Lovely here after pouring rain during the Memorial Day service at the cemetery!  Just waiting now for friends to arrive for our BBQ...just the 4 of us so easy.

Sharon....will you please email me what you take for the tremors?  Ray has essential tremor too, and some days are worse than others for him.

Jane

Because we didn't have bridge today (the Civic Center was closed for the holiday), I finally got to go on one of the Mystery Rides.  The Terrace bus takes these tours every other Monday.  The driver has a plan for an hour's outing and the passengers have no idea where he's going to take us.  I had a pretty good idea today, and I was right.  He drove us to the National Cemetery.  The ceremonies were held this morning, so he was able to drive all around the large area.  It was a beautiful day and the lines of white stones, each with a small American flag were so moving.  He even managed to find the section where the husband of one our passengers was buried.  It made for a special time on a special day.

Mary, what a nice mystery trip! Very appropriate.  Too bad bridge conflicts most Mondays.

Jane, great that the rain cleared off for your barbeque.

I haven't done too much--went through donations to list them and have them ready for the Kidney Foundation to pick up Friday. I hope John will go through his stuff and give me some more for the donation.  The KF sends out a card with a pick-up date every couple of months, and all you have to do is put it at the curb with their yellow card & they put a receipt in the mailbox.

Then I organized pills and then cut some hydrangeas for a bouquet on my bar counter. I'll probably go to Ms Frances' in a few minutes. I think her daughter has left now.

Not much activity in here.  Sharon

This afternoon I will; be taking Freckles to a Furry friend Member about 30 miles away to be taken care of until I get back from Sunriver. There she will get to play with her friend Jack who is a Jack Russell terrier.

We will be leaving tomorrow morning for Sunriver and we are taking my Subaru this year. It looks like I will be doing the driving for this trip too. Keith says he gets confused about the solid and dotted lines on the roads. I have no idea why he would be confused they haven't changed although he insists that they have. He has always driven  in all the past  trips, this "problem" seemed to start last Chrtistmas when we took my car to California.

Then one week after we return  from sun river we will be going up the coast for the weekend to a place called Neskowin Or. Keith's folks had a cabin there  win he and Sandee were kids and Sandee wants up to go there. For that trip I will be taking Freckles along. We plan to visit the Tillamook Cheese factory while we are there. and go check out the cabin.

Have a great trip, Marilyn.  And going to Oregon, too.  Tillamook Cheese is very good - we enjoyed our visit there.  I'd be concerned about Keith's confusion about the road markings.  Obviously he's lost confidence in his driving on the highway.  Glad you can take over the driving, and he's willing to acknowledge that. 

Swimming and coffee this morning.  It's been really hot (@ 90+), but we've having a light shower right now.  And I have heard some thunder, too.  I hope it rains the rest of the day - we really need it.

I think he just uses that excuse not to drive my car. He drives his car just fine. I'm not too concerned about it, I'll just do the driving. LOL

Enjoy Sunriver, Marilyn, and safe traveling.

Darlene...I think you're far enough south to have avoided the flooding?  Did you go to SPI or Port Aransus area?

Joy....are you getting all the rain in N. TExas?  I saw horrible flooding again in Dallas, Houston, and Austin.


Cards were great yesterday!  I don't think I've ever had such good hands...was high scorer at 3560 for 3 rounds of 6 hands each.  I'll probably be "you were here...here's a .25 for your misery" which is what the lowest gets ay our games.   

Beautiful day here today.  Ray has appt at Hearing Aid place in CR....I think this is a "check of his hearing" to try and sell him a new aid.  He forgets to wear the expensive one he has...not going to pay out another $4000 for ONE new one.

Have a good Thurs., Buddies!

Jane

Hi Gals, I never did post anything yesterday. Just nothing of note going on other  than my cleaning lady being here.  Today I heard from Lori. She got all moved in to her new loft condo and is all excited but exhausted. Melanie went up to help her some but had to get back after 24 hours. I'm heading to the grocery shortly.

Marilyn, I hope you have a wonderful vacation both in Sun River and to Neskowin. Drive safely. I hope the weather cooperates.

Jane, wonderful that your cards were so good. That's what keeps us coming back, I guess.  I was thinking the other day about the cost of hearing aids. The cost is not just for the aid itself, but also for all the appointments, tests, batteries included in each sale.  I really think all of it ought to be picked up by Medicare. It is definitely a health issue.  I don't blame you for grumbling at Ray if he doesn't wear the expensive one.  Maybe it makes the sound uneven for him.  Mine are the same on both ears.

