Arkansas Relatives Arrive and Customer Service

Tonight's blog is for Emmi fans. Michael took pity on me this morning and gave me my birthday present early, a new little pocket camera, a Canon PowerShot A1000. He told me I was a little lost soul without a camera and I have to agree with him. Canon has shipped my other camera and it should be home on Tuesday next week.

My sister Ann and her husband Danny arrived this afternoon with their friend Pat and Harley. They have been in Glacier National Park the last few days. Pat and Harley had a late lunch with us and then went back to Bozeman--they have a very early flight in the morning headed home to Arkansas. Danny and Ann don't leave until Tuesday morning.

We spent the afternoon visiting and then ate again! Emmi has been the center of attention and is sound asleep now.

Emmi at thirteen weeks. Her little legs are growing longer by the day.
Isn't that the sweetest face??

I recently ordered some medications from CanadaDrugs.com which I have done many times. The package arrived in a timely manner but when I used the first adhesive patch which is supposed to adhere for a week--it fell off in the shower the first night. I called CanadaDrugs, the customer service rep gave me an address to return the defective medication and said she would send a replacement that day. I thought that was impressive enough but then today I received the following e-mail--

"Thank you for expressing your concerns to our Customer Service Department. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us make necessary changes to our services so that all our customers are satisfied. Here at Canada Drugs Ltd., customer satisfaction is our main priority.We sincerely apologize for the misinformation you received during the processing of your last order. This level of service is not what we strive for. We assure you this situation was not taken lightly and a thorough review has been done.We highly value you as our customer and look forward to serving you in the future. If you have any further inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us at the toll free number listed below or email us."

If the rest of the Canadian medical system is run as well as CanadaDrugs.com, I'm ready for a single payer system!

What Happened To Yesterday??

Yesterday went by in a blur. We got up late, took a walk and then I mowed the grass and weed whacked. Nat came up for lunch and I fixed some of our friend Brian's shish-k-bobs on the grill.

After lunch I decided while cleaning I would cook the chokecherries I picked to get the juice. Nat had brought me my friend Jill's Nurti-Steamer and I wanted to try it out. If you don't know about chokecherries--they are tiny little fruit with big seeds so you don't get much in the way of juice or fruit even when picking large quanities. But, they have the most incredible flavor and color, a deep, deep red. This Nurti-Steamer (if I had a camera) is like a giant double boiler with a collection pot. Water goes in the bottom, the juice collector with a hose attached to the outside for filling jars is next and the fruit goes in a steamer basket at the top. The fruit is steamed for 1-2 hours and walla--you have juice. Canning chokecherries before meant I turned the entire kitchen and all my utensils red--the fruit had to be smashed through a manual crank juicer and it splattered everywhere. I love this Nurti-Steamer--may have to get one!

About 4pm I left home to meet Marjean and Debbie to go to quilt guild in Livingston. I don't know these two ladies very well and it was fun to get to talk to them on the trip over. Last night's guild meeting was for the purpose of putting together five quilt tops for Quilts of Valor. I will post more about this organization when I get my thoughts together--it is an awesome endeavor.

So, it was almost 10pm when I got home last night, thus yesterday's blog is today's.

I Got To Quilt Today

Forgot to say yesterday that I picked almost 2 full ice cream buckets of chokecherries. In the spring we thought we were going to have a bumper crop but something happened--frost, too much rain, who knows but we have very few chokecherries. So, I was lucky to get as many as I did. I am going to make jelly.

Early this morning after our walk I finished washing the rest of the windows in the house--all done, YEA!

Then, I headed down to the quilt studio (calling an unfinished basement room a studio is probably stretching it but oh well) and by the end of the day I finally had my bear quilt stitching all ripped out, the borders taken off and replaced since I put a couple of holes in the borders while ripping and the quilt reloaded back on the longarm machine. I am ready to quilt now, just have to figure out what to stitch--didn't like the first stitching, thus all the ripping so I am going to be very selective this time!

Michael got the radiator back in the motor home late this afternoon--none of the pipes are hooked up but it is bolted back in. It fit!

Still No Camera

Canon still hasn't shipped my camera back to me--I miss it!! So, no photos for a while longer.

It rained a little during the night with thunderstorms. Today was a perfect temperature day with a slight breeze. We took a walk this morning, Emmi is doing great on our walks, she keeps up and we don't have to carry her anymore. Sometimes when we are going down a steep hill she goes too fast and ends up going end over end a couple of times--gets up and takes off again.

