The Bluegrass Bunch

[Wombat]

Afternoon folks the weeks are just flying by here and there's so much to do! The rain has finally stopped falling and this weekend is fine and warm. I've still got a lot to do outside ( mainly jobs that were put off due to the high humidity of summer) My sweetpeas are climbing up my trellises and will hopefully be flowering soon, harvested the last pumpkin and sweet potatoes for the season and planted some more spuds. My strawberry and tomato plants have doubled in size, due to the amount of rain we've had, so I may get a crop from them if this balmy autumn weather persists.
Laurie great to hear that your yard is getting greener and you also have some colour. Fresh pineapple in a pie is delicious, especially if it's just a little over ripe, the flavour is wonderful. Hope everything with your tests goes well for you too.
Bobbi and Shiney So pleased you like the pics of my little rainforest, it's amazing how you can keep finding places and spaces to put more plants in
Janet those ''red things'' are rosellas, which make a wonderful jam. It's from the hibiscus family, here's a pic of it in flower and later when the rosellas, themselves form. Looking forward to pics of your garden as it sounds wonderful...great pic of you and the sequoia tree.
Peggy all those flowers sound wonderful, where's the pics please? Thanks for the kind comments of my little RF, I've seen pics of your place, so I count that as high praise indeed! My latest addition to it is a Ylang Ylang tree ( cananga odorata) it's oil is used in aromatherapy and in perfumes etc. The fragrance from the flowers is supposed to be indistinguishable from Chanel No. 5...here's hoping!
Nat, great to see you again..........and you too KyGal you lil gold digger you! Talk to you all soon and hoping it warms up for y'all

 

[Mainegal]

Yep, it is Fiona's birthday. We are not far from where she was born. It was a small hospital in Carmichael, CA. I dropped MF off at the hospital and took our older daughter to Grandma's house in Carmichael and by the time I got back, I had a new daughter.

Sorry that you missed Fiona's birth. I spaced out and forgot to send her a card so will send her an email this am.

 

[Randy]

I picked up a pretty teacup and saucer for her when we were in CA. There was a Kitchen type store there close to where we were and I had to see what they had.

 

[Natloo]

I made it to India!

Hello all ... I made it safe and sound. The flight was LONG ... first leg was only an hour but had a 3 hour layover and then the flight from Newark to Delhi was 13 hours. My bottom is sore from sitting so long!!

All I did yesterday/today was sleep!! I'm getting ready to shower now and then out to dinner with my travel buddy.

We start work tomorrow and are not allowed to bring any cameras so there won't be any pictures for you to see on my Facebook until this weekend when we do our sight seeing.

I may post some pics of the hotel we are staying in but that's not really all that interesting ...

Off to the shower and dinner now ... Everyone take care!

 

[Mainegal]

Nat
Glad you made it there ok, and thanks for letting us know. Please keep us updated so we will know what is going on with you. Take care

 

[Randy]

Natalie, that is quite an experience, but I am glad it is you and not me that is away. I'm not a very good traveler. I used to tell my wife that I didn't mind the travel (for work) as long as I could get home and sleep in my own bed at night.

 

[shinekeeper]

Gosh, L'il Sis...what a long flight! I hope you were able to move a little to keep circulation to your legs. Glad you're safe. What an experience!!!
Hi everybody. I am so occupied all the time it seems. But I still like y'all a whole bunch!!

 

[smiley_face2]

That is very exciting Natalie!! I think you are too far away from where Suzanne lives to be able to meet her, she is a doctor, and teaches at university as well.

 

[Mainegal]

I haven't seen Suzanne for awhile, hope she is doing well.

The drs office called last night and said it was not cancer but it was precancerous so I have to go on the 8th and they are going to cryofreeze it I think she called it. Thanks everyone for the prayers.

 

[Dale]

Laurie that is GREAT news. I know you will sleep well tonight!!!

 

[shinekeeper]

So glad, Laurie.

 

[Kya D]

Thank Heaven Laurie

 

[smiley_face2]

That's so good it's been caught at a very early stage laurie! the best to you!
Suzanne is such a busy woman, with her doctoring, teaching, and being a mom! Hi Suzanne if you read this! I get the occasional note from her in email, usually a lovely Christian saying, poem type thing around Christmas, Easter etc. She is such a lovely person!

 

[Randy]

I guess I have to wait, but I sure am anxious to hear how Natalie is getting along over there. It just doesn't seem right that she is training people to take over her job when she could and possibly will lose it.

 

[Mainegal]

It's not right Randy but it's happening all the time. I saw on facebook that she went to the mall and guess it was tough getting across the road without getting hit or something like that. I think she also said that she snuck a camera into the mall. Guess camaras aren't allowed over there or something. I'll have to read back as I think she mentioned something about cameras. Praying that she is doing well.
Thanks everyone. I went for a bone density test and got the call from the dr tonight and I have thinning in 2 places and she wants me to take 1500 mg of calcium and get some light weights for my ankles and do some walking. i go see her on fri for my neck so will talk with her more then about what i need to. man it's always something. will let you know next fri what the dr said
looking into refinancing my house, if the rates are what they say they are online, the payments will stay the same but will get some $ I called my old mortgage broker and left him a msg tonight to call me on monday to see what the rates are. I want to buy a new car and do somethings around here. we shall see.

