winning

 Just in case someone is interested... we did  WIN !  We now have theater tickets, museum tickets, gift cards and best of all a gift card to our favorite restaurant in Independence .. Ophelia's ! 

There was one I would have really liked... a gondola boat ride on Kansas City's Brush Creek. Guess we'll just have to buy tickets!!

BTW... we have had at least 4 inches of rain from Friday night  till today!  Lots of thunder and lightening which made the cats jump ! We now have a "swimming hole" in our back yard!

tornado warning and Mad Hatter's ball

 When we left Blue Springs around 4.30 pm we had tornado warning/watching alerts. The sky was weird with two layers of clouds and lots of wind. Kind of scary in a way! When we got to Kansas the clouds were gone and things looked fine! Funny .. we had just driven 20 miles from BS to Kansas City.

The Mad hatter's Ball was over in Kansas... at an event space on the road around the Kansas Speedway. It was a very interesting building.. looked almost like totally glass. It was very busy.. people in Alice in Wonderland costumes... check in lines.. a bar... and lots of dining tables with flowers, candelabras, gold silverware etc. One could wander around and check out the auction items ( we had already bid online)... talk with table mates and so one. Dinner was served and very nice. Then the program. We checked out with out winning items by 8.30 ish and headed home.

We did not get any tornadoes etc in our neck of the woods but heard on TV that Nebraska and Iowa did...

bow ties

With my top hat ready to wear I have been working on bow ties...to be part of someone's costume. All part of "Alice in Wonderland". 

My teacher/daughter is fashioning red and white roses for her head... wearing a black dress over black leggings embellished with roses and a floral wrap.

The other daughter is going as the white rabbit... one of the large bow ties is for her.

Not sure what Bob and I will wear aside from my top hat...

We had thunder... lots of heavy rain and WIND ! Here's hoping tomorrow will be better...

Phoenix Family has set up a link where one can see the items for auction ( The Mad hatter's Ball is a fundraiser)... one can bid online though the items will not "close" until the  fundraiser... we have placed bids on quite a few items. here's hoping we win a few!!

Alice in Wonderland Ungala

Phoenix Family 's annual event is next Friday. This year's theme is "Alice in Wonderland".. We are all going ... of course.. Well not all.. Lili and her husband have to work.

Our teacher/daughter bought a black top hat as part of her costume. It didn't fit any in her house nor did it fit Bob... must be that big Groh head  that came from Bob's Father's Irish side!! Bit it did..does fit me! So I added the sales tag that Mad Hatter's hat has!!

My attempt at a selfie

Bob's picture..

We are looking forward to the event... auctions, drinks, dinner... and so on!

Hamfest

Bob got up at the crack of dawn to head off for a ham fest.... picking up a helper  ( our grandson) on the way . He had a tables' worth of ham gear he wanted to sell. It was being held in the Ararat Shrine building in KC.

He was back earlier than I expected.. sales were a little slow and both he and Dominic were bored. But he made enough $$$.

The house was quiet without him and Jack ( the older gray striped cat) hunted all over house for him. I worked on things for my next online bear show and took a nap in the recliner. I woke up from a dream where I was being sick... the result from hearing one of the cats being sick?? So I had a mess to clean up! Glad it wasn't mine!

Everyone.. cats and people ... are feeling a little off. Today 's schedule has just been out of wack!!

A ham fest is where people get together to buy and sell ham radio gear.. no piggies involved

Plans botched

We were all set to do one of our round-a-bout chores trip when we discovered one of the tires was way low with a nail in it!!

Bob went off to the Goodyear place and I went back inside! Goodyear told Bob the tires were old and that they could plug the one with the nail but he should really replace all of them. The car is more than 6 years old.

Tire plugged and new ones ordered ( more than $800). Off finally to Aldi for groceries...So we will be able to do"chores" until the new tires arrive and are put on on Tuesday .

Ceramics class

 Not the greatest picture is it? I am glazing my pieces from Monday's ceramics class. It's been fun ( two more sessions to go) and I am looking forward to seeing them glazed.

The weather has been great... until today.. warm and sunny. Today we had rain, lots of wind and tornado watches. The area near my teacher/ daughter's home lost it electricity...  the high school did too and sent the kids home. Evidently a tree fell on some wires requiring a bucket crane but the wind is so great that things were postponed.

