When I went to the dentist in Los Alamos, the dentist was very concerned with my gums, so while in Fort Collins, I managed to schedule some serious periodontal surgery. Dr. Angie Lee (the best in the area I am told) and her staff stayed late after hours on Tuesday evening specifically to take care of me and get it done in the short time I am here! I am very easily anesthitized, and I was glad that was going to happen when I heard her say, "Now remember that I am going to cut and stitch your gums on the upper right quadrant, the upper left quadrant, the lower left quadrant and the lower right quadrant." It was a three hour surgery and I was just fine afterwards. Slight pain and a little swelling, but I felt good enough to go to lunch with my good friends from the Water Lillies on Wednesday!

SOMEbody must have taken some good photos, but I don't know who, and unfortunately, it wasn't me.

However, after that there was a bit of drama with my mouth. On Wednesday night, I didn't sleep much (awake from 1:30 to 5:00 am) and at 5 am I decided to take some melatonin and a pain pill. Then, when I woke up at 8, I was supposed to take 3 steroids ( to help with the swelling) but I was a bit groggy and confused, so instead I accidentally took 3 pain killers. I have never done well with pain killers, they make me hallucinate. So I got very dizzy and had to lie down.

I was entertained a while with a tiny mouse orchestra complete with red uniforms and marching band caps, being conducted by Betty Boop wearing red and white striped leggings under her tiny mini skirt! Also Chris flew around on the ceiling like some kind of demented bat with khaki pants and a plaid shirt. And I'm pretty sure that Bette Midler came to visit.

My nose itched and my shoulders were cold but didn't want to move to cover up or scratch

I threw up every time I ate something - that was probably helpful!. My teeth chattered and at one point my thighs were chattering and I was sweating! I slept off and on until 4 pm, and Chris kept checking on me to make sure I was still breathing. Now I'm writing this, feeling better and eating instant mashed potatoes. We'll see how I do, and I wonder if I'm going to sleep tonight??

Not a good day for working on Jonathan's quilt. I love that boy, and I love making things for him, but I have to admit I have started calling it "that damn quilt". SO much work! But it's going to be spectacular and hopefully we will both be proud of it. He doesn't often read my blog, anyway, so he won't know how much I am working and complaining. And don't you tell him!

Even with a sore mouth, I feel like I have to take advantage of every opportunity to see my kidlets! So when Karla invited her whole family over for hamburgers, I had to manage, even if I couldn't eat. I made a strawberry jello salad, so that there was something soft I could eat, and everyone gathered. It was great to be with everyone, and I took lots of photos! Here is Karla's brother, Patrick, with wife Heather, and kids, Emmet, Kate and Esben.

Then we have Karla's sister, Christina, who just recently moved to Fort Collins from Virginia with her husband, Josh, and son, Orion.

And of course, Karla, Lily, Jude, Aaron, Owen, Ezra and Joel

One thing I thought was funny, as we sat around in a circle in the backyard, was how everyone had on neutral colors.

Patrick, Heather, Andrew and Aaron...

                                                        Debra with her girls, Karla and Christina...and then there's me!

Oh well, what can I say? Color is my thing!

Here is a photo of the whole BUNCH of us! Can you name us all now?

Thanks to all for a lovely evening.

On Sunday, I had made arrangement with Candace Magner (from Los Alamos) to meet up with her in Denver to see the Cirque de Soleil show named "Kooza" because Katy Holtcamp was IN it! I was her sixth grade teacher, and Candace was her first voice teacher, and she has been a goal of hers to be the singer in Cirque for years and years. It just goes to show you that if you work at something long enough, it can be achieved! It was a wonderful show, and my photos do NOT do it justice, so I have borrowed some from Candace and stolen some from the web! This first one is from Candace and the gal in yellow is Katy - our student!

The photo on the left here shows the height of the apparatus from the stage (with Katy behind in the yellow) and the one on the right is from the web - showing the crazy things these aerialists did on the high wire!

This was my favorite act - "The Wheel of Death" - so scary and quite impressive! The other highly dangerous act - the Teeter Board, also made me gasp.

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This shows the height, and then the strength of thisacrobat.

OK - That's about the best I can do.  The formatting is NOT easy.  After the show, we met up with Katy and she gave us a backstage tour!  Fun.  The white board below shows the basic show with any changes or substitutions listed in red, so that everyone knows the correct format.  The flags above the board denote all the countries that are represented in the cast!  Pretty cool.

A few of the Water Lillies were able to meet for donuts on Monday - Here are Christy, Connie, Donna, Jo and me.

The last thing is, just for fun I wanted to show you our downstairs family room with my quilting mess all over!

