Merry Christmas

Yesterday was the big annual Christmas Eve Party in Creston.  The whole town meets in front of the post office with tables of snacks, grilled sausages, coffee cooked over an open campfire, and goodwill.  Santa arrives at 11:00 am and gives out gifts to all the little kids.  As you can see, Haley wanted NOTHING to do with that strange man in the red suit, but she did tell him thank you for the little stuffed animal.

Today Ben, Jamie, Haley and Doris joined us for a dinner.  Santa had brought a battery powered tricycle for Haley, and she didn't even hesitate.  She climbed right on and took off. Nothing hesitant about that kid.

We enjoyed the day, and hope that everybody else did too.

Have a very Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!

'Til later....

Agatha Raisin

Today I finished a series of books called The Agatha Raisin Mysteries by M.C. Beaton.  Agatha is a middle aged retired public relations executive in Great Britan.  She stumbles into murder and mayhem, and generally causes a lot of problems for the local police. 

I love her because she has no idea how bossy, opinionated, abrasive and self absorbed she is.  Every time a handsome male comes into the picture, she makes a fool of herself trying to capture him.  She has a group of friends who are fully aware of her faults and like her anyway. 

Each book has twists and turns until she finally figures out "who done it".  There are twenty three books so far, and I'm waiting for more.  They are very light reading and only take about a day to get through; full of humor and fun.

'Til later...

November 23, 2012

Well, the Christmas Season is upon us again...is everybody ready???

Me either.  I've taken up bell ringing for the Salvation Army again, and have already had someone complain that I'm being too loud.  I think it's gonna be a long season.  .

Yesterday Bill and I joined Doris at her Grand-daughter's home for a Thanksgiving meal.  Richard and Sara were great hosts; Richard did the cooking  and it was yummy.  Debbie and Les joined us there, but Ben and Jamie were spending the day with her parents.

The only problem with eating dinner at someone elses home, is that there are no leftovers, so I'm cooking a turkey dinner on Sunday.  Ben and Jamie will be joining us at that time, and I will be able to enjoy a turkey snadwich on Monday.

This will be the third Christmas season that I will not be setting up my village.  I was thinking that I might go back to some of the older blogs and post pictures and tell the story again.  What does everybody think???

In the meantime, setting up the village takes too much room and there's nobody to admire it shen I'm done.  Maybe next year,,,Haley will be big enough to enjoy it then.

'Til later...

Yesterday we showed our tri-athlete Grandson how to do an "Old Foggie's triathlon".  We started out going to an historic site by visiting  the Mission San Diego.  From there, we went to a museum:  The Museum of Man.  After a quick snack we toured Old Town, and ended the afternoon inside a Cantina/ Sport's Bar watching the Giants stay alive in the playoffs.  Altogether, it was a very enjoyable day.

Today we will be taking the train back home.  We had a really fun time visiting JT and San Diego.  Hope to return again sometime and spend full days in Balboa Park at more museums and Old Town.

'Til later...

10/20/2012 San Diego

Yesterday we took the train to San Diego to visit with JT for the weekend.  The hotel that we are staying at is the same one that we used last January before departing for Hawaii.

When we woke up this morning there were two cruise ships docked across the street from us.  One of them was the Vaandam, the ship that Gary, Doris, Bill and I went on through the Panama Canal.  I tried to convince them that I owned part of that ship and that they should take me with them, but they wouldn't have any of it.  Seems they still want money for  trip.
JT met us at 7:00, and after having a breakfast, we
wandered  on up to Pala and the Pala Mine where we spent a few hours hunting for tourmalines.  We all had a good time, and some luck finding some pretty crystals.  Most of the stones we got were pink, but JT found a pretty good sized green one.

In the hills behind where we were playing, there were dirt bikes racing around.  We could see the bikes making some pretty impressive jumps.  Couldn't see where they were taking off from or where they were landing, but we got to see them flying through the air.

We left there around 2:00, and had a late lunch at an Indian Casino.  While there, I made a five dollar bill grow into a ten dollar bill at a penny machine.

We're pooped, so we are hitting the hay early.  Tomorrow:  Mission San Diego and a couple of museums.

'Til later...

 I have been avoiding this job for at least a year, and I cannot put it off any longer.  I wish that there was someone else who could help me, but I'm afraid that I'm one of the last in my generation who can do this.  When my mom was still alive, I tried (several times) to get her to go through things and give me names.  After a series of strokes, her memory was taken and the opportunity had slipped away.  What you're looking at is a HUGE pile of family photos.  After my mom's passing, Gary took them home with him (probably to try to make sense of them himself).  Now Gary is gone, Jan and I are it.  The problem is:  Jan lives back east, and is over
five years younger than I, so she doesn't have memories of the oldtimers like I do.

The photos are of both my dad's family and my mom's.  They are mixed together.  There are formal portraits and candid snapshots.  This is a formal plea to my cousins:   Ina and Claire....please come help me with this mess.  I have no idea where to start, and I need help.

I will feed you, and treat you like royalty if you will just come help me figure out who the Sheffers and Lunds ( not to mention Pettises and Hildreths) are.  Maybe Andy's notes could help.

In the meantime, I plan to continue standing at the doorway wringing my hands.

'Til later... 

Egad...I wonder if I'll EVER learn how to maneuver this new blog site.  I still am having trouble transferring my old blogs over, and I've had trouble attaching photos to this.  This will be my third try, so here goes...

I took Bill's old, tired, ragged, stained, disgusting, beat up, holey jeans and recycled them into a rug.

I cut the jeans into 1 1/2 inch strips and then sewed them into a VERY long strip.  I did the same with some heavy red fabric that I had been wondering what do to with.

I then crocheted them into a rug with alternating triple and double patterns.  It turned out pretty good, and Bill is very pleased.

I now have a nice warm place for my feet to land on when I climb out of bed.  (Not to mention getting rid of old, tired, ragged, stained, disgusting, beat up, holey jeans.)

Now if I can just transfer my old blogs from Multiply...

'Til later...

Hi there.  I'm going to have to change where I send out my blogs from.  It seems that Multiply will be going away soon, so here I am at this new site.

It will take a little lot of time for me to figure out all the new buttons and  switches, but things will eventually work out okay.  I will probably be able to access my photos easier because there is a choice for me to get them from Picassa Web Albums.  Maggoe has been telling me to get some photos posted on line, so since I already use Picassa, posting them online is the next step.

I'm hoping that I will be able to save all my old blogs from Multiply, but if I can't...oh well.