Catching Up

I am still playing "catch up" after running around and having fun over the weekend rather than getting any work done around the house. Yesterday I went to WF to do some things with Mom. I probably spent over an hour on the phone with AT&T working on her telephone/internet bill. I only got "ugly" with AT&T once. We also bought her a new cell phone. Then we went and had lunch and lessons on the new phone. We made a big trip to Hobby Lobby since paper, brushes, frames, and paints were all on sale this week (for my art classes). We also stopped by the new Michael's where I bought one watercolor brush - just something I wanted to try out. Anyway, the trip to WF turned into a full day. When I finally got on the road to go home, I stopped to buy a Diet Pepsi for the road and realized that I had left my purse at Mom's. Gosh I hate it when I do things like that.



I got home in time to do some dishes, move the laundry around from washer to dryer, and hang some clothes on the line - all before I took off to meet up with my girl friends. I'd tell you about that, but then I would have to kill you. Lets just say that I have not laughed so hard since I-don't-know-when. You know me; I will let you in on our fun, but not today.



Instead, I will leave you with a couple of photos. Becky posted a picture of a stuffed bear that she has had for a while. I thought I would post a picture of my bear, Pink Paws. I have had him since I was about four years old. My oldest memory of him was at the house in Valley View. I named him Pink Paws because the teen-aged girl next door had a brown bear with pink paws and that is what she named her bear.



My sister sent several pics of her dog, Chula, with her new bandanna. I thought my sister was pretty cute too.

Cowboy Game

We had great time at the game, but it would have been more fun if the Cowboys had played better and won. It was a learning experience. We arrived early without having had lunch. The tailgaters seemed to have it down well - they definitely plan ahead. They ranged from the elaborate tailgaters with carpet and tents, coolers and food, games and beer to people sitting beside their vehicle with a beer. They were smart. The food outside the stadium was probably better and definitely cheaper than the food inside. We ate inside. Bo chose a footlong hotdog, Sara chose a burger, Toby and Adam chose Philly steak sandwiches, and Jesse and I chose barbecue. Jesse chose poorly - by half time she was sick with tummy problems and unfortunately we were sitting way up high and in the middle of a long row of folks. She should have had a beer with her barbecue - I did, and I did not get sick. The game was a bit boring - it would have been nice if the Cowboys had played extraordinary, but they did not. Yet, they kept it close enough to make us stay. The people watching was good. Our seats were great - right on the 50 yard-line. With the exception of Jesse getting sick, we had fun. This photo is for Becky.

This photo is for Buck.

This is a photo of Kenny Logins who sang the National Anthem. This is the gang. The guys on the other side of Adam were a bit rowdy, but seemed to be having a great time. I have never seen so many people wearing Cowboy jerseys. Does it seem strange that so many men would be wearing "Romo" shirts?

Gung-ho

Yesterday Toby drove to work and carried his bike in the back of the truck. He rode his bike home leaving his truck at work. The plan was for us to get up this morning and ride our bikes to his office and get his truck. We would then load the bikes and go have breakfast. The plan pretty much worked out, but Toby broke a spoke about two miles out. He walked his bike to Eastlands where we were thinking about having breakfast anyway. I rode my bike on to his office and picked up the truck meeting him back at Eastlands for a wonderful breakfast burrito. It was really a nice morning. At breakfast, he said, "That was really fun. Next time, I think we should ride home too." My response was "Why ruin a good thing?" He was confused by my response so I explained: we had just ridden about 12 miles, had a wonderful breakfast and felt really great. The trip home would be another 10 miles, and I would probably be sore and tired the rest of the day – why would I want to push myself that hard and probably hurt myself doing it? Gosh, he is just so gung-ho!

While we were in town we decided to check out the rental cars. You see, Jesse surprised us yesterday with five tickets to the Dallas Cowboy game tomorrow. Since another of her coworkers will be going with us, we needed a bigger, more comfy vehicle. Bo and Sara, me and Toby, and Adam and Jesse would all be traveling together to Big D for the game tomorrow afternoon. B&S found babysitters for the GGs. The only car rental place in Duncan was out of bigger vehicles. So I called my mom and asked her if she would mind donating her minivan to a good cause for one day. She was game – what a good mom. Toby and I drove to Wichita Falls, had his spoke fixed at the local bike store, and picked up the minivan from Mom. We also ran a few other errands. I thought it was a great day. Toby thought he should have mowed the lawn and gotten more done around the house. So he is out there in the dusk mowing. Go get ‘em tiger!

I’ll let you know how the game goes.

Yesterday's Art

These are a couple of watercolors that I have been working on with my students. The portrait is of a little boy in a magazine ad that I painted along with one of my students to show her what I had learned in my workshop. I still do not have the technique down, but I am working on it. You can also see my "doodling"usually done while showing the girls something or other. When I showed the portrait to Toby and explained that it came from a magazine he said, "Oh good, I was afraid I was suppose to recognize him."

