Spring Saturday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Waving from the end of Saturday. First day of winter here (I guess - Mauritius only has two seasons so I expect the same with Reunion.)

Reunion is so green and lush. Of course, we were on the 'wet' side and they had lots of rain this year. They get, on average, 8 meters (about 25') of rain a year. Up in the area we went to today, they get 12 meters a year.

Long bus tour, lots of windy roads, lots of 'scenic panoramic viewpoints' - all those trigger words that mean I shouldn't have booked the tour but it was fine. We were in big tour buses and I sat in an aisle seat and didn't look down. Just a few gasps from me. Not near as bad as Cape Verde Islands. The attraction for me was a vanilla plantation. Which was interesting and smelled wonderful! Unfortunately, the offered 'samples' were vanilla flavoured coffee and a coconut-vanilla punch, the punch being supplied by rum. Dh took a sample of that (not knowing about the rum!)

We are on our way to Madagascar now. Will take one day, two nights, to get there.

Tonight's dinner was pleasant, tomorrow night all our table mates are away so we've asked to be assigned to another table.

The entertainment tonight was Pianotainment (four handed piano) and was wonderful. I bought the CD.

Now to go to bed and two sleep. Hopefully, I'll wake early in the morning so I can try and get my fitbit to synch.

[Harmony]

Kathryn, I have a huge world map in our hallway and I had to go stand there and look for Mauritius as I'd never heard of it. Good grief, you are out in the middle of nowhere! For anybody else wondering, it is 3/4 of the way (or more) West of Australia towards Madagascar. Do I have that right? Another place I will no doubt never see in my lifetime.

It is very warm here now. 95° right now. It is still cool in the early early mornings but as we get along towards Summer we will lose even that coolness. Just that little bit of coolness is wonderful. It makes the mornings beautiful and not so unbearable. DH and I sat for a while out on the front porch and just relaxed and talked. He had already been to the Men' breakfast / seminar at church and unloaded a truck at the landfill. I just slept in!

Wasn't feeling like doing a lot but decided if I did some I would be ahead. So I've been puttering around, doing things that are nice to do but not essentially necessary. I have trouble getting to these types of things on a regular bases. I put the plastic protectors under the house plants in the family room. I got all DH's tools and overflow of stuff from his truck / pockets back out to the shop or in containers, marked and stowed away. I got the grapefruits he'd brought in squeezed and took out a glass of juice to him. Yum!

I also practiced a bit on the piano. I had decided after DGS was here that I should go back through all my music and do a refresher for myself. I've been working through my stacks daily when I have time. The easiest pieces are quick, a just play them a couple times. I ran across one I didn't "remember" and had to relearn and that took me a while. I can tell I am getting my skills back.

One reason I'm doing this is that I need a reason to tell DH I want to keep the piano when we downsize (and we are getting closer to that). If I am using it, he won't have that argument! And for the first time in years I am enjoying it. I think I had about 10 years of lessons when I was young. Know DMom would be happy I'm finally back to it!

[Twins' Mom]

And still going here. Dh got home and has gone back out for errand run for me after doing a number of items on his list.

This time (after drinking water)

-pull dishtowels out of the lol in the dryer, fold and put away
-clear kitchen counters as much as possible
-sweep back patio/straighten up it
-check downstairs bathrooms, swish and swipe upstairs bathroom
-shape second challah to rise


Whoops....forgot to post this....next list:
-pull dishtowels out of the lol in the dryer, fold and put away
-sweep back patio/straighten up it
-check downstairs bathrooms, swish and swipe upstairs bathroom
-get challah in the oven soon
-get out trays for buffet style serving

[Nancy]

Lunch is done one round of kitchen stuff done. Taking a bit of a break for knitting.

[Harriet]

Awakened to an upset household because ATandT (so our phone plus internet) had a major outage from about 12 midnight that did not end until 12 noon. HRH was beside himself because he couldn't get any answers from reps and kept getting some California office instead of one nearer (how widespread WAS the problem, anyway!), and they didn't know what was going on. He was nervous and irritable all morning because of the worry that it was our line rather than an outage.

