We arrived in Hoquiam, Washington last night and are enjoying our visit with my FIL. He remembered my search for the perfect cinnamon roll earlier this summer so this was waiting for us at breakfast: Yummy! When the sun came out about noon, we walked around town and saw some interesting things: A house with the statue of liberty in the front yard. An olympic stadium. A house with moss on its roof!! You think it rains enough here? A reminder sign. Never forget...........Bob Hope. And a very unpretentious House of God. Click on the photo to see the sign over the door! I will put photos of previous stops on our trip at a later time.
Today begins our "Great Adventure" to Oregon, beginning with Wyoming, through Yellowstone Park for a few days, a visit with friends in Montana, through Idaho, then with friends and family in Washington, before we finally arrive in Portland. Here is our neighbor-dog, TC, saying goodbye, and I think he also said, "Who will give me boneys when you're gone?" This is what we saw a lot of today: big trucks on the highway. Why do they like to get really close to our car? Come on, folks, drive nicely please! The terrain is quite beautiful though, lots of rolling mountains. Quite windy up here and this section of Wyoming looked a bit like Holland with those wind-thingies. Don't know if they're called windmills here, but the whole area is apparently a wind farm! There were quite a few of these.
We rest tonight in Rawlins, which may be the last internet for awhile. Yellowstone Park info says "No internet available." Gosh, I guess we'll have to spend our days looking at geysers, buffalo, wolves, and spectacular scenery. Our neighbors just got back, loaned us their guide book and told us the buffalo rut has begun and we will be able to hear some weird buffalo noises, including belches and view some buffalo action. Hm............... They also told us where to look for wolves. Hoping to see the ones our neighbors are tracking. We'll stay in a couple different places, including the Old Faithful Inn. That should be fun. When I was in Yellowstone as a nine-yr-old, several bears walked right up to our car and my dad yelled at me to roll the window up! One bear slobbered all over the window. Thankfully that doesn't happen anymore.
Will update when I have a connection. In the meantime, I'll continue to take pictures. So -- get ready for a 2009 version of the old slide show. Gosh, I loved those!
This week I am thankful for the fact that Youngest Daughter understands (most of the time) my strange sense of humor and bought this wonderful coffee mug for me last night! It's called "Jesus Shaves" and when the mug has hot coffee in it, Jesus shaves.
Of course, that reminded me of the crazy story told by David Sedaris, called ---- "Jesus Shaves." I can't help but laugh when I think of David telling the story about being in a french language class where one of the women didn't know what Easter was.
"It is a party for the little boy of God who call his self Jesus...and ... you know..like that.
He call his self Jesus, and then he die one day on two morsels of lumber.
He die one day, and then he go above of my head to live with your father.
He weared the long hair, and after he died, the first day he come back here for to say hello to the peoples.
He nice.
He make the good things and on the Easter we be sad because someone make him dead today."
You can hear him read the story on This American Life right here:
The last time I went to the pet store to pick up food for our budgie they were out of the regular food and I got talked into buying a new kind: Avian Entrees. ULTRA premium! Seriously, this is what the package says: "Eye-opening, colorful, nutritious nuggets mixed with a tasty variety of fruit and vegetables." And there's more:
*Delicious mix of tastes, colors, shapes and textures satisfies your bird's senses
*Variety provides a fun eating experience for your highly intelligent bird (intelligent? She shies away from humans and then cuddles up to the cats!)
*Convenient and ready-to-eat food -- no more slicing and dicing (do people really do that for a budgie?)
*Apples, red and green peppers, tomatoes, and peas are foods birds enjoy (I'll show you later)
Here is said intelligent? bird, Kukuna:
And here's what she won't eat:
Yep, she ate the regular nuggets and left all those apples, red and green peppers, tomatoes and peas that birds enjoy! See, I told she wasn't so intelligent.
By the way, we're having omelettes in the morning!
I was at Target this week with Youngest Daughter and we were in the cosmetics section. I watched a college-aged gal open a nail polish bottle and DO HER NAILS right there in the aisle, with people walking by, standing by (that was me) -- the regular, "CU is almost starting", kind of traffic. One older woman walked by and rolled her eyes at the gal. I was so curious as to what the gal would do next. Mind you, I was standing very near -- six feet away max! SHE PUT THE BOTTLE BACK ON THE SHELF and then walked right towards me!!! So ..... much to Youngest Daughter's dismay, I asked the nail-polishing gal if she thought that was weird. She said, "What?" I said, "That you used that polish and then put it back on the shelf." She said, "No, it's just nail polish." WHAT???? She gave me a very dirty look and walked away.
So I ask you, Bella-readers, 1. Was I wrong to ask the question I did? 2. Was she wrong polishing her nails and putting the polish back? 3. Am I just another crazy old lady? 4. Any other words of wisdom?
And not that I use a lot of polish, but I don't think I can ever buy polish at Target again, knowing someone might have used it already and gotten their germs in the bottle!
