Life in the Slow Lane

I Won!!

2011-12-02T17:05:00.001-06:00

Shortly after returning from our early summer Alaska cruise, I entered Gastineau Guiding Company’s 2011 Capture Juneau Photo Contest. The contest was open to anyone who took one of Gastineau’s guided tours.

Yesterday I got a phone call from Chris with Gastineau with the news that I had won third place with this photo.

The whale watching excursion that we went on was probably my favorite of the entire trip, and the whale watching was spectacular. We were fortunate to see two humpback whales bubble net feeding. What magnificent creatures.

When Gastineau posts all of the 2011 winners on their website, I’ll let you know. I’m sure they’re lots of spectacular pictures.

Say It With Flowers

2011-11-19T07:32:00.001-06:00

Last Monday, for only the second time since I’ve known him, LBeau gave me flowers.

The first time was early in our marriage. We were living in St. Louis at the time, and LBeau was on his way home from work at Missouri-Pacific Railroad. A street vendor was selling roses for 50 cents a dozen. On an impulse, he bought some.

Since that time, I have given birth to three children and had too many birthdays to count, but no more flowers. My friend Glenda is also married to an engineer, and we have often shared stories about no gifts and no flowers. At least she has daughters who were sometimes dispatched to “buy something for Mom for her birthday.” I have three boys. Enough said.

Needless to say, I was shocked when LBeau appeared bright and early Monday morning, my 65th birthday, with a dozen red roses and a card. As my oldest son, Hunter, said, “When you don’t expect much, the least little thing can make your day.”

Lightening the Load & Other Musings

2011-10-22T10:45:00.001-05:00

For about an hour this morning I got into a cleaning out frenzy. First I decided it was time to put away the summer clothes and get out all of the cooler (can’t really say “cold” here in Alabama) weather stuff. In the process, I got rid of a lot of clothes that I didn’t wear all season.

It felt good to get rid of things, but the best thing I did was to clean off my key chain. I had been carrying around all of this stuff. Now having this whole wad of keys made it easy to find them in my purse, but it also added a lot of weight. Besides I had no idea what half of the keys unlocked.

I think I counted 15 keys, three rewards cards (notice that the Best Buy card was non-functional because half of it was missing), and other assorted fobs and stuff. I’m now down to five keys, two rewards cards, one fob and my Arkansas Alumni Association Life Member tag.

If I’ve built or remodeled your house in the past four or five years, you may recognize one of the miscellaneous keys. If so, just let me know, and you can have it back.

Also today I completed my Halloween decoration. Hey, I’ve been up since 4:30 a.m., so I’ve gotten lots done. I found this inspiration idea on Pinterest (my newest mania). The inspiration pumpkin topiary was made with fake pumpkins, but I decided I wanted to use with real pumpkins and live plants.

I found the pumpkins last weekend at the Farmer’s Market when we were in Memphis, and I already had a nice size pot. So earlier this week I set out to buy wooden letters and glitter spray paint. Well, let’s just say lots of other people must have seen this on Pinterest, because there was no black glitter spray paint to be found at Michael’s, Hobby Lobby or WalMart.

Fortunately, I only had to visit Michael’s in my quest. There was a man there at the same time looking for the same spray paint for his wife, and he had already been to Hobby Lobby and WalMart. Saved me a trip. I ended up buying flat black spray paint and then brushed over it with glitter paint.

The letters were a different story. The selection was not good because most of the styles had no “B’s” or “O’s.” I had to settle for a less decorative style, but that’s what I get for getting a late start. So here’s my pumpkin topiary. I figure I can take the letters off, and it’ll be good through Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Halloween, what are you going to be this year? One house in my neighborhood has decided to be Christmas for Halloween. Their decorations went up this week.

Do you see the garland around their door and on the balcony? They also have the mailbox decked out in the same theme—greenery, pine cones and red and green glass balls. I mean, it’s one thing for the stores to put out Christmas stuff before Halloween, but that doesn’t mean we have to use it.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

2011-10-07T15:00:00.001-05:00

I’ve come across several head scratching moments over the last few weeks, so I thought I’d take the time to share some of them. The most recent came this morning when I drove through Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte.

Starbucks has this neat iPhone app where you can store your gift cards. The barista (that’s a fancy name for a young person who dispenses ridiculously high priced coffee drinks) can then scan your phone for payment. I’ve been reloading an old Starbucks gift card for years so that I didn’t have to pay with cash and wait for change, but I often found myself digging around in my purse to find which compartment I had dropped it into after the last swipe. The iPhone app was a chance to further simplify my life.

Until today, that is. When I got to the drive thru window, I was told that they could not scan my phone. It seems that Starbucks has been sued by customers who have dropped and damaged their phones when they hold them out the window to be scanned. So much for that great idea.

Head scratcher #2. My recent work schedule has lately taken me to parts of the greater Birmingham area where I don’t normally travel at 7:30 in the morning. On Thursday I was on Shades Creek Parkway about 7:15. For those of you who are not familiar with Birmingham, Shades Creek Parkway, which becomes Lakeshore Drive, is a busy link between Highway 280 and I-65 and even points further west.

At 7:15 a.m. traffic heading west from 280 toward I-65 is heavy but moving steadily in both lanes. But not this past Thursday, which happened to be garbage pick up day. Most people think of Shades Creek Parkway as the home of Brookwood Mall, Samford University and Southern Living. However, people also live along Shades Creek Parkway, and some of them evidently have earned the privilege of having their garbage picked up at their back door.

Unfortunately, I was in the right hand lane, just behind the garbage truck. Every few feet the truck would stop, and the garbage man would run up the driveway to someone’s door. Sometimes he would return with a sack or two, which he would toss into the truck, and sometimes he would return empty handed. The whole process was painfully slow, and none of us in the right lane could shift to the left lane because of the steady stream of traffic. I guess if you travel this route on a daily basis, you know when garbage day is, and you steer clear of the right lane.

And finally, there’s the group I will call The Mom Brigade. This is a group of moms who live in Liberty Park. Each day they transport their children about three blocks to and from the elementary and middle schools in golf carts.

I’ve never seen anything like it. A couple of weeks ago I was at a job site in Liberty Park and watched a steady stream of mom-driven golf carts of all shapes and sizes pass down a residential street lined with a perfectly good sidewalk.

Back in my day, if you lived within three blocks of the school, you walked. And it was uphill both ways!!

“Nevertheless, Beat Texas!!”

2011-08-27T12:35:00.001-05:00

It’s almost time for college football. Are you ready?

I’ve had several reminders lately that the 2011 college football season is upon us. About a week ago, I saw my first yellow sulfur butterfly (for further explanation, see THIS POST). Another reminder came in the form of an email from my sister-in-law Susie. It was a collection of famous football quotes and included the following:

"Football is only a game. Spiritual things are eternal. Nevertheless, Beat Texas." - Seen on a church sign in Arkansas prior to the 1969 game.

That’s all well and good, but it’s just plain wrong! That email as well as hundreds of websites that pop up when you google that quote are trying to rewrite history.

The quote actually appeared on a sign at First Baptist Church of Fayetteville prior to the 1965 Razorback game against Texas. Arkansas won that game 27-24. We Razorbacks would just as soon forget about the 1969 contest.

Furthermore, the quote itself is not accurate. The sign actually read:“Football is only a game. Eternal things are spiritual. Nevertheless, Beat Texas!” (The emphasis is mine.)

I know because I was there. And if you need further evidence, just check out THIS ARTICLE that appeared in Sports Illustrated on October 25, 1965. You don’t even have to read the whole four-page article (but it’s great reading). The proof is on the first page.

So I’m doing my part to set the record straight. I may not be successful, but “Nevertheless, Beat ______________!! (Insert the name of the Hogs’ opponent for the week.)

Discounts, Rewards and Bonus Points

2011-08-11T12:12:00.001-05:00

If you’re like me, you probably have way more discount and rewards cards than you can possibly keep up with, much less stuff into your wallet or hang on your keychain. I finally gave up and only carry the three that I use most often—My Panera card, Max Perks from Office Max and Best Buy Reward Zone. The others are in a drawer somewhere or were lost a long time ago.

But then you just never know when one of those long forgotten cards might come in handy. Case in point. Today I needed to purchase some cream cheese to go with the baker’s dozen bagels I had bought at Panera (I got points for that purchase, by the way). I was on the way to a job site, when I passed a Winn Dixie. How simple it would be to stop and get the cream cheese I needed instead of waiting until I got back to my side of town and going to Publix because Winn Dixie closed the store at Brook Highland years ago.

So that’s just what I did. When I got to the check out line, the cashier asked if I had a Winn Dixie card. I had forgotten about my Winn Dixie card, which was probably the very first discount card I ever owned. I used it all the time. I explained to the cashier that unfortunately Winn Dixie closed the store near my house, so I no longer carried my Winn Dixie card and had no idea what had happened to it.

She asked for my phone number. I said it had been years since I had used the card, and I was sure I wasn’t still in the system, but I gave it to her anyway. What do you know, I was still there, and I saved $1.59 on two containers of soft cream cheese. Note: I really pays to have one of those discount cards, because it appears that Winn Dixie charges non-card holders a huge premium.

Anyway, maybe some of you are way more organized than I and carry all of those cards in some convenient container that you tuck into your purse. However, there’s got to be a better way. Surely there’s an app for that.

North to Alaska!!

2011-07-05T12:47:00.001-05:00

LBeau and I recently returned from an Alaska cruise on Oceania Cruise Line's Regatta. Mark another one off the bucket list.

Sailing from Vancouver, BC, on Friday, we headed north through the Inside Passage Way and arrived in Ketchikan Sunday morning. There we boarded a smaller boat for a pleasant cruise of the George Inlet where we helped hoist a couple of crab traps. I was even brave enough to hold a crab for a special photo opportunity.

Back at the George Inlet Lodge, we were treated to an all-you-could-eat crab feast. It was some of the best eating we did on the entire trip.

There was even a contest to see which table could pile up the highest mound of crab shells. We didn't win, but I think it was only because our tablemates were too neat and kept their shells on their plates.

Our next port was Wrangell, a small fishing village that's easy to explore on your own. We visited a Tlingit clan house where we learned about the ravens and the eagles from four Tlingit women dressed in their native costumes.

One of the main things I was looking forward to on our trip was a chance to see whales up close and personal. Although several whale watching excursions were offered by the cruise line, we chose Whales and Rainforest Trails provided by Gastineau Guiding Company. Turns out that we chose well.

Our group was small—only 16, and our guide, Diane, a biology teacher when school is in session, was outstanding. The first part of the trip took us on a hike through the rainforest where Diane gave us lots of information about the native plants before leading us to a magnificent view of the Mendenhall Glacier.

Next we boarded a small boat at Auke Bay Harbor for the whale watching portion of our adventure. The whales were up to the task, and the lighthouse at Point Retreat made a beautiful backdrop for the breaching humpbacks and orcas.

The orcas were so plentiful it was hard to count, and our boat captain maneuvered us all around the point for the best sightings.

But by far the highlight of the day was watching the humpbacks form a bubble net to corral the fish before exploding to the surface for giant gulps of food. It doesn't get better than this.

At Hoonah we had another culinary adventure. Dodie showed us how to filet and prepare halibut and salmon, which we grilled over an outdoor alder wood fire, while bald eagles soared overhead. She also showed us how to prepare smoked salmon dip and salmon burgers and gave us the recipes to take home.

At Skagway we traveled north by bus up the Klondike Highway with several stops along the way. The sunny skies were perfect for photographing the scenery. The bus trip took us north of Fraser, BC, for a stop at the Yukon Suspension Bridge, a pedestrian bridge across the Tutshi River Canyon. The center of the swaying bridge was great for viewing the river below.

Back in Fraser, we left our bus and boarded the White Pass Railroad for the return trip to Skagway.

We decided that our day in Sitka would be a little more leisurely, so we opted for a two-hour nature hike and tour of the town. Our first stop was the Alaska Raptor Center, followed by a hike through the Tongass National Forest in the Sitka National Historical Park. Then we skirted the harbor, ending up at the Russian Orthodox Church. LBeau and I got to go to the top of the bell tower and watch the bells played. They were so loud that we definitely needed the headphones that our guide provided.

For the next two days, we cruised beautiful bays and fjords, getting close looks at some of Alaska's magnificent glaciers. The first day took us close to the Hubbard Glacier at Disenchantment Bay.

The second day took us into College Fjord, where all of the glaciers are named for Ivy League colleges, with the largest being Harvard Glacier.

When we arrived in Seward, LBeau and I were glad for a chance to get back on shore. Unfortunately, we had booked a five-hour Kenai Fjords cruise that turned out to be about twice as long as it needed to be. We saw whales, sea lions, harbor seals, eagles, gulls and puffins (you'll have to trust me about the puffins, because my pictures are not very good), but the weather was cold and rainy and the water was rough. Couple that with about 200 other passengers, all scrambling for the best views, and it was probably our least favorite excursion.

Homer was another "take it easy" day. We took the free bus into town and walked from one drop-off point to the Pratt Museum. They have a beautiful small botanical garden in front and some nice exhibits. On the way, we passed this cute cafe but it was only open in the evening.

Our cruise ended in Anchorage, and since our flight didn't depart until almost 10 p.m., LBeau and I rented a car and first headed northeast on Highway 1, which turned out to be a pretty drive along the Matanuska River.

Then we doubled back and headed northwest, stopping in Wasilla for lunch. We could not see Russia from there, and I wouldn't recommend this drive unless you have time to travel as far north as Denali National Park. We'll have to save that for another trip.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this picture of an "almost" sunset. Since our trip spanned the summer solstice, the days were quite long with sunsets around 11:30 p.m. LBeau and I never quite managed to stay up that late.

A Wonderful Life

2011-06-07T08:33:00.001-05:00

Today, June 7, 2011, marks a milestone in our family, as my sweet mother-in-law turns 100 years old!!

Annie Martha McCallum Beaumont was born on June 7, 1911, in Union Church, Mississippi, the third child and second daughter of Samuel Tucker McCallum and Lilly Boatner Winters McCallum. In 1919 the family farm was sold, and Sam, Lilly and their five children (they would later add another son), moved to Lake Village, Arkansas.

It was there in 1929 that Martha met Lauren Hunter (Beau) Beaumont, who traveled Arkansas selling farm implements for International Harvester.

Martha and Beau married on May 3, 1931. After living in Little Rock, Fort Smith and North Little Rock, they eventually settled in Newport, Arkansas, when Beau purchased the International Harvester dealership there. It was there that they raised their three children, Billie Anne, Larry (LBeau) and Mary Katherine.

Eventually, all three children would marry, which would lead to eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren and counting.

Mema Martha with her grandchildren at Pickwick Lake

Mema with four of her seven great grandchildren

Most of us, along with extended family and friends (about 50 in all) gathered in Memphis last weekend for a big celebration. It was a family reunion atmosphere, but Martha ruled the day.

We looked at old pictures, told stories, read family letters and even played games. And on Saturday night, we toasted the birthday girl who blew out the candles on this beautiful cake, with a little help from Brent, Makayla and David.

Happy Birthday, Mema. Here's to many more.

What Child Is This?

2011-05-18T21:12:00.001-05:00

Last week I emailed my youngest son Ben this picture of himself and commented on how much I thought it looked his daughter Lucy.

As the third child, Ben has always insisted that I never made any pictures of him, and earlier today he sought confirmation from his two older brothers. Here's the email "conversation" that took place. I've cleaned up their spelling and grammar. Can't help it; it's the English teacher coming out.

Ben: What do you think guys... is this me or Brent? I think it's Pun (that's Brent). Mom claims it's me, but I can tell that she is not certain.

Brent: Looks like you to me. I might even see a widow's peak.

Me: See those dimples? Brent did not have dimples.

Hunter: That's Benj. Widow's peak and elfin ears give it away.

Me (just to prove my point): Here's Brent at about the same age.

Hunter: That's as chubby as Brent's ever been.

Ben: Admitting this is me would be admitting that Mom actually took pictures of her third child...

Hunter: I think you can credit Olan Mills for that one. It's not a snapshot like Mom would have taken. It's a portrait with a faux background.

Ben: Good point H. It was probably a photo session set up for you, and they used me for the test shot.

So you be the judge. I'm sure you'll agree with me that those are photos of two different children.

