HoundBlog

Good morning! I didn’t have anything to post over the weekend — it was just another weekend of dreary, rainy weather. Yesterday I felt a bit off; scratchy throat and tired, so didn’t do much of anything. Ken worked all weekend.

I did have to run to Anderson Saturday to buy dog food at Sam’s Club. On the way home, I stopped at this little consignment shop and found a cute jacket dress and a pretty blouse for cheap. Both were brand new even. I wore the dress to work today and have received all kinds of compliments on it. It’s pink sleeveless sheath made out of a cotton/polyester knit, so it’s super comfortable. The jacket has lime green trim, pink sequins and around the collar, it has pink, green and white beads. The jacket also has palm trees and bananas embroidered on it and at the hem, it has 4 monkeys appliqued on each side. There’s also a monkey and palm tree embroidered on the bottom left side of the dress. It’s really cute!

The blouse is a satiny material that’s done up in these stiff, wide pleats. It has diamond buttons down the front and on the cuffs of the 3/4 sleeves. The collar stands up a bit to frame my face. It’s a rose color and very elegant looking with my black pants. I’ll save that for the dog show this weekend. I spent a grand total of $41 (including tax) on the two items. Both were brand new with the tags still attached! I think I got a bargain!

I’m having lunch with Lee Phillips today. She used to be the HR manager here and has been a good friend. We’re going to meet at Chili’s at 1, so I’ll need to wind this up pretty soon.

I mailed off some t-shirts to all the grandkids Saturday. They were all Las Vegas shirts that we picked up while on vacation. I also mailed a couple of dog outfits to the lady who got Bunny. She should like them as she likes to dress Bunny up. I SHOULD have mailed Mother some books, but wasn’t thinking when I loaded stuff into the car. I went to the Donalds post office to mail them, but they closed at 10:30 (and it was 11:00) – what post office closes at such an odd hour?? Well obviously ours does. Anyway, that meant I had to drive into Honea Path to the post office there.

Well, I think that makes you all caught up with us!

Love to all,

Margaret

I learned something today.

I learned what a squab is.

I’ve encountered the word in books (probably those cheesy romance novels I read almost nonstop for years) and knew it was some kind of bird, but not exactly what. Listening to NPR this morning Walter Edgar told us about a plant in Spartanburg that was built during WWII to breed carrier pigeons to use for the war and which now produces some 100,000 squabs a week for export to gourmet restaurants all over the world. They also breed chickens for chicken farmers.

And just in case YOU don’t know what a squab is, it’s a pigeon that hasn’t learned to fly yet.

So, it’s Friday and we have a few days off. Mine will be consumed with catch-up chores around the house including getting the camper ready for us to use next weekend in Charlotte. I hope yours has some time to play in it.

Love to all,

Margaret

Good morning everyone! I hope your Wednesday is as pretty as mine is going to be! Yesterday was chilly and overcast, but today promises to be clear and warm. My Irises have not yet shown their faces, but with a day like today, I’m sure they will open up.

I hope Frances has started to enjoy her retirement. Monday was her last day at work, so yesterday was a day for being lazy. Today’s the day you get on the stick and find something to do that will make your days interesting!

Ken told me last night that he’s probably going to work all weekend. I just hope he doesn’t get into that mold too tightly. He was pretty close to total exhaustion when we went on vacation. I know we didn’t get a lot of rest while we were gone, but at least he was doing something other than work. I know I’m more mentally fit than I was before last week.

When we left for Las Vegas last Sunday, we spent the night in Charlotte and met Ken’s brother, Edward and his wife Marilyn for dinner. They brought a photo album and some items that Edward said their mother wanted Ken to have. One of the photos in the album was of Ken as a 6 or 7 year old with a little girl of the same age.

It turns out this girl in the photo is someone who found Ken online a few months ago and he and Verna have been corresponding ever since. It’s really cool to find someone from your past like that! I scanned the photo for Ken and he sent it to her. She was so tickled to have that reminder of a simpler time.

My project this weekend will be to scan the rest of the photos into the computer and do some kind of organizing of them. I want to be able to print some of them out or save them to a flash drive to put in one of those memory frames to give the kids for Christmas this year (well, John and Chris at any rate). I also ordered our vow renewal photos yesterday and will include those in the planned gift.  We’re supposed to meet Edward and Marilyn when we go back to Charlotte on the 4th, so I need to get those photos scanned before then so we can return them to Edward. I think the kids will get a kick out of having copies of those pictures. Seeing their dad as a baby and little boy will give them a sense of their family history.

Well, I suppose I need to stop this rambling and get something productive done. Earn my pay and all that.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Monday everyone! I hope your Easter weekend was as lovely as ours was! What wonderful weather to come home to. Still a bit chilly at night, but the days are so pretty!

My hyacinths have finally bloomed and I see my Irises are going to follow soon. The trees are all budding out and I think it’s finally Spring! It was really hard going to work this morning. Not because it was hard to get up, but because I didn’t want to leave home for the day.