Ever since I lived in India as a child I have loved the word "Namaste." I like the folded hands, the slight bow. But only within the last few years has the true meaning of the word caught my attention. I had always thought of it as just a greeting, rather like "hello" or "goodbye." But instead, it's meaning is "the divine in me honors the divine in you." That is incredibly beautiful! For when you acknowledge the divine in someone and in yourself I think you will naturally treat the other -- and yourself -- with respect.
Wednesday I took Youngest Daughter to the DMV to get her ID before she leaves for Oregon. Can anyone tell me why this place is SO inefficient?? And if you google DMV you read the same stories about DMVs everywhere, so I know it's not just our local place. This place is gross. Do they ever clean it?
They had three people working, but had empty terminals where more folks could have been working, and with so many folks unemployed certainly they could have hired more. What's up with that? It took us two and a half hours to get the ID -- well, a paper copy with no picture. The real one will come in the mail in 30 days. What??? You used to be able to go in, and then a while later walk out with the real thing. I guess technology has gotten in the way. Let's see. I used to talk my roll of film to the photo store and about a week later I would go back to pick up the developed pix. Now I can take my thumbdrive over to Target and print out many, many pix and just walk out (well, after paying, of course) with my developed shots. You'd think it would take less time now to get your ID, not more!
Whatever -- we did our best to keep ourselves occupied. They had a little computerized screen that would flash words of wisdom on it like "We only take cash and personal checks. No credit cards." To dear daughter: "Yikes, how much cash do we have between us? No, you can't go to Vic's and get coffee if you want your ID!" Interspersed between the important info they flashed some quiz-show questions: "At what temperature are Celsius and Fahrenheit exactly the same?" Hey, I know that. It's -40 degrees! "How many breaths does an average person take each day?" Um, let's see, let's count for 15 seconds. OK, 4 times 3 times 60 times 24 is what? Quick! I got it! 17,280! Buzzzz.... Wrong. You lose. It's 23,500 (according to the DMV). They must have timed some heavy breathers for that one. Oh, I know -- they must have clocked the people who were getting steamed at having to wait TWO AND A HALF HOURS FOR THEIR IDs OR LICENSES!
After we had cycled through the questions (I think they had about one hours worth) we carefully took out the cell phone (No cell phones, please!) and watched a Brian Regan comedy show -- sharing one set of headphones.
And in the end, Youngest Daughter walked out proudly with her piece of paper verifying that she is who she says she is, she's as old as she says she is, and she'll donate her organs if it comes down to that!
Today I am thankful for the men in my life. My husband, my son, my father, my father-in-law, my brothers -- and various other family members, framily members, and friends of the male species.
But today I am also thankful for my hairdresser, Carlos, who has been cutting my hair for nearly a year now and I ALWAYS walk out feeling particularly wonderful after a haircut. I have had a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with my hair for quite some time. It's not straight, it's not curly, it's fine -- a nightmare. But ever since Carlos was recommended to me by a friend (thanks Judy!) I have been loving my hair. So, three cheers and a big "THANKS" to Carlos at Beauty Brands Salon and Spa in the Marshall's Plaza.
I will NOT let the so-called religious right make me fearful of change, will you? Here is something worth viewing and if you are supportive of this group, join the group and sign their petition.
Our health care system is broken. It's clear we need a change, but special interests are trying to block reform with distortions and distractions.
I just joined "40 Days for Health Reform," a campaign from the faith community to take back the debate and move real reform forward.
Over the next 40 days, people of faith will run a national TV ad campaign, sign petitions, conduct in-district public meetings reaching over 100 Members of Congress, and even host a national webcast and call to action with President Barack Obama!
You can visit www.faithforhealth.org and sign the petition to join the campaign and stay up to date with all these exciting activities.
Today's make-it Monday has no arts/crafts because I forgot to take pictures of last week's cards before I sent them off. :-( However, on Sunday we visited with family members that we hadn't seen for awhile so I'm stretching this and saying I made connections!
We enjoyed a nice breakfast visit with Dear Husband's sister and her husband:
And later, during the cartop carrier adventure, who should show up in the parking lot but my oldest brother, his beautiful wife, and my youngest niece: How lucky am I?!
After Youngest Daughter came back home after her summer job we knew we would either have to get a bigger car or a cartop carrier to transport all of her stuff to the west coast for college. Being that the cartop carrier would be less expensive, we found one today at our local hardware store and thought -- piece of cake. It says right on the sticker "Quick installation. No assembly -- on or off in seconds. Good. We can do this.
Here is the point where the first salesman came out to check on us, to see if we needed help. Here is where the second salesman came out to help us. Finally, two-and-a-half hours later we were finished and drove it safely home. Didn't fall off so I guess it works. Now we'll just have to see if all of daughter's things will fit.
I am a curious person and so I love cats. They are always curious; nothing just passes by them, especially any kind of opening!
Here is part of the Rum Tum Tugger poem by TS Eliot:
The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat: If you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse. If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat, If you put him in a flat then he'd rather have a house. If you set him on a mouse then he only wants a rat, If you set him on a rat then he'd rather chase a mouse. Yes the Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat-- And there isn't any call for me to shout it: For he will do As he do do And there's no doing anything about it!
