Connecting People and Ideas

I like to connect people. As friends pointed out to me a few nights ago, the importance of connecting to other humans is one of the things I'm always talking about. Well, hey, science has now proven that it's really important if you want to be happy, live longer, etc. etc. etc., so I'm not just running off at the mouth anymore. Well, maybe I am, but not necessarily without merit - at least on this one topic.

When you get people together who have interests that complement each other, the conversation is always worth eavesdropping on, and that's just what I was doing this morning. The sum of the parts becomes greater than the whole.



The last day and a half, bloggers from Oklahoma, Iowa, Texas and Kansas have been in Hutchinson, touring the town and seeing the sites, so hopefully they will have cool things to say about our town. One of the folks who came from Oklahoma was Becky McCray. (on the left in the photos)

I've been following Becky in Twitter for awhile and just KNEW that she and Marci Penner, (on the right) who is the head of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, needed to meet. I've forwarded some of Becky's blog posts to Marci and WenDee (the assistant director at the Sampler Foundation - in the black in this photo) a few times.



Well, the other night when our blogger group was at dinner I mentioned this and Becky said, "See if we can go see them Friday morning." So, I tried to call Marci but didn't get her. A few minutes later Cody tried and got us set up for early this morning.

While we were talking, Todd, (see him working hard in the photo below) who is the editor at The Ledger, a print and online paper that covers the area, said he'd like to cover the meeting for the paper. So, this morning I picked up Becky and Jeanne at the hotel and we headed out to the barn in Inman where we were greeted with homemade cinnamon rolls, courtesy of Marci's mom. I've had her cinnamon rolls before and let me tell you, they never disappoint. That, alone, was worth getting up extra early for!



Like Todd, Jeanne was taking notes like a fiend. She writes on the Small Business Survival blog, along with Becky and some other folks.

It was really cool to see people who are interested in some of the same things meet for the first time and connect. There's an energy that's generated that can't be duplicated by anything else. Marci is devoted to preserving rural culture. Becky is interested in small business. There is some common ground there, for sure.

Becky did a few video bites with Marci and I'm sure will be posting them at some point. I don't know about Becky, but I'm sort of buried under really great potential blog posts right now, after our intense days of touring.



Marci and WenDee are preparing for the Kansas Sampler Festival, May 2 and 3 in Concordia, so they're busy bees, but I'm so glad they took time out to visit with us for a bit this morning. It was cool, at least for me. I hope it was for them, too.


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Third Thursday

Tonight was the Third Thursday art event in Hutchinson. It was the end of our blogger fam tour we've been doing the last day and a half. I'm impressed that a group of folks in town decided to do something different - and they did it well. Kudos to Logic Maze, The Cosmosphere, the CVB and The Downtown Hutchinson Revitalization Project.

I'm very, very impressed that the Cosmosphere CEO took time to give us a private tour yesterday. That tells me he understands the power of social media, or he's at the very least open to the power of it. Those things matter.

Well, I'm tired from the many hours we've spent touring and talking in the last 36 hours. Such an exciting time!

So, tonight I'm sharing some photos from the Third Thursday event - something I love - and something I'm so thankful to Jennifer and Danny for making happen.















Come join us next month! May 21 - 5 -9 p.m. in Downtown Hutchinson.
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Once upon a time there were fam tours...

I'm participating in a blogger fam tour. What, you may ask, is a fam tour? Well, children, gather 'round and I'll tell you a story.

Back in the long, long ago days, before the internet put travel information at our fingertips, there were these people called "travel agents." They held the keys to the kingdom of information about flight schedules and hotel rates and all sorts of other bits you needed to know if you hoped to venture beyond the borders of your own little burg. They worked very limited hours and required you to come to their lairs if you wanted more than a cursory tidbit of information that could be given over the phone. These dark ages - like 10 or 15 years ago - made travel far more difficult than it needed to be. That was not the fault of travel agents at all, it was just how the system worked.

Although most travelers who were at the mercy of these people who had the information never knew it, these travel agents were also going on "fam tours," short for "familiarity tours." They would be invited to hotels and attractions and cities and amusement parks and cruise ships and any other place where they might be able to encourage people to go. The idea was that they would fall in love with it and tell people they just had to go there.

