River Hole

This is view of #7 green at Shawnee - my most favorite hole on my most favorite golf course on this entire planet. To me, this is not the most attractive angle, the shot is taken from the rough on the par 3, #8 hole. I like the view from about 120 yards back from the green in the fairway on #7 - you can really get a good look at how the river makes a bend there.

Could it be any better of a day than today? It is cloudless, the birds are singing, and it's supposed to get really, REALLY hot. Perfect day for golfing, but I doubt I'll be playing any today. I probably will go to the driving range though. I've been working on the draw at the range and I'm getting some of my old distances back. But really, I'd take accuracy over distance any day of the week. I pitched quite a few balls at the 40 and 75 markers last night, and I'm still struggling with that dang 3-iron. I'm almost thinking about switching that bad boy to graphite, the steel just isn't doing anything for me. I have the same yardage with the 3-iron as the 4, and I'm a whole lot more consistent with the 4. I guess I'll just give it some more time (and more work).

Lies

I was reading an old post and saw where my lovely daughter, Sarah, mentioned building a glorious bonfire with little girl toys. It reminded me of how I use to get her to clean her room. I would explain to her how when her toys piled up in the floor, there was this thing called spontaneous combustion and they would just burst into flames, and it could burn our whole house down and we might die in our sleep. She bought into it and she would pick her toys up and put them back on the shelf. Nevermind that she still has screaming nightmares everynight, at least the toys were put away.

And how does one get their children to brush their teeth before bed? All my kids believed me when I told them bugs would grow on their teeth at night. Never once did I say insects, but I'm pretty sure that is what was running through each kids' little brain. I could usually see the wheels turning when Sarah was thinking on something real hard. She was only about 2 the first time she put up a fight about brushing her teeth. I didn't think she'd understand about bacteria rotting her teeth so I told her that SOMETIMES people who don't brush get bugs growing on their teeth. She looked concerned and asked me what kind of bugs. I was vague, I said "Oh, like spiders and cockroaches." She looked horrified and quite scared. I told her she wouldn't ever have to worry about it if she brushed her teeth and she jumped right up and took care of business. Erin and Emily didn't even question it. Akiko even told them the bugs ate their pacifiers when it was time to get rid of them. I still remember the sad look on Erin's face when she told me about her pacifier. She said "No more bobble. Bug eat" and looked like she might cry. I wasn't sure I understood what she said and I looked at Akiko and she had that SHT-eating grin on her face. When the girls were out of ear-shot, she told me that she told them the bugs ate their bottles and pacifiers, and they totally accepted it.

Sorry, I can't provide a link to Erin's blog since she won't start one. it's a pity, she is an excellent writer. I do have a lovely picture of her though. She is the little girl in the middle wearing the black dress.

Flame ON

Look at this magnificent shot - another compliments of Terry Spears. He knows that there are two things I really appreciate in this life - fire and water. Gosh, some guys get to have all the fun. What I wouldn't give to be right there at that grill, grease fires are really hot. You can almost smell those babies burning can't you? That flame is at least a foot tall.

lovely

I just had to add this shot to my blog - isn't it beautiful? The best photographer I know personally sent this to me and it is AWESOME! It was taken after the freak storm we had last spring (the one that wiped out the cherry trees this year). The photographer is Terry Spears who has some of his best work out on flickr. These beauties are bleeding hearts, one of my most favorite flowers in the world, right up there with violets, daisies, and lily of the valley.

Swimmin' with da fishes

Oh happy days. I figured out how to edit a post that I've published! No longer will I fret if I fat finger a URL or whatever blunder I let slip through the cracks. I think I am far too lazy to go correct the link I screwed up on a previous post though, it's all water under the bridge now.

Yes, it's summer for me. Today, we went to Grayson Lake and I went swimming. That's always the official start of summer. We had blue gills and minnows swimming with us, some of the blue gills were rather big, Emily was afraid of them. She was also afraid of the butterflies. Is this really my kid or was there a mixup at the hospital?

I saw lots of people picking blackberries along the highway today. That's a job I don't miss one little bit. We used to be handed buckets and told we couldn't come back until the buckets were full. Hmmmmm...what if we'd never come back?

I wanted to post pictures of Grayson but my cable is lost in the abyss of the rat-hole room. I think it would be quicker and easier to declare it gone forever and just order up a new one. That's the easiest way out for me anyway....unless of course, my dear sweet daughter knows where I can lay my hands on hers???? Perhaps somewhere in that den of germs you call a bedroom?

Link error

It ticks me off that I screwed up the link in the previous post. I hate making a mess of things. I can't find a way to edit a post once I've posted it, but it seems to me I did that once a long time ago.

We need to go camping. This weekend was supposed to be the Louisville trip but looks like Erin has something she has to do Saturday which screws Louisville. We could still camp though, Grayson Lake is not too far and we could come back for Erin's thing and then go back out afterwards. Only down side, it's likely to be horrendously crowded out there, being the weekend of July 4th holiday.

The summer is slipping away. Not enough weekends! Emily starts her 2 week intensive dance classes next week, that's gonna suck. More being tied down. Also, I need to call Mr. Chapman and schedule those lessons..somehow fit those in. And, piano will start up again next month. I need to devote some time to my beloved piano....I have been neglecting him lately, and I never did get to try out those paint pencils I bought. If we could win the lottery, I would have time to paint, play music, lay in my hammock and dream....assuming I could find the *^@&*^&*^@ thing. Where did I put it??????

un-blogged

I was reprimanded by my sweet daughter for not blogging, so here I am, blogging about NOTHING again. I just read her blog and I have nothing so exciting to report about. I did get to play several rounds of golf, even got 9 in at my most favorite course in the world, Shawnee. The skies opened up on us after we walked off the #7 green (which is my most favorite hole in the world, the river hole). We took cover under a tree which worked out OK until the wind started blowing the rain horizontally. We tried running around the tree to find the most protective angle but there was none. The wind was whipping around in all directions. PLUS, we started hearing thunder in the distance and since we were already as wet as we could possibly get (of course neither of us had an umbrella), we decided to run for a shelter building two holes back. We were halfway there when the first streak of lightening flashed right over our heads. Over along the creek was a back-hoe and dump truck. We took cover under the truck until the storm passed. We finished our 9, soaked, but once the sun came out, I was fairly dry after 20 minutes or so. It felt like my clothes were steaming. It started thundering again on hole 10 so we got a raincheck for the rest.

I went shopping with Sarah last night. She is such a trip. We had Mexican salads (the kind in the shell) at La Finca's. They were OK, but I don't think I'll be going back there for awhile. We went to the mall and Sarah talked me into buying clothes for me and her. I would have spent way more on her if we'd had time.... I never buy clothes for me in stores, and I'm still undecided about whether I'm just going to return the outfit I bought for me. I think I bought it on impulse, not because I wanted it.

I am home alone tonight. The little girls are still gone to geek camp and Sarah is visiting Dale and Jerry is at a training seminar. HOME ALONE!!! No telling what I might get into. I could build a small bonfire in the living room if I wanted to, or shave a cat (or dye him blue, which would be way better than shaving him).