Spam

I am so very tired of people who have so little to do in this world!  Get a job!!!  Find something productive to do!!  After I wrote tonight’s blog I went back to read the additional comments left on the blog written last night—four of them were spam received since this morning. 

As a result, I am turning off the feature which allows anonymous users to leave comments.  You must be a registered user—all this means is you must have a Google account such as Gmail or a Yahoo account such as Yahoo mail.  I think Word Press users can also leave comments.

I hate to do this as the last time I removed anonymous commenters my comments dropped significantly—we will see.  Thanks for understanding.

For A Retired Person I Sure Am Busy

OK—this is really starting to be unfair !  Ms. Peggy strolls over this afternoon and tells me the Port Lavaca quilt shop called to inform her she won their gift basket.  Her husband was kind enough to drive over with her to retrieve this basket—holy smokes—you should have seen all the goodies!!!  Patterns, fat quarter bundles, thread, gadgets—a real score!!!  Now I am the only person out of our little group yesterday to not win something—maybe I will win the big prize—the Janome sewing machine!!

It was just another day of go, go for me.  It started at 4:30 this morning when Michael got up and found our air conditioners running???  It was 45 degrees outside and almost that cold inside, why were the air conditioners running??  I have often said our thermostat is devil possessed and I think it really is.  When I got up to see if I could help him figure out what was going on we neither one could get the furnace mode to appear on the thermostat.  I just started the heat strips for him so it would warm up and went back to bed.  When I got up I finally managed to get “furnace” to appear on the stupid control panel—ah, warm air!  The hydro hot heating system won’t run without the “furnace” being set on the thermostat control panel. 

Off to the park for Emmi and me—we walked 2 miles and played a little basketball.  Back home I began working on Jane’s quilt and finished it about 2pm.  Squared Jane’s next quilt backing before going over to Mom’s.  She and Chuck have settled into their RV quite nicely. 

Homemade pizza for supper tonight.  Our mail came today—I think I need to get it sent more often, it took me forever to go through all that stuff!  Lots of tax documents, that’s good and lots of new reading material—magazines, etc.

This quilt belongs to my friend Jeane—I finished both her quilts a while back and sent them to her—she was thrilled—I think they both turned out well but I must not have taken photos of the pink and brown one, dang it!

What’s up with all the spam lately???  Blogger Dashboard was catching all mine—I was keeping my spam folder in Blogger Dashboard emptied as Rick suggested—but the last few days, I’ve gotten at least one per day.  Mike McFall had his email and Facebook account hacked yesterday.  Dirt bags!!! 

And as Vera so nicely pointed out, it was Mary Lou who originally came up with the idea of “Quilt Studio” for the trailer—so Quilt Studio it is!

A Shop Hopping We Go

I was up even before Michael was out the door this morning—had to get ready to go Quilt Shop Hopping!!!  We had a car full this morning, Mom, Peggy, Gina and me—rolling out at 8:30 heading for Port Lavaca and the Beefore it’s a Quilt & Gifts store.  A perfectly delightful store!  We were amazed at the crowds in the stores—today was the first day of the shop hop and this store was packed with shopping women!

Bet you non-quilters are asking “what in the world is a shop hop?”  Quilt shops in surrounding areas use these shop hops as a means of getting more customers to visit their shops.  You are issued a passport and each quilt shop on the tour will stamp your passport.  For this shop hop you must visit every shop on the passport to be entered for the prize drawings—a Janome sewing machine, gift certificates to the various shops, etc.  There are six shops participating in this particular shop hop.  In Montana you do not have to visit every shop to be entered in the drawings. 

Each of the shops (except one) gave us a gift bag and were also giving away door prizes as we shopped.  We are sending Gina and Mom out to buy a lottery ticket—Gina won two door prizes, Mom won three!!  Peggy and I won a big fat zero!  The shops all had great food treats too, (except one)! 

After Port Lavaca we headed to Victoria to visit the Quilters Patch then on to Jason’s Deli for lunch.

Lots of talking and laughing going on!  We were hesitant to go all the way to El Campo but once we entered the shop there—we were thrilled we had made the effort.  What a cool shop!  All out welcome from the owner and staff—great goodie bags, beautiful fabrics—what more could a girl want???  There Ms. Niki—more Grandma photos!

Our last stop was in Rockport and that shop gets an upside down smiley face! No sense of welcome, none, zero—so guess what—we spent no money, none, zero there! 

We were four tired women pulling into the RV resort this afternoon around 5pm.  Rollie was kind enough to let Princess Emmi out around lunchtime today or I really would have been in trouble.  As it was she voiced her displeasure at being left home alone—loudly!

