12 17 - Packing

Trips are great.  Packing is a pain in the neck.  We travel enough that we are pretty good at it, but it still takes about two days to get organized and pack, especially when we will be gone as long as we will this time.  Also, we have to pack for both hot weather and cold weather.  When we get to Rio de Janiero, it is supposed to be about 90 degrees.  By the time we get to crusing Antarctica, it will be between 40-50.  We have been warned that the wind on deck will just make you freeze, so I have packed my big, heavy winter coat, hat and gloves, in my big suitcase, right next to my shorts and flip flops and bathing suit.  At least we will end in Easter Island where it should be a very pleasant 75-80 degrees every day.  Bon Voyage!

12 16 - Cantata

This morning was the annual Christmas Cantata at church.  This blurry picture is our director, Patrice.  I love the cantata Sunday and was glad that I was back to be able to sing in it.  Patrice is a fantastic director to sing for.

12 15 - Brookridge Elementary

This is the front door of my kids elementary school.  It is about 8 blocks from our house.  The kids walked to/from school for the majority of their time there.  I am just chilled by the similarities between Sandy Hook elementary and Brookridge.  Both have about 600 kids.  Both are in an afluent suburb (Overland Park is kind of that way).  Both, parents moved to the area because of the excellent schools (definitely yes, for us).  I have been almost glued to the tv coverage of the shooting, but finally I reached "too much" and had to turn it off.  It is horrible beyond any words possible.

12 13 - Most Obnoxious Christmas Display Ever

This picture does not begin to show just how obnoxious this Christmas Display is.  Locate at 103^rd & Metcalf by Vince & Associates, it has grown to almost a block long.  If flashes and blinks.  To make it even worse, you can tune your car radio to a specific channel and find out that the lights blink in sync with the music.  Every year, this place is routinely voted the Most Obnoxious Christmas Display in Kansas City, but they keep putting it up, bigger and worse.  Gross.
 

12 11 - Working Appliances Again

This guy is our new best friend – sort of.  We realized last week that something must be wrong with the dishwasher. Stuff was not very clean and the arms were not turning. Saturday, Ray broke the nose piece on his glasses. Sunday, in the middle of doing laundry, the dryer would no longer start. Sunday night, in turning off the water to the outside hose faucets, the connection in the basement started pouring water (onto a box of blankets). Monday, the appliance repairman made his house call to us. Today, and $600 later, we have working appliances after replacing the motor and water pump in the dishwasher, and the door switch connection in the dryer. Glasses were fixed for $50. Plumbing was fixed with a crescent wrench and a prayer that it holds. Better that it is happening this week rather than after we leave again. But ugh and enough!

12 10 - Christmas Crafts

On our recent transatlantic cruise, I went to Arts & Crafts class every day.  One day we made an origami card holder that was just the size to hold the room key or a gift card. (yellow one in the picture).  The ladies that I sat by each day immediately thought of using scrapbook paper and making Christmas money holders.  My kids are getting checks for Christmas this year so I chose four sheets of paper and made the holders.  Since we will be gone to Antarctica for Christmas, I decorated the holders with penguins and gift stickers.  It was great fun and highly amused me for the morning.

1209 - Christmas with Darth Vader

There is an office building in Overland Park which is commonly called the Darth Vader building because of its color (black) and shape (like his helmet).  Every year at Christmas, they put lights in the window to show a giant wreath.  A few years ago, the building was sold and the new owners were not going to display the wreath because of the cost of the electricity and hassle.  There was such a huge pubic outcry, that they quickly changed their minds and installed the lights.
 

12 08 - Is that a Kangaroo?

Okay, this is really a picture from yesterday, but it is too good to not post.  Driving down the road (I-35, south of Wichita, Kansas) on the way back to Overland Park, my husband says, ‘Is that a picture of a kangaroo?’  Sure enough.  It is a billboard advertising ‘drought tolerant sorghums’ from Alta Seeds.  Why a kangaroo?  Because most of Australia is a dry desert?  Who knows, but it made us look at the billboard.

12 07 - Electronic Chemicals

This truck was in front of us on the drive back to Kansas.  What are ‘electronic chemicals’?  It is liquid and the truck says that the tank is ‘teflon lined’.  I feel a google search coming on, as inquiring minds want to know.

 

Note:  I looked it up and am still not sure what it is.  The best that I can understand is that it is the chemicals used in the manufacture of semi-conductors and other electronics.  Once the explanation started talking about thermodynamics and free molecular particles, I got a little lost.  KMG is one of the companies that manufactures and ships electronic chemicals.

12 06 - Christmas in Billings

Today, we drove to Billings, Oklahoma so Mom could take care of some banking business.  I have to say that in 59 years, I don’t think that I have ever been in downtown Billings, Oklahoma.  I am sure that I did not know that they put a Christmas tree in the middle of the intersection in the middle of Main street.

