A strangely mixed day. Dick slept until almost 10AM. As we had no plans I just let him sleep. I spent the morning working on my Fantasy Football, sending emails and just puttering around. I kept myself very busy.

We had meatloaf sandwiches for lunch. Num Num. There is still enough for another meal, at least. Then we got Dick's bath out of the way and I took a short nap.

Mass was at 4PM. A nice Mass, I saw several friends and feel a bit less stressed (boy do I hate that word, but I can't think of a better one for the way I have been feeling.) Church always provides my spirit with a bit of healing. This is why it takes a LOT to make me miss it.

When I got home, I took Chelsea out, fed both she and Roxie and Dick took me to Sweet Basil for dinner. That was really nice. Dick got spaghetti and meatballs and I got a shrimp/steak combination. The shrimp was absolutely wonderful. The steak too but there was a time I didn't order shrimp often because I must have gotten some that just tasted strong. Then one day, I tried it again and remembered that I really like it. This was excellent. I brought the steak and their wonderful fococcia bread home with me for later.

I was stroking Roxie's ears tonight and remembered that there was a plant that I had years ago (I killed it) called kitten ears. It was just a green plant with leaves shaped like kitten ears and with white fuzz on them, just like a kitten.

That reminded me of another plant - a tree that grows over in Ireland and apparently in Cornwall. It is called a Monkey Puzzle tree. I think that Bobbie probably remembers it. It is, read, a native of Chile so must have been taken to Ireland where it can survive. It is described as a scary evergreen tree and that is a good description. Its branches are all twisted and a very dark green and it is beautiful.

Sunday is also going to be a day of rest.

Hope yours is too.

Mary

Chelsea was a real problem last night. She woke me up the first time at about 12:30AM. That was too early to shut the door on her so I didn't. She was back in less than half an hour. Dick was up so I did shut the door then and he opened it when he came to bed. Then she got me up again at 4AM. I took her out again at 6 and I swear every 2 to 4 hours all day. She must have felt some need of something. She did have quite a seizure this morning, maybe her whole system was goofed up because of that. She seems much quieter tonight.

There is a freeze coming tonight and for the next two nights, so I decided this was the day to bring in my plants. I know there will be warm days and maybe covering would have been sufficient, but I don't want to be messing around when it is really really cold and perhaps lose plants. So, I brought all the herbs that I want to save into the garage to the shelves that I set up much as I did last year. Most of them lived so I figure that I can accomplish the same this winter and have some fresh herbs through the dark season.

I had lunch at the Dairy Queen this noon with my bank friends. It was good to visit with them and catch up a bit. I got rid of some yard waste, dropped off my dry cleaning, went to the bank and stopped at Capelle's to pick up some gourds and a pumpkin. They also had fresh Brussel sprouts that will stay fresh on the stalk for quite a while, so I bought 2.

My reading glasses and Dick's new glasses were both ready so after he woke up from his nap, we drove over to Advanced Eye Care to get them. So far mine are working just fine.

We had pizza soup for supper, then I went out to Rhine to shoot league. I visited with lots of friends and did not shoot too badly so it was a pleasant hour or two.

I remember when my Bart was born. I wanted so much to see him being born. And I did. It was very exciting in the delivery room. I remember at one point as I was bearing down, a nurse who was also trying to watch blocked my view. I had to stop and ask her to move. We all laughed. Then he came. First his sweet head and then his shoulders and then he just slipped out. He lay still and kind of gray for just a second, then they suctioned out his little mouth and he let out a nice yell. That was one of the high points of my life. I don't think the boys know how much they mean to me. So much went on in our lives that I wish I could have protected them from. I need to stop beating myself up for the past. One does the best one can.

There is and old Irish saying that goes. "What's done is done, what's won is won, and what's done is past and gone forever."

Be happy and start getting ready for Samhain, the dark season - Winter.

Love

Mary

Sorry I didn't post last night. I ended up going to bed VERY early and just forgot.

Anyway, now I have two days to catch up on.

Yesterday was grocery shopping day. That went quite well. When I got home and had put everything away, Dick and I drove over to the Aurora Plymouth Clinic for our flu shots. That went very quickly and efficiently. We ran into my friend Del Mc Clintock there.

