Saturday, June 30, 2012

Heat of summer . . . and Venice 1

We had a record high temp of 109° here yesterday!   Today will not be much cooler, either.   DH had an early tee time and promised to ride the cart and drink lots of fluids.   His life insurance is paid current, so I tell him to make his own decisions.   What else can I say?!?   Gah.....

Venice was . . . Venice.  It was quite crowded, and reminded me of Times Square (NYC) on New Year's Eve.   Our first day there, a record crowd of visitors was in Venice.   Personally, I think it would sink much more slowly into the sea if less people were standing on it each day, but they need the cash flow that tourism brings.   The improvement over my last visit there in 2001 is that  the refugees from another continent were no longer taking up half a bridge - and creating a real bottle-neck pedestrian traffic jam -  with their knock-off designer handbags.  THAT was really frustrating in 2001.    Food in Venice is mediocre and expensive,  because we are a captive (captured?) audience.    Where else will we go to eat?  It is what it is.    I do not love Venice but it is okay.   We were at the end of our trip and I was too tired to travel 'far from the maddening crowd'  to see the beauty of Venice sans throngs of tourists.  

To our great suprise - and delight since DH grew up sailing every summer of his life - the Americas Cup was beginning the Venice series of races on the day we arrived! Woot! Woot!

We watched the races for two days.   ;-)   New Zealand has a boat in the race (go Kiwis!)   so I had to snap a piccie....



And of course, the USA boat ....

The crowd watched from St. Mark's Square and on down - a perfect viewing spot.  It really seemed like more of an exhibition race than true competition, but it was fun and a wonderful extra to our stop in Venice.

More later . . .

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Quilts for victims of Colorado fires

Hi,

I have a very nice start on the fire quilts with many blocks from Mary in Kansas. Thank you, Mary!

It looks like Colorado Springs has also been hit hard with fires. Since I have a connection in Colorado Springs as well as Ft. Collins, I’ll divide the quilts I assemble between both locations.

For anyone who would like to take part but missed my previous post, I’m assembling quilts for those who lost homes in the Colorado fires. Most of what I’ll make will be lap size quilts. If anyone would like to help out, here’s what I’m requesting:

Block size – 12 inches finished, 12 1/2 unfinished

Fabric colors – blue, green and/or brown with unbleached muslin as the light fabric

I need blocks by August 1, 2012. My hope is to get the finished quilts to Colorado mid-September.
 
If you'd like to take part, email me at dolphinquiter at hotmail dot com for my addresss.
 
Hugz,
Mary in Oregon

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Florence

Now that you had a few days to recuperate from our exciting (LOL) photos, it is time to look at Florence.  This was our favorite city.  Not too small or crowded, not too large,  but juuuust right, as Goldilocks would say.  It is very easy to get around on foot in Florence.

The famous Duomo and Baptistry were amazing.   The Duomo has   a bell tower  with something like 400 steps to the top, and my DH climbed them to the top.

While he was climbing those steps,  I wandered around Florence and window-shopped.   I ran across a Salvatore Ferragamo store which had a special museum/exhibit downstairs, so I paid my €5 and saw lots of really coooool shoes from the inception of Ferragamo's shoe business (ca.  1929)

We made the obligatory tours of The  Accademia and The Uffizi galleries, saw Michaelangelo's 'David' and upstairs in the Uffizi, we were able to look out over the Arno river and catch this shot of the Ponte Vecchio:

As we left the Uffizi, we stumbled upon a Galileo Museum.  It was not devoted 100% to Galileo, but had lots of wonderful artifacts from navigation as well as science in general.   We were all quite taken with this continuum:


Monday, June 25, 2012

Finally! I think I have been able to sign in , it has been a long time. Life is busy as usual with grand kids. The newest one is expected in about six weeks...another boy ! My laptop computer has almost bit the dust so today we got an IPad2. Another learning curve it seems. Loved all the vacation pictures. I feel like I have had my own personal tour. Jill and Sara ... My condolences are sent to Both of you.... Hope to get back here again

First the good news . . the drought is over.

Always wanting to put a positive spin on things.  It seems that my town made the national news for the flooding.   Yes, there are parts of town that are under 2-5 inches of water over the roads, some people have their yards washed out, and some businesses had to sand bag this morning.  But, hey-this is Florida, at most we are 5 inches above sea leavel.  Our street is OK, the doggies just don't want to go for a walk in the rain, even with their rain slickers.
Now the rest.  My brother did die last week, his funeral was last Friday in So. Fla.  In the last 24 hrs. when we knew the end was near Mom decided on her own that she couldn't make the trip.  I think this was wise.  I'm going to see her in the morning and take her some flowers.  There is a real mess of the will, the house to sell, (and the upkeep until it sells) but I know all will work out.
There was a traditional Christian funeral service at the funeral home, lots of his piano and singing associates were there, and someone played a classical piece.  Since he was born first and sucked up all the musical talent, I have no idea what the piece was.  Graveside was quick, as it was in the new Veterans cemetery there.  All of his children and grand children attended.  It was sweet to see 5 little girls together, and the one wife is pg. with another girl.  (quilt!)
So, we are back home with lots of pictures, an assortment of silver flatware, both Mom's and some of the grandmother.  Whew.  I'm going to watch a mindless movie tonight and go to bed early.
Sara in Soggy Fla.   where the gov. has declared the entire state a "State of Emergency"

Happy news!

I posted here about Gucci's cancer diagnosis back in May. Since then I have been treating her with a number of alternate protocols (with the blessing of our vet) and today for the first time I had Gucci back to the vet for a check up. The unbelievable and wonderful news is that she seems to have gone into remision. Her vet could not find the residue of the tumour that was there after the debulking back at the beginning of May!

This is not a cure, but it certainly bodes well for the chances of getting some extra quality time for our dear girl. She is already passing her expected survival time and she is feeling wonderful. Special thanks to all who prayed for Gucci. :)

Jean and Gucci