One of the signs that summer is here....blueberries!

Thanks to Lindsey, we have blueberries ... lots of blueberries.

Lindsey always wanted to have a garden...she loves working outside (and now has some land where she has her own garden!). I can't remember how many blueberry bushes Ron planted when Linz was at home, but now we have nine. Two of them now have RIPE blueberries.

It was a gorgeous day...sunny & warm, and Ron and I picked about 2 quarts. I promptly made a lemon-blueberry pound cake. YUM!

It's definitely summer!

Southwest Airlines is NOT on my good list!

I am hoping that SOMETHING will change in regard to Southwest Airlines...hopefully today!

We got an 866 number when our kids went off to college. Now that's been about 10 years ago - actually longer. Starting in January of this year, we started getting calls from people wanting to check the status of their flight...a Southwest Airlines flight. Some were angry whenI would tell them this WAS NOT Southwest...some apologized. I then started my MANY phone calls to Southwest. They have done NOTHING. They basically say our number isn't one of their numbers.

Enter DAVE, THE PHONE GUY! I'm hoping he's going to be our knight in shining armor. I called AT&T and told them our saga...they gave our story to Dave. When I told Dave our story this morning, and told him how Southwest said it was OUR PROBLEM - NOT THEIRS...he said - NO, it IS their problem. Dave just called again and said "You wouldn't believe the run-around I'm getting from Southwest!" Actually, Dave, I DO believe that.

The last time I talked to someone at Southwest, I told them I was about ready to tell people who called about their flights that the plane had CRASHED. The lady asked me to PLEASE not do that. Dave thought it might be a bit humorous. I wonder if that would make a difference?

At least we have someone working on it. Our last phone call from someone wanting to check on their flight was....3:30 A.M..... this is all so frustrating!

The Changing of the Guard...or the Changing Times...or the Tale of Two Tanks

I've posted about the GREAT WHITE before...it's most definitely a TANK. Joshua's truck I would also consider a TANK. Somehow on this trip, talk started about the Changing of the Guard with respect to trucks.

Ron, who is NOT a regularly reader of this blog, was wanting to have THE PERFECT BACKDROP for THE picture of the trucks. Well, that never happened. Ron likes his truck...Josh likes his truck. They both are TOO ROUGH for me. Any vehicle that doesn't allow for good coffee drinking while driving, is too rough.

Now to emphasize the size of these BEASTS, I enlisted the help of none other than Ms. Thalia! Strategically standing next to tires illustrates their size. We threw Gabe's CAR into the mix for size comparison.




Now for another comparison of size, the trucks were placed nose to nose...well, I guess a more accurate term would be grill to grill.
Oh geez, if I was the GREAT WHITE and I came up to this SILVER BEAST...I think I would throw myself in reverse and hit the road. But no, the owner of the GREAT WHITE is no coward. No Little Man Syndrome here!


Ron, in his extreme wisdom, came up with the perfect solution to solve the question of power:

Of course, we all know who won this battle...or do we?

A Day in the Dunes...

When Joshua and Thalia came up, they brought their trailer (this isn't just any ole trailer, no sir, it's a beautiful 26' trailer that you can fold the furniture up so three quads can fit inside!). Now Joshua LOVES to ride his - safely, of course! Thalia has her own which I've blogged about before. She wasn't as excited to ride this time since she HAD A WRECK a while back! (The details of which never reached this Mimi's ears!)Take note of little Miss Biscuit on the back of the trailer keeping an eye out for the happenings around the dunes!

Once we got out there, her fear left and off she went...and went...and went. She would go off for a ride, come screeching into where we were parked, and throw the quad into reverse, and off she'd go again.

Now some riders LOOK like QUAD RIDERS! Thalia is one...she has all the gear. Josh is another. Gabe and Emily borrowed the cool helmet and gloves...and then there's Ron. NOPE! He brought his own. The boys gave him a hard time...but typical Ron was unfazed by the ribbing from his boys.






Yep, it was a fun day...even if this blogger was a bit under the weather.

Gabe's first concert - part of which is a telecast to Saddie

Gabe wanted to play the guitar when he was young...and then as he got older, he started picking away at learning to play. He has an electric guitar, but my favorite BY FAR, is his acoustic guitar.

This trip, he brought it with him. Today, he gave a concert for us...and we needed to put it on the blog so Saddie could hear it too! Grab a cup of coffee, Mom, and put your feet up and your hands together (be sure and put the coffee down before you put your hands together!) and enjoy the show.

This first number is called Crazy Dream.




This second number is called The Moon Is Shining...




And for the final number of the day....ONDA!



I love to listen to him play!

There's nothing much like a small town fair

Joshua, Thalia, and I went to the fair today. Luckily for us, we had blue skies...there was some wind, but at least we had blue skies!

There's not a LOT of rides at our little fair, but there was plenty for Thalia. She seemed to have a grand time. (She told her Papa that it was good until the last ride - Spinning Dragons - when Josh made her sick to her stomach from spinning so much!)




The ride above was the Crazy Surf.



This is the Dragon ride...a mini roller coaster.



This was a maze-like obstacle. Of course, Thalia had no problem finding her way through it. You ended by sliding out.

There was a huge SUPER SLIDE which Thalia enjoyed coming down...



And then there was the climbing wall...

This ride was a spinner. Joshua and Thalia got to spinning pretty fast. I'm not sure how they didn't end up sick.



This was a house of mirrors...Thalia came through it pretty fast.



The swing ride lasted quite a while.




There was a small petting zoo...





The last ride Joshua and Thalia rode was this spinning dragons. Thalia looked a little green when she came out. Joshua claimed she kept saying she wanted to SPIN! Maybe it was the fact that right before this ride, we had eaten lunch?

The Hunt was on through the redwoods for...a BANANA SLUG!

Thalia wanted to go to the Redwoods today. She really wanted to find - and KISS - a banana slug. I told her, "No problem, there's always lots of banana slugs." I was wrong.

We hiked around, totally enjoying the hike - which is about a mile or a little more. It was foggy outside, but was absolutely beautiful in the redwood forest.


We kept hiking, kept looking...no banana slugs. Along the way, I took pictures, lots of pictures...to the tune 0f 95 pictures. I'll send a CD of all of them home with Josh, but I'm just choosing some of my favorites for this post.
You can't find anything much more beautiful than a redwood forest. I am in awe that a 7 1/2 year old finds the beauty of nature like Thalia does.

We were both a little disappointed because there were absolutely NO banana slugs to be found. But as Thalia said, it was OK "because the forest is just so beautiful. " Lady Bird Johnson Grove makes a loop, and we had made the loop and were on our way out - already having passed the section we were on - when Thalia spotted this gorgeous creature. We were both absolutely delighted. She kissed and kissed the banana slug. When I went to kiss it, I had it up against my lips but Thalia wanted my lips in a KISSING POSITION. Then she took the photo of my lips on the slug! What a fun day it was!
After showering the banana slug with kisses, Thalia set him (or her?) on her face and let the slug slither wherever it wanted to go, which happened to be on Thalia's eye.
As we were close to leaving, walking between 2 HUGE redwoods, Thalia said, "Mimi, LOOK UP!" This is what we saw: