Coen And Grandma

We're in Kansas City, home of my grandson and, luckily, a location for Chuck E. Cheese Pizza. For those of you unfamiliar to the place (and that would be people who've lived on another planet for the last 35 years) Chuck E. Cheese Pizza is like Las Vegas for preschoolers. The place is filled with coin operated rides and games. Rock music re-worded for kids blasts while animal robots dance. Some poor employee dressed as a huge mouse wanders through. The noise level is indescribable.

Of course Coen loves the place so we're there!

As soon as you feed in the coin this thing begins to bark. Shove the plunger down and feed the dog.

 

This is really pretty cool. It's a ride simulator where the seat rocks and vibrates to the action on the screen.

Above the ride a TV shows their reaction.

Coen and I had a great time and I learned a valuable lesson.....

Make sure your camera batteries are charged if you want photos :(

Lord of the Rings

If there's an official name for this thing I don't know it, but it's the ring you remove when you open a  plastic bottle of milk or water.  Winston Merlot loves them.

Winston is the feral cat who lives with us, and he doesn't really understand toys. We've tried to get him interested in all kinds of feathery, cat nippy, yarn ball devises with no luck.

Even the laser pointer - AKA Red Dot Demon - has no appeal.

(We nearly killed Earl with the Dot. His first experience with the laser was hilarious to us and exhausting to him. He chased that dot until he was panting and never gave up. We had to put it away of it may have been fatal.)

At last Winston has found something too appealing to resist. The simple plastic ring is a mortal enemy to be stalked, thrown and killed. Our only problem is Winston's insistence to play with his toy near the floor vent.

Great sadness; the ring has fallen through the vent. The game is over until the next bottle arrives or John  removes the vent to retrieve the rings stored there.

Autumn At The Lake

After a horribly hot and dry summer cool weather has finally arrived.

We all knew the leaves would fall before they turned, but just look at the surprise!

From a Corp of Engineer RV park.

This is the calmest water I've seen all season.

There were LOTS of fishermen on the lake today, and why not? It was a perfect day. The above photo shows the only bridge crossing Pomme de Terre Lake.

My poor impatiens!

They're my favorite annual, but never again will I plant them here. Keeping them alive was like running a marathon with the watering can.

We'll come back next year, but the flowers will be a lot tougher!

F A T

F A T stands for Friends At Table. Every Thursday evening at 5:30 a group of us meets for dinner - usually at the restaurant shown above. I insist on calling it Kelly's. 

We were invited to join the group by Mike and Marcia, a couple we met last winter at Llano Grande. Camped two spaces down from us, they had a sign with their names and home town listed. The town was Hermitage Mo. and we soon realized we'd be spending summer 2 miles apart.

The manager, who handed John a Corona as we walked past the bar on our way to the table.

Yes, we've been here before.

The waitress who puts up with all of us and can still smile.

  

Right to left - Sally, Marcia and Sue. 

Tim, Joe, Joe's wife Karen and Sally.

Me with cake baker extraordinaire Linda.

Sally's husband Gary

John, Mike (Marcia's husband), Don (Sue's husband) and Tim (Linda's husband).

This evening we celebrated Joe's birthday.

A Jayhawk committing suicide in Missouri Tiger territory.

Note the baseball playoff game on the TV in the background. It's the Washington Nationals defeating the St Louis Cardinals.

Tim, the President of FAT, in a photo taken prior to the Card's loss. That's why he's smiling. In addition to being a Card's fan Tim is an avid follower of the Missouri Tigers. Since Tim was feeling so bad about the baseball game I hated to point out the dismal 0-3 record of the Tigers in SEC play, but I did it anyway. 

Tim says he won't miss me much this winter.