The cisco kid is a friend of mine. Otis is getting ready to go over to feed the neighbors horse so he wanted to look the part. Pancho is their sidekick.

Sorry Stephanie, you are not ready for prime time yet. Paula Joe Hardin is your stand in to complete the foursome. Little did we know that these kids would be middle age by now!

1961 Royal Orleans, NewOrleans...What a eligant couple.

Hello out there . . .

Hello. I hear an strange echo. Hello.

Nihao from Beijing and Shanghai

And yes, that is the extent of my Chinese I'm afraid. I've already given Phil, Kelly, and Stephanie the rundown of the trip so I will just say again that we are very glad we went, and very glad we are back! I'll try to put of several blog posts with pictures over the next few weeks.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

Maybe I should cook a goose this season. Who knows. But Phil alluded to being behind on the Holiday planning and such. I am not completely behind, but have not mailed anything or made very concrete plans. I will be working until the day before the day before Christmas - so Christmas Eve Eve. Jack, Trevor, and I plan to run down to Jack Jr's Christmas Day and come back Monday so I can do some cooking on Sunday. The rest of the time I hope to be home - I have grouting and loafing to do (although there is a slight chance I might have to work Dec. 30 and 31.

Of course I always reserve the right to get a wild hair and drive over to LA.

So there you are, where ever that is.

In case you can't read the caption, it reads, "I think you need to enroll yourself in a good two-step program". Hail to the power of dance-hail to the tendancy of Texans strip out anything they might think extraneous.

Another one just for Phil

http://www.wimp.com/harmonicacarnegie/

watch this when you get a chance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Turducken 2010

Working on the Turduken.

Phil, I accidentally deleted your pictures

I was trying to change a page and accidently deleted your pictures on the right side. Can you put them back?

Dance your PhD

Interpretive dancing at it's best:

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/09/dance-your-phd-finalists-announce.html

More on Charlotte

I was there for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. Some of the presenters were Dr. Irene Pepperberg, who spoke about her research on cognitive and communicative abilities of Grey Parrots, Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and Maya Angelou was the keynote speaker on Saturday. They were all great, but Maya Angelou just brought the house down talking about the importance of art within the scientific communities. Very inspiring.

Here are a few more pictures. I wish I could have seen more of Charlotte, but I was really busy with the conference. I was a little surprised that food and such was so expensive, but I was in the arts and conference center area. I tried to find some music, but the only night I had free, it was mostly rock bands types in our area.

Charlotte, NC

Went to Charlotte last week and it is a really pretty town. Ate lunch in an Irish Pub and it was my waitresses first day. She had just moved there from Hickory, N.C. to "better herself." We had a nice conversation about small towns, sewing, and wine glasses. Here are some pictures I took of Charlotte.

Guess who?

Yellow leaf festival (yes we make-up things to celebrate in St. Francisville) 2010

Sane or Not!! Yea John and Stephen... SANE

I have three friends at the Rally for Sanity today so in their honor (and because I wish I had gone,) here are three signs for them and us.
If you like them, go to this link for more ideas.
http://www.saneornot.com/

We Have a winner.. well sort of

I went to a Halloween Party here dressed with a john seat over my head and decorated with Tea Bags...
Who Was I ? (Pictures later..)

My hat had Pictures of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Christine OConnell and the devil and one question:
"Can you tell "witch is witch"?
My food for the party had "Eye of the Newt" in it
I won 1st for Funniest Costume. Because ' of course' it was Potty Humor.

It was a strange brew..

Before they would let me go, I had to put the seat up.

Halloween is just around the corner

Who am I?

Other possibility for our city house. What do you think?

More concrete and a ride through the faux fall weather

Jack had school/computer contest things he had to do this weekend, and I spent some of Saturday sewing, cleaning, and reading. I am reading a book that I have had on the "pile" for a few years. I was not sure I wanted to spend my time reading it, so I kept putting it off, but decided to start it to see if I wanted to read the whole thing or take it to Half Price books and let someone else read it. "Ahab's Wife." Yes, it is a tribute to Melville and chronicles the life of Una, Ahab's wife. I like it more than I thought I would. It really does pay tribute to Melville's style. I'll let you know if I still like it after I get a little further into it.

We did take a break and drove up to Burnet for a Thai lunch on Saturday and then into Austin (just the edge of it) on Sunday to get Jack an electric tea kettle. It was nice and almost felt like Fall for a few minutes :-).

