I went to Mass this evening because tomorrow, Mother and I are going to The Gathering of the Clans at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Parnell. I have prepared a poster board with pictures of the Bowsers and Uelman's and the history that my cousin, David Bowser prepared on Michael Bowser and Joseph Bowser, my Great Great and Great Grandfathers. It starts at 12:00 and goes until 5:00. It is being sponsored by the O Reilly, Slattery and Michaels families, so Kenny and Dolores will be there because Ken's mother was an O Reilly. Mother is so looking forward to it. She will see people that she remembers and have lots of memories for people that are desendants of others that she grew up with in the Mitchell area.


I am bringing a couple notices of the Celtic Faire too. Seems like a good place to advertize.



.....Good Housekeeping Tip: Always keep several get well cards on the mantel.....
so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you've
been sick and unable to clean.





Tell you more about it tomorrow. Next weekend is Irishfest. Yippee.

Mary

This was a relatively quiet day. I went to Plymouth and had lunch with the girls. Those who are in town anyway. Barb was at the Milwaukee Zoo with her grandaughter, Mary in in Door County and Joyce was somewhere or other. I decided not to go next week because the next day I leave for Irishfest and that will be enough.

This evening I went down to church to join the others on the Environment committee to decorate the church for the Feast of the Assumption. All we really had to do was to put fresh flowers around the church and put another statue of Mary on the altar. Two of our decorators had large wood rosaries that we draped around the statues. Simple but pretty. We also figured out how we can hang the Celtic Fair quilt on the wall fo St. Francis Chapel so people can get a good look at it and buy LOTS of tickets.

That was about it except I did finish tying the quilt that I have been working on. Now I just have to do the edge. I may try to stipple in the border after I do the binding. Isn't stipple a fun word. Stippling looks just like it sounds.

Tuesday, we go away for the day to Chicago on an Ethnic tour. Apparantly a guided tour of several ethnic neighborhoods with bits of food all over the place. Sounds like fun and I am ready for a day away. This is on our anniversary too. Would you believe nineteen years already? We are really glad to be traveling together on this day.

Start where you are
Use what you have
Do what you can
It will be enough.



Tomorrow we have fresh corn for supper again. We LIKE corn season. Last week, it was SO good. It seems to get sweeter every week during the season.

Love

Mary

Green Bay is playing San Diego tonight in the first pregame. It is not very exciting for some reason, maybe because the coaches are still trying to decide who is staying and who is going. The score is 7/7 in the fourth quarter and San Diego has the ball.
Farve looks very good and played almost the whole first half.

I worked on tying the quilt that I have on the rack until just a few minutes ago. Now I am really tired. I got over half way so should be able to finish it up over the weekend. Then I have to bind it and do something with the edging.

Did you watch the Today show? I saw the segment on Wisconsin and the Lake Geneva mail boat. Just think, Dick and I were there. I tried to tape it but Dick went to take a nap and apparently, rolled on the controller and turned the recorder off. I think there may be a chance of seeing me or Dick in two camera pans, but I couldn't look fast enough. Well, I got to see it anyway.

We had leftover spaghetti with garlic bread and salad for dinner tonight. Sure tasted good. I am pretty much out of leftovers now. Maybe hamburgers tomorrow. The chocolate zucchini bread sure is good too.

I finished that article for the Sheboygan Press about Celtic Faire. I uploaded it and three pictures to the Press today. Hope they publish it though I know that they will do some cutting.

A dog's philosophy: Eat well, be loved, get petted, sleep a lot, dream of a leash-free world.

Have a good day and I hope you have all five tomorrow.

Mary

Bobbie and I went to Quilt Guild this evening. It was very long but in this case we really felt that it was worth the time.

The first speaker was a lady who makes dolls. She has shown and sold them at the Kohler Doll Show, so you know that she is good. All of her dolls are unique and she said that she has made over 900 of them. They have evolved. She is going to come back in March to give a class on her "Kindred Spirit" dolls and I think I will take the class. I don't want to become a dollmaker, but would like to design a doll.

Then, on break, they set up for another presentation, which Bobbie and I thougher was goint to be rather much. However, as it turned out, it was a slide presentation from two nurses in the neonatal unit at Sinai Hospital where we take the quilts for the At Risk Babies. They had pictures of the unit and some of the parents and babies. It was wonderful but made me a little sad because it brought back so many memories. I am so glad to be able to be a part of something for these littlest of people. The presentors said that the parents are always amazed that they get to take the quilt home with the baby. How nice is that.

I showed the antique family quilt that Mother found over at the Deeley's years ago. I think I mentioned it. The quilt had been covered in ticking and was used for years to cover car radiators in the winters. It was the hit of show and tell. All quilters like to see the old ones. I think it makes us aware of the permanence of our art.

Don't forget to watch the Today Show. I hope you got my midday reminder or pick this up early.

Until later.

Mary

Just a reminder. Tomorrow, the Today Show is featuring spots in Wisconsin and Dick and I were on the Mail Boat in Lake Geneva when they were filming. So watch if you can. We are going to tape it.

Dilbert is funny today. I do not usually find Dilbert exceptionally amusing but today he outdid himself. The boss tells Dilbert and his fellow employees.

