Dick and I had a wonderful day. Praise the Lord, he did feel well enough to go to see Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Fireside.

We left at about 8:30AM and got home about 6:3oPM as I mentioned yesterday. Chelsea made a beeline for the grass as soon as I opened the door when we got home. Boy did she have to go, but she made it. I wouldn't do that to her often. That is for sure.

When we got back to the car we had a "parking ticket" on the car window. We have been instructed to send $50 to 727 Tallgrass Lane. Somebody we know is being goofy today.

The meal at the Fireside is always delicious and today was no exception. We had a ramekin of shrimp and scallops in a creamy sauce for an appetizer (Those who know Dick understand that this was NOT a joy for him. Fortunately, he was able to substitute a salad. There was a woman named Jean who was with us on the New England trip with her husband Maurice. Dick and Maurice were not fish lovers and by the the third bowl of clam chowder were getting pretty bitchy. Finally they sat at the table and said something like "No clam chowder again" with folded arms and scowly faces. They ended up with chicken soup and Jean and I both remembered this. After dinner she came over and told Dick that she noticed that there was no ramekin in front of him at the beginning of the meal. )
The rest of the meal was a pork chop stuffed with stuffing flavored with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and gravy and fresh yellow and green squash. Dessert was cheesecake with pineapple in rum sauce. Of course, we were treated to fresh Fireside bread too. I bought two loaves and some muffins to bring home with us.

We had never seen this play and I do not remember seeing the movie either. The first act was really rather unexceptional. Not the acting, singing and dancing which was superb, but the play itself was totally nondescript. Then the second act started and really took off. It ended rather strangely also but as I said the acting, singing and dancing and the vital second act made it Very worthwhile.

I sent an email of the picture of me with the huge puffball to the Press for their picture of the week thingy and they published it. At least on the computer. I hope they put it in the paper too. Mother loves stuff like that.

Well tomorrow is Celtic Mass and Faire. The weather is predicted to be just perfect. I hope it continues so. It is also the same time as the first Packer game, but I understand that they are going to be showing the game on a big TV. I am going to have quite a vender's table with my book and my tiles and Fr. Mike's stuff. Should be fun.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2007 everyone in the USA who
will be driving a motor vehicle is asked to drive with their headlights
on during daylight hours. Though no explanation is needed as to why we
are commemorating� September 11, we hope more importantly to pay
respect to the victims of that day, show our nation's solidarity and
show support for our men and women of the Armed Forces.
You can help by sending this e-mail on to others!

REMEMBER!

LIGHTS ON.....9/11

I think this would be good for our troops. They need us. Don't forget we all know someone who is in danger and they are there for us not matter what we feel about anything else.

Mary

It did rain during the night and for part of the morning. Fortunately when Chelsea and I went out for our walk, it was between storms and we actually had a pretty good one. With the warm humid air, there were mosquitoes buzzing around my ears. So we stayed out of the woods and just went through the park and back around into the condo complex.

Then I spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and on the phone.

At noon, I drove to Dairy Queen via Pick and Save to have lunch with the Wells Fargo retirees. I picked up some corn for supper on my way home.

I talked to Bret tonight. He sounded really good. He had a nice 40th(would you believe that one of my BABIES is 40.) Someone cooked steak and artichokes for him over the weekend to celebrate.

I also got a call from my niece, Vikki, from that life today. She is a dear girl and had called and met up with Bret on his birthday too. They had not seen each other for almost 8 years. She said that this should not be. They both need FAMILY and are so separated from them. They are now not too far apart, at least when Bret is at the River so will have to make a point of seeing each other more.

Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the Fireside in Ft. Atkinson to see Thoroughly Modern Millie. I sure hope Dick feels good enough. I hate going alone. I will have to find my Cathedral Window squares that are my "travel quilt" and will bring my Sr. Fidelma mystery to read. We leave at 8:30AM and are back at 6:30PM so it is OK for Chelsea. Since we live in Plymouth now the trip takes a whole hour less than when we lived in Sheboygan. Good thing. That girl is getting old. I am sure that she sleeps almost the whole time we are gone. I know that when I leave her home with Dick, she seldom even bothers with HIM while I am away.

Have a good weekend. I will tell you about the play tomorrow night.

Mary

The Wedding picture of Genevieve Bowser and Willie Lindsay who are seated. In back are Matt Bowser and Claire Bowser, Aunt Gee's brother and sister. I assume that they were the witnesses.

