G’day all,

Thought the first thing to do was say ‘hi’ to you all and start a new thread after our trip to Melbourne.

We had a nice time but the 10 hour drive to and fro is exhausting.

Up very early this morning and I did most of the driving for some reason, just worked out that way.

Little Saskia is gorgeous and our daughter and her dh are well and were happy that we visited.

What a pain about your carpet Slavika, hope it will eventually turns out the way you want it.

There has been a lot of controversy here about the ‘delightful’ Inman of the muslim community in Australia and many are demanding his resignation. Many Muslims are distancing themselves from the ‘spoiled meat’ remarks and others are defending the remarks by saying that he was incorrectly interpreted.
It really does not help to bridge the ever widening gap between Muslims and the rest of us.

Ann you are doing really well with the weight loss and so are you Bernice! Wished I could report the same!

I must fly and attend to some other stuff….hi to everyone hope you are all well and happy.


Talk to you later….

Cheers
Maria

Maria I'm sure you are glad to be home. Be it ever so humble. Glad you enjoyed your time with Saskia. 10 hours on the road is a long time to be sitting in the car. When we travel to Minnesota we take 3 days with 2 nights in a motel. We figure 6 or 7 hours driving is enough for one day.

Had a quiet Sunday around here. DH was out playing golf with 3 other guys. And I was sewing. Trying to finish up my totes for the craft sale. Still have one more to go. Had to quit today as my machine was acting up. And I was getting frustrated so it's best to just give it up . I'll see if i can get going again tomorrow or Tuesday. Then I worked a bit on My latest painting project. It is a winter scene with trees and snow and a tiny little ice skater on a pond. Got the back ground done Monday in class and then Wednesday I worked on the back ground trees and foliage. Next is to put in the pond. Then the foreground trees , shading and stuff. Then I get to tackle the tiny little man. It is a pretty good size picture about 18 inches long and then maybe 6 inches high. All done on a piece of wood . It also has a frame that I have stained a light oak color. So far so good. When I get it done I send you all a picture of it so you can see. You are my captive audience.

Last night we went to the variety show put on by people in the park. It was so funny watching those people play the fool. They had a good time doing it and we all had a good time watching and laughing.

Last night was the end of daylight savings time here in the U.S. So this was the longest day. I don't think it's ever going to end. I was up at 4:30 again. This is getting old fast. Anyway I'm tired so I'll go for now. I'll check in with you tomorrow to see what is going on here. Hope Glenda gets in touch with us soon so we know she is OK.

Yesterday we had 50 mile an hr winds and lots of branches came down. it was also raw and cold. Today, however, was 50 degrees sunny and just beautiful. Crazy weather. We leave on the 10th and do 12 hrs of driving the first day with 3 hr stops to walk and water everyone. The next day is 10 hours till we get there and then 6 months of hopefully sunshiny (is this a word ?) days.
Did I mention we had a black bear walk up the driveway the other day. He was about 250 lbs and walked very quietly and nonchalantly. It is a little disconcerting to see this so close when you are used to see these animals in a zoo. We have to be alert when we let the dogs out and in Florida its the aligators..

Bernice: A Bear! WOW!! Did you call anyone to come and take him away? I've been reading more about the problems with the constant encroachment on the natural habitat of animals. There was whole TV special about it. It is happening big time around here, and every day I see so much road kill, as the little critters like possums and raccoons, to name a couple have lost their homes to all this development. Sad in a way.

Sally: Snow! Guess it is that time of year now. There sure was a lot in Colorado for an early winter storm. Good for the skiers tho'. I like that cabbage soupl I make my own version of the WW soup a lot, with all the vegetables I have on hand. My kids used to call it Mom's garbage soup. Doesn't sound very good, but it is. Hope your rug comes eary, so you won't have to deal with that situation any more.

Glenda: glad you are back in circulation again. A working vacation? That's not my idea of fun, but necessary anyway sometime. I know what you mean about a clean looking house being dusty and dirty underneath.

Maria: 10 hours of driving is a long time. But I'm sure worth it to see Saskia and get to snuggle her a bit, or maybe a lot. I am doing most of our driving now, Dh goes out once in a while, but to go anywhere, it is mostly me that drives.