And for the record, here's Lucy. She looks an awful lot like her daddy Ben, widow's peak, elfin ears and all.

A Hint of Color

2011-05-06T15:52:00.001-05:00

I just finished a beginning Photoshop class earlier this week, so in honor of Mothers Day, I thought I'd try "hand tinting" my mother's engagement picture.

Here's the original scanned photo.

And here's the "hand tinted" version.

I do need to practice some more, but I think I'm going to like using this technique. Happy Mothers Day, Mother.

Wanted: Dead or Alive

2011-05-04T07:03:00.001-05:00

Hearing the news of the demise of Osama bin Laden, I was reminded of this picture that I took in 2003.

That’s my daddy and my Uncle Joe sitting on the porch of the mess hall at the Camden Hunting Club. Until recent events, I hadn’t thought much about the “Wanted” poster that appears in the background.

Looks like we finally got our man.

KBeau and the Kiddos

2011-04-01T17:27:00.001-05:00

With much excitement and some apprehension, I headed to Savannah, Georgia, a couple of weeks ago to stay with Walker and Lauren while Brent and Katie enjoyed a much needed vacation.

I was excited to see my two oldest grandchildren, but at the same time I was a little nervous. I would have them by myself for four days and three nights, and it had been more than 25 years since my own children were that age.

Here's a quick look at how we passed the time as well as some of the things I learned, or relearned.

Lesson #1 – Something is bound to go wrong. Shortly after Brent and Katie left on Friday morning, I discovered that the toilet was not flushing properly. Since they have only one bathroom, it was mandatory that we get that problem fixed immediately, or we were going to all be using Lauren’s little potty, and I would be digging a hole in the backyard to bury the waste.

Fortunately, I had spotted the plunger the night before in anticipation of trouble. So I got busy and soon had it working every other flush. We limped along like this for about 24 hours before things got back to normal.

Lesson #2 – Sometimes more than one thing goes wrong. On Saturday while the kids were napping, I gathered up all the dirty clothes and decided to wash a load. The kids were going through several outfits a day playing in their new sand and water toy (more about that later), and with the unseasonably warm weather, they were running out of things to wear.

The washing went just fine, but now I had a huge load of wet clothes and a dryer that was making a funny whining noise and just sitting there blowing hot air without tumbling. Next door neighbor to the rescue. Odette was kind enough to let me bring my wet clothes to her house, and even though I contacted the property manager about the broken dryer, I was pretty sure it wouldn't be fixed before my babysitting duties were over.

Lesson #3 – Sand and water do mix. For Christmas LBeau and I had given the kids an outdoor sand and water table. The crab side holds sand and the fish side holds water, and it came with all sorts of boats and buckets and shovels and scoops.

Since it had been sitting in my basement waiting for my trip to Savannah, this was the first chance the kids had had to enjoy their new toy. The weather cooperated beautifully with temperatures in the 70's and 80's, and on Thursday afternoon we had it all set up.

The picture on Amazon.com showed one child playing with the boats on the fish side, while another child made starfish with special molds on the sand side. Well things don't happen just like that in real life. The starfish molds quickly became scoops to transfer the sand to the water, and we ended up with something that looked like this.

The important thing, however, was that the kids had a blast.

Lesson #4 – Outings with the kids can be a lot of fun but require even more planning. On Saturday I made plans to take the kids to the Oatland Island Wildlife Center. I would need to take the double stroller, which was in the storage shed, but I wanted to make a dry run to be sure that I knew how to fold it up and how to open it properly. With my luck, I would get there and wouldn't be able to figure out the stroller. Turned out to be pretty simple.

Next I had to pack provisions—diapers and wet wipes for Lauren, sippy cups with water for both kids, and plenty of snacks (granola bars for Walker and Goldfish for Lauren). I found a tote bag for all of that stuff, got the kids strapped into their car seats, and off we went. Halfway there, I realized that I had forgotten hats and sunscreen. So much to remember. I did later discover the sunscreen in my purse, and the Wildlife Center turned out to be quite shady for the most part, so all was well.

Although the bobcat was in hiding, we enjoyed watching the new baby bull, the fox, the deer, the hawks and eagles, the bison and the tortoises. Walker thought the rooster was a little loud.

The trip home, however, turned out to be the biggest challenge. We had barely gotten started when Walker announced that he had to use the potty, even though I had given him an opportunity before we loaded up. Before we even got off the Wildlife Center property, I pulled into a side road, got him out of the car, and there he went on the side of the road. Little boys are so easy!

Back on the road, I looked back to see two little heads nodding and eyes closing. I was determined to keep them awake. We were not going to miss naptime, because I needed a break!! So we started singing every verse we could think of to "The Wheels on the Bus." We even made up verses—"The daddies on the bus say, 'Go Hogs, go…'"

Lesson #5 – Cheerios should be a food group by themselves. Walker and Lauren are not particularly picky eaters. We had lots of eggies, peanut butter (sun butter for Lauren) and jelly or honey, strawberries, blueberries, Craisins, cheese quesadillas, carrots, pizza, hot dogs with dip-dip (catsup) and even edamame, but Cheerios were a favorite. Lauren could eat three bowls for breakfast and still have room for scrambled eggs and toast.

I even found myself enjoying a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast and sometimes lunch. They were quite good, particularly when I added a scoop of Katie's homemade granola.

Lesson #6 – It's probably not a good idea to let your 22-month-old granddaughter play Balloonimals on your iPhone. If you're not familiar with Balloonimals, it works something like this. You get a long skinny balloon, and the idea is to blow on the bottom end of the phone to blow up the balloon. You then shake the phone until the balloon turns into an animal which does all sorts of tricks when you pet it. Then you can burst the balloon animal using a special pump.

Lauren was fine with the shaking and the petting, but she wanted to cover the whole end of the phone with her mouth to inflate the balloon. So after a couple of times playing with this app, I started getting weird messages popping up on my phone—"Charging is not supported on this device." The thing was, I wasn't even trying the charge the phone. I decided the real problem was probably baby spit, so Lauren had to confine her iPhone time to Talking Tom. Sure enough, after a few days the weird messages went away.

I could go on and on with lessons learned—an almost four-year-old is a great interpreter for an almost one-year-old, it's great to have a park within walking distance of your house, Crayola No Mess markers are a wonderful invention, and grandparents still have the right to spoil their grandchildren. I'm sure, in fact, that we watched way more Thomas the Tank Engine, Veggie Tales and Leap Frog videos than Brent and Katie allow.

Perhaps the greatest lesson learned was a new-found appreciation for my own mother and mother-in-law, who kept my own children on numerous occasions when LBeau and I would be out of town. My hat's off to the two Memas. I know my boys must have worn you out, but I also know it was a good tired.

The Wearing of the Green

2011-03-19T15:52:00.001-05:00

Since I was coming to Savannah to keep the grands this weekend, I decided to drive over a day early so that Walker, Katie and I could take in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Savannah has one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country.

It was a gorgeous day, and we found our place along the curb just before the parade started.

The bagpipe bands were quite colorful.

But they were also quite loud. It’s a good thing Walker brought his earplugs.

There were lots of colorful floats.

And even the Budweiser Clydesdales, which were followed by several people with large pooper scoopers.

But Walker was especially thrilled with the Piggly Wiggly float with its giant pig.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

2011-03-10T13:56:00.001-06:00

You know what they say about imitation? Well, consider me flattered.

Back in January, I received an email from Dawn, who is the room mother for her daughter's second grade class in Tampa. As a fund raiser, the students were going to make beverage tubs to sell. When Dawn started doing some research on the internet in hopes of finding something more than simply decoupage pictures on the side of a bucket, she came across my blog post about my galvanized beverage chillers. You can read it HERE.

With a little adult supervision, Dawn thought this might be a good project for her daughter's class. She emailed me for more details, and I told her where I had purchased all of my materials, and approximately how much she could expect to spend. I asked her to send me photos of the completed tubs, and yesterday they arrived in my inbox.

"My local Home Depot was so incredible," Dawn wrote, "and they actually drilled the holes in the tub for me. I can play a real good 'damsel in distress'."

Remember Shrinky Dinks? Dawn had the children make Shrinky Dink beads personalized with their names to incorporate into the project. I see endless possibilities with this clever idea.

Thanks for sharing, Dawn. It's always nice to see what others can do with your ideas.

Mathematics 101 - Fractions

2011-03-03T20:21:00.001-06:00

This is my grandson, Walker. He’s three-years-old, pushing four in a couple of months.

This morning his mother, Katie, made muffins, and Walker enjoyed several. In fact he liked them so much that after his nap he asked for another, and was terribly disappointed when Katie reminded him that he had already consumed lots of muffins.

After much pleading by Walker, Katie told him that he could have half a muffin.

Walker thought about that for a minute and then asked, “Can I have two halves?”

Since grandchildren are about my most favorite things, especially when they are so smart and clever, I thought I'd link up with Laurie, who's hosting "Favorite Things Saturday." Be sure to check it out.

Lucy's First Birthday

2011-02-21T10:48:00.001-06:00

LBeau and I traveled to Harrison, Arkansas, this past weekend to celebrate Lucy's first birthday with Lucy, Ben and Claire and Claire's family. Lucy turned one on Friday, but we saved the party for Saturday, which was also Claire's brother Adam's 19th birthday.

Claire spent Saturday morning making birthday cakes—a pistachio cake for the adults, a banana "smash" cake for Lucy and a brownie cake for Adam.

Claire's sister Caroline helped Claire choose photos from each month of Lucy's first year. These were mounted and hung on the dining room chandelier.

After lunch it was time to celebrate. Lucy briefly donned the Party Princess hat.

But Adam absolutely refused to wear it.

Lucy got lots of cute clothes, including these cool new shoes.

But the most fun was eating the "smash" cake…

…and sitting in her brand new chair.

You're Not Getting Any Younger

2011-02-16T08:14:00.001-06:00

I've had lots of reminders lately that time is marching on. The first came back in January when I visited the orthopedic surgeon to have my sutures removed. When I asked Greg, the physician's assistant, about the repair of the meniscus tear that they had found, he remarked, "Oh at your age we don't repair them; we just clean them up."

I looked at my friend Glenda and said, "Well I guess I'm just too old to fix."

Shortly after that, I began to correspond via email with a cousin in Virginia who is updating the Belin family tree. He needed some help filling in the gaps. My maternal grandmother, Mary Belle Belin Reynolds, grew up in Warren, Arkansas, and is shown below with her siblings.

When I started working on information for my part of the family, I realized that since his last update we've added 15 members of a new generation to the line. This is Ty. Born in January, he's number 14. Later in January Marion, named for my mother, arrived, and number 16 is already on the way.

As if that was not enough hint that I'm not as young as I used to be, my friend Danny began posting pictures on Facebook of our hometown, Camden, Arkansas. This photo of the Tastee-Freez prompted a lengthy discussion of our Friday and Saturday night routine—circle the Tastee-Freez and the Duck Inn, and head back to Teen Town for more dancing to those 1960's 45's.

Meanwhile, Roy, our class president, circulated one of those email quizzes to see how much we remembered. You know, questions like "What builds strong bodies 12 ways?" I got a perfect score.

That prompted Jack to post some pictures from a 1958 Christmas dance. We were 12 years old and in seventh grade, that awkward age where most of the girls are taller than the boys. I was not one of them—awkward, yes (my mother had blessed me with an awful home perm), but taller, no.

Joy and Jack (dancing), and Nancy (seated with the corsage) were our hosts. The dance was held at the Supervisor's Club, which was also the venue for our 45th class reunion several years ago.

So yes, I'm getting older, but it surely is fun to look back and remember the good times. I'm already looking forward to more good times to come.

Valentine Cuties!!

2011-02-14T13:03:00.001-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. In honor of this day that honors love, I thought I'd share this family photo of my brother Tommy and my cousins Mary Lynn and Ruth Ann.

This picture was made sometime in the mid 1950's by Ben Bracken, who was the photographer (the only professional photographer, in fact) in Camden, Arkansas. As I recall, it was for some kind of feature article that was published in the Camden News.

I've spent a lot of time lately looking at old photos from my hometown, thanks to my friend Danny. More on that later as I try to get inspired to start blogging more frequently again.

Meanwhile, hope you get flowers or a heart-shaped box of chocolate candy or at least a card from your sweetie.

Exceedingly Blessed

2011-01-18T07:55:00.001-06:00

Just after Thanksgiving an MRI revealed a mass behind my right knee. This was not news that I was prepared to hear when I finally scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon at the urging of my friends. A torn meniscus perhaps, or maybe just arthritis, but not a tumor.

The good news—Dr. Sorrell was 99.99% certain it was benign. The bad news—to get to it, he would need to make a jagged 6 inch incision behind my knee. Recovery would take about six weeks. So how soon did I need to schedule surgery? After all, I had things to do and places to go.

Destin for New Years…

…and New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.

So I scheduled surgery for Thursday, January 13 (at least it wasn’t Friday the 13th).

When Dr. Sorrell came to see me in pre-op, he said that he had been studying my MRI and thought it was worth trying an arthroscopic procedure before opening up the back of my leg. If it didn’t work, they would flip me over and proceed as originally planned. I agreed.

What a great feeling to wake up hearing one nurse tell another that I had had an arthroscopic procedure. The difference in recovery will be huge!! Instead of the mark of Zorro on the back of my leg, I have three holes in the center of my knee and one on the side.

My friends have been wonderful. Glenda sat with LBeau during surgery, took my prescriptions to be filled and stayed until supper time. She came back the next day to keep me company while LBeau went to work and helped me remove the dressing on Saturday. She’s also become my designated driver. Yesterday we visited one of my job sites, and today she’s taking me for my first physical therapy appointment.

We’ve had delicious meals every night, furnished by my Bible study friends and my P.E.O. sisters. When they see me walking around (I’ve been weight bearing since the first day), they probably wonder why I need such service, but believe me, it would be difficult getting to the grocery store and being on my feet long enough to prepare dinner.

So I am exceedingly blessed. And one more thing. You can’t begin to know how much it means to tell someone you’re praying for them, until it’s you they’re praying for. Thanks everyone!!

Surprise!!

2010-12-28T17:33:00.001-06:00

For our 40th anniversary dinner, the kids were in charge. Needing an outing, they announced they were taking us out to eat. Fine with us. They were paying.

We needed a kid friendly venue, and the majority voted for Chuy’s at the Summit. Mistake. Big mistake. The Summit was a zoo on the Monday after Christmas, and it was a two-hour wait at Chuy’s. No can do with three children age three and under.

Regrouping we headed back east on 280, aiming for Pablo’s at Lee Branch. Fortunately, since everyone in the entire Birmingham metro area was at the Summit, navigating 280 at 6 p.m. was a breeze. Pablo’s had our table ready in less than five minutes, and we had a pleasant dinner. We even found another customer willing to snap a group photo.

But little did LBeau and I know that the fun was just getting started. We had taken three cars to accommodate the eight adults and three children in car seats. By the time LBeau, Mema and I got home, the others were already there and getting the kids in bed. Or so we thought.

Surprise!!

Under the direction of Katie, the kids had spent weeks plotting a surprise anniversary party. Glenda was in charge of the festive decorations on the island, the boys provided beer, and Connie brought wine as well as a delicious spread that Walker called chocolate stuff on crackers (he asked for it for breakfast this morning).

Janice made a delicious appetizer, and Claire spent the afternoon baking a cake at a friend’s house, which she later decorated on the bed in her room upstairs. It was a complete surprise, and I was blown away. Afterward all of our friends gathered for a group photo.

Connie and Terry, KBeau and LBeau, Susie and Wayne, Walt and Glenda, Janice and Don

When Claire instructed us to act goofy, Connie whispered, “Make out.” So we did.

There are lots of years and lots of happy marriages in that picture. Thanks everyone.

How Time Flies…

2010-12-27T16:04:00.001-06:00

…when you’re having fun.

Forty years ago today, LBeau and I were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Camden, Arkansas.

Little did we know that 40 years later we would be spending Christmas with our three sons, two daughters-in-law and three grandchildren.

Happy Anniversary, LBeau. It’s been all fun.

The Village Is Growing

2010-12-17T15:33:00.001-06:00

I just thought I was finished. Lucy's Chocolate Shop arrived in the mail the other day and has joined the other lighted houses in my tiny Christmas village. As you may have read in THIS POST, I only buy pieces that "speak" to me. This piece definitely spoke to me, since Lucy is the name of my 10-month-old granddaughter.

