Sunday, May 25, 2014

Memorial Day



On this Memorial Day we remember:

James Floyd Parker, United States Army
Harry Arthur Thut, Sr., United States Army
Paul Edward Cook, United States Army
Jordan Elliott Roberts, United States Air Force


We would also like to honor our son, Aaron Thut, who has served proudly in the United States Navy for twenty three years.

May God bless you all.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Visit From My Sister

My sister visited us this past week.  Her yearly "summer" visit.  We had so much fun.  I always try to think of things we haven't done on any of her previous visits.  One day we drove to Golden, Colorado which is a beautiful and busy vintage town only about 45 minutes from us.  The most famous thing there?  The Coors Beer factory.  It is the largest single brewery in the country.  As soon as we got there we had to wait as there was an evacuation of the building.  We still don't know why and we were glad the weather was nice since we had to stand outside for quite a while.  I really recommend taking the tour even if you are not a beer drinker like myself.  I'm always fascinated with how they figure out all the machines that do all the work. We ate lunch downtown at the Old Capital Grill which is in an old historic building and the food is fabulous.  Buffalo Bill Cody is buried outside of Golden but that is a visit for another day.


We had to go to downtown Denver for sure.  We had reservations to go on the Banjo Billy Bus tour, which is a must as far as I'm concerned.  It's a lot of fun and you get to see a lot of the downtown and decide what you want to go back and see more of.  Check out the link.  The bus has no windows and it started to rain but that didn't keep us from having a lot of fun and learning where all the skeletons are buried in Denver!

The tour met outside the Colorado Convention Center, home of our famous Blue Bear.  Why a blue bear?  Why not!?!


Denver has made downtown 16th street into a pedestrian walking plaza.  They recently purchased pianos that they set out during the day for anyone who wants to play.  Like any large metropolitan city, there are the usual characters (why was that man dressed up like a robot?), art work, music and various shows going on.  We ended up helping this young man with his magic show.  He was really good.

Last year I took Janice to the Dumb Friends League rescue shelter and she almost took home a dog so we were on orders not to go there this year.  She has 8 dogs already!  Instead I surprised her with a visit to the Alameda East Veterinary Hospital.  If you are a diehard pet person like she is you would remember back when Alameda East Veterinary Hospital had a television show.  We both watched it religiously. When I started to pull into the parking lot she started yelling!  When we walked in, she started tearing up!  I do believe that if Dr. Fitzgerald had walked out she would have fainted!  It was so much fun!!!!

On Mother's Day we stayed home because we had a huge snow storm (I know - in May!).  Janice had to leave early, early the next day so she had to take a shuttle to the airport. I wouldn't drive as the roads were horrible.  As usual, by afternoon they were all clear.  Colorado weather - sheesh!!!

All in all we had a great, albeit too short, time.  You'll never guess what we plan on doing next visit!  Go on - try to guess! I dare you!

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Checking In.....

I thought I should check in to say hello to everyone.  One reason I haven't been posting is that, for some reason,  I can't send pictures from my phone to either my computer or to someone else's phone in a text.  I just haven't had time to go to the phone store to ask them what is wrong.

I've been doing a lot of sewing.  Mostly working on blocks of the month but I have a few quilts to bind.  One BOM is for my quilt guild and also the Globetrotting BOM program that Pat Sloan has designed.  Have you heard about it?  I had to follow along since there are literally thousands of quilters world wide doing it and I did't want to be left out.  You can read about it here.  Five blocks have been revealed so far but it's not to late to get started. There are eight more to go.

We had friends over yesterday and had such a nice time visiting.  I had taken them to the airport last week and picked them up yesterday.  We only live 20 minutes from the airport so when they travel I babysit their truck and they don't have to pay for airport parking.  Bill was nice enough to help us with a little project in the house that needed done which was so helpful!  When we moved here our refrigerator was too tall to fit under the cupboard so for two years it stuck out too far.  Now it's all fixed and, boy howdy, does my kitchen seem bigger!!!

We're having gorgeous weather.  I'm getting ready for my sister's visit so I'm in clean mode.  Today I had to wash the windows on the back of the house.  One day I looked out and thought it was raining as there were "drops" on the windows.  Turned out to be a dust/dirt storm and my windows were just filthy, including the ones I had just washed!!!!  I'm really looking forward to Janice's visit.  We always have so much fun.  I was thinking I should go get some cough drops and throat spray because of all the talking and laughing we'll be doing.  Janice is really anxious to meet Mollie.  She is the quintessential dog person - she hasn't met one she doesn't love.  I think she's up to 8 or 9 now.  All rescues of some sort or another.

Gotta go.  I heard the washer go off so I need to finish the laundry, air out the rooms, fuss around to make sure everything is perfect.  You know the drill.

Have a happy week - don't work too hard.