A Busy Morning

We had to drive to Neosho, MO to get an appointment to get Miss Tiffany into the Cadillac dealer for the ignition switch  recall that is in the news. Decided to get it done as we had to get a passenger window fixed....it wouldn't go up....and since she is currently out in the driveway and not in the garage, we had to get it fixed before we leave. Since she is so old, she was not under warranty for the window.   That is $300 we will never see again.  They also told us .....after we got there...that they needed both keys..... a little something that I think they should have told us at the time we made the appointment.  We had to drive home 20+miles to get the spare.  Apparently the keys have to be reprogrammed.  I wish we could have waited to see the local dealer.

One thing I managed to do was to get Mr BC out, this morning, so we could buy him a couple of new shirts for the trip.   The last time I was able to get him out to shop was last November to buy some new slacks that weren't several sizes too big. I, of course, have been shopping for months!  The last thing he has to do to get ready, is a hair cut.  He was going to do it today, but we had to get back to the dogs to feed them.  Because of the extra trip, the dogs got lunch instead of breakfast, and they were glad we didn't wait for a hair cut
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Maybe a Travel Blog for the next Month?

I spent most of Sunday finalizing our itinerary for our trip.  We are taking a tour with a company call GoAhead Tours  I guess I will have more to say on that when the tour is over. Trip Advisor and other sites had primarily good reviews.  I liked this company because it had some group touring and time to plan on your own.  So that is what I have been doing the past week.  So much to do, so little time, in London, Paris and Rome. 

The plans are made the passports renewed and now I have to pack.  Mr BC and I have decided to go with one larger suitcase, and carryons. This will be the challenge.  To not, over pack.  I am one who wants to be prepared for every contingency, which is why we have a Motorhome....the way to pack, for everything!  One suitcase means that I will have to gather every thing together this week and then start paring down to the essentials. I think I have read every packing tips story on the internet, 

We plan to use the public transportation on our free days and I have been pouring over Google maps.  We also have looked into hop on hop off and have decided against it in London (underground and Bus), using the Batoboats and Metro in Paris, and give the Hop on Hop off Bus in Rome, along with the scheduled tours we have booked with the group.

Well, I meant to post to Facebook!

I guess this is as good a time to start posting again, as any,,,,,I really enjoyed this video of marching geese.

Hello, everyone!  We have had an eventful summer:

We spent July 4th weekend at Starvy Creek Blue Grass Festival  Maggie and Jiggs.  This was our first outing with the Motor Home.  As usual we had a great time.  We took the dogs, as fire works are not allowed, and they start the first of July or earlier in our neighborhood. vexing all the puppies.

In August we went to St George Utah, for my nieces wedding.  It was a true family reunion to have my brother and his family, DD1's family and DD2.  We had a grand time.  It rained all morning but the sun came out in the afternoon. and all was beautiful and fairly cool.
She had cupcakes instead of regular wedding cake, which Caшa, and Лука, enjoyed!  She did have an unusual smaller cake that the bride and groom cut.  It was decorate with blackboard and chalk frosting something she always said she wanted!

The reception was fun with lots of dancing and a photobooth Лука, who has been dancing since he could walk, danced all night along with his mother, or his brother or by himself.  Caшa was possessed by the photobooth.  He photobombed a number of guests and learned how to take the picture.  Every time we lost track of him he was sneaking into the photobooth.

The next event is our trip to Europe at the end of the month.  I have had the London segment pretty well planned for a month,  We are going 2 days earlier than the tour for some extra time.  I splurged on a 3 day London Pass for the extra days and I hope it will be a worth while expense.  One good thing about the pass was last week they sent me an email about some tickets for Buckingham Palace being available,  I went right to the website and scored 2 tickets for one of our non tour days.  It was really something I wanted to do that was not included with GoAhead Tours.

Saturday 9 Taking a Break

Saturday 9: Hawaii Five-O (1969)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This is the theme from the TV show that originally ran from 1968 to 1980 and is on now again with a new cast. 
Were you/are you a fan? I watched the 1968 incarnation.  I haven't been a fan of most re-do's of old shows, it usually is not the same.  I enjoyed the show when it was on but was a fan of James McArthur.