The Chocolate Shop fits in perfectly with Walker's Department Store, Claire's Card Shop, Newport School, the Camden General Store and the Beaumont Inn.

Here's a view from another angle.

I thought the Chocolate Shop would be the only addition to my village this year, but shortly after I uploaded my previous post I received an email from my friend Becky. It contained a link to a website with the instructions to check it out. And there I found what no self-respecting Arkansas Razorback fan could possibly be without—The Hog Penny Pub. Of course, I just had to have it.

So the next time you're in the area, stop by Lucy's Chocolate Shop for a free sample, and then head over to the Hog Penny Pub for a Hog Burger and beer. It's conveniently located next door to the Beaumont Inn.

You might also want to visit Laurie, who's sharing more of her wonderful Christmas collections. It's a sight to behold.

It's Finished…

2010-12-12T20:14:00.001-06:00

Well, mostly it's finished. My Christmas decorating has been dragging on for two weeks now, and there finally comes a time to call a halt. The angel that I bought from a local crafter at the Inverness Elementary School craft show about 20 years ago is sitting atop my tree. For the past several years she was hiding somewhere in that mess that I call an attic, but she resurfaced a few weeks ago.

This new ornament that my sister-in-law Susie gave me…

…has joined some old favorites like this elf that Ben made in first grade.

The 11 stockings that are hanging on my mantel have set the tone for my decorating scheme. Besides, what says Christmas any better than red, white and green? The greenery is a combination of artificial and live things. In fact, the magnolia leaves already need replacing, so I'm sure I'll be raiding my neighbor Susie's yard before too long.

I've put this nativity set that I painted at least 30 years ago on the coffee table so that it will be within easy reach of the grandchildren when the arrive. If they're like my boys, they'll have lots of fun rearranging all of the pieces.

My small collection of lighted houses is arranged on the buffet.

I don't buy a piece unless it "speaks" to me. The Beaumont Inn was my first house, an obvious choice. It was joined by Newport School (LBeau's hometown), Camden General Store (my hometown), Walker's Department Store (my maiden name and my grandson's name) and Claire's Card Shop (my daughter-in-law). I'm going to have to make room for Lucy's Chocolate Shop, which is on the way. If anyone knows of something for Katie, Lauren, Brent, Hunter or Ben, please let me know.

These cute vases with a few sprigs of berries and greenery, decorate the dining room table. I wanted something simple so that we wouldn't have trouble talking to each other when we have our Christmas dinner.

I first saw these vases on the table at my sister's condo in Destin. When I asked her where she got them so that I could buy some for myself, she shared her secret. If you look closely, you'll see that they're really Petron tequila bottles. So she made friends with a bartender who's been saving these for her, and I'm now the proud owner of five of these special vases. The addition of a few candles gives everything a warm glow.

My three French hens sit proudly on my sideboard (the greenery is real, the berries are not)…

…and this tall vase filled with fresh cranberries and a large white candle adds to the soft glow of candlelight. Cedar and red berries decorate the chandelier that hangs over my table.

So I guess I'm ready, or as ready as I'm going to get. Except there are still packages to wrap and Christmas cards to mail. But hey, I'm making progress.

But before I do anything else, I'm going to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch to see what's going on on Metamorphosis Monday. You should pay her a visit too.

You also should visit Kellie’s Korner for more Christmas decor at her Christmas Tour of Homes.

Just Chillin'

2010-12-05T13:00:00.001-06:00

I’ll admit it. I’m behind on my holiday decorating, but I have a good excuse. When I saw this cute beverage tub and wine bucket that my friend Wanda made, I knew I had to make one for myself and extras to give. I had so much fun with this project, that I couldn’t wait to share the how-to.

You'll need to purchase or gather the following materials before getting started.

a large galvanized tub (or smaller bucket for wine cooler)

a drill with a bit that is appropriate for drilling holes in metal (I used a 1/8" bit)

two sizes of wire (I used 14 gauge and 20 gauge)

needle nose pliers for bending the wire

an assortment of wooden and glass beads

a pencil or something similar for curling the wire

Begin by marking the location for the holes evenly spaced around the rim of your galvanized container. I used an oval tub that I purchased from Lowes and spaced the holes about 2 1/2" apart. You can drill the holes using an electric drill, but if you don't have one handy, Wanda reports that a hammer and nail will do. It just takes a whole lot longer.

Start with the heavier wire (14 gauge), and loop it randomly around the edge of the tub, adding a few beads on each side of the holes. I worked with pieces of wire that were long enough to go through two or three holes. The needle nose pliers are handy for bending the ends of the wire to secure it to the tub. Don't be concerned about adding too many beads at this point, since you will get most of your color when you start working with the smaller wire.

Once you have formed this foundation, you can begin adding random loops of the smaller wire (20 gauge), strung with a variety of colored glass and wooden beads. I bought large packages of both wooden beads and glass beads at Walmart. I checked both Michael's and Hobby Lobby, and Walmart definitely had the best deal. I also purchased the two sizes of wire at Walmart.

As you loop the smaller wire, you might want to curl some of it around a pencil for a corkscrew effect. You can also make tighter curls by winding the wire around a large nail.

My finished beverage chiller looked like this. Yours will probably look a little different, as no two will be the same. That's the beauty of this project. Just get started and go with the flow.

Be sure to go visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more amazing transformations on this Metamorphosis Monday. This week you’ll find so many ideas for holiday decorating, that you'll be saying, "So many projects; so little time." I’m certainly going to be looking for inspiration to get started on my own Christmas decor.

A Whole Bunch of Randomness—Wednesday Hodgepodge

2010-12-01T01:00:00.001-06:00

Once again, Joyce at From This Side of the Pond is hosting Wednesday Hodgepodge. I like these things because they are instant food for blogging. Thanks, Joyce. Be sure to visit her when you're through here.

1. What is the most interesting thing you've done in the last year?

I'm not sure "interesting" is exactly the right word. "Thrilling" is perhaps better, but hands down the most amazing and joyful thing I did in the last year was witness the birth of my granddaughter Lucy. Thanks to Ben and Claire for sharing that special time with me and her other grandmother Marie.

This sweet little girl is nine months old now. We can't wait for her and Walker and Lauren and their parents to get here for Christmas.

Photo by Lucy's Uncle Luke

2. What is your most meaningful family heirloom?

I love old family photos. Some of the ones I have are from before I was born. Others bring back fond memories of special times growing up. I really need to spend some time scanning them and collecting them in a digital family scrapbook. So many projects; so little time.

Here's one of all of the Reynolds cousins. I'm the oldest of 21 grandchildren on my mother's side of the family.

3. What food festival would you most like to attend? If you're not sure click here to see a list of possibilities.

I don't see how any food festival could possibly be any better than Thanksgiving dinner in Camden, Arkansas, with all my Reynolds kinfolk. Our gatherings have gotten so large that we now have them in the fellowship hall of the First Presbyterian Church.

My cousin Robert smokes the turkeys, and his wife Alma makes the giblet gravy. Mother makes the cornbread dressing, Aunt Mary bakes the homemade rolls, and everyone else contributes vegetables, salads and desserts. Yummm!!

Photo by my nephew Benton Walker

4. Snow...do you love it or is it considered a four letter word where you live?

Love, love, love snow. Just not too much of it. I'd love to have one good snow a year. The kind that lasts for a couple of days. We haven't had too many of those around here lately. Last year's "big" snow, the first measurable snow we'd had in a number of years, was gone in a few hours.

5. Can you ski? Do you ski? Are you any good?

I've never been skiing, and I have no desire to learn. I would like to visit a ski resort during the ski season, however, and sit around the fire drinking hot toddies.

6. What quality in your spouse or best friend are you most thankful for?

I know people whose husbands are such homebodies that they aren't much interested in seeing the world. I'm so thankful that LBeau is not one of those spouses. He loves traveling as much as I do. We are fortunate that we've been able to take at least one good trip a year now that our children are no longer on the payroll. Our most recent trip was a cruise that started in Venice with stops in Croatia, Montenegro, Turkey and Greece.

7. Describe the coziest spot in your home.

That would probably be my screened porch, especially in the spring and fall. Even on a warm summer day, I've been known to curl up on the love seat for a nice afternoon nap.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My daddy would have been 89 today. Happy Birthday, Daddy. I still miss you. Wasn't he the cutest little boy?

Let's Hear It For the Girls!!

2010-11-21T09:10:00.001-06:00

LBeau and I raised three boys, and while I wouldn't trade my sons for anything in the world, I'm really getting spoiled by having some girls around. Girls remember your birthday without getting a text message reminder.

Case in point. Last Sunday on my birthday we were in Arkansas for a family funeral. Returning to Birmingham, we stopped in Little Rock to see Ben, Claire and Lucy. Sweet Claire had baked me a birthday cake, and Lucy got to help blow out the candles.

Point #2. In the mail the next day was this birthday card from Brent, Katie, Walker and Lauren. Does anyone think Brent was the one who helped the kids make this cute masterpiece?

I am truly blessed to have two beautiful, thoughtful and creative daughters-in-law. Therefore, I'm joining Laurie for Favorite Things. Go check it out.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

2010-11-17T06:23:00.001-06:00

My blogging buddy Joyce at From This Side of the Pond started a new meme last week (somehow I missed the first one). She asks random questions, and we're suppose to supply answers. Here goes.

1. What is the most amazing weather you've ever seen?

That's a tough one, but I'd probably have to say the Blizzard of 1993 when it was snowing and lightening all at the same time. We ended up with over a foot of snow and no power for several days, a rarity for Alabama.

Son number one barely made it home for spring break from the University of Arkansas. All he wanted to do was visit friends and watch college basketball. He got to do neither.

2. What is a sound or noise you love?

I do love the sound of the ocean. It's a shame that I can't get to the beach more often.

But my absolutely, positively most favorite sound in the whole world is 70,000 plus Calling the Hogs on a crisp autumn afternoon in Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

3. Do you like seafood? What's your favorite seafood dish?

See #2 above. How can you love the beach and ocean and not love seafood, unless you're my mother. Given a choice of steak or seafood, I'll pick the seafood anytime.

It would be hard to say what my favorite seafood dish is. Whatever is fresh works just fine. These fresh crabs out of Puget Sound were outstanding in our omelet the next morning.

4. What part of your day requires the most patience?

Probably night time when I'm trying to get to sleep and LBeau is snoring loudly, oblivious to my tossing and turning.

5. What's your favorite shade of blue?

That would be a toss up between sky blue…

…and Mediterranean blue.

6. Do people underestimate you?

A think a lot of my subcontractors probably underestimated me when I first started building and remodeling houses. After all, that's a "man's" business. Over the years, I've proven to them that I know what I'm talking about (usually), so we've definitely developed a mutual respect.

7. When was the last time you had butterflies in your stomach?

That's easy. Last Saturday just before kick off of the Razorback game. I don't care what team we're playing, I always get butterflies.

8. Insert your own random thought here, and remember...I have a wooden spoon and I'm not afraid to use it.

Since I didn't participate last week, I'm going to use this space to answer the question from last week about how and why I chose my blog name. When my boys were younger and we went on road trips with them, LBeau was notorious for getting in the slow lane, which often turned out to be an exit only lane. Then would come the panic to switch lanes, many times in heavy traffic.

I was on a trip with LBeau when I started my blog. I was inspired to start writing by my youngest son when I relayed something LBeau had done that day. If you want to read more about it, go HERE.

Now be sure to go visit Joyce for more Wednesday HP musings.

Oh, Deer!!

2010-11-07T13:58:00.001-06:00

Arkansas has six seasons—spring, summer, fall, winter, football season and deer season. Several posts on Facebook in the last few days from friends and family reminded me that it’s now deer season back home.

I grew up in a family of deer hunters. Daddy and a couple of my uncles always spent the week of my birthday at the Camden Hunting Club. They were joined on the weekend by my brother and several cousins (Daddy wouldn’t let Tommy skip school to go deer hunting). Daddy was a charter member of the CHC, a collection of cabins and shacks on land leased from International Paper Company.

Daddy and Uncle Joe on the porch of the Camden Hunting Club mess hall. Be sure to take note of the wanted poster.

Back in the day, deer season lasted for a week in November, with another week-long hunt in December. One night during the November hunt was always family night at deer camp. I loved family night. The camp cook prepared venison and homemade biscuits, and the wives of all the deer hunters filled in with the rest. That was some good eatin’.

Today, there’s bow and arrow season and muzzleloader season in addition to modern gun season, which runs for several weeks. Back in the day, the limit was one buck per hunter, per season. Today, doe are no longer off limits.

At one point, my mother, her sister, and her sisters-in-law decided it was time to start their own deer camp. “Deer camp” for these women consisted of a trip to Little Rock for Christmas shopping, a tradition they carried on for many years.

We are heading to Arkansas in a few weeks for Thanksgiving as usual, and it’s a sure bet that a lot of my family will be in the deer woods. They’ll come in on Thursday night for Thanksgiving dinner, and some of them will venture in on Saturday in time to watch the Hogs play LSU. Otherwise, they’ll be up before dawn and in their deer stands bright and early waiting for that trophy buck to pass their way.

Brent bagged this 8-point buck in 2003.

Since deer season is a big favorite in my family, I’m linking (a little late) to Laurie’s Favorite Things Saturday. Head on over and join her for some fun reading.

It’s Crazy Out There

2010-10-28T17:36:00.001-05:00

We returned from our two-week trip to 80 degree highs in Alabama and to these blooming in the yard.

That’s an iris. Mine normally bloom in March or April. What in the world is going on out there, and do you suppose they will bloom again when it really is spring?

We did get some much needed rain this week, and it is supposed to be colder this weekend. Will be interesting to see how the iris that are already blooming and these yellow ones that are about to bloom survive. I’ll let you know.

Athens—The Acropolis and More

2010-10-24T10:03:00.001-05:00

After disembarking the Regatta this morning at the port of Piraeus, we boarded a bus for our tour of Athens. Following a brief city tour, our guide took us first to the Acropolis Museum for a look a some of the artifacts found there.

Then it was time to get up close and personal with the Acropolis itself.

As you can see, we had an absolutely gorgeous day for sightseeing.

After checking into our hotel, the four of us headed out to see if we could find Thamasis, a restaurant recommended by Sophia, one of our fellow travelers. The directions provided at the hotel were excellent, and after a little help from a couple of shop keepers, we were soon enjoying souvlaki and washing it down with Mythos.

We made it back to the hotel in time for the 5 p.m. changing of the guard at the Greek Parliament, just across the square from our hotel.

I think these guys must have studied dance somewhere down the line.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question, “What Biblical event tends to support the superstition that 13 is an unlucky number?” is the Last Supper (there were 13 in attendance).

By the way, I was expecting the Razorback game to be over with before bedtime last night, since it started at around 11:30 a.m. I wasn’t counting on two lightening delays. Thanks to Ben for texting me the updates.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the U.S.A.

Mykonos—With a Side Trip

2010-10-23T13:59:00.001-05:00

Today we have been anchored in the harbor at Mykonos for our final port of call before disembarking tomorrow in Athens. It’s hard to believe that our two weeks are almost over.

After tendering ashore, we met our guide for the trip to the island of Delos, a 30-minute ferry ride. Delos is a small uninhabited island but is crammed full of ancient Greek ruins. Although it was a bright sunny day, the winds were fierce, and we huddled together in our hooded jackets as we listened to our knowledgeable guide describe what we were seeing.

The ferry ride back to Mykonos was more than a little rough, and LBeau got a little green around the gills. However after a lunch of Coke and bread (the rest of us enjoyed a delicious fish soup), he rallied, and we spent an hour or so exploring this seaside village of white stucco houses, shops and churches.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question, “The best dog is the __________ because it feeds the hand that bites it” is, of course, the hot dog. Today’s trivia question is “What Biblical event tends to support the superstition that 13 is an unlucky number?” Answer tomorrow.

Kusadasi, Turkey—The Ruins of Ephesus

2010-10-22T15:37:00.001-05:00

Today’s post will be brief. It’s been a long day, and it’s way past my bedtime in this part of the world. We are on our way to Mykonos, Greece, after being docked all day at Kusadasi, Turkey.

This morning we visited the ruins of ancient Ephesus. Words cannot begin to describe how spectacular this site is, and pictures do not really do it justice. You just have to see it for yourself.

