TIME OUT for Women

Saturday we spent at the Convention Center in Reno at Time Out for Women. Michael McLean and Cherie Call were the singers with their stories to tell and I have several CDs of Michael McClean but Cherie was new to me. I felt extravagant as I bought her CDs to add to my 225 (e) collection but this morning as I listened to her I thought what a great way to start the day. She writes meaningful stories with terrific lyrics. What insight for such a young woman. Maria with the pretty curly hair brought her friend Connie with the pretty straight hair and Marjorie came with me. It was a lovely day with good speakers, good food, and good talk.

We stayed at a new Hampton Inn and used some of my Hilton points mostly earned when I stayed at a Hampton in Beaumont, Texas during Hurricane Rita.

Farewell to Mona!

Saturday night the ward gathered to say farewell to Mona Lyddon. She is moving to Phoenix to be near her children and we will miss her so. She has such a big heart and loving spirit. She was the backbone of Seneca Hospice for many years and also a nurse at the hospital. Marjorie and I had a dinner date with her so just brought her over to the church and she was surprised!!

Lots of good food to share--In fact there was so much it was decided to eat again after Church the next day--unfortunately some of us were snowed in and didn't make it...

Jean Martin's Quilts

While at Jean and Ron's we asked Jean to do a Trunk Show for us of her beautiful hand and machine stitiched quilts. This hexagon quilt is all hand sewn, hand pieced, handquilted. It won the blue ribbon at the Fair. She started it in 1998 and finished it about five years later--course she keeps several quilts going at one time. Look at those colors and how perfect it is. Jean is an expert piece and hand quilter and they are all beautiful. The squares are supposed to be lopsided on this wall hanging--looks hard to do! This is the 4th of July Quilt--gets displayed on the couch for the 4th. This is a quilt made from scraps but look how lovely it is... What patience and skill it takes to be a quilter. When I moved up in 1999 I started one but I don't know if I will ever get it finished...

Sacramento Temple Open House

Marjorie, Utahna, Mona and I traveled to Sacramento Friday and met Mona's friend Sandy to tour the new Sacramento Temple. After a delicious lunch at my favorite restaurant, Brookfields, (I ate the salmon) we had a delightful tour. It is very beautiful, a little larger than the Reno Temple and smaller than the San Diego.

Farewell to Britzi...

This morning when Bandido and I arrived at Marjorie's house Britzi was not there to greet us. I thought that Marjorie had slept in and then she came out and told us the tragic news that Britzi had died yesterday at 3:15 pm at the Vet's. He was only 6 yrs old--too young to leave us. That is his picture in "Morning Walk" blog. We had taken the dogs with us yesterday morning to the hand carwash place in Chester and after we washed our cars we took a short walk and then had breakfast while the dogs rested in our cars. Britzi appeared fine. But on the way home and the rest of the morning he just could not find a comfortable way to lay and seemed very down. There was no vomiting, etc. but he was not himself. The Vet determined he probably had a tumor and bled to death. Now Marjorie must decide where to bury him or possibly do cremation. She has a big back yard but would need a back hoe to dig a hole deep enough for a big lab. The Vet gave her a couple of days to think about it. Poor Marjorie. We will all miss him--he was a very sweet dog. Bandido would not finish making the walk this morning--without Britzi to compete with, he just gave up and I had to carry him (bad knees). Tonight we went down to investigate the trail that runs behind the Chester Park. It goes by the beautiful Feather River and then branches off into the trees for a long way--we didn't go all the distance so do not know where it ends up. The Park has a wonderful playground for the children, picnic tables, a lot of horse shoe ringers and a co-ed adult group were playing softball. A typical summer evening in a small town. Then we investigated a new little race track at the Snowmobile Park--$20 for 10 minutes for adults and if underage $40 because they have to go through some teaching and training before they can go out into the track--after that it is $18 for 10 minutes for them whenever they come again. The owner says your arms can only take about 10 minutes because of all the turns! And he says he is priced $4 less than most places. It is called Heart-Attack Racing...hmm, well, not for me.

Morning Walk

Six mornings a week Marjorie and I walk at 7 AM--lately it has been 47 degrees at that time so it is very fresh! The other morning a neighbor of Marjorie's came out and took our picture and gave it to us. The hats? We have discovered keeping the sun out of your eyes really is worthwhile...guys don't do it just for looks, who'd have known? 

Treasure Mountain

It was a beautiful day and Marjorie and I both needed a day away(she has been caring for her 98 year Mom this week and I have been glued to the computer learning a new program for creating a website) so we drove past Sierraville to Treasure Mountain and attended a Woman's Retreat we had been invited to. The scenery was gorgeous and the food delicious and we had fun "catching up" but decided it is probably too far to drive next year for the few hours we were there. Although we did discover two new Frosty places and lots of quaint shops to explore someday. There is Marjorie in the front row for the closing talk. A young gal named Wendy gave an excellent presentation on the "Language of Love". We both heard things that would have been good to follow when we had husbands... Oh, yes, this week the first butterfly I have seen this year visited my geranium. Just one of the small pleasures of gardening. Unfortunately when I arrived home from Treasure Mountain I saw that a deer had devoured one of my new birch trees. I didn't have the tree caged but had sprayed it regularly with Liquid Fence. So I guess this is one of the frustrations of gardening in the Country Club where the deer are so tame they make their own rules about what they will eat or not.

Events in 2000 at Lake Almanor