tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22495920454423880602009-07-14T07:28:49.281-05:00Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.comBlogger270125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-67911892498626784132009-07-13T15:33:00.006-05:002009-07-13T16:27:30.748-05:00

Thanks to Joe, our Ranger guide in Chaco Canyon, I have a new profile picture. He suggested that I might need a picture that was a bit more casual, so he took this one of me on a windswept knoll out in the middle of nowhere. Another friend said it looked like "gone with the wind." I was glad that I had not started out the day with a specific hairdo because the wind out there was really wonderful!

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-61430701684359474372009-07-12T13:56:00.005-05:002009-07-12T14:14:10.842-05:00

I have two groups of photographs that I need to put somewhere so that friends can look at them. One group of photographs is from our trip to Chaco Canyon and another group is from a party that we attended as a farewell to good friends and I want to share them with other party-goers.I went to Flickr and looked at their website and then I went to Snapfish and looked at what they had to offer. Both

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-60445926442909945882009-07-10T10:25:00.007-05:002009-07-10T12:20:27.119-05:00

Traveling frugally. We went on a wonderful trip that did not cost us too much money except for transportation because we stayed with and were fed by great friends and relatives both in Chaco Canyon and in and near Albuquerque. I am enjoying the pool with my brother: Below we were touring a ruin in Chaco Canyon with our host, Joe, who treated us to some exceptional experiences and wonderful food!

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-80296716874092603162009-07-06T14:10:00.004-05:002009-07-06T14:28:21.403-05:00

One of my blogging friends, Terri Tiffany, asks three questions on her blog today, which is her third anniversary of blogging. Congratulations, Terri! Her blog is designed to help writers and has lots of suggestions, encouragement and discussions concerning writing and getting published.I had to stop and think how long I had been blogging and finally realized that I have been doing this for

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-64325533536194268382009-07-05T20:32:00.005-05:002009-07-05T20:56:54.725-05:00

I continue to enjoy oil painting. This coming week I will begin a new series of landscape painting lessons. The instructor's literature says that she promises to teach me how to really paint an oak tree. That should be fun since the picture I chose to paint is a desert scene from our trip to New Mexico. Anyway I am looking forward to learning a new technique in the way of oil painting.In the past

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-86459708348009897192009-07-03T20:28:00.003-05:002009-07-03T20:36:57.169-05:00

My sweet husband took me out for lunch today for my birthday and we each ordered an appetizer. He got crab cakes and I got Ahi Tuna. Both came with salad and were ample for a meal. We tend to eat lighter at lunchtime anyway, so it was very satisfying, not to mention the fact that both were delicious!Recently I have found that appetizers are quite filling and are much less expensive than

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-4106787442070409942009-07-01T17:12:00.004-05:002009-07-01T21:04:22.562-05:00

The peaches are in the stores now and they are beautiful and taste delicious! I bought some this afternoon and could hardly wait to get home and taste them. I might even want to paint them they are so beautiful!Coincidentally my daughter-in-law, Kara, published a delicious-sounding recipe for peach cobbler on her blog today. In addition, she is giving away a copy of Jan Karon's Hardcover Mitford

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-19781761283861734702009-06-27T21:21:00.002-05:002009-06-27T21:26:59.081-05:00

We are definitely in the midst of a heat wave and the weatherman says the worst is yet to come. A couple of days ago it was 107 and today it was 105. That makes me wonder what is yet to come--especially as I see so many of our plants struggling to stay alive in this heat.Please share with me the ways you stay cool in hot weather. I stay inside as much as possible but I long to be outside

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-37297620694706011872009-06-26T13:41:00.003-05:002009-06-26T14:07:24.415-05:00

It is so hot where we live that our A/C is running much of the time although I have it set pretty high. Luckily, my husband and I don't mind it being somewhat warm in our house. However, all this heat has made energy consumption sky rocket in our area this past week or so. That set me to thinking about all the ways I might save energy around the house. *For starters I don't put my hot car in

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-24085400471889375692009-06-25T20:58:00.003-05:002009-06-25T21:15:18.550-05:00

After we left Chaco Canyon, we drove to our friends' wonderful villa near Santa Fe for a brief (too brief) stay. They fed us well, took us on a hike, showed us their petroglyph, treated us to some rainy weather, and took us to Santa Fe. It was a delightful visit. Here are some pictures. This first picture shows their courtyard in the front of their house. It was just gorgeous with wonderful

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-81892233515209419242009-06-17T22:16:00.011-05:002009-06-17T23:09:07.968-05:00

My husband and I are having quite an adventure in New Mexico. We are staying with a Forest Ranger friend in Chaco Canyon and have spent the last couple of days exploring Indian ruins in a beautiful setting. Our friend's dinner table looks out directly on Fajada Butte and it changes with the weather and the time of day.This morning we got up and he said we were going on a little 3 1/2 mile hike.

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-62124816529085611492009-06-15T22:42:00.003-05:002009-06-15T22:53:15.308-05:00

My husband and I are off on an adventure in New Mexico. We will leave civilization behind for a few days. We will have no cell phone access limited computer access, and will be far away from civilization. We will be in one of the places that has the least amount of light pollution of any place in the United States. Tomorrow night we are supposed to participate in a Night Sky program which

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-77404511767126480282009-06-13T19:31:00.003-05:002009-06-13T19:35:48.789-05:00

A friend sent me a link to an article by Pico Iyer in the New York Times entitled "The Joy of Less." It is an interesting article on what makes people happy. I thought I would share it with you: http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less/ .