Can you find the famous swoosh in this carving depicting the Goddess Nike?

We learned that the Turks like to tell it like it is. Not only do their cigarette displays state simply, “Smoking Kills” (no surgeon general mumbo jumbo for them), but there were these signs prominently displayed on some of their shops.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question, “Which sitting president never threw out the first pitch on the opening day of baseball season?” is Jimmy Carter. He’s been a popular answer during afternoon Team Trivia.

Today’s trivia question is a fill in the blank. “The best dog is the __________ because it feeds the hand that bites it.” I’ll have the answer tomorrow.

Santorini—A Panoramic Tour

2010-10-21T14:41:00.001-05:00

Today we are anchored just off the coast of Santorini, one of the most beautiful of our ports. After tendering ashore, a trip that was more than a little rough, we boarded buses for a tour of this volcanic island.

Our first stop was at the highest point on the island for a photo opportunity.

Next stop was the village of Oia, where we enjoyed our morning cappuccino. At the suggestion of Rick Steves, LBeau and I also ordered Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts. Not only was the yogurt delicious, but the restaurant gave us beautiful views of the blue topped churches that Santorini is noted for.

Finally the bus took us to the town of Fira. The four of us decided to have lunch in a local restaurant before heading back to the port. There are only three ways down from the old town—walk more than 600 steps, ride a donkey or take the cable car. We opted for the latter.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question—What does the acronym ZIP stand for?—is Zone Improvement Plan. A couple of you had the right answer.

Today’s question is “Which sitting president never threw out the first pitch on the opening day of baseball season?”

Crete—The Palace of Knossos

2010-10-20T14:31:00.001-05:00

Rise and shine, it’s a beautiful day on the island of Crete. From our port at Agios Nikolaos, we traveled about an hour to reach the palace of an ancient Minoan civilization.

The Palace of Knossos is an important archeological site consisting partially of the excavated ruins and partially of restored areas. It attracts lots of visitors and was covered with people traveling alone or in groups with a guide.

The answer to yesterday’s trivia question, “What Paris attraction draws the largest number of visitors annually?” is Disneyland, Paris.

Today’s question is “What does the acronym ZIP stand for in Zip Code? I’ll have the answer tomorrow after our visit to Santorini.

Mystra—The Last Byzantine Stronghold

2010-10-19T11:30:00.001-05:00

Dawn showed the makings of a good day as the Regatta docked in Monemvasia, sometimes called the Gibraltar of Greece. While Susie and Wayne decided to stay in town, LBeau and I boarded a bus to visit the Byzantine ruins in Mystra.

After about an hour and a half drive, we made a “technical stop,” as our guide called a potty break, at a restaurant near Sparta. The courtyard was filled with orange trees and quite a few of these were feasting on the ripened fruit. I don’t think we grow them quite this large in Alabama.

The ruins of Mystra lie on a hillside. Our guide opted to have the bus driver take us near the top, so that we could work our way down the hillside.

Along the way we visited three churches and a nunnery.

We were tired when we finally returned to the ship, but after a brief rest and afternoon tea, we were ready for Team Trivia, where we finished second.

Yesterday’s question was “What did Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands adopt in 1977?” The answer—Daylight Savings Time.

Today’s question is “What attraction gets the most visitors annually in Paris?” I’ll have the answer tomorrow.

Zakynthos—A Not So Panoramic Tour

2010-10-18T09:49:00.001-05:00

Today’s excursion was entitled “A Panoramic Tour of Zakynthos,” but clouds, fog and rain made the views somewhat less than spectacular. That didn’t keep us from journeying across the island, however, where we toured a Greek Orthodox monastery.

Today’s cappuccino break was accompanied by walnut cake. This specialty of the cafe, recommended by our guide, was a dark cake filled with ground walnuts and drenched in local honey. Susie and Wayne opted for the whipped cream topping.

Back in Zakynthos town, we decided to have lunch at a local restaurant rather than on the ship. Thanks to the reader who recommended that I try kebabs. LBeau and I both ordered them, and they were delicious, and the tzatziki sauce for dipping was yummy. And thanks to Taziki’s, I actually knew what the tzatsiki sauce was.

Back on the ship, we won this afternoon’s trivia contest. The question for today is “What did Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands adopt in 1977?” I’ll post the answer to this question tomorrow, and the answers to yesterday’s questions are at the bottom of this post. Feel free to post your answer to today’s question in the comments.

After trivia, we headed to the bar for high tea. The Good Susie swore that she was only getting tea, but as you can see, the Bad Susie couldn’t resist this cream filled pastry. By the time I snapped this picture, she had already finished the cream cheese sandwich.

Now for the answers to yesterday’s trivia questions.

1. What country has the lowest birth rate? The Vatican

2. What one word is in the middle of Strawberry Fields in Central Park? Imagine

3. Who was the first American president born in a hospital? Jimmy Carter

4. In mock apple pie, what ingredient is substituted for apples? Ritz crackers

5. In internet shorthand, what to the letters AFK stand for? Away From Keyboard

Trivia Time

2010-10-17T09:47:00.001-05:00

After kicking butt in “Name That Tune” the first evening, the four of us decided to try “Team Trivia” the following afternoon. We’re hooked and have been participating each day since.

So far we’ve tied for first one time and finished second on the other occasions. The team that’s hard to beat has a couple of young girls and several Brits on it, which gives them a broad range of knowledge.

Here are a few questions for you to ponder.

1. What country has the lowest birth rate?

2. What one word is in the middle of Strawberry Fields in Central Park?

3. Who was the first American president born in a hospital?

4. In mock apple pie, what ingredient is substituted for apples?

5. In internet shorthand, what to the letters AFK stand for?

Feel free to answer in your comments, and I’ll provide the correct answers tomorrow.

Delphi—It’s All Greek to Me

2010-10-17T07:17:00.001-05:00

Today the Regatta is docked at Itea, Greece, and our excursion was a 30-minute trip to Delphi to see a major archeological excavation.

Among the ancient ruins is the Temple of Apollo, home of the famous Oracle at Delphi. Too bad we couldn’t have visited this site yesterday. Maybe then I wouldn’t have been up at 3:30 a.m. looking for the results of the Arkansas-Auburn game.

Stopping in the town of Delphi, we got a panoramic view across the valley filled with olive trees. The port of Itea is in the distance.

Thanks to everyone who tried to keep me up to speed with the ballgame. I finally had to go to bed at halftime. Looks like that was a wise move. To all of my Auburn friends, I hope you run the tables, and that means beating you know who.

By the way, we had a whole bunch of happy Wisconsin Badgers at breakfast today.

Corfu, Greece—A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

2010-10-16T11:16:00.001-05:00

Up before dawn to enjoy breakfast prior to our morning excursion, we held our breaths as the sun began to rise. With a little luck it appeared to have the makings of a good day. And indeed it was.

After boarding our bus at the port of Corfu, Greece, we headed to the western side of the island to Paleokastritsa. A winding one-lane road took us to the Paleokastritsa Monestary.

The interior of the monestary was heavily adorned in the icons of the Greek Orthodox tradition.

Outside we found gorgeous views of the coastline of the Ionian Sea.

On the way back to Corfu Town, we detoured to Kanoni for a bird’s eye view of the Mouse Island and the airport.

Back in town, our guide gave us a brief walking tour of Corfu Town. Then the four of us settled in for our daily dose of cappuccino. We’ve decided that a cappuccino machine would make a great Christmas present, but LBeau says he’s going to start with a mocha pot.

With such beautiful weather, Susie and I even broke out the capri pants, and we found time to enjoy reading and sunning by the pool. Meanwhile, I’m already getting nervous about the Razorback game at Auburn, which won’t kick off until 10:30 p.m. for us. I don’t see how we can possibly stop Cam Newton. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I may be calling one of you to get the score.

Kotor, Montenegro—More of the Same

2010-10-15T14:38:00.001-05:00

Today we were docked at the port of Kotor, Montenegro. In case you haven’t figured it out already, the weather was more of the same—wet. That didn’t keep us from venturing out on an excursion, but we did make sure to take our umbrellas this time.

After a 30-minute bus ride, our first stop was at the seaside village of Budva.

Once again, we discovered that the best way to escape the elements during our “free time” was a coffee bar and a good cup of cappuccino. We just didn’t realize it would be such a big cup. Not the best idea when you’re operating on limited potty breaks.

Back in Kotor, half of our group decided to head back to the ship, but the four of us continued the tour. We entered the sea gate of the old city very near where our ship was docked, and began a leisurely stroll through the narrow streets, visiting the Maritime Museum and the Cathedral of Sveti Tripun.

Some of the best photo opportunities of the day came when we sailed from Kotor at 5 p.m. Passing by this church, the ship’s captain blew our horn, and someone at the church responded by ringing its bell.

Finally we did a U-turn around these two tiny islands, and made our way through the narrow passage was that would take us out of the Bay of Kotor.

Tomorrow, Corfu, Greece. The weather is not looking promising.

Dubrovnik—Rain, Rain and More Rain

2010-10-14T15:45:00.001-05:00

Greetings from Croatia, home of Davor Rimac, a member of the 1994 Razorback National Champions basketball team.

The word for the day was “wet.” It was overcast and foggy as we docked in Dubrovnik, but a light drizzle began as we set out on our afternoon excursion. Our first stop was the old city inside the ancient city walls.

From there we journeyed to a small seaside resort town. As we enjoyed cappuccino at a small sidewalk cafe, large umbrellas protected us from the elements as the rain began in earnest.

Our day ended with wine tasting accompanied by local cheese and prosciutto.

Here’s hoping for better weather tomorrow when we visit Kotor, Montenegro.

Venice—Queen of the Adriatic

2010-10-13T14:39:00.001-05:00

After an overnight flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam, we arrived in Venice about mid-day Tuesday. Upon boarding our ship, the Regatta, Susie, Wayne, LBeau and I made our way to the Terrace Cafe for lunch. The day was clear and a little cool as we got our first views from the deck of the ship of this city of 60,000 residents and 20 million tourists.

Before departing home, LBeau had researched the Vaporetto, Venice’s system of water buses. So after unpacking for our two-week cruise, the four of us headed out to explore Venice on our own.

The number 2 line took us from our ship to the station at San Zaccaria. From there it was a short walk to Piazza San Marco. The white and orange building in the photo above is a Vaporetto station.

A member of the ship’s staff had assured us before we set out that there would be plenty of signs to direct us to the famous Rialto Bridge. Sure enough, we found it easily and got our first view of the Grand Canal.

After dinner at a nearby restaurant, we made our way back to the Rialto Bridge where we boarded a water bus on the number 1 line for a ride along the Grand Canal. It was a beautiful night with a crescent moon over Venice.

Today’s guided excursion took us back to San Marco Piazza where we had a guided tour of the Doge’s Palace and the Basilica San Marco. We learned that St. Mark is buried there but only because the Venetians stole his remains from his original burial site in Alexandria after he became the patron saint of Venice.

We said goodbye to Venice late this afternoon. As we set sail at 4 p.m., Susie and I enjoyed a Belini, invented at Harry’s Bar in Venice. It was good, but for my money, you can’t beat the Leaning Belini at Macaroni Grill.

Tomorrow Dubrovnik, Croatia.

The Power of the Written Word

2010-10-10T20:16:00.001-05:00

I have received another email from GE. No, I will not be getting a new refrigerator, but they have offered to reimburse me for the cost of the part.

Interestingly, all of my correspondence with them has been from their Social Media Team. All of my talking to various GE “consumer advocates” via telephone didn’t produce much in the way of results. However, when I published my concerns for all the world to read (well, maybe not quite; I only have a little over 100 followers), somebody took notice.

Guess that’s a testament to blogging.

You Just Never Know…

2010-10-09T13:21:00.001-05:00

…who’s reading your blog.

Some of you may have read THIS POST from a few days ago. Just a few minutes ago I received this comment on that post:

“Kathy, this is Vikki with GE. I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am for what you've been through with your GE refrigerator. Please email the details to us at eResponse@ge.com and let us see how we can assist you.”

I have responded to Vikki as follows:

“Vikki,

“Thanks for posting a comment on my blog. Here's the sequence of events:

“1. My refrigerator quit cooling properly and quit making ice in mid-August. I called GE repair service and made an appoint with a service technician for the following day.

“2. He diagnosed the problem as a bad evaporator fan motor. However, he didn't have the part on his truck, so he ordered it and said that GE would schedule another appointment as soon as he received the part (he made arrangements for the part to be shipped to him).

“3. A week later I got a call from GE saying that the part was on backorder until mid-September and they would schedule another appointment once the part arrived.

“4. On September 14 I called GE to inquire about the status of my part and was told that it was now on backorder until October 7. The person I spoke with suggested that I call GE Consumer Relations.

“5. I spoke to Jenine in Consumer Relations who told me that the part was actually on backorder until October 1 but that she would contact a parts specialist to see if one could be located. The following day, I received this email from her:

“Hi Kathy,

“The part that you need is on back order until October 1. Give it about a week to be in the warehouse once there they will ship it out next day. Thank you for your patience in this matter and if there is anything else I can do for you don't hesitate to e-mail me and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for continuing to be a Loyal GE Customer.

“Sincerely,

“Jenine

“Consumer Advocate

“6. On October 4, I contacted GE again to inquire about the status of my part. They informed me that the part was now on backorder until December 22. Do you suppose they were just going to leave me hanging and never tell me that the backorder date had been extended? Again, they suggested that I contact consumer relations.

“7. I spoke to Shiloe in GE consumer relations. She told me about another customer who had been waiting for a while for a part that was backordered and that this customer did an online search and found the part herself. She thought I might want to do the same thing.

“8. It took me about 5 minutes to locate a parts warehouse that showed the part in stock. Just to make sure, I called the warehouse to verify that they did indeed have the part. They did. I ordered it, and paid extra for 2^nd day air shipping. It was important to me to get my refrigerator repaired before the end of the week, since I am leaving the country on Monday for two weeks. This was last Monday. They said the part would be shipped the following day and would arrive on Thursday.

“9. I called GE consumer relations again and attempted to reach Shiloe (she had given me her extension number). However, her line was busy, so I opted to speak to another person. He cancelled the order for my part and scheduled my repair for Friday between 8 and 12.

“10. The part that I ordered actually arrived a day early on Wednesday. The curious thing is that a duplicate part also arrived that same day from a supply house in Tuscaloosa. When I called that supply house to find out why they had shipped the fan motor to me, they said it was requested by GE consumer relations. I'm curious as to why GE could not have obtained my part in this manner when they first determined that my part was on backorder. I suspect that nobody even tried.

“11. The serviceman arrived Friday morning, and in 15 minutes he had my refrigerator fixed. He could not believe it had taken this long. He remembered coming to my house back in August and had assumed that a different serviceman had been sent to do the repair.

“I have been a loyal GE customer for years. I built new houses until about three years ago, and I used GE appliances in all of my new construction. I still remodel for various clients and always recommended GE. This experience has left a bad taste in my mouth.

“Perhaps in the future GE will do a better job of attempting to locate repair parts for their customers instead of simply throwing up their hands and waiting for backordered parts to be shipped to GE.

Kathy Beaumont”

It will be interesting to see how they respond. Do y’all think there’s any chance I’ll find one of those cool French door refrigerators with the bottom freezer sitting on my front porch one day soon? Probably not.

Sisters

2010-10-06T14:02:00.001-05:00

I spent last weekend catching up with my sisters—about 50 of them. We became sisters more than 40 years ago when we pledged our loyalty to Gamma Nu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Arkansas.

Back in the day we came from cities like Little Rock, Dallas and Houston and from small Arkansas towns such as Camden, Lewisville, Hughes, Newport, Eudora, Marvell and Pocahontas. We are more scattered now. We still live in Little Rock, Dallas, Houston and Eudora, but we also came from as far away as Alabama, Florida, Maryland, New York City and California for a reunion in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

After a few whispers of "who's that over there," we soon began to recognize those same sweet girls in faces that are all too quickly 45 years older. And suddenly the room was filled with lively chatter reminiscent of dinner conversations at the Kappa house in the 1960's. But now instead of classes, dates, pledge duties, lock outs and the prospects for initiation, we shared stories of marriages, children, grandchildren and careers.

We also reminisced about our college days and even tried singing a few Kappa songs. And while we may not remember all of the secret stuff, some of us still know most of the words to "Oh, Pat, Says She."

