More Pictures

Kodak Gallery

These are some of the pictures I took in April. A few are of the birthday party, the rest are various people posing in Ray's sombrero (I, fortunately, was holding the camera). If I remember correctly, it's friend Dawn, her husband, and their daughter Destiny, and Ray of course.

The post below has a link to the rest of the pictures on a Picasa gallery. As soon as I figure out how to combine the two, I will.

Birthday Party

I have more pictures - you can see most of them at online gallery now that I've finally figured out how to do it. I won't try to identify everyone; some you'll recognize and others you haven't seen before. It was a good mix of friends and family. My computer geek friend John (the one with the new blog) took over at the barbecue, Reno and Lyman brought potato salad, extra chairs, and took most of the pictures. I took a few but not as good. The girls' mom and dad both dropped in; Tasha brought a couple of her friends. Dawn and family were there of course - she planned the whole thing.

If that gallery link works, I'll add it to the sidebar and refer to it whenever I have new pictures. It's certainly simpler than trying to post them all here.

This one (at top of blog) is 3 generations. Me, son Tim, grandson Wesley (girls' dad), and granddaughter Samantha (Jim's oldest). The only generation missing is the girls and I plan to see them next Thursday. Actually, there's still another generation; my mom will be 96 in July but it's a little far to travel from New York to California for a barbecue. Of course my oldest, Carol, wasn't there and she's still missed. Today is the one year anniversary of her death.

Jim's leave was postponed at the last minute. He was home by the Monday following and we managed to squeeze in coffee together (I didn't bring my camera because I didn't know I'd be seeing them). He left the next day to take his wife, Melissa, on a well deserved short vacation. His two youngest are growing like weeds. Zachary is a very mellow kid. He smiles constantly. Jonathan is about what you'd expect of an almost 2 year old. Adorable but active doesn't begin to describe him.

I'm seeing quite a bit of oldest granddaughter these days. She's busy with work, school, putting purple streaks in her hair (on her it looks good), but still managed to join Tim and me for a late breakfast yesterday.

Our garden is doing well. Destiny's strawberry plant has produced three berries which she has eaten. It's her plant although we may steal a couple for ourselves later on. It's doing so well I may pick up a few more - enough for a shortcake later on. The tomato plants are growing and the bell pepper has two tiny peppers.

Our weather continues beautiful but erratic. High 80's one day and down to mid 60's the next. Typical spring.

Much of the country is not so fortunate. Southern California is once again dealing with fires. Maine is flooding. The entire mid-country is going through more tornadoes and there have been fatalities in north central Arkansas. CNN ran a clip of a tornado very close to our friends Karen H. and Diane and her sisters. So far as I know, they weren't affected but it did touch down fairly close to all of them. More are expected today. I heard that Arkansas has now passed Oklahoma as "tornado alley". Please keep all of them in your thoughts and prayers.

I'm now working with a newer computer. I'd forgotten that I had the girls' machine. John took it home with him, performed his magic, and swapped it for the one I'd been struggling with. This is much better. It had never worked well for the girls but we think it just needed a thorough housecleaning. I'd bought it used and it was probably full of viruses from the beginning.

We're leaving in a few minutes to go shopping and maybe have breakfast out somewhere. I'd better close this out, put my shoes on, and finish getting ready.

Thanks to all for hanging in with me all this time.

The Avatar Should Explain My Absence

The avatar may not work but the little guy, borrowed from my friend sheanc, is supposed to be banging his head on the keyboard. (Update - it worked once I posted it).

The computer is working, I replaced the mouse which helped a lot so far as being able to read my email goes, but the processor is slow. It means that it takes forever for a blog to load and even longer for the comment box. I'm back to trying to stay caught up with at least some of my friends in the Bloglines feeder but commenting has been difficult. I'll keep plugging away at it.

I have several new signers on the guestbook whom I haven't met. To my visitors from Kenya, China, and Malaysia, hello, thank you, and best wishes to all.

To any of you who have sent me Facebook messages. I finally have my password back and tried to catch up somewhat. Unfortunately, it's as slow as Blogger at the moment. I'll go through them a little at a time - meantime I tried to send most of you a hug or a flower.

Dawn and I were out shopping the other day and spotted a yard sale half a block from here. I've been looking for living room chairs to replace our small couch. You can see it's a tiny room and the couch took up most of it. The two chairs were sitting in the yard begging me to take them home. I got the two for $55., a real bargain since they're in almost perfect shape and exactly what the Ray, the cat, and I wanted. Both of them rock and recline and they're so comfortable. Spunky has never been a lap cat but suddenly she's turned into one. She'd prefer to have the chair to herself but will settle for flopping down on Ray.

Ray is continuing with his gardening. We've added fresh herbs, chamomile, several varieties of peppers, one okra plant (for me), a strawberry plant for Dawn's daughter Destiny, and lots of flowers. The strawberry has two tiny berries already and one rose bush has a bud. The cucumber didn't survive but everything else is doing fine so far. The weather here has been beautiful but they're predicting 90's (about 33 C) for next week. Mornings stay chilly still.

I stopped off at Goodwill the other day looking for pillowcases. Found them, several small plates I've been wanting, three pretty coffee cups (mine weren't fit for company, poor things), and a sombrero for Ray (from Chevy's). He doesn't need to be out in the yard without some protection and that will do it nicely. I should take his picture. (Just did - see above). I caught him watching the ball game in the living room while I'm doing the same thing in here. Should have had him change that shirt first - he was mowing the yard in it.

He's doing well although his leg was swollen last week. I think he overextended himself with the planting and weed digging. I nailed him to his chair for most of the next couple of days with his foot elevated and it looks normal now.

Dawn is planning a barbecue here for my birthday a week from Saturday. Should be fun. I know she's making a triple chocolate cake and we'll keep the rest of it simple. Hot dogs, hamburgers, etc. At last report, Jim is supposed to be here from Southern California. I think it was supposed to be a surprise but Tim told me and then forgot that he had.

Can't believe I'll be 70 although some days I feel much more than that. Somehow my two sons thought I was going to be 74 until one of them finally stopped and did the math. Let's see - 1938 - 2008? That's not 74, kids.

Not much happening out of the ordinary. Friend Janet and I are going to a play at Merced College (our Junior College - the other is University of California - Merced) on Sunday. I can't remember the name but I'm sure we'll enjoy it; just for the company if nothing else.

Hope all of you are well. Again, I apologize for not being around more.

Have a good weekend and take care everyone.