A favorite place to eat

When my daughter and I were in Columbia the other day, we stopped at the 63 Diner for a bite to eat.  It's one of our very favorite places in Columbia.  The food is reasonable and good and they play my kind of music!  Oldies but goodies...guess you can tell that by seeing Elvis and the rest of the decor!  The Coca Cola seats on the inside of the door are where you can sit if you have to wait a bit to be seated.   It's a very popular place and there is sometimes a long line of people waiting to get in.  Most of the waitresses wear full skirts with the full petticoats we used to call "can cans" under them.  If you just want an ice cream treat, I can tell you that the old fashioned chocolate sodas with whipped cream and a cherry on top are divine!  Here's Elvis again:

My cucumbers are finally beginning to get big enough to eat although as my photo below shows the plants are not really very big yet.  In spite of all the rains we've had, the soils looks dry since it's been so very hot.

  

I've look everywhere for my frozen cucumber recipe that I've had for many years.  It is a good way to put up cucumbers if you don't want to make pickles.  We like them very much.  I found some recipes online that I might have to try.  They looked very similar to how I remember making it.  If they turn out well, I'll post the recipe.  Hope my own shows up! 

Of course I found where I had written down my frozen corn recipe in 3 different places.  Doesn't that just figure...ha ha!  It's a good recipe too.  You cut the corn off the cobs and put in a kettle with butter, etc.  To serve, just thaw and heat through.  Very good.  I'll share that one later.  We didn't plant corn this year, I miss having it.  Oh, heck...I'll just go ahead and share the frozen corn recipe now.  Some one in blogland may have lots of corn already!  It's easy and yummy, I've used this recipe a lot over the years.

Frozen Corn

16 cups corn (cut off cob)

6 cups water

1 cup sugar

4 tsp salt

Mix together and boil 3 minutes.  Then add 

1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine.  Let butter melt. 

Cool and put in freezer containers and put in

freezer.  To serve, thaw and heat through.

Do you have a garden?  We just planted some tomato and pepper plants  near the house.  Then a few cucumber plants and a couple of zucchini plants in the garden.  Can't wait for the tomatoes!  They're a favorite of mine.  Think sandwiches!! 

Until next time...

The river

The Missouri River

My daughter and I were in the little river town of Glasgow Monday afternoon.  With all the rain this area has been having, we weren't surprised to see that the river was so high and some moderate flooding taking place.  The river stage is 25 feet and I believe it got as high as 31 feet.   We were on a little walkway at the river's edge.  

Below is another view looking to our right.  The Missouri River is, I believe, the longest river in the U.S.  

The next photo is taken directly across from us.  It gives you a better idea of just how high the river is.

A lot of the farm land around Glasgow away from the river bottom is very hilly.  They raise wonderful crops there.  My father always liked Glasgow and thought that the people there were so friendly.  I think that is true, you hardly ever meet a car or pickup without getting waved at.  Not so in my hometown!  Isn't it funny how different communities can be in the same general area?  Below is a photo of one of those hilly corn fields.   It's much steeper than it looks to be in the pic. 

Tomorrow,  Daughter has to be on the campus at MU in Columbia for a meeting.  She wants me to go with her again.  Actually, I'm to chauffeur and let her out so she won't have to find a parking spot and walk so far in all this heat we're having now.  I don't mind, I'll have a chance to go visit the Upscale/Resale, one of my favorite stops, while waiting.  I just hope the weather cools off a bit.  The temp was at 97 degrees as I was driving through town to go to work this afternoon.  Much too hot for June!  Wonder what July and August will be like?  

Hope you are having nice weather wherever you are!

Until next time...

Back home

This was our destination last Friday.  Branson near

Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri.   

We stayed at the Hilton on the Branson Landing.  Our son 

and daughter were with us.  We met our son there as he 

had business in Branson on Thursday.

We saw the fountain show that is synchronized to lights,
sound, music and fire at the Landing.  A much smaller
version of  the Bellagio in Las Vegas, but still very nice.

That is Lake Taneycomo in the background.

It was very hot and humid over the weekend.  This looked 

sort of out of place in all the heat!  It's an interesting tour if you

haven't seen it. They give you a card with a name of

an actual passenger who was on the Titanic when you "board" 

and when you leave you then find out if you survived or not.

A

A waterpark that looked like a lot of fun and made me wish

I was a lot younger, but then I remembered I have always

been afraid of heights, so don't know if I would have had

the nerve to slide down.

We stopped in at Grand Country to play a couple rounds 

of indoor miniature golf.  I didn't win, but we all got a hole-in-one.

It was fun with a lot of kidding around going on.  

This was our view from the balcony

of our condo at the hotel.  It was almost too

hot to sit out there!  We were in the South Tower.

