Happy Birthday, Julie!

Today is Julie's birthday. She celebrated by having a LuLaRoe"Pop-up Boutique" in her living room. She is just starting out as a LuLaRoe consultant.

We've had another quiet day around here. I'm feeling much better tonight, but I didn't have too much energy today. Ken was feeling a bit under the weather too, but seems better tonight. Julie reported some similar symptoms, so we've decided that something is going around--something we don't want to see any more of.

We just got our first Verizon bill with our new plan on it. It was a lot of sticker shock, but then we realized that much of it was "catch-up" charges for November. You pay for phone service in advance, evidently, so next month's bill will be much more in line with what we were expecting.. Read more!

Quiet Day

I'm still not feeling well, so it's been another quiet day. Ken spent some time trimming trees. We took a couple of walks and watched some recorded shows. One was a special featuring Kristin Chenoweth. I first became aware of her for her role as a press secretary on West Wing and really had no idea she was a singer. We were impressed by her voice and her range of emotion. Read more!

Truck Upset

Ken got up early this morning and took the truck in for repairs to be completed. He was given a ride home and told not to expect the truck to be ready until this afternoon. So when we hadn't heard from Spike's by 4:00 p.m., Ken called to check on the status of the truck, only to be told that the tech had determined that another part had to be ordered. Maybe it will come in tomorrow, but maybe not, so we may not have any wheels until Monday.

Meanwhile, I have been miserably sick since last night, so instead of pumpkin pie for breakfast I ate a few pieces of fruit. Later I managed to eat half a can of chicken rice soup for lunch and the other half for dinner. Ken had leftover Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow. We did get out and walk a bit, but very slowly. It was a lovely sunny day with a high of 75. Read more!

Thanksgiving Celebration

We went over to Steve and Jan's for Thanksgiving this year, so our total travel was about two block--on foot, and in great weather. We've been watching the storms in the north and the transportation difficulties, so we know how lucky we are. Here's Steve carving the turkey, which turned out moist and delicious.

Pat and Bob Boink joined us, bringing butternut squash and apple salad and apple bread (thanks to Michigan apples).

Jan made the dressing and gravy and mashed potatoes and lots of munchies.

As usual, we had plenty of food and drink and good conversation. We gave thanks for our friends, those present and those far away, and many other blessings. After dinner we played a round of golf--the card game, of course. Then we had the pumpkin pie to top off the celebration. One of the neighbors stopped by with her little dog, Peanut, who is Steve's friend. We think Peanut smelled the turkey too!

We talked to some of our family members and texted or left voicemails for others. Everyone seems to be doing well. We hope all our readers have had a great Thanksgiving, too.


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Trimming the Trees

We have seen folks out putting up Christmas decorations, but we did another type of tree trimming today: whacking errant branches off our fruit trees, especially the ones encroaching on our neighbors' properties. We had our lopper and one we borrowed from Steve, so we were both whacking away. Then of course we had to drag all the branches out to the curb to be picked up. That was definitely more physical exertion than my old body is used to, so I was pretty well tuckered out.

Jan heard from our friend Jean in Indianapolis, who has injured her ankle. We were hoping she would still be able to join us in the Valley, but she got some bad news from the second opinion doctor: her bones are not knitting, so she'll have to do some at-home bone stimulation for three months, to see if that will encourage the bones to knit properly. The bottom line is that she will not be coming south this year. We'll definitely miss her and hope her bones heal well. Meanwhile she'd like to find someone to take over her seasonal rental just for this year, since she hopes to come back to it next fall. 

We did get it together to go to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance, where we were couple number 12--the people everyone loves to see, since we made the third square. We took along some info about Jean's rental, which Joe announced. He will spread the word, and we hope someone will be found to rent the place.

Ken's replacement phone arrived, after some anxiety caused by Verizon's having left our lot number off the Fedex delivery address. Fortunately, Mickey in the office was able to sign for the package (though she hadn't thought that Fedex or UPS was at all likely to stop in the office, so we were lucky). Read more!