I told you the story of this wedding in an earlier blog. If some of you don't know, e mail me and I will repeat it.

They are so beautiful and handsome.

Hot muggy day. I almost felt like Chelsea and I were walking through liquid when we walked this morning. We have been promised rain tonight. But it is almost 9PM as I write this and there are still stars in the skies.

When we walked this morning the only birds I heard were those raucous crows. Everybody else was feeling the mugginess as much as I was I guess.

Dick and I stayed home ALL day. Thank heavens. He is still recovering from yesterday. Actually he feels pretty good but does get very tired. He slept from about 8PM to midnight last night then couldn't sleep until this morning sometime. Then he got another five hours or so. That man has more trouble with sleep than anyone I have ever known.

Bobbie had brought us a jar of fresh canned peaches on Sunday. We had some this noon with a sandwich. Boy are they ever good. Such a treat.

I went to Sheboygan Falls to Blessed Trinity for choir practice. The last one before Celtic Mass on Sunday. We sounded pretty good and had a couple of more people there too. It is a nice big choir for a while. Now is some of them will stay past the Celtic Weekend, Beth has a chance.

Beth and Andy asked me to write the words for the Psalm on Sunday. That will be fun. I will let you know. I did one for The Reunion a couple of weeks ago. That will provide a few ideas.

I stopped at Mom's before practice. I took her a picture that Beth Dipple sent to me. It is of my great aunt Genevieve on the occasion of her wedding to Willie Lindsey. I will place it on the site. I recognized Aunt Gee (Genevieve) even though I only knew her when she was very old. What a treasure. My friend Donna Plageman gave me an old Pangissin, a yearbook from Sheboygan Falls High school in the year that my Dad was a freshman. What a treasure. It is falling apart but the pages are in good shape. I can hardly wait to show Mom that one.

Tomorrow is kitchen cleaning day and in the evening the pistol league starts at Rhine. Should be a quiet healing day for Dick. We are hoping that he can go to see Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Fireside.

If it doesn't rain tonight, I need to water plants like crazy tomorrow morning before it gets too hot.

Later.

Mary

It is 7:45PM and we are safely installed at home again. It was a long long day, especially for Dick. We got up at 5AM. I walked Chelsea and showered. Then we hied it on over to Sheboygan Memorial and checked Dick in for the "procedure".

They took him down at about 7:45AM. I got to ride down on the elevator with him though I continued to the Ground floor to have breakfast. The procedure takes about two hours. SO I ate slowly, read a bit of my book then worked my way back up to the third floor via the chapel. I don't recall ever being in the chapel at Memorial. It is very pretty and very restful. I mentioned all my cares and woes and thanksgivings to Him and then went up the rest of the way.

I parked myself in the waiting room where I had a view of the hall that he would be wheeled back in and sure enough at about 10:00AM there he was. The next few hours were very long. Dick does not do well on his back and on his back he had to be. He was not to move his left leg because that was the side on which Dr. Siddique had entered the artery. He was NOT a happy camper. They gave him Valium twice and Tylenol once and shifted him several times. I went down and picked up some lunch at about the time his arrived which distracted him a bit but he was out and out uncomfortable. Occasionally he did doze which provided a little relief.

I had to leave at 2PM for a bit to take Chelsea out and to run a couple of other errands. Actually, I headed directly to Mom's to take her medicine to her, then home to walk Chelsea, then to the bank, the gas station, Market Day pickup and the Pig. (I decided to pick up some Cranberry juice for Dick to drink for the next few days, hopefully to help in avoiding another bladder infection.)

Arriving back at the hospital at about 5PM, I went to the cafeteria to pick up a meal to eat with Dick when his arrived. That was nice. He was by then feeling MUCH better because he had been allowed to sit up at about 3:30PM and the back pain was gone.

Everything from then on went smoothly. We were able to leave at about 6:45PM. As I said, a long day. Chelsea is very glad we are home. I am sure it is very puzzling to her when we leave for long periods of time.

Dick is now dozing in his chair. I hope he has his feet up.

I wrote a haiku that I kind of liked yesterday. I will share then sign off
for the night. Thanks for your prayers. Keep them up and also pray for a family that may be losing their father/grandfather tonight. I saw a lot of sadness and told them I would pray.


The spirits gather
In the early morning mist
Rising from the earth

Love

Mary

This is a picture of Beth Hoegger, Kate Herman and Me at Irishfest this year. We sure had a good time. I was glad that someone could go with me.