Another of my students worked on a watercolor for an upcoming show. When she was all finished with her painting, I had her try some of the new techniques I had learned. She knocked out a gorgeous painting of poppies in about 15 minutes (sorry no photo). It seems that we all get in ruts of painting the same things and the same way all of the time. Workshops are great for learning new ideas and new techniques and for getting you out of the rut. While at a workshop I try to mimic the teacher. When I get home, I try to incorporate things I learned into my own style. The sunflowers are an example. I dropped in lots of color while the paint was wet (workshop), but I also made a more "finished" or "controlled" painting than I learned in the workshop.

Look Out!

I started a post this morning, but it was dull and lifeless. Before I could get it "fixed," I ran out of time and needed to do some house cleaning before art classes. You’re right! I just did that, but I live with dogs, cats, and pigs. One of the pigs looks a lot like me.

I only had one "older lady" show up for art this morning. The Junk Diva did not come, and I was sorely disappointed. I’ve been in need of her sharp wit and mean sense of humor. I’ve been nice long enough and I needed someone who can give as good as she gets. My one lady today was fun, but she is such a nice person, that I feel like I have to be "good." I can tease her some, and she takes it well, but I would just feel awful if I got too rough. As Toby says, sometimes you just need a good fight. Dawn did not come either – I have yet to test her mettle. Last night I got to spend a few minutes with Lindz’ mom before church. Someone had put a cake pan in her chair (probably something to do with the upcoming wedding) and she was turned facing away and slightly bent over. If you know how my mind works, you know what I did next. I picked up the pan and slapped her on the behind. Then I sat down quickly. She jumped and turned, but did not see me. Instead, she saw Mr. R standing there. She went from irate to a dead stop. Surely Mr. R would not have slapped her on the bottom…but who did? It took her just minute to turn completely around and see me snickering. Then she squealed and laughed, but I know payback will be forthcoming. I’ll be ready.

The younger ladies will be here shortly for their art class. Bwahahahaaa!

Jesse's Boys

You may recall this post from several years ago where I told about Jesse wanting to have lots of boy children someday. I think having nieces has given her a better love for girls, but we still tease Jes about wanting boys. She used to love babysitting for the Boyer family who had five boys (they also had three girls, but Grace was a tomboy). She took them sledding down the pond dam, and continued to sled even after the snow melted. Oklahoma red mud is rather slick sometimes. Then there was the time she played with the Boyer Boys at a construction site where their father was working. They were jumping off a wall onto large insulation rolls. When we started to leave, one of the BBs (who was probably 7 years old at the time) came running over to Toby, "Mr. Baggett, can Jesse stay and play with us. My dad will bring her home later." Of course we teased Jesse about being more interested in the younger guys rather than the ones her own age. If you head over to Jesse’s blog, you will see her in action with the younger guys again. She explains that she went sailing with the Sea Scouts. Although there was no wind for their sails, she and the boys on her boat seemed to have great fun. Of course, if you scroll on down her blog, you can see her in action with her nieces too.

Okay, I didn't really have anything to post of any importance, so I pointed to Jesse's blog. I will say that my art class went well yesterday - I love my art kids. Maybe that is where Jesse gets it.

Little Stuff

Excuses
Okay, I did not get back to you yesterday with a post. Sorry about that. It would be nice to say that I was just too busy, but the truth was that I just did not have anything to say. I still don’t, but we will see where this takes us. Although I have not been busy, I have been playing catch up from my vacation and my art workshop. My errands in Lawton went without a hitch. Normally, when I have my oil changed, I set in the comfy waiting room. This time, I sat in the shop where I could oversee the work on my car. Hmm, they seem to get done much faster with me sitting there – imagine that! Hobby Lobby was a bust, I bought a few canvases for my students, but that was it. I will wait until a better sale day.

Art
The only big news is that I am starting my "younger" art classes again. On Tuesdays I teach the younger kids. Thursday’s is two classes of the "older" ladies. I also have two classes of younger artists that come every other Tuesday. This week will be the more experienced art kids – next week will be the beginner art kids. Yesterday I made lots of phone calls explaining this to moms. There is a certain amount of dread in starting classes, because I have to be pinned down somewhat more than usual. There is planning involved in each class and house cleaning before class. Now we are getting to the crux of the matter – house cleaning is not my favorite.

Bikes
Earlier this summer Toby rode his bike to work some mornings (about 12 miles). Normally, he works from 7 – 4, although he rarely leaves work at 4 PM. With the shortening of the days, it is not getting light until later in the morning, so Toby switched his hours. Now he will work from 8 – 5. All of this was done so that he could ride his bike to work. This morning was his first 8-5 day. He still got up at 5:30 and showered and poured us coffee at 6. I was a bit groggy after taking an antihistamine for my allergies, but I was wondering, "what the heck" weren’t we supposed to get to sleep in a little? I can see there will be some wrangling for the bathroom with Jesse trying to get to work, too. I will just stay out of the way and drink my coffee and play at the computer. I will only step in if it comes to blows or blood.