We went to see 'Man of the Year' with Robin Williams last night. A good film, and I think it was not an accident that it was released around election time. There were a lot of thought provoking things said about lobbyists, and the elected congressmen who hardly ever attend the sessions. Made me think of an oly Jimmy Stuart movie. but I can't remember the name of it. He was a candidate for president and they wanted him to play the 'political game' and he refused.

Karen: Will be lookin forward to seeing your finished painting project. Sound very nice. I need to get going on some quilling for our craft sale. I just seem to keep putting it off. Hope your sewing machine got rid of it's 'snit' and let you keep on with your work.

Hope all is well with the rest of you gals. 'See' you soon. Ann

Ann I finished the bags. I talked to a friend who does more sewing than me and she told me to change the needle. And low and behold the machine began working again. i just have a little bit of touch ups to do and i am completely done. Going to do that now.


Everybody have a great day.
Karen

Ann, there is no reason to call any one about the bear as they will not do anything unless it's a nuisance like breaking into the house or going after pets or horses and then it's a category one and they will kill it. There has been a bear hunt for the last 2 years and 300 bears were killed each year. This year we have a new governor who is against the hunt ( I agree with him) so the hunters are up in arms claiming the only way to control the population is to have a hunt. In 13 years I have seen bears 4 or 5 times and as long as you don't leave food or garbage or have bird feeders they just keep on walking. Of course you can't let your kids out alone to play cause you never know.
A big surprise for Halloween- the door only rang twice and there was 4 kids each time. Can't say I was disappointed as I hate the doorbell ringing constantly cause the dogs go nuts. Now I have so much candy and while it doesn't tempt me,my diabetic hubby has no self control so I will have to make it disappear.
Good news the mri showed no infection in the bone and if he's only stay off his feet a few days the ulcer would heal.

G'day all,

As you all have the end of daylight saving, we started ours, I love it but hate the 'loosing' of an hour!

Karen you sure are busy with all your projects, good for you.

Slavika I have never had spare ribs, both dh and myself cannot understand why people like them, it seems to be more fat then anything else
They weren't available here but over the past few years they are gradually coming into the supermarkets. We have not been tempted to try them though! I know you will think I am crazy but getting a lot of snow does sound nice for ONE DAY

Bernice that is amazing having a big bear wander up your driveway. What I learnt on our last trip is that alligators are relatively docile compared to the salt water croc that will attack anything and anyone. I guess any animal that gets a bit stirred up is not going to be happy.
Good news about your dh with no infection shown.

Ann I always like anything that Robin Williams does, he is a bit crazy but he is so talented and comes across as a genuine, warm hearted human being.
I don't want to start on politics but I do hope you will have a change of president

I am ever so gradually getting things sorted again on my computer, it will be quite a few weeks yet.
I am inundated with work and sort of loading stuff that I need for doing the work.
We were supposed to be going away for 10 days to the Gawler Ranges, (http://www.gawlerrangessafaris.com/about_us.htm, check out the location tab) However with the crashing of my computer we decided not to go much to Alan's disappointment.....but now that I feel I have everything under control work wise, we will go and will be leaving next Wednesday.
It is probably a very good idea to get away out bush for 10 days just with some really good friends.
Closer to the day I will ask you all to scrub my name from your email list for those 10 days.

Back to the grindstone.......

Cheers
Maria

Guys,
I haven't been here for such a long time. Just before I took off for a week, our computer guy had to rebuild my computer. So, when I came here, I thought I would just post. Well, you all know the story. Had to log in again and had to get the password again. I know I had it, but it did not work.

Bernice, a bear? A real, BIG bear? We saw little black bears in Red River, NM last summer. Tourists are certainly encouraged to put their trash in tight trash cans, but the poor things come right into town at night. And we had a black bear in Paul's Valley kill a child this year. That never happens. So, I guess you do just have to be careful. Like Ann says, we are encroaching on their territory. We actually saw a bobcat alongside the road the other day. Would not want to meet one on foot, but "they" say they are more scared of us than we are of them. Do not want to test out that theory.

Ann, we saw the same movie. It was pretty entertaining and thought-provoking. I am so sick of politicians and "spin." This is the most polarizing I have ever seen in our country. That darned war! I will be glad when the election is over. The movie you were trying to remember was "Mr Smith Goes to Washington." He was a young senator who did a phiibuster (sp?) and about passed out. I loved it!

Maria, glad you will get to go on your trip. Ten hours by car is a long time, but for a granddaughter???.......Sure.