 

Marvelous Day

 It was 85 F at we sat on our daughter's deck. Our other daughter and her son joined us for a "lug up the stairs".... bringing up the big gas grill from under the our daughter's new deck to it's new place!

The grill was heavy and it took a group to get it up the stairs.

Our grandson ( the 6'5" trombone player) also helped get a lawn mower into our car's trunk! he's a willing helper but glad to finish and head home!

Our daughter's dogs were glad to see all the people and enjoyed the 85 F sun!!

Nice to get home ... naps for both of us and a pizza ordered for a 6.15 pick up! No cooking!

Visit to Podiatrist

I did go back to the Podiatrist over the pain issue ... Bob went with me to add his voice as to what was going on. The visit went well... have a plan and alternative plans if the first one doesn't work. Feeling optimistic.

I had my bi-annual cardiologist visit yesterday. It went well .He set up an echo cardiogram for next week and labs for this morning. Everything was quiet at St, Mary's so I was in and out for the labs. Test results back super quick and the cardiologist's nurse called and made some changes to my meds! Except for the echo next week I am done for anther 6 months!

Went to the grocery store where the checkout person and the bagger and I talked about getting old and/or being old...all done in good humor!!

Weather may make it to the 80's F this weekend!! Do I believe it... maybe... but I hope they are right!!

Shirts for fat foreigners

 Lili ( our grand daughter) came over to bring back our suitcases which she had borrowed for her trip to Japan... and to tell us all about it!

One place she did visit  was a store called "shirts for fat foreigners" ! She did find a shirt there for her 2XL husband!

Nice to hear everything from plane rides to security checks to  Japan itself!!

She is settled back into her life - school ... work... her husband etc. While she was gone four employees in the kitchen left for various reasons and replacements were hard to find. One newbie from Venezuela on a student visa doesn't speak ANY English and the person assigned to train him by the restaurant manager doesn't speak any Spanish! So Lili found herself put between the two translating and of course things weren't getting done on her station ( she makes salads and other things) !

Eclipse watching....

 Bob and I organized..( not really ... took out deck cushions so we would be comfortable) a place to watch the eclipse. We had our special glasses leftover from the eclipse in 8/2017 and a time table ....start, peak and end!

It was warm enough and sunny enough - 71 F - that a hat was necessary and my sweater removed! I took a glass of iced tea too.

And we watched... commenting to each other on the changes....  At the peak 95% totality ... the shadows and light were different and it was a lot cooler! But not totally dark like in 2017. Lots of bugs flew around and the peepers  ( tiny frogs) started up!

Well.. all over. There won't be another here for 20 years at which point neither of us will be around to watch.

Tigger, the orange cat... meowed and meowed at the open kitchen window which  is on the deck. He managed to escape through the deck door once and went down the stairs. He came back up onto the deck and we worried about what he would do next so Bob snatched him and brought him back into the house. I have this feeling that escape attempts will be tried whenever we go out onto the deck..... we are afraid he will attempt to jump down from the railing which is a full flight of stairs to the ground.

When the grands were little we had a gate at the top of the stairs  but that's gone now. But I don't think it would deter Tigger

Update

 Life has had it's ups and downs this past week or so. Our elder daughter, Bob and myself treated ourselves to an Easter brunch at Ophelia's on the Independence Square... definitely a treat.

Lili is back from Japan ...she enjoyed it but found that the transplantation to Japan was a little hard. This is the "child" who was homesick every time she went to Girl Scout Camp!

A visit to the podiatrist left me in a world of pain afterwards which meant our trip to Branson for a ham radio convention was cancelled... Bob also had second thoughts about the 3.5 hour drive each way.

But the trip to the yarn store earlier gave

 me supplies to keep me occupied while I HURT!

 

My birthday ( 4/4/45) had been put off since we had planned to be in Branson... but Bob bought a cake and people dropped by anyway...  my teacher daughter stressed that this birthday I am a prime number...79 ! Teachers keep a multitude of factoids in their heads!!

Redbuds, cherries, crabapples, dogwoods, violets are in bloom nearby and my lilacs are covered with buds!!