The weekend ended with a presentation of plans for the construction of a new chapter house on the Arkansas campus. We could scarcely believe that the beautiful white house on the hill is in need of replacement. After all, it's practically brand new. Well, it was when we moved into it in 1965 and lived for several weeks with no stalls to separate the potties and workmen standing on the ends of our beds to install light fixtures when we woke up in the morning.

Where did all the years go?

Thanks to all of those sisters who made the weekend possible. We are lucky to have them and to know that they will get us together again before too many more years go by. After all, it's important to stay connected with your sisters.

Loyally,

That Part Is On Backorder

2010-10-04T17:09:00.001-05:00

I am a very frustrated owner of a GE refrigerator that’s been sick since mid-August. It won’t make ice, and the fresh food compartment won’t keep milk cold enough to keep it from going sour. Turns out it needs a new motor for the evaporator fan, at least according to the GE man who looked at it back in August.

He didn’t have the part on his truck at the time, so he ordered it and set up a day to come back. The day before our scheduled appointment, someone called to say that the part was on backorder until mid-September. Okay. I’d just have to buy more ice and continue tromping up and down the stairs to take milk to the old refrigerator in the basement.

Mid-September came and went. The part was now on backorder until October 1. More ice, more tromping, more spoiled milk when I forgot to take it back to the basement.

Today’s October 4, so I called to check on the status of my part. Still on backorder. Now until December 22. I’m tired of buying ice, tired of tromping up and down the basement stairs and tired of spoiled milk. December 22 is totally unacceptable.

They referred me to a consumer advocate. I’d been this route before back in September. All they can do is sympathize. I mean they’re not in the business of manufacturing parts, are they?

Turns out that Shiloe had a better idea. Just Google the part and see if you can find it yourself. Why didn’t someone suggest this a month ago? It took me all of five minutes to find the part, speak to someone in sales to verify that they did indeed have it in stock, give them my credit card number and get it on its way to Birmingham, Alabama. It’s scheduled to arrive Thursday.

Now let’s see if the GE repairman shows up first thing Friday morning as scheduled.

Moral of this story. If they tell you the part is on backorder, get the part number and see if you can locate it yourself.

De-Vine!!

2010-09-18T01:00:00.000-05:00

Good morning, and Happy Pink Saturday. If y'all read THIS POST, you know that Connie and I have been doing a lot of work at Mark's and Sandi's house. After we complete the work outside, I will show you what we've done to the exterior as promised.

Meanwhile, I want to share pictures of an interesting vine that we uncovered when we started cleaning out the natural area. Mark says that it must have volunteered because he didn't plant it. I'm guessing some bird pooped a seed or two. Look at the beautiful colors in the berries, ranging from green and blue to bright pink.

The speckled ones remind me of robin's eggs. Here's another picture showing the beautiful range of colors.

A Google search on speckled berries turned up a name for this vine. It's called porcelain berry vine, and is sometimes nicknamed bubble gum vine because of the range of berry colors. It turns out that you don't want this vine in your garden. It can become invasive and is likened to kudzu, the vine that ate the South. In some states it's even illegal to plant it!

Fortunately, I found another plant we can live with. In the same bed was beauty berry, showing off its bright pink dress.

So enjoy your Pink Saturday, everyone, and be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, where lots of folks will be dressed in pink. I, however, will be wearing my Razorback red and white, which could become pink if you mixed the two together.

Where Thy Footsteps Have Trod

2010-09-11T16:41:00.001-05:00

The University of Arkansas has created a new promotional video that will be used on this year's football broadcasts. It's based on the Senior Walk tradition, which is one of the oldest on the UofA campus.

Beginning at the front door of Old Main, Senior Walk displays the names of more than 120,000 University of Arkansas graduates, going all the way back to the first graduating class in 1876. It stretches throughout the campus for more than five miles.

Back in the day, names were stamped by hand in fresh concrete. In 1986 the University Physical Plant invented the Sand Hog, a machine that etches the names into concrete.

I am fortunate to find my name on Senior Walk twice—once with the class of 1968 for my undergraduate degree, then again in 1972 for my master's degree. LBeau's name can be found with the class of 1976 for his master of civil engineering degree. Each of our boys is also on Senior Walk—Hunter in 1996, Brent in 2002 and Ben in 2004.

By the way, University of Arkansas graduates will recognize this post title as a line from the Alma Mater. You can listen to it by clicking the button on my sidebar.

Senior Walk is one of my favorite traditions, so I'm linking up with Laurie's Favorite Things. Go visit her.

Goodbye, Old Friends

2010-09-05T09:43:00.001-05:00

I said goodbye to a couple of old friends recently. The first to go was my Motorola Nextel radio. After more than 10 years, I finally got fed up with the quality of my Nextel two-way service.

When I first signed up for Nextel, I was amazed at how much easier it made my life. For a flat monthly rate and with the push of a button, I could talk all I wanted to all I of my subcontractors and suppliers. I didn't have to use precious cell phone minutes or wear a pager, and I never had to beep someone and wait for them to return my call.

In its heyday, Nextel revolutionized the construction business. At 7 o'clock in the morning, I could be enjoying a cup of coffee in my robe and pajamas and give instructions to the framer, painter or roofer.

My sons and their friends used to mock me. "Hey, Billy. We need a load of lumber up on Lot 51. 10-4."

In the end after Sprint bought out Nextel, the quality of the service began to rapidly go downhill. I couldn't have a conversation in the comfort of my kitchen without losing the connection, so I finally decided that I could take that $50 a month and add it to my cell phone plan, which has always been with a different carrier, and still be ahead of the game.

With the arrival of the September catalog, I also decided that it was sadly time to say goodbye to Talbots. I have worn Talbots way longer than I owned a Nextel radio. In fact, I used to order from their catalog long before they had a store in my town. I hate shopping for clothes in department stores. I wear petites, and department stores never have much of a selection. What they do have is crammed in a haphazard mess into a small corner of the store that's hard to find.

But over the last couple of years, Talbots began changing the focus of their marketing to attract the "thirty-somethings" and kicked Granny to the curb. When their September catalog came about a week ago, I didn't see a single thing that looked like me.

Look closely at this description of their "Heritage Fit" pants. It says, "Sits comfortably at the waist."

Wrong. Did you know that Talbots takes the fabric that they used to put at the waist of their pants and adds it to the length? True. So now the petite pants that used to fit me perfectly have to be cut off 4-6 inches in length.

Truthfully, I like my pants to sit slightly below the waist. However, even though I'm in construction, I do not want to look like the plumber when I bend over.

So it's goodbye to Talbots and hello to J. Jill. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with the $10.74 credit on my Talbots account.

I know it's probably cheating to link up with Laurie's Favorite Things, since these "old favorites" have dropped out of favor. But I'm going to cheat and do it anyway. Be sure to visit Laurie where you'll probably see lots of things that bloggers really do love.

Making Spaces

2010-08-29T14:03:00.001-05:00

Next to kitchens, master bathroom remodels are the most common choice in updates for today's homeowners. When Kim and K. C. first approached me and Connie about redoing their master bathroom, their main goal was more closet space.

As you can see from this drawing of the original plan (which was actually built in reverse), their bathroom was dominated by a huge corner whirlpool tub. Kim and K. C. had been sharing the one walk-in closet, and they had simply run out of room.

Remember how all of us thought we just had to have that whirlpool tub when we built or bought our houses in the late '80's through most of the '90's? Many of us later discovered that either we never set foot in the tub or if we did we never turned on the jets because yucky stuff collected in the pipes. Well, Kim was at the point that she was more than willing to give up a tub that she never used if she could use the space for another closet.

After first looking at the possibility of taking part of the master bedroom for another closet, we decided that the best solution was to move the toilet, relocate the shower door (which used to open off the toilet area), and convert the existing toilet/shower room to another closet. Here's a look at the plan for the remodel.

Now Kim and K. C. each have a walk-in closet, and we more than doubled their storage space by adding an armoire between the his and her vanities.

One thing that Kim was worried about was losing the light from the one bathroom window which used to be over the tub, so the original plan was to simply put a cased opening between the vanity area and the toilet/shower area. However, concerns about privacy led Connie to suggest using a French door instead. Problem solved. The door gives a feeling of privacy but still lets light into the vanity area.

The tall armoire and mirrors that run from the top of the backsplash to the bottom of the crown molding add height to a room with 8' ceilings.

We have found that a lot of our customers like the open look of a channel faucet. This one is a fairly recent addition to Delta's Victorian Collection in Venetian bronze. All plumbing fixtures came from Ferguson Supply. Tropic brown granite for the countertops was fabricated and installed by Architectural Stone Accents. The backsplash tile is tumbled marble from Jenkins Brick and Tile. It was also used for the shower floor, ceiling and trim.

We continued the bronze look in our choice of door and cabinet hardware and other accessories, including Kim's lighted wall-mounted make up mirror from Mayer Lighting. It has both a regular and a magnifying side. With a little planning ahead, we added wiring in the wall for the mirror, so there is no unsightly cord to contend with.

The shower is tiled in 13x13 porcelain tile laid in a pattern using brick joint and diagonal. The 2x2 accent tiles complement the bronze fixtures which feature a large rain head, a handheld shower on a slide bar and two body sprays, with a diverter valve that allows you to use any two of these features at the same time. A frameless shower door gives the whole thing a clean look.

The Nolens have been so pleased with their new bathroom that they've let us move on to their kitchen. As K. C. said, "Once you let them in, you can't get rid of them."

For other magical transformations, be sure to visit Susan who is hosting Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.

It's About Time!

2010-08-27T10:06:00.001-05:00

It's almost time. I can feel it in the air. The early mornings are a little cool and crisp, and the oppressive humidity that we had just a few weeks ago is gone for now.

Earlier this week I saw my first yellow sulfur butterflies of the season as I drove down the road. My friend Joe once told me that the appearance of the yellow sulfur butterflies was another sign that it was almost time.

Time for what, you ask. Why college football of course.

Go Hogs!!

And since college football, especially Razorback football, is one of my favorite things, I'm linking up with Laurie for Favorite Things Saturday. Stop by Laurie's place to see other favorites.

P.S. Look what I found sitting on my doorstep when I went out to get the mail today, and from none other than that sweet Laurie. She is so thoughtful.

First was this cute brass plate holder. Laurie remembered how much I liked it when she showed pictures of hers a while back. She recently found this one at an estate sale and thought of me.

It works so well with my pig plate that I think I'll have to use it as a serving piece for the Game Day Watch Party we're having at our house September 4th.

Also in the box were these beautiful eggs with the sweetest birds painted on them. I think they look very French. Laurie said that she has lots of these, and she remembered how much I liked them from one of her earlier posts.

I guess sometimes it just pays to covet your "neighbor's" things!

Catching Up

2010-08-23T11:39:00.001-05:00

My friend Glenda issued an ultimatum yesterday—"Quit playing this game (Words With Friends) and update your blog."

I have to admit that I haven't done a very good job this summer, but I can give you lots of excuses. I've been really busy with work (a good thing), we've spent lots of time with the kids and the grands (also a good thing), we had a great trip to Oregon and Washington (a wonderful way to beat the heat), and I've just plain been lazy (not so good).

So today's post will be an attempt to catch up, so to speak. I won't bore you with the work details, but I will have a couple of more posts about particular projects at a later date. Meanwhile, you can check out this post for one bathroom remodel that Connie and I worked on.

I could go on and on about the grandkids, but I'll try to hit the highlights. Walker and Lauren were here for a few days in early July with Brent and Katie before flying out to Seattle to spend the month with their other grandparents. We made a quick 4th of July weekend trip to Arkansas, stopping in Memphis to see Mema Martha.

Then on to Little Rock for a 4th of July barbeque with my family. Too bad Hunter couldn't join us. He had to stay in Denver where "barbeque" means throwing something (anything) on the grill while we were feasting on pulled pork with all the trimmings from Whole Hog.

This was the first time we had had all three grands in the same place, so it was fun to see Lauren and Lucy in their matching dresses.

Later in the month, we had more time with Lucy when she stopped by with Ben and Claire on their way to and from Destin.

In early August, Katie, Walker and Lauren spent several days in Birmingham on their return from Seattle. We discovered the McWane Center. What a great place to spend time with kids, especially when it's 100 degrees outside. Lauren could have spent hours at the water trough.

And Walker found all kinds of fascinating things to do.

Just last weekend, Ben, Claire and Lucy made a return visit to Birmingham for Ben's 10-year class reunion. Lucy is growing and has started eating solid foods, and I learned that babies are branching out these days. Back in the day it was pretty standard to introduce rice cereal as the first solid. So what was Lucy's first taste of "real" food. Well, let's just say that pretty soon she'll be asking for a side of chips with her guacamole.

So it's been a busy summer, and I've got lots of pictures to show for it. Guess it's time to get back to scrapbooking. Meanwhile, my September Pottery Barn catalog came, and I just loved the script font that they used. It's called Liorah. What do y'all think? I think it's going to be perfect for my scrapbooking projects.

All In a Day's Work

2010-07-31T12:01:00.001-05:00

I feel sorry for people who dread going to work on Monday morning. I love my job, and for me Monday is the beginning of another week helping people turn their dreams into reality.

Connie and I have been busy lately doing just that—turning dreams into reality. One of our recent projects was a total re-make of Sandi's and Mark's master bathroom. Here's a brief looks at the bathroom before we started.

It was a typical 20-year-old master bathroom—outdated wall color and border, cultured marble tub and shower with a low ceiling in the shower, tile floors. The cabinets were stained oak with cultured marble countertops and lots of polished brass—towel bars, faucets and shower door frame.

Fortunately, Sandi and Mark had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted, and provided us with this inspiration picture from a magazine.

We started by gutting everything. We tore out sinks, faucets, tub, shower and tile. The only thing we salvaged was the toilet, which we took out and stored in the basement to reinstall on the finish up.

Sandi and Mark had suspected that they had a shower leak. Sure enough, this is what we found when Ronnie did the shower demolition. You could step right through the floor decking, and some of the studs were rotten, but at this point, it was a pretty easy fix.

Here's an overview of the finished bathroom. The stained cabinets were a concession to Mark, who likes the look of the dark rich wood. We chose alder for these cabinets, that were custom made by Abercrombie Cabinets. Sandi and Mark each have a vanity and an armoire. Mark's side has shelves behind the doors and three deep drawers. Sandi's side looks just the same, but instead of three drawers, she has one drawer and a tilt-out hamper.

The white vessel sinks are from Lowe's. We went with the Delta Victorian collection in Venetian bronze for the sink faucets but decided on the channel style for a more modern touch. Although the inspiration bathroom used marble on the countertops, Sandi liked the look and durability of granite and selected yellow nut from Architectural Stone Accents. The mosaic tile on the backsplash and the 20x20 floor tile came from Jenkins Brick and Tile. The mirrors are by Delta and coordinate with all of their Venetian bronze faucets.

Each vanity is open below with a shelf for baskets. Sandi chose these baskets from Pottery Barn to store towels, wash cloths and toiletries.

It's becoming more and more popular to pack showers with lots of "goodies." This shower has several options—a traditional shower head, a handheld shower and two body sprays. A special diverter lets you operate the body sprays and either of the two shower heads at the same time. We used the same tile as the floor tile on the shower walls in a 13x13 size and accented the walls with a band of the mosaic. A frameless shower door makes for a nice clean look.

The focal point of Mark's and Sandi's bathroom is this beautiful white cast iron pedestal tub by Cheviot. The bronze faucet is also by Cheviot and comes with a handheld shower. For those who prefer a tub bath to a shower, the handheld makes it easy to wash your hair and is also helpful for cleaning. All of the plumbing fixtures were provided by Ferguson Enterprises. Thanks to Amy Bond at the downtown Birmingham showroom for taking our inspiration photo and finding everything we wanted to complete our look.

Here's another look at the tub and the crystal chandelier from Home Depot that hangs in the middle of the bathroom, completing the look that started with an inspiration.

And if you're wondering about what's draped over the outside of the bathroom windows, come back in a few weeks, and I'll show you what we've done to the outside of Mark's and Sandi's home. You won't believe the transformation.

Since my job is one of my "favorite things," I'm linking up with Laurie this week. Go visit her and get inspired.

I also think this qualifies for Metamorphosis Monday. Be sure to visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more transformations.