Weather
I am loving this cooler weather. The days have been just perfect – not even getting into the 90’s. We are turning off the AC more and more. It won’t be long until I get to wear that new sweater, which I forgot and left at home while on vacation. Everywhere we went, someone would ask, "Did you bring your new sweater?" I felt rather silly admitting that after making a big deal about going somewhere cool on our vacation so that I could take my new sweater, that I had forgotten to pack the new sweater. I did pack my old "Scotland" sweater, so I was plenty comfy.

Politics
Since this is not a political blog, I rarely spout such stuff, but Toby has been explaining his views on the "big bailout." He explained that during the Great Depression, FDR’s plan to help the nation was met with skepticism (which I did not know) because it called for the government to take over in areas where they had not been before – they entered business in a big way. The courts even ruled some of FDR's plans were unconstitutional. Toby has been worried that with the "Big Bailout" our government is stepping in where they do not belong – in a way we become more and more a socialist country. Yet, he couldn’t really see any other choice. He did much more explaining about foreign investors and such, but I don’t want your eyes to roll back in your heads:) Something to ponder. Here is a link that Toby sent me on the subject.

Off on Errands

As Buck would say, I'm off to the "bigger city" today to run some errands. I need to have the oil changed in my Toyota. I don't mind because the Bigger City has a Hobby Lobby. I'm sure Toby cringes every time I head to Lawton. I'll try to post more later.

Nice Fall Weekend

Booboo and Crewcraw did a few hours of playing with the GGs Saturday morning while the parents painted the laundry room. We picked them up for breakfast and they chowed down on some French toast. Then we went to the park where we played until the GGs got grumpy. A little Bug Juice (for those without kids, that is a new store-bought juice with a sippy-cup type lid) was in order. They both swilled their Bug Juice down in record time. We took them home for lunch and a nap. The laundry room was painted my favorite shade of green – bright! Then Booboo and Crewcraw went home and took a long nap themselves.

Jesse went to Norman this weekend for sailing lessons. Yep, it is the same guy that she called back in May before going to Hawaii – the one who asked if she were old enough to take sailing lessons, and asked where her father was as if she were a little girl. Then he was rude to her when she pointed out that the dates for the sailing class on his website and the dates he told her over the phone were different. I think the man finally figured out that she was 26 and not some little kid and that she was correct about the dates and was nicer to her. Or maybe she just really wanted to take sailing lessons and the choices of teachers in Oklahoma are few and far between. I’m sure she will post pics soon on Skybag. She does have some lovely pics of GBN2 right now.

Last night we went to see an "Evening of Shorts" put on by the Duncan Little Theater. Jan and Des, who work with Jesse, were both in several of the one act plays. Last year the Shorts were great fun. This year, well, not so funny. Jan and Des both did a great job, but some of the plays were just not funny. TFNP was there with his Royals and that made the play much more fun. His PN2, whom Jay calls his "future district attorney" can ask a jillion questions, and did so. It went something like this, "Mama Lou, why did that lady yell?" It was difficult to explain why the crowd laughed when the play was really not that funny. Although Toby had been willing to go to the play, I hate it when I drag him to something "artsy" and it turns out badly. It makes it tough to convince him to attend the next artsy thing.

It is off to church this morning – hopefully I will get to "wrastle" some GGs and Royals.

The watercolor workshop is over and I am home. I thoroughly enjoyed the teacher, the other ladies, and the lessons from the workshop. This was actually the first ever workshop at the Russell Farm Art Center. Charlie Boren, the wood sculptor and owner of the farm is an older man who has wanted to share his farm with other artists – it was a perfect setting for art with great facilities. About 20 ladies attended the watercolor class, which is a lot for a workshop, but you know how I love people. It is amazing that people can be so diverse and yet have art as a common factor. I do have to say that if I was not the youngest lady in the room, I was one of them. One of the first ladies that I met was an older, beautiful lady from Pensacola, FL, with a son who lived in the Ft. Worth area. She reminded me of a Southern gentle lady – made of porcelain.

Then there was the rowdy group of ladies (my favorites) who run together from Arlington, TX. They paint together and call their group CBC doing some very interesting work as a group. Included in the group was a lady originally from Toronto, and one from New York. One of the ladies also had an art blog. She told us about her son who was part of a band called "Gringo Revolution." She said that the band had put out word for their young lady fans to come to their concert wearing "Daisy Duke" shorts and cowboy boots. This artist/mother said, "Wouldn’t it be funny if we (the CBC ladies) dressed in our Daisy Duke shorts and showed up at his concert?!" I like the way they think!

There was another group of ladies who drove down together from Kansas. I knew they were a good group when one of the ladies was mumbling to her self about the "damn rose" we were painting. I teased her about it going from just "a rose" to a "damn rose."

Then there were the two beautiful sisters – one from the Ft. Worth area and the other from CO. Physically, they looked like Bonnie Hunt, but the one from CO reminded me of a typical older hippie with the straight hair, no make-up, jeans, etc. They both drove convertible Mini Coopers and stuck pretty close together.

