Precious, Plums, Pretty Sun and Propositions

One of Annie's recent geocaching venues. 

There's a range of thoughts here, most prominently, though, is that we get to do some traveling----vicariously so. 

Annie takes off this afternoon for Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Germany, and finally (when we get up tomorrow morning) Strasbourg, France.  

It's her annual "go to Europe for geocaching" adventure.  There's a little vacation built in too, but her primary focuses will be the European Geocoinfest in Prague, Czech Republic and a mega-geocaching event in France. 

She'll be visiting Switzerland, Austria and maybe Italy in between stops.  

So, thanks to Facebook, we all get to join her as she posts photos of her travels.  In France, she'll be visiting the Alsace-Lorraine region, where our Halter ancestors on our mother's father side resided.  

Maybe she'll find some family traces; who knows!


Anyway, we're excited, and I KNOW she's excited to embark on this wonderful work-related experience.  

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Other thoughts this morning relate to the sun.  It was putting on quite a show through the Scotch pine branches.  Looks like it will be hanging around for a while.

We hate to complain about the sun, but if it could hang around WITHOUT bees and drying up pastures, that would be nice.

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Not only is the sunshine a beautiful sight, but those jars of plum jelly bring a smile to my face too.  

Our tree of abundance has kept me busy in the kitchen.  I think I'll make one more batch and call it good. 

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In the not-so-pretty-sight department, my big lawnmower with the broken deck and the belt strewn all over the place does not elicit a smile from me.  It may do so with Tony, the fix-it wizard.  

He knows that a summer will not go by without having Marianne call with a few high-priced fixes.  

I thought I was gonna make it without having to call Tony until I heard a whole bunch of rattling underneath the mower while cutting the lawn last night.  

So, he'll come out, pick up the deck and try to weld it back together. 

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Another not so pretty sight occurred here in the house yesterday afternoon after I brought home the upgrade for my iphone.  

When I asked if they would transfer the data from the old phone to the new, like they used to do, the clerk told me I had to do that at home with i-tunes.  

I asked him several questions about the procedure, to which he kept reassuring me that it was easy as pie. 

Well, the first part involved downloading i-tunes.   That took several tries, but there were no obviously easy steps to backing up and restoring data for my phone.  At least, I wasn't finding them.

So, I called, asking for help.

Just open i-tunes and they'll walk you right through it, another clerk told me. 

That's when I realized that I must be a cro-magnon in the tech world and would have to tough it out and figure it out for myself, even if it did take the next three weeks. 

My brother arrived in the middle of my exasperation.  I tried a couple of other angles when he first arrived and then just gave up.

My sisters came later.  We visited.  They left.  And, miraculously, the correct link appeared.  One phone passed along its information to my computer and the other phone happily grabbed hold.

So, my new i-phone was now ready for action.  My first task with the phone was to "text" some interview questions to a participant in my North Dakota migration story.

"It's easier for me," he said in a Facebook note the night before.

Well, those not-so-nimble thumbs struggled through the process and eventually the questions went on their way via text messaging.  First time I've ever conducted an interview in that format. 

Anyway, I forgot all about the questions and the interview and went on to other things, like breaking the lawnmower.

Morning arrived.  I went to the kitchen to get my first cup of coffee and punched the new phone to see if there'd been any activity.

"I am 34 years old and single . . . ."  First words I read this morning on my new phone.  

First thought:  Hmmm. This is weird.  How did some desperate stranger get MY phone number?

Second thought:  Oh, yeah, I did ask this interview subject how old he was and what his marital status was.  

No propositions here----just a brain not quite working yet and a healthy sense of relief. 

Well, my brain is now engaged with a long list of "to do's" for the day, and I've babbled enough.  

So, happy Wednesday.