Laura’s Birthday, Lindsay’s Baby, and Chase

Last weekend was Laura’s birthday, so we had a little celebration. I try to make my birthday last at least a week but we only lasted a couple of days on this one.

On Monday we had a cake.

It was a delicious cake from HyVee. HyVee makes a really good cake. Go figure.

              

Laura was thrilled with her cake. Well, I don’t know if she was thrilled, but I was thrilled because I love cake.

On Tuesday we went to the Olive Garden for lunch

Here is our little group-clockwise from L is Angie, Laura, Ali, Pat, Patty and a surprise guest appearance from Lindsay, after giving birth a month ago to this

Here is Morgan Rae. Isn’t she cute and sleepy?

                

She has a dimple on her chin.

When she woke the passing of the baby began-

First Lindsay, because, after all, she is the rightful owner.

Then Patty. I gotta say, that baby is one moving little thing. She was putting her arms up and down, and wiggling her feet. But mostly she likes to get those arms going.

Then me. I hypnotized her as I have that way with babies.

Then, who else? No baby visit would be complete without a picture of this

Laura was itching to get hold of that baby.

So that was a fun day. We also gave Laura a card and some money and a gift card and soup and salad. So a good birthday was had by all.

I got this in my e-mail last week

Look at Chase. I swear he is getting more like a regular kid every day. He continues to crack me up. Ali doesn’t think he was ever as little as Morgan but I have the proof-

Remember when?

I couldn’t decide who Chase looked like but I decided that he looks just like Ali when I ask her a question about work and then tell her I’m not going to do it that way anyway. Then she gives me this look

Seriously, exactly like his mother.

 

Child Endangerment

Look at what I got today-

I know. Our Cora, looking at saucy as ever. She’s looking pretty happy in spite what her parents are doing to her-

Look closely-

Do you see that? I know, quit looking at how cute she is and take note of the fact she is dressed in a Vikings dress.

Yes, my little Cora Rae is being brainwashed into thinking that someday she will be a Minnesota Vikings fan. This is how it all begins.

Not only are they using cute little dresses to poison her thinking (and you know cute clothing is a sure way to get to these girls)-they are using devious methods of baby mind control.

I have proof-

Need I say more? I am to Appleton next month where I hope to purchase a little Packer dress and stage an intervention. Am looking on line for Seahawks apparel too.

It’s just hard to believe what some parents will do to their children……

 

Back to Normal

Well, as normal as it gets.

This week I am back home and back to work. Yippeee. Work is work.

I got a letter from my personal stylist, Katie, from Nordstrom. See what I mean? I had to send her an e-mail for some fall ideas….Please, someone stop me.

I also forgot to post a couple of pics from my vacation in Tacoma

Giant Hydrangias in the yard. And a rabbit.

Can you see him?

Last weekend Dave and I went for a walk around the big loop, as I call it. About 5 or so miles. These are some of the things we saw

I saw a bent over tree.

Some fields with grey clouds

 

An old Bridge

And some yellow flowers

 

They looked more yellow when I took the picture

This week I had to take Elvin, aka Yeltsin, aka Bodie (don’t even ask) to the vet because she had a bad tooth. This started a long and potentially brain injuring conversation with Laura.

Anyway, I told Laura that my feline had a bad canine at which we  laughed and laughed. That’s what I love about Laura, she laughs at my jokes. She also sent me the funniest Random Thoughts of the Day I have ever read.

For example, “There’s a great need for a sarcasm font”, or “Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong” or “’Do not machine wash or tumble dry’ means I will never wash this ever”.

Or, this one, which happened to us on Friday afternoon around 3:30 PM-

“You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day”.

So, about the cat, which segued into a conversation about Snaggletooth, who is really Snagglepuss.

 

We looked it up just to be sure, which eventually led to Laura’s exiting stage left.

See what I mean? Who can follow this kind of train of thought, which we like to call our stream of consciousness conversations, which usually render the people around us unconscious.