Warranties

Following up on our oil leak issue, we took the truck to Spike's Ford today. When we arrived for our appointment, their power had gone out, so they were unable to do anything. The service writer suggested that we could leave and do something else and call his cell at intervals to see if the power was back on, so we went shopping. When we returned to Spike's, their power had just returned.

We sat down in the customer lounge to wait. Meanwhile, starting yesterday people had complained that they could not hear Ken on the phone. The problem was getting worse, as we could easily tell when he called my phone. So we called Verizon's tech support. For once we got a courteous, competent, patient person who walked us through several possible fixes. None worked.

About this time, the Ford service person told Ken that they had to order parts, so they had put the truck back together. Now we have an appointment first thing Friday. The service writer said the work would be covered by the warranty.

When we got back home, the tech walked Ken through backing up all the data on his phone to his laptop and doing a factory reset. Still no joy, so they sent out a replacement phone by Fedex overnight. Of course it's covered by the warranty, since the phone is only two months old.

Warranties are wonderful, but they don't replace the hours of your life spent getting things fixed or prevent worry and frustration.

We did have a little time to spend on the patio. We got the chairs set up and tablecloth on the picnic table. We started on putting up some LED lights around the canopy. Tomorrow we really need to start trimming our fruit trees before they take over the neighbors' yards! Read more!

Dancing

We went to Darryl's C-2 workshop tonight. Carl and Jo Beth and Dick and Mary Ann were there. We're starting to recognize some of the other dancers too. We had fun and did pretty well and learned a bit.

This morning we got up early to go to our doctor's office for fasting blood draws for lab tests. Not my favorite thing to do. We did take some coffee and bananas along for after the blood draw.

Later today we took our truck in for a regular oil change. It took three hours, and we were told at the end that the truck had an oil leak. It's never had an oil leak before, so we went on home, figuring that it must be very slow leak. However we did notice an oil drip on the driveway, so Ken took the truck back to Walmart to talk to them about what might be causing the leak. They showed Ken where the leak was and said there was no way anything they had cone could have caused the leak. Hmmm. We're taking the truck in to Spike's Form tomorrow and hoping the leak will be minor and easy to fix.

We spent some time today to clean up the patio, which always collects plenty of black dirt over the winter. It looks decent now, but we've got more work to do.


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The Breakfast Club

We went to a new restaurant, Rosie's on Griffin Parkway, for breakfast with our friends this morning. Another first of the season for us, though some of the gang have been enjoying Sunday morning breakfasts for a while already. They have definitely picked out a good restaurant.

We didn't know how long it would take us to get there, so we left early and were the first to arrive. Soon Bob and Pat joined us, then Jan and Steve, and finally our table was completed by Hardy and Judy's arrival. Arnie and Sue are traveling, and we're still missing our friend Jean, who is recuperating in Indianapolis from an ankle injury. We hope she will be able to join us soon. George has moved into a facility where he gets all his meals, so we're not expecting to see him at Sunday breakfasts.

After breakfast, Hardy and Judy left on their trip to L.A. to see the latest grand baby. Along the way of course they'll be doing some geocaching too.

We took advantage of the warm sunny day and spent some time in the hot tub and lazing around the pool. Ken beat me at two games of 8 ball. I think it's because he's using his new lucky cue stick. Read more!

First Trip to Mexico

Steve and Jan picked us up this morning for our first trip to Mexico of the season.

The stated purpose of the trip was to celebrate Pat and Hardy's birthdays, but it's not like this bunch needs an excuse. We started out at Pancho's Bar, where Bob and Pat, G.W. and David, and Hugh were ahead of us. Hardy and Judy came along shortly.

Pancho's Bar

After margaritas, we went to El Rancho Grande, a new restaurant next to Jessica's Center. The food was good, and the service was fast and friendly, so we'll definitely be back.

Lunch at El Rancho Grande

G.W. and David brought a birthday cake for the celebration.

Happy birthday, Pat and Hardy!