Mary, I'm surprised you haven't been getting a lot of rain.  Charlotte has gotten it for the past 3 days off and on but it skipped around us.

Darlene, I've been thinking about you and the floods too.  Awful!

Has anyone watched the new Roots on the History channel?  It is good, but very intense. I still remember liking the other one better though.

Well, guess I better get moving.  Sharon

Jane. Trip to the coast was cancelled due to flooding...will try to reschedule...we are expecting more rain tonite....did get my walk in this morn...I mailed Sue a card to the add u posted...hope she's doing better...when it's rainy I like to cook...so that's my plan for today...Darlene

We're still getting showers off and on - sunshine in between.  It rained off and on all night, but we got only about 0.2".  My impatiens are looking okay, though.  Nothing much going on today.  Exercise class here, then lunch out with the swimmers.  I'll play some bridge here after supper.  I'll have to start thinking about what I'm going to wear to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. 

Sorry you missed out on the beach, Darlene.  At least you're not too far away to reschedule.  What beach do you go to?

I was suppose to go to Texas this coming weekend but I have cancelled the trip. Daughter finely got back into the house on Saturday. Couldn't from Wednesday. No water got into hers but all the roads were closed.  Now saying more rain. Soon after this it will be so hot it Texas. Not the place for me.
Although Illinois at the moment also hot.  Spent 3 hours this morning out side. SIL come to town and cut all the Evergreen bushes. We get them bag and ready for man to pick up Tuesday. Got was landscaping I am going to do , done. Just have to wash down patio and put out furniture. He went home and I came in. Turned A/C on and will stay in until 6pm and then go to library. Need something good to ready. Last 3 I didn't care for. I had the first season of "The River" just put it on but didn't really care for it so will return both seasons.
Wish I had the History Channel. I really enjoyed the first "Roots" but the next one will be good.  Sure it will come out one DVD soon.

Yes Jeanne...I dread the hot days after all this rain...we were going to Aransas Pass....one of my sons and family have been there a week and my daughter and I was supposed to join them....but not this time...Hi to all Darlene

Texas is sure being hit hard.  Very wise to postpone trips, Darlene and Jeanne.

Beautiful day here, and we will also need to walk before it heats up.  Ray used to be able to take the heat without a problem, but he now is affected as much as I've been.  So, we plan accordingly and do what we can while we can.

I need to check on my paint supply for some indoor touch ups.  He's been doing some outside stuff...bird bath and some some of th lattice work we have around the foundation by the back porch.  Rain is 50% for tomorrow, but weather forecasters have been so off lately for us.  Rains seem to split and go north and/or south of us. 

Have a lovely Friday in your part of the world.

Jane

Very misty out on the water.  Cannot see the Bay Bridge or the Eastern Shore.  Grey, gloomy day all around, all around.  Bummer!

But that lovely sphere of sunshine out on my kitchen deck is blooming its shiny yellow head off:  my hibiscus.  Makes me happy in my tummy.  I find myself drawn to it on these darkish days.

My very youngest (of 13) granddaughter turned twenty-nine (29) today!  I have reached that great stage of age where I am amazed when I wake up each morning.  But it is even more amazing to contemplate little Deborah an all grown up woman with children of her own.  Perhaps even worse to think of her daddy, my Ivory Soap perfect beauty of a babe, Christopher, as a granddaddy.

Yesterday, son Rob came over, over being from Columbia to Annapolis.  He got back from another one of his frequent adventure tours last week, and came to show me films and treat me to a (belated) birthday lunch.  I had fish tacos to die for, and lemonade and Irish Cream Brulee while looking out on the marina.  Rob's latest venture was a very long going down the Colorado River.  They ran hundreds of rapids and camped out every night.  He confesses to having gone SIXTEEN DAYS without a shower or bath.  Me, I have never been a camper type person, and I shudder!  Rob, my eldest, will be 70 in September, and admits that he has to hurry up and get his Bucket List of adventures completed, as he is beginning to feel the pain(s) Big Time!  Oh well;  it comes to us all!  My active days are behind me forever, but hey, I'm available for lunch!  You buying?

Mary Page, have to chuckle at your last statements. I'm past the adventure age too, but I also am available for lunch or dinner!!  Your son has certainly stretched his adventure days out. Hope he doesn't push it so far that he gets hurt.