Beating the Heat

2010-07-23T16:41:00.001-05:00

I have discovered the perfect way to beat the 90 and 100 degree temperatures that we've been enduring here in the South. Get out of town!! Last week, LBeau and I did just that when we spent eight wonderful days in the Pacific Northwest, where the high never got above 75. Here's a quick look at our trip with a few of my favorite photos.

After an early Tuesday morning flight to Atlanta, our Delta flight to Seattle was half an hour late departing (does anything run on time at ATL?). But with the time change, we landed at Sea-Tac shortly after lunch and by 1:30, we were on our way to the Willamette Valley just south of Portland, Oregon.

Wednesday dawned crisp and cool, and we spent the morning driving through the beautiful countryside and touring the Domaine Drouhin winery, where we sampled some of the Pinot Noir that the Willamette Valley is noted for.

After a quick lunch, we visited the tasting room at the Carlton Winemakers Studio, where Jeff introduced us to some delicious organic wines.

Thursday morning found us on the road again as we headed out for a drive up the northern part of the Oregon coast. The views from Highway 101 were magnificent.

Beautiful rock formations…

Interesting lighthouses…

Dramatic drop offs…

And lots of these tiny espresso drive-ins.

Late that afternoon we arrived in Astoria, Oregon, where we had plenty of daylight hours left (it doesn't get dark until almost 10 p.m.) to visit Fort Clatsop and climb the Astoria Column, all 164 steps. Unfortunately, LBeau will not let me forget that I made him stop part way up so that I could catch my breath.

Our hotel was right on the Columbia River and gave us a beautiful view of the Astoria Bridge, which spans the river into Washington.

Friday morning, we crossed the bridge and made our way to Bainbridge Island, Washington, home of our daughter-in-law Katie. Her parents' home sits right on Puget Sound, where you can spend hours watching the boat traffic.

Once the fog burns off, you have a clear view of Mount Rainier in the distance.

And you might even get lucky like Brent and Matt with your catch of the day. These red crabs from Puget Sound made a delicious addition to our omelet Saturday morning.

Sunday morning, LBeau and I headed out for a tour around the Olympic Peninsula with Brent, Katie and the grands. Our first stop was Sequim, where the Lavender Festival was in full swing.

The view from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park was spectacular, and the wildflowers were equally beautiful.

After a breakfast of French toast and more crab omelet, LBeau and I caught the Bainbridge to Seattle ferry Monday morning and headed south to get up close and personal with Mount Rainier. Viewed from any angle, it is definitely a sight to behold.

Unfortunately, all vacations eventually come to an end. We left Seattle Tuesday morning wearing blue jeans, long sleeve shirts and fleece vests. It was 57 degrees. We arrived in Birmingham at 10:30 that night. It was 87. I'm sure we looked strange to all of those travelers in shorts, t-shirts and flip flops.

If you plan a trip to Washington and Oregon, I would definitely recommend going in July. Amazingly, we didn't have a single drop of rain.

Traveling is definitely one of my favorite things, so I’m heading over to Laurie’s blog party. Y’all are welcome to join us.

When Did That Happen?

2010-07-08T12:56:00.001-05:00

A friend, who shall remain nameless, was visiting the cosmetic counter at Belk's the other day when she made a horrifying discovery. She was in search of a new brand of makeup, since her favorite brand has been discontinued.

Finding a new brand of makeup is about like trying to buy a new bra when they no longer make the style you've worn for years, so she tried out samples of lots of things. As each one was applied, she gave her face a close scrutiny in the giant mirror on the counter. And that's when she saw it—a rather large lump right on her jaw line.

"What's that awful growth?" she wondered. "Do I have cancer?"

Turning her face to the other side, she was more astonished to see an identical growth on her right jaw. She felt them gently with her fingertips. There was no pain, so it didn't appear that she had injured herself.

It was then that she placed an index finger on each cheek, pushing her skin upward. Miraculously, the growths disappeared.

"They were gravity sags!" she disgustedly announced. "When did that happen?"

"Yep," I said. "It happens to most of us."

My advice to her was this—don't ever look down at a mirror!

Smile, You’re on Candid Camera!

2010-07-03T13:54:00.001-05:00

My very first camera was a Kodak Brownie similar to this one. I used it to take pictures of my friends and family, first in black and white and later in living color. It had a flash attachment that used disposable bulbs. You had to buy a whole bunch of bulbs because each one was good for only one picture, and if you didn’t let the bulb cool before trying to remove it, you could get a nasty burn on your fingers.

This is a picture of my daddy and my cousin Mary that I took with my Kodak Brownie. Appropriately, the pony was named Brownie.

I later graduated to a twin lens reflex that I used during my college days as a journalism major. The journalism department at the University of Arkansas had a good supply of twin lens reflex cameras that we could check out for our photo assignments, but I was fortunate to have my own camera. Daddy found me a good used one somewhere, that I continued to use until after the birth of my first child. Here’s a picture of Hunter that I took with that camera.

Sometime in the '70’s I graduated to a single lens reflex. My Canon AE-1 was a great camera and served me well for many years. But when the winder broke on a trip to Maine a few years ago, I finally moved into the world of digital. Here’s one of the last pictures I took with my AE-1.

Since then, I’ve been through several digital point and shoot cameras, mostly Canons; however, ever since Canon introduced the first EOS Rebel digital SLR, I’ve wanted one. A couple of months ago, I got my wish when I purchased a Rebel T1i. With all of its bells and whistles, this camera is capable of so much more than “point and shoot,” but first I had to learn about those settings. So on the recommendation of a friend, I signed up for a class at the Birmingham School of Photography.

I still have a lot to learn, and there are other courses I want to take, but Paris Farzad taught me so much more than I could possibly have absorbed by simply studying the manual. Our last class was a field trip to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, where we practiced all kinds of neat tricks.

At the lily pond, we photographed dragonflies landing on the colorful flowers.

Using a fast shutter speed, we froze water.

And using a very slow shutter speed (1/4 second), we made this waterfall look painted.

Here’s another neat trick Paris taught us using a zoom lens. The 18-55 mm lens that comes standard with most digital SLR’s is perfect. Use a slow shutter speed (we used 1/4 second) and the appropriate aperture to give the proper exposure. As you press the shutter release, zoom in on your subject, and you’ll get some neat star burst effects like I did with this pot of petunias.

I can’t wait to do some more experimenting with my new toy. And with three grandchildren and several trips planned, I should have plenty of opportunities. Meanwhile, I’m linking up with Laurie’s Favorite Things, because right now, photography is one of my favorite hobbies.

What's In a Name?

2010-06-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

I'm at that stage in life where people often ask me, "What's your grandmother name?" I was reminded of that yesterday when Karen hosted a Sip 'N See so that we could meet her new grandson Cooper, who is three weeks old and was visiting from Mississippi.

For the moment Karen's grandmother name is Granna, but she reminded us that it would be whatever Cooper wanted it to be. After all, bestowing grandmother and grandfather names is the awesome responsibility of the oldest grandchild.

LBeau and I, however, are the exception to that rule. Oddly enough, our grandparent names were given to us not by Walker, our three-year-old grandson, but by one of our son Ben's high school friends. My very first email address was kbeau@aol.com, so at some point Jason started calling me KBeau (pronounced kay-bow). It stuck, and it naturally followed that Larry would be called LBeau.

When Walker was born, I said that I would answer to anything but Big Momma, but since I was already KBeau, I'd try to make that stick. Fortunately, KBeau and LBeau seemed to be easy for Walker to pronounce, which was a good thing because Uncle Hunter tried his best to make me Big Momma. Lucy, pictured here with KBeau, and Lauren aren’t old enough to call us anything yet, so we’ll see.

As the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family, I got to pick the names for four grandparents. On my mother's side, there are 21 Reynolds cousins, and all of us called our grandparents Grancy and Poosie.

Grancy and Poosie on their 50th wedding anniversary

Grancy was probably derived from Granny. Poosie came about because I couldn't say Bam Poo, which is what my mother wanted me to call her father. They tried to get me to say "Bam Poo" because that's what Mother and her siblings called their own grandfather. I'm guessing that Bam Poo was the result of some child's effort to say "Grandpa."

I really think some of the best grandparent names happen that way. My friend Sherri wanted to be Honey, but when Grey started talking she became Sunny, which fits Sherri perfectly.

My paternal grandparents had more common names. We called them Mema (pronounced Me-maw) and Papa (Pa-paw). Papa was the postmaster in tiny Lewisville, Arkansas. Like any good grandfather, he kept a photo of his grandchildren on his desk at work.

After Papa died, Mema began spending summers with us while Aunt Sissy, who lived at home, taught library science at East Texas State University in Commerce, Texas. Mema couldn't sit still and was always cleaning up after us or doing other chores for Mother, which prompted one of my Reynolds cousins to ask why they didn't have a Mema maid.

This weekend KBeau and LBeau are lucky to have Lucy and her parents with us. Next weekend we'll get to see Walker and Lauren.

I'd love to hear about your grandmother or grandfather names and how you came to be called that. Meanwhile, I'm linking up (a little late) with Laurie's Favorite Things because being a grandmother has got to be the best thing in the world.

Beer Caps and Bottle Tops—A Sunday Favorite

2010-06-20T07:01:00.001-05:00

I have a confession to make. I have an ulterior motive in what I am reposting for this week’s Sunday Favorites, hosted by Chari at Happy to Design.

It is one of my favorite posts, and got 30 legitimate comments when I first ran it on March 3, 2009. But it is also the post that is most often hit on by spammers promoting everything from Viagra to male enhancement drugs.

A few months ago, I started moderating my blog so that I could reject their nastiness before it got posted. But I’m so afraid I’ll accidentally hit “publish” instead of “reject” that I’m trying a different approach. By republishing it here, under a new title, and deleting the original (which I’ve never done before), I can hopefully preserve the post and foil the spammers.

Besides, any dad would love one of these for Father’s Day!

Several people have asked me to "show and tell" about my magnetic memo board, so today seemed like a good day. First, the idea idea was not original, but the best ideas are often the ones you "borrow."

I was with some friends at an inspiration home in town, sort of like a decorator showhouse but on a smaller scale. In the kitchen over the desk was this wonderful magnetic memo board that incorporated old bottle caps on the frame. Almost everything in the house was for sale, but when we looked at the price of $350 for the memo board, we decided we could make one ourselves. All we had to do was find a suitable frame, obtain some old bottle caps and purchase galvanized metal.

Frames for our first efforts came from Olde Time Pottery, a warehouse type store that sells everything from dishes and glassware to artificial flowers and framed "art." We didn't need the art, but we did need the frames, and finding the right kind of frame is not as easy as you might think. You need a frame that has a flat place on it that is wide enough for the bottle caps to fit.

EBay proved to be a great source for bottle caps. You can buy both beer and soft drink caps in all sorts of quantities, but I don't mix beer and soft drink caps on my boards, since they are not exactly the same size. I also like for each cap on the board to be different, so when I'm making a purchase on eBay, I study the picture carefully to make sure the lot contains a good variety of caps. When I'm doing a frame with soft drink caps, I always like to incorporate a Grapette cap if I have one, since Grapette was invented in my hometown.

The galvanized metal can be purchased from Home Depot in rolls large enough for several memo boards. Fortunately Glenda's husband is very handy with tools, so he always gets the job of removing the glass from the frames and cutting and installing the metal. Then he usually puts the glass back in the frame behind the metal to give it some support.

Since the backs of the bottle caps are hollow, we decided that we would need to glue something into the back of each cap before gluing it to the frame. We found the perfect thing when we discovered packages of small wooden hearts at Michael's. The heart shape wasn't important, but the size was just right. It's important to imbed the heart in plenty of hot glue (what did we use before glue guns) so that it doesn't turn loose from the bottle cap. Once that's done, you then glue the caps to the frame.

You can use any kind of magnet, but I always like to make magnets out of bottle caps by gluing a small round magnet into the back. You can also purchase these at Michael's or any craft store. Michael's also sells a frame that looks like old weathered wood. It's perfect for the memo boards as you can see on this one that I made for my sister-in-law Susie.

The Change of Life

2010-06-15T19:59:00.001-05:00

LBeau went to the license office today to renew his driver’s license. After taking his photo and typing in all of the vital information—address, weight, hair and eye color—the lady gave him a copy to look over to make sure all of the information was correct.

“You’ve got my hair color as white,” LBeau exclaimed. “My old license had it as brown.”

“It pretty much looks white to me,” she replied.

I’m just glad she recognized that he still has some hair.

Anyway, it reminded me of my trip to the license office last October to renew my own license. I decided that it was about time to correct the hair color on my license. For four years, my license said I had brown hair, and I’ve always thought of myself as a blonde.

So when the lady handed me my information to check for errors, I politely said, “Don’t you think we need to fix my hair color? It’s not really brown.”

Looking at me, she agreed. So she changed it—to gray!!

Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone.

LBeau and Lucy (it doesn’t look white to me)

The Mimosa Tree

2010-06-04T21:00:00.001-05:00

Every year about this time in ditches along roadways all over the South, the mimosa tree dons its fuzzy pink dress to put on quite a show.

A native of China, the mimosa tree is considered by some to be a pest. It seems to reproduce quite readily, and when the flowers begin to fade and drop, they can create a real mess. However, I have a soft spot in my heart for the mimosa tree, a fondness which dates back to childhood.

My grandparents, Grancy and Poosie, had a large mimosa tree in their front yard, right in the corner between the driveway and the sidewalk. When it became large enough for us kids to climb on, it also became a gathering place for important family events.

Each summer my Kisamore cousins would drive to Arkansas from Baltimore for a lengthy visit. As the time drew near for their arrival, the Arkansas cousins would gather in the mimosa tree, craning our necks and concentrating on Highway 24 to see who could be the first to spot their car. This was long before the first cell phone, so the wait was often several hours.

On other occasions, we watched impatiently for Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe to return from the state adoption agency in Little Rock with the newest cousin that would be added to our family. Aunt Mary now lives in Grancy's and Poosie's house, but the mimosa tree is long gone. I'm not sure whether it died or simply got too large and was cut down, but nevertheless each year when the mimosas begin their show of pink, I think back to those childhood days, and I smile.

Please join Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, as once again we celebrate Pink Saturday.

Digital Scrapping—An App for That

2010-05-29T01:00:00.000-05:00

If you're hooked on digital scrapbooking or just want a way to "fancy up" your iPhone photos, you'll be happy to know that eScrap has an app for that. With build in templates and packaged themes, eScrap is available for $1.99 at the App Store.

I downloaded it about a week ago. Although I haven't a chance to play around with the different papers, embellishments and other tools, I have created a few pages with the built in templates. Since it's Pink Saturday around here, naturally I was drawn to pictures of my two favorite Pink Ladies.

Lauren

Lucy

Once you've created your page, you can share it on Facebook or Twitter, save it to your photo library where you can use is as your iPhone background, or email it to anyone you'd like.

Happy scrapbooking, and Happy Birthday, especially to Beverly, who celebrates the second birthday of Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound.

Consider the Lilies—Part II

2010-05-23T08:44:00.001-05:00

Thanks once again to Cheri for hosting Sunday Favorites where we get to share a favorite post from the past. Since it's almost time for the Cahaba Lily Festival, I thought I'd repost something I did last year about this same time along with a follow up. When you're finished here, be sure to head over to Happy to Design to read other Sunday Favorites.

So many of you had questions about the pictures of the Cahaba lily that I posted for last week’s Wordless Wednesday that I decided a follow up with words is in order.

Hymenocallis coronaria is the proper name for the plant that is commonly known as the Cahaba lily. The name comes from the Cahaba River, the longest free-flowing river in Alabama.

In the Cahaba and Little Cahaba Rivers, the seeds from the Cahaba lily nestle in the crevices of the rocky shoals where they grow and bloom from mid-May to mid-June. In Georgia and South Carolina, the lilies are often referred to as the Shoal lily.

The Cahaba Lily Festival is celebrated each year in West Blocton, Alabama, on the last Saturday in May, which will be May 30th this year. My friend Becky and I dragged our husbands to the festival one year, where I took the pictures that I posted on Wordless Wednesday and that are posted here.

To get up close and personal with the lilies, we had to wade into the river. Here's Becky wading out to a stand of lilies. Be advised that the river bed is not only rocky but also covered in lots of little snails, so a good pair of water shoes or old tennis shoes is a must.