The live music tempted Jan and Steve onto the dance floor.

After 49 years...

Hardy and Judy followed.

We stopped at Craig's Furniture on the way home. Jan and Steve are looking for new recliners. We were hoping to buy a light oak butterfly table like the one Jan and Steve had bought a couple of years ago, but it turns out the light oak was discontinued.

We had some stormy weather this evening, with thunder and lightning and a real downpour. It was so loud several times that we paused our recording of  PBS Great Performances Cats! because we couldn't hear the TV. Read more!

Happy 18th Birthday, Catt!

Ken's granddaughter Cathy turns 18 today. She is passionate, mercurial, funny, a black belt in karate, a person who never lets things get too quiet or boring. Happy birthday, Catt! Hope you had a wonderful day.

We went back to Darryl's C-2 dance today, the one that we had so much trouble at last week. Fortunately, we did better today. Darryl says you have to walk across hot coals to toughen your feet. Guess we'll have some calluses from all our efforts.

It wasn't sure if it wanted to rain or not today. We were lucky enough to have mostly dry weather for both our walks. We are headed to Mexico tomorrow to celebrate Pat's birthday and hoping the weather will be good then too.

Aunt Iris called this evening. She is having acupuncture and motion therapy, which seem to be helping. At least she says she has quit falling. Of course part of the reason for that is she's being more careful after a couple of painful falls. She says all is well in the extended family. Read more!

Warm Day

We did our laundry today, in our own machines in the Texas room. Yay! It's been a warm day, in contrast to the devastating snow storms we're seeing on TV from the northern states.

We spent some time today preparing for a call from a TIAA-CREF consultant. The call never came, so I guess we'll have to reschedule. Steve and Jan were expecting an insurance agent to come by yesterday, and that person no-showed with no explanation. Is this a trend?

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving next week at Steve and Jan's, but with a much smaller group than usual. Hardy and Judy will be out of town, visiting a new grand baby in LA, Some of our other friends have been delayed by medical issues and will come south later than usual. So we'll have six of us, with Bob and Pat being the third couple. It will be hard to restrain ourselves to make just enough food for such a small group.

We've been watching the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. The finals are tonight and tomorrow night. I'm cheering for Julia Collins, the longest winning woman with twenty straight victories (topped only by Ken Jennings).

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Back at Green Gate Grove

We drove the last few miles of our 2014 travels today, for a grand total of 6,282 miles towing.  It's been an exciting summer, and we really enjoyed all our adventures and spending time with friends and family, but it's good to be at our home base for a few months.

This evening we picked up Steve and Jan and went to Joe Saltel's C-1 dance. We had looked over the C-1 call list and felt some confidence that this would be less taxing than C-2, but Joe had some surprises in store for us. Our C-1 dancing skills are a bit rusty too, but we laughed a lot and had a great time with a wonderful group of square dance friends.

Hardy, our computer guru friend, told us that he had caught a hacker today. We were all ears. He had gotten some warnings from his service provider than an unauthorized user was trying to get into his Google account. Through careful online detective work he narrowed down the possibilities, until finally his results showed that the hacker was actually "in the house!" Turned out to be an older unactivated phone he was using as an alarm clock. It kept trying to sync with his Google account. Read more!

Quiet Day

Not much going on here. It's still cool, so we bundled up for our walks. We started our preparations to move tomorrow. Read more!

More Dancing

We reviewed C-2 definitions today during our walks and meals, and some of it seems to have paid off. We definitely did better at Darryl's workshop tonight and had more fun. We had seven squares on the floor, but only three couples from our C-2 class were there.

Speaking of our walks, we were back to bundling up again as we faced a cold north wind. We saw lots of other people out braving the cold, having dragged out their heavy winter coats and hats and gloves. Read more!

Sunshine!

We had a bit of a respite from the arctic weather today. The high was around 77, and we actually got to see some sunshine in the afternoon, enough to tempt us over to the pool and hot tub. We watched -the water volleyball game, always good-natured fun.

