Potpourri

Yes just a mixtue of this and that to end the week. I have been working hard on Baby Girl Keenan's baby quilt. It is lap sized with two borders and a ruffle around it. Going to work on the borders and ruffle this coming rainy weekend. It has come together without much ripping of seams.

My sister, Mary, is making the Around The World quilt for her grandson also. Her first, it is a fun sister project.

Last night Paul and I went to dinner to Buck's Run, alone. Kind of a date night. It was fun to get out of shorts and jeans for an evening. Paul had a burger and I had the lake perch. Very good as usual.

Another cool week up here in Michigan. I had the space heater on this morning early while I was on the computer. It was 65 degrees in the house and 54 outside. Raining now, damp makes it feel more chilly.

A couple of weeks ago Otis called Paul from Port Aransas. It was still beyond hot there. No rain yet. Usually, the beach is easily drivable for all vehicles. Now it is so dry that the sand is all fluffy and light. A friend of his earned $12,000 in one weekend from towing people off the beach. On weekends the ferry line is hours long and the bridge is all backed up too. Everyone wants to get to the ocean. Earlier in the summer Javiar said the heat is unbearable. He grew up in south San Antonio with no air conditioning. Can't imagine how bad that must be.

Rick and Sandy drove down from Houghton Lake on Tuesday. They have a show pickup and drove it. Very nice, purple with Tweety Bird details. He is still tweaking things, put in a new motor recently. Sandy had some medical problems, maybe a stroke or maybe from a strep infection, with a lot of side effects. Happily, she is back to her old self, whom I like very much, we had a good time talking. They are very good folks.

Our GTO restoration project is slowing down. Waiting for parts, Kevin was sick, blah blah. I was going to paint something on the frame today but it is too damp out. Paul can't paint it with his knee messed up.

Cops and Doughnuts, Clare, MI

http://www.copsdoughnuts.com/index.html

Forgot the most unique thing we did recently, on Sunday after Mass we went with Tony and Virginia to get coffee and doughnts at the 113 year old Clare Bakery. Just this summer all the Clare city cops (9 including the chief and dispatcher) went together and bought the bakery so it wouldn't go out of business and make the sixth empty storefront on the Clare Main Street. The county of Clare has unemployment rate of over 20%.

The baked good have improved. They are now making eight times the number of goodies than when they started. They have a large line of shirts with cute slogans on them. The guys make them up their selves. They are on the web site. Fav is the running shorts with"Buns and Guns" on the back. They rented the empty store next door and turning it into eating area and a shop for more products. At the bakery the Tees are $15.00, cheaper than the web site. They are employing 21 people now. A boon for Clare. The cops all work there whenever they can but do not take a salary. Sunday morning the main spokesman was there painting the new store, we see him in church often. Another cop working was Ed White's son, he used to own the nursery that Paul used in his lawn care business, and we knew him when he was a little shaver. Theyhave been all over the news this summer, even on the major networks.

It's real friendly there, it was fun. I still have half a date cookie to eat. It is pretty darn yummy. One of their old favorites is the cream bread. It is a round, cylindrical loaf.

They are working on a calendar to sell this winter. It will feature 12 couples who have been married 60 years and have gone into the bakery their whole marriage. One couple still meets there to split a fritter every Friday morning. These guys have great ideas.

Pot Luck Post

Mark wants a blog up date and I guess we have done a lot of things lately, just don't have pics.

One weekend we took the motor home up to Roger's house outside of Grayling and camped there. It was that one hot summer weekend this year. We went to the fish fry at the Silver Dollar Bar at Higgins Lake on Friday night. Saturday we played golf at the Grayling Country Club and Paul and I did great! We played best ball and beat Roger and Bev by 11 strokes. I had a great chip in for a birdie from about 30 feet, the ball went up in the air even and landed and rolled into the hole. Amazing! We had a campfire one night, watched golf and Tigers on TV in air conditioned comfort. And my allergies started, maybe from the tiny little dog or more likely from whatever is in the air this August because they are still dogging me. We were feeding our scraps to Priscilla's chickens last night and I started with the plugged up ears right away. Lots of weeds and plants out by the barn.

We so like to feed the chickens. We drive down on our golf cart and as soon as they hear us they come running for us. It is so funny to see a flock of chickens running at us. She has all sizes and colors.

Last Friday Linsday's called and invited us to pizza at their house. A spur of the moment deal, and lots of fun. And it was Pizzanello's Pizza! Very, very good and a blast from the past for Paul and I. When we moved to Mt. P. for college, newly married in 1969, ordering pizza from them was a Friday night treat. A small one was $2 and so good. Whole wheat crust, yum. We had never had delivery anything before, Mt. Pleasant was like a big city for us, there was cable TV and two movie houses! We also liked to eat at Falsetta's for their lasagne, it had ham in it, and their Italian and Ham subs. The first time we ate there was after the Homecoming game with John and Sally Sterly. We really didn't get out much at all. Mike and I won both games of Euchre too. I am not a great card player but we do make a good team for some reason.

