The next town over is hosting their 19th annual Mushroom Festival tomorrow and Sunday.
The Mushroom Festival
Last year the cable Food network show ‘America’s Festivals’ ( I believe) were there filming the festivities. We didn’t go last year and missed all the hoopla. We saw the show when it aired and recognized most of the people they spoke to. Sean’s kindergarten teacher Mrs. Bazzano was a cook in the mushroom soup contest! There are lots of growers around, many who have been growing for years and have practically cornered the mushroom market. We have mushroom farms all around us, not good for the allergies. But what a fun kind of festival! They use to have a big parade and Sean was on his elementary school’s float a few times which was fun. I got to walk along side the float and one year I dressed like a 30s moll (it was a Hollywood theme).

It was a nice short week for Sean (4 days)and way too short for me. I am working so slowly. It seems I never get much done. I didn’t realize how much was jam-packed in this one room. And it’s still so disorganized, which I hate with a hot hatred!
Sean got his Senior portrait proofs in the mail yesterday. At first we thought they were only the little postage size pictures on a sheet. We were using a magnifying glass to look at them. Then Brian went through the envelope again, and there were the 3″ x 5″ and we felt a little foolish. I thought the photos would be online and didn’t look that hard for normal size proofs in the envelope. The pictures are good for Sean standard. Sean doesn’t like to show off his orthodontically enhanced (and expensive) smile. He kinda has his mouth hanging open like he is going to say something-may ‘Cheese’? LOL Also the top of his tie isn’t covering the top button of his shirt. And that had been an issue before he left to get his photo taken. His dad had tied it the night before and as hard as we tried, it wouldn’t go all the way up. That lead me to open my yearbook (and Brian his) to check the guy’s tie tying effects from years past. It looked like a lot of guys in my high school tied ties like every 5 years. And they were thicker ties back then too. This was a public school. In Brian’s parochial yearbook, the ties were mostly perfect as they had practiced tie tying their whole lives!
Anyway, I am proud of the fine young man who half-smiled at me back in those very grown-up looking proofs. Sean in a cap and gown? Where did my baby go? Of course I ordered $140 worth.

I went to this site and this is what it told me.
What color is your brain

My friend Charlotte who lives in Ireland requested a quilt for a co-worker’s niece who is terminal with a brain tumor. I can’t stitch as fast as most of the other ladies in our group, so I asked Charlotte if I could send a gift for Kate, the sick girl. She said anything Disney, so I went to the Disney store and bought her a Tinkerbell sweat jacket (she is only 8). Here is the letter Charlotte shared with the group today when the emergency quilt arrived at her house.

Kate’s quilt arrived yesterday evening. The box was laid out on our bed when I came home from work. We were so excited! First we locked the boys out of the room as to not get any hairs on it and then we carefully opened the box. All the ladies who ever could see and hold and smell and feel a Love Quilt will understand what I am saying, for all of you who have yet to have this experience – it is awsome, nothing compares to it. When we carefully folded back the flaps of the box there was a cloud of love evaporating like the sweetest perfume, seeing all those sunflowers it was like looking into my moms garden (Dad and her grow sunflowers so the birds can have a picknick on the seeds). We unfolded it and looked at all the fine stitching and all the colorful squares – the pictures on the site are lovely but nothing to the riot of colour we saw yesterday. Do you know that every square has a different feel to the stitching? It really does, you can feel the personality of the stitcher when you run your fingers lightly over it. It was a very emotional evening for us. Lyndon has picked so many patterns to be stitched for children and then watched the squares being finished and washed, packaged and sent off, he always wondered about their next stage – now we both now. The final stage is love and joy! We just hugged each other and cried. I felt guilty for being happy to be able to hug that quilt, because I only had this experience because Kate is so very ill.

I have taken the quilt with me to work today, together with the pillow (Lyndon managed to take a picture of it yesterday so I will post it when I get home) and Diannes sweet gift as well. Mary promised to take pictures of Kate enjoying her quilt.

Everybody loved the quilt – nobody had ever seen anything as beautiful. I got asked to give you all a message over and over and it was always the same message.
God bless you all for what you do!

It can’t make up its mind outside today. It’s sunny, dark, windy and rainy and has been this changeable all morning. I know I won’t be doing anything outside anyway-I am finished weeding this year. Did I forget to say how humid it is? Ugh. I can’t stand humidity and thank goodness we had central AC. We haven’t had it the entire time we lived here, only in the last 6 or so years and we have lived here 18 yrs now. We put up with a lot of sleepless nights in the past. We had one big air conditioner, but it was in the dining room area which is on the other side of the house from the bedrooms. After we turned the garage in the family room, it sure didn’t help in here. It was a lot of dead air space. We are a bit spoiled by the AC now. I think it messes up my sinuses though by actually drying them out a bit like the heat does in the winter.
I did sleep well last night for a change. I was laying there a while this morning and dozed off and started dreaming of snow. Now that was strange. We were at my mom’s house and a big truck had come to dig her out while we sat in the car. Brian called and woke me up.
I had a call from someone asking for money. I won’t say who, as not to offend anyone, but the guy said he was ‘recording the conversation’ and started out asking for $50 and up. When I complained, he lowered it to half and then when I said I had to give my son money for his senior trip (they want a deposit already) he lowered it to $15. I never actually said I’d send the money and the next thing out of his mouth was to confirm the above and I said ‘good-bye’ and hung up. I usually don’t answer the phone if the caller ID says unknown and it says that when Brian calls sometimes.
Oh well…back to this mess…and maybe more painting.