Tonight we watched an episode of Masterpiece Contemporary we had recorded. It was a spy thriller featuring Johnny Worricker, a character we haven't met before. The third episode was recorded tonight, so now we have two waiting for us. Worricker is a complex character but hard to warm up to.

I talked with Carol this evening. She had sent me some photos that Andy took during his visit to Tyler this weekend.

Christine sang in her high school's performance of Oklahoma! She is trying out for a Christmas musical and for All Area (she made All Region).

Sam finally fell asleep on the sofa after an exhausting day of playing.

Dick and Carol

We are chipping away at our paperwork backlog--mainly health insurance related. We'll be dancing again tomorrow evening, so we'll have to continue reviewing the C-2 call definitions. That's a good thing to do while walking. Read more!

Tree Trimming

No, we're not about to decorate for Christmas, despite the in your face displays in all the stores. We'll save our Christmas celebrations for after Thanksgiving, thank you very much. However, we still have those trees to trim, or maybe lop. We'll definitely need our loppers to work on our citrus trees. They all have a plethora of fruit, and they've grown unbelievably since we left in the spring. It's a good thing our two neighbors have not yet returned to the Valley, so we have time to trim our unruly trees back from their property.

Jan and Steve's tangelo tree is ripening and looks to have a bumper crop. Steve picked a few for us. We got to see the work in progress on their trailer. Steve took up the bedroom carpet and replaced it with wood to match what he put in the living room last year. Jan is his go-fer, and both of them complained that everything takes them longer than it used to. They've been working on this project for a while. Steve does meticulous work, and it all looks great.

We went grocery shopping and to Costco, with a stop along the way for Ken to check out what's on offer at Best Buy. Somehow the day just flew by. Read more!

Happy Birthday Hardy and Pat

We went to Schneider's German Gasthaus & Bier Garten in McAllen tonight to celebrate Hardy's and Pat's birthdays (Hardy's today and Pat's next week). The dinner was delicious, but even better was getting together with our friends after a summer apart: Hardy and Judy, Steve and Jan, and Bob and Pat. Hardy has now officially caught up with Judy in celebrating the big 70.

Earlier today we went to Darryl's C-2 Concept Dance. We've been reviewing call definitions, but not enough, evidently. We were definitely struggling and needed lots of help. Hardy and Judy are supportive and assured us that we are doing well, but we're certainly not doing as well as we'd like. Read more!

Back in the Valley

We took our morning walk at Lake Corpus Christi State Park, bundled up from head to foot and complaining about the cold. The only good thing about walking in cold weather is that we walk faster. I guess the exercise helps to warm us up. We saw three small deer bounding across the road ahead of us. At first we both thought we were seeing dogs.

When we left the park, we drove to nearby Alice for fuel and food. Then we turned south on US 281. Our route south with low mesquite along the roadway has become familiar. This is our eighth trip south to the RGV, our winter home. We look forward to seeing McAllen's "Welcome Winter Texans" sign. Another clue that we are nearing the Rio Grande Valley is the first Border Patrol car we see. We are looking forward to seeing all our friends.

Tonight we attended the first show in the McAllen Community Concert 2014-15 season. Here's how the show is described:

Certified Gold & GRAMMY nominated Alex DePue and Miguel DeHoyos are leading the world as a renowned violinist/fiddler duo.  They lead us through an array of styles – Classical, Bluegrass, Rock – with blazing virtuosity and emotion.
Each is a successful solo artist and their duo credits include an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra and as feature entertainers with the International Bluegrass Music Association.
Their concert is supercharged, highly accessible, and filled with genre-crossing repertoire.  As one concert-goer described the event: it was an   evening of high-flying fingerboard pyrotechnics!.

These two musicians are highly talented and entertaining. The audience really enjoyed the show.

We saw Hardy and Judy and Sue and Arnie and our seatmates, Bill and Bev. I'm sure many of our other friends were there also. It's good to be back, and tomorrow we'll be square dancing again. We've been reviewing definitions, and I hope we'll do okay--with a little help from our friends.