There was another lady from Calgary, Alberta, who was visiting her old high school friend. The friend lived in Weatherford, TX, and raised cutting horses, and also attended the workshop. Both were friendly. The one who still lived in Calgary told me to look her up and come paint with her if I ever got back to Canada. She said she lived near Leighton – out on the prairie with a great view of the Rockies. I would love to take her up on that offer.

The ladies at my table were all from the Ft. Worth area. Lucy and I went to supper one night so that I did not have to spend the evening alone – what a very nice thing to do! She had been a second-grade teacher for 24 years. At one point she started talking about Texas Teacher Retirement funds and Social Security. I had to work hard at following her conversation, but I was worried that she would start talking insurance or tax laws and my eyes would roll back in my head and I would fall over. June, who sat next to me, was a 77-year-old lady. She was very nice, but did not really like to talk while she painted and was maybe a bit anal, which reminded me of some of the people in the Duncan Art Guild. I guess every group has a few of those types. Linda was very friendly, very willing to help out, had lots of interesting info, but was a bit of a loner. I should mention the ladies who were putting on the workshop and very helpful – Margot from Yorkshire England, originally, and Sharon – a real cowgirl and western artist.

In all, the ladies were all fun. By the third day of the workshop, we were all good friends exchanging email addresses and such. I hated to leave, but I took off a bit early to get through the Ft. Worth traffic before rush hour.

These are my attempts at painting as loose as the teacher, Janet Rogers: We started with flowers. Then we moved on to portraits. I did several studies trying to get the skin values right. We also did a quick gesture drawing and painting - I liked this exercise.

Country Art

This is a photo of a demo painting done by Janet Rogers. I wanted to show her loose style. I will show some of my attemps at looseness later.

My watercolor workshop is going well. I have met some friendly ladies and have enjoyed the class so far. Today we painted flowers, which were fun and I learned some things, but I am really looking forward to the portrait part of the workshop. Janet Rogers is a high-energy person. She is very pleasant and happy and accommodating. After doing a demonstration in the morning, she had us work on color "swatches" to discover new color combinations that we liked before starting flowers. She did several other demos through out the day. She paints fast and furious. I love it! Sometimes she makes mistakes, but she just shrugs and continues on. Most watercolor people tend to panic, but she is a very loose painter. I think this workshop is just what I needed for inspiration.



The day was beautiful at the Russell Farm Art Center, which is where Charlie Boren does wood sculpting or carving. The farm is very lovely - many of the ladies in the workshop are city folk. They were pretty excited about the miniature donkeys and cows. Yeha. If you haven't rubbed manure under your nose while branding cattle, you ain't no cowgirl.



Actually, there are some dang good artists at this workshop, and some friendly gals. I have discovered that every group has its anal folks, whom I avoid, but for the most part, this is a fun herd.

Funny Conversations

I don’t believe I have ever told this story, but if I have, it is worth the retelling. Years ago when we lived in Questa, my friends, Billy and Lynda, adopted a 13-year-old boy named Sam. Sam spent a lot of time at my house since he was the same age as Bo. He was as cute as he could be, but slightly behind in social skills, yet still very charming. One day Lynda took Sam with her to Taos for several different appointments. Lynda had an eye examination. Since she was 40-something she needed reading glasses. The doctor explained to Lynda that as you get older, your retina dries out causing the distortion of vision requiring reading glasses. The next appointment was with a dentist for Sam. Lynda had to fill out some paper work since it was Sam’s first visit. As she squinted at the printing she said, "I don’t have my glasses yet, and this is difficult to read." Sam, who thought he was showing his intelligence piped in with, "Yes her rectum is drying up." Although Lynda was horrified, we all got a good laugh from the story and still do to this day.

Today I had my very first eye examination. It went well, but the doctor was a hyper sort who talked at warp-speed and was difficult to follow. I ended up buying some very nice, but pricey reading glasses. Later I met Toby and Jesse for lunch and told them about my experience. The conversation went something like this:
Me: I had my eye appointment today and picked out some new reading glasses.
Jesse: ‘Cause your anus is drying out!
Me: It is "your rectum" not "your anus."
Jesse and Toby collapsed in laughter.
Me: Uranus is a planet.
Now we were all laughing with people in the restaurant turning to look at us.
Me: Anyway, the doctor was hyper and spoke so fast, I could not follow all of his talk. And my stomach started growling during the exam.
Jesse: ‘Cause your rectum is drying up!
We all collapsed into laughter again – we laughed until we had tears in our eyes! That is what I get for raising such a smart a$$.

Now, I don’t know if you thought that conversation was as funny as we did, but it just pretty special to go to lunch with your family and enjoy them so much and laugh so hard.

