiday!!!!

Gearing up for the Christmas holidays. Got the tree up and decorations on and around the inside of the house. The temps are a bit cooler and we had a couple of very blustery days. With it getting dark so early, the lights may have to wait until this weekend. I'll put up my few things that I can do without Dan's help and the ladder.

One of our traditions is to turn on Christmas music while the tree is being put up or at least while it's being decorated. Another is that the tree or decorations don't go up before Thanksgiving. It's usually the day after.

What are some of your holiday traditions? Let me know.

Also put up a new list this weekend so check it out. We have cassettes on sale - buy 2 get 2 free.

Gotta get back at it!

Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year, if I don't get back to the blog before then!

Happy Fall Yall! More Photos & Udated List - 11-8-11

Hope everyone is enjoying the cool fall weather! Hope you're not one of those that got hit by the snow storm and lost power.

I just love this time of year! The changing of the leaves is beautiful. I took a road trip to pick up some players and tapes the other day and ended up going down a state highway. I saw some amazing foliage as well as buffalo, ostrich or emu, lamas and other wild life.

What's crazy around here is that I've been seeing some of the Bartlett Pear trees blooming. This crazy drought and now cooler weather has tricked them into thinking it's Spring.

I've uploaded some of our San Francisco photos from Photobucket - so take a look. Some of the photos are from a trip we took to Wisconsin a few years ago. Sorry for any dups of pics and all of the aerial photos, but some of those were pretty cool from the air. What can I say, it was a long flight! (I corrected all of my poor spelling on the photos in the slideshow, but it doesn't seem to show them (the corrections) on the uploads).

We've also put up a new list so check it out - www.katestrackshack.com. Remember that we also have a mobile site that you can check out on your mobile devices. It's still under construction, but getting there. You can check it out at - www.katestrackshack.mobi.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day next week! Don't eat to much, shop to much or watch to much TV!

Can you believe that they are already laying on heavy Christmas ads. I've seen stuff out for Christmas since before Halloween. I saw some folks who already had their outside Christmas decorations up. I love Christmas, but let's at least get through Thanksgiving first!

Enjoy a wonderful holiday with your family & friends! We will be!

Kathy

Updated List 10-24-11 San Francisco Trip

Hope everyone is having a great fall season!

Just got back from a great trip to San Francisco! Lots to see and do and even got to experience two earth quakes while we were there! The first one was 3.8 and the second 4.0. Not huge, but a quake non-the-less. The funny part was that it happened on "Earthquake Awareness Day." The other thing I found of interest, was that it happened during the World Series, which is when the last really big one hit SF in '89.

Here are some pics of the trip:

Fisherman's Wharf

Painted Ladies Houses (I think)

Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio

Inside a giant sequoia tree at Muir Woods

Houseboat in Sausalito - lots of cool houseboats, but this was the best!

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz "The Rock" Island

Dan about to be locked up on Alcatraz

Sunset view of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back from Alcatraz

Another sunset view of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back from Alcatraz

There are lots more pictures, but I need to download them from mine and Dan's phones.

I also went to a fortune cookie factory (well maybe not that big), but it was fun watching the three ladies cook and make the fortune cookies. They even make "adult" fc's.

For those of you who use your mobile devices to check out the website, we have just added a mobile site for you. It's still under construction, but take a look and let us know what you think - http://www.katestrackshack.mobi

We also just put up a new list today so take a look - http://www.katestrackshack.com

We've added some more bulk lots so be sure to check those out. We'll be adding more as time permits. Also have lots of cassettes that need to move!

Have a good week/end!

Kathy & Dan

Vacation/Back To School/New List

Hope everyone had a good summer! The kids are back in school and lots going on!

We took our vacation this year in conjunction with two conferences Dan had in Washington DC. It stunk for him to not be able to go and do a lot of things with us, but he did get to do some things. Instead of flying this year, we drove.

