Rusting gate in Eureka Springs, AR                       Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I'm a little surprised myself, be we had a great time at the ball park.  First of all, the weather was perfect . . . that's PERFECT!  Then the ball park is a lot smaller than we thought it would be.  You see, we're used to going to the ball park in Arlington where the Texas Rangers play.  That park is HUGE and easy to get lost in, there are not enough restrooms and it takes a half hour to make a trip to the concession stand and get back to your seat.  Not so at the Rough Rider's ball park.  It's smaller and has a much cosier feel to it.  It's about 1/3 the size and I like that a lot.  You can actually see the people on the field playing the game.  And the ushers seem like they're actually having fun. I watched as folks left to go get something to eat, and they were back in their seats in 2 minutes.  I do believe we'll be going again. 

Thought of the day: Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.

Geranium Pots on Eureka Springs front porch          Photo & enhancement by Chris Duffy

I've made so many entries into a couple photo of the month contests here at work that I'm getting mixed up as to which ones I've submitted and which ones I've posted or haven't posted on Xanga.  (So far, I haven't won a thing)   I checked back and found that I have posted a different shot of these geranium pots on Xanga, but not this close up.  I love it when people have colorful potted plants flanking their front door or front porch.  It just says "Welcome" to me. 

We (hubby and I) are going to a baseball game tonight with some friends from church.  We're hoping that the unseasonably mild weather continues into this evening because the ball park is not enclosed.  It's a fairly new ball park and the guy from church who got us all the tickets is an usher there.  He's retired and this is how he keeps himself occupied.  The team is called the Frisco Rough Riders, so at least I know who I'm supposed to be rooting for.

Alice and I hiking in Withrow Springs St. Park in Arkansas

All these pictures were taken while Alice and I were hinking in Withrow Springs State Park in Arkansas last year.  I guess we won't be dong quite as much hiking as we did on the Arkansas trip (we're both a year older you know) but I am assured that we will do one hike a day, and that will be plenty for me.

Alice hiking in Withrow Springs St. Park in Arkansas

I felt badly last year because Alice carried the "survival" pack on her back almost the entire time we hiked, so this year I've gotten a back pack too, so we can split the weight between the two of us.  Water is heavy you know.   In all the excitement of the preparation for this year's "sister trip" I may have gone a little bit overboard with the survival gear.  The box I'm hoarding the stuff in now weighs over 5 pounds.

Alice hiking in Withrow Springs St. Park in Arkansas

As you can see this trail dropped off rather abruptly.  We don't intend to go on any more like this where we could actually fall off a cliff.  Honestly, we thought the park ranger should have at least warned us that this was not a trail for the faint of heart.  If we'd fallen here, we could have easily broken a bone or two, but probably would have lived, however at other points on this same trail if we'd have fallen we would have been killed.  When I told mom this, she said maybe the park ranger thought we were much younger than 59 & 60.     YA . . . RIGHT!

Thought of the day: Growing old is mandatory; growing UP is optional.

Blue Salvia at Arbor Hills Nature Reserve             Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Well, I have another house to go check out for the kids tomorrow.  I've really liked some of the ones they've had me check out.  And best of all, they've all been within 2 or 3 miles of our house.  Can't beat that!  It would be so nice to be able to drive 10 minutes to see them rather than 5 hours.  This one I'm looking at tomorrow looks rather promising from the web shots.  It has black granite counter tops in the kitchen.  Boy, is that a far cry from the first house my husband and I bought way back when.

I spent about 45 minutes tonight pulling weeds while Mike mowed and edged the back yard.  He wanted to get it done tonight because it's supposed to rain tomorrow and the grass is really hard to mow when it's wet.  I may transplant some more sedum in the back behind the fence if the ground gets a good soaking tonight.  It's much easier to work in after a good rain.

Quote of the day: Families are like fudge . . . mostly sweet, with a few nuts.

Purple Hyacinth Vine outside my breakfast window......Photo/enhancement by C.Duffy

Finally, my hyacinth vine is starting to produce the lovely purple flowers that made me fall in love with the plant in the first place.  I planted the seeds a little later than I probably should have, but they're blooming now.  And there ought to be a bunch more fairly soon, along with the pretty bright purple seed pods.  I'll wait for them to turn brown and then harvest them for next years seeds.  The later in the season it gets the darker purple the underside of these leaves seem to get too.  I just love purple and green together in nature.  It's so vibrant!