My yellow hibiscus are pretty too, but not as prolific as I would like.  I took some pictures of my flowers while ago and will try to send an email of them eventually.

I visited the vampires this AM. It took them 3 sticks!!  What a pain--literally!

Jane, you always seem to have a project going!  I can't take the heat either although John seems to do well enough in it.

I too am glad that Darlene & Jeanne have canceled their TX trips. Not the time for it.

Not much else going on here. I wish Sue would call again, but she hasn't.  Where is everybody?  I know Marilyn is on vacation, but wish the rest of you would check in. Sharon

MaryPage, "my Ivory Soap perfect beauty of a babe, Christopher" - do you mean he floated?   

No, Jeanne Lee, but what a funny thought it created for you!

Back in the days of long, long ago, when almost every married woman on the planet read Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, or McCall's, and in my case, all three, the advertising in them was geared to women.  Great ads, too.  Does anyone besides me remember the series of mother/daughter covers that The Ladies Home Journal ran?  They would always be dressed alike, almost always blond.  They might be ice skating or making cookies, or who knows what!  Totally charming.  There were also, for years, full page ads for sterling silver patterns.  Each month they would feature a different pattern, and at my boarding school the girls would tape their own choice up on their bedroom wall.  Actually, that is how we came to know all, or most, of the patterns and sometimes how we came to choose our final one.

Well, in those days, IVORY Soap had full page ads of IVORY SOAP BABIES.  They called it: "That Ivory Look!" Almost always blond and blue eyed with pink cheeks, and roughly anywhere from just sitting up age to a year.  They were perfection.  I had two such babies of my own:  Christopher and Rebecca.  Chip came close, but he would not have made the cut.  None of the others came anywhere near.  Not that I did not find them perfection anyway, for I did.  But an Ivory Soap Baby WAS perfection!

You can Google "vintage silver pattern ads" and see what I am talking about.  Girls in their teens loved the engaged couples kissing ones, and those are the ones most likely cut out and taped on our walls.  But basically, we cut out and announced and identified with our chosen patterns.  Mine was Fairfax by Gorham, and I truly did love it, but as a practical matter, there was also some in my family owned by an unmarried aunt that I was due to, and eventually did, inherit.  My daughter Debi chose the same pattern, and now she has all of mine.  Silver is no longer of any importance to me, and I HATE to polish it!

MaryPage - I can't believe it - Fairfax was the pattern I had chosen.  However, we eloped and didn't get any of the good wedding presents, so I never had more than 2-3 pieces.  I think I wound up giving it to one of our girls years ago.   We really are kindred spirits.  Everybody I knew was choosing the more ornate patterns.  LOL

We are indeed kindred spirits.  And all of my kin would like all of your kin, just as Becky and your family got along so well.  Of course, there are always a few, well, you probably have a couple of those, too, so we'll just skip over them; you know what I mean.

I wound up with service for eight in the old fashioned 6 piece place settings, plus enough dinner forks and knives to feed 12.  Never did complete it to 12 full 6 piece place settings.  And I think I threw out, entirely by mistake, an individual butter knife once.  So I was minus that.  I had all of the serving and extra pieces, but someone stole (and I knew who, but mercifully have now forgotten) my sugar tongs.  Debi got some of her silver as wedding gifts, so I think she has quite a lot now that she has mine as well.  Most of mine was initialed, while hers is not.  Most of my granddaughters have not bothered with having silver at all!  SO practical not to, and there are lovely patterns of stainless steel, which never needs polishing AND can go through the dishwasher!

I inherited my mother's flatware (Lady Diana by Towle), which included all pieces - even grapefruit spoons and oyster forks.  We used it for holiday meals, but otherwise it stayed in the silver chest.  One of the girls took it (don't know which one) when I left the house.  Definitely a time gone by.

Jane: No, Baton Rouge has been spared the terrible storms
that Texas has had, but------------Last week-end my son and lady friend came and drove in POURING RAIN all the way from TX to BR.  It only slowed down when he reached the Louisiana line. She has a consignment shop in Conroe and the waters had come into her place of business so they
were late getting here. My son lives in Conroe, TX about 45
miles above Houston.
Joy

Glad you're safe, Joy, and your son as well.  Floods are scary.

