Summer days are shortening ...

It used to be full daylight at 5:30 am, but now it's getting on to 6:00 - 6:30 before it's fully light outside. Winter is approaching!! I'm being told that the winter days are short and the nights are very long. We'll see. Will I become a whiney baby? is it possible that even *I* will tire of the rain?? Hard to imagine!


Just heard today of a former co-worker who has cancer. I hate to hear that!! Someone who retired when the building closed. I swear, I am NEVER going to retire.


Last week was Bunco Thursday. We were short a person at the last minute (Carol forgot she had to take some medicine prior to some lab work on Friday, so needed to stay home) so I asked Carlos if he'd fill in. Being the good sport that he is, he agreed! Bless his heart. So here's Carlos playing Bunco with a room full of women. The only thing that would have made it perfect is for him to get a Bunco and have to wear the bright pink fuzzy scarf!! He had a good time and he's agreed to be a reserve player -- as long as there are no cats at the hostess's house. Highly allergic--and cats have a 6th sense about who doesn't want them around!


Carol's oldest son and her daughter came up on Saturday and the 3 of them took off for Seattle. To see an A's game, of all things! How crazy is that. They're coming back this way on Thursday, then heading off for home (home being Livermore) So I have 2 weeks without her around. Amazing how quickly we can get used to other people in our lives! So how am I spending this "alone time"?


I got 2 scrapbook pages done. Turned out REALLY cute! Was able to use up 10 of my Hawaii photos. Ready to do 2 more -- again with the HI photos. Trouble is, I can't find the ones I want. These pages will be perfect for the airport shots Stacey took. It's possible they're at home, but do I want to wait that long? Should I just reorder the 2 or 3 I want, along with the other 30 or 40 Stacey just posted? Aaaggghhh


There are several scrappers here so I'm having a group over on Saturday to play. Marletta has a really cool fold-out album that I want her to show me how to make. So, Sandy Benson, Audrey Guest, Marletta and another lady I don't know are coming. Jeanine Brown is maybe coming .. depending on their plans for the weekend. I mentioned that I'm a "copier", can't come up with an original idea to save myself, and Marletta told me about a web site called pagemaps.com. My kind of web site!


Jeanine showed us some cards her sister made, sewing geometric shapes with very fine silver and/or gold thread. I remember in my geometry class we had to use string and nails to do the same thing. I think some years ago there was a resurgence of "string art" in the craft community. This uses black shiny cardstock, pearlized with special paints and then sewing on it with the thread. Absolutely beautiful!! Marletta found the book and made two of them last weekend. She said she did one in a couple of hours. They could be framed they're so pretty.


I've read about 9 books since I've been here (not bad when you consider the 2 or 3 weeks I spent working 10 and 12 hour days) and I've listened to at least that many. I've been downloading books from the public library. Got hooked on a series by Kate Wilhelm. There were 10 in that series and I just downloaded 5 more by her. These are non-series and a couple of them are science fiction. She's a local author and the settings so far have been Oregon. I've enjoyed them all!

I've also been busy with my paperback swap. Just shipped off a book on tape (got me 2 credits!) and I just ordered 8 books with the credits I'd already accumulated. I'm reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich so I was able to fill in some of the gaps. I prefer to read a series back-to-back.


Lynne sent some photos from the reception at Puget Sound so let's see if I can post a couple.



Steve and Amber cutting their cake. They had their wedding clothes on earlier for pictures, but got comfie right after!






Lynne took this one of me because she wanted everyone to see that, yes, I take a book with me EVERYWHERE. I'll have you know that the few minutes it took to snap 4 shots of me standing by the driftwood with Puget Sound behind me, were enough to give me a slight sunburn. Yes, Heather, I KNOW I should have put on some sunblock, but I didn't plan to go out in the sun!

Gary's Aerobed gave up the ghost this weekend so he asked me to go with him to look for a new mattress. Took him over to SleepCountry and my buddies over there set him up. He's getting a new queen bed delivered on Thursday. Much more comfortable than the floor!

Oh! Melanie Prestidge arrived! I saw her today, but no time to talk as she was heading to a meeting. She said to say hello to everyone ... HELLO! (for those of you who have NO idea who that is, she's one of the supervisor's from Pleasanton who transferred up here)

Well, kids, that's it for now. I keep trying to be less boring, but this is all you get! I admire your perseverence to keep on reading. All I have left to talk about is laundry and housecleaning so I'd better move along. Stay tuned ... you never know what will pop up!