OK—now that you know what a shop hop is—let’s answer some questions—Angie wanted to know what password program I was considering—LastPass.  And yes, Angie, the majority of my exercise does consist of walking Princess Emmi but a few times a week I also try to do some type of stretching exercises such as yoga plus some sit-ups. 

I received a lot of good suggestions about classier names for the quilting trailer—thanks to all of you and I think Vera had the one I liked best—“the quilt studio.”  I call my un-finished basement room at home the quilting studio and I guess the trailer is my “mobile quilting studio.” 

What’s For Dinner

Look what we are having for dinner:

There will be other stuff eaten but this is the important part—Gina’s chocolate pie!

Emmi and I got out to the little park in Ingleside early this morning but there were all ready other dog walkers out there.  It was a blustery, humid morning for a walk—I think even Ms. Emmi feels the humidity.  I took the camera today as when we were out there the other day I saw some cardinals.  Today probably due to the wind we saw only ducks and turkey vultures.

I was in the quilting trailer (we are going to have to come up with a classier name for the trailer!) before 10am this morning and stayed after it all day long listening to my book, occasionally pausing to answer a question from Gina or a phone call from Mom.  She came over to do her ironing this afternoon. 

Went over to Mom’s this afternoon late to get some lettuce for Gina’s tacos she is making for dinner and now I have a headache.  I ran smack into the corner of one of her upper cabinet doors with my head—I saw stars it hurt so bad—I’m not doing so well lately, first I try to run over my finger with the longarm and today I try to knock myself out on the cabinet door—maybe I better stay in bed—you think??? 

Life is good—in spite of a sore head!

Books I’m Reading

I’m trying something a little new today—Judy at Patchwork Times has started a new feature on her blog—Whatcha Reading and I’m gonna participate!  Is it another “thing” in my life to waste more time???  I hope not, I love to read and I love to get ideas for new books from other readers.  Judy likes the same kind of books I do—historical fiction, love stories.  I will on occasion read non-fiction if it is something which interests me.  I don’t usually like mysteries and definitely don’t like those graphic, scary murder books. 

My friend Kelly from Kansas City is also a vicarious reader and likes the same kind of books I do.  She recently sent me a box of “real” books she obtained from volunteering at her local library—volunteers get first pick from the books which are donated to the library.  One of the books was Sarah’s Key.  Such a sad, heart wrenching tale of Jews caught in France during Hitler’s rein.  A very good read.

Now I’ve just started The Age of Dreaming by Nina Revoyr a novel about a silent film star who abruptly ended his career and is now being pursued by a journalist with a screenplay in mind.  I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Got Lots Done Again

This getting up early is good for my to do list!  Lots of phone calls done, went to the bank, took Mom to the post office, went to Wal Mart and helped her pick out a vacuum, did laundry, etc., etc.!!! 

I canceled our Millenicom aircard today—this cable internet is screaming fast—thanks Rick for the heads up.  We have always had very good service with our Millenicom—this isn’t the greatest Verizon service area, our phones are Straight Talk using Verizon towers and they work well here but the Millenicom was mediocre at best.  When we have the need to use an aircard again, we will use Millenicom—it’s the greatest bargain out there.

Occasionally I would read on the quilting forum about someone sewing their finger to a quilt with the longarm and would think, “how on earth did they do that.”  Well, today I almost found out!  I have this nice little bruise and scratch on the nail of my left middle finger.  I was cruising along today using my hand to smooth the fabric, looked away and the next thing I knew I was snatching my hand away and yelling!  Good thing I have good reflexes!!

Gina is on the mend, she was even out and about today and that’s a good thing!!  They joined us for chicken fajitas tonight.

And Niki dear, I will try to take some photos of your Grandma soon!  I should have had someone take a photo of us yesterday when we were all dressed up going to church—your Grandma was styling! 

We received a wonderful gift in the mail today—a few days ago I received a Facebook message from our oldest granddaughter Katie telling me to be on the lookout for a “late Christmas present, or should we say Valentine’s present in the mail.”  It came today—she and Laci put together this fabulous album—we love it!!  Here is a shot of the cover and of one of the photos from inside:

Sweet little girls

Beautiful young women they have become—we are very proud of both of them and I am very thankful they think of me as their grandmother.

Michael took this photo with his phone today—he’s getting quite good with that smart phone Lonn!  This is the Olympus hull we watched come in through the ship channel on Saturday. 

It’s Quiet Around Here

Michael was out the door early, early this morning on his way back to work.  I slept just a little while longer—I had a long list I wanted to accomplish today!  First off was coffee and blogs then exercising!  The princess Emmi slept for about another hour then I made her go for a walk. 

