Wordless - or White - Wednesday?

A lot of blogs I read follow a theme of writing, and Wednesday is sometimes White Wednesday or Wordless Wednesday. Like this beautiful little white dress on one of my favorite heirloom sewing blogs. I just have to make this - HAVE to. But then I want to make everything Jeannie shows a picture of!


But there is no method at all to this madness I write. Whatever comes into my mind ends up printed here.


So already it's not wordless, although I had just planned to post these pictures and run.

But in the meantime, I gained something else white. I'm too tired to talk about it now. Just think my sharpest sewing scissors, a quilted bag, and an innocent arm coming down hard on top of it.

Maybe on sickening Saturday, I'll post the pictures of the actual suturing. Or maybe not!

Kind of a pretty bandage cover though, I think.

A Nice Friday

Today I traveled to Andalusia to have lunch with my father-in-law and take him some banana pudding for Father's Day. We ate at David's Catfish and had our usual. I'm not sure what it is, as I was concentrating only on the cheese grits. I think there were fish and some slaw on the plate too. I got this picture from Facebook where they have 577 followers. No pictures of the food though.

When I did a search for David's and cheese grits looking for a picture, I ran across this blog. Pretty good explanation of grits for non-Southerners. Notice the comments section - sugaring grits!? The blog looks like fun, and I put it in my favorites to go back and read more when I have time.

I had picked up a Stephen King audio book in the library last time, just 2 CDs, and figured it would be the perfect length for a trip like this one. Sometimes his writing is good, other times just more of the same stuff. This was called The Gingerbread Girl, and it started off nicely enough and didn't start to terrify me until I was almost there. I even turned the sound down so I wouldn't have to hear some of it, but I didn't want to miss anything either. Thank goodness it was short.

I stopped at Debby's on the way home for a nice visit. We talked about books, family, her upcoming knee surgery, and life in general.

How beautiful the lake is. I forgot I had the camera in the car on this trip.

How Gus the bulldog wouldn't stop licking my feet. This was taken last year when he was a new lake-dweller.



I got sent home with these!

They have a huge blueberry bush in the yard that is full of them. I've already frozen a bunch to snack on and kept some for cereal in the morning. Beautiful. And there will be hundreds of scuppernongs ripe on the vine in a few weeks. My suggestion that Debby could make scuppernong jelly was met with silence and a dubious stare.

It's good to take a day just to relax and visit with family.

More Mountain Climbing

If you haven't seen this little video, it's neat.

Emily seems to have a need to climb mountains every weekend, and I'm so glad she shares her joy with us. Even if it does make me gasp at times and want to reach out and grab an arm here and there.

Here's a little more about Bandera Mountain. Only 7 miles roundtrip. And they don't even look tired at the top. The girls didn't know Chad was filming. Video cameras are not quite as obvious as they use to be. He did a great job putting this together.

I told her I wanted to be there on the top and just sit there and enjoy it, but I can't see how I would get there. Maybe a 3-day camping trip?

Georgia Birthday

Today is my friend Lydia's birthday.

Happy birthday, Lydia. Hope your day is lots of fun.

Hot

That's all. Just hot.

Our power went off for 5 or 6 hours Saturday morning, and that was not fun. It didn't get too hot in the house during that time, but I worried about the refrigerator and freezer and how long it was going to be off and about the fact that I had already promised to work.

Mama and I out of necessity had to eat the last 2 ice-cream sandwiches in the freezer.

Then I went to the very nice farmer's market that appears on Saturday mornings at EastChase. It's a perfect place for it. Lots of parking, close to home, and a good many vendors, and when you get through, you can run right over to Target and spend a little more money.

Fresh fruits and veggies make everyone happy, and it's a fun place.

On the way there, I drove by the house with the missing cats. These little guys don't seem too worried about coyotes. There were 3 more that hopped off before I could get their pictures.

Some pretty survivors of the heat.