Dang-ok, the cat. Elvin had a bad canine-seriously, she did. Actually she had 2 bad canines-upper left, lower right. Which are now extracted to the tune of about 250 dollars. Oh well. I think Yeltsie is feeling better without those painful teeth, although she never complained.

She is too mad at me this AM to get a new picture (because of the pills and liquid pain meds I have to give her) so here’s a picture of her from the 4th of July. Too bad you can’t see her stubby tail which she lost about 6 years ago. This cat is very unlucky. But she is cute.

Lastly, but not leastly, this week at work Ali said she was bringing Chase in and we got all excited and then she didn’t. We were crushed. She promises a visit this week so hopefully there’ll be some new pics. Angie is getting a new car or something. Patrick stopped by (he’s off for a month on family medical leave). They are on the way to Lake Okaboji or Okajobi or something like that in Iowa.

Today (8/23) is Laura’s birthday so next week is lunch on Tuesday for her birthday. Should be some blogging about that.

Happy birthday Laura-thanks for laughing at my jokes.

Tiger….

What a match I watched yesterday. Tiger lost it at the end, after the amazing 14th hole by Yang. Oh well. I couldn’t wait to see what John Feinstein, my fave sport writer and now blogger, had to say about that as he can be a little hard on Tiger at times.

You have to hand it to the guy. He was out all last year with the knee thing and came back looking great. We watch him miss puts for birdie and make par in 4 and think he’s not playing well, and then we say “hmm, that would be about a 10 shot hole (on a good day) for me!”

What I am saying is-Golf is hard and everyone who was playing Sunday played well or they wouldn’t be there. (Except for maybe those exemption guys….)

Oh well. I must admit it kept me glued to the media all afternoon. Ok, maybe not. We did go for a walk because I couldn’t stand the tension.

I think he’ll win the PGA again-next year? Can’t wait.

 

Photo by Getty Images at                TigerWoods. com

 

Back Again

I have returned from my long vacation to Washington, and points in between. Here is the long, long, long story of my trip.

I flew from Minneapolis to Phoenix to Seattle. Why? Unsure. I had a really really cheap fare and for some reason thought that Phoenix was closer to Seattle than it actually is. Who moved it? 

Here is my route. 

Here is the direct route.

Hmmm.  8 hours vs 3 hours. Is any fare really worth that? I thought that if I took the long way again I’d upgrade to 1st class thereby making the cost even. That made sense while I was flying but not so much now that I am on the ground.

But anyway, that’s what I did, forward and back.

Dave dropped me off in Mpls and I arrived in Seattle where my sister Debbie picked me up with her husband Jay in the back seat. Which somehow struck me as hilarious and I wish I would have taken a picture of it. But as you can see from above map I was in no frame of mind to take a picture.

I got to Tacoma and the next day, Wednesday, picked up my bright red Nissan which I also did not get a picture of. What the heck? Obviously when I get out of my element my blogging skills are shot.

I did get a picture of the my parents house though.

Living room.

My room.

 

My  room with giant cat , Happy, sitting on the chair.

May I say that cat is seriously large? Well, he is.

After picking up my car and shopping at Safeway (something that always needs to be done for some reason) I decided that I needed some new clothes. The dilemma to that is I hate to shop. But no worries, I called my local Nordstrom and hired me a personal shopper. Although they are now called personal stylists.

On Thursday I went to Mecca….

Ahh, I can still feel the excitement. I entered into a whole new world. Oh, and I bought a couple of thousand dollars worth of clothes. I figure if you average out the 10 or so years I didn’t ever buy clothes it all works out. My personal gals, Katie and Andrea, were simply the top. So much so that I went back again on Saturday and bought 2 more pairs of jeans AND some tees. I could really get used to that. Good thing there isn’t a local branch too close by….

After that exhausting morning I came back and worked on the puzzle that I brought. 1000 pieces to complete in 7 days. The race was on. Of course, this didn’t help.

  

 

            

Be that as it may, I worked on this puzzle every day. All by myself with only Happy to help me.