As anyone faced with such a thing would do, travel agents took advantage of these perks. And, they, indeed, did encourage people to travel to, stay in, eat at, and visit these very places. It was good for the agents. It was good for the fam tour hosts. It was a happy time in the kingdom. For everyone except, perhaps, the traveler, who was still at the mercy of these people who had all the information, not to mention the memories of all this travel, some of which was far more exotic than going to Disney

Well, a group of people in Hutchinson Kansas, where I live, decided to bring the fam tour idea into the modern world. They have invited some bloggers to come to Hutchinson for a couple of days and see the sights, in hopes they will have something positive to say about it on their blogs. They graciously invited me to join in, and it has been really cool so far. I'm taking a day and a half of vacation in order to do it and it has been well worth it so far. This modern version makes so much more sense, because bloggers talk to many people at once these days.



Hutchinson does have some excellent attractions - the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, a world-class museum devoted to the space program, and the Kansas Underground Salt Museum, the only museum of its kind in the western hemisphere. Even though I live here, I try to make it a point to appreciate what's cool about the community.

This morning we were treated to an amazing tour of the Cosmosphere by director Chris Orwoll. It included some behind-the-scenes areas and needless to say I'll have many more photos to share with you later.



Here he's showing us a glove. Not just any glove. It's a space suit glove. Not just any space suit glove...



That's "Aldrin," as in Buzz.

It was amazingly cool to walk into this "white glove area" this morning, where artifacts are stored, and see incredible things lying around like this metal press pass from an Apollo mission.



This morning I got to touch a space suit - with the white glove, of course - a nice follow up to getting to touch a moon rock recently.

This afternoon we went for a tour of the Fox, then had dinner at the Airport Steakhouse, and went back for an IMax show at the Cosmosphere. Tomorrow is a very full day of activities. Not only is it fun to see interesting things, but it's great to meet other bloggers. Check out the other bloggers and read about the tour at What's Up Hutch.

I'm quite impressed that this is happening. It's a different way to approach things and I'm always interested in exploring possibilities.
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NPR's Jackie Lyden

Jackie Lyden, host of "All Things Considered" each weekend on National Public Radio was in Hutchinson today for a presentation. She spoke at the Hutchinson Town Club as part of the Prairie View Food For Thought Series.

She read from her book, "Daughter of the Queen of Sheba," and told stories about growing up with a mother who was suffering from a mental illness. She said, "Long before radio existed for me as a vessel in which to pour all these life experiences, I was a daughter." And that relationship shaped her world view in many ways.

Lyden said she was a diarist from the time she could write, and that she wrote on anything. I asked after her speech if she still wrote by hand, and she said yes, that she doesn't go anywhere without her journal. She said, "My leather notebook goes everywhere I go. I believe in pen and paper."

Lyden said part of the appeal of writing this book about her mother was, "I wanted to fix her on the page." She said she felt if she could get down to the tap root of what was wrong, she could pull it out.

She said her mother's delusions would eventually turn dark and her mother kept a notebook about them called, "The Evil Account." While not knowing how her mother would be from one day to the next was difficult, Lyden said the experiences taught her,  "Nobody's imagination is garbage. It tells you where people are."



Working as a foreign correspondent, Lyden has interacted with people in many different kinds of situations. She told the story of a man telling her he couldn't leave a dangerous situation because, "If I leave now I will lose all my family history." She said that stuck with her, and reminded her people are similar everywhere. Holding her fingers a couple of inches apart, she said, "The line between Hutchinson, Kansas, and Fallujah, Iraq, is this big." She said, "When I tell stories on the radio, I'm looking to make that human connection."

Lyden said that no matter where she went, she had something no one else had, a faded photograph of her mother in a dress made specially for her in Hong Kong in 1950. Lyden has the dress and wears it on special occasions. She said, "I don't know where I'll be, but wherever I go, I will carry the photograph of the woman in this dress. Then I think what you carry the most is their story."

She said when she discovered NPR, she saw there was an opportunity for creativity and imagination. She said, "Radio entered me like a wave." And on the radio, as a host, she could be the voice of all the people she had had conversation with.

When asked about why mental health still has so much stigma attached to it, she said, "Until we understand that we are just molecules and that brain chemistry is chemistry and we are a little more humble about being human ... then we are going to have difficulty with something like stigma. Because to not be in control of your faculties is to not be perfect. And we are a culture that believes in perfection of the mortal."

She said she's very close to her mother and this is probably the happiest time they've ever had together. "My mom is fun. My mom is funny and smart." She said the great tragedy of her mother's life was not that she had a mental illness, but that she didn't have an education. Last year her mother read four dozen books, and is currently reading "My Antonia."



