Nice Day Today

This has been a nice day. I got up this morning and fed Slinky who spent the night in the kitchen since it got down to 30 degrees here last night. I washed his bedding and when I took it out of the dryer he laid himself right down on it. He loves warm bedding.

Later I got my Sunday letters out and also mailed off a card to Scott with $100 in it. He needs to get a new starter on his car. He saves money in a money market account I manage for him for just such emergencies.

Then I fixed breakfast and we called to arrange to take Leslie to lunch. We had a nice visit over lunch.

After lunch we went to the market to buy a few things for the week. When we got home Bob put the first of two tomato plants in an upside down planter. It will be interesting to see how those work out.

Later in the afternoon, Bob's brother-in-law called to say he was in town. He wanted to take us to dinner but we couldn't find a nice restaurant open in town on Monday. So I invited him out here for hamburgers and french fries. I fixed iced tea and a pudding and that was dinner. It seemed to be enough. He has a Cadillac that is a year and a half old. It is loaded with features. He is getting a new one in August. We took it out to John and Leslie's home.

Then I called my son-in-law to ask if we could bring Bill (Bob's brother-in-law) out to see Fisherman John's Outpost and the new house. John seemed happy to have us come so about 7:30 we went out there. The men are in bed now and I am trying to finish up the day's work.

I will go over to my sister and brother-in-law's in the morning and stay with my sister while he goes to breakfast with his friends and classmates. I never did hear today how his biopsy came out. I guess I'll hear in the morning.

Huge Weekend

It was a huge weekend but everything went off smoothly. One fellow coming by bus got as far as Colorado and the bus got stuck in that awful snowstorm out there. So we had one opening.

Other than that all the papers went well, and the symposium went seamless.

I presented my paper on Saturday afternoon and tried to speak slowly and distinctly so I could be understood. There were several questions and three people asked me for copies of my paper.

We drove home after noon and I got here about 4:00. I made a folder with the e-mail addresses of everyone who helped and sent out a general "thank you" to all.

Then Bob and I went to our "Living the Questions" group. It was at Joyce and Keith's tonight. We had a good group and a good discussion. Joyce served brownies and ice cream afterward.

Slinky will sleep in the utility area tonight. It is going to be 40 degrees tonight...maybe colder. I noticed his bedding was damp from the air so I put it in the dryer for awhile and warmed it up.

Restoration Studies Symposium

I'm off today to the Restoration Studies Symposium. I hope all goes well. I am sort of uptight about the weekend, having never done this before. I have my paper and when I finish here, I will read it again. It's been several weeks since I have read it.

Ron and Joyce are flying in today from Tennessee. Ron has done this before in his profession as a physicist so it's not all new to him. They will stay with Ron's sister there in Independence. Bill and I will stay with Sheri Robards. She just e-mailed me that she has been called in to work so she won't be home until 6:00.

Bob will stay home and take care of the dog and cat. He can't hear well enough to attend these things anymore. He has not been feeling well lately and I don't know why. His glucose has been o.k. Maybe it's the mileage. He will be 79 in May.

Sunday evening we will have Living the Questions group again and I hope to be back in time for that.

Tea Parties

Have you heard about the tea parties that the Republicans staged to protest the bank bailouts? The Republicans say they have American tax payers on their side because they are angry about the taxes and the economy. They used yesterday's tax payment day to stage their demonstrations to protest government spending and corporate bailouts.

These tea parties were promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington and led by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, who is now a lobbyist, wouldn't you know.

FreedomWorks insists the rallies are nonpartisan but they have been seized on by many prominent Republicans who view them as a promising way for the party to reclaim its momentum against President Barack Obama's administration and other Democrats. Some prominent Republicans considering a 2012 presidential bid and some others with upcoming campaigns for state and congressional offices hitched a ride with the movement.

Newt Gingrich, for example, urged people to tell their lawmakers to vote against big spending or else "we're going to fire you. But when asked about a possible run for the presidency, Gingrich shook his head emphatically and said, "I'm just part of a citizen movement."

"This is critically important, what you're doing," Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, a likely candidate for Kansas governor in 2010, told the crowd in Topeka. "You've got to keep it up."

There were several counter-protests, including one that drew people at Fountain Square in Cincinnati. A counter-protester held a sign that read, "Where were you when Bush was spending billions a month 'liberating' Iraq?"

As is apparent, the Republicans see this action as a grass roots demonstration that they hope could lead to their return to the White House. I wonder what plan they would offer instead of the Obama stimulus plan? They don't offer a plan because they don't have a plan. They just want to complain. Their plan would be to start a war with Iran. Some suggest the second world war was what got us out of the last depression, not Roosevelt's WPA or CCC spending.

