Beads

The little girls are sure gonna love what I found this morning at the giant St. Nick's garage sale . Someone dropped off a bunch of stuff after all the workers had gone home last night and they hadn't even seen it yet when I arrived, so I happened upon a shopping bag filled with a gazillion beads sitting smack in the middle of the pile. The gal said "$2.00" and I said "$5.00?" We agreed and I hauled the tiny treasures home and can hardlly wait til the girls come over to play again. Are they ever gonna think they died and went to heaven !!!

Sisters

We have been in the grips of a heatwave and my granddaughters spent part of the afternoon yesterday at my house trying to keep cool with a dish of vanilla and sherbet ice cream. Kinda like a dixiecup without the cup. I don't have A/C like they do, and entertained the idea of taking them back to their place while mama was out doing a random act of kindness, but we managed to stick it out here until she rescued them. To wile away the morning, we took a walk over to St. Nicks where folks were busy sorting through acres of used clothing and furniture, getting ready for the big sale Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My heart goes out to all those trying to sort through all that stuff because the temp. is 97.2 and rising. If it stays this hot through the weekend, they wont have to use the BBQ to cook the hotdogs that they sell...just slap them on the sidewalk and they'll be ready in no time. All I can say is....drink lots of water !!!!!

Well Done or Medium Rare?

I-5 in Tacoma was covered with animal body parts yesterday afternoon in close to 100 degree sun when a rendering truck overturned. Traffic was backed up in the northbound lanes for hours.

The state DOT said the department responded to the scene with Incident Response crews, maintenance crews, a loader, a dump truck and two sanding trucks to clean up the mess.
"Crews reported the smell was horrendous."

Here is a comment in the paper by a driver who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

samr1984 @ 03:51 - Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
I had the misfortune to be driving along that stretch of highway about a minute behind the truck around 6:05-6:10ish. As well as the misfortune to be in the far left lane, meaning there was no way for me to avoid driving... through it. Yes, there is literally cow intestine stuck on my Camry at this very moment, which I am going to have power-blasted off tomorrow bright and early. On the plus side, I managed to swerve around the rib cage and the various large internal organs strewn about that the above picture just doesn't capture the full impact of. All told, probably one of the most disgusting experiences of my life.

Jacob Growing

Can you tell I am a silly grandma. Jacob is growing like a weed.

Wristwatch Phone

Soon you'll be able to strap your phone to your wrist. When I was a kid, I dreamed of the day I could strap a radio to my wrist, but with the huge wall crank phones, I not once entertained the idea of doing that with a phone. I do wonder though, if it wont be a little awkward holding your wrist up to your ear. Course those folks are a whole lot smarter than I, so probably have a super duper speaker with great volume control for a built in MP3 player. This is gonna be fun .

Summer Art Festival

Peninsula Art League's 25th annual Summer Art Festival will be this weekend, July 18th and 19th, in downtown Gig Harbor on Kimbal Drive. 130 artists and craftspeople from throughout the northwest will participate featuring paintings, jewelry, ceramics, glasswork, metalwork, clothing, basketry, mixed media work, toys and more, more more!

Congratulations go to Andrea Fernandez Gonzalez, this year's poster artist. Andrea is an exchange student from Barcelona, Spain, attending twelfth grade at Peninsula High School.

Lunch At Judy's

Lunch yesterday was with a group of gals who have been friends for years and was at one of my favorite homes. Judy's place sits on a steep bank above Colvos Passage and across from Vashon Island to the east. To the north she sees the ferries that run from Southworth to Vashon and to the south not so much, other than another beautiful home with an even better view and is for sale. In my next life I will buy it and sit on my deck, morning coffee in hand and watch the sun rise :o)

USS John C Stennis

The USS John C Stennis arrived home in Bremerton a couple mornings ago and we were lucky enough to enjoy a few moments with one of the sailors off the ship at our weekly Friday morning coffee. A group of us gals meet at 10:30 every Friday morning at Harvester Restaurant which we have been doing for many years. We have a front row seat to all who come and go and that particular morning we spotted a young sailor and his family headed toward the cash register. Our brains went click click click and we remembered we'd heard on the news the USS John C Stennis had arrived that morning after 6 months at sea. So, of course miss nosey me, I struck up a conversation and yes, he had just come home. We all welcomed him, he high fived us all, and when Kirby, the owner saw all the commotion, he, when handed the bill and the credit card, handed the card back and said breakfast was on him. That is probably why the place is packed most of the time....they know how to run a business.
Growing up with a dad who was a Captain in the Merchant Marine, my sisters and I knew what it was like to not have dad at home as often as we would have liked and my heart went out to the young family knowing how very happy they were that day.

The Little House

This little house in Ballard reminds me of the book that was my ultimate favorite growing up. It was called The Little House and was written by Virginia Lee Burton in 1942.
A woman named Edith lived in the little house in the picture and was offered a million dollars for it, but refused the offer because she loved her home and wasn't about to live anywhere else. The story about Edith is in the Seattle Times this morning and it's worth a read.

Porch Flowers

I couldn't help snapping this picture of my son's front porch and all the beautiful flowers. The house is very very old and used to belong to my aunt and uncle. It started out as one of three tiny, one room cabins along the bay. Through the years they added on as they needed room for their family of 6 and it ended up what it is today. My uncle did much of the work and even used some material that he found on the beach for support etc. One of the other cabins was used as his shop and the other was for storage. They are both gone now along with the pump house that stood over the well. I have such fond memories of the wonderful homemade rootbeer that "aunty Jean" made and stored inside the wellhouse to keep cold. It was an incredible place to grow up.

Gig Harbor Royalty

When Gig Harbor turned 100, Pauline Babich/Lovrovich reigned as queen over the festivities which took place on July 4th, 5th and 6th. She was 16 at the time and is seated second from the right. She will be 79 in October, so you know how long ago it was taken.

I found the newspaper clipping in an old scrapbook done by Bernice Crosby and the scrapbook was discovered in an antique shop not long ago. Bernice carefully taped articles about people she knew from Gig Harbor starting in the 1930's on up to 70's and don't you know, I found my wedding picture along with many others.

The new owner of the book is going to donate that piece of history to the Gig Harbor museum where it will surely be enjoyed by many others.

Happy 233th Birthday, America.

Today is Independence Day. Oh how lucky we are to live in this wonderful country.

God bless those who served and are now serving and may they all return home safely.

And, thank you sis for renting the piccolo for me a couple years ago so I could play Stars and Stripes Forever....what a kick that was. One more thing I crossed off my bucket list :o)

Letter John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail ,in 1776....

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
GoDaddy.com

Two sisters and a cousin

These two little sisters are really smitten with their new cousin, Jacob.

It was girls night out at my house last night and we all had a grand time.

Sleepy Jacob