She said her mother's view of the book Lyden wrote about her has changed depending on her mother's mental state. She said now that her mother is better, the book is painful, but she is proud of it because, "She feels her struggles are not for nothing."

One of Lyden's sisters asked why they couldn't just move on and try to forget all of this, leaving it in the past. Lyden answered that, "Memory is what makes us human. Memory is the human connection. It's what gives us soul."
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The Itty Bitty Bud

Yesterday I saw it. Just innocently sitting there. As if it were nothing special at all. Just another day.

One of the cosmos plants has a tiny little bud on it!

An itty bitty bud. On a plant I grew from seed. From seed, I tell you. I put the seed in the dirt and now there's a bud that will be a flower. (OK, technically, I put the seed in a potting "mix" but it's like dirt. Kinda.)

I realize I might be a bit overly excited by this development. A person might rightly point out that it would be expected that a flower would - at some point in its development - put forth a bud. But nonetheless, there it is. Just as plain as day. If you look closely. Very closely. It is an itty bitty bud, after all.

It's not like I've never grown anything from seed before, but it's still a magical process to me. Seeds become itty bitty buds. Amazing.
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Susan Boyle

Every once in awhile, there's a You Tube video from Britian's Got Talent that is really cool. The latest is Susan Boyle, who wowed the judges, including both Simon and Piers. It's worth your 7:07 minutes to go watch it. Click on the link above - they're not allowing embedding, which I never understand, but nonetheless, go give it a watch and listen.
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Rain on Easter Sunday

I've been gathering images of flowers dripping with rain on Easter Sundays for many years now. The first one I recall noticing was when I was a TV reporter and the producer sent a photographer and me out to a sunrise service. He took some gorgeous video of a daffodil bent under the weight of the raindrops clinging to it. I used it as the opening shot with the minister's voice saying, "It was raining that morning, too."

I don't know the Bible well, but I don't recall a weather report of that Sunday morning so many years ago being included. Of course, I'm guessing the minister had more information than me. And he may have been using that as a metaphor as well. Regardless, it has stuck with me all these years.

I've had a very laid back Easter Sunday. I slept in, which felt nice, and then stayed in bed reading, writing and thinking for awhile before I got up. I did a few things around the house and then went to Sharon's. We had a nice, although non-traditional, Easter dinner and then I worked on some computer things for her. As I was leaving I couldn't resist photos of her tulips.

There's something magical about a rainy day. It's as if the world is being washed clean so we can all start anew. That seems an appropriate image for an Easter Sunday.

On a personal level, I've really been feeling the need for a fresh start, a renewal, this spring. I think maybe that's part of why I'm enjoying starting so many seeds this year. Watching life spring from a tiny seed reaffirms my belief in miracles, as if I needed any more proof of them these days.

I'm also feeling a need for "nest building" lately. Having a new lease on life - literally - gives me reason to want to make my daily life all the more pleasant. And part of that is making my home the way I want it to be.

I hope your Easter Sunday was all you wanted it to be, and then some. And may  this season of renewal bring us all hope beyond what our imaginations can fathom.



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Happy Easter

Easter is a time of hope and renewal.
May your day be blessed.

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A Busy but Fun Saturday

The highlight of my day was lunch with Tara and her mother in law, Gail. I met Tara during a "Food Coma Caravan" organized by Carl. I really liked her and her husband, Todd, right away. They live in Kansas City so we don't get to see each other very often. But, we had dinner a few months ago when they were in Hutchinson visiting family, and we keep up on Facebook.

Someone forwarded Gail a note about my blog entry on the doggie Easter parade, and she remembered that I knew Tara. So, Gail asked Tara if she wanted to see if we could get together while Tara and Todd were visiting in Wichita this weekend, and voila it all worked out with perfect timing because I was open from 11-1 today. It was so fun to see Tara and meet Gail.

This morning I went to a workshop on vegetable gardening at the Extension office. It was a primer, I guess you'd say, but I picked up some good tips. It was done by Pam, the royal subject of one of the winners in the doggie Easter parade. Hazel, who shared Portabello the kitty with me at the shelter, was helping out this morning, too. Of course, there were some other folks there I knew, including Jessica and Trish and Jim, but I didn't really get to visit because I had to slip out a little early to get to Skaets for lunch with Tara and Gail.