Crepe Myrtle just getting ready to bloom. The white ones are already going.


Everything else is a little wilty. Maybe it will rain today

So Much for Worrying about Coyotes in Washington

When I hear about Emily and Ryan and their friends hiking, I kind of mention "wildlife"and what they would do if they happened to see a wild animal. They are quite educated and say they are prepared with mace and whatever else they need, I guess, and never hike alone.

I guess I need to worry about my own back yard.

This was in an e-mail from our neighborhood association today:

If you have seen the “lost tabby cat” signs posted on the light poles around the neighborhood, please be aware that the cat is still missing. This cat belongs to Mary Overton of Forest Trail Court. Unfortunately, her other cat is now missing also. Mary said that a few of her neighbors have also lost their cats. When she contacted wildlife control, she was informed that it is highly likely that both her animals were taken by coyotes that are rampant in both our neighborhood and Arrowhead. The control officer said that the problem started last year and they have spent over $75,000 trying to eradicate the problem. So,…….please keep your cats in at night. You should also watch out for your small dogs, again, especially at night.

RAMPANT?

First I've heard of it. This may be the cul-de-sac at the end of our street or either one street over. Too close for comfort anyway! I guess I'd better stop tossing Stella outside for being evil and keep her inside. Darby will stay inside the fence and is safe, but the cats can climb the fence and wander around on the side and front.

I'll also think twice about taking the trash can to the street in my pajamas after dark.

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I checked a map, and that little street is over 2 streets and in a less wooded area than ours. We have miles of forest starting just a block away. I try not to think about it. Forest Trail is on my walking route though, and I believe Darby has "spoken" to those cats before.

More Mountains with added pictures

Emily posted this on Facebook yesterday.

She should know by now that these pictures also appear on my FB.

But I comforted myself with thinking that she just took this random picture somewhere and was not already halfway up that mountain. But I was wrong. That's why she didn't answer the phone when I tried to call her and tell her to stay on level ground.

I talked to her last night, and she just laughed at my fears. She said someone was hiking it with a 10-month-old in a backpack. I feel a little bit better. Just a teeny bit...




Here are a few more pictures. Her friend is Melinda, a fellow PT at Pinnacle. Feel free to add comments to the pictures, maybe saying how nice she looks off of mountains and suggesting exciting alternative activites. Not that I would do that, of course, but others can.

Odds and Ends Again

Just a few more pictures from the wedding.

Lydia sent these pictures of Jacob enjoying his Uncle Fuddy-Duddy books. So cute. All scrubbed and ready for bed. I couldn't chose just one. It's a pretty happy time for Lydia and her family having her parents move back to Georgia from Kansas and getting settled themselves in their new home of Columbus.

For the 1 or 2 people who haven't heard my adventure on getting from Montgomery to Tuscaloosa (normally about 2-1/2 hours), here it is. No excuses. Just blame it on age and my usual state of being scatter-brained. I hate that I've lost my title as Chief Navigator for the family though. I've always loved finding new ways to get places and was thought to have a good sense of direction.

Anyway, after much preparation and cat-catching and double-checking after Debby arrived, we set off for Tuscaloosa - which involves taking I-85 S to I-65 N. Simple enough. Except that I had the wrong wedding in mind and took I-85 N toward Atlanta. Debby had printed directions from Google Maps very nicely and pulled them out, but I heard her mutter one time, "These maps are no good. They don't even have Auburn on them."

Still didn't occur to me what I was doing. Just about the time we got near the turn-off for Columbus, I thought about the time change and remembered how that got us in trouble last year preparing for Emily and Ryan's wedding. Then the wheels starting turning. Time change? The time doesn't change between Montgomery and Tuscaloosa. Why are we headed to Georgia? Lots of wailing and laughing and panic from the front seat. Mama said later from the back seat that she knew all along that wasn't the way to Tuscaloosa but didn't say anything. Thanks!

