The Ladies at Morelias and UPS Stop at Glenda's

Liz, Rita, Peggy, Valerie and Marilynn at Morelia's in Elgin, TX
Saturday, January 30, I'm up at 7:45 a.m. to a low of 32 degrees! It is cold and windy, remaining partly cloudy all day so that it never has a chance to warm up very much. The high only get to 39. We finish the jigsaw puzzle we started yesterday first thing this morning so we can eat breakfast at the table like human beings.

I check my email around 10:00 as I realize I never even got on-line yesterday. I find an email from Elaine saying the bread lady is at the Bastrop Farmer's Market on Saturdays beginning at 9:30. I call Elaine right away and she's already down here on this cold morning, just arriving at the Farmer's Market. It's too bad I didn't see her email, Bob and I could have picked up the bread on our way to Elgin. Elaine says the lady has her delicious bread at Elgin's Farmer's Market by the Depot on Tuesdays. She says it is a slow crowd at the Bastrop location on such a chilly Saturday morning. I'm impressed that she's out and about so early.

I stretch and do my weights, then Bob and I get cleaned up. He takes Manny, Moe and Jack Frost off the wall so I can take them to Glenda's. And he brings our digital picture frame's memory stick so he can download the new Chihuly glass pictures to Glenda's frame.

Peggy shows off her new necklace to Valerie

We left at noon for Morelia's in Elgin. Valerie calls as we're on the way up Hwy 95. Liz, Peggy and her are meeting to come together and they will be about 15 minutes behind schedule. Bob and I pull up out front about 12:20 and Marilynn is right behind us. We get a table for eight. Marilynn and I go over my jewelry choices and changes. Around 12:50 Liz, Val and Peggy arrive. We have hugs all around. Liz and Val surprise me with Dunkin' Donuts French Vanilla and Starbuck's coffee. Peggy is looking great and I'm so glad she could make it. She has a sporty hat on and tells a fun story about trying to get her hubby to notice her hair growing back out. Liz says Lisa stayed home with Scout, her daughter, who just had knee surgery.

We order after our waiter's slip of the tongue when he asks "Are we ready ladies?" Bob gets up to leave. I can't say I would blame him as all of us gals get to cackling. What a great visit with my long-time pals. Liz tells a great story about the Medieval-themed birthday party she gave for Connor. HEB couldn't find her turkey legs she ordered and when they did, they didn't cook them like they agreed to. She discovered this two hours before the party. Talk about stress!

Glenda's baby quilt top

After we eat all of us gals ooh and aah over Marilynn's jewelry. She just keeps taking what seems like a hundred necklaces out of her box. Peggy finds a nice piece made of Aventurine, a form of translucent quartz, that she can't resist using her 'lunch money' for. I snap a picture as she tries it on. Bob captures all of us and all too soon we say our goodbyes.

I call Glenda before we leave to say we're heading to her place to pick up our package. She turns down my offer to bring her enchiladas, etc. As we pull up we spy our package on the porch that Glenda has covered along with her dead fern! She has a nice warm fire going inside, her sewing machine, ironing board, and her baby quilt top laid out on the floor in the den. I snap a picture of the bright yellows and greens that we worked so hard to pick out at Joann's Fabric a few weeks ago.

We have a nice visit. Bob tried to load Chihuly picture on her digital picture frame but our memory card reader won't fit in the USB port near her wireless mouse on the back of her PC. So we'll just bring our laptop next time.

At 7:30 we head home as the temperature is down to 35 degrees and we don't want our pipes to freeze. The living room is a chilly 50 degrees but all is well. It's 8:45 p.m. and 35 degrees with 65% humidity.

Deli Depot, DVR and Manny, Moe & Jack Frost

My friend Marilynn's creative jewelry

Thursday, January 28, I'm up at 7:00. By the time I get my coffee, open the blinds and settle into my Euro chair, the digital picture frame is open for business today. I turn it to a vertical mode and watch the whole thing in 'random'--always interesting.

