Visit with Kent (and Kim and Sylvia via Webcam)

Kent came home for Labor Day weekend. He built mom a great new computer, bought her a flat screen monitor and bunches of other goodies. She was so happy and is learning to use all of the new equipment and programs. Kent, you did a great job on it, and she just loves it.
We all met a mom's and went to Applebee's for supper. I am wearing new ear rings from my friend, Jewels. They are real garnets and she made them, just beautiful! (Not me, the ear rings)
Barb and my brother, Milo, waiting for their steaks!

Kent putting on that goofy grin....lol.
A really great picture of my pretty mom.

After dinner we visited for a while at mom's house and we talked to brother Kim and Sylvia on the webcam. This will be a new experience for mom for sure, but it will be fun too for her to be able to see her family in California, and Kentucky.

Thanks Kent for the camera card and the 'Sheila Stick'. I appreciate them so much and I know they will come in handy for transfering stuff to my ipod and to my many computers....and for taking lots of pictures.
Hugs

New Camera Woo-hoo

I finally got my new camera today. It's a Canon powershot SD1100IS. It's a tiny little camera, but takes wonderfully clear pictures. Above and below are a few, which have been reduced in size due to my crappy internet speed, but you get the idea..

Party at Henry's

Bill works with a guy named Henry R. and I have known him for years. He had a party tonight. It was so relaxing and fun. He had smoked a hog and the rest of us brought food and drink. It was a beautiful evening, no humidity, which is amazing and cool too. He lives out in the middle of no where south east of Iuka. He and his wife live in a cabin he built himself, along with her son. He has his own lake on the property. It is just a beautiful place. The smoked hog was very tender and delicious. There were lots of other home-made dishes, taco salad, sliced tomatoes, cucumber salad, mashed potatoes, green beans w/bacon and all of the other country food that we all love here in Illinois. We didn't really know anyone besides Henry, but as the evening wore on we ran across some people we hadn't seen in a very long time and we had a fun visit. The best part though, was, as the sun was setting Henry and his brother, and a third party, who are all members of the same rock band played and sang. It was a wonderful atmosphere with the tall trees, the sun fading and the cool evening breeze while we listened to them sing many of our favorite songs from Elvis, Tom Pettay, John Bon Jovi, Neil Young, Jim Croche, John Mellancamp and the list goes on. At one time the guests were waving their lighters in the air,like we were at a real concert, those who didn't have a lighter, were waving their lit-up cell phones... lol. Some people danced and we all sang along on the chorus during "Proud Mary". Others attending took their turn at the microphone, including one guy named Hoss, who sounded Cajun, and did a great job singing some old time country hymns and tunes, like: "I'll fly Away"...for a minute there I felt like I was in the movie "O brother where art thou?".....just loved it all. The singing continued into the night, while we all visited and drank a few beers (or Dr. Peppers). The fog came rolling in about 11;30, so we headed home. The fog was very thick, so it took us a while to get home. We had a wonderful time. I will post some pictures, but my camera is having problems (which is why I ordered a new one today).

Pictures from the above party

Henry's place is pretty big, if you needed to go somewhere you had to take a 4-wheeler or a golf cart...
Lots of good eats were there too, along with the smoked hog.
Everyone was having a relaxing time. Check out that outhouse!
Two little boys were fighting over a coke, mom settled the problem.
There were quite a few people camping there for the week end. Here are some ladies enjoying their food.
Sadie, the dog with no tail. She was pretty relaxed too.
Some members of Henry's band playing us some tunes.
And....it's pretty lame when you take your own picture in the dark....it turned out pretty good though. Bill is so tanned from working outside all of the time. Since he's part Cherokee, he gets really dark.

The End...

Happy Birthay, Janet...

I don' t know how the last few week got away from me, so I shall start again, with last night. Mom and I went to Slo-Jo's, a local bar in Sandoval, IL. We went there to celebrate our friend, and Red Hat sister's birthday. Everyone was singing Karaoke too. We had lots of laughs and we met some very nice people. Here is a slide show from pictures I took. The bar was dark and my camera seems to be having issues, but you get the idea..

Janet, I hope you had a great night, thanks for inviting us.