Karen, you little crafty person! My niece just asked me what I would do when I retire and my spontaneous answer was, "Not sew!" I used to and just hated the tediousness of it! Cannot wait to see your painting. Have you always painted?

Get our new couch and chair tomorrow. Should look nice, I hope. We had 9 little muchkins last night. I was so disappointed. We were the stereotype old people with the porch light on, waiting with the bowl of candy. They just didn't show up!

Dancing with the Stars fans, who will lose out tonight? I think they are all so great! I secretly am hoping for Emmett. Maria is dropdead gorgeous, but from what I have heard, he certainly knows it!
Glenda

Glenda to answer your question Have i always painted. No I've never even painted a wall. I did finish my picture today and have decided to never do fir tree's again. Only leafless trees. Mine turned out to be yukky i think But I tried to make the best of them and the whole picture looks OK. Not like I had hoped. When asked who i was going to give it too i say I didn't know who I was going to punish with it. Once the hardware is put on the frame i will take a picture of it and send to you all and you you can all have a big laugh. But I still had fun doing it. Next is some oven pulls Don't know what I'm going to put on them yet have to look in my books.

I was up at 4:15 this morning. couldnot go back to sleep so that is when i finished my painting. Sure hope I sleep tonight. This is happening more and more and I think I will be talking to my doctor about it when I see him on the 14th.

Maria glad you got your computer up and running again.

Glenda we all missed you while you were gone. We couldn't figure out why all our Emails to you kept bouncing back. But now it's working just fine. Who Knows!!!!

Must go sit and relax.

Karen

Good Morning everyone:

We had no little munchkins here as we are a gated park, and retirement people only. So I went over and worked at registration at church for our Fall Festival/Holloween Alternative. Open to the public. There are all sorts of games, the moon walk,(kids love to jump up and down in those) popcorn and cotton candy. When they register they get a card with all the games on it, and they can go to each one twice. Each time they go their card is punched. so they can get popcorn twice, and the cotton candy twice. And then they can go through a room called Illusions, see a presentation there and get a ticket for a hotdog and drink. I think that there were about 800 people there all told. It is not only a good place for kids to come, but is also an outreach for our church. So then last nightbwe had follow-up teams and we all were given names of people who came, and went to make a house call and leave a packet of information with them, with a dvd about our church and the ministries we have.

Phil and I were paired with 2 kids as we went out. They were fun. I have forgotten just how talkative a couple of kids can be. Of course it was dark, and we had to find places we had never been before. We found the first one all right, but then the 2nd one was elusive. We never did get to it. But the fun part of the whole experience, was that we did bond with these kids, and now they call us Grandpa and Grandma. And I expect we will see more of them.

Not much happening today. A friend and I will go out today to try to find a place for us to have our Ladies Christmas luncheon. It is not easy to find a place that can take 50 to 75 ladies and doesn't charge an arm and two legs for the meal.

I was sorry that Monique was voted off last night, but I really expected it. She was the only woman, and I do think that the male contestants have a bit harder job, since they not only have to learn the dance, but also have to give the impression, at least, that they are leading their partner. It is going to be a hard competition at the last. somehow I think it will come down to Emmet and Mario. Time will tell. I have voted each time and this past time I had a hard time getting on the site to vote. Must have been many many others doing the same thing.

Have a good day. Ann

Good Morning All!

It's been a while since I have posted! Live is so boring and then....everything happens at once. This is the first morning I was able to stay abed til 8AM for over a week. Last week we went to the Cape to visit my girl friend and this week on Monday we went, again, to the Cape to visit DH's oldest cousin. She is 84 and lives way down the Cape almost to Provincetown. Since we have been working on cleaning out the cellar we came across some old photos....dating to the turn of the century, 1900's, of some relatives we had never heard of. Took them down to show her. She is sharp as a tack and lives alone but she had never heard of them before . We came to the conclusion that they were her and DH's grandparents. The weather was beautiful and in the 60's....a perfect day for a long ride. On Tuesday we went to Bedford Commissary and then on to DD#3 for a visit. Yesterday DH had a 7:40 AM appointment for an echocardiogram but we won't know the result for a week.

Maria: Sorry to hear your computer crashed and although it will be a lot of work, at least you can do the work yourself. If that happened to me I would cost a fortune to have it corrected. Wow, a 10 hour trip...but well worth it to see Sashia. Looked at your trip to Gawler Ranges and it looks like interesting country.

