The Neighbors

We saw the Nalley's had a garage sale over the weekend, but they have done that before. Then in the middle of the week a pod showed up on their curb.

Now we know, the neighbors are splitting.

If you are looking for a nice house in the suburbs, let us know. When the listing goes up, we will let you know the price. It will be priced to sell.

Neighbors since 1982. Not the first to go, across the street and down 1, 2, 3 - all new since then. Looks like we are the old-timers.

Church Quilts

Interesting center this weekend in the usual 9x7 set of squares in the charity quilts I hem in my spare time. The quilters make these single-sized quilts for shipping overseas or for use here after disasters, like Katrina.

My job is to put the binding on - a simple 20 minute job by machine in most cases, but it does give me the opportunity to review them all.

Imagine all the variations with this pattern of a random center piece of triangles alternating with whole corners and bicolor corners. Some squares are just stripes of color.

I may have to play with this pattern for a while with fabric from my stash and see what comes of it. Perhaps white, black and splashes of red. Let me ponder the possibilities.

The Other Side Of The River

I took this picture from the other side of the Naches River Valley.

I have been in a car many times following on the right side of the river on the road over the Chinook Pass. But, there was a major landslide that covered the road and necessitated a detour to the other side of the river.

I felt sorry for the farmers over there, who were largely by-passed by the world. A snug hide-away valley completely unknown to regular travellers until the slide. Now it is the main highway.

Here is the video - normal until 120 seconds into the film - taken from a helicopter when it first occurred.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAw2RHZR8MI

Let's see if that works.

The Really Big Bowl

My new salad bowl is so big, it can hold a whole watermelon diced and two tubs of blueberries! Jim taught me how to make this salad.

It is so big, I had to take its picture out on the deck.

And by sitting it on the deck railing, that means you can see that some of the backyard sod is coming back, but other remains quite toasted.

I think I will add new grass seed this weekend, so I can see if it will revive when I introduced some seedling cousins.

Sudoku

Contrary to popular opinion, I am not addicted to doing Sudoku puzzles.

The reason I like to wake up on weekends and try the five star puzzles, which only appear in three papers on Friday (yes, I save them), Saturday and Sunday, is simple.

The first cup of coffee tastes better when I am doing my weekend mental acuity test. I figure if I can solve a five star, then my brain is "tarp as shacks", and I can tackle any weekend job on my to-do list.

This morning it only took fifteen minutes, so I know this will be a good day.

We Never Knew

Every year "about this time", as Lesa would put it, we are always invited to her house for a barbeque and crab feast. We have done this for years, and this year, we learned that God is on Lesa's side when it comes to planning this event.

We woke up to steady rain this morning, which lasted over five hours. But as we passed noon, the clouds broke up and by 6pm tonight, it was lovely - lower humidity, clear sky and comfortable temperature. Time for the feast!












The patio was filled with people, including out of town guests who don't leave until Monday! But the feast was on. I had found from Samuel Adams Irish Red, and it was a fun acknowledgement of Steve's Irish heritage. But there were plenty of sodas and all kinds of beer in three big coolers.

We ate and had our usual good time, then we learned the real reason for this annual celebration - five of Stephanie's friends disappeared into the kitchen and brought out a birthday cake covered with burning candles - and a basket of gifts. They had wanted to buy a wine of the month club subscription, but Pennsylvania wouldn't deliver where Stephanie is finishing med school at Penn State. So they purchased several bottles and had them all labeled for use.

Surprise! Stephanie's birthday is within the week, but get this, so is her father's. Since their birthdays are so close, Lesa has always had a big party for both, but no one was told the reason other than, "Hey, y'all. Lesa's cookin' again. Let's go!"





Just a small party for 20 this year, and it made it all the more enjoyable knowing we were feting the two birthday kids. Happy Birthday, and many more!

Orchids

Returning from the West where the day time highs were 78-83, we were assaulted by 95-103 degree heat this week, and one feature absent in the West, humidity.

This cool looking bouquet was at the concierge's desk, and every time I passed it by, I felt cooler as I transitioned from the outside weather to my elevator lobby.

Green orchids and spray painted blue teasel. Who knew. Even the tall spire going out the top into the bright station lights was green all the way up.

Gorgeous. Now, give me some rain.