Since we needed to be up in DC by Monday, we headed off on Friday morning. We didn't push ourselves and made it to Memphis, TN. By the time we got there it was really to late to do much site seeing. We were going to see a movie, but decided dinner and back to the hotel sounded better. Saturday we drove until we got to Abingdon, VA. Dan and I left the girls in the hotel and we went off to the movies. We saw Cowboys and Aliens. Not a bad flick. The popcorn machine was hosed up and they didn't have any ready before our movie so they hand delivered it to us just before the movie started. Very nice folks there!

Dan wanted us to go to the Air/Space Museum near Dulles Airport so we did that before heading to the hotel where his conference was being held and we were staying. Here are a few of the many pictures that we took while we were there.

This is the Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped the bomb on Japan.

Dan and two of of the girls in front of a flying car. We need one of those to go with our boat car!

Another picture of the Enola Gay with Dan and girls.

An overlook of the space area. You can see a small part of the life size mock up of the Enterprise Space Shuttle.



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On Monday, before Dan had to go to his conference, we went to Arlington Cemetery. What an awesome place to go. To see the gravestones of so many men/women who gave their lives for this country. Some very famous and many not so famous, but the sacrifice was the same.

Lee's Home. They were remodeling when we were there so a lot of the furniture is at Mt. Vernon - Robert E. Lee married the granddaughter of Jackie Custis who was Washington's stepson. Lee is also GW's third cousin, twice removed, since both men are descended from Augustine Warner, Sr., and Mary Towneley Warner (GW by way of their son, Augustine, Jr., and Lee by way of their daughter, Sarah. Just a brief history lesson.

View of DC from the front yard of the Lee home. It was very hazy that day. You may have to enlarge the picture, but you can see the Washington Monument and the Capital in the background.

Another view from the front lawn of the Lee home. In this picture you can see the Capitol and Jefferson Memorial in the background.

In this picture you can see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial (left side of picture) in the background. They have dug up the Reflecting Pool to do renovations to it. Pretty weird not seeing it there with water in it.

This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Very solemn place to be in the cemetery.

This is one of the soldiers that guards the Tomb. They walk 21 paces, turn and walk another 21 paces. You can see the wear marks where they stop after those 21 steps each way. Watching the changing of the guard is very cool. We saw it last year. We were getting ready to leave but our middle daughter got to watch part of the ceremony. Last year, when we were there, the soldier coming onto duty had to be inspected before she could take over. She had her flap up on her uniform and the soldier inspecting her fixed it before letting her take over. We also saw a military funeral when we first got there. From the uniforms, the person was in the Navy. They were given a 21 gun salute. Very chilling!

This is John F. Kennedy's grave. Jackie O. is buried beside him as well as two of their children who died as infants. Bobbie is not buried here, which I thought he was. Teddy is buried near but not in the same plots as JFK, Jackie O. and the two children. I was also surprised to not see John Jr. buried with his parents.



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I took the girls to New York City for a couple of days. Except for Susie getting sick, we had a great time! Here are a few pics of that trip -

A view of Herald Square. You might remember this name mentioned in the song "Give My Regards To Broadway"

We had taken a few pictures of the Empire State Building up close, but a guy on the street blocks away tapped my shoulder and pointed up to this great view! He said sometimes you just need to see something from a different point of view.

Macy's and 34th St. Miracle on 34th Street is my all time favorite Christmas movie (the Natalie Wood version). Couldn't go tho NYC and miss seeing this corner!

This was strange statue in the Madison Square Park around the corner from our hotel.

These are a few pictures from Central Park -

The Plaza Hotel outside of Central Park. This is where the Eloise movie with Julie Andrews takes place.

Carriage rides around Central Park. There were lots of guys trying to get us to buy a ride on the carriage, bikes or rickshaws, but we wanted to walk. I didn't get a picture of it, but we did buy hot dogs from one of the vendors at the entrance to the park. A little pricy, and not that good!

A beautiful view of NYC from Central Park.

A guy playing the sax in the park. He was good, but forgot to put money in his case.

Mary posing for me in CP.

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Off to 5th Ave and Tiffany's

Susie in front of Tiffany's window - just like Audry Hepburn in Breakfast at Tifrfany's.