I also poured another three bags worth of pavers and tried a different mix and color. I figured this is a good time to play around with different techniques since all of them will be outside and I can make any pattern I want with them. I colored these reddish and used a mix with more sand. I will know what they look like in about a week. I am leaving them in their molds at least a week - longer if I don't have time to pour more in a week.

And that's about it for now. I go to a recruiting event in Charlotte, N.C. on November 10. Anyone know much about Charlotte, N.C.?

Hot water heater and Matilda

Hi all,

Well, we had been planning to get a new hot water heater next weekend, but our old one decided we had waited too long and went out on Friday. Jack and I changed it out Friday night and Saturday morning and now we have lovely hot water again. But, as I was unloading the last of a load of mulch from Matilda's bed (black Mazda truck), she decided she was tired of running for awhile so tonight we will see if we can figure out why she is so lethargic and see if we can get her back on her feet. Might be the ignition switch.

So what are you all up to?

Pictures :-)

Olando and visiting

I have been lax about getting a couple of pictures off my phone and on to the blog so I will do that today and then tell a little bit about my visit. Suffice to say for now that I had a wonderful visit and our little great niece and nephew are wonderful - and beautiful.

City House-side view

Sorry, forgot to post the side view of the city house.

City house

We are thinking of investing in a city house; what do you guys think?

Happy Birthday, Kelly

This birthday card to some Ute is about 2,000 years old so I thought it appropriate to use it to say, Happy Birthday , Kelly.

It's Ute's week.

Phil and the blues

The Telluride Blues Festival---my weekend...




First, as I walked into the Telluride Blues Festival, they started playing When the Saints go Marching IN and the Mardi Gras March and threw beads. How did they know I was coming? Truly weird..

Second, the mountains are beautiful. Too much money here but beautiful mountains...

Third, B.B. King s a nice man-- good entertainer and funny BUT.. but over the hill. He never finished a sing. (maybe altitude) and


Fourth- Allen Toussaint is GREAT beyond my wildest expectations. He did Louisiana proud here when others were either not playing blues or playing way over their heads or too loud. He was a true gentleman thanking the folks with a sincere heart and soul-catching smile.

Overall I liked the Blues festival here but Louisiana sans eat is good too. I was there two days.... VIP tickets as a guest.

I have been busier in the last three weeks than in the last three years. I love it.

Orlando next week - maybe San Antonio this weekend

It's a little over a week until I go to Orlando and although I have some handouts and a poster to put together, I think I am ready to go. Luckily, all my main responsibilities are on two days - Saturday and Monday.

I think I am still on to see Diana and the gang part of the time - need to talk to her today.

This weekend Jack and I might go to Fredericksburg or San Antonio for a little outing. He has been down with allergies the past two weekends and it might be good for him to get out of the house and go somewhere other than school :-). I also want to pour some stepping stones if it doesn't rain. I am doing something similar to Kelly and Kathryn's carport pavers plus some stones to edge some areas.

What are you all up to? Phil, I will give you a call this week. I got your phone message, but was in a big conference center looking at quilts and it was too loud to call you back and then I forgot. Getting older.

Paintings: The old and the new from Phil

The Old...(side)
and the New. (Below)
I borrowed ideas from all... but went with an adobe paint with a green trim..
Now a roof over the porch and some inside work and I will 'retire' from house work for a while. Well maybe I will sweep and take out the garbage. (And wash...)

Jeff's Visit

Jeff's long awaited three year visit came this week. We had a great time with his friend Ryan. They taught me a new game: geo-caching.

Anyone else play it?



We went to Ouray, Silverton, Cottonwood Pass and points inbetween. I think we were at 10,000 ft. plus three times.

Not China, but still might be fun

I have a conference in Orlando in early October and might actually get to see Diana, Brad, E,M,M,K if I am lucky. Much more exciting than Space Mountain, in my book. Still working out the details with them.

Diana, I am rounding up contacts for you. All of my students are very excited that my sister will be coming to China. I just wish one of them was going to actually be there, but I think they will provide good ambassadors.

We have rain, finally. We need it and although there has been some heavy showers yesterday and this morning, we need every bit of it. Of course that means I will have to mow this weekend, but I hear that is good exercise.

Phil, keep your house green. Green is the best color :-).

More later.

Back from Florida

Had a great time watching Keaton and McKenna for four days, but boy do I need some rest! They were very good, but require an energy level I'm not used to. On the bottom pic I think Keaton is saying, "When are my mom and dad coming home!"

