Gardening

I was working in my flowers on Sunday and Paul came out and took some pictures, he read in my blog that Charlie wanted "More Grandma." Finally it was cool and low humidity.

On Friday I drove out to Elm Creek Nursery and bought some supplies, and plants. A neighbor has a beautiful Bee Balm, love it - very bright and cheery and big. I found them on sale, and they were two feet tall and mostly pretty straggly. There is a red one, a white one and a blue delphinium, for that red, white and blue display for July 4th. Also got two smaller ones in a bright pink. They are nice and bushy.

Foodie Alert

Here it is midnight in Michigan and I am on the computer. Too full to sleep, plus there is an awful lot of loud snoring in my bedroom. We went to Buck's Run Golf Course ( http://www.bucksrun.com/) for dinner with Tony and Virginia tonight. Thought we would end up at Bob's for fish and broasted chicken. And it would have been good. But Buck's Run was very, very good. The special was lobster tail and prime rib for $21. Plus a tasty salad and vegetables and potato and bread with oil. I tried the Red Current vinaigrette dressing, a little more tang than raspberry v. Can't remember the last time I ordered prime rib. It was, indeed, prime. Garlic mashed potatoes were delicious. My lobster was wearing a fresh orchid and a sprig of rosemary!

Paul had a steak salad. It was served with pita bread crusted with parm cheese. He liked it very much and also the bites of lobster, beef and veggies I slipped him. Tony and Virginia both ordered the special too. Tony and Paul enjoyed Blue Moon draft beer as well. We all had bites of the cream puff hot fudge sundae. Most delightful and a reminder of teen age shopping sprees at the Macomb Mall with a stop of Saunder's Ice Cream shop. Nothing like a stroll down memory lane ....

The photos are of the clubhouse at night and day, the course from the air and the putting course on its own little island.

We had a great table by the window overlooking the course. There was a wedding reception going on in the banquet rooms, a 50th wedding anniversary on the deck and a bachelor party at the next table. A very lively evening and a lot of fun people watching.

Marti and Woody spent Friday night at the lake, and then traveled up into Canada on Saturday for a weeks vacation. We had a nice visit with them on Friday. She is a tiny bit annoyed when my daughters and I don't write on our blogs every day. So we have to do better. But this was such a dull week, I did some gardening. Hate to write about pulling weeds.

And Charlie wants to see more Grandma pictures. What a sweetie, how could any Grandma resist that? Now I just have to remember to have Paul take some pics.

Diana's Quilt

Friday I drove to Weidman to the quilt show. This weekend was Weidman Days. Sadly, I missed the sign up for the pizza eating contest. However the quilt show was very nice. My friend of more than 30 years, Diana, had several quilts on display. This is one she made for her mother. She and her sister are traveling to Denver on the train for a visit this week.

Monday Dinner Party

Monday we had Father Patrick and the Boyles for dinner. Virginia made her wonderful salad, with Irish cheese on top. Paul grilled turkey tenderloins. I made Koenig potato salad with bacon in it. Steamed fresh sweet corn and wonderful ciabatta rolls to fill out the menu. Strawberry sundae's for dessert. Turned out great. I even picked flowers from my garden that matched the room. Yay for orange lilies!

Fr. Patrick has been our priest for 3 years. He gives the best homilies. Bishop Utner taught him how to compose them. (he also wrote a book about it, the title is something like "Better Preaching", quite popular with priests) . Anywho, he keeps it short and to the point and as he loves history, teaches us too. I have been trying to get him to put them on the internet, but he doesn't write anything down. And he is modest. He did say they are getting a parish website in the fall. He said he could write them out after he preached, I suggested a pod cast or just record them. They are too good to be lost. Paul and I actually remember, and can discuss them even 5 or 6 days later. Trust me, that never happened before.

Fr. Patrick loves Halloween. He decorates his house every October, it takes a month, and has it open for tours for several days around the 31st. He has a cob web machine that hooks up to an air compressor and blows them out. Also a fog machine. He is also a big fan of ghosts. Watches Ghost Hunters, etc. He is going to Gettysburg this week for a vacation and hopes to record some ghostly activity. He actually did a ceremony to rid a house of ghosts once. I didn't think ghosts were a Catholic thing, but since there is a ceremony for it .... it must be. Very, very interesting.

Birthday Bash for Paul

We didn't plan anything for Paul's 60th birthday, pretty much we are going to ignore birthdays until we are 75, then we shall see. Virginia and Tony invited us down for dinner with their family. Noel and Jessica are moving to Nashville this week, so her mom was there too. All very nice. Tony grilled pork tenderloin, most excellent and tender and tasty. A great meal. They planned a surprise of birthday cake, ice cream, pie. A wonderful carrot cake from Costco. A great surprise and very nice of them.