1. If you won the lottery, and could win as much as you wanted, how much would you take? What would you do with it?
I think I would pay the taxes on it right away. What’s left would go to probably paying off bills. If it was a lot of moola, I would like a bigger house and maybe a vacation place. I’d help my siblings too, maybe giving them all the same amount so there would be no squawking. I’d get my mom’s house fixed up for her and do whatever I could do for Brian’s dad and my uncle. I think that covers the family. And it would be nice to make a few donations too. : ) I’m just too good to be true-lol. IF only….
2. If you could have any car/truck/environmental killing machine that you wanted, what would it be?
I’m not into flashy vehicles really, I drive a mini-van for cripes sake. I am attracted to those PT Cruisers for some reason. I’d have to do a test drive to see if it was cool. I also like Thunderbirds and for the higher ticket cars-I’d say a BMW.
3. If you could, would you want to be a professional student? Why/why not? If so, what would you study?
I feel we are all ‘professional’ students if we stretch our minds and continue to read and learn. I use the internet all the time to expand my mind. I went to a doctor one time (lately) and was asking him medical questions and he wanted to know if I had medical training. I don’t think he was being sarcastic, but was hopefully impressed over the questions I was asking as they weren’t the basic run of the mill ones.
Bonus Question for Comments: Does it take a lot of money and goods to make you happy? How much/little? Why/Why not?
I’d say no on the money part, yes on the goods part. I think if I had enough money to pay off bills and travel a bit, I’d be fine. My brothers and I tend to need to surround ourselves with stuff. Dave has videos, DVDS, etc galore; I have books and tchotckes; Don has Simpson cartoon stuff and Ken has model cars and his garage of auto tools. Mom has a house full of stuff too. Why? I don’t know. With mom it’s a shopping thing. We had enough toys when we were young, but may be stuck in a period of our lives when we weren’t that happy because of our parents divorcing. I guess having too much stuff is a comfort thing.

Music that seems to be intended to evoke a happy response will actually trigger a sad feeling in some, and the reverse can be true, as well. I suspect it’s not just because certain music is associated with certain things or situations for some people – sometimes it just doesn’t hit us the way it seems it “should.”
What song or piece of music creates in you a response that seems at odds with that particular music?
This is really difficult to answer. I guess I’ll have to say religious hymns, esp Amazing Grace which is my favorite hymn gives me that sad feeling. It must be it’s association with funerals. I use to sing in the church choir (and may do so again someday) and we sang ‘Morning Has Broken’, the song that Cat Stevens sang back in the 70s. We sang it a bit differently though. The only song I really bawled over that I can remember is from a musicbox my brother gave me. It was part of a sewing box. The song was ‘Buttons and Bows’. Don and I use to sing for our family and that was one of the songs. I guess it stirred up some precious memories.

Usually people have a particular type of music that they enjoy most, and perhaps a few other genres that are secondary favorites. But once in a while, there will be some other – completely uncharacteristic – music that a person finds appealing.
What song, album, or artist do you enjoy that is radically different from the music you normally listen to?
This has to be the music of Lenny Kravitz. I think he is so cool. And I also can flip the coin and listen to Josh Groban. I am mainly a folk rock person-James Taylor, Kenny Loggins, etc.

An amazing photo from outer space called ‘The Eye of God’ 

I swear I said I would never complain about rain again. And I will try not to. It’s just that we have had so much of it this year. The flowers look great, but you know all that rain makes the mosquito and mold population raise which can make you sick. At least it gives me an excuse to do inside things.
As a child, rain on the window at night made me feel all cozy and safe. It was like a gentle melody playing to ease me into sleep.
I am still sorting books. It’s a big, stressful job. I am enjoying looking at the books as I go. As far as getting rid of some, that’s hard for me too. I found some special things, one of which was an autographed child’s book from the woman who corrected my papers for the correspondence course I took called ‘Writing for Children’ through the Children’s Institute. Lisa Rowe Fraustino wrote that she hoped she’d be reading a book by me someday. Hopefully there is a book or two in my brain that needs to be written down.

Gee-thanks for the blinkie addiction gals! I must have about 11-12 now if this blog ever decides to republish itself.
I definitely will be using my PSP7 in the near future. I do lots of photo editing and entered contests on Worth1000.com, but they never seemed to like what I did. They have their own gang there with expensive cameras and computer programs. I edited enought cat photos of Cosmo to make a calendar book which I gave as gifts. I do love my PSP7 and haven’t used it in ages except for eBay and to edit out a trash can from the photo on this page of Brian and me.