Quilters Together

Colorful fabric brought the Lutheran and Catholic quilters together in the Lutheran Church basement this snowy morning. The Catholic quilters inherited boxes of fabric and couldn't use all of it. They generously passed some on to the Lutherans. In gratitude, the Lutherans invited them to view the quilts that are made and to enjoy coffee together. Hot coffee went well with cheese, crackers, lefse, Finnish biscuit, kumkaker, pizzelles and other goodies. The guests thought that the Lutherans have wonderful coffee breaks. Kelly, the Lutheran church secretary, brought her four month old nephew who flirted with all the grandmas, smiling and cooing, charming everyone. Pastor Bob told some jokes and all shared stories of how times have changed so that we can enjoy fellowship together, helping each other. The fellowship was warm, knowing that the quilts that each group sews, with loving stitches, go to people in need around the area and the world.

Las Vegas Implosion by Jodie

I have always wanted to view an implosion of a casino in Las Vegas. The Cast Aways was imploded just before we arrived. We saw a sign that Flamingo Road would be closed from midnight to 4:00 a.m. on February 14 and then heard a VERY brief mention on television that the Bourbon Street Casino was going to be imploded. That is very near where we are staying right now and our corridor looks over it, so I got very excited that I might finally see one and have a bird's eye view at that! The only problem was that no one else had heard it and no one seemed to be talking about it. Finally, after waiting for several days and not getting an answer from anyone that I had asked, I finally emailed the weatherman, the weekend anchor, and the traffic reporter at that television station. I figured I would hear from one of them. I was shocked to hear from all of them. The actual time of the implosion was secret and was not to be announced, but each of the television folks told me that it would happen around 2:00 a.m. Harrah's now owns the property and they did not want crowds of people because there was really no safe viewing area (The site is one block off the Strip). They did announce approximate times on the 11:00 p.m. news on the 13th--preventing people from getting down to see it at the last minute.

We all (the two of us and our friends from Washington) set our alarms for 1:30 a.m. and put a chair and the camera (of course) in the corridor on the opposite side of our condo to watch it. It was an unbelievable experience and we're glad we had a chance to see it. Our view was spectacular.

Photos: The first three are of Bourbon Street during the day of the 13th. The next one is the daytime view from the corridor beyond our condo. Following that is a photo of the site just before the implosion--testing the camera. Then--"There she goes!" followed by the rubble when daylight came.

Losing A Good Friend

We have lost a very good friend--Sue passed away on Sunday, February 5. She had retired in June from teaching (over 30 years as an elementary teacher) and was subbing for a couple of months when she fell and broke her ankle. She died unexpectedly on Sunday. Although Sue and Ed had no children of their own, they both have many children--nieces and nephews, students from school and athletes from sports and recreation programs. We will miss her very much.

News and Notes

Just some notes about some of the WT's:

Sue--our retired, out-of-retirement, back-to-retirement--teacher is house bound until February 27th. She took a long-term subbing job in the first grade class and fell and broke her ankle. She goes back to the doctor on the 27th, so we hope she'll be back with us soon. We have been to visit her and she is in good spirits.

Laurie and Emily are taking a knitting class with about a dozen other women taught by the owner of our local Curves and by one of the local teachers.

Emily is reading in two first grade classes and also is involved in the reading program in a second grade class.

Our "snowbirds" are gone--Jodie in Las Vegas and Pat in Hawaii. The weather is very balmy here so they are not missing any cold weather this year. Jodie thinks that the cold weather will return in March when she gets home.

Mary has been in Florida for her seminars. Check out her website for other places where she will be.

Tee and Joan had a great time at the Elderhostel in Oklahoma and returned with some Will Rogers humorous stories and some Trail of Tears horror stories.

We will update everyone on other members shortly. Stay in touch and Happy Groundhog's day tomorrow!