12 05 - Red Spiderweb Tree

Every evening when we left Mom’s place at The Commons, we saw this tree covered in red lights.  By day, I think that it was just a Bradford pear or some other landscape tree.  By night, it looked like a cross between a string Easter egg and a spider web.  But I liked it.

12 04 - The McRib is Back!

I have to be pretty desperate or starved to actually eat at McDonalds. However, we make an exception for the McRib. When you drive to Oklahoma from Kansas, you don’t have a lot of choices on where to stop and eat lunch. This mural is the inside of the McDonald’s in Emporia, Kansas. I was actually impressed by the decor of the inside of the restaurant, and the McRib was good.

12 03 - Books, Books, ebooks

Today, we went to the Plaza branch of the KCMO library to get a library card.  Since the library serves the whole metropolitan area, we are eligible for a card.  Our sole purpose in getting a card from them is to be able to check out ebooks via the Overdrive software since Johnson county dropped their subscription to this service.  This is the branch library where Beth used to work.  This is the display at the entrance.  It is real books, just old books, probably pulled from the collection.  It is a pretty cool way to recycle books.

12 02 - Watching

Another picture from last night’s performance at the arboretum.  Now this is correct bell playing – bells up and watching the director.  Yea for me!

12 01 - Holiday Fun

For many years, my handbell group, the Heartland Ringers, has performed at the Luminary Walk at the Overland Park Arboretum.  It is fun because we play fun Christmas songs and dress in ‘holiday attire’.  For us, that means, fun shirts and silly hats, as shown by Karin and me.

11 28 - Sally, you are not helping

When I am mowing the back yard, Sally Dumb-butt does not really understand that you are not out there to play with her.  Jumping on me and knocking over the bag of leaves does not really help.  But she has a lot of fun. 

11 23 - Leaves, Leaves, and more Leaves

 

 

We have massive amounts of leaves in the yard.  John mowed the front yard once while we were gone.  This is the back yard.  Now, I am spending every day mowing and bagging leaves because this is the last week that the trash people will pick up yard waste until March.  We compost, but this is too much to compost.

11 22 - Happy Thanksgiving

John and Ray spent about seven hours cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Since we got home last night at midnight, John had already spent hours on the pre-preparation, chopping vegetables, making turkey stock, making salads and desserts.  It was an outstanding meal, and thank you, John!

09 21 - Fireworks Friday

Fireworks Friday at The K, otherwise known as Fireworks Friday after the Royals game at Kaufman stadium.  Tonight was the last Fireworks Friday for this season so I tried to take pictures.  I need to take a class to learn to take better pictures because I obviously don't really know how to take night pictures.  Since this was the last Fireworks Friday, the show was longer and better.  They obviously spend some money putting on these fireworks and the crowd likes it.  It was also Buck Night so we got hot dogs and peanuts for $1 (each).  Plus, we won the game so it was a good evening.

09 20 - Grindin' meat

Today, I fixed an old favorite family recipe called Grindin' Meat.  Most people would probably call it roast beef salad, but not in our family.  It has always been called Grindin' Meat, probably going back to the days when my siblings and I were so little that 'grindin' meat' was probably the only thing that we could say.  Whatever you call it, we love it.  When I got my Kitchen Aid mixer, we even got the meat grinder attachment to make this easier.  To make Grindin' Meat:  start with one very large, very cheap piece of roast beef.  Cook.  Serve one meal as roast beef and potatoes.  Take all of the left over meat, run through a meat grinder.  Add several chopped boiled eggs, pickle relish and Miracle Whip until it looks about right.  Add either celery seed or chopped celery.  Now, make a sandwich and enjoy! 

09 19 - Lady Bug

Is this not just the cutest 'bug' that you have ever seen!?!  It was in the parking lot at the hospital today.  I have no idea who owns it.  It was so cute that it just had to be my picture of the day.

09 18 - New Grass

Not much going on today.  Just standing around watching the grass grow.

Actually, yes, I go outside every day and check the progress on my new grass.  Last week, I put down about 50 lbs. of new grass seed on the front and back yard.  I put it really heavy on the bare spots and it is about 1-3 inches tall in many spots.  You can see a lot of seed still laying on the ground.  Having the watering tractor is helping with the watering.  Yes, this is a new tractor.  We have worn out the two cute John Deere tractors and this is the only kind available now.