Mom and I drove over to Rockport and attended church—as always, it was delightful.  We hit the Rockport Wal Mart before coming home, eating lunch and walking the dog.

Then it was on to the quilting trailer for me—I really need to buckle down and get some quilts quilted!  Made good progress today on Jane’s bright and happy quilt.  I am listening to Ken Follett’s Fall Of The Giants—and enjoying it very much. 

Mom has the trailer cleaned and all her stuff unpacked and put away—their little home is looking good!

Monday can’t get here soon enough for Ms. Gina—she isn’t feeling good!!!  Dang dentist who don’t return their phone calls on weekends!

OK—who of you out there in blogland other than Rick and John use a password program??  Or are you like me with a long list of passwords on various pieces of paper?? Michael just isn’t convinced it is the way to go, I am! 

A Good Saturday

Rollie had air conditioner problems bright and early this morning, ordered a new motor and was able to get the system going in the meantime while he waits for the motor to get here.  Emmi and I stopped by to see Mom while on our walk this morning—she was busy cleaning all ready—Chuck had gone to get breakfast for them.

Michael wanted to walk on the beach so off to the ferry we went, driving to a different part of the beach than we normally do.  As we drove out we noticed all these people standing along the jetty.  As we got out of the car I noticed this “thing” out in the ocean and asked Michael, “what’s that out there??”

 He replied, “I think that’s a oil rig hull.”  And he was right—this hull is the Olympus headed to the Kiewit shipping yard to be outfitted with the modules such as the ones Michael is working on.  This particular rig will be located about 130 miles out in the Gulf, south of New Orleans.  I quickly called Mom and Chuck telling them how to get out to the shipping channel—they made it in time to see the big hulk go by.  The rig on which Michael is working will be twice the size of this one!!

What a pleasant, unexpected treat! 

Back home Michael re-worked the location of the new router and modem—he wasn’t getting a great signal and kept getting dropped this morning.  Tonight all is well—blazing fast internet!!

And let’s see—what did I do—took Mom the vacuum cleaner, walked Emmi, made a rhubarb crisp from rhubarb out of my yard, frozen this past summer, cut Michael’s hair, etc.  For dinner, we all gathered to eat hamburgers on the grill.  Our Gina is not liking the antibiotics she is taking for the tooth so spent much of the day inside resting.  I placed a call to the dentist but as it is the weekend, I didn’t really expect to hear from him. 

The guys go back to work tomorrow and I’ve got to get some quilting done!!! 

We Are Still Coming And Going

We started the day out going and we went all day!  My sweet friend Gina has a bad tooth, circumstances have prevented her from seeing a dentist and the tooth decided to really rear it’s ugly head a couple days ago.  We tried to get her into a dentist yesterday with no luck, an appointment on Monday morning was the best we could do.  I woke up this morning thinking, “I am going to find Gina a dentist TODAY!”  The poor girl was miserable last night—when your teeth ache, your whole body aches!  Well, I was successful and we hit the jackpot—the dentist in Rockport was understanding of Gina’s fears and got her started on the right path.  It is going to take some time but at least we have relieved her pain. 

While we were gone to the dentist, Mike and Rollie changed the oil in Rollie’s jeep and puttered around some more.  Once Gina and I got back—I started cooking, Mom and Chuck were arriving this afternoon and we were making dinner.

Gina had a craving for crabs so they headed over to Rockport purchasing crabs and shrimp.  The cooking began in earnest when they got back.  I made stuffed bell peppers and they were delicious—I used Gina and Rollie’s recipe with Zataran’s rice and sausage instead of ground beef.  I think I’ve decided these things are a little too much trouble for the amount of meat you get!!

Mom and Chuck rolled in about 5pm and we carted all their stuff into the travel trailer to be unpacked tomorrow.  They then came over to the motorhome to enjoy dinner with us.

After reading a blog Rick wrote recently about getting cable internet, a light bulb went off for us.  We have RV park provided cable—our Millenicom aircard worked here in Aransas Pass but without its usual good speeds.  The park wifi is a joke.  Today we entered the world of high speed internet—thank you cable company—we just purchased a modem, took it to the local cable company office to get it activated and we are in business!  And it costs us just slightly more per month than our Millenicom aircard. 