We had some great boat rides on their new party barge. It is a huge pontoon boat and has canvas roofs over the entire boat. So nice when the sun is hot.

Also at their cottage was Betty and George and Jack and Rosy, all the fun is running together now.

On Sunday, we grilled filet and I made salad and twice baked potatoes for dinner, and we ate alone! This was a great weekend, we would drive down to visit around in our golf cart, and neighbors were always showing up to see us too.

And best of all --- it finally got hot and we got out the tubes for some swimming. Some years we are in the lake in late April. This is the latest ever. Not a very warm summer here.

Lake Parties for the 4th of July

Always party time at the lake, especially for the fourth. Brenda had a pre party Thursday night featuring her great Latvian "peedogs" (ham, bacon and onion wrapped in bread dough and baked), crab stuffed mushrooms, fruit, veggies, etc. It was a beautiful evening on the deck. On Friday it was more food, potato salad, slaw, etc, and Paul was the grill master of brats and burgers. Pete brought some hot dog cony sauce from Sparties in Lansing. Very good.

Jean hosted a party for John's 91st birthday, et al. Also very good. I posted a photo of the beautiful, exotic Maria, home from south America. Has a great job in DC at the Newsusum ?? When they interviewed Obama there, she took photos. She was very impressed.

There was fireworks over the lake for more than an hour. Not that we were awake to watch it. We had a feast a thon all day and were zonked out.

Brenda's sister got her a walker with a horn and a basket (for the beer) and a house coat to wear. A hoot. Brenda used to work at the Clare bowl-a-rama as a bartender on weekends. She has a wide variety of interesting friends.

Shopping with Jean and Brenda

It was a marathon of shopping, the Olympic trials, a quintillion shopping event. I drove, Jean and Brenda mearly shopped till they dropped. But they did good for their ages. And, oh no, Brenda turns 50 today. Jean is a "golden" shopper. Both Jean and Brenda are having big 4th of July parties at the lake this weekend. Jean is hosting the Villa family reunion, hubby John's birthday number 91, John Jr's 60th birthday, and grandson Tony must be 18.

Brenda is having a 3 day birthday bash. Starts Thursday with snacks and drinks on the deck. Friday is lots of food. Saturday is Karioke at the bowling alley. Her sisters are up for the fun, and son Jake and nephew Brian. Lots of pals. Lots of great food. Lots of fun. Lots of drunks. The perfect lake party.

So first we shopped at Kohl's, we wanted to be fresh for trying on clothes. Hit the jackpot. Jean got dressy jackets for $6.20. Good for all the charity events that they attend in Detroit. Brenda got shorts. I found 3 pair of shorts and a tee. All my pants are falling off my butt, had butt crack on the golf course last week. Where is the duct tape when you need it?

Then Sam's Club, and they had a nice little lunch buffet. Love the snacks, keeps the blood sugar up for more shopping! After we loaded 3 cases of water and 2 cases of beer into the van we had a low rider. Plus all the other great foods. I'm not cooking this weekend!

The we had lunch at the Traverse City Pie Company. Excellent as usual. I had half a Manitou sandwich and Tomato Basil Soup. Brenda and Jean had the chicken dumpling soup and chicken salad croissant and a Ruben. Brenda was so happy. When she shops with her sisters, they don't let her eat. We assured her that this is an integral part of the shopping experience.

Our next stop was Joann Fabric. They had new decorating fabrics, and I found the valance fabric of my dreams. It was 40% off too! Jean found a cart full of supplies too. Brenda went down to Fashion Bug and found two shirts. FYI the valances are supposed to be triangle shapped, each side a different color. Hoping to find some directions on HGTV, the inspiration.

Our next stop was Meijers for groceries. I was about done, but Brenda and I did our duty. No one will starve this weekend. One more stop at Rosebush to get ice, running into Paul and Tony, on their way home from golf. They won the scramble, most excellent.

It started to storm so we hurried home to unpack the goodies. Then I accompanied Paul and Tony to the Moose for a burger. Later that night we took Brenda to Ruckles for a birthday pizza and beer. So another day in paradise. And we didn't lose power in the storm!!

Oh my gosh, the daddy oriole is teaching 3 babies how to eat jelly off the feeder in my garden. They are so cute, downy and awkward, knocking each other off the swing. Last night he was feeding one of the babies jelly in the cherry tree. We have also noticed a gang of 4 or 5 young males flying through the yard, so they are on their second batch of babies. No wonder they are eating so much jelly.