Tuesday's Outing

On Tuesday we went to Tanganyika Wildlife Park.At least one giraffe was willing to get up close and personal.The others chose to stay out of camera range, but were close enough to enjoy.The lemurs were the most fun.Every one got to hand out a treat or two.There were lots of other critters, but the 2nd most favorite were the kakngaroos.The weather cooperted nicely and we had a beautiful day.

Nelda's Visit Begins

Nelda arrived on Friday, as did Valley's Fall Festival. That night we took our chairs down to main street and watched the people, rides, etc. That was funnel cake night. On Saturday we went over for the parade.
Valley showed the colors as appropriate.And then as dubiously appropriate. Didn't that war end?Lots of school involvement with bands, and floats from every class.From there we went downtown for lunch and more people watching. For the third year in a row, we've parked our chairs by the ferris wheel where Mom sees lots of people she knows.

On Sunday, I cooked and Bud and Mary came out for lunch. We took the annual siblings photo. They're certainly astounding for three folks well into their 80's.Sunday night the three of us went over to McLaughlin park to see the fireworks. We were so close to where they were shooting them that we had to look directly overhead to see them. Despite the neck ache, it was an incredible way to see the spectacle -- quite up close and personal.

Tomorrow: Tanganyika Wildlife Park

Road Trip

On Friday, I went to Lecompton to visit Sandy and Cyndi.We had dinner and then did a drive into Lawrence to have a Dairy Queen. It's a nice drive along the river road and a lovely treat at the end. So, it seems to be becoming a tradition for my visits to them.After returning we watched the Swedish movie made from the novel, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." The movie was as good as the book. How strange.They live in an absolutely charming "cottage in the woods" although you can't see much of the woods in this photo.

On Saturday, Sandy and I met Barbara in Topeka for lunch and then they indulged me by going to a small quilt show. All in all, a quite nice trip.

Gratitude Re-visited & Life in V.C.

****There was a story on the Today Show this morning about a 17 year old football player whose heart stopped right after he had made a long touhdown run. A nurse in the stands started chest compressions, and he survived. Surgery is scheduled soon to fix the same condition that Shelby had.I was again filled with gratitude that Shelby's condition was found and fixed. Miracles!
****Things have changed in V.C. The opening of the new Quick Shop has been a REALLY BIG deal!It has 12 pumps, a deli, tons of coffee choices, and Krispie Creme donuts! It's quite wonderful.
****More things will change, and a bit of our history will go away.
The house where Bob and I lived when Terilee, Carrie and Kellie were born has been bought by the Methodist church. The tenants moved out, and it is scheduled for demolition sometime in the next few months. Has me feeling a bit nostalgic for times past.
***BIG crisis on Sunday evening when my cable box died. I was without a living room TV for 18 hours. Can you know what that's like for a junkie??
So, yet another Cable Boy showed up and put in a new box for me. All is well, except that my recorded shows are gone, and I have to start all over telling the new box what to record.

Dental Genes & Things

My biggest event this week was going to the dentist. Twice. For a total of 2 1/2 hours!This actually IS me with Dr. Wendy bent over my face and Amanda with the suction. Aren't you just embarrassed thinking about how I get all of these photos? I had to have TWO crowns cut off and the decay under them repaired. Richard had put them on really well, and they didn't want to come off. Now I have temporaries and will get the real-deals in a couple of weeks. I had to go back on day 2 to have them smoothed out when I woke up with a raw tongue and cheek. With T.'s current dental crisis, it seems an appropriate time to apologize for the dental genes I sent on to you, even if only half of the crummy ones came from me.
****Come to think of it, I don't think I've heard Linda say much about rotten teeth. Could it be that you got better teeth than the rest of us, Linda? Perhaps the other half of your genes came from someone with great choppers, in addition to huge and gorgeous brown eyes. I do remember the gorgeous brown eyes, I do not remember the choppers -- among other things.
****I finished the birthday present puzzle earlier in the week. Now I can start going to bed at a reasonable hour. There are a zillion wildflowers pictured on it, so it gave me a chance to review my flower names.****Our most recent hot spell passed last night, so I was back in the garden this morning. This is the survival-of-the-fittest garden from which I've already hacked out tons of Barbara's red basil. The hyacinth beans and autumn clematis are particularly lovely in the late summer. The autumn clematis smells wonderful, but it's too far away to enjoy the scent. I think I'm going to try some closer to the deck next year.

It's not all loveliness in my yard, however. Note the brown, brown grass! I'm killing it off in the front yard in order to re-seed it. We've done the same thing in most of Grandma's front yard. Really ugly, but really necessary. The heat had taken a toll on sod that was not in good condition to begin with.
****

Techno Dummy -- ME!!

1. I thought my blog address was broken because it couldn't be reached via the Web address. Turns out it can be if you have the correct web address. I was using the wrong one and gave the erroneous one to a friend who's inability to get to it started my whole techno-broken thing. The correct Web address is quilt-plant.blogspot.com. (I spent an hour or so this morning researching alternate blog hosting options. Now not necessary.)

2. After inadvertently deleting my printer, I was unable to get it re-installed. Got a message that told me to contact my Technical Support Professional. I did. He came 3 days later. He plugged the printer cable into the USB port and it all worked beautifully. I had crawled around on the floor checking every cord I could find. Didn't find that one.

And just when I was feeling like such a techno-Smarty Pants!

Catching Up

Have you missed me? Since I now know that this blog is techno-broken, I have a different feeling about it. Only those of you who have e-mail notifications can get to it. So, now I think I will figure out how to kill this blog and start another. Or maybe abandon this one and start another. In the meantime.....
Linda Campbell came to visit last week.She arrived and departed by train, so there were two trips to Newton in the wee hours of the morning. But it wasn't bad, and I made up for the sleep. We had a great and lazy visit. Despite the too hot times and the too cold times, we did have some time on the porch. We saw two movies, visited a couple of restaurants, and started the puzzle that Barbara gave me for my birthday. It is wonderfully tedious and has captured most of my waking moments over the past few days.
On Labor Day, my friend, Barb from quilt group, and I went to Alden to a wonderful old quilt shop that is in a nearly-dead old town. I had been there a week or so before, but..... they were having a big sale. It was a nice road trip. We had lots of giggles and bought lots of fabric. I'm set for a long winter of quilting.
The garden is waning, and I have begun taking things out in anticipation of fall and frost. Stuff that has gotten straggly and suffered from the heat is going first -- along with a ton and a half of red basil that came to me via Barbara. Seems like I spend a lot of time whacking out uncontrolable stuff that I have gotten from her. You'd think I'd learn.