After lunch, I drove to Ft. Worth for my art workshop. The workshop will be held at the Russell Farms Art Center in Burleson, TX. This evening there was a demonstration by the artist, Janet Rogers, put on by the Ft Worth Watercolor Society – it was held in Ft Worth. I had talked to my sister, Kathy, earlier in the day. She was driving from Abilene to Denton. As I got into heavy traffic in Ft. Worth, my sister called. She was also hitting traffic. The conversation got crazy at this point. She was trying to tell me where she was, and I was explaining where I was, but neither of us knew enough about Ft. Worth to know how to find each other. I told her that I had just gotten off I-35 onto I-30 toward Abilene, but then I exited on Henderson. She said she was coming in from Abilene and would hit I-35 any minute and wanted to avoid it. There was a lot of "I’m on this street" "Well I’m on this street." Finally, my sister gave up and said, "Well at least we crossed paths." I was disappointed in not meeting up with her, but relieved that I did not have to find her in five-o’clock traffic.

I'll let you know how the workshop goes.

The Rest of the Vacation

One of the reasons I chose to attend Texas Tech in Lubbock was its close proximity to Red River. The fact that it had a good art department was nice too. It didn’t hurt that my brother was already going to TT and many of my RR friends were also attending TT. And yes, we did travel the road between TT and RR often. So when Toby and I left Lubbock for Clovis and on up to RR, it was like a walk down Memory Lane. All the way to RR, we played the "what is your memory of this spot" game. We had plenty of memories to past the time. Some people do not like the long lonesome drive, but I have always loved it. I love the wide-open prairie, the ranches, the cacti, etc. I like the peaceful drive. We took pics of the huge windmills on the caprock above San Jon. Toby’s sister works for the company that put them in. We stopped in Logan so that I could take this photo of the Whiskey River – Road to Ruin, which was an old stopping spot back in our college days. Yes it is a bar, but it used to be one of the few places open in Logan to make a pit stop. As we headed on towards Roy and Springer, there was a storm in the distance. With the setting sun, it made for some awesome views. We drove into RR about 7 PM and went straight to eat at Sundance – good Mexican food. My friend, Linda Hoag, who owns the restaurant, sat and visited with us while we ate. Linda has become quite an artist and let me take a few photos of her work. After stuffing our faces with the world’s best sopapillas, we found a motel and went straight to bed.

Tuesday morning we found our friends from home, the Dennis family, and went to play golf. We played at Escondido, a little nine-hole course, which does not have golf carts, but has some serious mountain pull-carts. The day was mountain perfect. We played one round, stopped for a picnic lunch and then played again. I can’t remember when I enjoyed golf so much. When we got back to RR, we went to eat at Texas Red’s – always a big treat. My friend, Loretta, was working, as was her daughter. Bill, the owner, came and sat with us while we ate. We laughed at how generations of families have worked at TR’s – first Bill and his generation, then his children’s generation, and now their kids are working there. Pretty cool!

Wednesday we kicked around town visiting old friends. I spent some time with Annette Gill at her beautiful log cabin overlooking the town of RR. We ran into some friends who used to live in RR and were on vacation like us. Krista is one of Jes’ good friends. The Lloyds now live in Perkins, OK. Later in the afternoon, we found our friends from home who were having a birthday party at the park. We joined them for hotdogs and volleyball. My kids used to love to have birthdays at that park, too. We finished the evening visiting Carol and George in their beautiful house.

Thursday morning we headed home through Taos where we picked up some green chilies, down through Riconada to get some dried flowers from Sopyn’s roadside stand, and on down to Santa Fe. We turned and went through El Dorado and caught I-40. Now, I-40 is a boring drive – especially in the rain. We had dinner with my sister and her family in Amarillo. Friday morning we headed on home, but did make one stop. We stopped in Clarendon at their renovated county courthouse. We explored the building and met the judge. It was a real treat – I love old buildings.

Tomorrow, I am headed to Ft. Worth for an art workshop. I will take the laptop.

Vacation and Old Friends

Have you ever seen one of those movies that while the parents are away, the child has a wild party? Then miraculously the house is cleaned spotless before the parents get home the next day. Well, that did not happen here. Jesse did not have a party, and the house did not get miraculously cleaned before I got home. It is nice to be home, but I have spent the afternoon doing laundry and other chores – the vacation is over.

The Lubbock leg of our trip was fun. It is always good to see Toby’s mom and the West Texas weather was cool and nice while we were there. We also visited with Bear and Anny and their family. There are just some old friends that no matter how much time passes between visits, it always seems like it was just yesterday. The laughter and the love flows from their home. I have mentioned before that I could write a book on B&A stories that would be full of funny incidents that have happened to us through the years. On this visit, Bear made things perfect by running out of propane while cooking our burgers. Too bad he did not have any good neighbors that he could steal their propane. For that old story you can go back to this old post.


Sunday morning Toby and I rode our bikes 55th Street to the Texas Tech campus. Some of you may know that Toby and I met while going to school at TT back in the late 70’s – so we rode past some of our old haunts. We wanted to stop and have coffee at Starbuck’s, but neither of us brought any money on the bike ride. That did not stop us; we went in and begged for credit, "I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a coffee this morning." The very nice, young ladies working at Starbuck’s took pity and let us have coffee. Later that morning, we went back with our wallet and the young ladies thought it was very funny, but were thankful that we did actually come back and pay. We also rode around some neighborhoods and parks in Lubbock. Many of the streets have bike lanes making for a very enjoyable ride. And Lubbock is flat – I like that.