2) On both shows, Five-O is an elite police task force led by Det. Lt. Steve McGarrett. Who is your favorite TV cop? 
Barney Miller! Mr BC and I are currently watching Life on Netflix, It only made two seasons, but was a great show with Damien Lewis, I like cops with quirks.

3) On both shows, the part of Danny "Danno" Williams was played by a second generation performer. (James MacArthur was the son of Broadway legend Helen Hayes; Scott Caan is the son of movie actor James Caan.) If you followed one of your parents into their chosen profession, what would you be doing? 
I guess I would be a lawyer or a law secretary as that was what dad and mom were.  She ran his office.  It skipped a generation and DD1 is an attorney. 

4) Both shows are filmed in Hawaii, the boyhood home of President Obama. Have any of our 44 Presidents hailed from your state? 
Harry Truman was born in Lamar MO.  Not to far from where we live, we went to see his home a very small one room house if I remember correctly. We would like to visit his home in Kansas City one of these days. He vacationed in Key West when we were there in 1968 and we went out to the Naval Air Station to see him and Bess get off the plane.

5) Kona coffee is made from beans cultivated on the Big Island of Hawaii. Are you a big coffee drinker? 
I like coffee and have a cup every morning. I don't think I would be called a big coffee drinker.

6) This week's song was written by the late Morton Stevens. In addition to composing for TV shows, he was the musical director for a group of entertainers known in the 60s as "The Rat Pack." Can you name any "Rat Pack" members? YES.

7) This week's featured band, The Ventures, began when Don Wilson purchased a used car from Bob Bogle. During negotiations, they discovered a shared passion for playing guitar. Did you buy your current ride new or used? Did the negotiations go smoothly? 
We bought it new 10 years ago and it is still running smoothly.  The negotiations were smooth as Mr BC worked for GM at the time.  Our Toyota Truck is still running good too. Those are our two most recent purchases, both over 10 years ago.

8) The year this song was popular, 1969, is when Donald and Doris Fisher opened a San Francisco clothing store called The Gap. Today there are more than 3,200 Gap locations. 
Do you shop at The Gap or gap.com? I shop the Gap for things for the grandsons.  It is too young for me.


9)  Random question: What's on your Saturday to-do list? 
Mr BC is back from California. I had a root-canal Wednesday and it was too painful to shop until today.  I usually try to stay out of the grocery stores on the weekends but no excuses, I have to shop.

I have been away from the Blog as well as Saturday 9 and other memes for a while.  I guess I have become a little bored with answering questions so I am going to take a break for a while and just follow some of the other blogs I really like.  So I am on summer break, I won't post unless I have something interesting to say, maybe a few Friday Fragments . I will come back when I decide about what I want to do with this space. 

Tisket a Tasket a Pretty Glass Basket-Wednesday Hodge Podge

1. Besides left over Easter goodies, what's something currently kept in a basket at your house? 

I have a basket that holds the newspapers for recycling, I have a beautiful glass basket that belonged to Mr BC's Mom, that sits on the (Jimmy) Buffet in the dining room with seasonal things in it, but mostly it is empty or contains odds and ends.  

2. 'The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.' ~Michelangelo Buonarroti 
So which one are you...the one who aims too high, or the one who aims too low? Have you ever seen The Sistine Chapel? Did you know Michelangelo's surname prior to answering this question? 
I am probably the one who shoots too low so I can reach it, because I don't like disappointment. I had heard Michelangelo's surname before but I don't think I have ever seen it spelled out before.  We will visit the Sistine Chapel when we visit Rome in September.

3. April 7th is National Beer Day. Hmmm...wonder how that's celebrated? Do you like beer? Have a favorite? If you're not a beer drinker do you have any recipes you enjoy cooking that call for beer? 
I do not care for beer, I drank it in college as that was usually what was at parties and I would get a cup of beer and sip it all nite.  I use to have a recipe for beef stew that called for beer.

4. When did you last travel somewhere new? Tell us where? How'd it go?  I has been hard to think of a place I have traveled that was new lately.  I have traveled to many foreign climes, Japan, Turkey, Greece, England, plus I have been to Oahu and several of the states.  Lately we just seem to go back and forth to California to see grandkids (which is good!) But that is why I went ahead and booked and laid out a deposit for London, Paris and Rome for September so we would actually travel during our retirement.   Our passports should arrive soon!

