My daughter sold her home in Emmett and she will be moving to within 10 mins. of where I live. YEA! Of course she has to find and purchase her home but it will happen...she might even have to live with me for awhile until everything gets settled...YEA! I know it will now be hard on daddy because she is his transportation but we will work it out...Also means Phils parents are the ones' that have to travel but ole well Rick...Amanda and I will be close...YEA!

Waiting....Waiting...Waiting

Seattle "Seafare parade" was on the 25th and our company was the main sponsor this year.....that said Five of us, from Boise, volunteered to assist with the parade, we thought we will be given something small to do, we will do it, and off we go to play. Well.....it kinda worked like that//NOT.

Patty, Jan, RoseMary, and myself are banner carriers Victoria is in charge of the Latin Culture booth.....OK we're in so why not. So here is our story.

At the Boise Airport no one is there to check bags so we end up assisting the passengers with the Kios while we all wait for an agent. In Seattle we arrive before 8am, grab our ride to the Corp. office and wait outside the door because it isn't open and no one is there to let us in. We are finally inside but still no one to assist us....however there is a lady sitting at a desk who doesn't know how to turn the lights on. Finally the front desk lady arrives and gets the lights and us taken care of...so now we are standing again outside the office waiting for transportation back to the airport, so we can get to the light rail. Once back at the airport catching the bus to the rail was a piece of cake..We are off and running...but wait at the light rail they only have one ticket station running and many people so once again we are waiting. On the train( which is marvelous) we make good time to Westlake where The Red Lion is just a block away, we are doing good Seattle here we come...After we stand around and wait for the bell captain to come back so he can take our bags. Ok the waiting is over for the moment..We're Off To See The City...The Wonderful City Of Seattle. Seattle is a city filled with smells, sounds, people, and sights to delight the pallet. But this has to wait because one of us has to go to the bathroom so we are on the hunt....so it is time for breakfast, we get our seats and wait to be served a scrumptious meal. Finally we are able to walk the Market and take in the sights and go down to the wharf when we see Jelly Fish in the sound...big pulsing Jelly Fish. I have been to Seattle many time and have never seen any signs of life in the sound so this was excellent. Next we had to ride the Carousal and by than it was time to get checked into our room. We caught about an hour of sleep since we all had gotten off work at 11pm and caught the 6ish flight out and it was too early for Happy Hour which was from 4:30 to 6:30 at our hotel. We get up, get ready, go to the terrace, get a seat and wait for service...finally our waiter comes and takes our orders so we can wait and wait and wait for that non existing order. The hostess finally checks on us and is appalled that we haven't had service so she almost gets us taken care of. We finally snag Chad who gets our orders and tells us about this wonderful little Irish Pub named Fabo. Thank God the spot was great the company even better so we did ok, especially after the goodies arrived. Jan is arriving so we head back down to decide what we are going to do with the night. We decide to check out the Irish Pub....bad choice...the food is ok but the music was nasty..It is very late so we head back and call it a morning. Day one is complete.

Day two starts with a phone call from Victoria who is bubbly and vibrant and we are still in bed and all grouchy..it is like 8:30 and she had just arrived from Boise and had to get to the booth. We finally get up and around and Jan introduces us to this wonderful "Crumpet and Tea" shop. Anyone know what a Crumpet is? Delightful place and than we are off to stroll the market and spend some money on something other than food and drinks. What am I saying of course we bought food...cheese...fruit...bread and than off to the park for a picnic and people watching. Back we go to the hotel to get dressed and check in for the parade. We ride the monorail to the Seattle Center where we check in and hang out for HOURS...we walk around check out the exhibits, eat ice cream, and wait...wait..wait...Finally it is time for us to move out...We are the main banner in front of the balloon and the flight attendants. We had a blast waiving at the crowds, high fiveing the kids and my BEST moment of the weekend being hugged by a little kid. I had high fives all the kids up to this one ...who was bald and sick looking and he reached up and gave me a hug and I hugged back. It was a special moment in time. Walking the parade was a SCORE for us and a big moment in our lives ...we are tired ...hot... stinky.. dehydrated.. blustered..gimped up..and ready to do it all over again. The city of Seattle LOVES Alaska Airlines and it showed, thousands turned out and at no spot along the 2.5 miles did they lack for people. We finished at 9:30 and got back to our room at around 10 and the parade was still going, it began at 7:30pm. Seattle had a great parade.....
We are ready for showers, food, and cold cold drinks before we head to bed, because our flight leaves at 6:30 and again it is very late. I arrive home at about 10am go directly to bed wake up to watch the news 10pm, go back to sleep, wake up at 1ish and stay up until 3 where I go back to sleep and get up at 9 this morning where I have 5 messages and text and an email waiting for me, 3 of the messages and the email is my daughter scolding me for not checking in//my fault I always check in was just too tired..... Now it is time to mow the lawn and get ready to go to work...
We had a great time made new friends and made a difference that is all anyone can ask for....until next time MLB