Monday morning we drove to Portales in the rain. The rain was not nearly as bad as the back roads that we took. I was a bit nervous to meet Buck, but once I saw him, I realized that the nervousness was gone. I felt like I had known him for years – and I have. The little incident that resulted in the Heimlich Maneuver, was a surprise – you can read Buck’s story for details. Miss Manners has not written much on the subject of how to act while choking or how to continue the conversation after the incident, but I had waited too long to get to meet Buck to let anything derail my visit. I loved meeting Buck. As Toby and I drove off, I thought, "Wow, I truly feel like Buck is an old friend." Next time, rather than meeting at a restaurant, I want to sit out on his veranda and drink beer while Buck smokes a cigar and we listen to his good music.

More to come…

Almost Home

Toby and I are in Amarillo, TX, this morning. We stopped here last night to visit my sister and her family. They took us to a wonderful Mexican food cafe for supper. We spent the night at a La Quinta and had plans to ride our bikes on the Rock Island Rail Trail this morning, but the rain is spoiling our plans. The bike trail is very simple, but nice. It starts across the street from our hotel and goes near my sister's house. The whole round trip would only be 7.4 miles, but it sure looks fun.

Our vacation has been very nice. I will tell you more details when I get home and post photos too. We had internet problems while in NM. Although I was able to connect for a bit, I had to set out side of our hotel room to do so. It was not comfortable - so I chose not to post. Also, we have just been busy with fun. Maybe my brain is still on vacation. I look forward to getting home today and catching up with my blog reading and writing sometime this weekend.

Vacation Time

The decision is in. I think. As of this moment, we are planning on going west for our vacation. That is the only part that I am really sure of. The rest of the vacation we will just wing. Whatever happens happens. I would like to say, "we will be here on this day" but who knows for sure. I can give you our basic plan, but it could change. We will head to Lubbock in the morning and spend Saturday and Sunday with Toby’s mom and hopefully see Mrs. Bear and Mr. Bear during that time. We will head further west on Monday, and maybe meet up with Buck somewhere around Portales. I have tried not to make too many stipulations planning this trip since it is Toby’s vacation, but he knows how much I want to meet my long-time blog buddy. He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know you want to stop and see Buck" without me even mentioning it." Next, we will head on up to the mountains and enjoy some cool air and scenery. We would like to drive up through the back roads of NM as we used to do so often. I don’t know how long we will stay in RR, but long enough to see old friends and maybe play some golf at Escondido. We hope to get some bike riding in along the way. We would also like to drive home via Albuquerque and stop at the State Fair, and the horse races. When the kids were little, we all loved going to the fair in September, eating sausage on a stick, smelling the green chilies roasting, and attending the horse races. At some point on our return trip, we would like to stop in Amarillo to see my sister and her family. I plan on taking my laptop and trying to post a few blogs along the way.

Quick story: When I was the sophomore class sponsor at Questa High School, the sophomores won a trip to the State Fair. The other sponsor and I loaded about 40 kids on an old yellow school bus and drove to Albuquerque for the day. When we let the students off the bus at the fair grounds, they scattered with instructions to meet back at a certain time later in the day. I did walk around the exhibits with the other sponsor (a new teacher from back East) for a little while, but then that got old. Amos Martinez (pronounced ah-mose), the bus driver, and I headed to the horse races. There seemed to be quite a few other men from Questa at the horse races that day, and I just joined in and was "one of the guys." You have to realize how funny it looked for me, a blondie gringa schoolteacher, to be at the horse races with Amos and the guys. We were having a great time. The other sponsor found me there and was amazed at my ability to "fit in" with the locals. But it was really just all about having fun and loving the people and their culture.

I am looking forward to seeing NM, my blog buddies, fresh mountain air, and wearing my new sweater.

I have not posted a photo in a few days. Here is one of my favorites taken while we were shopping for Lindz a wedding dress. The dress in the photo is not the one she chose, but isn't she beautiful! I love Jesse sitting there watching Lindz. Their relationship has always been exciting and fun to watch, but lately there have been some bittersweet moments. They seem to be grasping for time together, yet so busy with their individual lives. They want to hold on to their special friendship and not let things change, yet they are moving in different directions. Some day when Jesse finds a husband, things will change again, but for now, it is what it is.

Lost in Translation

This may be one of those "you had to have been there" stories or it may lose something in the translation, but I am going to try and tell it anyway.

For those of you who have heard my voice, you know that I have a Texas accent. Not just any Texas accent, but a North Texas Nasal Twang from Wichita Falls. My earliest memory of someone pointing out my twang was in Red River. Mike Taylor was a teenage boy who often babysat my brother and I. I can remember him trying to teach me to say his name correctly. He would say "Mai-ik" like it was almost two syllables. I would say, "Mike" (as in mic – microphone) short and sweet. He would say, "Mai-ik" and I would think, "where did this guy come from?" A few years later I had this conversation with my friend Kim, who was a bit older than I. "Kim, you want to play Barbie dials?" She looked at me funny and said, "You mean dolls?" Me, "That’s what I said." Her, "No, you said dials." Although I did not appreciate her pointing out my speech problem, it was probably the first realization that maybe I really did talk funny.