The three-inch wide white flowers have six long, narrow parts that surround the corona. They have been mistaken for the Swamp lily, which likes moist or boggy soil in a forest setting.

The flowers begin to open late in the day and then begin to wither in the heat of the following day. Although many botanist consider the lily to be endangered, it is not protected by the state or federal governments. Admirers are strongly discouraged from poaching the lily as this will further endanger it, and it will not live outside its native shoals environment.

If you’d like to read more about the Cahaba lily, please visit the website by clicking HERE.

And now for Part II.

A few weeks ago, I bought my first digital SLR camera, a Canon EOS Rebel T1i. Wanting to learn as much as I could about all of its modes and functions and particularly how to operate it in manual mode, I signed up for a four-week photography class at Birmingham School of Photography.

This week we had our first shooting assignment, and I spent all week anticipating it. LBeau and I would pack a picnic lunch, head down to West Blocton, and I would once again get up close and personal with the beautiful white lilies. I awoke to blue skies on Saturday morning, and shortly afterward I received a text message from my friend Karen, whose husband owns a grocery in West Blocton. "The lilies are blooming."

Shortly after turning off of Bibb County Highway 24 at the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge, we got our first glimpse of the river. It was not a pretty sight. Swollen from recent rains, the river was swift and muddy. I wouldn't be needing that extra pair of tennis shoes and socks, because I wouldn't be getting into the river on this day. Oh well, I'd just have to take my photos from the bank.

Arriving at the site of the first stand of lilies about a mile down the road, it was apparent that wouldn't be happening either. See these poor lilies struggling to keep their heads above water. This is one of about three clumps of plants we could see. The rest were obviously under water.

I still needed some pictures from my Tuesday night class. How about this abandoned car seat?

Or maybe this pile of trash that some inconsiderate hikers had left beside an old tree.

I did find a couple of fishermen enjoying the beautiful spring weather. I'm not sure how well the fish were biting, however. That blue dot floating down the river appeared to be a nice cooler that some canoeist must have lost when he/she overturned in the river.

Speaking of canoeists, these girls were working on their tans while navigating the river currents.

On the way back to the car, I climbed the side of a hill to get this picture of some moss covered boulders and oak leaf hydrangeas. I was rewarded with a tick.

Let's just hope the weather cooperates this week and the river subsides for next weekend's Cahaba Lily Festival. I won't be able to make it, so I guess I'll be waiting another year to get up close again with the lilies.

Pretty in Pink

2010-05-21T21:19:00.002-05:00

Lucy went to her very first baseball game last weekend wearing this pink hat that LBeau and I bought her at the Razorback store.

Although it's still a little big, it did the trick, keeping the sun off those precious pink cheeks.

Don't tell Lauren that she's getting one too. It's a surprise!

For more Pink Saturday posts, be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

The Thunder Pot

2010-05-15T01:00:00.000-05:00

My mother gave me this beautiful old chamber pot when I visited her last week. It belonged to her grandmother, Grandmother Belin, who lived in Warren, Arkansas.

"Grandmother Belin always called it the thunder pot," Mother said.

A little research told me that "thunder pot" was a common term for a chamber pot. When a home lacked indoor plumbing, the "thunder pot" was placed under the bed and used at night as a urinal.

I love the pink roses that decorate both sides of the chamber pot.

This mark on the bottom indicates that it was made by Revere China in Akron, Ohio. Since Revere China closed in 1908, my chamber pot is more than 100 years old.

So far I haven't been able to find any more information on Revere China chamber pots, so I have no idea how much it might be worth. I am assuming these were fairly common, although I did read about some chamber pots that were used in Britain during World War II that had pictures of the Kaiser on the inside. The are said to be highly collectible.

I've found the perfect place to display it on the dresser in my "girlie" room. The pictures are of my grandparents, Grancy and Poosie. Grandmother Belin was Grancy's mother.

For more lovely things in pink, be sure to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. And while you're browsing around, take time to leave a comment. Bloggers appreciate knowing you stopped by.

Catching the Blues

2010-05-02T21:26:00.001-05:00

I was just over visiting Between Naps on the Porch reading a fascinating post about the "Blue Hour," when I remembered some pictures I took on our trip to Chicago in March.

LBeau and I had just finished dinner and were walking along the river behind our hotel, when I noticed that the sky had a certain magical glow to it. It wasn't daylight, but it wasn't quite dark either, and somehow I knew I needed to take a picture. Unfortunately, I had left my camera in the room. Afraid I would completely miss the show, I quickly snapped a couple of pictures with my iPhone.

Although the resolution isn't the sharpest, you can see the sky taking on a beautiful shade of blue.

Hoping to still capture the magic, I hurried back to the room for my camera. I'm afraid I missed the high point of the "Blue Hour," but I think this shot still gives you an idea of what it's all about.

To read more about the "Blue Hour," head on over to Between Naps on the Porch, where Susan is hosting Metamorphosis Monday. And to find out when the "Blue Hour" is in your neck of the woods, just click HERE to visit the "Blue Hour" website.

After posting this last night, I started remembering some other "Blue Hour" photos that I accidently captured. These are from our trip to London last November.

Big Ben

Parliament and the Thames River

The Tower Bridge

Now that I know what to look for, perhaps there will be more of these beautiful skies in my future. And with all of this blue going on, how could I not link up with Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.

The Phone Call

2010-04-30T17:36:00.001-05:00

A recent phone call from my 86-year-old mother made me realize just how far she has come in embracing technology. These phone calls started years ago after she and Daddy got their first VCR. They were both working at the time, so the VCR was programmed to record As the World Turns.

Unfortunately, every time the power went out, which happens frequently in Arkansas during the spring storm season, the VCR would lose its memory. So I would get a phone call and walk them through reprogramming the VCR so they wouldn’t miss an episode of their soap opera.

Although Mother now has a DVD player, she does not have a DVR, so she still uses the VCR to record TV shows. I’m not even sure if she’s still watching As the World Turns, but I know she records Dancing With the Stars so she can also watch American Idol which airs at the same time. The good news is that she can now program it herself, so I haven’t had a VCR help call in years.

However, a few years ago we decided that Mother would enjoy having a computer so that she could email her children and grandchildren and we could share photos of the great grands with her. She’s also been able to use it to keep up with the scores of Atlanta Braves games.

Mother started following the Braves when most of their games were on TBS, and she has continued to be a fan even though most of the games have moved to SportSouth or Peachtree TV. We set her up with a Yahoo account and Yahoo as her home page. There on the left hand side is a sports score module where she can check in on the Braves score.

This brings me to the recent phone call. She had gotten online to check out the baseball score, but it wasn’t there. My brother had visited recently, so I assumed that he had logged in to his own Yahoo account and hadn’t logged her back in.

This has happened before, especially after the grandchildren have visited. Most of them have Yahoo accounts for fantasy football and baseball, and they are constantly logging in to manage their teams. Most of the time they fail to log Mema back in to her account, and I will get the phone call to walk her through the steps.

After painstakingly taking her through the process of getting her home page back, she still couldn’t see the Braves score, so I decided to log into her account on my own computer to see just what she was seeing (or not seeing). Sure enough, the Braves score was right where it was supposed to be.

That’s when it hit me. The screen resolution on her older monitor is lower so in order to see the score module, she needed to scroll down. It seems that Mother was on her home page all along, and all she needed to do was scroll down.

Hunter recently suggested that we get her an iPad and a wireless router so that she can watch all of the Braves games. I’m not sure I’m ready to go there. Although we’ve come a long way from VCR’s to computers, until she can master scrolling, I don’t think she’s ready for an iPad.

And did I mention that she doesn’t know how to type!

Here Comes the Bride

2010-04-24T11:33:00.001-05:00

A few years ago, I planted a border of Bridal Wreath Spirea along the natural area in my backyard. Since childhood, I have loved its arching branches that are covered in mounds of snow white flowers in the spring.

I grew up in a neighborhood of small wood-framed houses in Camden, Arkansas. Love Addition was built to house the influx of veterans returning from World War II. My parents, my younger brother and I lived in a two-bedroom on Crestwood Avenue. After my sister was born, we moved to a three-bedroom two doors down, and we lived there until I was in sixth grade.

Landscaping was minimal in most of these yards. The grass was whatever grew that was green and could be mowed—a combination of Bermuda grass, crab grass, clover and other assorted grasses and weeds. Shrubbery was minimal, but our yard did have at least one or two bushes of Bridal Wreath in addition to the common junipers that I liked to call "bag worm" bushes.

Most of the time, I loved these bushes, but on the rare occasion when Mother or Daddy decided I needed a spanking, I wished I could cut them all down. Instead of getting out the belt or hairbrush, Mother and Daddy would send us out to the yard to pick a switch. Raked clean of leaves, the long thin branches of Bridal Wreath made perfect switches. They never spanked us hard, but it surely did sting, and it must have made an impression if I still remember after all these years.

In spite of that, I still love Bridal Wreath and have especially enjoyed its beauty this year. Although we had a cooler than normal early spring, we didn't get a late freeze, so my Bridal Wreath border was covered in flowers.

Now come join me over at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie where everyone is sharing their favorite things. Hope your Saturday is a good one. It's thundering, lightening and raining here, but we need the rain for all the beautiful things and especially to get rid of the nasty pollen.

Have You Ever…

2010-04-22T17:00:00.001-05:00

Debbie started a blog tag at Arkansas Bloggers as a way for all of us to get to know each other better. Frankly, I don't know how she could possibly come up with 100 questions, but here goes.

1. Started your own blog
Well, duh. I wouldn't be sitting here answering these questions if I hadn't. I started Life in the Slow Lane over a year and a half ago.

2. Slept under the stars
On at least one occasion that I can recall. I've camped lots of times, but always in a tent. However, when I was a student at the University of Arkansas, some of us slept out on the roof of the Kappa house one night. I remember being pretty damp from the dew the next morning.

3. Played in a band
I played flute in the band when I was in high school. I wasn't very good, but I tried hard and had a ball.

4. Visited Hawaii
No, but it's on my "to do" list.

5. Watched a meteor shower
When we were visiting Durango, Colorado, about the time I started this blog, we took a day trip up to Ouray. On the way back, we pulled off the road and just stared at the sky. I've never seen so many stars. We saw several shooting stars, but I don't suppose that qualifies as a full blown meteor shower.

6. Given more than you can afford to charity
I'd like to think so, but probably not.

7. Been to Disney
Nope. I'm sure my boys feel like they've been deprived because we never took them to Disney World. Guess we'll just have to take the grandchildren.

8. Climbed a mountain
I climbed Pinnacle Mountain in Little Rock when I was eight months pregnant with my second son. That should definitely count for climbing a mountain. That's Pinnacle Mountain just to the left of the setting sun.

9. Held a praying mantis
I never liked bugs too much, so unless you count the dead ones that I helped my boys collect for their biology bug collections, then my answer would be "no."

10. Sang a solo
The only solo I ever sang was in 6th grade when I tried out for chorus. I didn't make it. Turns out I can't carry a tune.

11. Bungee jumped
Nope, and I have no desire to do so.

12. Visited Paris
Yes. What a wonderful city. Hope I can go back some day.

13. Watched a thunder and lightning storm
You can't live in tornado alley and escape watching a thunder and lightening storm. I also remember watching Tom Bonner standing along I-30 between Little Rock and Benton waiting for the tornado which was moving up that corridor. Meanwhile, my sister and I had our boys in the bathtub with the baby bed mattress over them.

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
I've taken lots of art lessons—everything from oil and water color to tole painting and folk art. When I lived in Texarkana a friend and I had a shop where we taught folk art and fabric painting. However, the only thing I ever taught myself was ceramic painting. Back when I started building houses, lots of clients wanted hand-painted tiles in their kitchen backsplashes, so I experimented and learned how to used ceramic paints and fire the tiles. I even hand-painted tiles for several friends. Recently I helped one of those friends re-do her kitchen, and we tore out the tiles that I had painted when she built the house.

15. Adopted a child
No, but I have three cousins who were adopted as infants. All of the other cousins were always so excited as we anticipated the arrival of Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe with the latest addition to their family. We'd climb the mimosa tree in my grandparents' yard to see who could spot their car first.

16. Had food poisoning
When I was in college I went to visit a friend who was working at a counselor at the Girl Scout camp near Mena, Arkansas. We ate dinner at some hamburger drive-in, and I was up all night because of the onion rings.

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
I think I probably rode to the top when I visited the Statue of Liberty.

18. Grown your own vegetables
I've never planted my own vegetable garden, but I used to help my daddy with his. I've picked and shelled lots of purple hull peas and butter beans in my day.

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
Yes. This is a must for anyone who visits Paris. What's even more amazing is that they let you take all the pictures of her you want.

20. Slept on an overnight train
I used to ride the train to visit my grandparents in Lewisville, Arkansas, but it was only a short trip, so no overnight.

21. Had a pillow fight
I have a brother and sister. Of course we had pillow fights.

22. Hitch hiked
I was raised to avoid hitch hikers and hitch hiking.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
When I was teaching school, we called them Mental Health Days.

24. Built a snow fort
Yes, on the rare occasion we had enough snow.

25. Held a lamb
Pigs, calves and baby chicks but never a lamb.

26. Gone skinny dipping
I was too modest for that.

27. Run a marathon
I'm doing good to walk two miles every night.

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
We'll be visiting Venice in October, so I hope to get the chance then.

29. Seen a total eclipse
Not sure of the date, but I remember watching one with my students when I was teaching at Pulaski Academy.

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
Oh, yes, and I've got the pictures to prove it. Here's one of the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

31. Hit a home run
Nope. I'm not the athletic type, but I do love sports.

32. Been on a cruise
Went on a three-day cruise with my Bible study group, fondly known as the Bible Babes, a few years ago. Here we are all dressed for dinner. LBeau and I also took a Rhine River Cruise from Amsterdam to Switzerland.

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
Another "to do" thing.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
Does Warren, Arkansas, count?

35. Seen an Amish community
I've been to Bird in Hand, Paradise and Intercourse, Pennsylvania, all in the middle of Amish country. Beautiful farms and beautiful people.

36. Taught yourself a new language
I took Latin in high school and German in college, but I've never taught myself a language. I wish I knew Spanish because a lot of my subcontractors are Hispanic.

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
I have way more than I ever dreamed I'd have, but I think it's in our nature to always want more.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
Saw it on a trip to Italy a few years ago. The setting was beautiful but not what I expected. Somehow I had always thought it was in the middle of town.

39. Gone rock climbing
When my oldest son was a baby, we used to do day hikes at Devil's Den near Fayetteville. On several occasions we climbed Yellow Rock with Hunter on LBeau's back.

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person
We spent several days in Florence on that same trip to Italy, so we got to see David then. Although you weren't supposed to take pictures, I did observe one man attempting to photograph some of the "strategic" parts. I played by the rules and bought a postcard.

41. Sung karaoke
See #10. I don't sing in public.

42. Seen Old Faithful erupt
Yes, indeed, and he is faithful.

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
No, but I did buy a stranger coffee at Starbucks one time. Someone did that for me once. When I got to the drive up window to pay for my order, I learned that the gentleman two cars ahead of me had already paid for my coffee. It made me feel so good that on a couple of occasions I've done it for others.

44. Visited Africa
I'm hoping that the Arkansas Alumni Association will offer another trip to Africa soon. There was one a few months ago. I've seen pictures, and I'm really jealous.

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
Several times.

46. Been transported in an ambulance
Thankfully, no.

47. Had your portrait painted
Not that I know of.

48. Gone deep sea fishing
Not unless we went on one of my childhood trips to Dauphin Island or Biloxi.

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
Same trip to Italy. We packed a lot into a week. This was another "no picture" place, but that didn't stop some tourists. I played by the rules again.

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
Visited the Eiffel Tower on our trip to Paris, but we didn't go to the top.

51. Been scuba diving or snorkeling
Nope, and it's not on my Bucket List.

52. Kissed in the rain
I would be surprised if LBeau and I hadn't managed at least one kiss in the rain in our almost 40 years together.

53. Played in the mud
Loved making mud pies as a child.

54. Gone to a drive-in theater
We had two regular movie theaters when I was growing up, but we also had a drive-in. I can remember watching several movies at the drive-in.

55. Been in a movie
Only the home movie variety.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China
Also on my "to do" list.

