The Lion's Golf Outing

Yesterday was the Lion's Club Golf outing. I don't play golf, in fact this was the first time I have ever been on a golf course. I helped with regestration and learned what "Mulligans" and "Skins" were. I was also in charge of the "Marshmallow Drive." For a $100 prize contestants payed $5 for 2 marshmallow and tried to drive them as far as they could. The winner actually did it about 45 yards. Some people tried an iron club and disintegrated the marshmallow on the tee. I wish I had pictures maybe I will later.

Hubby and the Butterflies

Hubby spent all day yesterday on the front porch. The chrysalis were ready to open. He had planned on taking time lapse video of them out on the deck in the backyard but it was raining. He couldn't leave his camera out in the rain. So he set everything up on the front porch, but he couldn't leave his camera unguarded on the front porch. His set up was quite ingenious and the resultant video is great.

Honey, I Broke the Garage Door Opener

Yesterday, Hubby and I were cleaning the garage. We really did a great job. At one point though, the garage door suddenly closed without anyone touching the controls. We opened the door again and were confused as to why that would happen. It happened again. While we took a lunch break the door closed once more and would not open again. Since we have a Genie garage door opener, Hubby called the service man who spent an half hour on the phone diagnosing the problem. He said it was the wire between the control and the opener. Hubby recalled that I had asked about some wires hanging in the garage. He asked if I touched them. I said "No, but I swept the cobwebs off of that area. Maybe I brushed them." Apparently I caused them to touch and shorted out the garage door opener. Now I had no idea they were live wires. His comment was "You let those wires touch and you are an Electrical Engineer." Obviously he isn't or he would have taped the ends when he disconnected them. Husbands can be real pain in the butts.

The Rosetta Stone

For our wedding anniversary, Hubby and I bought ourselves the Rosetta Stone Program for Spanish. It is really pretty good but we need to work on it daily and it is a little exhausting. It is not the kind of software that teaches you Spanish while you are sleeping. The plan is immersion. Nothing in the program is in English. Everything is done with pictures and the Spanish words. It will work quite well in conjunction with our Spanish class which we take at the local high school community education program.

The Front Entrance Is Complete

Hubby planted all ten rosebushes, sealed the pavers. put down mulch and got Gretel's "Tummy" to help replace the bench. We are very pleased with the new look.

Today we worked as Master Gardener's out at the Tolgate farm. Our task was to weed the rose gardens as well as the gardens down by the pond. I surprised myself by identifying poison ivy before I pulled it out. We learned not to cut off the rose hips at this time of the year because that will encourage the plant to grow and could cause greater damage from winter kill.

The Monarch Larvae

The latest in the continuing saga of Hubby's Monarch caterpillars is that they have formed chrysalis. Hubby took time lapse photography of the process. Yes they are in a plastic shoebox in the dining room.

Maintenance

Tomorrow I have my colonoscopy. Now for any of you not old enough to need this maintenance procedure, the procedure itself isn't bad but the prep is terrible. Just remember getting old is not for sissies.

Leaf Casting

Hubby and I took a class at the Tolgate farm on making cement casts of leaves to use as garden decorations. The class was fun especially if you like the feel of squeezing cement through your fingers,( while wearing rubber gloves of course). We used all kinds of leaves from Hosta's to cabbage leaves and some of the big weed leaves as well as rhubarb leaves.

Tiger Baseball Game

Every year the Lathrup Lion's Club goes to a Tiger baseball game. For the last three years they have lost on those occasions. This time it was a terrible game with 2 runs for the Twins in the first inning and the game went downhill from there. The final score was 11-0. The crowd was doing the wave because they were getting bored. The companionship of my fellow Lions and their friends and families always make it a fun experience anyway. My fellow Lion, Sandi, has MS and has difficulty walking. The stadium provided a wheel chair with an attendant right at the gate and when we left, our section usher put in a call and within 10 minutes we had a wheelchair with an attendant to take us out of the park.

10 Things in Each Room

It is so HOT today that I decided to do the "10 Things in Each Room" form of housekeeping. I learned this from my Mom when I was little. It is related to the "Pull 100 Weeds a Day" rule of gardening. Anyway I pick up 10 things in each room and that is my housekeeping for today. Then I will go back to working on Austin's quilt. Hubby took a picture of my craft room to show the scope of my fabric dilemma.

Hubby has a Swamp Milkweed growing in his rain garden. It is a favorite for Monarch butterflies. Last year the eggs disappeared and no caterpillars formed so this year, when he finds an egg he brings it inside. He keeps the caterpillars with fresh leaves in a plastic shoe box. They seem to be doing well. He hopes to release the butterflies when the emerge.

A New Quilt Project

I started a quilt for my Grandson, Austin.It is a scrap quilt that I am doing in shades of dark blue, dark green, brown, rust and dark red. I have all my scraps of cloth in plastic shoe boxes organized according to color. I have lots of scraps. 10 boxes of blues, 5 of reds etc. But do I have enough of the right shades? No! I went to Joann's with my Mom and spent another $100 and still I am struggling to get the right combinations. I need brown combined with blue,green or red. Anyone who thinks a scrap quilt is made of scraps obviously has never made one.

A Fun Doctor

This month of August, Hubby and I are catching up on all our doctor and dentist visits. This morning I saw my gynecologist (or as Archie Bunker would say, the groinocologist). Ordinarily that wouldn't exactly be fun but this doctor is terrific. When he came into the room, he said "Hola, Como esta Usted?" because he had made a note that Hubby and I were learning Spanish. He then congratulated me on maintaining my weight, which sure beat telling me I was fat. He said so many people eat to make their sedentary life style more exciting. I mentioned I watch very little television, just the McNeil Lerher report and the Weather Channel. He said the Weather Channel is MTV for old folks.

Oshkosh

Last weekend Hubby and I went to the EAA airshow in Oshkosh Wisconsin. We spent two days there which is plenty for me. Thankfully the weather was perfect, nice and cool. There usually aren't a lot of trees on an airstrip. One of the neat flying things we say was "Elvis", a Sikorsky S-64 heavy lift helicopter owned by Erickson Air-Crane. It can deliver 2,600 gallons of water to wildfires. It fills the tank in 20 seconds. This helicopter was also used to remove and replace the statue from the top of the U.S. Congress building.

We also saw Burt Rutan's "White Knight II" which is a carrier aircraft intended to launch "SpaceShipTwo" the commercial spacecraft. It is like two airplanes connected at the wing(sort of a Siamese twin aircraft). We also saw the Airbus 380, talk about big!

Now that we are home, with no company, August will be busy with Doctor appointments, fixing the house and getting some quilts done.