Slaviak: Sorry about all the problems with your carpet. It will look beautiful when it is completely installed. I know what you mean about outside activities messing up your diet. Staying home forever in not an alternative!

Ann: Congrats on the weight loss! Your Halloween activities sounded lovely. What a nice thing for the church to do to entertain so many people.

Bernice: You, too, are to be congratulated on your weight loss! A bear, oh my! I guess we can't complain about the squirrels and raccoons and occasional foxes that we see. Glad your DH's MRI showed no problems.

Karen: Your sewing project sounds like a great one but I'm sure your happy to see it completed. I can hardly wait to see your painting!

Glenda: Welcome back! Hope your computer is up and running better than ever. New furniture! Boy, I would like to get new LR furniture here and I was just saying that to DH.....wouldn't be nice if we could just dump what we have and get new.....He said it's not going to happen!

Peggy and Trudy: Hope all is well with you both.

Gloria

Just wondering how to get this to do it automatically. I still have to log in. I didn't have to before.

Ann, your Halloween just sounds wonderful and such a good mission for your church. My sons took their little ones to churches in OKC, something similar. I just always miss the little ones at Halloween.

I agree about the Dancing with the Stars. I thought Monique would get voted off. I love the three men, but just like Emmit the most. Mario gives me the "vapors". Wow, is he hot, as the kids would say! And Joey is so sweet, with his head always bobbing yes.

My computer wasn't screwed up, but it won't take that many emails without bouncing them back. Next time I am off I need to tell everyone in advance.

Just got our couch and chair and they do look good, but now I have to do something to brighten up the living room a bit--maybe throw pills? I would like a big flower arrangement too. Ah well, I think I am ready to go back to just being happy with what I have.

Gloria, we have been interested in tracing our family too. It is so interesting. I have some cousins I have never met who gave my sister some early, early pictures of my mom and dad. Almost made me cry. And have some sort of family tree being formed. So interesting!

Have a good day.

Hi all.Maria I agree with you about a change of President in this country but he has 2 years left to go and the election we are having is electing senators and congressman. I personally think we should vote all th incumbents out and get fresh blood. Our country is in such a mess with the so called leaders we have. I urge all of you who can to Vote. It's so important. OK off my soapbox.
Yes it was a big bear. Our property borders stateowned land and a couple of years ago I had a bobcat with a radio collar pass thru my backyard and a long time ago we saw a cyote.
I knew Monique was going. I think the winner will be Mario who not only has charisma, is adorable but also watch his movement,he's graceful and fluid.
Emmitt has a wonderful smile and is charming but he's not graceful. He appears to thunder around the stage. Joey is cute too but I don't think he's as natural as Mario. I don't vote but I love the show as there is so much garbage on TV that this is a breath of fresh air.
Another favorite program is watching Public Broadcasting-Have any of you seen the Andre Rieu Concerts- They are so much fun aand we actually have gone twice to see it in person. A fabulous evening.
Ann- interesting dilemma for the ex-chief of police in '''Winter Haven. I don't think he did anything wrong. How can an overweight policeman run after a bad guy and they certainly don't look so good in uniform. It's been all over our news.
We had two beautiful warm days and it has gotten cold again. Eight more days and we head south-Yeah!!!!
I've gotten the girls food together and their records, I'm packed and my house is straightened out. Next week I have a beauty parlor appt for my hair and then it's the nails and a pedicure. The cleaning service comes Thursday, we load the car and then we are history.
I think the reason we had so few kids trick or treating is they have alot of parties in school and in town and it just isn't safe sending the kids out late at nite plus our houses are spread out and the driveways are long and we have bears
Time to surf the internet. Good nite Ladies..

It is late but I HAD to comment on Bernice's post, I just love Andre Rieu and have several of his DVD's.
He of course is Dutch and comes from Maastricht, a city I lived in when i was a child.
I think his music is so uplifting and such a joy to watch his concerts.

I have a DVD of his live concert in Maastricht and it is just wonderful, the amazing thing is that little Matilda just loves the music and wants to hear it all the time. Our son and his wife did not believe me until they saw it for themselves that she did not want to go home until the DVD was finished!

Voting is compulsary in Australia, don't know why they don't make it so in the States.
Maybe just a change in senators and congress men may make a difference, one can but hope.

Off to bed after yet another VERY busy day.

Goodnight,

Maria