Dottie's Back Yard                                                                         Photo by Chris Duffy

Some of you might remember me telling you about some friends of our . . . Dottie and Jim . . . who were in danger of losing their home since the state is putting a highway across the lake and were going to condem about 8 homes in order to accomplish it.  Well, I'm happy to report that the state backed down.  Dottie and Jim and 4 of the other 7 homes have been spared.  They're moving the highway over a bit.  Dottie and Jim may be older, but they're fiesty, and Jim used to make his living as a corporate lawyer, so he evidently knew just the right things to do to combat the state. 

This picture was taken in their back yard a couple weeks ago when we went over to their house for dinner.  Dottie is an avid gardner and she has done a lot to her garden in the year since we've been over there.  I think she just kept on expanding her garden, trying to think positively that they'd get to keep the house.  It would have been a real shame if they'd lost the house, because it's the ONLY house they've ever lived in.  She's in her early 70's and he's in his late 70's and the only other place they've ever lived was an apartment when they first got married.  They built this house shortly thereafter.  In the background you can see the lake that the state is going to build a bridge over.  Sometimes things just work out perfect, don't they!

Side Walk in front of our house                                                     Photo by Chris Duffy

I think I've been assigned a new job.  I'm now a house hunter.  But this is a good thing.  My son and daughter-in-law are thinking about moving to our fair city and I'm the on-site house checker outer.  They find one on the web they think they'd want to go see and give me the address.  I then look it up on the web and get directions from our house to it and go check it out . . . with my camera of course.  Sunday I spent about three hours going to different open houses and taking pictures and then sending them back to the kids.  They want a fixer-upper like they got before.  Sweat equity is a very good thing and they've done such a good job on the one they're in now, that I hope they make a nice profit on it.

Outside of Anacortes, Washington                                                  Photo by Chris Duffy

We had some very dear friends who lived in Anacortes, Washington; they were like family to us while we lived in Seattle, since our own parents were so very far away in Oklahoma and Texas.  One time they took us out to this park on the beach and slow baked fresh salmon with a pit fire dug in the beach.  Man, I had never tasted salmon that good before.  Herb and Elsie were wonderful people.  Elsie had been a cook for many years in the school system and Herb had worked in the local oil refinery, but both had already retired when we met them.  My husband was, at that time, a college music professor and had one of Herb and Elsie's grandchildren in his choir.  They were strong Christians and had a large close knit family and an even larger church family.  We visited with them many times over the 7 years we lived there and continued to correspond after we moved away.  They're both gone now, but I know they're in Heaven, along with so many other friends and family, waiting for the rest of us to get there. 

Wildlife Preserve in Chesapeake area                     Photo / enhancement by Chris Duffy

I had the weirdest thing happen last night on my computer.  I finally got around to answering "yes" to the question about whether I wanted to make restore CD's for my new system.  It took me through a couple more screens and then told me that I had the option of making 7 CDs or 1 DVD, and since it said it could take up to 30 minutes per CD, I chose the DVD route.  Well, then I had to make a quick trip to Wally World and get some DVDs.  When I got back I put a blank DVD in the DVD burner drawer and told it to burn the files onto it.  Well, the CD drawer kept popping open like it expected me to put in a CD instead of a DVD.  I'd close the CD drawer and it'd pop open again.  So I tried putting the DVD in the CD drawer and that just flat didn't work either.  So I had to abort the whole exercise and now I have no idea how I'll ever get them made, because the instructions said that once you quit the program you can only start back where you left off, and there is no backing up to change my option to CDs rather than DVDs.  So, I guess I just hope and pray that my computer never needs to be "restored" to its "from the box" condition.   Gee, I wish I was more hardware savvy.

Wildflower Trail at Barton Creek in Austin      Photo by Chris Duffy

This is a trail I took while on a business trip in Austin earlier this year. I don't think there will be an abundance of flowers though when Alice and I go to Austin in October, but we are going to see some wonderful scenery any way. 

We've already started accumulating the things we'll need to take in our back pack "survival kit".  And by starting that process now, it only heightens the anticipation.  Of course 95% of the stuff we'll never use, but you want to be prepared just in case.  We found the compass to be VERY helpful on our Arkansas trip so we'll never go hiking again without one.