Journal

Great weekend once we got to Houston - Texas has been inundated with rain and both P and C had flight delays but we made it. We headed to Margaret and Gerry's house in a spiffy Mitsubishi convertible. It was wonderful to see everyone at M & G's and we had an excellent meal (I can tell I'm going to run out of adjectives before this entry is complete) including one of M's famous salads. Their redone kitchen is very nice.

About 2:00 am headed to the Linger's where we spent the weekend and where Courtney very graciously gave up her bedroom for us. Really like their new wood floors; can't imagine all of the work John did renovating after the water pipe damage/repair but it certainly looks nice now.

The birthday Gods must have been smiling on Saturday evening for Tim's party because there were only a few sprinkles and the evening was actually quite pleasant. We had a lot of fun at the party - the food - Pappasitos - was excellent and seeing family and friends was wonderful. Back to the Lingers about 1:00 am.

Sunday to Austin to spend a few hours with the Churchetts - playing games, having lunch, lying down with Kayleigh on my chest sleeping and Jonathan lying down with us to cuddle...

Supper at the Lingers with the Houston group - another excellent meal and excellent company. Early evening - to bed around midnight.

Monday, P flew home and C flew to Rochester, MN - C slept almost all the way there!!

Before tearing the old frame house down four years ago, we looked in the attic for "treasures". Not much there but we did find two small chicken incubators which we stuck in the barn. If the decal on the front of the smaller one is accurate, the incubator is about 100 years old. By the time I was around and visiting the farm, my grandparents had much larger incubators that could hold 100 chickens. (One time when I was about 8 or 9, I got the "pleasure" of "helping" to transfer the maturing chicks to the big hen house. This consisted of grabbing two chickens in each hand by the legs and carrying them squawking about 100 yards to their new abode.)

Anyway, I finally got around to finding someone that will add legs to the old incubators and turn them into tables for the old house. I saw the same type of things in an antique store around Bandera and the tables were selling for $500. I hope they turn out well.

Our German friends from Lingen-Ems, Germany arrived at the farm on Wednesday evening. They come almost every summer to the U.S. for vacation and have covered most of the high points of the U.S. by now. This year they flew to Atlanta and then drove north and west sampling different sights on the way. Our joke is that Pat & I have seen more of Germany than they have and they have seen more of the U.S. than we have.

Thursday we went to the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City to have seafood at McCormick and Schmick's and then to walk around. We browsed in Williams-Sonoma where Sylvia bought a butter bell to take home and then looked around the Function Junction before the stores closed. They were suitably impressed with the Plaza - their previous look at KC led them to believe KC was a pretty delapidated place.

Friday we went to Lawrence and visited the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas. While not to be compared with the large natural history museums, it had enough to hold your interest. One of their big displays is a panorama (not considered a very scientific method of presentation these days) that was first displayed in the 1893 World's Fair - over 100 years old.

They leave today to head toward Houston and then over to end their trip on the Florida seashore - something northern Europeans like to do since they don't have any warm, sunny beaches.

We were two of a massive audience of six to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on Sunday evening - I doubt the movie was the reason for the small crowd, I think downtown Leavenworth just doesn't attract very many movie goers.

We both found the movie much less incendiary that we had expected after all of the hoopla. The connections - Bushes, Saudis, Halliburton, etc. - were not a big surprise. Trying to think of myself as a real Bush fan (really stretching to do that), I can come up with some emotional and cinematic criticisms for the movie but still can't see any major reason to get so excited. In fact, I think there are many Bush fans out there who would view the Saudi connection as very positive - their view would be that the Bushes are protecting our sources of oil and they don't think beyond to the ramifications of the Saudi support of Bush et. al. over the years.

Of course, the shots showing Bush at his oratorical best are wonderful - the last one is priceless!