BBQ Shower

Before it all began.
We planned for maybe fifty. Set up and decorating was so fun, frustrating, rewarding. Making up our minds about the table arrangement almost caused a civil war! Mr. & Mrs. Broccoli and I on one side and Dan'l Boone on the other. He was so full of grand ideas! I can't tell you how many times we moved tables and re-counted chairs!

While we still could claim we were 'Fresh and Lovely'. Not for long! Things got hairy fast.
I'm wearing my new favorite apron. Thank you Josephine! BBmug has been initiated,too!
83 people showed up.
EIGHTY THREE!
CAST IRON CUISINE!
Chile Cheddar Corn Bread,
Honey Butter,
Tangy Coleslaw and Creamy Coleslaw,
Broccoli Bacon and Raisin Salad,
Beef Chili sans Beans,
Boone's Whole Smoked Brisket with BBQ Sauce,
Smoked Sausage Links,
Rosie's Garlic Beans,
Dolores' Spanish Rice with Pesto and Sausage,
Buttered Corn On The Cob,
Vanilla Haagen-Daz with Berry Cobbler for Dessert!!



The Happy, Thankful Couple
Isn't she beautiful? What a glow!
The Main Chopping Fool.
He must have chopped and sliced meat for over an hour and a half. His back was good and sore from leaning over such a low counter. Thank you DOB! We all enjoyed the results.


We had guests from:
La Mesa
Los Angeles
Shadow Hills
Tehachapi
Fullerton
Phoenix
Walla Walla
and Hemet
The Group Gift:
Coleman Camping Stove,
Coleman Lantern,
Skil Saw,
Tool Kits,
Black & Decker Electric Drill Set,
Smoothie Maker,
600(!)Thread Count Queen-Size Sheets

The only photo I took of the clean up.
I think she was trying to wrap up the lights...
Um, un-plug, lay flat, fold together, sorta like that.

Morning Walk.

Every morning (except Saturday) We go for a walk, Bobby and I.
We skip Saturday because it's the one day of the week that I don't have to get out of bed for anything at all.
Not that I get to 'sleep in' much. If you had a seven pound kangaroo jumping on your bed, you wouldn't sleep in either.
Good grief, could I get any more chins to show??
I was hoping this shot would come out!
It's dawn over the golf course. So pretty.
This is as far as Bobby walks, about three blocks. He needs about that much distance to get his business done and then he would stop and sniff every thing in sight if I let him, thus he's in the bag, which he enjoys as well. I continue about two more miles.
This is my dear friend Sarah, my walking buddy of about four years. She is a retired pastor's wife and lives in the mobile home park opposite the golf course. She usually picks up my circuit about half-way, does a whole mile, then drops off at her park entrance as I continue on the rest of the way home. She's wearing an old pair of GG's wool mittens that I gave her; she gets hers out of the moth balls sooner than I. Of course I have new ones now!!
Sarah rescued a nest of duck eggs early this last Spring. She'd been spying on the nesting mother for a while and then realized that the mother had been killed or driven away. She raised six (in her bathtub) and released them back to the pond this Summer. Even though she hatched them, rolling them under a light bulb, none imprinted with her. We laughed when she asked me advice on hatching, as if I'd know! I could sew them a hat or a little jacket, maybe.
She still feels proprietary sometimes, brings food and checks on their welfare. Quack! Quack!

