I planted daffodils today. Jeff brought some bulbs to Mother and she did not want them all, so we shared. Bobbie and I were discussing bulbs a couple of weeks ago and I had mentioned that I did not have any daffodils. They are one of the very first signs of spring, along with worms all over the street, robins, the red winged blackbirds and kids playing basketball all around the tract.

It was a pretty quiet day overall. I got all packed for the trip and worked on the "book" that we are going to put on the altar for All Soul's Day. I make a cross quilt square and sewed it on the fabric that I will be covering the "book" with. I searched and found a site that has about 6 different crosses, so I have a source now. The hardest part will be stenciling all the names of those who have died in the past year. I really can't do that until we are back from the trip because we include the names of ALL who have died in the past years and (it sounds kind of gory) there is always a possibility that we will have some more in the next two weeks. We can't leave anyone off and there is a placement issue.

Well, Cheslea is begging to go out AGAIN and it is almost 9:00PM which is her time. So I will sign off now.





LADIES- Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice
cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.

REAL WOMEN- Leftover wine??

Love

Mary

It is almost 10:00PM and I am winding down very fast. It was a rather busy day. I cleaned the kitchen this morning.

Then I went to have lunch in Plymouth at the Dairy Queen with my friends. My friend, Mary, has gone back to work for Edward Jones Brokerage. She says she is not happy about that, she would really like to stay home, but she has to work and at least the brokerage that she has joined is staffed with really great people. She does like being a broker too.

I delivered my basket to the Tisket a Tasket site. They liked it. I always feel really good when I deliver them each year. It must be fun collecting the baskets. The idea is to assemble a basket around a book. I chose two books about tea parties and added stuff.

Lastly, I stopped at Office Max and stocked up on copy paper and some supplies to use to make a list of those who passed away at Blessed Trinity this past year for All Souls Day. We like to do a special rememberance.

Now, I am tired.

If there are no dogs in Heaven,
then when I die I want to go
where they went.
- Will Rogers

I like Will's idea. I want to reconnect with Zero and a couple of other good doggy friends that I have had throughout the years.

Mary

Tomorrow will be a very busy day. I have to clean the kitchen in the morning. Actually, the floor isn't as bad as usual, because when I cleaned the grapes yesterday, I got the floor so messy that I had to wipe down about a third of it so we wouldn't stick.

Then I will have lunch with the girls in Plymouth. I don't know if Betty and Ceil are back from their trip to the New England states or not. Then the bank, Office Max and I have to drop off a basket for the Tisket a Tasket raffle that will be happening on November 5th or thereabouts. The last day to drop off the baskets is Oct 21 and we will be gone. Tisket a Tasket if a fundraiser to help combat illiteracy. I have contributed a basket for auction or raffle for several years now. This year I make one using a basket tray that I got from Mother. I cleaned it up and put a liner over the tray part. Then I filled it with two books on teas, an apron that I had decorated with a beautiful big cup, a table runner that can be used as a table runner or a placemat, two cups, coffee, tea and cookies. I think it is OK.

When I was a little girl, I used to go down town to the library every week to see Mrs. La Budde and get as many books as I could carry to read during that week. The library was located in an old house on the corner of Pine and Buffalo Streets in Sheboygan Falls, right accross from the Franklin House. It is a beautiful old building, a historical landmark, now converted back to a home. I have a lot of nice memories of that library. The Sheboygan Falls Library was originally founded by a ladies group.


Friday is the beginning of the weekend for me. Hope it is for you. Monday we go away for our Mystery Tour.

Mary

I really enjoyed Quilt Guild tonight. We had a pot luck, which is always fun. I made beans and balogna.

This is the simple recipe:

1 Can of Pork and Beans
1 Can of Spicy Chili Beans
1 Can of Black beans
1 Ring Balogna, peeled and sliced into chunks.
A good squeeze of ketsup
1/4 cup finely chopped onion

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

The dessert table was FANTASTIC.

Then we had the business meeting, followed by a slide show of this years Quilt Show. My spinning watersheel quilt was in the pictures, but Shannon must have missed the Spider Web Wall Hanging. Well, you all saw it on this site and I have it hanging in the hall.

I showed the twin sized quilt that I am donating to the Church for the raffle at the Turkey Dinner.

I got home at about 9:00PM which was nice. Sometimes these things hang on.

Tomorrow, we are getting our flu shot. Ugh. I hate that. The first two years I got a very quick, very fleeting reaction to the shot. Since then nothing, but I am still a bit nervous about it. I will NEVER EVER get another pneumonia shot. Last year, I got my first one and my arm swelled up and was sore for a week.

Have a nice tomorrow. It was very pleasant outside when I left the club meeting. I guess it is supposed to be nice for several days before turning cold again.

Enjoy. The leaves are turning color. What a spectacular time of year this is.