Despite getting all the laundry done from our week away, there is still work that needs to be done around the house — vacuuming, dusting, mopping — no way to get any of that done over the weekend with Ken underfoot. I always feel like I’m disturbing him if I run the vacuum cleaner while he’s watching television. I know he would say not, but I really know better. Plus I had a lot of blogging assignments to get done before this morning – like 20 of them! I did a few during the week we were gone, but they kept piling them on which was OK by me! The money will come in handy when the credit card bill comes due 😉

Ken has my cold. I wish I could have kept it from him, but unfortunately, I couldn’t. He told me last night that of all the things I gave him for this anniversary, the cold was one he could have done without I can’t say I blame him as it’s made me quite miserable for the 10+ days I’ve had it so far.

Not too much going on here at work. For once I didn’t walk into a huge backlog of stuff to do. I have a report that needs tweaking, but it’s not a major deal, so I will probably save it for tomorrow when I’m working from home and can really concentrate on it. I have an idea of how to do it so that it renders the way Wes was wanting it to. Let’s just hope I can actually pull it off.

He’s going to be out of the office tomorrow, so I should have relative quiet to get it done and have a nice surprise for him when he gets back.

Got the video of our vow renewal up on YouTube. Here you go — don’t die laughing.

Well, I think that catches you up on everything going on with us.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, we are finally back home again after our week of play in Las Vegas. I have to admit that I am glad to be here despite the mountain of laundry and clean up that had to be done.

I have downloaded all my photos and just finished making adjustments to them. I’m going to put them in albums so you can see them better than trying to put them all into posts.

The first album is photos of the Grand Canyon. My camera has some kind of blue tint to it — no doubt because of some white balance adjustment I made to it for indoor photos — anyway some of the pictures look decidedly blue. They are kind of pretty in a way, but you’ll see for yourself. Others I made a color adjustment to so they look more natural except the sky in some is weird. Oh well, I’ll learn all this photography stuff one day.

The second album is of sights around Las Vegas. The include some of the statues in front of Caesar’s Palace and the fountain in front of the Bellagio. The moon hanging next to the Eiffel Tower which is in front of Paris.

The third album is photos of Hoover Dam. What a monument to the men and women who worked and built this edifice which provides electricity to this day to thousands of people and businesses in the Southwest!

And lastly, is the real treat. The Bellagio Hotel has a lovely pond with a fountain in it. This is a very special fountain because it dances! Every half hour from 7PM until midnight, the fountain dances to different tunes. We taped one of the tunes and have uploaded the video to YouTube. I sure hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Love to all,

Margaret

Penn and Teller was magic last night! Penn said they were doing several new tricks last night that they hadn’t done on stage before. They did all manner of tricks from simple switches to a mental trick that Penn assured us was easy for anyone to master. The last trick of the night was the magic bullet. Of course they didn’t explain how that one was done and it is an amazing trick! Afterwards, they went outside the theater to sign autographs.

It’s been a great 4 days, but I’m ready to go home. I miss my bed, my animals and reasonably priced food. I dread the airplane ride since I know I’ll be squeezed into one of those seats designed for a midget, but will suffer through it in order to get back home again.

So, until tomorrow,

Love to all,

Margaret

Sorry to leave you all hanging in suspense yesterday. We did our usual up before dawn and decided to hop in the car and drive to Hoover Dam. Well, that took no time at all and of course, it wasn’t open yet, so we decided to drive on to the Grand Canyon.

Oh my! Was that ever something to behold. There just are not words adequate to describe the feeling you get when looking at something that magnificent. I did take tons of photos, but still don’t have a USB cord for the camera, so haven’t been able to pull any off of it to post. You may have to wait until we get back home for photos — sorry!

I can get you to the Graceland photos though — click HERE and type in the user name of Graceland and the password is KMNOR The ceremony itself was both sweet and corny. We had a blast and the DVD will show it all.

Last night we attended the Elton John concert. Another WOW event! Although he can’t hit the high notes anymore, he can still sing and of course, play that piano. The concert was pretty cool as he used a combination of videos and stage props to make it a visual as well as audible performance. There were a lot of blow-up things from huge roses that danced to the beat of the music to a pair of crossed legs complete with spike platform heels to a pair of women’s breasts suspended from the ceiling. It was bizarre, yet cool. For Pinball Wizard, they dropped beach-ball sized balloons from the ceiling which the audience bounced from person to person like volleyball until the air currents drove them onstage where they drifted for the remainder of the concert. Some of the videos were above me, but one was of Vegas sights and actually had Graceland chapel and “our” Elvis in it. That was especially cool.

Tonight it’s Penn and Teller and I imagine that will be an outstanding event as well. Of course you will hear all about it if you stay tuned.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy Anniversary to us! We’ve been together 25 years today and that almost qualifies as a miracle 😛

Today has gone much better than yesterday although it’s had some stressful moments.

The morning at least started out well with us waking up at 3:30 — not quite as early as that sounds since we’re on Pacific time here which is 3 hours different than East Coast time. In reality, we slept in since we usually get up at 4:00 🙂 Now you’re thoroughly confused.

Anyway, the restaurant didn’t open until 7, so we occupied ourselves until then the way consenting adults often do and when 7 rolled around, we went downstairs and had a hearty breakfast.

