Image courtesy of Deposit Photos.

FIRST--If you can help the bee hives / farms in Florida and North Carolina devastated by the hurricane, please do so:

https://greatergood.org/help-save-bees-with-project-peril

GreaterGood.org is collecting money to send some sort of pollen substitute.

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Since I postponed the previous post by a week, I thought I'd get back on track by posting this week. Not that it matters, really, lol. I just have stuff to share, so I decided to surprise y'all with back-to-back Monday postings.

Last post, I said I was going to bake and bake I did. I didn't make pup-cakes as I had been thinking I might. Instead, I tried a lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe that's on the back of my lemon extract box. I also wanted to experiment with it a little and make it pumpkin flavored rather than lemon.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Homemade Icing

And guess what? Both versions were tasty. I think the pumpkin version needs a bit more pumpkin flavor but otherwise, the experiment worked. I also saw a mini bundt pan while I was in Walmart, so I ended up impulse buying it. Now I need to test how much batter to put in it so that the end result isn't some over-puffed up bit of baked goods. A quick Google search said 2/3 to 3/4. Good to know for next time.

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I've been tackling some backyard tasks in an effort to A) get the backyard tidied up and B) stay as active as possible each day. One of the projects I started last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) was clearing out the pile of dead branches and limbs that we've just piled up anytime something fell. I got tired of looking at the untidiness of it and decided to get started.

The brush, limbs, and chunks of old tree trunks came out to where the green stuff curves. There's still more to go as you can see, but for several hours worth of effort, it looks waaaaay better than it did.

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In between bouts of the above yard work two Saturdays ago, DD and I went shopping and, along with some cool Christmas yard decorations--images to come in December, I bought a carving pumpkin. I've opted for a Peanuts theme. Pictures of my Snoopy-o-lantern also to come!

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And something really cool happened--I recently discovered that an audio book narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch that I'd downloaded from YouTube and converted for my iPod many moons ago and whose files I can no longer find is available from Audible! I hadn't thought to search for it but I just so happened to hear it as a preview after the end of some other book I listened to. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear it and also to be able to buy/download that sucker into a safe place (that being my Audible account) where I'll have it for years to come!!

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And last, but not least--

I finally found and tried the new Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I wasn't impressed.

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Well have a super week. Catch you in two!

I'm so delighted with cooler temps and looking forward to sleeping with the windows open.

I might even have to break these out and make some pumpkin cake.

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I've also started feeling crafty/creative again. I've finished two cross stitch projects and am working on another. I've even been working on a pair of terracotta pots. Mom was awesome at this stuff (tole painting); me--not so much, but I like doing it.

I have one pot done but the other pot design presented me with a bit of a challenge. But DD will be coming to the rescue.

The Pride pot still needs a coat of varnish or something. And then I need to plant something in it.

Here are my finished cross stitch projects...

Here is the finished pot...

The other pot is going to have a bees and gnomes theme to it -- stay tuned.

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In other news, our guest room finally, really looks like a guest room. We'd had a big wood-framed futon bunk bed thing in there for years. It was Sonshine's, and though he's been gone for a decade (IS THAT REALLY TRUE?!?!), we've just never taken it down. Not even for Mom, bless her heart. But after she passed, we discussed whether DH wanted to move back into that room or stay in the garage. DH opted to stay in the garage for the additional space. And it's taken another two years to disassemble that bed, lol.

But here's the room now. It still needs a few more things on the walls, but that's just a matter of deciding what I want. Although one of those things will be the cross stitch sampler that I'm working on.

Rascal says hello and welcome!

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I have also finally started walking the dog. Not the dog I meant to walk for all those years -- sorry, Reyna! But little Rascal and I have been walking for a month or so. I needed to up my activity level and he definitely needed the exercise and the getting out of the house and I'm hoping it'll keep his little nails somewhat in check. He does need a trim though.

And then DD decided she'd start walking with us. So that was a nice surprise, and it's doing us both good -- we've both felt our pants fit just a tad more comfortably.

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And apologies for this not posting last Monday. I forgot to add images and I just wasn't ready for the post to go live on time. So I opted to hold onto it for another week.

Have a super October!! It's fall y'all! And I'm excited.

Sweet baby angel Caleb, the newest member of the family.

I traveled to Omaha this Labor Day -- as I have done every Labor Day for the last decade or so -- and met that sweet little boy pictured above. He's just turned three months old and is a sweet natured baby.

I also saw my oldest daughter who drove from Colorado, so that was a nice treat as well.

But let me tell you, my family is a hot mess. Mostly lovable, but such a hot mess.

I also went to visit my dad's grave and left my traditional offering of pinwheels. There was a lovely breeze, and I did get video, but as I'm technologically challenged sometimes, I messed things up and now can't get the video to play. (Bah!) But here's a picture:

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And I've finally, finally gotten to work on the revamp of Series One, Book One!

Yeah, remember that?

I've struggled to make progress over the last four months because there were more changes/fixes than I expected there to be. But I kept reading / reviewing and making notes. Finally figured out some of the things that were holding me back and now I'm able to move forward. Whew!

