08 31 - Where are the Cars?

What is wrong with this picture?  I took this picture this morning, middle of Friday morning, as I took my walk.  It looks like no one went to work this morning.  We used to call these buildings 'Sprint Towers and Sprint Lake at 95th & Metcalf'.  If you look closely on the left, behind the trees, you can see a few cars, but very few.  Since Embarq (Sprint local phone service company) moved somewhere when they were taken over, there are very few people in these buildings.  I had heard that commercial real estate vacancies are very, very high, but this is a bit scary to see just how empty.

08 30 - Quilting for Friends

On Monday, we basted and prepared a quilt for Juanita.  After we get our donation quilt finished, we will quilt for others.  Juanita calls her quilt "Road to Overland Park" as it is her version of the Road to Oklahoma block.  I love this group!

08 29 - Bells Begin

Today was the first practice for the 2012-2013 season of bells.  It is so much fun.  This is part of the equipment after we have packed up.  It is a lot of stuff to pack and unpack and haul.

08 28 - Hurricane Isaac

The big news of the day is Hurricane Isaac about to make landfall in New Orleans.  Poor New Orleans.  Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  I have been watching The Weather Channel a lot today, so I decided to try to take a picture of the tv.  This is as close as I want to get to a hurricane!

08 27 - Hoop Quilting

This is called 'hoop quilting'.  We have most of the quilt quilted so that it doesn't really work to use the large frames to hold the quilt.  Everyone sits in a circle and quilts with an individual hoop.  I guess that this is a new meaning to a 'Quilting Cirle'.  I am learning a lot from these ladies and just love this group - the Quilters at Valley View UMC.

08 26 - Puddle of water

I took a walk today.  It actually rained last night and this puddle of water with leaves caught my eye.  It has been such a hot, dry summer, that a puddle of water is important enough to get the picture of the day!

08 25 - Lazy dog

Lazy, dumb butt dog sleeps on her back, dead to the world.  She looks too lazy to even close her eyes all the way.

08 24 - Smoked ribs and turkey

Ray broke out the smoker today and smoked ribs and turkey.  Awesome!  Sally looks pretty interested, like she thinks that she might get some.  Hah!

08 23 - Drought and a dry river bed

I actually took this picture on Monday on the flight from Oklahoma City to Houston.  My guess is that this is the Canadian river.    I am always amazed at how much detail that you can actually see when flying at 30,000+ feet in the air.  What struck me when I saw this, and spurred me to take the picture, was how wide was the river bed and that I could barely see any water.

08 22 - Visa to Brazil

After stressing and stressing about getting the Visa for Brazil, the whole process took about 15 minutes at the Consulate of Brazil.  Then, they basically made a copy of the paper that I provided to them and glued it into our passports.  They made a big deal about having two facing blank pages in your passport.  Then, I see that they glued Ray’s visa on a page that was already used for a stamp to enter Canada.  It was a big deal to have a passport type picture, except you could not be smiling!  That makes the picture even worse than usual.  The visa is good for 10 years, but this might be the only time that we go to Brazil.  I guess that if I want to go to the Amazon River, I better do it in the next 10 years

08 21 - Anyone want a drink of water?

I flew in/out of Hobby airport in Houston.  After I made it through the security lines, I stopped at the water fountain to fill my water bottle. Usually, you are lucky to find one, maybe two water fountains of varying height.  Houston Hobby has a wall of water fountains with a height for everyone.  I loved it.

08 20 - Flying to Houston

I am always amazed at how much you can see of the ground when you are flying.  This is the Kansas river as I am leaving Kansas City.  Today, I am flying to Houston to try to get our visas for Brazil. We changed our Antarctica cruise, at Holland America’s request, to go on the cruise in December instead of January. By changing dates, we added Brazil to the trip and dropped some extra ports in Chile. Now that we leave out of Rio de Janerio, we have to get a visa for Brazil. If you are a citizen of all of the other countries, the visa only costs $20. But no, the visa for USA citizens is $160 (each). If you have any agency apply for you instead of doing it yourself in person, it is another $20. If an agency does it, their fee is $56 (each), plus express mail fees. I am flying on a free ticket from Southwest airlines. Even paying for the hotel room and rental car, it is about the same cost or cheaper as having an agency do it. This way, I do not have to give up our passports to someone else. Fingers are crossed that this will work!

08 19 - Gorgeous day for baseball

It was just a gorgeous day for a baseball game – not too hot for a change and a beautiful day.  I snapped this picture of pretty clouds and the scoreboard.

08 18 - Black-eyed Susans

I have always liked these flowers, probably even more than usual since I have a brown-eyed daughter named Susan.  Finally, a few of them have bloomed.

08 17 - Ray the Plumber

Today, Ray fixed all of the minor plumbing problems that we have had.  There has been the most annoying drip in the bathroom shower.  Thank goodness he knows how to do these things.

08 16 - The Giraffe Block

I have been quilting like mad to finish the animal quilt for Baby Isadora.  Slowly, I am getting better at this.  I am not necessarily good, but at least, not so bad.  I particularly like the block with the giraffe and how I quilted the tree for the giraffe.

08 15 - Hot Dog Derby

If I don't take a picture on a day, the default substitute picture is probably going to be flowers or quilting or baseball.  Today, it is baseball.  This is a picture from the Hot Dog Derby on Sunday, July 8th, during the All-Star Futures game.  On Sunday, because it is Family Fun day, they always run the 'Teeny Tiny' Hot Dog Derby and have three kids run.  I was glad to see them do the traditional Kansas City things at the All-Star game.

08 14 - Sporting KC at the K

Sporting KC soccer team won their championship so one of the players threw out the first pitch at the baseball game tonight.  I have to confess that I did not know that they won the championship.

08 13 - Flowers at the Medical Building

It has been such a hot, miserable summer that I really noticed that the flowers at the doctor’s office building are still blooming and look pretty good.  As often as we have been here this summer, you would have thought that I would have noticed them before today.

08 12 - Giveaway Jeans

I think that I have given up on having a garage sale.  I found a whole box of kids jeans in the garage when Susan was here.  I threw away a couple of pair and washed the rest.  I am just going to give them to the Hope Chest at church or Goodwill and take it off of my taxes.

08 11 - Sample Wedding Ring Quilt

I am anxious to get going on Beth and David’s wedding ring quilt.  My first challenge is to see if I actually have enough and the right colors of fabrics.  I could not decide if it was too dark, so I emailed this picture to Beth to get her opinion.  I was going to try to keep the fabric composition a surprise, but I needed her opinion.

08 10 - Coffee time at the Doctor's

We spend so much time at the orthopedic doctor’s office, that I just make myself comfortable with their coffee setup.  It is very nice that they have this in their waiting area.

08 09 - Leaves already??

How can my back yard be covered with leaves on August 9^th???  Because it is so hot and dry that the trees are already shedding.  I have watered my yard quite a bit, but it is still covered with leaves.  That is one of the not-so-good results of having huge sycamore trees.  They provide a lot of shade, but they shed leaves and bark really bad.  I have to start mowing and bagging leaves or the water won’t even get to the soil.  Yuck!

08 08 - Ray voted

Ray WALKED into the voting place.  That was a big deal, both to vote and to WALK into the voting place.  The picture is from yesterday, but it was important.

08 07 - Vote Here!

Five signs in a row, about 20 feet apart.  I got the message.