There is a large screen TV on the right side of that room, so I could vaguely watch stuff while I stitch. The good news is that I THINK I got finished, except for the binding and a weird, wonky edge. I will take it with me to Michigan (leaving tomorrow) because we have our car, so I don't have to pay for the extra weight in a suitcase on a flight. When I figure out what to do with the wonky edge and get the binding on, I will CERTAINLY take a photo of the finished product, so never fear! Write back if you have a chance. I love to hear from you!

Trying Weebly

 Oh discouragement!  I spent several days on compiling words, stories and photos and was just about to push "publish" when Wix "encountered a problem" and told me that "some of your changes may not be saved."  NOTHING was saved!  Gone, gone, gone!  I was SO upset, and then had to rush out to church to hear Aaron preach.  

 Sigh. It had happened before a couple of times before, but it had just been a paragraph or two, not the whole section. Needless to say, I have changed sites, and will try to resurrect everything. I remember that I used Blogger several years ago, and there are some things I don't like about it, but I don't remember what they are.  Anyway, I'm going to give it a go.  If anyone has a really nice free blog site, please let me know!  Here we go:

Most of you know that I almost always wear a hat.  I have very cooperative naturally wavy hair that fluffls out nicely when I take my hat off.  But in New Mexico, with almost zero humidity, my hair just flattens and stays plastered to my head.  Not a lovely look.

The drive up to Fort Collins alone was long and boring, but uneventful.  Chris stayed in NM for a bit because he had an eye appointment.  

It's nice to be in our condo which is warm and welcoming.  A couple of funny things happened as I arrived.  One was that I had been using my ear buds to listen to audio books in the car.  On my first trip hauling stuff into the house, I realized I still had my earbud in (I only need one you know!) So I took it out of my ear and set it inside my hat on the kitchen table, thinking it would be safe and not get lost there until I brought everything else in and located the case.  Once I had everything in and sort arranged, and I'd had a bite to eat, I wanted to continue listening to my book, but then realized that I had inadvertently hung my hat up on the hook beside the front door.  I searched in the now hanging hat - no ear bud.  I figured I had knocked it out of the hat when I hung it up, so I searched all over the kitchen floor, living room floor, and even out on the porch and in the dirt beside the bins.  No ear bud.  I was crushed because I LOVE my ear buds.  Since I only need one, the other one is always charging and so I never have a lapse in my listening.  Luckily, I later found it on my dresser beside my jewelry - so I must have been smart enough (but forgetful) to realize I needed to put it in a safer place.   Whew.

The second funny thing was that I dying to have a bath.  Most of you know I LOVE my hot tub, which I reckon can cure anything from broken bones to broken hearts.  Just put me in hot water and I'll be happy.  It was just too hot in Los Alamos for a bath, but the condo is efficiently air conditioned and cool enough for me to enjoy one.  However, when I went to turn on the water, I noticed that there was no plug for the drain.  Drat!  So I scrounged around and hunted for something that might work.  I came up with some flattish plastic lid that was in the kitchen drawer and decided to give it a go.  Then, when I finally did turn on the water, I found that there is a simple lever which automatically closes the drain - no need for an exterior plug.  DUH!  So I was able to enjoy my bath.  Aaaaah!

While I was still in Los Alamos, I got quilting advice and help from my sweet friend, Debby Hyman.  Since she knew I was not finished when I left, she kindly offered to donate a second-hand machine that had been donated to her so I could take it with me on my road trip to Fort Collins.  I was happy to have that option, and although it is a very basic machine, and rather clunky, it works just fine except for one tiny missing piece that causes the thread tension to break way too frequently, forcing me to rethread the needle, which is frustrating, but not debilitating.  I struggled along with it for a few days, and then decided to go visit my quilting friend here in Fort Collins, Jo, for advice.  Maybe she would offer to lend me her machine?  But when I went to her house and was trying to show her where the missing piece was, she said, "Don't touch my machine!"  So I knew that wasn't going to work.  Sigh.  I floundered around some more with the current machine.  

But when I went out to lunch with Karla's mom, Debra, (and we took Ezra along - see above photo) I was telling her of my trials, and she kindly offered me her old machine, if she could find it.  She searched around in her garage and came up with it, so I took it home.  It turned out to be even clunkier and slower than the machine I have, and finally just ground to a halt and refused to take another stitch.  I took it to the repair shop, where the gentleman was very kind and efficient and told me that it was nothing I had done that ruined it, but that it would take about $200 to fix, and he could sell Debra a new basic machine for that amount!  It turns out that Debra bought her sewing machine when she was in high school, so you can imagine it's SEVERAL years old and out of date. Since Debra doesn't use it, it was decided that when I leave here, she will inherit my inherited machine and we will be even.  This means I am back to working on the exasperating machine.  I have started to call it "That damn quilt".  I'm sure it will be just fine, and hopefully, sort of spectacular, but it sure is a pain and expense to finish.  Hopefully Jonathan won't read all this and realize the trauma and trouble I'm going to because I love him.

