happenings

Things seem to stay busy these days.  I just finished watching Elise for the school year.  I'm available to give David a break here and there, but basically its now the "lazy days" of summer.  Lazy?  More on that in a bit.

I went to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend, and contributed a small amount to their local economy.  I do remember now why it's been 7 years since my last visit.  Las Vegas really is a town that requires some walking to see it right, and I don't have the stamina for that.  But, we did have a good time (I went with niece Tammy, and met up with Nolene and Joe who were vacationing there).  We went to a chocolate factory, made the hike from the Excalibur over to the M&M store via New York, New York, enjoyed the dinner/show presentation of Tournament of Kings, and remembered that Wheel of Fortune is my favorite slot machine.  I enjoyed some relaxation at the hotel when the others made the trek up and down the Strip.  Nice little get-away weekend.

This week my cousin Mary made it into town.  She's been on a cross country adventure from New Mexico to Florida and back, and managed to come through our area for an overnight stop.  As we visited, along with John, Nolene, and Joe, we figure its been well over 40 years since I'd last seen her.  Its ironic that as I was going through some papers this morning, a couple of years ago I had commented on one of my writing exercises that Mary would be a relative I'd like to get to know better.  She had polio as a child, and as would be expected has faced a lot throughout her lifetime.  Encouraged by her doctors to get an education because as she got older her limitations would increase, she not only got her Bachelors degree, but also her Masters and PhD.  She is semi retired, working part time teaching at  a college to give her "play money" for adventures.  Just a couple of weeks ago she posted pictures in Facebook of her para-sailing!  An interesting woman, and a strong advocate for the disabled.  This world could use more Mary's. 

Now about that comment of "lazy days".  Ha!   I decided to paint my bedroom, so Friday night I started the cutting in process.  Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn, and went to work.  It was a lot of trips up and down the tall ladder, but by early afternoon it was done.  I'm planning on putting in tile flooring, both in my bedroom and bathroom, so getting this done was the first step. Well let me clarify that....I'll have someone put in the tile flooring!  I do know my limitations.   Knowing that job will be coming up, and hopefully soon, I'm tossing some things out, and taking others to the Salvation Army drop-off point. 

This silk flower arrangement survived the cut and is still in the room. When I transferred from one department to another at work, either in 1998 or 1999, my co-workers gave it to me.  Surviving several moves, a few of the flowers have started to shift, but I just couldn't part with it.  I dusted it off,  moved it to another wall, and there she'll stay.  By the way, the wall color is Cup of Cocoa, a Behr color at Home Depot.

Guess that's all for now.  Makes me tired looking at what I've done, so I think I'll take a nap.  ;)