Petrified Forest

My very wonderful brother-in-lw - Sir Thomas - sent me a ton of old family pictures. Among them was this famous - in our family anyway! - photo of us at the Petrified Forest Park in Arizona, I beleive. As you can see, my oldest sister is just to thirllied for words to be there.

The main story behind this picture is about yours truly. If you look, you can see the center of the tree stump has a hole in it. And in that hole were a million small chips of wood. Well, to a little kid - and I think I may have been all of four years old - those chips, all blue, brown & gold - were to beautiful to resist. so I pulled a bunch of them out and tucked them into my little pockets. The day went on as all days must, it came time to head out. At the entrance/exit to the park, is a Ranger station - they stop you coming and going - very pleasant - ask about your tip and such. They also check to make sure that no one removes any - and I mean ANY - pieces of the petrified wood from the park.

When the Range asked us all if we'd obeyed the rules - and I swear I never new about it - my father said - "Well of course they didn't take anything - my kids know to obey the law."

Well, that was when my little hand crept up into the air and in a very small voice..."Daddy?"....

My father was famous for "looks" - and this one could've killed me. Not only had I taken the chips, but my pockets were so full that I had to get out of the car to empty them. Once that was done and we were back on the road, you could've heard a pin drop. I don't think anyone said anything till we got to California!

My father has since passed away, and my brothers & sisters had the task of taking care of his belongings. As they went through things, they came across a set of petrified wood book ends.

Guess who has them now?

Slacker - Random Update

I realized that I have been a complete slacker regarding this blog. I was very gung ho to get on and get going - then I got buried with work, life and - well - life! I am going to take a page from Sadie's book and do a random activities post.....

March - What a zoo! Our property in Lake Tahoe was the host for a corporate wide event for our best customers - and we did back to back weekends. To say it was busy is a massive understatement. The lady that I work with and I did a combined total of over 3k event reservations and 1k hotel reservations - this does not include limo, dinner and show reservations. For those of you that I worked with in the past - you can certainly appreciate this!
Once the events were over, Gary and I went to one of our favorite vaction spots - Sea Ranch in Northern California. The house was amazing, weather was perfect - even managed to shoot a 95 at the golf course. But one of the very best things about that area? NO CELL PHONE RECEPTION! Talk about a break......So after almost a week there, it was back to work for a couple of weeks and then....

On to Palms Springs - where I cannot tell you how much I regret not getting to see Sadie & Family. Unfortunately, we got there the day before they did, played golf too much in the heat - not to mention ate too much and drank too much good wine - that I got sick as a dog. Nothing like playing golf in 100+ degrees to knock you on your fanny - We did however have a great time with my best friend Sue - she of the Silk Plant story. So again - too much fun had by all, and then back to Tahoe.

Our son and his wife just moved into their very own house. Like many young couples, they had room mates for quite some time, but are now able to have a home of their own. They invited us down to see it Memorial Day weekend, so we packed up the Ghost - our name for our silver Trailblazer - and headed to Sacramento. Since it was Memorial Day - and Garett had been talking about his Dad's family, we took a few pictures of Gary & his parents, as well as Gary's dad with one of his units that he was a Drill Instructor for. The pictures were a big hit - they were taken during WWII when Art, Gary's father, was in the Navy - as a side note, Art was also a Pearl Harbor survivor. The kids - our kids - really seemed to appreciate them, and it made us very happy to give them to them. Their house is an adorable craftsman type California bungalow circa 1948 or so. Hardwood floors, great yard - Garett already has a garden planted! Now if they can keep the dog's oout of it, they'll be in great shape.
After visiting with them, we went on to Jackson to see our friend Ron and his huge place there. I've never had an artichoke that was literally on the vine just a couple of hours before eating - what a difference in flavor!

Then we headed back home to some really nice weather - our garden is busting out all over - the irises we have are literally up to my chest and just a huge assortment of colors. However Mother Nature became fickle - as she often does in the Sierra's - and the weather has been cold and rainy ever since.

We then had a dinner party for an old friend we got back in touch with - thank you Facebook! - what was going to be a sit down dinner for 3 or 4 people turned into a buffet for eight - we love to entertain, so it worked out very well. Gary brined a turkey, then put it on the rotisserie on the barbeque - if you've never done this - give it a go. The brine keeps it incredibly moist, and the barbeque gives it a fabulous smokey flavor.

My office is gearing up for a move to larger quarters, so I have been weeding out the old files and such - and came across my pile of NYE group pictures, bowling party, skating party and our friend Angelines going away party - also had Halloween and Tracy's batchlorette party in there too. It was great to look at them, but sad as well. So many people have moved on, and we've lost many of them as well. A toast to Barry Parker, Phyllis Winlund & Cindy Henshaw - you were all loved and are still missed.....

We are now moving at light speed towards the Summer - should it really ever arrive - and all that entails - the Fireworks for the 4th, and our celebrity golf tournament just after that. It makes for a busy time, but I'd rather be busy than bored!

Whew! I think I've caught up - I know, no pictures, but I'm really terrible about getting them loaded to add on to things - Sadie said she'd give me some tips, so if you've forgiven me for missing you in PS...HELP!

Mary