We ate here Saturday night after watching the water show 

just outside.  I ordered a steak with garlic mashed

potatoes and creamed spinach.  Yum, yum!  I just love

their creamed spinach.  Wish I could make it as good as they do. 

That the steak was excellent goes without saying!

We did a bit of shopping, drove around to see the sights,

and also just relaxed and visited in our condo.

  We had planned to go to Silver Dollar City, a popular

place we love to visit, but we decided it was just too hot.

It was over 95 degrees and soooo humid.

Too hot to walk up and down hills for this chick!

All too soon, it was time to pack up and say goodbye to 

Branson.  We hope to return in the fall and again for 

our annual Thanksgiving trip.  

Here is someone who was glad to see us get home.  She

had tried to stow away in our luggage before we left by 

crawling into one of the outside pockets.  Then she put

on that sad little face like she knew we would be leaving

her!  We felt a little sad to leave her behind, but a friend came 

by every day to check on her so we knew she was okay! 

It's back to work today for me.  I have laundry to do and flowers to water, the house needs cleaning again.  The chores never end do they?  Oh yeah, and a job to go to at 3 pm.   But the memories of a special weekend getaway with family will always remain.  I treasure every one. 

Until next time...

Singing in the rain

It was raining when I woke up this morning.  The sun came out after a while, then along came more rain.  This pattern was repeated all day.  So I, of course, had songs related to rain running through my head.  Mainly the Creedance Clearwater Revival songs  Who'll Stop the Rain and Have You Ever Seen the Rain.  Love their music!  I began to think of others and remembered I Love A Rainy Night by Eddie Rabbit.  That was a good one.  I loved Elvis singing Kentucky Rain.   I loved Elvis singing most anything.  The Carpenter's were very good and so was their song, Rainy Days and Monday's.  Can't leave out Fire and Rain by James Taylor.   I know I'm leaving a lot of good songs out, and I really can't leave out Singin' in the Rain, the Gene Kelly musical.  That one makes you want to play/sing in the rain!  Well, unless you're in Missouri and it's usually thundering and lightning with it! 

The photo here is one I took between rains when it looked like it might clear up and the sun was shining.

I thought the jets above the clouds made an interesting shot.  Click on the picture to get a better look.

I didn't go to work this afternoon...have just been so very tired and not feeling quite myself.  Don't know what the problem is...probably just lazyitis!  

We will be leaving Friday for a little getaway.  Between now and then I have a lot to do, what with work tomorrow and another appointment Thursday.  I hope to post again, but if not...I will hopefully get some photos taken on the getaway and show where we went next week.

Until next time...

A rainy night

Whew...we've been busy the last few days.  From doctor's appointments, celebrating our anniversary, to more flower planting, some deep cleaning in the basement and the usual chores.  We did get out Saturday night for dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We were invited to 2 different weddings Saturday...they picked a good day, didn't they...worked for us!...however, we decided to not go to either so we wouldn't have to leave one out.  

Our son came by Thursday night around 10:30 from a business trip to St. Louis.  He wasn't feeling good and decided not to drive on to Kansas City.   He was really sick all day Friday and Friday night.  I think he may have gotten some food poisoning, but he also had a very high fever and headache.  He felt better Saturday and went home in the afternoon.   I'm glad he was here and not home alone feeling as bad as he did...he was glad to be here, too! 

We've had more rain, it just never seems to end.  One day is nice, the next thing you know clouds are forming and it rains.  It was especially hot and humid today, I'm sure that will bring another round of storms.  Here's some pictures I took today of the clouds...the first one was after the first storm blew by.

This one was taken on a quick trip to WallyWorld.  There

was heavy rain and high winds in the area, we saw some

limbs in the yards when we drove through the town.

After I finally got to sit down tonight, I played around with my blog background.  I've been looking at different sites that offer free backgrounds for quite some time now.   I have a "look" in mind, but I haven't figured out how to get there yet.  Just haven't had time to spend on it.  I also want to work on the header, I'm not satisfied with the white title.   This background will have to do for now.   

It's time to think about getting some sleep.  It's only 2:15 am after all!  Big chicken that I am, I'm keeping an eye on the weather, sure enough there's a severe storm warning out just west of here and I bet we'll get it too.   Maybe I'll just read a bit and hope it goes through quickly so I can sleep.  

Have a good Monday!

Until next time...

A song

I Believe

I believe for every drop of rain that falls

A Flower grows

I believe that somewhere in the darkest night,

A candle glows

I believe for everyone who goes astray,

Someone will come

To show the way

I believe, I believe

I believe above the storm the smallest prayer

Will still be heard

I believe that someone in the great somewhere

Hears every word

Every time I hear a newborn baby cry

Or touch a leaf or see the sky

Then I know why

I believe

Every time I hear a newborn baby cry

Or touch a leaf or see the sky

Then I know why I believe

Why I believe

~Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman

 

I love music.  Some times I want to listen to soothing, easy listening music when I want to be quiet and rest.  Other times I want something fast paced, the kind that's energizing. 

