Rio Grande Valley Quilt Show

We went on a trek yesterday to the outlets in Mercedes, the quilt show in Pharr and then to McAllen.

Blaine wanted to get some casual shoes so we went to the Clark's and Rockport stores at the Rio Grande Outlets. There are 140 shops in this mall, but we went to only about a dozen or so. And we bumped into some friends that are staying on South Padre Island - how amazing is that?

After that we went to the quilt show: Blaine stayed in the car and relaxed while I shopped and looked at all the quilts. I bought 3 kits and one pattern.

The pattern, High Tech Tucks, by Caryl Bryer Fallert looks fun. The kits are a floral one I saw last year, an African lady for the family room and a Texas stain glass.




There were lots of fabulous quilts, but this one stood out.

Camels and hippos and gorillas!

It's not often I get to see zebras, hippos, camels, and giraffes. But we saw all of them and more at the zoo in Brownsville today.


The gorillas were so funny; we watched them for about half an hour!


I wonder what they did with the animals during the hurricane. I wanted to find out but of course the workers we did see did not know.

Kitefest

Last week-end, we went to the Kite Festival on South Padre Island. There were so many kites and it was so cool to see 4 of them flying to music, moving in and out of each other. The team is called IQuad and 2 of the members are from B.C.! I also loved the scuba diver flying in the wind.

One of the photos shows the 'big' kites. In the background is an unfinished high rise. It is unfinished because it started sinking and so it sits waiting for someone to come up with a solution!

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!!