57. Started a business
I started my construction business in 1991, and I'm still at it.

58. Taken a martial arts class
My middle son took Tae Kwan Do, but I only watched.

59. Visited Russia
Another "to do" trip.

60. Served at a soup kitchen
Yes, and a friend and I also spent the night at the women's homeless shelter.

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
I'm not sure Girl Scout Cookies were around when I was a Girl Scout. Since I have three boys, I never did that as a mom thing.

62. Gone whale watching
I hope to take an Alaska cruise some day and do some whale watching.

63. Got flowers for no reason
The only time I ever got flowers from LBeau was for no reason. He bought me roses from a street vendor in St. Louis. I think he paid 50 cents for the whole dozen.

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
I'm chicken.

65. Been sky diving
Not on my list of things to do.

66. Visited a concentration camp
No, but I did tour Anne Frank's house when we were in Amsterdam

67. Bounced a check
Not that I would admit to.

68. Flown in a helicopter
I think that would be so much fun

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
I used to have the Parcheesi game that we played with Jeannie when we would visit my grandparents and aunt in Lewisville.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
Yes, and it is certainly impressive.

71. Eaten caviar
Nope, and I've never had sushi either, unless you count the Redneck Sushi that we served at a party last weekend.

72. Pieced a quilt
I have quilted pieces and made pillows from them, but never a whole quilt.

73. Visited Times Square
More than once I took high school students to New York for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Convention. We always stayed very close to Times Square.

74. Toured the Everglades
Sounds like something I need to put on my list.

75. Been fired from a job
Thankfully, no.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
Unfortunately it was raining heavily that day, so they didn't do a formal guard changing. We did watch the Changing of the Guard at Windsor Castle, however.

77. Broken a bone
Not that I know of.

78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
Don't have any interest in riding on a motorcycle, even as a passenger.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
Yes. Twice. LBeau and I went when we were on a trip to Las Vegas. Then my sister, my sister-in-law and I took my parents for their 60th Anniversary.

80. Published a book
If you count digital scrapbooks. I was also the yearbook advisor for several schools during my teaching career.

81. Visited the Vatican
Yes. Same trip to Italy.

81. Bought a brand new car
Yes. The first one was a Chevy Malibu that I bought in 1968 after I graduated from the University of Arkansas.

83. Walked in Jerusalem
Another one for my list!

84. Had your picture in the newspaper
Yes. If you got married in a small town in Arkansas, you've probably had your picture in the paper.

85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
Yuk! I don't think I've ever hung out with any strangers on New Year's Eve.

86. Visited the White House
Yes. Years ago. I don't even remember who was President at the time.

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
I've eaten lots of deer, squirrel and quail that my daddy killed, and I've watched the skinning and preparing, but I've never done the killing or preparing myself.

88. Had chickenpox
A very mild case. They had to look hard to find the spots. My brother and sister weren't as fortunate. I also recently got my shingles shot.

89. Saved someone’s life
Thankfully I've never been in that situation.

90. Sat on a jury
I've never even been summoned for jury duty.

91. Met someone famous
Former Senator David Pryor was my seventh grade Sunday School teacher.

92. Joined a book club
Once belonged to the Reader's Digest Book Club and the Book of the Month Club, but I don't think that's what you mean. I do love to read, however.

93. Got a tattoo
No, and not on my priority list either.

94. Had a baby
Three of the cutest little boys you've ever seen.

95. Seen the Alamo in person
Oh, yes. It was the Fourth of July, and I've never been hotter.

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
I've stood on the banks of the Great Salt Lake, but it smelled so bad that I had no desire to even stick a toe in.

97. Been involved in a law suit
Unfortunately, if you owned a residential construction company in Alabama in the 1990's, you probably built a house or two or more with EIFS, and if so, then you've been sued. But I've never been personally sued nor have I ever sued anyone.

98. Owned a cell phone
Got my first one in 1992. It was a Motorola flip phone. I love my iPhone.

99. Been stung by a bee
We had lots of clover in our yard when I was growing up. Went barefooted lots too. Bees love clover, but they don't like bare feet.

100. Tell us where you were born
Camden Hospital in Camden, Arkansas.

Okay, so I’m tagging:

Nick at Malvie's Musings

Marty at Elwing Pointers

Christi at A Southern Life

Joycee at Granny Mountain

Nanny at The Good Life

I challenge y'all to answer these questions and then post your link on Arkansas Bloggers.

Some Things Never Change

2010-04-17T08:42:00.001-05:00

Last weekend LBeau and I traveled to Fayetteville for his annual meeting of the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering. While he was closed up with a bunch of other engineers on a gorgeous Saturday morning, I took the time to visit some of my favorite places. While Fayetteville has changed a lot since I was in school there in the '60's, my morning trek around town was proof that some things never change.

My first stop was 430 Assembly Drive where we lived with our oldest son Hunter when LBeau was in grad school in the mid '70's. We rented this stone house on the west side of Mount Sequoyah and lived there for a little over two years.

From there I continued to the top of Mount Sequoyah where this cross overlooks the city. I'm not sure when it was erected, but it has stood in that spot since before my student days.

The Farmers' Market on the square was my next stop. Begun in the 1970's as a way for local farmers to market their produce, the Farmers' Market has expanded to included craftsmen and musicians as well.

On this Saturday, the square was crowded with hundreds of folks walking their dogs, buying produce and flowers, visiting with friends and neighbors while listening to a variety of music. With an election coming up next month, there was no shortage of candidates, and I got to visit with a friend whose husband is running for judge.

I continued on to the campus, first walking past the Kappa house where I lived for three years. This house was brand new the year I pledged, and from the outside it looks pretty much as it did in 1965.

Senior Walk is also proof that some things never change. Starting at the front door of Old Main, Senior Walk winds for more than five miles through the campus and contains the names of every graduate since the founding of the University. For years there have been rumors that the University was running out of places for Senior Walk and it would be discontinued. Those rumors have proven to be false.

When I was a student, each time a new class graduated workers would pour fresh concrete and hand stamp each graduate's name in the walk. In 1986, the UofA Physical Plant invented the Sand Hog, which etches the name of each graduate in existing sidewalks.

During my walk around campus, I located my name in the Class of 1968, along with the names of a couple of friends, one of whom reads this blog from time to time. I also found LBeau's name as well as my sons' names.

Every time I visit campus, I can't resist taking pictures of Old Main, which to most present and former students is the symbol of the University of Arkansas. It too looks pretty much as it did during my student days except for the addition of a working clock on the south tower where blank faces once were. Although the chimes in Old Main have rung every fifteen minutes for as long as I can remember, the clock was not added until 2005.

Fayetteville has always been one of my favorite places on earth, so I am linking up with Laurie on Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie. It's always fun to read about everyone's Favorite Things. Be sure to stop by and tell Laurie hello.

Yellow Haze

2010-04-06T13:02:00.001-05:00

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year.

On the plus side, the weather has warmed up, the skies are a gorgeous blue, the trees are turning green, and things are blooming everywhere. Last week, we took Walker and Lauren to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and I could have spent all day taking pictures of all the trees and flowers in bloom.

I think spring has got to be the prettiest time of the year, and I always feel a sudden surge of energy—that is until the dreaded yellow haze. Here in Birmingham it happened almost overnight. One day the skies were crystal clear, and the next day the city was enveloped in a ginormous yellow cloud.

I know I probably say the same thing every year, but I think this has absolutely got to be the worst year ever for pollen. Maybe it's because the cold weather lasted longer, so suddenly everything is blooming at once—Yoshino cherries, Bradford pears, redbud, dogwood, wisteria. It's a riot of color out there.

Not to be outdone, the pine trees have started pollinating, and they can't even redeem themselves by showing off a new coat of color. To make matters worse, my house is getting a fresh coat of paint on the outside, and the painters are constantly having to open the windows. My timing couldn't have been worse.

So for the next week or so, I guess I'll have to put up with the stuffy nose, headache and itchy eyes. And no telling how many times I'll be doing a spit clean of my contact lenses. Nevertheless by next January, I'll be anxious for spring once again.

Eggs-tra Special Fun

2010-04-02T16:15:00.001-05:00

While the grands were here this week, Walker and I spent time one morning dying Easter eggs. I had already purchased a PAAS egg coloring kit and had been saving eggs for several weeks. "Saving eggs?" you ask. For details on how to make these special eggs that are a tradition in my family, go HERE.

In Walker's own words, here are the directions for dying Easter eggs:

First, get out the "Tuperwares" (note: any plastic container counts as Tuperware)
Drop in the candy (hint: the tablets that come in the Easter egg dying kit)
Pour in the water
Stir it up
Dye the eggs

I told Walker to listen carefully for the dye to stop fizzing. That would tell us when it was time to start dying the eggs.

He didn't seem to mind getting his fingers in the colored dye, and he was careful not to break a single egg. Since these eggs are hollow, they are quite fragile.

In practically no time, we had dyed 16 eggs. I had bought the 9-color PAAS kit, since it was the same price as the traditional 6-color kit. The 9-color kit has a wonderful blue that is different from the traditional robin's eggs blue. The other two added colors are a beautiful pale pink and a bright lime green.

Late yesterday afternoon Walker had fun hunting the eggs. He was practicing for the egg hunt tomorrow at church.

He is using a basket that I painted for his daddy in 1988.

Happy Easter, everyone! And happy egg hunting!

Since good times with the grandchildren are definitely one of my favorite things, I'm linking up with Laurie at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie. Be sure to visit her to see what favorite things other bloggers are sharing this weekend.

Thirsty - Or Not!

2010-03-20T11:02:00.001-05:00

A trip to Palmer's Grocery Store with my mother was always fun because it usually meant I'd come away with a special treat. Sometimes it was a Snickers or Butterfinger, sometimes a Nutty Buddy ice cream cone, but often it was an ice cold bottle of Grapette.

We didn't make trips to Palmer's often. Mother had groceries delivered by Herman—once a day until we moved to "the country" and then two or three times a week. So it was always a big deal to dig into the cold drink box at Palmer's for a bottle of Grapette, the best grape soft drink ever bottled. Nu-Grape and Grapico don't even come close.

Grapette was invented in Camden, Arkansas, my hometown, by B. T. Fooks. After getting into the soft drink bottling business in the 1920's, he began experimenting with a grape flavored soft drink in the 1930's. Grapette officially hit the market in 1940. The company later began bottling their syrups in animal shaped bottles. These syrups could be mixed with tap water for an economical non-carbonated beverage.

The animal bottles are collector items today as is other Grapette memorabilia. On a trip to Maine a few years ago, I came across this photograph of some old gasoline pumps. There lurking in the background was a Grapette sign, so I snatched it up immediately.

The Fooks family sold Grapette in 1970, and by the 1990's the once popular soft drink had virtually disappeared from the U. S. market. Today, thanks to another successful Arkansas company, Wal-Mart, Grapette is once again thriving in the USA. So the next time you visit Wal-Mart or Sam's, pick up some Grapette, Thirsty or Not!

Thanks to Laurie at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie for giving us a brand new meme—Favorite Things. Grapette is definitely one of my favorite things, so I'm linking up. Be sure to visit Laurie to see what others are sharing.

Stand Up and Be Counted

2010-03-18T09:15:00.001-05:00

My census form arrived in the mail yesterday. It took about two minutes for me and LBeau to fill it out, and I will be putting it back in the mail today.

On Monday I was in an office downtown and overheard the following conversation.

He said, “There is a place on it for your Social Security number.”

She said, “Well I’m just going to leave that blank. They’re not getting my Social Security number.”

Seeing me standing there, she turned to me and explained, “We’re talking about the census.”

I bit my tongue, but I wanted to respond, “This is the government, right? They already have your Social Security number.”

Anyway, I can now testify that the census form does not ask for your Social Security number. I’m guessing that one of these two people got an email warning that those nasty census folks were going to ask for your Social Security number, and that’s just un-American.

One note of caution, however. It seems that census time brings out all sorts of evil doers who pose as census takers, either by phone or at your door, trying to fraudulently obtain your personal information. So never give out information such as Social Security number, bank account number or credit card information to anyone, either by phone, in person or email. And no census information will be gathered by email.

Do, however, stand up and be counted.

Remember When?

2010-03-16T10:00:00.001-05:00

If you're old enough, you surely remember the day JFK was assassinated, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and the Challenger space shuttle exploded. In fact, you can probably remember exactly what you were doing when those events occurred.

Last Friday night at dinner with friends we were discussing our earliest memories. Perhaps because we are all old enough that we can remember when we got our first television, most of us didn't have early recollections of historically significant events. As the oldest in our group, Wayne was three when World War II ended, but he has no memory of that historic event, even though his mother has told him that they went to downtown Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in the celebrations.

For most of us, our earliest memories were more personal. Susie, for example, remembered when she had her tonsils out. She recalled getting to eat ice cream—lots of ice cream.

Again because I'm older than television, I remember sitting around the dinner table in the evenings listing to Twenty Questions on the radio. Twenty Questions was a popular quiz show that originated in the 1940's. Unknown items were identified as being animal, vegetable or mineral, and the contestants had to ask questions that could be answered only with "yes" or "no" in an attempt to identify the mystery object.

I also fondly recall our family trips to visit Mema, Papa and Sissy in Lewisville, Arkansas. Mema and Papa were my dad's parents, and Sissy was his older sister. Daddy grew up in Lewisville, a tiny town in Southwest Arkansas. The trip from Camden took about an hour. My brother, sister and I thought it took forever, but we always passed the time by counting horses or playing the alphabet game.

My brother Tommy and I enjoy playing with our cousin Charlotte in the pool in our grandparents' backyard. Notice the clothes hanging on the line. Just to the right of where this photo stops was a second floor window that Tommy fell out of once.

In Lewisville, I loved going to the post office, where Papa was postmaster. He always let me run letters through the cancelation machine, but the most fun was getting to ride with Manuel to take the mail sack to the train station and pick up the incoming mail.

You see, Manuel drove a wagon pulled by a team of a horse, Dixie, and a mule, Shorty. We would sit right up front with him on the wagon seat, and sometimes he would even let us drive the wagon.

Tommy, Charlotte and I arrive with Manuel at the train station to pick up the incoming mail. That's Dixie on the left and Shorty on the right.

A lot has changed since then. Lewisville is still a tiny town, but Manuel is gone and so are Mema, Papa and Sissy. But it surely is fun to remember when. So what are your earliest memories?

My Kind of Town

2010-03-10T17:48:00.001-06:00

Fayetteville, Arkansas, home of the University of Arkansas and the Arkansas Razorbacks, was recently named by Forbes Magazine as one of the top college sports towns in America. Coming in at #7, Fayetteville ranked just ahead of Lexington, Kentucky, with those two cities being the only SEC towns in the Top Ten.

Fayetteville is a wonderful place to visit and an equally great place to live. I spent five years there in the '60's for undergraduate and graduate school, and we lived there for three years in the mid-'70's when LBeau was working on a master's degree.

For most of those three years, we lived in a small stone house on Mount Sequoyah. From the large picture window in our living room, we had a clear view of Old Main, the oldest and most prominent building on the University of Arkansas campus. Almost as soon as he learned to talk, Hunter would point to Old Main, calling it "Daddy's Big House."

Although Hunter envisioned his daddy hanging out in Old Main for much of the day, LBeau actually spent most of his time in the Engineering Building, which was adjacent to the Old Main lawn.

Fayetteville is certainly a fun place to be on football weekends in the fall, but I enjoy visiting there any time of the year, and I'm already looking forward to an upcoming trip in April. Until early 1999, the only way to get to Fayetteville was via U.S. Highway 71 from Alma, a winding road through the mountains, or by taking Highway 23, an equally winding road, off of I-40 at Ozark.

Fondly known as The Pig Trail, Highway 23 meanders through the Ozark National Forest. It's known for its hairpin curves and canopy of trees that threaten to take it back to nature. LBeau was prone to carsickness, so we always made sure he was driving when we took The Pig Trail.

Today I-540 from Alma has replaced Highway 71 and The Pig Trail as the most traveled route to Fayetteville. It crosses a number of spectacular bridges and tunnels through a mountain before finally topping a hill where you get your first glimpse of the University of Arkansas campus spread out in front of you. I get chills every time.

If you get a chance, you really should check out my favorite college town. And if you want to see if your favorite college town made the Top 10, you can read the Forbes article HERE.