Emmi spent the day keeping up with all the people and was one tired puppy tonight--

A Shopping Trip

I thought the guys were going to work on Rollie’s jeep today but the phone buzzed with a text message—Gina and Rollie wanted to go shopping—at the commissary in Corpus Christi.  It was mine and Michael’s first trip to a commissary and we certainly enjoyed ourselves!  Thanks guys for taking us!  By the time we were all shopped out in the commissary, it was past lunch time!  Many of our blogger friends talk about In and Out Burgers and Five Guys Burgers—Corpus has a Five Guys and off we went.  Great burgers and the fries were outstanding!

The view from the Naval Air Station base in Corpus Christi—in the top photo, if you squint, you can pick out the big cranes at the job site where Michael and Rollie work.  The base has a fantastic RV park!

After lunch we headed to Sam’s Club, the guys dropped Gina and me off then scooted over to Harbor Freight.  Our Costco store in Billings used to have great clothes and in the past couple years I’ve wondered who in the world was doing their buying.  The Sam’s Club store in Corpus has great clothes—I found capri pants—cute ones and some cute summer tops.  And back to the commissary, shopping for clothes with Gina is a hoot—we are in adjoining dressing rooms, she tries something on, says, “this doesn’t fit, here,” and over the top of the wall it sails to land on my head!  We had a bad case of the giggles!

Back home Gina was craving crab meat and rather than drive to Rockport for blue crabs, Rollie just went to Wal Mart and bought king crabs—after our big lunch it made the perfect supper. 

I had an anonymous comment last night and it was signed, “your friend.”  I had a sneaking suspicion who the culprit was just by the way it was written but deleted it anyway.  Sorry, Linda, I just knew it was you!  I sent Linda a text message today and found out the comment was indeed hers.  Linda and her husband Jim are good friends of ours, we met when we were doing Cowboy Action Shooting.  They live in Arizona now—Jim is THE only person Michael has ever allowed to call him Mikey.  If you are ever in need of fattening up—Linda’s is the place to go—that woman can cook!!  Jim and Michael used to ride motorcycles together. 

Once again, it was just a great day with friends.

Another One Of Those Busy Days

My dear husband has seven days off and what does he decide to do on one of those days off—wash all our vehicles including the gigantic motorhome!!!!

So now we have a spiffy home and both cars are also clean.  While he was washing my car, Emmi and I took the jeep to the park to walk and play basketball.  When we got back Michael suggested I go clean Mom and Chuck’s carpet while he washed the motorhome.  Now, before you think he was about to be in trouble for suggesting I go clean carpet—this was all ready in the works. Clara, the manager here at the RV park had offered to loan me a small carpet cleaner and I took advantage of the offer. 

So, off I went—the trailer is now much cleaner than it was.  It still needs some more elbow grease but at least Mom and Chuck can spend the night without being disgusted!  The air conditioner is on and the carpet is drying.

Back home I cleaned the outside of the windshield, the driver’s side window and the window in our door so I could attach our custom fitted outside sunshades—chore done!

By then both of us were starting to feel a little tired to say the least.  Out came the lounge chairs and I made us coke floats.  Gina and Rollie rolled in about 5pm and I started dinner for the four of us.  I’m getting more tired just reading about all we did today—how about you???  It feels good to have those things crossed off our list!

From the ferry the other day—one big ship!

The King Ranch

The King Ranch, all 825,000 acres, started right here along the Santa Gertrudis Creek when Richard King had a vision—he wanted to buy land there.  Richard King was born in 1824 to Irish immigrants in New York City.  He was indentured to a jeweler and ran away at the age of 11, stowing himself on a boat bound for Mobile, AL.  By the age of 19, he was a steamboat pilot, he built one fortune in the shipping industry and another ranching.  In 1853 he purchased the first land for his ranch—15,000 acres, a Spanish land grant he got for the princely sum of $300!!!!

There has been very little rain here for two years and all the creeks and ponds are dry or almost dry.

Richard and Henrietta King started a ranch that 150 years later is still operating—raising cows and horses at the operation near Kingsville, Texas.  The Santa Gertrudis breed of cows is the first American breed of beef cattle and they were bred on the King Ranch in 1940 by crossing Brahmans and beef short horn cattle. 

The couple had five children and the ranch is still privately owned by direct descendants of the Kings through their daughter Alice.  At this time there are no family members in management positions.  They do serve on the various board of directors.

The family home is not open to the public—it is 32,000 square feet and has not been occupied by any family member since 1974 but is available to any member of the family at any time.  There is a staff of sixteen which maintains the home and grounds.

There are 300 head of quarter horses and 60,000 head of cattle on the ranch today.