Skip to my years of teaching English Lit and Grammar to kids who spoke English as a second language or were Limited English Proficient. The grammar book had a red section and a white section. The first time I told my students to turn to the "white" pages of their book, I had thirty teen-agers laughing and mocking my accent, which was pretty funny acutally. They made fun of my Texas accent fairly often, so I would make them repeat "white" or whatever word they mocked until they said it with a Texas accent. Then I would say, "That is your bilingual lesson for the day." They loved it. And I loved them. If you think their mocking my Texas accent was bad, you should have heard them when I tried to say something in Spanish. Then there would be thirty teen-agers in the floor laughing. Then they would make me repeat the word until they were satisfied that I could say it with a Spanish accent. Although I actually do a very correct Spanish pronunciation and could imitate (mock their Questa accent), my slow twang was just pretty funny to them.

Then there was the time I was at a highbrow society gathering at the Aldophus Hotel in Dallas mingling with a bunch of Yankees from Chicago who were all part of the company Toby worked for. Now those people had a nasal accent, but I did not make fun of them. I like hearing different people from different areas speak. Then one lady in her very Chicago/city/nasal/Yankee accent said, "I’d like to visit that building with the ball on top of it." And I said, "You mean the Hyatt" (pronounced "hite" like any good Texan). The lady (and I use that term loosely) paused for effect and said, "Well, where I come from that has two syllables." Then her little group of followers all snickered and had a good laugh at my expense. A year later when at a similar gathering in Chicago, I paid her back. She mentioned visiting "The Plaza" pronounced like it was related to "plasma". In my very best Spanish pronunciation I said, "Where I come from, that is pronounced plah-zuh." By the next year when the gathering was held in Vegas, we were good friends.

Last night after sign language class (thank God I do not have to speak to learn this language), I was playing with TFNP’s kids. PN2 and I were practicing our alphabet and signing names. In her very sweet, soft voice she asked, "Can you spell my daddy’s name?" I said sure and said the letters as I spelled them, "J, A, Y." She looked confused and asked, "Why did you say ‘why’?" I answered, "Because that is how you spell his name with a Y at the end." In her very quiet voice she said, "In my house we say ‘why-i.’" Mike Taylor would have been proud of her – she made the long "I" sound just like he did. I have had my accent mocked and corrected by lots of people, but never a four-year-old.

Time Flies

We were supposed to ride our bikes last night with the Leinz family, but it was windy as all get out (I’m not sure what that means, but it is something Okies and Texans have been saying for a long time). The temps have dropped into the 80’s today thanks to Gustav sucking a cold front down on us. I’m not sure I would have ridden anyway, since I have a bit of an end-of-the-summer cold. It seems to be something going around.

One of the great things about being married to Toby is that he is full of surprises. So many times, we work and think on a plan, and then at the last minute do something totally different. We have been thinking that we would head east on our vacation next week, but now it seems that we may go west after all. I told him that I do not care where we go, but I do want to be able to wear my new sweater (bought on sale at Eddie Bauer). His one stipulation is that we do not spend long periods of time in the car. I will let you know what we decide when it happens – because it may change several times before the weekend, which is when our vacation starts.

Jesse will not be with us on this vacation since she has used most of her vacation time and is saving the rest for Lindz’ wedding. I’m feeling a bit like an empty nester although she still lives at home. We tend to just pass each other in the kitchen. Sometimes we see her before bedtime, and we catch up on each other’s lives. The other night, she rode her motorcycle to the Johnson’s volleyball party because her car was "driving funny." The Johnson’s live way out in the boonies and she was low on gas and it was after dark before we left for home. It made me crazy to think of her riding her bike down some gravel roads, in the dark, low on gas, with some open range areas to ride through on the way to town. I wanted to follow her into town. She wanted us to go on. I wanted her to get over it. We compromised by driving on, but keeping her headlight in our rearview mirror. Jeeze, can’t she just let me be mother for a little while longer? She had a good time in Austin last weekend as far as I can tell. She was not impressed with Ray Wylie’s music, but she loved his stories. She enjoyed the Austin atmosphere – beer garden – outdoor music – Town Lake – etc. She posted a few pics on her blog.

Jerry Reed died a few days ago. I got this link from Lt. Nixon. I was always a big Jerry Reed fan. He was entertaining to say the least. It does make me feel old that I was a fan and that he was 71. Where does the time go?

