Dolphins from the deck

When we were in Maui, I loved to watch the whales. And here in Texas, we often site dolphins in the Intercoastal Waterway. Today, there were 4 of them swimming by. I wasn't able to get a clear picture, but I did get a photo of one of the dolphins surfacing. I circled it in the photo; in the background there is a pelican!

Crafty Ladies

Crafty Ladies get together here Thursday mornings. My original thought was a bunch of old ladies sitting around knitting. Quite the contrary!

Some do beautiful beadwork, some work on Monk's cloths, some crochet, some work on patchwork jackets and I must say the age range is from mid 40's to 80's.

I always wanted to learn to crochet those neat cotton dishcloths that Barb our housesitter leaves for me. And I found a great teacher.

My next project, after I find another jean jacket, is to learn to knit a ribbon collar. Isn't this neat?

Good sport

Blaine and I were both proud when he ran the Port Isabel Causeway 10K Run in under an hour, shaving over 10 minutes off his last 10K run time!!!

The height of the bridge worried him, but all around him people were huffing and puffing and walking, but not him. He ran the whole way. He wrote his Manitoba Marathon buddy, Marie-Anne, that after the Causeway bridge, the Bishop Grandin bridge should be nothing!

Since I was not in the race, I couldn't take a picture of Blaine on the highest part of the bridge, but the run's photographer has one near the top. See it at:

http://www.riobravogallery.com/picc-run-walk/2009-run-walk/content/run_walk20090110_53_large.html

And then to top off his sporting activities over the last few weeks, he had another hole in one. His favorite part of vacation is golfing almost everyday with his friend, Michel.

Fancy meeting you here!

When we first arrived, there were so many mosquitos it reminded me of a Manitoba summer. And of course, the ones down here love me just as much as the ones back home.

I was bitten many times and when I itch, I scratch and scratch and scratch. And they get infected.

Along with the mosquito bites, I got sand fleas and some other mysterious bites. All told, I have over 40 bites from my knees down. I was up several nights, scratching and making it worse. I thought it might be fleas, as the carpet here is dirty and perhaps there was a dog. So I went out and bought some flea spray to add to the collection of remedies, creams, itch relief (none that work).

Blaine then reminded me that neither he nor Benson, the dog, are scratching.

So off I go back to Walmart, the only department store in town, to return the unopened flea spray.

I am standing in line and there at the counter waiting for the clerk to check something is none other than an old colleague from the airline and his wife. Seems that Barry and Marilyn have a place about an hour from here, but were over on the island meeting friends. They also know Rose and Wayne. What a great coincidence to be in that returns line at the same time! How cool is that!!

Christmas in Texas

I know, I know, I should be posting more. Somehow the days just go by too quick and/or I don't want to sit inside and type.

I must admit, I missed the white stuff just a little bit on Christmas. Without decorations in our house here, it really didn't seem like Christmas.

It was in the 80's and 6 of us went golfing then later that day we all got together for Christmas dinner...barbecued filets and golf shrimp.

We bought a bag of shrimp right from the fisherman for $30 for a huge bag. There is such a difference in the taste compared to the stuff we get at home that is from China or Thailand. (Even the shrimp from Gimli Fish is from overseas!!). Yummy.

We played cards, drank, laughed and had a great time.

Earlier that morning, I took a picture of Blaine (topless) walking Benson and sent it off to his brother and his wife (Barry and Lois). Later that evening, we received an email from them, with the subject 'Oh Yeah!'. Lois had taken a picture of Barry, in shorts and sandals, outside their snowy front door landing!! That was too funny!!

Enjoying the

I finally feel llike we are on vacation! We were lucky we left on Friday instead of Saturday as planned. The idea was to avoid the shoppers going through customs to Grand Forks. But as it turned out, we avoided the blizzard conditions which in fact closed down some roads.

We got pulled over at customs again this year. But they just checked the cooler and the dog food and let us go. We had done our research and found that dog food with lamb is not allowed. Benson normally eats the expensive lamb and brown rice type, but we switched to chicken in the weeks before we left. I had the bag and the customs officer read every ingredient. We also left the carrots and bars, etc in their original unopened bags, so it was clear they were from Canada or the US.

The roads were clear all the way down. We did have 45 mph winds the second day and our packed little car was moving around quite a bit. But we found great motels (La Quinta) that allow dogs free of charge and have a great breakfast bar. Some motels charge $75 for a pet; most charge around $10 extra with a $200 damage deposit. Benson travelled very well. We always stop anyway every few hours to fill up, relieve ourselves and walk around, so Benson just tagged along. He slept and looked out the window the rest of the time.

We arrived Sunday afternoon. It's been warm except for a cold front that came in earlier in the week; the temperature had dropped 30 degrees in one hour.

It's 8:30 in the morning as I write this and the temperature is already 70. We are golfing at 11:30. I've only been doing 9 holes, whereas Blaine can play 36! It's only a par 3 golf course, so it is perfect for me. Oh, and the cost...$337 for both of us for the 3 months...even better.
Barb

It's all about Nini!

Anita and I have been good friends since we were 18, when we worked in the same office building. When I set out to make her a quilt a few years back, I had no idea what to make. I knew it had to be very unique to match her personality.

I thought about making a quilt all about her! I made a list of things she did, things she loved, and things we shared. My idea was to find fabrics to match the list and somehow put them into a quilt.




The fabric search was fun, as you can not walk into to a fabric store and just pull fabric with cellphones, a drink with a straw, museums, a newspaper, shopping bags, etc off the shelves. There are 24 different Anita blocks, 6 solids on the block borders, the background and the backing, making 32 fabrics in total and probably 20 fabric shops, including online ones.

About 4 months ago, I found the perfect pattern online; the pattern wasn't available yet, but I drafted it out and this is my interpretation.

Needless to say, I love the way it turned out. And the best part is, so did she!