Richard King went to Mexico in 1953 to buy cattle—he offered the people of the drought stricken village homes and jobs if they would come back to Texas with him.  About 60 families came with him and some of their descendants still work on the ranch.  The King Ranch provides housing, utilities and various other benefits to about 100 employees at this time.  The housing is old with many of the structures having been built in the 1940’s.  The ranch is in the process of tearing down many of these older homes and building these for the workers:

Just one of the many examples of the running W brand seen all over the ranch—Ford manufactures a King Ranch vehicle line with top grain leather branded with this running W.   In Kingsville, The King Ranch Store sells furniture, leather goods and other items, many branded with this running W.  Michael somehow left the store off our tour route???

There are 425 water wells on the property, there was a commissary at one time:There was a church and a King Ranch school still exists for grades K-12 in Kingsville.

When this 83 year old man was 9 years old he was breaking horses for the King Ranch—without their knowledge—but breaking the horses to ride.  He legally went to work for the ranch when he turned 11 years old.  The King Ranch owned the only Texas horse, named Assault, to win the Triple Crown—in 1943.  The horse had a cut foot and there was talk of putting the animal down.  The little boy at the time asked if he could take care of the horse, was granted permission, nursed the horse back to health, trained it with the horse going on to become a very famous racehorse!  He gave an interesting little talk and even played us a tune on the harmonica!

This photo is for you Karen—this loom was set up in the same room where the man in the above photos gave his talk—he told us the loom had been used to weave saddle blankets.

Sandhill cranes along the tour.

It was a wonderful, totally interesting day!!  Emmi stayed home alone and boy did she ever howl when we finally got back home about 5pm!!!  Zoey and Angel were glad to see someone too! 

One Busy Day and A Good Evening With Friends

Walked the three dog circus early this morning—I’ve become quite the entertainment for folks as I try to corral my three pooches on our walks.  Sometimes we walk in complete harmony, other times I have three leashes wrapped around my ankles with dogs going in all different directions.  Zoey and Angel came home with us and spent some time in Emmi’s house much to her dismay!

Just before 11am I headed for the ferry and Port Aransas to hopefully retrieve the trailer I purchased  for Mom.  Success—Sharon was waiting for me, we took another tour of the rig, exchanged cash along with the title and Sharon was on her way.  Keith (one of the workcampers here at our RV park) and Michael were right behind me with Keith’s truck.  We quickly hooked up and headed back to the ferry where two medical emergencies had backed up the lines to board—even with those issues, it still only took us about 20 minutes of waiting.

Back at The Palms, expert backer Keith had that trailer in the site before we could blink, we unloaded the wooden steps and off he went.  It was so kind of him to volunteer to go and get the trailer for us—we really appreciated it

.  The site is one of the nicest ones in the park—those two live oak trees will provide nice shade come summer.

Time to get ready for our guests.  Michael rarely if ever shops for groceries—he volunteered to make a Wal Mart run for me!  Matt, Gail and Freeway were coming to visit—we met these friends in Cedar Key last year, they were our neighbors for a month or so.  Gail had driven out to Rockport and picked up 3 pounds of great looking shrimp and I attempted my first shrimp boil with phone directions provided by Rollie.  Success—it turned out great Rollie—thanks for the use of your outdoor cooking equipment! 

And speaking of Gina and Rollie—I borrowed these photos from Facebook--Aren’t those just the two prettiest babies!! 

It has been a great day—in fact, a fabulous day!

Sunday At Home

Michael was home today—his first of seven days off and it was wonderful to have him here.  Instead of relaxing he changed the oil in the Cadillac and tweaked my quilting table.  He did spend some time resting his eyes , sitting outside with me and helping me walk the pooches. 

Speaking of changing the oil—the strangest thing happened.  He went to Wal Mart, bought an oil filter and two containers of synthetic oil—a one quart container and a 5 quart container.   When he opened the cap of the 5 quart container, the seal was gone and he realized it was used oil!!!!  What a scam that could be!!  Moral of this story, check the seals of the containers of oil before buying!  Wal Mart exchanged the 5 quart container, no questions asked!

We enjoyed last night leftovers for lunch and Gina—that cake is still very good in case you were wondering!  

After spending time sitting outside just chatting about life, jobs, etc. we came inside and watched the cutest little movie—We Bought A Zoo.  And we even had popcorn, too!  Butter on Michael’s, no butter for me.

Rollie and Gina left here this morning before the crack of dawn, caught their flight to Houston and were delayed in Houston over 7 hours due to fog!!!  They arrived in Colorado early evening, finally. 

It was one of those nice, quiet Sundays—very enjoyable.  Tomorrow we retrieve the RV I purchased for Mom and Chuck, I hope and bring it here to our RV park—Clara (the manager) found us a spot—a last minute cancellation, yea!