Week Three

With my monk cloth in hand I headed to the craft room for Swedish weaving.  I am going to make a Christmas runner.  Trudy was going to sew my edges for me but Beverly had her machine and did mine.  Such a helpful teacher!  Every store seemed to be out weaving needles so Sharon sold me an extra packet she had!   I perused Beverly's pattern book, chose one and Jenn made me a copy.  As soon as I wash and dry my cloth I can start.  I feel like it is already a village project just getting me going.  Some of you may remember my first attempt that took me two winters to accomplish.  

When I came home we decided to make beef stew in our Instant Pot.  I floured and seasoned the beef cubes while Ted peeled potatoes.  Then I browned the meat in the pot on the browning setting. I poured in beef stock, celery, potato cubes and baby carrots plus onions and garlic.  I locked it and in 30 minutes we ate really good stew.  I put a couple rolls in the convection oven timed to be done when the stew was done.  Nice nutrious meal, little time, minimal clean up.  Afterwards we watched TV.

Eileen and I met up for yoga on Tuesday.  There is quite a crowd there now.  Ted went to organize the clay bird shoot and later in the afternoon we played Mah Jongg again.  It is feeling as hard as Bridge but you don't have a partner to get mad at you for bidding wrong!  I am learning something new every time.  

 

I tried to start my project but I found the directions unclear and add to that I am trying to go lengthwise versus their side to side and I went to Sharon's for a new pattern.  I have a row and a half done.  This will take a long time!

The Texas Expo was at the McAllen Convention Center and we spent a couple hours there on Wednesday morning.  I even had my photo taken with my two Minion friends.  Eileen won one of the first door prizes, a Sleep Number pillow!

We came home with so many bags, koozies, ads, coupons, pens, bottle openers, etc.!  I had to sort it all.  I have an apron, sunglasses, sewing kit, pens, visor clips to hold a pen, free eggs from HEB, samples of toothpaste, vitamins, antacids, granola bars, etc.  I threw a lot away, made a backpack up with all the cups, koozies, glasses, etc. for our casino night and stuck the coupons behind the visor in my car.  

We headed out about 4:45 for Longhorn Steakhouse to have dinner before going to see The Oakridge Boys in Mercedes TX.  It was a great show.  For being in their 70s these fellows can still sing and have a lot of energy.  They took no intermission but sang straight through for an hour and a half.  Of course they finished up with a rousing rendition of Elvira with the entire audience on their feet joining in.  Fun night.

Thursday I picked up Kathy and Beverly for breakfast.  We joined a dozen other women and had another fun time over coffee, omelettes and pancakes.  While driving home Ted called to say his brother Tom was told there was no Rogers Family Reunion group at the hotel in Lawrenceburg where I had just finalized the arrangements for the family reunion in July over the last three days!   I called when I got home and was told that we no longer had the 20 rooms they had promised.  I asked when they were going to tell me this and they said the manager would call me when she returned.  That was 3 hours ago and still no call.  In the meantime, I was scrambling.

Took me a good bit of the day but eventually found out the Jazz Festival is that weekend in Cincinnati.  There is a lot of unavailability or extremely inflated prices.  I am sure that is why our block of rooms at regular prices was tossed out.  But no one has ever called to discuss it with me!  I filed a complaint with Wyndam Corporate.  We have secured 9 rooms located conveniently at close to twice the normal price and 14 rooms at regular prices but 40 miles away.  We immediately reserved our RV spot.  I guess RVers aren't into jazz!

With that settled we invited Tom and Eileen over to play Mexican Train and have pizza.  Ted noticed a leak under the truck and we were hoping it was a hose.  We took it to the Ford dealer the next day.  Eileen and I put cardboard and two cups underneath, while the guys went to pick up the pizza, to keep the anti-freeze off the driveway.

Friday was Inauguration Day!  We joined a houseful of like minded folks and attended a party to watch the festivities.  There was absolute quiet for an entire hour and then loud whoops and cheers when it was over.  Dave made the most outstanding brisket!  After a light lunch we returned home.  Late in the afternoon the four of us met Dave and Karen at Willie's BBQ for dinner and then headed out to see The Redhead Express.  Over the last 10 years we have watched this group go from performing in the small clubhouse of Bentsen Palms to the crowd of close to 1,000 in the ballroom of Victoria Palms.  We took Meghan her dark chocolate, courtesy of our redhead, Morgan, who she met last summer in Pueblo CO and again this fall in Ann Arbor.  

Ted had taken our truck into Spikes Ford and $600 later, picked it up with a hose and another hose assembly fixed on Saturday morning.  There was a gun swap meet at our clubhouse he went to and then he, Tom and Niles went to the McAllen Convention Center to a gun show.  Surpringly nothing new showed up here!

After church we tried a new Mexican restaurant.  I estimate 75% of restaurants down here can be classified as such.  I perused TripAdvisor and Yelp before deciding to try El Patio.  The food we ordered was really good but the chicken fingers and burgers going by indicated we needed to come back a couple more times!  It is certainly a keeper!

From there we went to see John Sager.  He is a terrific singer, great entertainer and you just cannot not have a good time.  He has a lot of audience interaction and the audience Ioves it.  Bruce, Ted and I all got harassed a bit, but all in good fun.

The time is flying by.  We are hoping the folks that said they will visit in February are able to make it down.  If they all come, most of the month is filled!