After lunch we all headed out to the Salt Museum. I was volunteering this afternoon and they were going for a visit. Todd, and Gail's husband, Steve, came over separately and they all met up at the museum. It just so happened they were on my first tour of the day so I got to visit with them briefly underground, too.

Needless to say, it was a busy day for me, with something on the schedule from 9-5, but it had lots of fun. And tonight I finally got my taxes done. I filed the federal online and have the state ready to mail. I'm so glad to have that off my list of things to do. I've joked that I've spent more time whining about doing them than it would have taken to actually do them. Unfortunately, that was not true. They took me about 2 1/2 hours. But, at least I'm getting a little money back instead of owing, so that's a bonus.

I have some other things on my agenda yet this weekend that I want to accomplish. I have a lot to catch up on in the house. A lot. In every nook and cranny. I also have a pile of computer-related things to do. I hope I feel like I've got a handle on things by the end of the weekend. We'll see how that goes.
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Friday

I was so glad to wake up to a Friday today. This has been a frantic week in some ways and has had its share of disappointments tossed in for good measure, so I'm ready to have a nice weekend. I've got a slew of things on the agenda this weekend, but most of them will be fun, including lunch with Tara from Kansas City tomorrow. That's an unexpected treat.

Trish and I had lunch today and it was good to visit with her. I never see enough of her. We're both going to a gardening presentation in the morning so I'll see her two days in a row, which is kind of unusual.

After work today Greg and I decided to get a quick bite at Quizno's. While we were finishing up Barbara came in so we got to visit with her a little bit. Greg took this photo of me while we were there.



I was laughing tonight, looking at it, because he took another photo of me a year or two ago at another restaurant where you can see my water glass. I noticed in this one I have the phone, too. People sometimes tease me about always having the phone handy and I guess there's officially proof now.

Last night sometime between 2 and 3 a.m., Greg called and told me to go look at the snow. Snow, I asked, a little groggy? Yes, snow. We had quite a rain storm last night and it was still raining when I went to bed. Then the snow started. It was snowing and raining at the same time. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

I was glad Greg called me, and glad I came downstairs to see the snow. It was big, fluffy flakes - just like those that made the blizzard for us a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, there was no accumulation this time, but it was something to see. I snapped a photo from my front porch.



You can tell the sidewalks are wet from the rain. There are even some puddles. And then the snow.

Also on the agenda this weekend, in addition to fun, is getting my taxes done and getting my house presentable. I'm not sure why I put off doing my taxes every year. They're so easy it takes me well under an hour. But, apparently, I prefer to whine about them on Facebook and in real life for far more hours than it would take to just do them.

I'm having Creative Sisterhood here Tuesday night so I want to get the house presentable. I tell you, you literally do nothing to your house for two months, you end up with a lot to do. I still don't bend and stay bent for very long, but I certainly feel like making some basic improvements to the general cleanliness level. I've never been a Martha Stewart type, so I'm keeping my expectations reasonable. That means, in this case, it will still involve piles of things here and there. I can't help it. I'm a person who has piles.

Well, the 9 a.m. gardening presentation I'm headed to in the morning is only a few hours away. I'd best get a little sleep between now and then. I hope you're having a wonderful Easter weekend so far.
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Your Purpose in Life

I was talking with a friend today who expressed that she was trying to figure out her purpose in life. I've never thought about it in those exact terms, but I guess we're all doing that to some degree.

Do you consciously think about what your purpose is? I can't say that I do. I know when I'm living within it though, by how I feel. The trick, as always, is how to live that purpose, and yet manage all the necessities of life as well. If I could figure that out, I could be living my purpose all day.

I've been thinking all evening about how I would define my purpose. I'm not sure I have words for it, exactly. But, it seems a worthy goal to find some. Time to put pen to paper for that one.
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Qi gong in the Park

Terry called this evening and asked if I wanted to meet him in Avenue A Park and do some qi gong. It's an ancient form of exercise/meditation, similar to tai chi but less strenuous. Terry teaches it at a couple of local centers. He and Sharon both teach tai chi, too.

At first I was hesitant because I had already worked in my back yard and was feeling it. But, Terry assured me it wouldn't require a lot of the things that still make me hurt - like bending. So, I decided it was a wonderful way to spend some time with a friend, and be out enjoying the sunshine.

I called Greg to see if he wanted to go and Sharon was at his house so we all went.

Terry gave Greg and me a private lesson, and Sharon did it along with us, which was great because we had two people who knew what they were doing to watch. I really liked it.