5. The value of Starbuck's is greatly overrated.

Too expensive, too strong to drink...at least for me and I like a bold brew. Their shop is usually overcrowded and hard to get a seat to relax.

6. What's a pet peeve of yours when it comes to restaurant dining?
Don’t address us/me as ‘sweetie’ or ‘you guys’ – I am not a ‘guy’, and please keep your fingers/hands only on the bottoms of glasses and silverware, not where my mouth will be touching them. Also other diners don't talk on your cell phone.

7. It's Poetry Month...share a favorite poem, either the title, a few lines you find meaningful, or the whole kit and caboodle.
I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

8. Insert your own random thought here.
Mr BC has just left for a trip to CA to see the grandsons.  We have opted this year to go individually for some good one on one visits, minus the dogs.  I am staying home to dog sit and have some alone time for myself. Usually I am the one who goes and leaves grandpa behind, we have often traveled without the other and it makes coming home that much sweeter. After 47 years we find we don't have to be joined at the hip.

Awww Monday

 Join Sandee's blog Comedy Plus every Monday for Awww Mondays. Post a picture that makes you say Awww...and that's it.  You can post your link there or below.

Spring Hodgepodge

1. In honor of the date...when were you last sent on a fool's errand?
I thought it was going to be fruitless to find a cute water resistant light weight jacket so late in the spring season and I walked the mall.  (I knew I could probably find something online, but I don't like to buy clothes online.) Finally the last store on the mall...Macys....I use to shop there successfully, when I worked....I found it! On sale even! I should and will go to Macys first. 

2. Peter Rabbit, Bugs Bunny, The Energizer Bunny, The Easter Bunny, Rabbit (Pooh's friend), White Rabbit (of Wonderland fame), or the Trix Rabbit...which of these famous rabbits, can you best relate to right now? 
I actually looked up each bunny personality characteristics and really didn't relate to most of them. Mr BC is most like Pooh's friend, Rabbit, who insists on doing things his way and is obsessed with rules, planning and order. I don't think right now I am the Energizer Bunny, as I have had a tooth ache over the weekend and I don't have much energy. I go to the dentist today. But I think most of the time I am enduring.

3. When did you last find yourself scrambling to get something done? Explain.  
Before I retired, I use to scramble all the time to get things done, both at work and home, at the end of my career...I was exhausted and a little burned out and when I set a date for retirement....it was quite like waiting for vacation, I thought it would never come.  Once I retired, I would go to bed at night thinking I still need to finish something.  I has lessened as time goes on. 

4. Last time you were up at the literal crack of dawn? Why? Last time you stayed up all night? Why?  
I am up at the crack of dawn almost every morning....just because, I wake up then.  Probably because I am asleep by 9:30 or 10 every night.  I can't remember the last time I stayed up all night....probably with a headache.  

5. Crack a book, crack a bottle, crack a joke, crack an egg...which have you done most recently? 
Well I eat eggs out of a carton and Mr BC says I am not funny...actually, I can't remember jokes to repeat them....so I guess crack a book.  Actually I read off a Kindle and I don't want to crack it.

See....not Funny!

6. What's your favorite part of a typical weekend? Tell us why that's so. When one is retired weekends are not really that important.  I like Sunday nights because of Masterpiece Theater.  I am looking forward to Wolf Hall this Sunday night with Call the Midwife just before.... A Good Sunday night on PBS.

7. What's something I'd find on a bookshelf in your home? Other than a book I mean! 
I look at book shelves as another flat surface, so anywhere there is no books there is going to be something other than a book.  I took this picture this morning.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 
We are having a thunderstorm this morning and all the dogs are in hiding. Spring is finally here and now I have to worry about a tornado. We don't have a storm shelter, so we rally in the closet under the stairs and hope that will work for us.  I need to take all the winter jackets and boots and shoes out, so we can get in easier.  I have not had to use it thank goodness, but it is always ready just in case.   I know we should put some real thought in a shelter.

Time to join Joyce from This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge, I always enjoy her questions.  Click on the button to see other hodgepodge and join the fun.