It took Debby about 2 minutes to text Mike and Tom and probably everyone else she knew and tell them what I'd done. Mike suggested letting Mama drive. Then I had to put up with suggestions about not taking I-65 S and ending up in Mobile.

My first thought was to take a smaller road that I knew went from Columbus to Birmingham, so I called my brother and asked what he would do. He said it was best to go back to Montgomery and carry on on the interstates. I hate backtracking, but that's what we did. Luckily we had allowed a little extra time - but not 2 hours - so I gave up my leisurely driving and went as fast as I could and stay within the speed limit. When we got back to Montgomery, we decided to eat lunch there - 2 miles from where we started out 2 hours ago.

Luckily the rest of the trip went better except for hearing about it all day. We arrived 5 hours after we set out. Mama was due for pictures in 30 minutes, and the check-in person at the hotel seemed to be in a coma. It took 20 minutes to check in 3 sets of people.

Later someone innocently asked me how long it took me to get from Montgomery to Tuscaloosa (thinking they would go to Montgomery after the wedding), and I said "Two-and-half hours if you don't go by way of Georgia."

I've had all the rain I could wish for this week, so I'm in a good mood. Work's going well again. Life is pretty good.

We need to remember the people of Guatemala in our prayers. Dina sent this today. It's very sad. Dina and Gaby and their families and homes weren't directly affected, but there are so many people who were, and so much work to do to get it back to normal. One disaster is hard enough to cope with, but 3 in one week? Awful. Those sinkhole pictures are enough to give me nightmares.

Two Excellent Feasts

One of the rewards of getting dressed up for my niece Robin's wedding Saturday was the good meal I knew we would have. And it didn't disappoint.

I'll have more pictures of the wedding later, but I need to talk about food today.

After the ceremony and the 40-minute cocktail hour where we just kind of milled around and hugged lots of people, we finally found table 3. We shared it with 7 other nice and funny people, none of whom I ever found out the names of, except maybe Chris who did the service and his girlfriend Amanda. We all got familiar enough to takes each others' pictures bunches of times with those disposable cameras and find out all about each other - just no names.

These are some of the decorations on the tables.






Mama, me, Debby, and my brother Mike, the bride's father. All us looking fairly presentable, I think. I even managed to keep my shoes on the whole time until we were walking back to the hotel. I think Debby and I behaved very nicely - except for just a tiny bit of texting to Mike and Emily that went on.

And here is the dinner, stuffed lobster AND steak. The mashed potatoes were good too once we determined they weren't tofu - just potatoes between pieces of phyllo dough.

Mama not only rode in her first limo Saturday but ate her first lobster. She managed to stay grounded though and still wanted a McDonald's sausage and biscuit for breakfast the next morning.

And the cakes!

The bride's cake. I just had a bite or two, but I think it was amaretto flavor. Delicious. Top of the cake.


The groom's cake was red velvet.


With cute little strawberry men.

I mentioned 2 feasts so here is the second one, totally opposite from the first one, but just perfect for me on this rainy day.

On the way home from Tuscaloosa Sunday morning, Debby, Mama, and I stopped at Durkins Market fruit and vegetable and everything else you might want store in Clanton, AL.

It's too early for good peaches, but we still got some. And squash. And Watermelon. And tomatoes. And boiled peanuts. And maybe some peach ice cream for the trip home.

Mama cooked squash and onion yesterday, and it was delicious.

This is my own personal watermelon. Beautiful!

And this is my feast today. One of the juicy tomatoes sliced over a piece of ham and covered with mozzarella cheese and spices. I used Italian seasoning, but it didn't quite work. Maybe basil next time.
With cucumbers and watermelon, it was delicious.

We did get the rain we thought was never coming. And lots of it.

I'll be back in a day or so and have more pictures of the wedding and mention our exciting trip that took 5 hours and provided much entertainment at the wedding and, thanks to Debby's texting dexterity, all over the country.