We did the "Eight pieces of silk brocade" series - at least I think I've got the right name. There are eight series of movements and you do each one eight times. Terry explained each one and then did them so we could follow along. I was able to do all of them except one that involved bending over and touching your toes then slowly coming upright again. I did one of those and decided that was not a way my body wants to move quite yet.

I'm hoping we can do it again soon. I guess there are lots of different practices you can do, but this is one of the common ones and pretty easy to do. I don't think I could do anything much more complex than this one. It stretched my limits on coordination.



Avenue A Park is such a cool part of our city. The water flows under Main Street and the park is beautifully landscaped. I love the fact that some long-time businesses, like Midwest Feed, are part of the scenery there.
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Easter, Spring and Gardens

At the flea market this weekend, I bought this metal basket, decorated with these metal flowers. I'm not sure why, other than it's Easter season, which makes one think of baskets, and it was a dollar and it's got that pink and gold combo from the 50s that has started to appeal to me in a big way. Lately I've been thinking - just thinking - about redoing my kitchen to incorporate those colors. However, I doubt that will happen anytime soon. Or ever.

Hard to believe Easter is just a few days away. Greg's mom invited me to come to Joplin for the holiday, but I can't leave all my little plants. They would need definitely need water before I got back. They're drinking it up at a prodigious rate.

My only Easter decoration is this little bunny I got last year who is residing on my desk. I had hoped to do an Easter tree outside, but after the blizzard, my tree's leaves are all brown - not very spring like. I don't think brightly colored, plastic Easter eggs would overcome the brown.

Today was a beautiful day - sunny and warm. I spent most of it hunched over paperwork and the computer screen finishing up the United Way application. But after 5 I was able to start working on my back yard a little bit. I hadn't even removed the dead plants from last year. The tomato cages were still in place, with the remains of tomatoes long gone with them. I pulled those out and managed to get a little bit of other stuff out.

The lemon balm is growing, the sage has some green on it, and some of the lavender is starting to come in, too. I am so eager to have fresh food growing in the back yard again. I love the early mornings in the summer. Nothing like going out in the back yard while the dew is still wet, and seeing what's happening in the garden.

I think I'm going to kill the grass in my back yard to make more room for garden. I hate mowing it anyway, and continually need more room for garden, so it seems like the perfect solution. I laid down a little bit of landscape cloth tonight in one small area. I was reminded I don't yet bend well for extended periods of time. But, I can just do a little bit at a time, and I'll get it done eventually. I think I'll start at the back, beside the garage, and work my way forward. That's the area that gets the most sun anyway. I also need to just spray round up on the grass/weed patch out by the alley. I think I'll spend this summer killing it and next year I can plant something there that doesn't require mowing. Is it time to mention again that I hate mowing? Apparently it is. I hate mowing.

There are so many things I need to get done around the house. For two months I didn't really do anything and things have piled up to say the least. But now that I'm feeling more normal I'm trying to do at least a couple of things in the house every day to get life back on an even keel. I still feel "scattered" and hope getting things a bit more under control will help that.
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These Three Pounds

This weekend at the flea market I bought some old crochet hooks. This might prompt the logical question of "am I crocheting." The answer would be, "no." I know how to crochet, and on occasion I feel the urge, but it generally passes quickly - long before I've even gone in search of yarn.

But this made me think about all the things we learn to do in our lives. It's quite astonishing, really. Each of us has developed hundreds, maybe thousands, of skills that we think nothing about. Dare I say, we take them for granted.

Think about all we learn to do in just the first couple of years. We go from helpless to walking in just about 12 months, and to talking in another 12. Those are not small accomplishments by any means.

In just a few more short years we can read and write, and somewhere along the way critical thinking enters the picture. We learn to develop relationships with others and start to find our way in the world.

Amazing all the things these three pounds of gray matter can do.

Take just a minute and think about all the things you know how to do. Some things we learn through osmosis - like language, and some we learn through diligent effort.

I was surprised at the disparate things on my list. I can crochet and I can shoot a gun for example. I don't know that I do either particularly well, although I'm guessing I may be better with a gun than a crochet hook. Fortunately, my daily life doesn't call for either of those skills much.
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Moon Rock for the Touching

That's a sliver of moon rock you can touch at a special exhibit at the Cosmosphere through Monday.