Front of store. Lots of women getting their picture taken in front of the store. We went in and the cheapest thing they had was a charm for $150! BTW, there are 5 floors to the store.

Don't know if you've ever seen the show Obscura on cable tv, but it's a very fascinating show. Basically, a husband and wife, who own a shop in East Greenwich, buy and sell obscure and odd items. The show is a lot of fun to watch and I though since we were there, we should check it out. It's a very tiny store. For a souvenir we bought Dan a t-shirt and a real stuffed Parana.


When we came back to DC, we walked the National Mall, but I forgot to take my camera with me. We also did one of the museums at the the Smithsonian, but again, I forgot my camera. The girls got some cool pictures. I think I might have a few on my phone that I'll post when I get them uploaded to the computer.

I was grateful that we were not there for the earthquakes. I can't imagine how terrifying it would have been to be on the Metro (subway) or in the Washington Monument or the Pentagon when they hit.

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As for business! We just put up a new list yesterday. Sorry it has taken so long! Trying to get ready to go on vacation, being gone and then getting back and trying to get the kiddos ready for school.

We've added a new page for cassette tapes. Folks have asked for them, so we've put them on. We also have lots of cases, both for cassettes and 8-tracks, so let us know what you need.

We're also having a 10% off back to school sale (doesn't include s/h).

We've got a couple of other things in the works. One of the things we're working on is putting up an auction site where you can sell anything musical - tapes, players, etc. We'll keep everyone posted when it's all up and running.

Have a great week(end)!

Updated List 7/17/11

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th!

It's been pretty busy around here!

A couple of weeks ago, Dan and I went to an air show. It was pretty small, but we were able to see some cool planes. I went up inside a B25 - Fifi. We saw her in Midland, Texas at the air show there where we flew on a B17 but she wasn't flying at the time. Pretty small quarters up there!

Late last week, Dan and I headed up to Wisconsin to a car show - Iola Old Car Show.
They said there were over 115,000 people this year. We went last year and it was great! Very hot and humid last year, but this year it was in the high 80's! People were complaining about the hot temps up there and we just laughed. We left temps of 100. I'm posting a picture of our thermometer in the kitchen. You'll notice the outside temp of 110! The inside is high because I accidentally weed-wacked one of the a/c lines and I didn't want to run the a/c until Dan could get home from work and make sure I hadn't damaged anything (I did, but nothing he couldn't fix!!!). We left on Thursday, got up there Friday night and back home early Sunday evening! We stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast called Apple Tree Lane B&B in Waupaca, WI. It was located in an historic Victorian farmhouse built in the early 1880's and sits on 7.5 acres in a park-like setting along 400 feet of beautiful Crystal River frontage. The rihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifver was beautiful, but the mosquitoes were horrible! We want to come back here again when we have more time to enjoy everything.

We also just closed on the house that we've been working on. This was our first house that we bought 24 years ago. We sold it to a friend and he needed to sell it and we were given first dibs out it. It needed a ton of work on the outside, which is almost finished except for the landscaping and the inside will be next. Two of our three kiddos were born while in this house. It backs up to a horse field, which is kind of cool! We will probably move the oldest into this house once we get it fixed up. Right now she lives down the street in a little bit smaller house. We've already got lots of folks wanting to rent hers out. This was such a cute, well kept house :( We'll get it back to that state again! This is not the best view of the house. I'll try to find a better one and post it.

And let's see, I ended up with a black eye earlier this week! I promise, Dan didn't do it! One of the dogs (youngest corgi) did. Man does he have a hard head! It seems like it just keeps getting worse.

We also just updated the list with lots of tapes so you'll want to check it out - www.katestrackshack.com. We have tons of cases for sale so get 'em while you can.

We'll be headed up to DC for vacation in mid August. Dan has a week long conference and the girls and I will be out doing stuff while he's stuck in his conferences :(.

We'll be driving for about 3 days up/back. If anyone has any good places that are worth stopping out, please let us know. We like the weird and crazy places!


Everyone have a great week and stay cool!!!!

Kathy & Dan