Labor Day Play

We finished off our long weekend with a trip to Wal-Mart, some cooking, and a volleyball party with friends. We decided that we would pick up the GGs and take them with us to Wal-Mart Monday morning – always an adventure. Because GBN2 now insists upon going everywhere GBN1 goes, we bought a new car/booster seat. It was cheaper to buy the booster seat for GBN1 rather than another large car seat. But when we went to put the girls in their car seats, GBN1 said she did not like her new booster seat and wanted to sit in the old car seat. We went round and round with the discussion on the new booster seat with me giving all the good reasons she should ride in a "big girl" seat, and her giving me all the reasons why she didn’t want to. The conversation ended with me saying, "Ride in this seat or stay home." GBN1 rode in the new seat, but she didn’t like it. I love it when kids get old enough to reason things out.

After the initial car seat fight, things went much smoother. GBN2 performed all sorts of sign language skills. She signed cookie when we went down the cookie aisle. She did the sign for cereal, girl, horse, dog, and red, but neither GG knew the sign for chicken when we went to get Happy Meals. I was very impressed with my GGs. Does it show?

After Wal-Mart, Toby and I spent most of the day making seafood gumbo, which we took to a party at the Johnson’s. We enjoyed a great meal with friends and then played some volleyball. The Johnson’s have a wonderful sand court and recently found some old bleachers for us to sit in to watch the games. Of course, I played rather than sit. We played until it was too dark to see. Jesse showed up on her motorcycle – safely home from her trip to Austin. It was a great weekend.

Now as to a question left on my comments by Amy who asked if I had noticed any positive side effects from my bike riding: If you think that all of this exercise would have the weight just peeling off me, well, you would be wrong. Nada! My good friend Dawn said, "Well, that just means you are gaining muscle – and muscle burns fat faster…" Thanks for the encouragement, Dawn, but I already look like a weightlifter. It is the story of my life – I need a lot of exercise and very little food in order to lose weight. It is enough to make a preacher cuss, but I will keep on going.

Keeping Up with the Leinz

We have been doing quite a bit of bicycle riding this last week – close to 50 miles this week alone. I drew the line this morning and said no to the early morning ride. I needed a moment alone to blog and to let my muscles recover a bit. Tuesday and Thursday we rode with our neighbors, the Leinz family (about 11 miles each day). I did okay on my mountain bike, but I was a bit draggy compared to their road bikes. I love my old Specialized Hard Rock mountain bike, but it is 20 years old - together we are just slow. Friday, I told Toby that if I was going to keep up with him and the Leinz’ family, I may have break down and get a road bike (get serious – make a commitment). He got that "oh goody, more toys" look in his eyes. Friday I looked on Ebay and Craig’s List, but did not see much. Saturday morning after our bike ride, Toby and I decided to go to OK City and look at bikes. For a bike to be comfortable (and that is very important for me) they must be fitted to the person. Who knew? I certainly did not know that before Toby started all this serious bicycling – kind of like ski boots - I thought they were suppose to hurt like the dickens. Our plan was to hit all of the bike stores and see what was out there and what would be best for me. We were not planning on buying a bike, but just getting fitted and then looking in cheaper places like Ebay and such. At the first bike store we came to, they had this wonderful little entry-level Fuji bike, radar blue, my size, with all the bells and whistles (as if I could blow and ring them) on sale. I test drove it and bought it. Yeah, I’m a brat! You might want to click for the larger picture so that you can see Count Rugen the six-toed cat under the car. If I had taken a wider shot, you would have seen Rita the Cow Dog making sure the cat did not come out from under the car.

Since we bought the first bike we came to, our OK City shopping plan was blown. We decided to eat at Ted’s (the best Mexican food in OK City) before heading home. Of course when we got home, we had to make another bike ride to see how the new bike would do on these Oklahoma hills were I live (Woody Guthrie song). The bike was great. I was a sweaty mess, but Toby said that I had been much faster (his bike has a speedometer).

Then Sunday morning, Toby wanted us to ride our bikes to church. It is really only about 8 miles, but I hated to look like a sweaty mess when I got to church, and said as much in my argument. Toby, being a man, did not understand this and begged (nagged) me into riding my new bike to church. The cat is out of the bag now. There were several astounded folks at the fellowship who saw me riding with Toby, although I ducked into the ladies restroom to freshen up and change out of my bike shorts. My hair was plastered to my head and my face was hot red. Not attractive! I’m sure Marsha D, who was in the restroom, thought I was going to die, and was very concerned. I assured her this was my typical look and that I felt great. It is difficult to do anything with my hair when it is wet with sweat, but I did my best and got to my seat in church just as the music started so that I did not have to explain my looks to anyone. At the end of church, my hair was dry and curly frizzy – thank you very much. And sure enough, I got that, "Was that you riding with Toby?!" No, that was not I. That was some other fat girl. I purposely frizzed my hair this morning, and my face is always this red. Later out in the parking lot, Mr. Leinz came over and oohed and aahed over my new bike. He thought it was perfect for me and looked forward to our future rides. Thanks, Bernie, you are always an encouragement.

You may have noticed that we did not make it to Lubbock this weekend - the plan fell through. Jesse has been in Austin this weekend with my mom. She text-messaged me that they were going to see "Ray Willie Hubbard." When I quit laughing at her spelling, I was quite jealous.