My sister, Joyce, and husband, Jim, were in town for a wedding, and they were able to spend the afternoon with Aaron and family, and then spend the night at my condo!  I was pleased to have them and show off the place, as it's always nice to imagine your friend in the correct circumstances.  

Yep, yep, I know.  I'm behind on keeping you up to date.  But I can't help it - I've been having too much FUN!  So much to do - so little time to write!  Well, so little INCLINATION to write, I might say.  This could to be plenty long, so instead, I'll try to break it up a bit so you don't have so much to deal with at once.

We had so much fun with Rene, her boyfriend, Dean, and her daughter, Bridget, who lives right next door. And, to make the stay EVEN BETTER, her daughter, Liz, came up to join the fun with her family!  That meant that ALL of Rene's family was there, and that was just great.  We played cards and talked and laughed and ate and drank and ordered pizza and went to the shops.  I had to buy some long pants and long-sleeved shirts because it was so COLD there.  Sadly, it seems to me it was very cold there LAST year, so I guess I'm not learning my lessons very well.  I am also ashamed to say that I didn't take ONE photo of Liz and Mark, so I stole this one off their Facebook Page.  One of my excuses is that they took off to go play on a 20th wedding anniversary trip, so they didn't stay long.   But there were lots of kids, with Liz's four and Bridget's two, and a friend or neighbor often thrown in, so there were lots of things going on...  Raul the pool boy helped get the pool sparkling so the kids could have fun in it.

This is Anna in the air.

Rene's honey, Dean, brought his deer target, so the kids practiced with their bows and arrows.  This is Clara, Brody, and Noah.  

Archery practice

Dean with his deer

Brody, Clara and Brady on the tramp

The fireworks were left over from July 4th

We all oooohed and ahhhed appropriately.

Bridget - always the life of the party

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It looks like I even got a photo of Otis (the dog) but I must have missed Natalie all together.  Sigh.  I didn't do a very good job of photo journaling.  But hopefully, I'll see Liz and Mark and their kids again...we'll see how it goes. 

Now, just a small complaint.  I have a VERY hard time with this blog!  The set-up is horrible!  What I organize on the draft is NOT how it shows up on the final page.  I can't place the photos where I want them.  The type changes shades and sizes with no rhyme or reason.  I'm SORRY - I can't HELP it!  AND...if anyone knows of a better blog site, I'd love to hear about it so I can switch it out.  Let me know, PLEASE.  OK - That's enough of this and that's enough of that.  Next episode coming soon!

The END of the road trip! Yay!

Please remember that if you are enjoying my blog, then I would love to hear from you!  And even though I KNOW some of you are ONLY looking at the pics, I love you anyway.

Here's Craig, who scraped, sanded, and painted the bottom of our boat at The Anchorage in Lyons, Colorado.  See the lovely copper color?  Craig says it will turn blue as it ages.  How interesting.

Yesterday we began our cross-country road trip in the OTHER direction - from Colorado to Michigan, hauling our boat, gaZel.  We thank Jon Hicks daily, because not only did he sell us his GREAT boat - he also sold us his Dodge Durango to haul it with!  Both are in excellent shape, and that big car almost drives like we are not towing a thing!  But we must remember, especially when making sharp turns and parking, that we ARE towing a thing - and a rather BIG thing at that!  I feel like one of those 18 wheeler truckies; sitting up high on the road, chugging along at 65, getting passed constantly, by REAL cars and being careful when changing lanes that there is enough space for my "tail" in traffic.

Here's our Durango hauling our boat - and a great photo of Chris' parking skills!

Today is the 4th of July - so Happy Independence Day, all.  We'll see how the traffic is today.  I know for sure we won't have to worry about a speeding ticket even with all those extra cops on duty out there.  (And those of you who have ever driven with me know that my lead foot is rather itchy, but I'm following Chris' orders to stay at 65 mph.  Hmphhh.)  Believe it or not, the gas prices went DOWN overnight, even though it's a HOLIDAY!  Quite amazing.  So we paid $3.34 in Nebraska.  We're happy with lower prices, as we're only getting about 11 mpg.