I had a meeting in big city at a large beautiful church that I love - the one I attended some following my late dh's death so that I could be private. This was for the parents of teens who will be interning this summer, of which the school systems are aware.

I had been there less than 20 mins when dd called on her cell to say that dsecondmil and dstepfil wanted to come to our house. So as soon as feasible, after the important info was done, I went out the side door of that meeting to get home as quickly as I could. Was able to help her with dstepfil somewhat, although he struggles so much, poor thing.

Then I made a DPC dreaded phone call on family matters. Not looking forward to it but proud of me that I dived in and did it. Call after call was coming in while I was on the phone (sigh) because everyone's phones had just been freed up.

So, as if I haven't had enough going on today, I have another big agenda for the rest of the afternoon/evening and have to somehow get my hair washed and set tonght as well.

[Nancy]

I hear you Harriet on the outtage our net was down last Sunday and again for a whileon Fri. I find it odd that these lapses happen while bb turney or other big sporting event is on.

H fixed his own lunch burger patty too breezy to cook outside today.
Sunny and warm enough so I can do more weeding chickens are happy enough to eat and get the bugs behind me.

Neighbors yd sale is over now.
I finished the hat I was knitting on.
Laundry is in the dryer.

[DeeClutter]

Finally a chance to quickly browse and check in....... Had to work at church yesterday morning. The church secretary is in MI tending to her Mom. The Pastor brought his flash drive in. While dh and he did some various things I searched (a lot) to find 3/22/15 to no avail. He came in and searched some more -he was sure he'd saved it to the drive Thursday night. Fortunately he had (I'm sure not a coincidence) run off a copy in case we had 'trouble' of any sort loading it. Got that done and dh and I went to A ldi's to pick up a load of staple things he'll need up north. Probably won't do that next year. Went from there to see dbil/dsil. At 4:30 we met dh's 2db's and their wives for dinner -dd and dsonil went with us. Went to a very popular barbeque place near here (Peebles). I was done in by the time we got home.

This morning dh & dsonil went to breakfast with men from our church and then to the flea market. DD and I did a W almart run. I got a lol done. Shortly after dh got home we left for Sebring to pick up the truck dh is driving north. He and dd have pretty well loaded the back which is now FULL! I haven't even begun to put in his clothes or various other things which he'll now have to put in the front of the truck. Hoping everything will fit.

Once he unloads in New Windsor, MD of all the boxes for "White Cross" from our women's group he'll have plenty of room. There was 250# of things -1,853 rolled bandages (these things are all for the Congo). As comparison, our women's group up north does 50 (fifty) a year. There were probably 3,000 fabric squares and several sewn baby blankets. It takes 2 years for all this to finally reach its destination in the Congo. Boggles my mind. Trying to figure out how much that saves our group in postage alone just to Maryland.

I napped a little this afternoon and just finished the dishes a short time ago. Where on earth did all the cups/glasses/mugs come from!??? I had 17 plus the 2 dd and dsonil are using. I did do dishes Thursday night and we weren't even here for meals yesterday.

Have to get going on dh's clothes. I was going to send some of mine home with him, but guess not. AND DS-A has said he wants to order some shirts for his landscape business. I am trying to leave more clothes here, but we'll see how I do.

[Harriet]

I am S2S and my hair has a color touch up - not a visit to colorist, though. Letting it air dry for a while before putting it up.

Dd went to a play with her young man midday. So far they have not complained about the daylight-only rule and have found matinees to attend, or fairs, etc, that are in daylight.

Dd35 has suggested that her family may drive in Friday night. And same dcousin is driving in mid-week and wants to see my Thursday. Lots to think about. WonderBoy would be having a birthday shortly after his family's visit, so we may have a mini-party.

All this right when the grass is growing so suddenly and fast!

[Nancy]

I dug up some more bugs turned over some meal worms for the hens they were close by after that dinner is in the oven now. I got current on laundry yea! Decided to skip spinning meeting until I was better.

[CathyS]

Just skipping through to say that I have posted somewhat of an announcement in Members Only.

~grinning~