I spent the day cleaning and doing laundry. I also made some phone calls to get ads in some local papers for my quilting business.

Michael worked on the motor home all day long. When he came in about 6:30pm, his face was almost entirely black from all the cleaning, cutting and welding he had done today.

My sister Ann and her husband Danny along with their friends Pat and Harley all from Arkansas are in Glacier National Park. They arrived yesterday, will spend four days there and come here on Friday, I can't wait.

Got the Radiator

Home finally at almost 8pm! It was a busy, busy day today. Our first stop early this morning was the veterinarians for Emmi's second round of shots and a rabies injection. The vet clinic was very busy, an emergency with 4 horses that had gotten into cattle feed that contained some ingredient that was very poisonous to horses. So, we left and Michael dropped me off for my massage and went back to the clinic. He said Emmi was not impressed again with the thermometer business nor the injections.

Then it was off to Billings. Remember the $5000 vs $150 radiator story a few days ago--well when we got to the wrecking yard, Michael found a radiator he thought would work better and the price of it was $75!!! So we hauled home a used radiator.

The steel yard was our next stop where Michael purchased a 1000lbs of steel for such projects as a set of fireplace doors for our neighbors and a shorter table for my longarm machine.

A very quick stop at Costco and we were headed home. Emmi was a good girl most of the day, she got a little restless before we got home--we were all glad to get here!

Here's Emmi in the basket again, I finally put it away--the damage is done, Jazz started it but Emmi was making great headway on finishing up the destruction.
Michael's daughter Shannen called this morning and over the weekend our youngest granddaughter Kristen won a rodeo in Sheridan, WY. The prize was a saddle and a $2000 scholarship--she is only 10 years old so the money will be place in a CD--I always said Shannen was born sitting on the back of a horse and it looks like this child was too!

The news from Laci is that it is hot in Iraq, 105 degrees at 11pm!!

Social Butterflies

Last night we had a wonderful time at the home of friends Terry and Boo. Terry grew up on the Chesapeake Bay and they still have a home back east. Terry had fresh crab flown in and he made the most awesome crab cakes, they were outstanding. The rest of the meal came from their garden, yum!

Emmi got to go along and she was so good, keeping everyone entertained out on the deck and then sleeping like an angel while we had dinner. The meal was great and the conversation stimulating to say the least, some folks had quiet the political discussions!

Our neighbor's center pivot irritating system which is located in a field above our house. The pivot is programmed to stop when it gets to our house and start again once it clears our house. We must have had a power surge the other day, my flowers on the deck got an extra watering and believe me, that pivot has one heck of a spray of water!

Three sandhill cranes in flight.

Michael worked on the motor home again today and I did this and that. Nat came up for lunch and we had steaks on the grill and fresh corn on the cob. For dessert I tried out a new recipe for strawberry shortcake that has flour and cornmeal--they were delicious!

About 3pm, friends Jim and Kathy showed up for their computer lesson. Neither of them has ever operated a computer, all of a sudden decided to join the rest of us and had me order a Dell laptop and a Canon camera like mine. I've never taught someone from scratch how to use a computer so it was a learning experience for me too. I didn't have to whap their knuckles with a ruler, they are quick learners!

A busy Sunday but enjoyable!

Working on the Motorhome

Michael spent the entire day Friday removing the radiator from the motor home. The used one he looked at in Billings will fit, YEA--$175 instead of $5000. One day early next week we will go back to Billings and get the used radiator.

We so seldom go out to eat for several reasons:
1. Michael says my cooking is better than anything he can get in a restaurant.
2. It is so far to drive to go out to eat.
3. The restaurants in Big Timber (22 miles away) leave a lot to be desired.

Last night Jill and Terry invited us to come into town and try out the new restaurant, Chives. They are only open on Friday nights for now and have a very limited menu--but the food was delicious. Everyone but Michael had carrot soup, marinated flank steak and mashed new potatoes. Michael had a burger which he said was one of the best he had ever had. Our meal was great, especially the chocolate torte that Jill and I shared. We let Michael and Terry have a couple of bites, too. I so hope this little place does well, it will be a welcome addition to Big Timber dining!

Michael has worked on my Explorer all day changing the transmission fluid and filter. Now he is back outside working on the motor home again. He and his clothes are starting to look like he mechanics for a living!

We are being social this weekend, tonight we are going to Terry and Boo's for dinner, and Emmi is going too!