Class of 1970

I graduated from high school in a small mountain mining town. Every summer the town celebrates its heritage with Old Timers/Miners Days. Class reunions are often held at the same time. This weekend was my 40th (gasp - is that possible) reunion.
So Kaiden and his parents whose graduating classes were larger than our entire school K-12 and Tito who grew up in LA staked out their spot to watch a parade

led by Grand Marshalls in a bulldozer;

and children and dogs walked;

classic cars lined up;

fire trucks joined in ;

with a rusty truck whose owner joked he only had 11 more payments;

and the best of all - the flat bed carrying the classes of 1960 and 1970 (the seats are from our school's auditorium).

Then everyone headed to the park for lunch -hamburgers and hot dogs - you bring a side dish and catching up with your classmates and others.

Twelve of us attended (2 are not pictured). It was so much fun!

Classical Music

I love classical music. I love to go to the symphony. I love other kinds of music as well, but not concerts. They are too crowded and too expensive. I don't ask Tito to go the symphony anymore. Not that he wouldn't go, because he would. It is because I wouldn't go to the Santana concert with him, so he went with Jose. And I wouldn't go to James Brown with him, so he went with Jose. I try to be fair in everything I do, so I stopped going to the symphony. Except, in the summer when the concerts are in the park and they are free. I pack a picnic supper and grab chairs and blankets and off we go. We arranged to meet Carrie and Dave last night.
We also grabbed our umbrella and hoped the rain would stop.

The stage was covered in plastic and they kept sweeping the water off, but the clouds started to clear

and the sun came out and everyone sat back to enjoy the music.

It was a wonderful concert - opera's greatest melodies - including The Barber of Seville, Carmen and the Can Can. I can hardly wait until next summer.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

It was hot here this weekend. Yesterday we broke a record at 102 and we turned our A/C on for the first time this year. Haven't heard what it was today, but this picture was taken at about 1:00 this afternoon. But of course, like they say here, it is a dry heat!

My dear friend Lynda was here from CA and we were able to get together for dinner on Saturday night. We have been friends since we were in our early 20's. We do not get to see each other often enough and don't talk often enough, but we can sit down and pick up the conversation like yesterday was the last time we saw each other. We shared a bottle of wine, dinner and had a good talk. Love you Lynda (Jim too!).

I picked over 10 pounds of rhubarb yesterday. Today I made a batch of jam. I have never made rhubarb jam before but it looks like my mother's. I still have over half of the rhubarb left. I need to cut it up and freeze it, but I ran out of time....

I had to go to the airport to pick this little guy up (his Mommy and Daddy too). They came in late this afternoon after a week in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. We sure missed them. Sounds like they had some great adventures. Welcome home!

Girl's Bike

I've had the bike for a couple of years. The basket was my mother's day gift from Tito. I just got the flowers put on.

Clever

Have you seen these? Pretty clever little gadget - when it is knocked over or dropped on the floor the cereal doesn't dump everywhere.

But not to be outdone - Kaiden figured out quickly you can hold the side down and shake it and cereal flies everywhere! Pretty clever little boy!

Vacation

He's in New Hampshire on vacation and we miss him! (Thank goodness for e-mailed pictures!)

Exercise Ball

Tito has one of those large exercise balls to use in balance exercises. Kaiden saw him doing his exercises one day and later that night....
he tried it with his little ball

and got pretty good at it. He also figured out how to back the ball up against something and sit on it - just like Tito.