I check email, we have a light breakfast, and I go for a walk. Cable guys in two trucks by the trash tell Paul, the owner, they fixed four breaks in the cable. Maybe our TV reception will be better (but no, when I return home it's still fuzzy.) I stretch and get cleaned up. Bob goes fishing on this last warm morning before the Big Chill sets in. The low was 60 degrees last night! That's coming to an abrupt halt tonight according to the weatherman. The high gets to 67 on this cloudy day with strong winds out of the south. The fish like it as Bob reports catching eight bass.

I take pictures of my Smithville friend Marilynn's jewelry. I'm so impressed by her creativity and her pieces are very reasonably priced. This morning I left her a voice message about lunch Sat. at Morelia's. My project for the day is to sew the Velcro strips on to the back of Glenda's Winter wall hanging. As I sew away, Marilynn calls to say she's coming on Saturday and I should bring her jewelry. I get two of the three Velcro strips sewn on when Bob returns. We break for lunch.

Marilynn combines Tiger Eye and African turquoise in this stunning set

At Deli Depot we both have the daily special; beef tips--mostly because it comes with their heavenly Italian Creme Cake. We get a newspaper out front and then stop at Best Buy on the way home to purchase the Panasonic DVR that is still on sale. The smallest box of RW discs they have is 25 so we spent the savings on the DVDs. Anyway, this will give Bob something to do over the next 2 or 3 days of the Big Chill.

Back home I sew on the final strip. Then we read the paper for a bit. Now we're ready to hang Manny, Moe and Jack Frost above the front door. Well, actually we don't have a back door, or a side door! The Frost Brothers look so cute--don't you think?

Glenda calls around 5:00. She returned home from Depot duty in Elgin to find our package from SteadyFast on her front porch. That was fast! If I had looked at the tracking site, or my email today I would have seen that it was delivered. We'll watch the weather and figure out if we'll go up to her place tomorrow to pick it up or wait until we go to Morelia's on Saturday. It weighs 39 pounds!

Bob loads Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg pictures on the digital picture frame to see if it can read separate folders. No, it just runs through them all. That's no problem--they are all great to view. We had Stuffed Cabbage Stoup for dinner and it just gets better every day. It's 6:30 p.m. and 66 degrees with 77% humidity. The front is out in the panhandle causing sleet and snow. Not supposed to be any of that here but some severe thunderstorms may come through during the night.

Manny, Moe & Jack Frost aboard The Titanic!

Rusty at the Driving Range

Monday, January 18, I sleep in until 9:00. I get busy and make Crispy Thingies since I bought all of the ingredients yesterday. I almost was able to make them in the convection oven without getting out the manual to preheat and set the oven. Maybe next time. I'm getting more comfortable with it. We have a Crispy Thingy for breakfast. Bob takes a shower and heads to Bastrop to get a haircut. I make a few phone calls and don't quite get the kitchen cleaned up and he's back home. I had a nice chat with my friend Marilyn near here in Smithville. We hope to get together this weekend.

He browses on-line for an RV stabilizer system (SteadyFast) he wants to order while we're here so we can have it delivered to Glenda's. I send an email to the guy who sells them to find out their compatibility with Glendale RVs. Then I get cleaned up and we go to Maxine's downtown for their Monday Pork Roast Special. It's not until we get down by the courthouse that I realize it is MLK Day. The whole downtown parking area is empty. Maxine's is hopping though. We can't resist the lemon pie today. It has mile-high whipped cream and is more like a custard than most lemon pie. I give it a 5-star rating.

Our waitress gives us change for the newspaper machine outside and we head home. My friend Jean from Austin calls and we make plans for lunch and a Titanic tour next Tuesday. Bob and I finally make it to the driving range. Wow, it's been quite a while since I hit a golf ball. The high got to 69 today so it is just nice to be outdoors. This was the first time Bob dug the golf clubs out from 'down under' and he said it wasn't too bad. We buy five dozen of the discount golf balls this guy sells at Bear Country driving range. Every year we cash in on that deal. When we get home they won't fit with the rest of our stash so we have to expand the golf equipment to another cabinet. That's serious!

I get on-line and work on journal pages and clear out three months worth of emails. It's 5:50 p.m. and 67 degrees with 59% humidity. The low was 45 degrees.