When we got home we had lunch and then Dick went down for a nap and I went downstairs and cut some more fabric for quilting. I remember one husband of a quilter describing his wife's hobby as "buying lots of pretty material, cutting it up into little pieces and sewing it back together again." Well, I am doing the cutting up part, I am about ready to dive into the sewing part. I also have an idea for another stump doll so I sewed the body for stuffing and will get on that one of these days too.

I also drove to Falls to take Mother her Iron pills and her banking receipts and money. We had a nice little visit. She had read an article about neighborhood grocery stores. When I was little there were several of them in Sheboygan Falls. I remember there was one across the street from Grandma and Grandpa Bowser's house up on the hill. When we visited Grandma we often walked over there to buy penny candy. Yes, there was penny candy. Actually quite a selection.

There was also a neighborhood grocery up Pine Street from our home on Pinehurst Court. It was much closer than downtown and I remember that Mom was able to send me for milk or something small when I was quite young. In those days, the bigger grocery stores delivered - with no extra cost. Mom said that some of them would come out to the house to take the order. Later, she would call in the order in the morning and they would deliver later in the day.

This got us onto jug beer. It was not uncommon for a guy to take a gallon jug and go to the pub and get it filled and go home to drink it. Mom remembered there was a family that the Dad sent his son down to the bar with the jug. And the bartender filled the jug for him. Can you imagine? Both the father and the bartender would be put directly in the calaboose now.

Anyway, today I got to stay home all day. The cleaning lady came today. So my floors are all vacuumed and scrubbed.

Bobbie came for lunch today. I made meatloaf and apple strudel. We had a lot of wine to take care of today. We racked the peach, the rhubarb, my lemon balm. We also racked the marigold into the secondary (which is the gallon jug). AND we bottled the rhubarb/elderberry. Boy is that a pretty wine. Roxie always comes down with us and now she is trying to get us to go down almost as soon as Bobbie gets into the house.

So that was pretty much the day. We had Pizza Soup that I made yesterday for our supper. That is a recipe that I got from Aunt Maryann when Dick and I visited her and Uncle Roman in Texas years ago. It isn't called that really but Sara and Nora named it that when I served it years ago so that is what we call it.

Tomorrow is not too busy. I think I will be able to join the bank ladies for lunch for the first time in weeks. I might get a cheeseburger.

Take care

Love

Mary

Somehow or other Dick and I got to talking about Las Vegas today. It reminded me of a trip that I made to Vegas shortly after I was married with Jacquie and Doris, my sisters in law, Tamara, a friend and Lily, my mother in law. Lily used to put all of her nickels into a big glass jar and like to go to Vegas when it was full and play all of her nickels on the nickel slots. Now this was 45 years ago or more so that is not as far out as it sounds. I wonder if they even have nickel slots anymore?

Anyway, we five women piled in a car and went to Vegas for the weekend and just partied and played the slot machines. We referred to Lily as Madame Lil.

Dick commented that I must like gambling sometimes. I think he will use this story against me if we get to a casino again. I told him that it is allright sometimes but that I do get bored quite easily.

Another gambling story. I was visiting Jacquie once in Bullhead City. I wanted a Mimosa. Sometimes, especially on Sundays, the breakfast buffets have champagne fountains and you can just get orange juice and mix your own BUT this day there was not fountain so I had to buy a bottle of champagne. This was OK. I had my mimosa or two but still had lots of champagne. So, I learned a very big lesson. I pushed the cork as tight as I could back on the bottle and we worked our way out of the casino, gambling as we went. An open champagne bottle builds gasses pretty fast and suddenly that cork popped out like a gunshot and there were security people running all over the place. I was properly embarrassed. But they didn't arrest me or anything.

Today was eventful. Dick had his anti coagulation test this morning. It is high again. 400. So we have adjusted the meds and he has to go back next week. Fortunately we can have it tested in conjunction with a blood test he has to have done prior to his physical which is the following week. We went right from there to Dr. Cheryl Zeigler's office for Dick's eye exam. He is going to need new glasses but his eyes are healthy so that was good news.

This afternoon, I went to a quilt club meeting. It is the Kettle Moraine Club. My friend Lucy had told me when they met at the Sheboygan County Quilt show. It was fun. I have started to get excited about quilting again and this gave me much motivation. I knew three other people besides Lucy, one a neighbor here in Tallgrass and one gal that I worked with over 20 years ago at United Savings and Loan. They seem very active and fun. The meeting is the first Tuesday of every month from 1 to 3. So that seems possible. Next month they are going to just come and sit and sew.