Mary

I went over to Becky and Brian's house late this afternoon and picked wild grapes. They have them growing all along the fence between their alfalfa field and the adjoining corn field. I picked somewhere in the range of 12 to 15 pounds so will be able to easily make two gallons of wine. I will have to freeze them at first because all my jugs are "busy" right now.

I got to Becky's before she arrived home from work and as I started down the fence line to the grapes a young collie joined me. I thought she came from across Cty. O but figured that I would just keep an eye on her and bring her back with me. She is young and this is not the first time she has crossed the highway. Her owners are trying to train her to stay in the yard. I hope she learns before she gets hit by a car. I found out that her name is Cloe and that her owners DID come around looking for her.

Brian and Becky have a dog too. Her name is Bailey and she is really a nice girl. They keep her penned while they are at work and are training her with a remote collar which seems to be working.

My friend Janet from way back sent me this impossibly funny e-mail. I REALLY want to share it so here it is.

Subject: warning

I hate it when people forward bogus warnings but this one is real, and
it's very important. So please send this warning to everyone on your
e-mail list:

If people come to your front door saying they are conducting a survey on
deer ticks and ask you to take your clothes off and dance around with
your arms over your head while they inspect for ticks, DO NOT DO IT!
IT'S A SCAM; they only want to see you naked!

I really wish I had gotten this warning yesterday; I feel so stupid now!!!

PS...I didn't have one single tick either time they came!



Hope it made you laugh too.

Mary

It was a busy Monday. I started off with a nice walk with Chelsea as soon as it was light. She actually got me up at about 5:45AM but it was too dark to walk so I took my shower first.

Then Dick went to the dentist. He now has fresh clean teeth and no cavities. I went to Bible Study. We are almost dine with Paul's 2nd letter to the Corinthians. He is still explaining why he is an apostle and why he worked for his keep along with his preaching and all. We branched off into talking about mystics and angels and special gifts from the spirit. I believe in the them. In Paul's age, there seemed to be more of them. I wonder if maybe there are the same amount now but then they were not branded as crazy and also perhaps a lot of those who claimed to be mystics or to see visions or angels THEN were faking.

Lately, the Catholic church is downplaying angels. There was an article in the Catholic Herald that said that the world seems to glom on to the ideas that we throw out. We aren't much interested in angels anymore, but the general public is hopping on to angel belief.

The devastation in Pakistan if awful. So many thousands killed and homeless. I was remembering reading somewhere years ago that it is hard for human beings to get really emotionally involved when thousands and thousands of people are a part of a disaster. If we are focused on one person in a disasterous situation we often get a much bigger outcry from the public. Probably because we can empathize with one but masses of people become numbers and rather unreal.

This afternoon I went to Writer's Club. We had an unusual amount of business. This was my first meeting since I won the Aestival Festival Poetry Contest, so I brought my trophy and certificate. I read a story that I wrote and got some really good feedback. I will do a few revisions and then send it to the contest that I wrote it for.

There was frost on the ground both yesterday and this morning. I got hold of Becky and will pick wild grapes tomorrow. I will have to freeze them for later as ALL of my gallon jugs are being used right now and I only want to make one or two gallons.

If the San Diego Chargers win their game tonight, I will be in second place this week in the Fantasy Footbal League. That would move me up a bit in the overall standings too. Still not in the money but getting close. Go Chargers.

A most important tip....

LADIES- Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice
cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.

REAL WOMEN- Leftover wine??

Have a nice Tuesday.

Mary

Such a nice Sunday. I went to the 8:00AM Mass. Then visited with Mother for a bit before heading home to fix breakfast, assemble the casserole for dinner and make an infusion from Lemon Balm leaves and stems so that I can make more Lemon Balm Wine when I finally free up some gallon jugs. Currently, I have two batches of Currant Wine and two of Concord Grape so my jugs are quite full and I need to wait until I can bottle. So I am making infusions and freezing fruit and flower petals so that I can make other batches when there are empty jugs available.

Bobbie, Jim and I went shooting this afternoon. My pistol shooting was OK. The first two weren't bad at all but the third was a little off. My elbow started hurting and I lost my steady hand. I only got a 15 on trap but I felt a little off. I need to keep reminding myself at EACH shot to line up the beads and keep AHEAD of the bird.

I talked to Bret tonight. He sounds good. The Santa Ana winds make his sinuses act up but he is far away from fires except for an occasional whisp of smokey air. He is working hard but today enjoyed a little fun at a church festival near his home that his friends Tony and Dee belong to. Their daughter, Emily, is his goddaughter.

And Oh YES! the Packers won big. 52/3 against New Orleans. So it has been a good day.

I have a puzzle. The Catholic church is talking about making a rule against gay men who are celebate and vow to remain so from becoming priests. Now, heterosexual men take a vow of celebacy and become priests all the time. (Well, Duh!) What is the difference. A vow is a vow is a vow.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your
hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always
catch the second person.
) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandma's lap.


Tomorrow will be busy so I am going to get ready for bed. Have a good Monday.

Mary