09 16 - Happy Anniversary, Cherokee Strip

Today is the anniversary of the Land Run and Opening of the Cherokee Strip in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, on September 16, 1893.  In Enid, Oklahoma (next town from where I grew up in Garber), there is a museum, the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center.  They have built a 'community' of mostly donated or recontructed buildings from northwest Oklahoma.  This is the actual Land Office from Perry, Oklahoma, reconstructed in this building.  There were three land offices in Oklahoma Territory and this one in Perry is the actual office where my great-grandfather, my mother's grandfather, registered his claim.  (Guy on the left is the tour guide.)  My mother, Dorotha Naylor Keller Hoffman, is in the wheelchair, pushed by my sister, Becky.  I remember my grandmother, Rena Hood Naylor, telling the story about riding in the wagon on the Run while her daddy rode his horse across the Kansas line to stake his claim near Braman, OK.  Grandma Naylor was born in 1889 and was 4 years old at the time.  It is kind of strange going to a museum where you know half of the people featured in the museum.

09 15 - Series Manhole Covers: Old Water

This water cover is in the middle of a public sidewalk and looks to be significantly older than the other water covers.  I guess since it is old, they skipped painting it blue.  Or they just missed it.  Or the blue paint wore off.  Yet another Manhole Mystery.

09 14 - Series Manhole Covers: Blue Water

(We resume the fascinating photo essay series on manhole covers.)

Most of the water covers are small and have been painted blue.  Blue = water, I get it.  I don't get why they are painted in the first place.  Not all of them are painted.  Sometimes they paint the manhole covers so that the people replacing the sidewalks and streets can see them and not damage their equipment.  This one is in the grass so maybe someone ran over it with a lawn mower.  Who knows.  It is another Manhole Mystery.

09 13 - New doctor's office, new decorations

New doctor's office; new decorations.  The ceramic sunflowers caught my eye today.  (Same husband; same knee walker.)  Ray had to have an ultrasound doplar study on the veins in his leg to make sure that there was not a veinous problem causing the slight swelling in his leg and foot.  The test was fine.  No vein problems.

09 12 - New Bells, Big Bells

Yes, I have joined another handbell group.  This is the 'morning group' of the Heartland Ringers, called the Agapes.  Since I am going to be traveling so much this fall/winter, I am a 'permanent floating sub'.  Today, I played the first four bells in this picture which are in the bass clef.  I read bass clef just fine, but the bells are so much bigger, my hands were really tired and sore after practice.  I love handbells.

09 17 - Hymnody

Today, the Heartland Ringers played at Southminster Presbyterian church at  a Hymnody.  The more accurate description of the event is:  A Festival Ceremony of Hymnody, sponsored by the Kansas City Chapter of The American Guild of Organists.  (The bell choir combined with the choir for two pieces.)  I can tell you that I do not think that I have ever seen the word ‘hymnody’ let alone used it in a written or spoken sentence.  I can tell you that ‘hymnody’ does not rhyme with ‘body’, as I have been pronouncing it.  Mr. Webster tells me the pronunciation and definition is:

hym·no·dy 

noun \ˈhim-nə-dē\

Definition of HYMNODY

1: hymn singing

2: hymn writing

3: the hymns of a time, place, or church

The first song on the program was, When in Our Music, God is Glorified, which just says it all for me. 

 

09 11 - Camo Crocs

Ray has new shoes.  Crocs!  and they came in Camo!  That is probably the only reason that I talked him into getting them.  Actually, he needed a pair of shoes that are low-cut on his ankle to not rub on the wound.  Also, the bottom of his foot hurts when he walks.  I told him that these would be really cushiony as he walks.  Now, he believes me.  He has worn them every day since he got them.

Croc World, we have a new convert!

09 10 - Series Manhole Covers: The Street

Now this is what I expected a manhole cover to look like - simple, nothing, cross-hatched, plain.  About half of the covers in the street are about half covered with asphalt.  This is just a basic manhole cover that you would expect to see.

09 09 - Series Manhole Covers: Traffic

Who knew that Traffic has their own manhole cover!  Yes, it was right there on the corner by the traffic signal.  I guess this means that a bunch of the stuff that controls the lights is actually under the street.  The picture would have been better if I had taken it straight, but people were slowing down and staring at me taking pictures and I did not want to cause a wreck.

09 08 - Soil Testing

I have temporarily suspended the Manhole Cover Series to bring you a few other, timely pictures.  I bought a home pH soil testing kit at the Family Tree Nursery to test the soil in our yard.  I have always heard that if you have oak trees (yes), that they leach the good stuff out of the soil and leave it too acidic for your grass to grow.  We paid our lawn services company to test it last year, but this year I decided on the do-it-yourself home kit.  I carefully read the directions, assembled my materials, sampled my dirt, measured my dirt, mixed my dirt and chemicals and waited for the test results.  All of this time, my chemist husband, who did things like this for 40 years at work, just about fell out of his chair laughing at me.  He kept 'volunteering' to do this for me (in about 1/10th of the time), but I pointed out to him that if he did the test, then I did not learn anything.  I am the one that has to do the yardwork, so I was going to do the test.  And yes, the soil is still out of balance, so now I get to mow the leaves, then break up the ground in the bare spots, then put down the new grass seed, then put down the lime.  Woman's work is just never done!