This is lunar sample 70215.11, and one of only seven pieces of moon rock that are available for the public to touch. This fragment weighs about 7/10 of an ounce. It came from a rock that weighed more than 16 pounds. It's 3.75 billion years old - older than most rocks on Earth, just in case you were keeping track.



This NASA traveling exhibit is in a small trailer parked beside the Cosmosphere's front door. It contains information on the space program's mission to go to the Moon, Mars and Beyond.

It's ingenious, really. You can read some exhibits, touch the rock, and have an opportunity to get a free photo that looks like you're in a space suit on the moon, Saturn, or other far-flung locales.

The rock is under a small piece of plastic. And don't get any ideas, it's very secure. The guys traveling from Houston with the exhibit tell me they do clean it every day so you're actually touching rock, not the residue from the last few thousand people who touched it.



July 20, 1969 was the first manned moon landing, so we'll celebrate the 40th anniversary soon. In the 13 years after that initial visit, we made six more landings, and collected 842 pounds of lunar samples. This one was collected by Astronaut Jack Schmitt in 1972, near where the lunar module landed during the last visit humans made to the moon on Apollo 17.

For those of us who grew up with the space program, it's encouraging to see a new generation experiencing some of that excitement.



I can't say this young lady was feeling the same excitement I did when I was about her age and went outside to look up at the moon, knowing there were men walking around on it for the first time, but I hope she's feeling something - a sense of excitement, possibilities, the thrill of exploration, or a new appreciation of science.

I love to see NASA doing these sorts of programs - not only because I got to touch a moon rock, but because it's a way to share the thrill of exploration with new generations as we prepare to return to the moon.

You can go touch the moon rock from 9-5 Monday, for free. After Monday they're headed on down the road. Don't miss it. 
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Doggie Easter Parade

This photo of my friend, Julie, sums up today's Doggie Easter Parade I think. It was windy. (see Julie's hair) People were having fun. (see Julie's smile) Dogs were generally uninterested, but accommodating. (see Gracie)

This afternoon Cause for Paws had their first ever Easter Parade and Egg Hunt for Dogs. Although I'm not a dog owner, I couldn't resist going. There was mention of dogs wearing Easter bonnets, but with the gale force winds today it was impossible.

There was one dog doing her best for the occasion, though.



There were little dogs like Max, whose ears could have made him airborne had his humans not held him tight.



And big dogs, who were affected by the wind, too.



The event got started with a dog parade...



Led by none other than the season's most important celebrity...



After the parade, Mayor Trish looked over the assembled troops and chose a king and queen. Some of the dogs understood the significance of this event and did their best to schmooze with the mayor.



Greg wanted a photo with one of the winners, Maile, who's royal subject is Pam Paulsen.



Maile could not be bothered to pose, having important royal functions to perform. We're not sure exactly what those are, but they precluded her from taking time out for a portrait sitting. Greg pursued her like a paparazzi for awhile, but finally gave up.

Photographers were finding much to interest them. Not only the Hutchinson News photographer, but also Bob and Greg, were trying to capture the memorable moments. Connie Johnson and I were snapping away too.



All of the festivities today were held at our new dog park. Every time I drive by there are lots of people there with their doggies, letting them run free. Even being uneducated about the ways of dogs, this seems like a really cool thing to me. I was happy to contribute my $2 at the door today.

The dog park is something Trish really wanted, as well as some other folks in town, including Donna Hessman.



After the parade, and the King and Queen coronation, there was an egg hunt. Of course, step one is hiding the eggs. We're taking some poetic license with "hiding" in this case. Kelly was one of the expert egg hiders, with the wind assisting in spreading them about.



The eggs had doggie treats inside. But, as you might expect, it was the job of the humans to procure the eggs for their dogs. Some were more patient than others.





All were "Blowin' in the Wind" all day long.







Once the humans had gathered the eggs, they had to work to keep them from blowing away. In this case, the dog was rushing in to make sure all the doggie treats were safe.



This family perfected the wind-blocking technique to search to see if they had any prize eggs.



It was a really fun afternoon, despite the wind.



Afterwards, we went into the new animal shelter to see the kitty condo decorating contest entrants. We stayed long enough for me to fall in love with a four year old kitty, Portobello, being held here by Hazel.



I did not bring him home, because I'm gone too much and a kitty would get lonely. But, if you are in need of a feline companion, he is adorable and a sweetie. He's playful and was content being held - the best of both worlds. I want him to have a wonderful, loving home.
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