On Friday Debbie and I went to Sock Summit 09 in Portland. You just can’t imagine thousands of knitters in one place. I mainly bought stuff for my swap partner in the Starbucks and Yarn Swap on Ravelry. But I managed some stuff for myself.

This is where we went-the Convention Center in Portland, to the Sock Summit MarketPlace.

 

And the SS09 swag booth-

Bad hair is all I can say about that. I saw Stephanie Pearl-McPhee briefly. And I am sure there were other luminaries I probably walked right by. Visited with the girls from the Yarnery. It was really fun and so much yarn……

We decided to go through Longview on the way back and look at the old neighborhood. This is where I used to live back in the day. However, when we lived there our yard did not look like this. Oh well.

I’d have gotten more detailed pictures but there is something about driving by while hanging out the car window with a camera that just makes one sort of hurry along.

This is my grandma Kalahan’s old house. Now my cousin Janet lives there. It looks way different than when Grandma used to live there.

 

After this we stopped at a quilt store and a yummy bakery for lunch, both in Chehalis, before I got back home. In time for dinner and a Mariners game.

Saturday, as I have said, was another trip to Nordstrom (ahhhhh) and a restful puzzle day, baseball, golf. You know. That is also the day I believe I came up with the professional shussher job for Laura and I. I believe we are quite qualified for this position. More about that next time.

Sunday was actually sunny. It was sunny until the day I got there and is now sunny again. We had this sunny Sunday so I took a walk and some pictures of the club.

            

What was amazing to me was that hidden in those red bushes in the center of this picture is a coyote, just running along the course, which was pretty crowded. I wonder what the handicap is for that?

Can you see him standing there? That little dot! Maybe if you make this picture bigger you can see him better. Wild.

I called Nina, my friend of 40 years, and we went on a walk on Monday. Down by the water in University Place. She brought her dog Roxy and we had a very nice time down there. The weather was warm, not too hot or cold. There used to be some sort of grainery or factory or something down there. Now it’s a golf course (no coyotes) with lots of large cement artifacts.

                       

 

And here is Nina, looks just the same as when I met her at age 10!

We had lunch with her friend Vince and off again. Bought some cupcakes down town (like I needed a little more cake-I made two pies for graampa so I haven’t been short of desserts!). Got home in time for another baseball game.

Tuesday was RelFest 09. We had this at Debbie’s house on Hartstein Island which is nice but a drag to drive to.

Weather was perfect and we all had a good time there-

This is my 2nd cousin Jane (daughter of my cousin Janet)

Here’s Cousin Lloyd, sister Martha, and Lloyd’s wife Betty

View shots-

 

It looks cloudier than it was. It actually was pretty bright and mid 70’s.

OK, now we are getting serious. There’s Gramdma and Grammmpa, my niece Katie and her friend Willie, and of course Martha, with her head down doing some serious eating. We had been waiting for HOURS!! We’d already noshed as much as we could before needing some solid nourishment.

Katie made the delicious carrot cake. That’s really what we were waiting for.

This is Debbie, me, Martha, cousin Janet and part of Jane on the far right.

Madeline, Katie, and Jane. Madeline and Jane are Janet’s girls and Katie belongs to Martha. How’s about that?

Here’s the cousin generation-Lloyd, Janet, David, Martha, me and Debbie.

And the surviving aunt/uncle generation-Uncle Lyle, gramma and grammpa. Aren’t they cute?

We got home about 7:30 and watched the Mariners win in the bottom of the ninth on a two run homer. Very exciting.

Oh, I finished the puzzle too-with no help from Godzilla here-  Look, he doesn't even fit all the way in the box!

Here’s the final product

 

                                 

Just in time, because Thursday I got up at oh-two-hundred (that’s 2 AM) and was off to the airport for another fun day of flying.

I made it home finally by 5 PM our time and am back again.

Phew.

It doesn’t even seem like I was gone. I sure had a good time. Now all I have to do is pay for it……

                      

Thanks for having me!