This is Chris contemplating her next Scrabble play.

Just thought I'd let you all know that I've started a another new Xanga site.  Well, it's not really new . . . the last time I used it was in 2002.  But I've resurrected it and renamed it.  It's called MissChris's New House.  You see, I've decided to move to Oklahoma City to be nearer to Alice and mom and that requires me to sell my Dallas house and buy another one.  But since this will be the last house, I want it to be exactly like I want it so I'm having one built.  At least I will as soon as I decide on a builder and on a few other minor details.  This newly resuscitated site will chronicle the blow by blow descriptions of the progress . . . or the lack thereof.  But hopefully it won't be as painful as Alice's experience with "The Builder from Hell".  At least we're doing all we can to make sure that I'll have a much better experience.

Sooooooo, in case you're interested, check out MissChris's New House.   

A house somewhere on The Lake of the Ozarks

A friend and I have started a "Hand & Foot" group.  H&F is a card game that I learned to play about a year ago and my husband and I used to play it once a week with a couple that we went out to eat with every Friday evening.  You have to play with a partner so now that I'm partnerless we no longer play.  But I really missed playing and when another friend of mine found out that I know how to play H&F she suggested we start our own group.  That's exactly what we did and I'm enjoying it very much.  H&F is a game that you can play without too terribly much concentration.  We talk and visit a lot and never miss a play.  We don't even care if we win or not (well . . . some of us don't).  As we occasionally remind the more competitive among us, we're just here to have fun.

This is not good.  I've fallen into the habit of posting a blog only about once a week.  Gee, when I worked I found time to 2 or 3 times a week, and now that I'm retired I would have thought I'd be posting every day for sure. I'll have to work on that.  I know Alice is in a writer's club that gives them a subject that everyone has to write on.  Hummmmm.  I wonder if there's a passer-outter of blog subjects. . . you know, just to get the old grey cells working.  

I'm listening to a CD that one of my husband's former students burned for me.  It's a bunch of songs sung by one of Mike's singing groups back in 1974, and one of the tracks on the CD is a song that Mike sang the solo in.  Also, I can definately hear and pick out his voice in the rest of the songs as well.  I can't begin to tell you how much this CD means to me.  I play it constantly.  I even burned a copy to play in the car.  So you see, I can now listen to my husband singing any time I feel like it. 

Thank you, Jim. 

Somewhere in Hawaii

PANIC TIME.  Yesterday I got a statement in the mail saying that I owed my dentist $656.70 and that it was seriously past due.  I could hardly wait to call his office this morning to find out what it was all about and what exactly the charges were for.  Seems they changed software billing systems last year in May and the girl that handled all their insurance claims is no longer with them.  Sounds like a big MESS.  I told them I really didn't think that I owed him anything except for what ever the insurance didn't pay on my visit back in December for a routine cleaning.  They've promised to print out a detailed statement from both software systems and send me a copy.   I sure hope I'm right and that I really DON'T owe him any money.  I really don't see how I could possibly owe him anything, since he only does my routine cleanings twice a year.  You see, he sends me to specialty dentists for the other stuff, like the tooth implant and digging out the root on the broken tooth . We'll see.

Cottage in Lower Slaughter in England

I'm so excited.  Someone gave me a gift certificate to Kodak.com and I finally used it to order myself a 2006 calendar with 13 of my favorite pics from my husband's and my trip to England.  I chose 13 of the ones that I've already manipulated to make them look like paintings.  I can hardly wait . . .but it won't get here for 2 weeks. 

Here is a picture I took on our trip to Hawaii back in 1998.  That Hawaii trip was another trip that Mike went on that was taken in conjunction with my work rather than his.  It wasn't long after this trip that the company stopped taking the administrative assistants (me) on the yearly sales conference trips. . . but it was fun while it lasted.   I got to travel to several places that I'd never have gone to if it hadn't been for the company I worked for.  Let's see, there was San Francisco, Banff, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Boy, those were the days!!  At least I still have the pictures to look back on.  

Well, I've been busy scanning some of the photos from my pre-digital camera days.  I had three different vacations that all needed to be scanned in and now I've finished that project. This is one of the shots of Mike and me from our Banff Canada trip, which was one of the few business trips that we took together for MY company rather than Mike's.

Here I am getting ready to head out on my dog sled ride.

And here's Mike fraternizing with one of the husky dogs.

Say Goodbye, Gracie!!

For many years my husband and I knew that when we retired we'd need to sell off a bunch of the flow blue we've collected over the last 30 years.  That time has come and deciding which pieces to sell and which pieces to keep was not easy.  It's a little like asking which of your children you can sell into slavery.  But, I have to admit, I do have favorites and that's what I'm keeping. I'm selling 148 pieces and keeping 69.  Above are the pictures of all the pieces I'm selling. They buyers are coming at 3 o'clock this afternoon.  Bye bye my precious porcelain!! 

The guys that are buying the pieces (yes, I said guys) are giving me a fair price for them so it's a win win situation.  I need to downsize so I can move into a smaller house, they need merchandise to sell in their antique outlets, and . . . cash is always nice.