M, M & I loved having Kelly with us for a night. Hopefully we'll be on a regular stop schedule.

I don't feel retired yet! I think I'm as busy as ever. Leisurely sewing is not happening. Maybe someday soon. Hopefully I'll be tutoring two days a week, but grant money has not come in yet.

I think I mentioned that Matthew will be going to China 11-27 to 12-9 for the culmination of his Master's. Well, I left Brad alone with them while I was gone and it seems he decided we should go too. Melissa wasn't going to go, but said she would if we did. We'll see if we can get all the vaccinations, etc. in time....we should know in the next few weeks. Brad definitely has to keep working now.

Loved your house Phil. You should paint it adobe color or pink!

Diana

Atlanta and Knoxville

Had a nice visit with Diana, Mathew and Melissa in Atlanta. I am now in Knoxville with Emily, David and Otis. Emily is starting school and getting ready for a big show at the Knoxville museum of Art--seeing eye alligators.

Pictures of my room

I still have some things to put away but . . .

Alice's Restaurant

In my journeys, I met this couple just outside Durango... a true mom and pop stopover. She was Alice so....

They worked three months feeding folks in Lake Charles after Rita... soo guess why I took their photo...

The Mountains and Montrose: Moving but staying still

This is my bungalow to be I hope. The back yard has a porch and garden and there is a park across the street.

I hope to make it cozy even though it is small. But it does have some potential.

If all goes well I will be in By Sept. 3 or sooner, just in time for Jeff's Sept. 6 visit.

The daybed is not in the living room!

I moved the daybed into my back room last night. It is funny how much it had been bothering me and I had set a goal to get it out of the living room one way or another. My room is a functioning room. Tonight I will clear off the top of the desk and arrange a few more things, then take pictures.

My new students are coming in now and it is really busy at work, but interesting. I had to ask my new students if they were vegetarian and I had one respond that it did not matter because it was Ramadan and they would be fasting during the day. It was a good reminder. I'm not very good about keeping up with religious holidays. I mean, I know when Christmas is. The stores keep me informed that it is a five month holiday that starts about now. I had my first Christmas aisle sighting last weekend.

Happy Thursday.

Here that lonesome train a'coming

I took the old No. 18 up to a country/folk concert with the Old/New Weavers... some were new Weavers but two played with Pete Seeger. So it was folk song weekend. The best song of the day was This Land is Your Land. Another was Michael Smith who wrote The Dutchman, a song I ahd not heard till recently but s pretty well known in most circles. We did see interesting sites and long grades. I felt that choo, choo sound and rhythm again.

By the way, we road this train for 2.5 hours into the mountains to Fir, Co. for the concert. So it was a 'fir piece...."The only thing in Fir is a concert stage and some elk. It is at 12,000 ft. or so. Some musicians have to take oxygen to keep playing.
We also saw a double rainbow... see above. It is the first time I actually saw where the rainbow ended... but alas the gold is still in the rocks.

Kelly and Kathryn, I liked it but envy your experience too.

Joan Baez

Great show here on Thursday night... looked good, sounded good, seemed to enjoy herself. She played for two hours with out a break...favorite songs, Gospel ship, Diamonds and Rust and Deportee (dusted off theWoody Guthrie classic in the most relevant way). Her band mates, Dirk Powell from Breaux Bridge and John Doyle were also worth the cost of admission. Saw all the old timers from Baton Rouge but they had all gained weight lost hair and grayed-who knew. We did not notice any strange smells though because of the strict ban on indoor smoking.

Picture of the bridge

Phil, I don't remember where the bridge was for sure. It was between Iowa and Illinois and it was not a highway we were planning to take, but I saw the bridge from far off and just had to go see it. From a distance the bridge looks like big sails on the horizon. I know I should have kept a journal of where things were and where we went, but I guess I have always had a problem doing that. I seem to get caught in the doing and forget about the recording. That's why I try very hard not to be the minutes taker at any meetings.

Looking on the internet, I think it must be the bridge at Burlington: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Great_River_Bridge_Burlington_Iowa_1997.jpg

My picture is better :-).

Picture explanantion

Okay, that is not my new profession. That was a picture from my retirement party. I don't really feel retired yet. Here are some pictures of my trip to see McKenna and Keaton a couple of weeks ago. We are off Sunday for a week in LA . Meditation conference.