Golfing Again In February

We've been golfing again...only this time in the comforts of home!

(That left arm looks AW-ful!)

We played some games on Jon and Mindy's Wii almost a year ago and had a lot of fun. So we bought our own system back in May and finally got it hooked up last weekend. Look at the view!

We're not so good at tennis and baseball but the golf, the cycling and the canoing have provided a lot of fun and not just a few laughs.

New Mission

Jill's in the process of getting estimates for the remodeling of her bath/bedroom. Yesterday we went through the stuff in her room and picked out things that have overstayed their welcome.

Turned out to be a pretty good pile but if you'd never been in there before you'd walk in and still say "whoa. you have a lot of stuff!"

So today a trip to the Salvation Army is in order. Hope I get there and back before the sloppy weather sets in!

The Third Time Is NOT A Charm!

I came down with a cold awhile back that, at the time, I said never really amounted to much. Then about two days later a second bout set in.

Now this weekend I got a sore throat all over again and my nose alternates between stuffed up and runny. Jill has also had the 1-2 punch and is just waiting for the third! Is this an example of "what goes around, comes around"?

New Horizons

We've been on a mission to eat more fruits and vegetables and, in so doing, are expanding our horizons. Today's trial was a papaya.

I consulted Kate for advice on what to do with it and Brian's trick of filling the center with yogurt was a hit around here! (Those are still the seeds of the fruit in there...which were soon replaced with peach yogurt.)

Lunch With Chuck

With the kids and teachers off school on Monday Mindy thought we should gather for lunch at Chuck E Cheese. Turns out we weren't the only ones with those kinds of plans! LOTS of people there. But we found Natalie and Grandma Cher on the fire engine already when we got there.

We played this throw-the-ball-at-the-moving-target game. I had to keep asking Jill to stop so I could get a picture of the kids. Shoulda just gotten her in the shot too!

Natalie liked peering down at us while the rest of us finished our pizza.

Skee Ball's not just for the little kids! Looks like Tony's about to get 5000 points.

And Jonny and Harvey tried their hand at it too. Harvey needed a little more ooomph behind his tosses.

Natalie liked this roller coaster and made sure to let go and raise her arms in the air on the big downswoops.

A ride on the horsey...

...and on the caterpillar...

...and everyone'd had enough. But I think there were still tokens left over to start in again next time...maybe a day when everybody else doesn't have the same idea!

Road Trip

What a glorious day it was yesterday for mid-February! Bright sun, high 30's and nothing pressing to do. We headed south into Iowa to take in a movie with Jill's mom. "Joyful Noise" was playing and Jill thought Marty would really like the music.  

I'll tell ya, there's nothing wrong with those small town theatres. The three of us got our tickets, drink and plenty of buttery popcorn for seventeen bucks!

8 Is Jill's Favorite Number

And today Little g turns 88.

Happy birthday, Mom!!

Golfing Pebble Beach

A few of us took off on a golf excursion to Pebble Beach yesterday. Well....Pebble Beach on the golf simulator here in town. That was definitely a unique experience. I wouldn't say it provided the true feel of golfing but it's as close to the real Pebble Beach as we're going to get. Some holes were very picturesque.

Some shots were pretty long.

Some shots were sorta short. :)

And some shots turned out to be close to just right.

We had the simulator set so that any ball on the green within nine feet of the hole was a gimme!

Be Mine!

Love to you from Laurie and Jill

Quirky But Fun

I bought a new game and have been threatening Jill with it ever since. It's called Qwirkle and is sort of a combination of Dominoes and Scrabble. You have to match either or both colors and shapes.

I got her to play a second game so it must not have been too bad.

Saturday Evening Out On The Town

All along I've been telling Jill I'd like to go to the ice bar downtown that was set up for Winterfest...mostly just to see what it was like 'cause all reports from last year were that it was a hit. So we snagged Cher and Tricia and Tricia's mom, Becky, to bundle up and go check it out.

It was cold, the wind making it moreso, so three of the gals had hot drinks...hot chocolate with espresso liqueur that tasted mighty fine. Tricia and I had martinis with a kick and Jill splurged and ordered mine in an ice glass. I thought at least one of us should have one!

There were quite a few ice sculptures around and I thought this was an appropriate one to frame the bride in our group.