My feeling is if they want to object to the stimulus plan then they shouldn't take any of the stimulus money. That's a great way to show their objection.

A Quieter Thursday

Hopefully, today will be quieter. I have a classmate breakfast at Shirley's cafe this morning at 9:00 and then a funeral in Caney at 1:30. It's a graveside service for a woman I worked with in the dental office in the 70's. She was the receptionist. Her daughter was a dear friend in those days when we lived in Caney. She too worked in the same dental office but the daughter was a very talented dental assistant.

We took Kentucky Fried Chicken and went to John and Leslie's last night. She wanted to show us how the house looked with the new furniture. Our grandson, Jeromy, was there. They had moved the internet, Leslie's desk, and the TV's over from the double wide. The inside of the garage is finished and now they need to paint the bottom half of the house and finish putting up the shutters and have the bathroom mirror installed and the house should be finished. They are having the bricklayer back to build posts in the front yard for the gate, however. They will have a lot of work to do themselves. They will have to get the yard work started. They will need to build a patio, lay or pour a sidewalk, and do flowerbeds as well as the lawn. If it were me, instead of a cement walk, I think I would lay large stones together.

The man who installed the TV and surround sound above the fireplace was there yesterday. He got it lowered some, about ten inches, but personally, I think it's too high up to be comfortable watching it. He didn't finish the job. Why am I not surprised? He is the same guy who knocked holes in the newly completed and painted wall to install the wiring. He fiddled around until the wall was completed and then couldn't thread the wiring down from the ceiling so he just took a sledge and knocked out a wall. The builders were furious. He said he would be back this afternoon but I doubt it. He has another job to do this morning and I notice he doesn't have a clue how to schedule his time. Tomorrow he has to go to Collinsville for another job so undoubtedly he will just fiddle around again and it will be next week sometime, if they are lucky, until they get TV. At least they do have the internet.

Tonight, I will do laundry and pack for tomorrow's trip. I will be glad when this weekend is over. Between it and the celebration committee, it has kept me on the run for six months. This is my second year with the celebration committee and I will not take it again next year. This year has been a trial.

When I get home from Independence, Missouri, I want to buy my flowers, hanging baskets, and mulch. I will have quite a bit of yard work to do too. I am looking forward to that though. I love to dig in the dirt and make the house and yard look beautiful.

I will probably not be blogging again until Sunday evening.

Refreshing Wednesday

This is a better day. Yesterday turned into a kind of disaster as last night I heard from our main speaker for the coming weekend, Dr. Stephan Patterson, that he felt a $750 honorarium was too little for the weekend. He is coming in later Friday evening after the event is finished on that day and leaving during dinner on Saturday afternoon. I don't consider that a weekend. It's just one full day. Plus we are paying for his flight, his meals and his motel. I could only apologize since the man who obtained him had not told him what we were giving him for the honorarium. That man was in charge of obtaining a speaker. I thought he would talk to him about the entire deal. Evidently not. When I discussed it with the speaker, I learned he was expecting a lot more. There's nothing I could do about it. We were stretching ourselves as it was. We were told he was coming as a favor to Don, who knew him as a friend. I don't need friends like that personally.

Anyhow, what's done is done.

Today I learned that the church that is hosting our Independence, Kansas, Baccalaureate service has their all purpose and basement rooms all torn up building a day care center and they will not be finished for a reception after the service on May 13th. They want us to forego the reception. I hate that but I don't have an option. I won't worry about that until after this weekend. One worry at a time is enough.

I went to Independence this morning and got my hair done and had breakfast with Juanita. Then I went to Wal Mart and bought a print cartridge for my printer and came back home.

We will pick up a bucket of chicken tonight and go out to John and Leslie's new house to see how it looks with all the furniture in place.

Busy Tuesday

Today was another busy day. I got up early at 5:00 so I could take my brother-in-law to have a colonscopy in Bartlesville at 7:30. He has had one cancerous polyp some years back and last year they happened onto a Non Hodgins Lymphoma. The doctor wanted him to have chemotherapy but the oncologist took it before a board that decided to "wait and see". When he told the doctor today that he had not had any chemo and that the board had advised against it, the doctor was not happy. We will get the doctor's new report after the biopsy comes back. Then he has an appointment with the oncologist next month.

After I got him home, I picked up Bob and went to Independence to my Montgomery County Health Clinic board meeting at 11:00. After that he picked me up and took me to the Celebration Committee meeting at 1:00. I got out of that meeting after 2:00 and then we came home.This afternoon, I have tried to get the Restoration Studies Symposium finished up. A number of glitches have come up the past two or three days and Ron and I have tried to iron them out before Friday.