Livin' is easy

 Last night at trivia we came in second place again. That is the fourth win in a row for us.  It was another momentous night at trivia in more ways than one.  Gary went with us of course and he was a big help.  One of the questions Gary knew was a Madonna song that had the same name as a magazine for a title.  The answer was Vogue.  We old folk would never have gotten that.
 Another oddity on the timeline, and you trivia people would know what that is about, they have used the same year for four weeks in a row!  and I do believe our team is the only one that realizes that.  For some reason, the year used for the timeline question the week before seems to stick in my head.  So when I hear what the answer is and it is the same year as last week, I am puzzled by this!  I want to jump up and say don't you people realize this is the same year as the last 3?

There is a program or app, I'm having fun with right at the moment. It is a voice recognition program that allows me to speak instead of type and it's supposed to speed up communications.  There's a learning curve and so far this is not at all as fast as I could type it. I do see an advantage in having this so I'm going to keep at it for a while.  The first flaw that becomes apparent to me is punctuation and changing a word or two.  Also, the program itself making mistakes such as fly for flaw and miss steaks for mistakes.   I had to type that entire last sentence. Oh well,  it is always great to learn new things.
If you want to play around with it go here. https://dictation.io/speech As far as I can tell it is free. Do not fall for the ad they place right beside it. The ad has nothing to do with the program. There is nothing to download. You use it straight from the website.

Dictation (https://dictation.io/speech)
We were pretty impressed when we learned about this website. Enable the microphone on your computer and speak! The website transcribes everything you say, so you can then copy/paste it into whatever! Instead of typing a long email, just speak it!

The guys are out golfing again.  In my mind, they have it backward. Get the work done and then play! We must just see things differently,  ya' think?

From yesterdays ride. Today was a walking day.

Gary's checking to see if the corn is up. Taken at Winkleman's switch.

A visit from a dove this morning.

So far behind!

I would be on the bike trail or going for a walk or daydreaming while doing yard work and say to myself I need to remember to put that on the blog or in other words tell all my best friends because by now the only ones "tuning" into the blog are my best friends. I had surgery on my unicorn horn and it is greatly diminished and healing beautifully. And now I have developed another area near my left earlobe that will be taken care of this coming Friday. I do not think it is cancerous but then we never want to think that now, do we? Now we move on to Butch. He had a couple of spots biopsied and one is cancerous and the other is hypertrophic meaning it is close enough to remove too. He will be having that done on June 8th, the day before his birthday.

Gary brought his trailer up from Missouri to clean it up and get it ready for summer fun with Elise and Leo and whoever else wants to join them. We are both having fun with Gary. He either walks with me or we bike the trail and then he comes back and golfs with Butch. And tonight we will be joining up with Team McDugan for trivia as usual. Tonight one team member will be a math teacher.

Last Sunday, Mother's day, My sister Theresa and my niece, Karla and my grandnephew, Devon came to spend the day with me and we had a great time reminiscing about our mother and sister, who was Karla's mother, Jayne. Devon got quite an earful listening to all the stories. Most of them are HI-larious as we are a very strange and funny family.

Butch had the flu that day. So he kept his distance. Thank goodness he is back to normal.

Pictures:
Woodpecker

Grosbeck

Devon, on the left, is first chair trumpet

BlueJay

Projects

I wanted a trumpet vine and could not find one so I settled for a Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle. And we planted it on the east end of the clothesline. I did this a few days before Mothers day wouldn't you now. So now I also have a trumpet vine!  I have accommodated both in a very fine manner and will hopefully have hummingbirds both north and south. On the south side, we repurposed some wrought iron porch railing and posts we saved from demo during the renovation. I love the way it turned out. The trumpet vine is planted inside the square created by the posts. It will be well supported!!

Newly planted Trumpet vine we planted inside the square structure Butch put together with the wrought iron posts

Sculpture by Jason Brooker

Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle vine

Fan away mosquitoes

Fan away mosquitoes
Daniel Pankiewicz adds new ammunition to the war on mosquitoes. Daniel says he spotted information in the New York Times that suggests you ditch the DEET and just turn on a fan. 
Not only does the breeze make it hard for the mosquito to land and start a drilling operation,
 it also minimizes the concentration of carbon dioxide in your area – a “calling card” 
for the nasty little insects.

2-Day Mississippi Riverboat Cruise

Butch and I are interested in doing this trip. Anyone want to join us?
We want to go on the 2-day trip from LeClair Iowa to Dubuque Iowa. Let me know as soon as possible if you have an interest.

https://riverboattwilight.starboardsuite.com/choose-date

I do not have a group code as yet but would be willing to get one if there is enough interest. We plan to go either way. You talk about a photo op!!! Could not beat it with a stick!
If you are interested in going, email me with a variety of dates that would work for you.