"I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the company is going to sponsor a corporate marathon team.

The bad news is that one of you has to run 26 miles tomorrow."

Sometimes life seems like that.

Today was HOT again. I'll bet you are sick of reading that in this blog. I would like to eliminate it but it keeps happening. We have another few days of 40% chance of rain again. We need much more than an eighth of an inch at a time though.

This morning we went grocery shopping. Jeff had given me a huge zucchini so when we got home I made chocolate zucchini bread and steamed the rest for a casserole for this evening's dinner.

This afternoon, I went to see Dr. Casey, my chiropractor. My knee has been hurting and he adjusted my foot which he thinks will help relieve the discomfort. Bodies sure are funny. Your foot affects your knee which affects your hip and that can do move up to to the back and the neck. My monthly adjustments seem to keep me relatively comfortable but stormy weather still makes my neck sore.

Tonight the "church ladies" got together and started doing the hand quilting on the big quilt for the raffle at Celtic Faire. I got most of one square done and will finish it on Monday. Actually, I was not really planning on doing any of the hand quilting as I did stitch down all the binding but it was fun to sit and quilt with the others. There were eight of us stitching and I know we got ten or more squares done. It was effortless because we enjoy the visiting as well as the sewing. We plan on hanging the quilt in church so people can see it. We DO have to get permission from Fr. Gene, but he is pretty good about things if one only asks.

Tomorrow is quilt guild.

Later

Mary

Hot again today. I am watering every morning from 6 to 9 and the grubworm areas are not spreading.

I also had bible study this morning and Writer's Club this afternoon. So it was a full day. I read the list poem at Writer's Club and they liked it. I think I will see if I can find a market for it. Perhaps a cooking, women's or memory magazine.

We had spaghetti and meatballs for supper with garlic bread. Always a favorite. I added extra mushrooms and made the sauce with our herbs from our own herb garden, so was a treat. Of course, Dick and Jim find anything with Pasta in it a treat.

I started hemming the binding on the church quilt tonight and got it half finished. I will be able to complete the rest tomorrow afternoon so that we quilters will just have the hand quilting of the individual blocks to do. We are going to set it up in a room in the church basement on a quilting rack tomorrow evening. Then it will be available whenever anyone has any time to put in an hour or two. I really should get the labels that Pat printed out ready and on both the quilts.

Dick had a pretty good night's sleep last night. Hope he does as well tonight because we are grocery shopping in the morning and it is easier for him if he is rested.

I guess that is all for tonight.

Hope it cools down soon.

Mary

What a day. Busy every minute. As I mentioned, the "German Choir" sang at Blessed Trinity this morning at the 10:30AM Mass. We sang Dona Nobis at the Offeratory, and The Kyria and the Sanctus during Communion. There were only about 11 of the original 16 or so of us that started out and went to the event, but I think we really sounded GOOOOOD. I talked to Bart and Barbara tonight and I told Barbara, my little German speaking daughter in law, that she probably would have giggled at some of our pronunciations, but she would have been proud of the effort and pleased with the beautiful sound.

In Sheboygan county, German Mass generally means a Polka Mass, which if done well can be nice, but this is just very beautiful liturgical music.

After church, I changed clothes at Mother's house and then headed right out to Rhine Plymouth to help out at the County Shoot which we hosted this year. I think it turned out quite well. Bobbie worked it too. There were no complainers and a lot of food, and drink went over the counter. Tons of water and soda in the early 2/3s of the day because people are very good about not drinking until they are done shooting. We also had raffles all day and they sold out quickly. There were three top shooters at the end in the A class. They all had 100 straight birds (the best which means no misses for those of you unfamiliar with the sport. It is like a 300 in bowling) So we had to have a shootoff. Would you believe that there there were no misses until the THIRD shootoff. All three shooters shot a perfect 150 birds in a row. We finally finished shooting at about 6:00PM. Then of course Del and Tom got to be MCs and give out the awares. After that I asked John if I could go home and he said OK. We were selling steak sandwiches so I brought three home for supper and we ate them along with some great cookies that Mother sent home with me.

So that was my day. Dick said it was quiet here, except that Joan Otto called with 4 names for the prayer chain. Dick is never really thrilled with that because Joan talks awfully fast and can sometimes be hard to understand, but my brave soldier did it for the poor souls who need the prayers.

Talked to Bart and Barb tonight. They are doing OK. Barb is over the ear infection she had and Bart sounds pretty good. At least he was willing to visit and as it was later in the day this means a lot to me.

Roxie has come up on the desk to visit. I sometimes think that she thinks I am just another cat. She tries to communicate with me and is certain that I really do understand.

Jeff left zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers at Mother's for everybody so I will be busy tomorrow and the next day cooking, baking and/or preserving. Dick and Jim are not fond of the squashes but will eat some selected recipes that I have found. I will bake some bread with the zucchini and I can make a batch of refrigerator pickles with some of the cukes. Love the harvest. Everything tastes so good.

Wish nobody was hungry tonight. I could feed a whole bunch of them if I had a way to get the food to them.

Love

Mary