Then we went in search of a tuxedo. We finally found a place just an hour or so before Ken had to be at the MGM to meet the Richard Petty bus, but they managed to get him all measured up and us out of there in time to get him to the hotel. I had to go back to pick the tux up as they had to hem the pants. That put me back here just in time for my nail appointment and I got through with my hair appointment about the same time Ken got back from the track. He says he had a great time and brought a photo of himself grinning like a jackass eating briars sitting in the racecar complete with jumpsuit and helmet 🙂 He said he regretted it wasn’t a Jeff Gordon car so I could have a picture of him sitting in a #24 car, but I don’t care what the number on the car is — as long as he had a good time.

We leave for the chapel at 6:30 and renew our vows to see us through another 25 years. The hairdresser asked me if I was nervous and I said no. I’m truly not nervous, but I am excited. It means a lot in this day and age to make a marriage last 25 years. Ken’s a pretty special person for putting up with me that long and even more special for asking for more of the same.

Well, I guess I need to get in the shower and into my dress.

Love to all,

Margaret

Happy St Patrick’s Day to you! Hope you all wore green – Ken and I didn’t 🙂

Well, the flight to Salt Lake City was interminable — cramped into a seat meant for a 80lb person with a seat belt that just barely went across, it was 4 hours of misery. Then we had to gallop to another terminal to catch our connection to Las Vegas where I was again crushed into a seat too small and this seat belt wouldn’t fasten. Thankfully that flight only took 50 minutes.

Then it was a 45 minute wait for bags and another 45 minute wait for the car. They just don’t get in any hurry out here! Checking into the hotel was not very quick either despite the “Express Check In” label. Maybe I’m just too tired, but this vacation hasn’t started off as a very restful one and there’s not been much fun either. I’m pretty sure that will all change tomorrow after a good nights’ sleep and a good dinner. Our breakfast and lunch today was pretty skimpy considering we were on a plane where they no longer serve meals – only snacks so a pack of crackers, a pack of cookies and a can of cranberry juice hasn’t gone very far.

Since I realized this morning that I forgot my hairbrush, we stopped at the outlet mall that’s just outside the airport to buy me one and there we at a taco salad. It may have been the worst taco salad in the world, but at that moment in time, it was pretty darned tasty!

I called downstairs to see if they could get my dress to press it, but they told me it wouldn’t go out until tomorrow and wouldn’t be back until after 7:00 pm tomorrow and that’s too late as our chapel is booked for 7:30 and the limo is picking us up at 6:00. So I guess I go out tomorrow to find an iron 🙁

I’m supposed to be lying down and taking a nap, but I dozed on the plane, so while tired, I’m not really sleepy. I’ve caught a virus that’s making me cough like there’s no tomorrow, so my chest hurts and I’m thinking about getting in the shower and taking a long hot one to see if I can work out any of these kinks as well as some congestion.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Ken goes on his ride — I didn’t tell you, but I bought him a Richard Petty Experience for our anniversary. There just wasn’t anything he wanted that I could afford and I think he’ll have a good time doing this. While he’s at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I’m going to the spa downstairs and have my hair and nails done — and maybe even get a massage!

Tomorrow sounds much better!

Love to all,

Margaret

I’ve not posted the last few days — it’s been a little busy getting ready for our trip what with washing, packing, washing more, fixing food for birds and so forth. I’m sorry — I should have found some time to write.

Eddie called us this morning a scary tale of something that happened to Yvonne the other day. She was driving to work when a car in front of her swerved, ran off the road and hit the guardrail. She stopped to see if the occupants were OK when the man who was driving the car jumped out of it into oncoming traffic and was hit by a car. He was only knocked down, and he got up and came over to Yvonne’s car and tried to open the door and pull her out of it. She socked him one and he left her alone and took off. It seems that he was already wanted by the police because he had been spotted the day before stuffing his wife into the trunk of his car at a grocery store. It seems she told him she wanted a divorce and he took great exception to that news. Other than a sore arm, Yvonne is fine. Her van has fingerprint dust on it, but it, too is fine. She’s already back at work — brave woman! I’m not sure I could have gone back so quickly if that had happened to me!

We’re in the LaQuinta at the Charlotte Airport while we wait for Edward and Marilyn to arrive. We’re going out to eat with them tonight. Ken hasn’t seen Edward since his mother died, so this will be a nice visit with them. The LaQuinta has wireless access to the Internet, so while we’re waiting for them to get here, I thought I would write our travels so far.

This LaQuinta is very nice with the same pictures on the wall that I had in Alabama a few months ago, but not quite so Oriental-looking otherwise. It’s very comfortable and Ken is happily watching the race on t.v.

We leave at 6:00 am for the airport. We’re leaving our car here as the hotel has a nice stay and go plan. It’s parked right out front where someone can see if any one is messing with it rather than in the back of beyond in the long term parking at the Airport. This is a very nice service! They even have a shuttle bus to the airport to take us and pick us up when we get back on Friday and all for $20 — I’m pretty sure long term parking at the airport would have cost that or more!

Take care!

Love to all,

Margaret