09 07 - The Titanic Iceberg

This ended up being such a cool picture that I had to give two days in my blog to the Titanic exhibit.  We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I justified this as we did not take a picture of any of the artifacts, just the ice.  (Plus, there was no guard in the room.)  This is an actual huge hunk of ice with a sign that said 'touch the iceberg'.  I wonder how long it took them to make it, is it the same piece that they started with?  Now, it is about 6-8 inches thick and still taller than me (more than 6 ft.).  Another interesting fact about the Titanic iceberg is that salt water freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water.  Icebergs are frozen freshwater.  Therefore, the sea water where the ship went down and 700 people survived was actually at -1C, or below freezing.  I set my camera to 'no flash' and Ray took the picture of me.

09 06 - Titanic Exhibit

Ah, what a cruise we are on!  Wait!  It is a fake picture.  Actually, we went to the 100th anniversary Titanic Exhibit at Union Station.  We are trying to make an effort to go to things around town.  They had a lot of artifacts actually recovered from the ship, but alas, not the Grand Staircase.  This picture is the result of good digital imagery and software.  They had a lot of posters explaining the building of the ship, the voyage, and the recovery efforts.  I think that we viewed the exhibit a little differently than we would have before we started cruising.

The Titanic had a 'poop deck' and while I have always heard that term, the ships that I have been on did not have one, nor did I know exactly why it was called the 'poop deck'.  Ray guessed that maybe it was the deck where the animals were and the poop was shoveled off of this deck into the ocean.  Wikipedia set me straight with this explanation:
          "In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or "aft", part of the superstructure of a ship.  The name originates from the French word for stern, la poupe, from Latin puppis. Thus the poop deck is technically a stern deck, which in sailing ships was usually elevated as the roof of the stern or "after" cabin, also known as the "poop cabin". In sailing ships, with the helmsman at the stern, an elevated position was ideal for both navigation and observation of the crew and sails."

And now you know more than you probably knew five minutes ago!

09 05 - Series Manhole Covers: OP Storm

This is the manhole cover for the City of Overland Park Storm Sewer drainage system, not to be confused with the Johnson County Sewer system nor the city of Overland Park utilities covers.  The subtle, but significant feature of this photo is the two leaves at the top of the picture.  The storm sewer system is really a network of underground tunnels connected by curb cut-outs and drains.  It is a huge fine if you dump used oil or trash down the storm sewer.  Another amazing fact is that they have a special van with remote control camera that they (the City) drives around and puts the camera down the drains looking for blockage and stuff.  Property owners that are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a drain on the curb by their house, are supposed to keep the drain free of leaves.  Hah!  I have seen small trees take root and grow out of these drains, but the city will clean that out.  All in all, it is an effective system to collect rain water run-off.   I was impressed that the cover has the City of Overland Park logo with the trees on it.  Someone went to a lot of trouble, and probably expense, to order custom manhole covers.

09 04 - Series Manhole Covers: The Sunflower

As I take my walk around my neighborhood, sometimes I notice the common things that are really not so common.  This manhole cover in the middle of the sidewalk caught my eye.  Why is it in the middle of the sidewalk?  Why does it have a sunflower on it?  Who does it belong to?  Then I started noticing other manhole covers.  So I decided that this week, I will do a photo essay series on -- Manhole Covers.

And the burning question -- why are manhole covers round?  Or just, why, the series?

For the Sunflower Cover, I still am not sure who it belongs to, but I suspect the city (Overland Park) or county (Johnson County, Kansas).  I finally saw one of the covers in the middle of the street with a sunflower so I suspect it must be for access to city utilities.

Check back tomorrow to see what other manhole covers have been discovered!

09 03 - Butterfly on a flower

I have zinnias and a few black-eyed Susan flowers in my flower garden on the south side of my house.  The flowers have had a hard time surviving during the heat of this summer.  A couple of weeks ago, when watering the flowers, I noticed that I had butterflies in the flowers.  Today, I was able to get a picture of this butterfly as it moved from flower to flower.  It looks like it is half monarch butterfly, half something else, so I don't really know what kind it is.

09 02 - Happy Birthday, Ray!

Man and his best friend --
I took this a couple of years ago, but it is still one of my favorite pictures of Ray.  We actually have this picture on a mouse pad.  At least, I can take comfort in the fact that the 'other woman' in his life is the four-legged variety.  Happy birthday to Ray, and dumb butt Sally in their favorite chair.

09 01 - Enough Rain

I have heard that we have had 6+ inches of rain since it started on Friday.  The remnants of Hurricane Isaac are just parked over Missouri.  We needed the rain, but enough already.  This is standing water in my back yard where the neighborhood drains into this corner.

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.