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Chilly Day

As you can see, we are not used to cold weather, so we've bundled up for our walks. This morning we walked to the Catfish Cove camping loop, where we spotted a trailhead.

Of course we decided to take the trail to see where it went. We did get a couple of views of the lake.

The Open Road in the site next to us belongs to a work-camping couple, the Wheelers. We found their DirecTV dish in a strange juxtaposition with their wagon wheel and cattle skull and horseshoe name sign. The Old West meets the 21st century!

We finally completed our comparison of the Medicare Plan D plans available to us and made a selection to go with Cigna-HealthSpring Rx Secure-Xtra. Signing up for the plan took a long phone call each and lots of legalese, but it's done, at least for this year. Yay! Read more!

Back at Lake Corpus Christi State Park

This morning we enjoyed the 70° weather for our walk around the park. Then we headed south to Lake Corpus Christi State Park. We were here, in the same site, #41, in November 2012. Today we were looking forward to enjoying some sunshine and blue skies hiking in the park, but the actual weather is not so inviting. We aren't complaining, mind you, because we realize that we could be somewhere with snow and wind chills of -20°.



We bundled up for our walk, but not enough. Next time I'm wearing my gloves!

Tonight we watched an episode of How We Got to Now: Cold. It was fascinating and entertaining. One idea was especially salient, the notion that ideas aren't independent entities but instead spring from a network of other ideas that all come together at some point to make a new invention possible, if not actually inevitable. Also, people who have new ideas generally have what Steven Johnson calls "slow hunches," ideas that develop over time.

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Heading South

We are heading south, and just in time. Freezing weather is coming. It won't be much warmer when we get to the Valley than it will be in Lufkin during the day, but while Lufkin will have freezing weather Thursday night, the Valley is forecast to have lows in the 40s. Still colder than we like.

We drove south on Hwy 59 today, right through Houston, where we ran into lots of traffic. We're going on tomorrow to Lake Corpus Christi State Park, where we've stayed twice before.

This park looks pretty nice, but we can tell we're in Texas. The manager had to put poison on several fire ant nests on our site, and when we went walking, we had to be careful to dodge the ant nests scattered in the grass. Still it was a nice day, and lots of friendly folks greeted and talked with us as we walked. Read more!

Fun at the Zoo

Our walk this morning took us over to the Glendale Cemetery. We didn't have much time to explore it, so we'll go back the next time we're in Lufkin. After our walk we went over to the house where Ed was cooking a delicious big brunch for us. We took the laundry along and got a load started before the meal.

Glendale Cemetery

We had the grandkids for the day while Ed and Julie had some time together. They went to Nacogdoches and walked along the Lanana Creek Trail. Later they went to a movie.

We took the kids to the Ellen Trout Zoo. I had been there before, but it was many years ago. The kids had been to the zoo before, when they were at "Nana Camp." We all enjoyed getting to see lots of animals actually awake and active, including the African Lion and the Jaguar.

Majestic male African Lion

Kids on a lion!

Daring kids put their heads in another lion's mouth!

One of the most entertaining exhibits today was the hippopotamus underwater viewing. I had no idea that hippos actually play with each other. These two were opening their mouths wide and putting them together playfully. One was swimming around the pool quite a bit, and the other was on the bottom directly in front of the glass. The swimmer came back around several times to interact with the other one. It was only inches from Sam, who stood fascinated.

We walked around the exhibits. Most of them have informational signs, which Cate read aloud. Several species are part of an SSP, or species survival plan, set up by a network of zoos to breed the endangered animals in captivity. They move animals around to provide genetic diversity.

Flamingo

Tortoise

Chinese Alligator!

Kids on an alligator!

Giraffe

After seeing all the animals, we took a ride on the Z&OO Railroad. We expected it to go around the zoo and across the lake, but it made two circuits of the zoo and never went across the lake. The kids still enjoyed it. Then we walked over to one of the playgrounds, where the kids had a great time and ran off lots of energy. Sam especially zipped around and showed no sign of slowing down, but we had to go home after a while for dinner.