 

[Natloo]

Howdy Y'all!

My first week in India has turned out to be a good one.

The evening I went to the hotel buffet with my travel mate, Vanessa, we tried a little of everything that they had there and it was great eating! I have pictures of what I ate on my Facebook page. A funny thing happened while we were there. An Indian family with small children came in to eat just as we were finishing up. The little girl came right up to our table and pointed in Vanessa's direction and said something in Hindi. She just stood there and stared at us until her Mother came and got her ... the waiter told us that she saw my camera sitting on the table and her mother has one just exactly like it so she thought we had stolen it from her! LOL! It seems trouble follows me even when I leave the country!

Vanessa's stomach hasn't been agreeing with her since we got here so we haven't done much outside the hotel but go to and from work. We have a driver that picks us up and takes us. We will not drive anywhere here on our own as traffic here is something to behold. There are cars everywhere, motorized rickshaws, lots of people ride bicycles or motorcycles, and there are the 1-2 person carts pulled by bicyclists. (I've only seen one pulled by a donkey.) There are cattle loose everywhere and people living in shacks set up along the streets. They don't really have any traffic laws and the traffic police are only there to attend to accidents. There is a 'right side' and a 'wrong side' of the road but you often see people crossing the line into oncoming traffic. Horns blow constantly and are expected from other drivers as a courtesy here, rather than the nuisance it is considered in the US.

Thursday night Vanessa was feeling okay so we got the hotel concierge to walk us over to the mall across the way from the hotel. He was with us when we went so he led us through traffic and noone came up to us. Photographs are not allowed in the mall that we went to but we had our cameras with us. The concierge talked to the guards and we were allowed to bring our cameras inside as long as we promised not to take any pictures! LOL! I was going to take one anyway when we were at TGI Friday's in the mall but Vanessa threatened to leave me behind if we got arrested. (no fun!) On our way back to the hotel we were on our own though but we crossed traffic without any problem. I had a child beggar come up to me though which totally broke my heart. I was told to look the other way and not to give anyone anything so that is what I did, although I wanted to give him something. I guess we will have to stick to the other mall that is right beside the hotel as there are no beggars there due to the security at the hotel being so close. I'll have to get a picture of me with the armed guards!

I've been eating the local cuisine here every chance I've got ... against all warnings from everyone. I love spicy food and eat it quite often anyway. Well, the guy I work with that was here just before we arrived (who also eats anything and everything) warned me to take it slow and to be sure to get the prescription filled that the doctor gave to us incase of stomach upset. I thought I was handling everything well but after a week straight of mostly all Indian food, and an extra spicy treat yesterday, I think it's finally caught up to me! I'm going to take one of those pills from the doc and play it safe for a few days before overdoing it again ... (because you KNOW I'm going to overdo it again!) I think it's not so much the food as it is the combination of that and the heat here. It was 114 degrees today and the air isn't working too well at the office where we work. I got overheated after lunch and I think that's what did me in. Just the same though ... I'm going to have McDonalds tomorrow! (but it's against their religeon to eat beef over here so I'm interested to see what the burgers will be made from.) I had a lamb barbecue cheese burger when I ate at TGI Fridays! I also ordered an "Indian" beer (that's what it said on the menu) but they brought me a Foster's. I thought that was Australian beer? Anyway ... just wanted a new experience.

We are going to the local market tomorrow afternoon. It is supposed to be just as hot so we are going after 3:00 to avoid the hottest part of the day. It is called Dilli Haat where we'll be going. I'll take my camera and try to get lots of pictures to put on Facebook for all to see! If we have time after shopping, we will go to see the Lotus Temple. It closes by 6pm though so we are just going to play it by ear. Then Monday we will go to Agra to see the Taj Mahl. We will leave here at 5:30 am as it takes several hours to get there and we are trying to miss the mid day heat.

Our work week here is Tuesday through Saturday so it's nice that we will miss all the tourists by going to see the sights on Mondays. I'm not sure yet what the plans for next weekend will be but I'm sure it will be fun ... I was told that India has a lot of landmarks and wonders to see. If the election wasn't going on here (Deli is the capital) we would have been able to go to a cricket match. But, as a security precaution (due to the number of fans) they moved the tournament to Africa this year. It's all you see on TV over here ... kinda like baseball but different.

I'll try to get on here sometime during next week to let you know how our sight seeing over the weekend went.

Everyone take care!

 

[Randy]

Thank you so much for the update, Natalie. I am glad to here about all those new and different things, but I am happy to be here in Oregon and let you do the travel for me. LOL

 

[Dale]

Natalie sounds like y'all are having a wonderful time. Tell us more!!! Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[smiley_face2]

looking into refinancing my house, if the rates are what they say they are online, the payments will stay the same but will get some $ I called my old mortgage broker and left him a msg tonight to call me on monday to see what the rates are. I want to buy a new car and do somethings around here. we shall see.

We did that exactly one year ago, before the big crisis hit. We are paying just a hair over 1% on our mortgage right now It's a good thing we had done it, hubby ended up being off work for over 6 months through the winter

 

[Randy]

We are pretty fortunate. We had a house all paid for that we sold to move where we are now. I had to add some money to what we got for the house, but I was still able to pay for our half of the property up front. The kids had to finance part of their half. But I don't have a mortgage payment and I really like that.