Cell Phone Re-Charger

I don't suppose anybody is missing this? I was changing my sheets and found it under my bed. Since Knittery was the last one here, maybe it's hers. Eh?
My new red mittens! Thank you Kate! Just in time, too. The weather has been balmy until this morning. We, Bobby and I, don't go walking in the rain. Bobby, because he gets extra stinky when he's wet and is finicky about dirty feet. He'll stop right inside the front door to clean them, right away. I have to step over him to get into the house. Me, because it is a good enough reason to stay by the fire, or in bed, as it were.
Birthdays in my family are like Channukah Celebrations. Presents all month long! We don't always get the gift to the recipient in a timely manner and nobody really cares. I used to apologize until I realized that it's kinda nice to get another gift out of the blue. In fact, I like it alot that way.
This time of year we have so many birthdays all at once. Four in August, Six in September, and Five in October. Other months have two or three, except December, which has Four as well.
These are my cool socks. (Kate again!) I was thinking I needed to dig out my house slippers today. I have an off-season closet in the garage because my closet in my room can't hold both hot and cold season clothes. Now before you call me a princess, the closet measures 47 inches; that's three feet, 11 inches to you in metro land. Or a little more than a meter, I guess.

The Most Frustrating Part of My Job.

It never fails...even after all these years.
I love my work. I love going to my little shop every day. I really love my clients, mostly anyway.
What I don't love is that I've lost my Crystal Ball.
I can't always tell how much time a particular job will take so since I do my work/jobs in order, I think that's as fair as I can make it. This means; first in - first out, no excuses.
BUT
Every once in a while I have one job that takes me a few days. This means everybody else in line waits until it's done.
My point today is, this is a picture of one of those jobs. The bill is $300.00. Does she come to get it? No. Does she respond to my two phone messages? No.
It sits here in my front room, in the way. (totally disrupting my feng shui, I'm sure.)
For two weeks.
What does happen is that other clients come in to get their things and their things are NOT DONE because I was working on this instead! grrr. I stand there excusing and apologizing. And not a little embarrassed.
And it all sits there mocking me.
99% of the time these things do resolve themselves. People eventually come. The exception being when I'm told (after the fact) that "The cost wasn't worth the price of the garment." (read: I'm never going to come get my jacket.) Be that as it may, you ordered the work. If it is important to you, it's worth the cost of altering. I'll say that up front when the actual labor $$ to invest in altering is greater than the original cost of the garment. Sometimes it just is and that's not a bad thing. Sometimes the store had only the wrong size, it goes with a skirt, or it was on the clearance rack at a ridiculous price anyway.

So I chalk it up to the nature of the beast and count my blessings.

And make certain I get a phone number.

The 10th Annual Rook Tournament

What a fun time!
There were 13 teams (of two) and that made for three groups for competition: 4/4/5. We all played the other three teams in our group.
Each team of the 'five' group had to wait out a game so it came out even. J was assigned Be Good as he'd no continuing partner and Mrs Good had stayed at home this evening.



My Darling Partner DauBer. He thought my reading glasses would improve his cards.
Or maybe at least his understanding of the risk he was about to take. They certainly made Aunt Wendy smile! By the time we'd finished our second set we had 10 (ten) points.
Six games and we had TEN points.
I don't think I took the bid once. Go figure.
Heather drove down with us and was still able to play a decent game.
She and Brooke were the winners of our group and thus in the semi-finals against the winners of group Three.
That's as far as they got.
Abigail and Kathy VanH sat out a game and so Abs had some advice for dad. It was good to see Kathy. Weezy was Aunt Wendy's partner.

Wayne and Carolyn skunking Weezy & Wendy. It was Karen and Matthew who cleaned up; he kept on getting killer hands! I don't know who won. Maybe Be Good will tell me. We stopped for supper after round two and had round three, plus the semi-finals and finals afterwards.

October 5th!

I do this once in a while...sew my own finger.
Often it's just a scratch or a slit across the skin.
This time I seriously stitched it.
JBrock wanted to know what color thread I'd used, and if I could leave it in so he could see.
DBrock suggested I get a ring or stud and start a new craze.
The puncture is the entry and the slit is the exit where I tried to yank it out of the machine.

Hey! Thank you for the multitude of birthday wishes! It was fun finding them all over the blogs.
These flowers were brought as a 'Singing Telegram' from the Brocks.
Bree from Arrangement Gallery sang to me as she brought them in to work yesterday.