Z&OO Railroad

The lake had signs all around warning "Alligators inhabit this lake." Fortunately we saw no alligators outside the zoo, but Ken did spot several water birds.

Elegant heron--at its feet are a turtle and some plastic water bottles....

Back at the house, we ate dinner and took a walk around the neighborhood. Sam and Jesse and I played a Memory game. Of course Sam won. He matched 18 pairs, I matched 14, and Jesse matched four. Cate helped Jesse a bit.

This evening Jesse announced that when he grows up, he wants to live in an RV so he can take his house wherever he goes! Great idea, Jesse. We agree.

We've had a great visit, but tomorrow we'll move on south. We'll be hoping to flee the advancing polar vortex which will bring very cold weather by Thursday. Read more!

MapMyHike

We walked around Trailwood Circle today. Turns out it's almost exactly one mile, doesn't have too much traffic, and is an attractive neighborhood, with great trees and interesting homes. When we started out, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my GPS. What to do? I downloaded a free app to my iPhone called MapMyHike. It has way more bells and whistles than I know what to do with (some of which only work if you pay for premium service).

I like the fact that it logs my walks, so I can look back and see where I walked, including a map, and when, with statistics like time and speed and distance. That will provide good feedback and motivation.

On the second lap around the circle, Sam came along, riding his bike. A little while later, on our third and final lap, Cate and Sam rode their bikes, and Julie and Jesse walked with us. Julie was walking Charley. She says that Bijoux has gotten so old and tired that she never even asks to go along on walks.

This evening Ed and Cate and Ken and I played a game of Rummikub. Lots of other games were going on too, including several Words With Friends games and the kids' electronic gadgets.

The VFW has a five-acre lake. So far we've seen several herons. Today we spotted some unusual ducks.

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Sunny Day

Today was a beautiful sunny day, though still cool. We watched as a portable stage was set up in the parking lot of the VFW where we are staying. It took us a bit to figure out that it must be connected to some Veteran's Day celebration. Ed will be driving a dealership car in the Veteran's Day parade in downtown Lufkin tomorrow morning. Cate plans to ride with him.

Portable stage towed in by a semi and one side dropped

We stopped at HEB again on our way over to the house to fix dinner and visit. This time we made some Tex Mex enchiladas and tacos. Sam at first declared that he didn't like Mexican food, but after he tried the enchiladas, he decided that they were really tasty.

There is no television in the Shaffer household, but that doesn't mean the kids are deprived of screen time.

After dinner I tagged along with Ed and Cate on a trip to Walgreen's and CVS Pharmacy. Cate bundled up against the cool night air in her "Little Brown Riding Hood" outfit.

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Pizza, Pizza!

We managed to chip away at our to-do list today. We drained and flushed our hot water tank, a twice a year task  to keep mineral scale under control. It's been long enough since we last did it that we had a bit of a learning curve, but we succeeded.  We also put new foam grip wrap on our entry assist handle. The old foam had deteriorated and split open.

This evening Ed had a company dinner to celebrate a record month, so it was just Julie and the kids and us for dinner. We stopped at H.E.B. for a deli pizza and rounded off the meal with salad, veggies, and grapes.

When we arrived, all the kids were bubbling over with news about their first day at their new school today. Jesse said it was "fabulous!" Julie said that the kids had been welcomed with open arms and drawn right into the group. Jesse has been put in the kindergarten class, so he was a bit leery at first of finding himself surrounded by kids taller than him.

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Fun and Games

Today was rainy pretty much all day, but the day was brightened by the arrival of Ed and Julie and the kids for lunch with us. It was a quick visit because Ed had to get back to work and Julie had to take the kids to get new school uniforms. They will be attending St. Patrick Catholic School starting tomorrow. They are very excited.