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-38571367519826971322009-06-12T15:01:00.003-05:002009-06-12T15:19:06.559-05:00

I just returned from a quick trip to the Mall where I had volunteered to pick up a gift for someone else. I was dashing through Dillards and a pretty blouse caught my eye. I stopped to admire it and my jaw dropped when I saw the price tag: $148.00!! For a blouse! Give me a break! And I thought we were in an economic downturn!The Mall incident made me think back to a meeting I attended

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-38907664718760902872009-06-08T20:39:00.005-05:002009-06-08T21:01:43.363-05:00

Over the weekend we visited Son #4 because his oldest turned 3 and we were invited to the party. We went a day early so that we could get in a visit with the family before the party. Here are some pictures:Grandson #2 (soon to be one) is really growing up fast!Miss Ella Bella was so glad to see us!We visited Son #4 at his fire station and Miss Ella Bella showed us how she can "drive" the

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-67715101094778727612009-06-04T19:43:00.004-05:002009-06-05T08:43:01.747-05:00

I have been thinking about shopping in my own kitchen pantry and freezer lately. By that I mean that I need to use up what I have on my shelves and in my freezer before I run to the grocery store for ingredients to fix a meal.We only live about 4 blocks from a grocery store, so it would have been mighty easy to run over there to get things for fixing breakfast for company this week. Instead of

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-89606320229622656822009-06-04T12:04:00.005-05:002009-06-04T15:32:21.017-05:00

We have had visitors the past three days--LOTS of TEENAGERS! I had forgotten how it feels to have four teens in our house--all at one time. My daughter-in-law (wife of Son #1) was on her way to join some of her family for a camping trip in West Texas and stopped here for a couple of nights. She, brave woman that she is, brought our two grandchildren and two friends of Granddaughter #1.We had 3

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-60350644969801900682009-06-02T19:49:00.003-05:002009-06-02T20:03:53.232-05:00

In the past couple of years I have learned to blog, to join Facebook, to burn DVDs, to program my picture key chain, and master my self-publishing project. Lately I have been feeling right proud of myself and all my technological accomplishments. However, today I got a message that requires me to join Twitter and a request to put a bit of a video on my blog. Those two requests were just about

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-56429148872067934462009-05-29T21:05:00.002-05:002009-05-29T21:17:51.503-05:00

Ms. Smockity , a mother of seven children who home schools her children, often offers wonderful bits of wisdom (laced with humor) on her blog. Her past two blog entries contain great suggestions about love and respect in marriage. She first mentions a book with the title "Love and Respect" that sounds interesting. I could still learn more about love and respect--even after 42 years of marriage

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-30817201715076778852009-05-29T12:52:00.006-05:002009-05-29T13:42:22.100-05:00

Today I am going to talk about making gifts instead of buying gifts. I know Christmas is a long way off, but it is not too early for me to begin thinking about gifts if I plan on making them. First of all, I try to think of things that I can make from "found" items or things we have around the house. Recently I found some old, weathered fence wood in my husband's pile of wood. It has nice knots

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-11852694231678479662009-05-27T21:25:00.006-05:002009-05-28T11:42:39.262-05:00

We have had an intruder in our backyard. About three years ago a neighbor began getting bamboo along his back fence. He said he did not know where it came from but he thought it would be easy to control and told us not to worry about it invading our backyard. Up until late last summer he was right, but last summer we found a shoot that appeared near the fence ON OUR SIDE. My husband sprayed it

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-28241579024236138412009-05-22T20:29:00.007-05:002009-05-22T21:10:28.807-05:00

Last week, in the midst of all our other busyness, we slipped off for a quick overnight visit with Son #4 and his family. We had such a great time with Miss Ella Bella who is two but going on seven, I believe. She spent the evening showing us her daddy's fire trucks.Grandson #2 also put in his two cents' worth during the tour.And hubby got to climb up in the big truck to inspect whatever was up

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-83069449065610303182009-05-22T14:55:00.005-05:002009-05-22T15:26:25.695-05:00

Thinking about living more frugally always sparks my creativity and pushes me to find ways to make our money go farther. My husband has always changed the oil in our car and done simple repairs himself. I have learned to darn holes in the toes of my socks and mend my clothes. I reuse our plastic grocery bags for trash can liners rather than buying them in the grocery store. All of these are

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-88456085646306031212009-05-21T18:43:00.003-05:002009-05-21T18:47:34.449-05:00

Terri Tiffany at http://terri-treasures.blogspot.com/ has posted some interesting questions about writing and publishing that she would like to have answered. I thought that some of you writers who read my blog might help her with answers because those are questions that I cannot answer myself!

Pat's Placehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15569560070613448167pflat@austin.rr.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2249592045442388060.post-17902259876397097972009-05-15T02:37:00.004-05:002009-05-15T02:50:05.515-05:00

Today's entry for Frugal Friday will be short because I am totally involved in our church's 25 Anniversary Celebration which is this weekend. It is so exciting to be a part of planning and making it happen.Here is something I borrowed from http://www.clutterdietblog.com/ which is a blog that is helping me be more organized. Lori talks about the lessons that we can learn from bees and she says

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