So that was our happy hour. The evening was just beginning. That morning I'd been reading the paper and came across an article about this Beatles tribute band that was playing Saturday evening at the Civic Center and I told Jill if we weren't already doing something today it might be a fun show to go to. I'm not sure what I was thinking because spontaneity and I are total strangers. We've NEVER bought tickets the day of a show. Usually we're getting them the minute they go on sale and these had been since August! Well, Jill had seen it advertised too but didn't think I'd be interested. The LAST person I thought might like it was Tricia! (Beatles music came about 20 years before she was even born!) But since we were planning on the ice bar anyway we asked about the concert to which she replied an enthusiastic "yes!" Cher was still on board to continue the evening and the concert was what drew Tricia's mom in in the first place. So after our drinks we had supper at (appropriately) Beetle's before heading off to the Beatles show. 

Anybody that remembers them on Ed Sullivan would have appreciated these guys. They looked and sounded pretty good. There weren't any screaming, crying young girls in the audience but it was an enthusiastic crowd by the time the night was over. It's a toss up whether my favorite Beatles song is All My Loving or She Loves You but both Becky and I thought this one sounded closest to the real thing.

It's hard to think that 48 years have gone by since this craze hit the country and the music and lyrics are still as fresh in our minds today!

How Did It NOT Spill?!!

I was putting together a salad this morning and looked over to see this jar of cherries I'd just emptied.

What the...?!!

My Thinking Cap Was At Home...

...along with two more candles. Three muffins and three candles were just perfect for us to celebrate Cate's birthday. Well, for Claire's the three muffins were still okay but I should have put two more candles in somewhere! This is as much of a smile as I could get out of Claire when we had a little party this morning because she knew we were two candles short! 

New Method But Still Effective

While Claire and Angela were at preschool yesterday Cate and I had the morning to ourselves. It took awhile to convince her that it might be fun to bake some cookies. Technically, these cookies just needed to be unwrapped and set on the cookie sheet. But Cate had her own ideas.

She's a strong-willed little girl and there wasn't any changing her mind how this dough was going to be handled.

But it worked just as well doing it her way as any other!

Five Years Ago...

Claire has a birthday today and it's #5! It's a school day and her Mama is spending the morning with her class. I bet there'll be some special treats for snacktime.

Happy birthday, Claire!

To The Gates Of St. Peter

We took a spin over to St. Peter today to visit Kate, Brian and Maya. Though the trip started out foggy it was just gorgeous by the time we got there. And by the time we left, the car thermometer was reading 48 degrees!

Maya demonstrated some of her exercise equipment.

She didn't seem too leary of either of us but she liked staying within sight or sound of either Mommy or Daddy.

She and Jill were quite intent on reading one of her books.

She and Brian were practicing "so big".

And after a wonderful lunch at the college cafeteria and a little office time for Kate they all settled in for an updated family photo.

There's a lot of fun and love going on over there!

 Thank you so much for the visit!

Super Sunday

It's one of those Super Bowl years where I'm non-committal about the outcome. I don't hate or love either team. I did tell my friend, John, I'd cheer for the Patriots...and I'll still do that... but when it came down to making a pick in the local contest I said Giants, 27-24. Jill's got New England, 31-28. So either way I'll be happy. It certainly won't be a diet day. We go to a party where we load up on yummy appetizers the first half and about three kinds of chili at halftime.

We're making Reuben Dip this year...a recipe I love when my aunt brings it over. I hope ours turns out as well. (Anna, we're going to seriously miss your "pickle dogs!") Of course, there might be a little drink involved. Gotta have something to wash it all down!

Well, We Did It

We got tickets today to see Barry Manilow.......again.

We've seen him several times before...once right here in town where we were in about the sixth row. This is a favorite of one of the pictures I took.

So coming up, in the course of three weeks we'll be seeing him, going to Mamma Mia, seeing Yanni and going to the Giggle, Giggle, Quack play. What a theatrical month that'll be!

Sunny Day, Grey Day

Today's looking pretty gloomy but yesterday morning sure dawned pretty once the fog burned off. I suppose that was hoar frost on the shrubs and trees.

Very pretty.

It felt more like a mid-March day, not early February! I'm gonna go with it. No need for winter to start now.

New Totals

When looking for some books downstairs today I was horrified to find two more boxes of videotapes in need of disposal! There were 103 more bringing us up to 338 tapes of over 2000 hours of TV. I'm sure we must have done something better with all that time we didn't sit in front of the TV.