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My sister came and stayed two nights with us, and that was fun. We went out to eat, shopped and enjoyed the Missouri Botanical Garden on a particularly beautiful June day. We also went through a box of photographs that I had taken out of mom and dad's photo albums after dad died. I have been sorting them into bags for each of my siblings, but there are some I know that we all might want to have copies of. Kathy helped with the sorting. Now I have a bunch of scanning to do. Bleh. But I also have a batch of photos to take over to Cincinnati for the family reunion, so that will be fun.

Katie is now in Barcelona for a few days. She called yesterday to let me know that she and Megan had arrived safely. In a few short days I will be picking her up at the airport. Can't wait to see all of her pictures and videos, and hear all about her adventures!

We have had to do a bit of maintenance with the cars lately. My car and Katie's needed oil changes, and we had to replace the front tires on the car Katie drives. I always just wait for the car to be finished instead of trying to work around Jim's schedule for dropping the car off and then taking me back to get it. Last week our work pickup needed new tires as well. Jim needed to pick up a donor plaque for a project he is working on (which looks like a huge table in the bed of the pickup truck, I might add), so he wanted to get the tires done before that occurred. On Friday I followed him to the tire shop, drove him to work and headed home to get some work done. He was going to have someone from work take him to pick the truck up later that morning. Well, that didn't work out, so back I went to take him to get the truck.

This morning he headed out early to meet with his motorcycle gang as they are in the final planning phase of their week long ride to Wisconsin that takes place in a couple of weeks. I was still snuggled in bed enjoying my book when the phone rang. Never good news early on a Saturday. It was Jim, and the key had broken off as he was locking his gas tank. As this key also is used in the ignition, this was a big problem. Not only had he forgotten to take his backup key along, he had forgotten his phone as well. The station attendant was nice enough to let Jim borrow his cell phone to call me. And Jim was lucky that I had not started applying the color to my hair or I wouldn't have answered the phone.

Anyway, I found his cell phone and called wife #3 (I'm wife #1, his business partner Ted is #2 and his favorite riding partner Jim Diaz is #3), to explain that Jim would be late, went to the garage and found the backup key, slapped a ball cap on my head and took off for the Phillips gas station. Before I arrived there a sweet older couple from Arizona heard Jim discussing his problem with the attendant. They asked him if he needed some needle nose pliers. They proceeded to go to their motor home and return with three sets of pliers for him to try. He successfully removed the broken piece from the tank, so with me bringing the backup key to him, he was good to go.

Love means never whining when your Saturday plans are disrupted by your spouse - that is the key to a happy marriage. Now I'm off to wash the gray, if not the man, right out of my hair.

Jim is in Chicago with wife number 4 (I have all of his motorcycle buddies numbered. I, of course, remain wife number 1) attending a motorcycle show. They went over yesterday and closed the exhibit hall down last night, and will be there all day today and tonight. They did squeeze in time this morning to have breakfast with Katie, delivering to her the chocolate orange cookies I made for her and the quesadilla maker she got for Christmas but couldn't fit in her suitcase when she returned from break. Somehow she convinced them to take her to Target so she could buy some things that are too heavy for her to carry back from the store. That's my girl! I would have loved to have seen those two guys traipsing through the store with her. I have to admit that it is a pretty cool Target. It is huge - two stories with a parking garage attached to it. As my husband told wife number 4, who is from Lawrence, "You're not in Kansas any more Jimmy!"

I decided to do a little shopping myself today. I headed off to the Galleria with my list in hand. Had a new battery put in my Seiko watch, which was a Christmas gift from Jim many, many years ago. Picked up a new tube of my lipstick at Sephora. I buy all my other makeup at Target, but for some reason most tubes of lipstick make my lips crack. Katie turned me on to Dior lipstick and it works well for me, I guess making it worth the King's ransom they charge for it. My daughter, of course, is a frequent shopper at Sephora. She wears much better makeup and underwear than me. Sigh...

After I checked those two things off my list I headed to Macy's. The guys at ORMI got me a gift card for Christmas, so I wanted to use it before I lose it. I don't have as much luck shopping at Macy's as I did at Famous Barr. They don't carry the petite line of clothing that fit me so well. Since I had no one waiting for me I took my time trying on lots of clothes. And might I just interject that one could do a whole blog posting on conversations overhead while in a dressing room. Here is just a taste...a man followed his girlfriend into the dressing room so he could give his opinion on the dresses she was trying on. They went back and forth on whether she liked the first dress. She hated the bow, and he said he would just cut it off. The second dress she really liked, and when she asked his opinion he said he REALLY liked it. She told him he was supposed to be looking at the dress. I can only assume the girls were popping out of it and that is what captured his attention. Oh to have been in a dressing room that had slats I could peer through!

Anyway, I particularly wanted to get a winter pants suit, and I thought I would have luck on the clearance rack this time of year. Apparently I waited too long, as all the suits were more of a spring weight. So I settled for a classic grey herringbone, and the pants are lined so they will work most of the winter. I also had a few tops I had selected to go under a couple of jackets I already own. When I went to pay, I handed the clerk the gift card and a discount card I had received in the mail. "You can't use the gift card and the discount card", she told me. Apparently the only way to get the discount was to use your Macy's card. No problem - the suit was a little more than the gift card anyway. Nope - the computer wouldn't accept it. So I told her to ring up the suit separately, using the gift card. Then I used the coupon on the blouses. Ridiculous! But a good shopping trip nonetheless.

My husband is appearing in Night Court tonight in Washington, MO. One of his motorcycle riding buddies will be right there with him. A few weeks ago on a rather dreary cold Saturday (sounds like everyday lately!) three of the guys went out for a ride. Following lunch in Washington, Steve needed to fuel up. The two Jims followed him through an array of construction cones to an opening allowing entry into the gas station on a major Washington thoroughfare. Following the fill-up, Jim D zipped through the cones back onto the roadway, while my Jim and Steve hesitated, trying to determine the correct way to leave the station in light of the road construction. There was, of course, no signage to help drivers out. In the meantime a police cruiser pulled up behind Jim and Steve and blasted them with his bruuuuute, bruuuuute, bruuuuute horn, which they took as an indication to get out of his way. They pulled out onto the road and he immediately pulled them over. He issued them both tickets for making an illegal turn onto the road, and demanded that they call Jim D back so he could get a ticket as well. They refused to contact Jim D, but as he handed them their tickets the cop told them they could fight them in court if they wanted to. After all, there was no sign saying they couldn't exit they way they did. Doesn't that sound like entrapment? The cop probably sat in that lot writing tickets all day long, knowing that most people will just pay them and not take the time out to appear in court.

In fact Jim had pretty much decided to just pay the ticket since his record is clean. But he talked to another riding buddy of his who is a cop in Kansas, and he advised Jim to fight it. First of all it is the principle of the matter, but second of all if Jim were to get pulled over again for some reason, and another ticket is already on his record he would be much more likely to get a ticket than be given a warning. So tonight he and Steve will be in court. Here comes da judge!