We went over to join them for supper tonight. We were greeted enthusiastically by Cate and Sam and Jesse and Julie--and Charley and Bijou. We also met Adzi, the cat, an appealing four month old.

Julie fixed pasta and we brought salad and fixings. After dinner Ed, Ken, Cate, and I played Ten Days in Asia while Julie took Jesse to buy a lunch box and water bottle. His are irretrievably buried in storage. Sam was off somewhere glued to his electronics.

Chris and Anara called. They were on their way to see Interstellar. Both of them sounded good. Chris will be doing a lot of traveling over the next few weeks with three visits to Chicago. Read more!

Legal Truck

Our big accomplishment today was getting the new Texas Safety Inspection Sticker for our truck. First we had to go to the Ford dealer to pick up the replacement mirror glass, which we then took over to Loving Honda. One of Ed's colleagues suggested that we take it to another auto dealership where a good friend of his worked. There we got the mirror installed and a new inspection sticker. Mission accomplished!

I also got my hair cut really short again, which makes it very easy to style--if you can call spiking styling. Not my best haircut ever, but hair does grow out. Meanwhile, Ken took care of changing our reservations. The new plan is to stay in Lufkin over the weekend, since Sunday is Ed's only day off.

Mike Daniels, the manager of the VFW Post, stopped by to say hi and collect our site rental, a grand total of $56 for the week.

Julie and the kids were out of town today, driving John and Nancy to Houston and visiting with Nancy's daughter Amy and family. Ed was working all day and then not feeling great, so he went straight home. Read more!

On to Lufkin

We wrapped up our stay at RV Parks R Us in Tyler this morning and headed south to Lufkin to visit Ed and family. It's a 90 mile, two hour trip, but we stopped halfway for lunch. We're staying at the VFW Post. Right now we're the only ones on the 30 acre grounds, including a five acre lake. Sweet. Of course we'll have lots of company on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights: charitable BINGO!

The RV sites are on the grass behind the VFW building. The ground is a bit soft, and you can see that our slide has very little clearance to the ground.

After we got settled in, I went over to see Edward at Loving Honda, only a couple of miles away. It was good to see him. I flew to Atlanta over Easter to visit with them. In September Ed moved to Lufkin to take a new position as a car salesman for Loving Honda. He flew back to Atlanta last week to move the family and the dogs and cat and all their stuff back to Texas. (Yay! Texas!). They went trick or treating with their friends, the Butlers, on Friday night and then drove the moving truck and their SUV back to Texas on Saturday, November 1.

Tomorrow Julie will be driving John and Nancy to Houston. They will fly out on Wednesday to Singapore to visit Terri and family. Read more!

Whodunit???

We went over to Carol and Dick's this morning, to do laundry and eat before going to the musical. Debbie called to say she was stopping by with the kids for a few minutes on the way home from church to coordinate the week's schedule with Carol. They always provide a burst of energy when they come.

Sam even gave me a kiss goodbye when they left.

We went to the matinee performance of Clue the Musical presented by the Tyler Civic Theatre Center. The set represents a Clue board, complete with Conservatory, Ballroom, Billiards Room, Kitchen, Lounge, and Study. The standard weapons are all present. Mr. Boddy introduces the plot and the characters. The gimmick is that three audience members draw cards to determine the perpetrator, weapon, and room where the murder of Mr. Boddy takes place, and it is up to the audience to garner clues and guess the solution to the mystery. The program includes a clue sheet, and everyone gets a pencil to record notes and clues.

The performance was quite entertaining and lively, with plenty of singing and comic interactions. The regular reminders that we are watching game tokens on a game board makes for some of the humor, along with references to other popular board games of the same era.

After the performance it was time to say goodbye to our friends and thank them for a great visit. We'll be back in the spring for more adventures.

This evening we watched an episode of Makers on Women in Business. The series features women who have been successful in various fields while putting their achievements in historical context. We also finished watching Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek LIVE!, a live performance of their recently released album. Both of them are talented performers, and they are backed by some great musicians. Read more!