Talking about silver patterns, I can't remember the pattern I had picked out, but I was given a set of Community silverplate by my aunt which was the same pattern as my mother's and my brother's. So when my mother passed, I divided hers between my sil and me so that we had more complete sets.  However, I only use it very occasionally since, as MP said, it needs to be handwashed.  Most of my other silver pieces, I have wrapped in flannel and stored in the bottom of my china cabinet. I don't use it and don't feel like keeping it polished all the time.  My kids did not choose silver and the few silver pieces they received as wedding gifts they seldom, if ever use.

I talked to Melanie for a while this AM and she filled me in on Lori's new condo which she thought was going to be great for her.

It is hot and humid here. Feels like August.  I'm staying in.  Have a nice weekend, gals.  Sharon

It's supposed to rain here this afternoon and all day tomorrow.  I hope so - we really need it.  Not a great day - I'm going to a funeral this afternoon.  The 50+ year old son of one of our swimmers lost his 6-year battle with cancer last week.  The visitation and service are this afternoon.  He in no more pain, but it's a sad time. 

Oh Sharon, that is so very typical of the change in times!  Back when I was a bride, you were an Old Maid if not married by around age 23, and you HAD to have a silver pattern!  I mean, it was almost more important than the husband or the ring!  And a china pattern.  Scheesch!

It was traditional for the parents of the bride to give them a silver service (coffeepot, teapot, cream & sugar and waterpot on a tray) for their principal wedding gift.  I kept up the tradition with my daughters, but could not afford the silver.  I gave them Paul Revere pewter, and actually thought them quite lovely.  They are glad now, not to have had all that polishing all these many years.

Any one of you who has tucked your good silver away rather than bother with it, if you are not saving it for your children, for heaven's sake SELL it!  Have you SEEN what a place setting goes for these days?  Unbelievable!  You can make a fair amount of cash to augment your retirement income!

Beautiful day here in the upper midwest...and the Rhubarb Fest had a nice crowd at one of the city parks...music by a local talented fellow, and people with various crafts for sale and our local "balloon man" who makes hats and dogs and other fun stuff for the kids...free.  Lots of rhubarb food for sale...brats, ice cream, pies, crumbles, etc. 

We came home and did some pruning of stuff that was hanging over the driveway or growing where it didn't belong.  Now we're inside to rest and relax before time to leave for 4:00 church.  We didn't get our walk in today, so will try for tomorrow morning before it gets hot and then maybe go down to the microbrewery in the afternoon for a beer for Ray and rootbeer for me...and watch the kids have fun with tubes and kayaks on the whitewater run on the river which is right across the street and easily seen from a couple high top tables at the Brewery.

jane

Gorgeous, bright & sunny day dawning here on the bay, and it is D-Day the Sixth of June.  On this day in 1944 it seemed to me there could never be another day of such immensely important news.  Now I feel no one will remember after I am gone!  Well, the world spins on, and is forever caught up in the moment.  I do think the generations might make better choices and more informed decisions if they knew the history their own species has created!

I've been thinking about our Sue and hope she's healing.  I will have to get another card in the mail to her.

Beautiful day here, too. 

I walked to town to turn in the bags for Luminaria I decorated....and, yes, one for our Bosom Buddies here...for the Relay for Life on June 24.  I also had to stop in the City Office to clarify something.  We got a letter that we'd had a previous letter about a sidewalk square that should have been repaired. NOPE...no previous letter.  I explained that and that we had, on our own, replaced the entire front sidwalk last Sept!  She said there had been some personnel changes and they were trying to catch up on things.  I suspect last guy never got the letters sent. 

Then drove to both grocery stores and back home to start laundry and have a nice lunch with lettuce from our garden.  Hard to beat that kind of fresh!



Jane

Yes. D Day remembrance Day today. I remember it well. Last time we heard from many of my family . On my street it seemed like they were delivering Notices of the lost men all day long.
Mary Page. I don't believe there will be many of the youth today who will remember anything about the WW1 or WW2.  Not when some of them don't even know who we were fighting against.  Teachers are surprised when they open up a class about them. No idea how many people died. Say maybe a few hundred thousand when it was over the Millions

Jane, I just put another card in the mail for Sue. I also asked her to call me if she was up to it.

I'm glad you're enjoying a beautiful day. Ours is hot, humid & overcast. Supposed to get some more rain.  We got an inch Saturday night.

Jeanne, I certainly hope our children learn about WWI & WWII, D-Day and all the rest. They did when my kids were in school, but who knows now. Some of the street polls with young people certainly makes you wonder.  Sharon