So now I will spend my last hour or so watching the finale of Dancing with the Stars. I did not see the actual week's event because it was preempted because of the miserable Packer game, but I would like to keep up and see who is eliminated this week.

Take care.

Love

Mary

It was a 3:30AM potty call from Chelsea last night. However, I went back to sleep for three hours so that helped. I actually feel pretty rested after the quiet weekend. Hope it lasts.

Chelsea and I took a nice long walk today. I need to put the pedometer on when we do it again. We walked ALL the roads in Tallgrass and also went through the park, west on Valley, south on Highland and back into the tract. She was a happy girl and we visited with a resident on June Grass who gave her a doggy treat.

I went to bible study in Falls. It was good. There were only 6 of us but we were enthusiastic in our discussion of the Sower and the Seed. Questions about how God sends down his grace in the most difficult places and is answered but in some places that should be fertile, people don't answer his call.

Then I went over to Mom's. She looks great and we had our usual good visit. I have a couple of banking chores to do for her but there is no hurry. Uncle Pat and Aunt Joan were by for a visit this weekend. They came into town for a wedding and stopped to see her between the ceremony and the reception.

Home again, we had the leftover sausage and veggie slow cooker meal again. It still tastes good and we have at last one more meal of veggies left.

I pulled my tomato plants today. I harvested all of the green tomatoes and took them downstairs and put them on the window sill. It is cool down there but light and everybody tells me that they will ripen. They certainly will not ripen on the vine outside as it is simply chilly and cloudy every day.

I did some more quilt planning. I have decided what I am doing for my next quilt top using some panels that I purchased as a remnant in Texas. I even went downstairs and cut some of the pieces before dinner. Tomorrow I will do some more, after it is all cut, I will be able to just sew when I get time. I also want to make another stump doll. I have a cat that I want to build a doll around. It is fun to build one when I find something for a core. While I was down, I stirred my Marigold wine. It is fermenting quite merrily.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth Meeting. We, of course, did not have a really big turnout because of the Packer Game but we accomplished a lot, mainly the beginning of nominations for next years slate of officers and board. Fortunately we have next month to complete the slate and the election is in December. The meeting was over in about 45 minutes as everybody wanted to watch the Packer game. I had to listen to the first series on the car radio. EEWWWW. Rogers fumbled the ball on a sack after they had worked their way down to the 27 of Minnesota. I got home in time to watch Minnesota score but we answered with a really great long run for a touchdown of our own. I DID pick the Packers for this game because my criteria put it kind of in the middle and I always give the doubt to the Packers. No way I can win this week anyway but I need to keep my points up there and try to stay in the upper 50 % of the league.

Tomorrow will be a busy morning with a blood test for Dick followed by an eye exam.

I will be going to bed soon and probably have some trouble sleeping with the game going on. Just now, Coleman Jenkens, stripped the ball out of a Vikings hands and ran it back for a touchdown. Wow. the Viking fans look sad and am I ever glad. The Minnesota fans are mean. We went to a game there on a bus tour and I was actually afraid in their stadium and as we were leaving and we even lost the game. I knew it was not a good place to be during the opening ceremonies. The announcer called for a moment of silence and during that moment a voice yelled out "Packers Suck." Not a good sign when they don't even have respect for their own moments of silence.

Anyway. Time to wrap this up and head for bed.

Later

Mary

What a nice quiet Sunday.

The only real chore I had was to sweep out the garage and to set up the shelves at the back. Now when the first frost comes, I can bring in the herbs that are in pots to try to keep them through the winter. Last year I saved the thyme, lavender and oregano.

We watched a couple of football games this afternoon. So far our Jessica is tops int he fantasy football this week. Go, Jessie, unless I can somehow beat you.

The rest of the day was for me. I did some quilt planning and just rested.

The end of the month, The Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago is hosting a three day event called iBAM, Irish Book and Music event. CWI will have a table at the benefit and I can display my book. I am going to go. Bobbie said she will help coordinate things for Dick and we will ask her to take Chelsea. I am excited. Malachy and Alphie Mc Court are going to be presenters. Won't that be fun.

It was a lazy day and I have little to say. Hope you have a successful week. The first half of ours is busy. My marigold wine is fizzing away downstairs. It will be ready to put into the secondary fermenter when Bobbie comes on Thursday.

Mary