02 21 - Alaska Wildlife Conservatory

About an hour south of Anchorage is an animal refuge called the Alaska Wildlife Conservatory.  It is a combination rescue program/breeding program/replacement program.  We could get pretty close to the moose and cape buffalo and owls.  Ray took this picture of an elk.  The bear was nowhere to be seen.

02 20 - Dance Class

Ray and I are taking dance classes on Monday nights through Johnson County Parks & Rec.  So far, we have learned the Fox Trot, a slow dancing variation and the Rumba.  We are supposed to start the waltz next week.  I want to learn enough ballroom dancing to be able to go dancing after dinner on the cruise if we want to.  Ray has very little rhythm, but we are having great fun.  Sometimes we laugh so hard at ourselves that we just stop dancing and stand there laughing.

02 19 - Rondy Police, Alaska, 2010

At Fur Rondy in Anchorage, if you don't wear your Fur Rondy pin, you can be arrested by the Fur Rondy police, or buy a pin from them on the spot. We saw them at the Fur Auction, near the carnival. Check out the guy in the background with the 'fur' hat.

02 18 - Panama Canal

Last year, on the family cruise, we went on a partial Panama Canal cruise meaning that we went through the one lock on the east/north, to Gatun Lake, turned around and came back out.  The locks are the same doors and canal that were originally finished in 19xx.  It really is amazing to watch the doors as they fill up the lock, open the doors, and the ships sail out (motor out).  What is even more amazing is that the whole thing is controlled by gravity, not electric pumps.  People, including us, set their alarms for 5:30 a.m. to get up and watch us enter the locks.  Holland America was really nice and set up a coffee station on the deck.

02 17 - North Carolina

This is a tree outside of the building where PSI has offices.  I don’t know what it is, but it is pretty.

02 16 - Chapel Hill, North Carolina

I am in Chapel Hill, NC for three intensive days of payroll training at one of our new companies, PS International.  You would think that it would be easy to find something to take a picture of, but not really.  When all you do is work, eat dinner, and go back to the hotel, there is not much time.  I took this picture of the trees outside of ‘the club’ (country club) where they took a group of us for lunch.  I always forget how straight and tall the trees are.

02 15 - Happy Birthday, Mom

Today is my mother's birthday.  She was born February 15, 1924 is 88.  I took this picture a couple of weeks ago at lunch at The Commons where she has an apartment in the Asbury wing of the Independent Living apartments.  Happy Birthday, Mom!

02 14 - Happy Valentine's Day

We grabbed this picture at the end of one of the formal nights on our fall cruise, transatlantic from Rome, in October 2011.  Happy Valentine's Day to us!

02 13 - Snorkeling in Aruba

Last year, on the Family Cruise, we all went snorkeling in Aruba.  Ray has a waterproof camera and we all took turns snapping pictures.  There were a lot of fish and some coral but not as much as I expected.  Snorkeling was loads of fun and the water was very nice.

02 12 - Three Tenors

No, it is not 'the three tenors', Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti, but it is the three lady tenors in the Chancel Choir at Valley View UMC.  I used to sing alto.  We never have enough tenors.  It seemed like every Sunday morning, we would have 15 altos and only 3 tenors.  The director would ask a couple of us altos if we would sing tenor, which we would.  Finally, when one year in August when we started up for the year, I just moved to the tenor row and told the guys, 'I'm singing tenor every Sunday.  I am just going to sit back here and actually learn the part.'  They laughed and were fine with it.  Now, we have three lady tenors, Janet Harp, Cleta, and Jeanette Grenz.

02 11 - The Last Text Message

One year ago today, we left from Ft. Lauderdale for our Family Cruise to the southern Caribbean and  Panama Canal.  I snapped this picture as we were waiting to board the ship.  They just had to get in that last text message!  (L-R: Elizabeth, Jonathan & Susan, John)

02 10 - Poor Plant

This is my poor plant at work.  I have had it so long that it has died twice and come back to life.  It is a peace lily.  The HR manager of Seaboard Farms of Kentucky (Mayfield) sent it to me one time after I had been down there and helped them through a bunch of problems.  I think that I have had it since at least 1998.  The question is, can I keep it alive after I take it home?

02 09 - Fish at The Commons

This week has been consumed with either working or Mom.  We are in the process of moving Mom from her Independent Living apartment to Assisted Living.  In the dining room for the Independent Living people, they have a 200 gallon fish tank that is very interesting to watch.  The purple fish is nearly translucent.  The thing at the bottom center is a giant coral.

02 08 - Seaboard

I actually took this picture two years ago, but nothing has changed.  There are still about 500 geese that sun themselves every afternoon on the lawn.  Sometimes, when they cross the road from the CarMax lake to the Seaboard lawn, they actually stop traffic on 67th street.  At first you think that a parade a geese, ala Make Way for Ducklings, is cute.  When you have 500 geese pooping on your sidewalk and in the parking lot, it is not cute.

02 07 - Consulate of Mexico

Did you know that we have an office of the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City?  I did not.  We parked in front of the building on about 16th and Baltimore in KCMO when we went to the symphony.

02 06 - OP bird

We were at the new Overland Park Community Center for a class.  I looked up as we were leaving and noticed that they have several sculptures on a ledge.  This one caught my eye.  We don't know if it is a jayhawk, a roadrunner, or just an imaginative bird.  It is cute.

02 05 - Soup(er) Bowl Sunday

The youth at the church are having their fund raiser for their summer mission trip today.  Since today is the Super Bowl, they are selling soup.  We tried to buy Green Bean Tortellini, Portuguese, Asian Beef, and Corn Chowder for $8 each for a large container.  I was there a little after 11:00 and they were totally sold out even though it was supposed to go until 12:00.  They could have sold at least twice what they had available.  This is a lame picture of all of the empty crockpots that used to have soup in them.

02 04 - Snow in Guymon, 2010

Two years ago today, I was in the panhandle of Oklahoma in Guymon, for some HR/PY training.  We had a horrible snowstorm on Wednesday and Thursday.  As we drove to the local airstrip to fly home, we saw snow removal, Guymon style.  It is so flat there that they can't just move the snow to the side of the road.  So they pile it all in the middle of the street.  On the Al-Can highway, they pile the snow along the side of the road to make 'snow guardrails', but I have never seen it piled in the middle of the street.

02 03 - The Good, The Bad, The Rain

It has been a dry, mild winter.  It finally rained on Friday.  That is good.  When it rains, the entire neighborhood drains into the corner of our backyard.  That is bad.  I actually took this picture two years ago, but you see what I mean by the draining water.  If you look closely at the fence line,  you can see two geese swimming in the puddle in the neighbor's yard.  Or you can look at the picture below.  Damn ducks.

02 02 - Happy Groundhogs Day

Do I need to say anything?  I saw my shadow!  And just like the groundhog's shadow, it does not mean squat.


(Ray and Sally joined me for a walk in the park at lunch.)

02 01 - Farewell, Pretty Socks

I love fun socks.  I have a whole drawer full of pretty, fun, happy socks.  I have socks with everything from Easter bunnies, Iditarod sled dogs, moose, giraffes to flowers to snowflakes, snowmen, reindeer, and penguins to simple strips and argyles and a few plain ones, too.  If you can look down at your feet and smile at your socks, it just gives you an extra 'kick' to your day.  But, alas and alack, woe is me, I have to stop wearing them for awhile.  (I refuse to think that I cannot wear them anymore.)  I have some serious swelling issues going on with one ankle and must wear compression socks, aka 'support socks'.  Nothing makes you recognize your aging like compression socks.  At least they come in decent colors now, and a few patterns.  I will be on the search for pretty compression socks!