Is it too late to teach an "ole dog" new tricks???

So here I am a hillbilly from Missouri who never learned proper English and guess what I am trying to do.

I am taking a class to learn to speak Italian. Yes that is what I said. So far I have learned the Alphabete...they only have 21 letters...vocalis....double consonants and much more. Problem is my brain and tongue don't work together. I am working on the days of the week, numbers, and colors. It has taken me 50 plus years to learn English so guess that means I have another 50 plus to get Italian down. Note to self I is spoken as e
Did you know that Casa means house and cassa means cash register//sete means thirsty and sette means seven. It is a sure bet that I will mess up somewhere and it probably won't take long.
Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo maria theresa.
Arriverderci for now....A presto

David visits Idaho

David is my 27 year old grandson, who lives in Colorado Springs, Co. We hadn't seen him in over 3 years and it was a real treat to have him visit this last week. He bunked with me from Thur. to Mon. spending time with the rest of his family at different times during the week. I hosted a family bar b que for him on the Sat. and 21 people showed up to spend time with him. Scott and the boys actually took him to the Boise Burn game that night. When he got back he and I stayed up until 2:30 am just talking and catching up on our lives. I am amazed at how he has grown and truly enjoyed every moment. Sunday was a hang out and nap kind of day and than he went to visit another branch of the family. Monday he was up and out before I was even up, little "brat" didn't wake me up to say goodbye just left. When I got up at 7ish he was gone so I called him he said he didn't want to bother me. I hope it isn't several years before we visit again he is moving to New Mexico so maybe I can go visit him.

OPPS

So as most of you know I have developed a passion for driving around searching out birds. I have been doing this for several weeks now and this weekend I kinda got into trouble. No picture as I was afraid to try and get the camera out.
I went to Cascade over the 4th and watched, the White Pelicans, Black Birds, Ducks, Greebs, Yellowheaded Blackbirds, Bluebirds, a couple of Ospreys, Robins, and a Blue Heron, (also a fox) . Now you would think I would be happy with that but NOT me.....So on the way home I drive back through Sage Hen (which is beautiful) and I see a flock of Waxwings...beautiful bird, 8 Turkey Buzzards, many Meadow Larks, and a beautiful little bird (don't know what it is yet)sitting on a great nest with 4 eggs in it. Ok so I am near Montour so lets go take a look at what might be out. I was there the week before and seen a great Hawk, a Spotted Tohee, many Violet swallows, so why not go back. So I am in Montour and the birds are not really out but I am wandering around anyway. I do see a beautiful tiny hummingbird (no picture) and than I decide to try and drive around this big mud puddle. While parked I watched a little Mazda do it so why can't I. So I drive up to it, take a look and drive over to the side..just before I get all the way around it my front tire hits the water and it sucks me in like a big ole drain. I am still moving so I gun it and just move further out into the center...so I try reversing and it is only getting worse. I grab my phone and call Phil, who tells me he will be right there. As I wait my car seems to be sinking and water starts coming into the floor..I am freaking so I call him again and he tells me to sit tight he is on his way. The water is higher and the car is tilting so I crawl out of the passenger side and stand in the road and worry. Long story short..Phil shows up pulls me out, we bail water, he checks out the car( thank God no damage) and we go back to his place to wash the mud off and tell Amanda what I did. Than I had to go tell Rick and Mindy and be scolded because NO ONE knew where I was and how lucky I was to have had phone service and so forth. All agree that if I am to continue this I have to have a different type of car and take someone with me. Since I can't afford a jeep/truck and I don't have a birding buddy guess I will just have to make sure they always know where I am. I gotta say I was really worried and will NEVER try that stunt again, truly thought my car was gonna turn over before Phil could get there. But I won't quit seeking out my little and big feathered friends.