Another WONDERFUL thing I just discovered about this Durango - it has separate air controls for the driver and the passenger side!  So if Chris is driving, I don't have to cower under my blanket - I can just adjust my side so doesn't blow so cold.  Isn't that great???

As we are driving along, I think, but Chris THINKS!  I think stuff like, "Hey.  We're in the town of York.  I wonder if that's where they make York Peppermint Patties."  Or "Hmmm...those hay bales look sort of like sheep."  Chris thinks, "I wonder what would happen if I applied maximum force to the sigma faction in the V sector?"  Or something like that.

The crops in Nebraska and Iowa are almost all corn.  Chris mentioned that this morning, which made me break into song, "The corn is as high as an elephant's eye!"  Then I remembered that corn is supposed to be "knee high by the 4th of July" and since this IS the 4th of July, I suggested that the corn is doing pretty well - because it's a lot taller than knee-high.  Chris says perhaps it's supposed to be as tall as an ELEPHANT's knee.  Maybe that's how corn is always measured.  But I told him that only applies in Oklahoma.  (You may have to be musical to GET all this!)

If the crops are not corn, it's hard to tell WHAT they are as we zoom along and can't identify the leaves.  It may be strawberries, or lettuce, or even beets for all I know.

The most amusing license plate we've seen so far said Wa Dat 4.  We can just imagine the five year old in THAT car!  Tee hee.

The last day of our road trip, we crossed the Mississippi River, which is quite FULL.

Chis is so excited about this boat we're hauling.  He said today, "We can thumb our noses at the sailing boats, and we can thumb our noses at the power boats, because WE have BOTH!"  I said, "But we have no power."  (Our outboard motor is only 15 hp, believe it or not.)  He said, "Our boat is called a power-sailer."  I repeated, "But we have no power."  He said, "OK - we are a power-sailer with no balls."

SO...our road trip is over and look what I found here in Michigan!   My sweet friend, Rene!  I'll talk to you later.  Love you, bye.

California or Bust!

While in New Mexico, I was talking to my great nephew, Thomas Bluefeather,  and I was telling him about my two lives.  I have this great life in the USA where I get to visit family and play with old friends and exercise with new friends (in Fort Collins when I can get there) and I get lots of travel and new adventures.  Then I have this great life in Australia where I get to play with my card buddies and laugh with my craft groups and exercise with my tennis friends and do my volunteering and fall into my regular routine which I also love!  I said to Tom - "I wish I could do them both."  He answered, "I think you sort of are."  Good point.  How nice!  It's TRUE that I miss my Aussie friends when I am here, and I miss my family and friends when I am there, but I'm getting BOTH - so what is there to complain about?  Not a thing.  I am so blessed.

Yeah, he's looking old with that grey in his beard,
but he's still my sweet boy!

It was obvious Jonathan was happy to hang out with me.  One day, he was even willing to watch "America's Next Top Model" rather than spend the dy without me!  I love that boy!

Here's another wonderful story about my wonderful life.  Chris and I are driving from New Mexico to California on Thursday to visit his cousins and attend his 50th high school reunion. As it stands now, we have TWO cars here in NM.  The big new (used) Dodge Durango (bought to haul the boat) is here because we needed to get it registered here.  The Honda Fit is here because 1) we came separately, and 2) we don't want to drive the gas-eating Durango to California.  So...Chris originally thought that I would FLY back to Albuquerque, pick up the Durango and drive it back to Colorado while he drove alone straight back to Fort Collins from California - thus saving us the day that it would take for us to BOTH drive back to NM and then onward to CO.  But after thinking about it a while he decided that he wanted to be with me, spend time with me, and it was worth the extra day in order to do that.  Isn't that the sweetest thing?  I am SO lucky to have him in my life! <3

We always have fun with Tom and Sara and the boys when we're in Albuquerque. This time, we went to what they call "The Jumping Joint" and hung out for a while.  It's a huge gymnasium with wall-to-wall trampolines.  It was so fun to watch Sky and Forest do back flips in unison all down the length of the room.  I didn't have my camera ready at the time, so no photos of that.  But here's Forest walking right up this pole and back-flipping off, and Sky OBVIOUSLY obeying the rules!  Even yours truly got involved in the fun - though I was NOT dressed for the occasion.

UP....

and over!

Woo hoo!

So today (Thursday) we are driving to California.  There is a LOT of roadwork in Arizona, and if it says "35 mph" you BETTER slow down to 35 because there has been a cop in a car with lights flashing at almost every site!  And sometimes one at EACH end of the construction zone!  I took this photo to signify....well, I'm not quite sure WHY there are random dinosaurs in Arizona.  It's just road worthy stuff, I guess.