Also during the last few weeks Paul went to the bone doctor, Dr. Weir, and is getting his other knee replaced. He was using a treadmill and it was the last straw for his cartilidge. Now it is bone on bone with lots of shavings. They wanted to do the surgery Jan 18. Nope, not here in January. Then it was May 18, ok, but a long time to wait. The next day he called for the surgery appointment, talked a bit, got put on hold and when the nurse came back to the phone there had been a cancellation on Oct. 1, did he want it? Oh yes, it works out perfect for us. He will have 6 weeks recovery, a few days deer hunting and we are on the road to Texas by Nov. 18.

And Paul has been spending a lot of time on the phone, internet and running around getting parts together for the GTO. He hoped to have it done by his class reunion in Sept, but it is looking doubtful. Monday we drove down to Milan, to Cyndi and Wyman's. Then he and Wyman drove to Flat Rock, down river Detroit area, and picked up some parts for the power steering. Cyndi and I and Sher went to a Coney Island across from Cabela's, the dogs were good but the coney cheese fries we to die for. And we might, in the end. Anyway, it was a fast trip, no traffic to speak of. No one is going to work in Michigan anymore!

Also posting some of Katie's pics from the Jet Boat ride in the Dells, Wisconsin. The most wettest fun ever!

Pool Time

Charlie and Grandpa enjoying the pool. Charlie loved the slide and splashing everyone.

On Thursday, Andrea took Julia and Charlie to the pool at the club house. Julia was so cute, Andrea would lift her out of the pool, she would jump for joy a few times and run to the slide ladder, go up a few steps, jump some more, sit at the top and play with the water jets and swish down into Andrea's arms. She is so happy and loves the water.

Dancing Julia

Katie and Mark got Charlie and Julia new pjs, always cute. Charlie's have a fire engine on the shirt and emergency vehicles on the pants. Julia's has a little tutu. She loved them. Kept saying "dance dance jump jump." Very cute pics here.

Mt. Olympus Water Park

On Wednesday, Katie and Mark, Steff and Paul and I went to the Mt. Olympus Water Park. We had free tickets. It was a beautiful day. Paul went with the kids on a water slide. By that time I was tired and ready to sit with the towels by the lazy river. The top pic is of the Poseidon Wave Pool. At the rear of the photo, in front of the mural, is the 9 foot wave coming at us. That is 9 feet over the depth of the water, which is probably 3 or 4 foot there. People were flying in the surf. Fun to watch, from a distance. Steff said she kept thinking the next wave would be a lot of fun. Didn't quite live up to her hype. This 9 foot wave came from a still pool, no warm up waves. Just popped up.

Donuts to Appetizers to Pizza

Mark's dad always like to get up early when they traveled and drive around and explore the area. So Mark is always good for the early morning donut run. The local grocery store in the Dells has an awesome bakery and the cream filled and apple fritters are most excellent examples. So we started the day with a good sugar rush.

Next was a mostly spontaneous Jet Boat ride on the lower dells. We all like fast rides. As we reached the front of the line we began to notice people wearing bathing suits, and some of the folks getting off the boats seemed a little damp. But how bad could it be? Well, not bad but very, very wet. Lucky we had a couple little plastic bags to hide the electronics in, and we did it before we got on the boat. We were hardly away from the dock when he did a donut and got us all real good. Thus started 50 minutes of spray. The fast stops were the wettest. We would take a nose dive under the water and a huge wave came over the top of the front of the windshield. The folks in the very front row didn't get soaked though. We were totally squishy wet by the time we got off. It was hot so not so bad unless we were going 30 mph, that got chilly. Katie has pics. One lady had a plastic poncho, $2 at the gift shop. At the very end, as we drove up to the dam, she took it off, figuring we were done with the wet stuff. Just what the captain was waiting for, he did a deeper fast stop and she and the front row got soaked. No one gets away dry.

Then we went home and changed into dry clothes and did some laundry. Grilled hot dogs, Kogels, for lunch. I took a shower and Paul and Mark cooked, Katie and Steff set up the food. It was good.

Katie, Mark, Paul and I had a tee time at 3 pm. Steff laid in the sun and had a whirlpool bath, etc. Girl time. We played 9 holes, best ball, a fight to see which couple was the best of the worst. We tied. Paul took a lot of pics. Mark had a great chip in from 50+ feet and we all had some great putts too. The bottom pic is Mark's chip in, you can see how far it was, you can't even see the green in the pic.

Then we had a Pub Crawl. We started at Marley's, an Island themed bar and restaurant, and sat outside. The drink special was Rum Punch, very tasty and strong. Paul had a beer. Our appetizer was a crab spread, casedias with crab, bread, onion rings, veggies. If you like seafood, it was excellent. Then we went to a place out of town on the river. The jet boat captain said they had good food and a 4,000 gallon aquarium. He was right. We had cheesy fries and a nacho. They had 2 Corona's for $5, and we got a table right next to the fish. We might go back there for the food. Looked very good.

So on the way home we decided to get Fire House Pizza, two for one. It was pretty darn good.

Paul and Mark went to the casino then. Paul won enough to pay for the Pub Crawl drinks and appetizers. He always has a goal when he goes to gamble. Mark might have donated.

Monday at the Dells in Wisconsin

I have tried to post this blog two times already with no luck. I have some problem. We are having a lot of fun. Monday we made plans, got locked out of our condo, went to the bar here, went out to lunch at Moosejaw, had filet for dinner, and went shopping. Steff stayed home with Paul and made us chocolate chip cookie sundays. I will try to post the pics which tell the story much better.