Journal

The Topeka zoo turned out to be a wonderful day - the zoo was well arranged and well landscaped. Both J & K were delighted with the animals and K enjoyed feeding the goats although she did tempt fate by sticking her finger through the fence and a goose pecked at it. After the zoo we rode the mile long mini-train in the park - J was fascinated by the sidebars on the locomotive and K was delighted to say "choo choo".
E, P & I enjoyed the bottle of champagne that E provided to celebrate my last work week. And my work group sent a nice retirement gift.
J, S & M arrived on Saturday and Kayleigh was delighted to see Magda again. Magda is such a cutie and very, very conversational - she can even say "Cynthia". She speaks in complete sentences which is unusual for her age. On Monday, we went to Watkins Mill and I watched the little girls while the others toured the old mill. They are really cute together and create games that only they understand. Tonight is fireworks night and then the house will be awfully quiet again after they all leave tomorrow.

I got a new cell phone the other day which has lots of bells and whistles some of which I will not use but it is really nifty - even has conversions for currency and temperature. I had an old klunker which was only two years old but the technology has really changed. My excuse for getting the new phone was so we could have international access in Europe - my old phone company doesn't have it so I had to change companies.

We're looking forward to meeting our new friend and very, very distant relative, Gunda, when we go to Germany - we have been emailing in English and German and comparing notes on our gardening activities among other things. We're having some great garden veggies right now and there are huge Cushaw squashes growing thanks to seed from a friend. I have no idea what to do with Cushaw squashes - make a bunch of pumpkin pies, I guess.