Here's another road trip photo - it has been AGES since we've been to McDonald's, but Chris likes their breakfasts.  

When I was in Los Alamos, I bought a new skirt at the consignment store when I went there with Becky Hardy and Jane Bolton.  It's a great skirt with big purple and teal flowers.  Then I went to the craft shop, because I NEEDED a new craft project, and I bought the wool and a pattern to knit a shawl to go with my skirt.  It's going to be great if I get it finished, but I may have bitten off more than I can chew, as it's rather complicated.  Anyway, when I'm knitting in the car, I am wearing my sunglasses AND my magnifying glasses - it may look silly, but it works!

When I'm driving and Chris is sleeping, I sometimes play the ABC game by myself.  (Because Chris won't play with me.)  There are several versions. The most traditional would be to find a word that STARTS with A, B, C, etc.  When I'm seriously just trying to stay awake and distract myself, I play the "Aaron Version", where you can find the a, the b, and the c on the same sign - and even in the middle of a word!  When I want it challenging, I have to REMEMBER each word, so when I find the E word (and in MY game "EXIT" is not allowed for ANY letter!) I have to recount what I had for A, B, C, and D etc.  But I have learned that the ABC game is absolutely worthless along Route 66 through Arizona, because there is NOTHING but desert!  The only signs are on the trucks that pass - and that makes for a sl-o-o-o-o-w game.

Once we got to California, the air in San Bernadino was BROWN!  WhoEVER would WANT to live in Southern California????  WAAAAY too many people and AWFUL traffic, no matter what time of day!  (There are more people in Southern California than in ALL of Australia!)  We were on a freeway with EIGHT lanes all going in our direction, (not counting the eight lanes on the other side of the median strip) and it was still bumper to bumper - on a Saturday! AAARGH and UUUUGH!   And if you're not crawling, then you are being passed like crazy by maniacs going 10 - 20 mph over the speed limit.   We paid $4.59 for gas in CA.  I think the least we've paid was $3.39 in AZ.

Anyway, we had a lovely day with Chris' cousin, George, and his wife Margaret.

George & Margaret

 Chris and George discussed the problems of the world, and Margaret and I had a very rewarding heart to heart, while I furiously knitted the whole time!  Margaret was a dear, and saved my bacon, as she provided me with 1) knitting markers, 2) magnifying glasses and 3) food!  I still didn't get it finished on time, but it wasn't Margaret's fault.  She encouraged me the whole way.  I think it was Tom's fault!  Too much farkle-ing and not enough knitting at Tom's house.

Tom playing farkle.  Of COURSE -he's winning!

Chris had a wonderful time at the Gardina High School reunion.   It was the FIRST reunion he had attended ever, so after 50 years, you can imagine that many people were delighted to see him.  And, of course, he won the award for coming the farthest - but not only that, there was a prize!  We won a bag with two engraved glasses and a very nice bottle of California wine with a special label for the reunion and our names on it!

David Wise, Geoff and Doug Anderson, and
Mike Welzer with Chris.  These guys were great
buddies in high school, and they still enjoy each other!

Check out that good-looking kid
on the name tag!

Monday we're on the road again - with a frantic schedule.  We're trying to get back to Albuquerque in one day.  Then rushing up to Los Alamos and back to Fort Collins the next day (we EACH have a car!) Then we'll have a day to pack and grab the boat and then the next day - another ROAD TRIP!  Off to Michigan.  Our new Garmin GPS is scarily accurate.  It will say things like "Turn left after the overpass," or "Turn right just before the Wendy's restaurant."  Chris says that pretty soon it's going to say, "Turn left after the discarded Coke can on the right hand curb."

Wednesday: It was a long day yesterday, as we suspected.  I left early, and had to stop in Los Alamos, where I said good-bye to Jonathan again, and dropped off some goodies for Larry and Connie.  So when I got to Ojo Caliente, I decided I would stop and take in the "natural healing waters,"  as, even living there all those years, I had never visited.  I really enjoyed it - the soda water, the arsenic water, the cliff pools, but especially the mud! The instructions for Mudding Up are 1) Get wet  2) Slather mud all over.  (They have this funny little fountain where the mud comes out looking like drinking chocolate!)  3) Bake in the sun until done.  4) Soak in the mud pool.  It was a fascinating experience.  And "as our special blend of clay dries, toxins are released from the pores of your skin and you come away feeling cleansed and refreshed."  What do you think?  Want to give it a go?

Tomorrow we take off again across country towards Michigan.  We'll be hauling our boat and taking three days to get there.  We're quite excited to see our good friends and my sister, Joyce!  Here we come!