I love most kinds of music, really, except for rap and heavy metal.  That said, I was driving home from work tonight and couldn't find anything I wanted to listen to on the radio, so I turned it off and had some prayer time.  I do a lot of praying when I'm driving (oh yeah, I keep my eyes open!).  This old song just popped into my head and it brought tears to my eyes.  I'm not sure why. 

When I started blogging, I made my mind up to 3 things.  I wouldn't talk about politics, religion or show pictures of my family and tell where we live.  Oops, I think that is 4 things.  Anyway, the picture idea was from the family...they didn't want theirs all over the internet.  So I agreed.  Hubby didn't want anyone to know where we lived, so I agreed again.  As far as politics and religion goes, I know that some people have really strong feelings about them and I just didn't want to hurt feelings.  Well, I probably have blown it on the politics in some of my comments to other bloggers about items in the news.  And as far as religion goes, I will say that I am a Christian and believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  But I will not tell you that you must belong to a particular denomination.  If others choose to do so, that is fine by me.  As far as I'm concerned, we can all just get along and love each other.  Isn't it just that simple?  If only...

The flowers should be growing very well around here...we've had lots of rain today.  At least I didn't have to worry about all the pots outside today! 

We had lightning hit close to the house this morning.  I was almost afraid to look outside for fear a tree would come tumbling down.  It was terrifyingly loud and the flash in the window was reddish.  Our poor kitten was frightened and hid under the bed.  I pretended to be brave and didn't dive under myself, tho I wanted to!  

Hope you have a wonderful day, rain or shine! 

Until next time...

Our Furbaby

My little furbaby, Stormy, had a wee bit of surgery (spayed) about 10 days ago.  It was a traumatic time for her and probably the veterinary personnel, too!   She is back to her normal self now.  Here is a picture I snapped of her sleeping a few days after I brought her home from the vet.  Her incision looks a lot like a belly button in the photo. 
  

The next picture shows her getting into everything feeling like her usual perky self.  We're so glad the surgery is over and went well.  We were fretting over this just as if she were one of our children!

BTW, has anyone else had problems with blogger being down the last day or so?  I couldn't post Sunday or Monday.  

Tomorrow is another work day/night.  I don't leave for work until 2 pm or later, so I've gotten used to staying up late so I will not get up so early.  Ha!  That's how it's supposed to be...nature is usually calling early in the morning so I get up for that...crawl back in bed and try to go back to sleep.  Everyone else is up and going to work early.  Stormy snuggles up with me and sleeps until the alarm goes off.  She sleeps better than I do! 

Until next time...

It's Friday....

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly flow the days....

The above photo was taken at one of our local city lakes a week or so ago on the cell phone.  I love sunsets and I thought this one very beautiful.  You can click on the photo to make it larger.  

What have I been doing lately...since I haven't been blogging much?  Well, let's see....last month, I had a nasty virus not only once, but twice!  Yep, it got me again and the cough lasts forever...or so it seems.  I still have a bit of a cough now and then.   It really just wore me out, but I managed to keep working and the time I did miss, I made up. 

We did get to Kansas City to see our son who recently moved there from San Antonio.  It is so very good to have him closer to home.  We had a good visit.   He has a really nice apartment and I'd love to have the swimming pool there in my back yard.  (Yeah...right...like I'd be caught in a swimming suit...LOL)
   

There is a large screen tv protected by the brick wall on the right of the pool ladder.  Yep, I could relax very nicely there!  The building on the right side is a large exercise room and there is a paved trail all around the complex for the jogging/walking people.  That also helped sell my son on the place.  

 

Our kitten, Stormy, got spayed last week.  We waited until she was almost a year old.   If you have ever lived with a kitten that hasn't been spayed, you know what that is like!  She is back to her usual self now, after not feeling so good after the surgery.  I hope she doesn't mind me showing a photo of what she looks right now...(haha)!  Okay, that photo will have to wait...I haven't taken it off my camera yet!  

I went shopping yesterday and got a few more bags of mulch, another large bag of potting soil, and 3 more Knockout roses.  I bought quite a few annuals to put in my pots and ended up with several extras.  So, we dug out some more pots and I needed more soil.  We spray painted some of our pots this year...some of them were pretty faded from the sun.  They turned out really well.  Now, I need to find a spot for the 3 roses.  

 

 
There is much to do today, so I need to get busy.   Time is moving swiftly, as always.   Have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time...