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Oh, guess what? I'm no longer an official member of my writers group board of directors! Someone else ran for Treasurer. I still manage the website, but I'm gonna work on documentation so that someone else can take on that job at some point. Maybe even next year. :0)

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I've also made some progress on those clay pots I mentioned wanting to paint. Here's the first one:

And, yes, I obviously went with a Pride theme. :0) The other one is going to have gnomes, but I'm still searching for a simple pattern that I like and can pull off with my rudimentary painting skills.

Once I plant something in this pot, I'll share the completely finished project. And once I finish the other, I will of course share that as well.

Take care and see you in two weeks.

 HAPPY LABOR DAY

Hope you have enjoyed / are enjoying the three-day rest from your labors, whatever they may be.

I'll be back next Monday with a regular post.

Take care.

Image Courtesy of Austin Pride.

It's official! I've attended my very first Pride Parade and I had a blast. The whole weekend was so much fun.

I met one of my oldest and dearest friends down in Austin and not only did we attend the Pride Parade, but we did some whirlwind sightseeing as well.

Weekend started Friday (08/09) with dinner at a local sub shop. Shout out to ThunderCloud Subs and their delicious sandwiches. I had the Lady Bird sub--chicken salad with avocado, bacon, and jalapenos--and it was fantastic. Highly recommend.

After dinner, Donny and I scoped out the launch point of our bat watching cruise, which we located easily, but then we had a couple of hours to kill. Rather than go back to the hotel, we walked along the Ann and Roy Butler Trail on the south side of Lady Bird Lake aka the Colorado River aka Town Lake, stopping often so I could give the knees and the hips a breather.

The bat watching cruise itself was also fantastic. Another shout out-- this time to Lone Star Riverboat for bat watching and comedy show. Captain DJ piloted the boat and Captain Mike was our tour guide. He was a font of knowledge of both the skyline and the bats and was very funny. Donny and I had a fantastic time and we got one of the best bat excursions of the season, according to Mike.

Not only did we see bats, but we also got a lightning show as weather sort of circled the city as the cruise was coming to an end. Overall, it was a fantastic evening.

Donny and me!

Here's one column of bats taking off...

We saw five or six of these curly-cuing columns at least.

And all of the bats are female!!

And here's the video:

They eat mosquitoes and moths and tend to fly downriver to the farms to dine. But they do keep the mosquito population along the river in check.

Saturday dawned sunny and warm...it's August in Texas, so duh. :0) We found a Target to buy bottled water for Saturday night's parade along with a few other things I decided I needed.

Then we did some sight-seeing. First we visited the LBJ Presidential Library and that was suuuuper interesting. I wasn't sure how to feel bout the man, but I think I like him and I certainly appreciate all the things he did to facilitate Civil Rights.

After lunch, we then went to see the Neill-Cochran House Museum. The house was lovely. Smaller than I expected from a footprint perspective, but the rooms were large with high ceilings as well as  airy with very tall windows and wide doors. Aside from having to dust the high corners, living in a house like that would be amazing. Every window had a pair of dark green shutters. Both floors had four rooms, two on each side with the wide foyer / hall / staircase in the middle.

The upstairs hall was big enough to be used as shared living space and there was a large door or set of doors that opened onto a balcony. That must have been a lovely spot to sit in the shade of both the overhanging roof and the tall trees.

The real draw of this place was the authentic slave quarters on the property. It, too, was a two story structure although not as tall as the house. It was maybe twelve feet square and had a square hole in the ceiling of the first floor with a rudimentary ladder for those sleeping on the second floor. * I * would have struggled to shimmy through that hole. In one corner downstairs there was a -- I don't even know what to call it -- it was like a small brick oven at the base for the fire and over that was a large metal basin for heating water. it had a chimney to carry the smoke up and out and provide no doubt limited heat to the upstairs.

Very eye opening and sad, quite frankly. Our nation was built on the backs of the slaves we dragged from their homeland, and we treated them like shit.

*sigh*

So after that we went back to the hotel and chatted for a bit before attempting naps in advance of the parade. I slept a bit, but not as much as I'd hoped.

By a quirk of luck, our hotel was situated at the launching off point of the parade. It was on a corner and one of the streets was where the floats and other parade procession organizations.

We walked two blocks west and took our spot at the base of the Texas Capitol building.

But the parade itself was amazing. I had so much fun seeing all the floats and organizations supporting the LGBTQ community. My only beef was that I felt it lasted a little too long...probably an hour and half. At the hour mark I was ready to be done. Maybe that's just me. Maybe was because I was standing the whole time.

My favorite group was a group of Middle-Eastern men--I have no idea what organization or business they were representing--but it was so very cool to see these men who'd have dealt with a fate I hate to imagine in their home country--dancing and singing and celebrating this part of themselves without fear of judgement or reprisal.

Anyway, a fun time was had by all. Donny and I will do this again--thinking about Denver next June.

Here are a few pictures:

Catch you in two weeks!