Just Imagine...... Moe, Larry and Curly

I was feeling all "Martha Stewart-ish" today and I thought I would bake a blackberry pie, since the bushes are still loaded with berries. I found a great recipe, Texas blackberry cobbler. I picked the berries, made homemade sourdough pie crust and put the cobbler together by adding half of the blackberries (mixed with sugar , flour and butter) in the bottom of the baking dish, then added a single square of pie crust and baked for 10 minutes, then I added the rest of the berries and made a lattice crust on top, sprinkled with sugar and baked for another 20 minutes. Sounds good? Yes it was, but I only found out later, because.....
I had turned on the exhaust fan behind the stove because of all of the heat. Of course.... you know the chain broke and it just kept running and running, and by now even the cool air-conditioned air was flowing freely out of the exhaust fan. It was almost 100 degrees outside. So, me being very un-mechanically inclined, I had no clue how this thing worked. So, just imagine the three stooges and there many lame ways of fixing things, and that would be me. Yes, I used scissors, a knife, a screw driver, a piece of wire, a piece of gold gift wrap, a piece of red ribbon and a big board on the outside to keep the vent shut so I could get everything lined out. I finally found the switch shut off, after running outside 15 times looking at both sides of the fan. I had to stand on a milk crate because , of course, I was too short. I tried using string and a wire, and the string broke right away. I used a screw driver to shut off the switch, but then I had to remove it to feed the chain back through,and then I had to make sure the chain went through the vent cover too on the inside....well, it was just a big pain in the ass, I was beginning to feel like MacGyver....I'm tellin' ya......after two hours, I got it fixed and it works fine....and all because I wanted a pie! I need to check my aura or my fung shui or something....or maybe my horoscope, that's it...Jupiter must not be aligned with Uranus or something......

The Scooter Fiasco/ or truck Fiasco...or Help I can't go full throttle

This morning Bill decided to take his scooter, the Hardly Dangerous one, into Salem, as he was having some problems with it and needed to get it to the motor cycle repair shop. So, he put it in the back of our old Ford pick up and headed to Salem, a simple task. He drove as far as Alma (5 miles) and the truck started slowing down and nothing happened when he gave it the gas pedal, yep the fuel pump went out of it. He had to walk back into the main part of town ( population 400) and try to find some help. Fortunately, he knows several people there, so he knocked on the door of the waitress from the restaurant downtown, Donna. Nobody home. He knocked on the door of Bill McGuire, who owns a storage unit business there, no answer. Finally he found his friend Richard, who called the local wrecker service and waited with Bill until it came. Richard brought him home. So, I guess that wasn't enough punishment for one day. Bill got on the other scooter, the red one, which was in even worse condition and drove 10 miles to Salem, trying to get to the same motorcycle repair shop. When he got to the middle of the busy intersection, the light was red, he kept his hand on the throttle giving it gas, so it would keep going when the light turned green. The light turned green, Bill gave it a full throttle and it barely crept across the town square, he said he felt like a little cartoon old man putt putting across the road, he really thought he should just got off and push it, however, it began to pick up some speed when he reached the firehouse, and was going even faster when he got to Diary Queen. He turned the corner when he got to Dairy Queen and was making his way to the cycle shop. He finally got there, the moment he did, that scooter died and wouldn't start again. Bill handed the repairman the keys and told him the things that were wrong with it and left on foot to Dairy Queen. I had to to into town to get him, so I made him buy me ice cream.......and a Dr. Pepper.
All of this happend before noon. Today is his surprise birthday party.....I'm wondering how that will go.....

Surprise and Happy Birthday, :Bill

Bill is saying: You Lied to me!
Lot of yummy food made by Jeannie, my Sister-in-law.
Everyone ate in an orderly manner..there's mom and Milo on the opposite side.
Bill is so old, it's a good thing there is only one candle....lol.
Bill and the Gordons.....sounds like a rock group!
Heidi, Glen and Alex.
Tina looking at Bill's birthday cards and gift.
He caught me, I was trying to get the "rabbit ears" picture....
So, I told Bill, instead of waiting until he was dead......we made the picture boards for his 50th birthday party. Actually, Jeannie made the boards, Dona and I furnished the pictures.





Bill's new hat!

I didn't get a picture of the table before he tore into the gifts, but he got lots of nice gifts, some money too, and a very nice collectors proof silver dollar from his coin collecting buddy, Glen.

Steve and Jeannie planned a did everything to have the party. Jeannie would not let me take her picture, so I hope Steve got a few and I will add a slide show when I get pictures from him. Anyway, there were around 50 people there, the food was wonderful, everyone had a nice relaxing evening, and the best part of all is that Bill had no clue what was happening until he walked in the door of the community center, thinking he was just going to help Jeannie move a few tables for a fake baby shower....heee....