Seemed kind of like Monday all day. Monday holidays do seem to throw the week off. Then to top it off, we did our grocery shopping today because Dick will have his second "procedure" tomorrow, which has thrown things off even more. Usually Wednesday is our shopping day.

So we stopped at Mc Donald's for breakfast then hopped on over to the Pig to shop. We were home by about 9:30 and Dick took a short nap. Then we met Jim and Michelle at Wells to close out the joint checking account that we had for the Hunters Glen expenses. Just another detail out of the way. Since Jim and Michelle were off work, we went to the Exchange Bank for lunch. Then I took Dick to Aurora Plymouth for his blood test. Now, he just has to remember not to eat or drink anything after 2AM. We wrote a big NO! on the board on the Fridge. Hope it is enough.

I didn't write too much last night, but we had dinner with Jim and Michelle and played cards to take advantage of the holiday. I prepared Chicken on a Throne (Chicken on the grill with a can of beer up its behind) Boy was it good. I always use half the can of beer to make fresh beer bread to go with it and Michelle made an Oreo/Manderin Orange salad to go with it so we ate like royalty.

Well, pray for Dick tomorrow that the procedure goes well and that there is no infection this time. We have to be at the hospital at 6:30AM so I will be going to bed soon.

Sleep tight yourself.

Mary

Chelsea and I had a very early walk. Dick kind of read the clock wrong and sent her in to get me up at 20 to 6 thinking that it was already 6:42AM. Kind of a bummer, but stuff happens. Chelsea decided to take the path that cuts into the woods before we got to the second half of the park and I saw puffballs. That was interesting and all.


Then I noticed THIS one. As you can see it is HUGE. So I brought it home to show everybody. It wasn't easy to carry it either as I had to manage Chelsea too and she will not walk over the bridge. The slats are just too odd and her little paws get stuck. I have to carry her. So at one point I was carrying her and this big old puffball.

Mary

Today was a lovely day. I got to sleep until almost 6:15AM because Dick had Chelsea shut up in the office. It was in the mid 50s which is wonderful for walking. We only ran into one other walker, and older lady (Yes. even OLDER than me) who we meet quite often. The is the sister in law of one of our Tall Grass Neighbors which is nice. I like ties.

I went over to Jim and Michelle's at about 7:30AM and stayed for about 1/2 hour with Boots. I fed him, checked his litter box and filled his water dish too. He doesn't play with me or cuddle me. He just looks at me kind of bemused and seems to be puzzling as to where his owners are. It is after 9PM now and Jim and Michelle have not called to say that they are home. I am sure Boots will be OK until morning. I will check then.

Bobbie and Bill picked me up at 9Am to go to the Sheboygan County Fair. It was fun. We looked at all the exhibits, ate a grilled brick cheese on rye sandwich, looked at all the animals. (As Bill says, all the cows butts.) I especially enjoyed the chickens and horses. There are more breeds of chicken than one can imagine. I did not see any of the Araconda or the Polish Crested, that I used to have though. I guess they are not the "IN" chickens anymore. Bill noticed a little matchbox type tractor and asked if I wanted to add it to my car collection. I told him that I didn't need a tractor as I had found one when walking one day with Zero. When we got home he looked and found the red tractor that is on the shelf. I often find interesting things on my walks.

Bret and Bart and I used to go to the Orange County Fair quite often. I remember that they always had a theme. One year it was the Purple Pig. Sure enough we found purple footprints all over the grounds that if followed, led to the pig barn where they had purple pigs. That was a busy fairgrounds. In off season on most weekends, it hosted a big giant swap meet. You could go there and pay a small admission to go in and find almost anything from actual junk, to mass produced t shirts , to tools, to food. It was amazing. The fairgrounds must have done quite well too. They got the parking/admission from the buyers and charged the vendors a fee for the space. Sweet deal.

That is where I picked up my framed print of the lady leaning on a Rolls sipping a glass of champagne that reads "Poverty Sucks". It was such a great statement. After I hung it, Bret's friend Mike came over one day. He looked at it and commented on the print. I told him it was a picture of me. He looked at it and he looked at me and he looked again and said. "It is not." I almost had him because the woman is about the same coloring as I am and at that time my hair was longer. At this moment that print is over the fireplace.

I still like the thought and imagine that the hungry people of this world would agree with me.

Love

Mary



Bret and Bre