I have a feature on my camera for taking pictures at night. I think it works fairly well. I was looking up into this prickly pear cactus tree.

Some of the guests at the party

Caught me with my eyes closed on my birthday

How I spent my birthday...At 8:30 a m I went for the first walk of the day and Butch went golfing. 9:30 I attended the monthly business meeting of the association where I presented the idea of a park directory with pictures.Following the meeting the Warblers practiced for the upcoming talent show. A quick lunch at home and then it was the crafters at 1:00 where we made cards.(picture later upon completion). Then at 3:00 another rush home to prepare a dish (Runza casserole) for a neighborhood potluck. After this we came home and watched the DVD 'Walk the Line". All in all a full and pleasant day.

My Birthday Rose- I enjoy it doubly by photographing it.

Good Gawd! It has been a week since I have posted to this blog. This is a closeup of my mosquito plant bloom. I was getting ready to repot it and of course it is blooming now so I assume I should wait till it is not blooming. Hmmm...should I?

Mosquito plant in Bloom

Shot a 39 for 9 holes today and that was with a 7 on hole one!

Freezing our buns in sunny south Texas! Current temp at 11.00 a m is 41 degrees. Boy am I glad we do not have company expecting to see the best of what we have to offer. It is remeniscent of days up north where the only pleasant thing to do was stay indoors and mess on the computer or stitch on an afghan. I plan to stay inside and do both!

A windy Valentines Day in sunny south Texas

Bill and Jo's offspring ...or two of their offspring came to sunny south Texas for a visit. Reason enough to throw a party

Arleen and Barb O'Rouke

Bill and son Mark

Marvin Smith and Jack Tallman at Fat Daddy's

Friends Jan Tallman,Judi Smith, and Margaret joined us at Fat Daddy's for a burger.

Butch and Blaze enjoy the view from the condo the Kelley's have rented for a week on Padre.

A colorful kite

Butch walks the beach. I saw a crab settle in and I pointed it out to Butch who nudged it with my shoe. It was not fond of being disturbed and tried to put the 'pinch' on him!

Marlene the kite watcher

Dan & Sara Kelley enjoying the kites on Padre

Getting the 35 squares all twisted up like a bucket of worms

Jerry Story looking very serious before his Tuesday morning dance.

Padre Gulls

Cracker anyone?

Bill & Maggie on Padre

Bikers on Padre

Surf Fishing

More New Orleans pics from Mickey

My longtime friend Mickey is in New Orleans yet helping with cleanup and here is a message from her.-Hi all!
Thought I would send some pictures of some of the lastest things going on.
I was out scouting neighborhoods and came across a puppy (6-8 weeks old)
with his head stuck in a potato chip bag. At first I thought it was cute
but felt sorry for him when he kept running into things. He was afraid of
me and hid between a old parked car and some plywood leaning against it. I
stuck the camera in there and snapped the picture then found a stick so I
could reach in there to get the bag off his head. I have also been running
neighborhoods where the contractors are picking up construction and
demolition debris and took a number of pictures. There is one house that
has a big X with a 13 and a zero. That means the water was 13 feet high and
there were no dead bodies found. There is one picture that is looking in
the garage and right out the back of the house. Most of the houses in this
neighborhood lost everything on the main and sometimes only level of the
house. There are lots of workmen with pickups, FEMA trailers, personal
campers and then out bobcats loading debris. It's a total disaster just
trying to drive down a street. I don't think I sent pictures before of the
grinder or the root ball. I stepped off this root ball at 39 feet. Any
questions, please email me.

The rootball

Maggie says,"Where is mine?"

When Wayne shows up Maggie empties her water dish and brings it to Wayne for a dash or two of beer. She knows whats in the cooler and she wants hers!

"Bring me your dish"

Square Dance

We finally made it to a square dance in the valley. 

Caller Larry Letsen

 

In Bloom

I sure hope our friends tune into the www.magnolianews.blogspot.com site as well as this one. I do seem to have a bit of trouble keeping them both supplied with fresh entries.
This flower was spotted on my morning trek in the park 

Supper time

 

Ad-Aware SE Personal - Software - Lavasoft

Ad-Aware SE Personal - Software - Lavasoft

Unfortunately we all need spyware these days. I like this one because it is easy to use, effective and free!

Bill & Shirley Franey

Today we went to the Split Rail RV park and visited with long time friends from Jefferson. Enjoyed an afternoon of bridge and a delicious home-cooked meal. 

At Garcia's in Progresso Mexico

Marlene, Bill and Butch 

In Mexico

Butch, Jo, and Barb 

Gas Prices - MSN Autos

Gas Prices - MSN Autos I have found this site to be the easiest one for checking gas prices, especially when we are on the move.

Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free online reference, research & homework help.

A library in our computer. I have this site marked in favorites.

Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free online reference, research & homework help.

Offenburger.com

Offenburger.com

I enjoy Chuck and Carla's website very much and thought you might as well. Iowan's and RAGBRAI fans are familiar with the Offenburgers and the rest of you can get acquainted.

Turkey for Two

Did you have a meal with friends and family on the holiday and miss all the turkey and dressing leftovers at your house? Or there are just the two of you and you do not want to cook a big ol' turkey for two people. I discovered an easy way to have it all. Grease the sides of your crockpot or use one of those nifty slow cooker liners ( I swear by the liners). Place a small package of dry stuffing mix in the bottom. Sprinkle with a 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Slice an onion and dice a celery stalk and layer on top of stuffing. Place a thawed Butterball 3 pound turkey roast (found in your grocers freezer) on top of celery and onion. Cook on low all day or high for 4-5 hours and you have the best of both worlds. A scrumptious turkey dinner for two with some for leftovers if you are moderate eaters.

Christmas Day with Barb & Butch

We started our day in the usual way with an English muffin and poached egg followed by our first walk of the day.
Then I made a Pecan-crusted Spinach and Artichoke casserole for my contribution to Christmas dinner. I like to make things I wouldn't make for the two of us. Also there were plenty of things there that Butch would and did eat without my casserole.
Right after dinner twelve of us decided to play shuffleboard. The sun was beating down on the court and I would have sworn it was ninty but when I checked it was only eighty. But it was a very still day...so after shuffleboard we went for a swim to cool off. That seemed to work rather well.
This was followed by a glass of wine at Bill and Jo's. Then off for our second walk of the day. It was starting to cool off nicely by then.
All in all it was a different but very nice Christmas day