I LOVE PAUL!

Hidden in the deep recesses of a box somewhere in our house in Boise are two buttons; one proclaims  "I am an official Beatles fan" and the other proudly tells the world that "I love Paul."  I remember how my heart just did flips and flutters when I first saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964! As the music to "I want to hold your hand....." blasted out of our TV,  I was smitten with a serious case of Beatlemania. Beatles posters covered my walls and Beatles records played non-stop on my record player. I read every magazine article I could find about the Fab Four.  I was a serious fan!

Thanks to a very indulgent Daddy, I did get to see the Beatles live in 1966 in Memphis.  What a thrill that was!  I remember screaming along with all the other girls in the crowd!

Years later when our daughter Mary was a preteen, she and I were looking at a magazine with photos of the young Beatles.  When I told her that my favorite was Paul, she asked, "Which one is Paul?" and I replied, "The cute one."  She studied the photo for several more seconds before asking, "Which one is the cute one?"  Seriously how could anyone not see immediately that Paul is definitely the 'cute one'.

When I heard that Sir Paul McCartney was performing a concert in Seattle, I knew that I had to go.

Paul may be 71 years old but let me tell you, he can still rock!  And he is still cute!  During the three hour concert he sang 39 songs and came back for three encores.  Finally he said, "I know you want to rock but sometime I have to go home.  Sometime YOU have to go home even if it is Friday night."

When I see Paul perform now it shocks me to see the 'Paul expressions' that I have loved for so long on that definitely older face.  Then it hits me I have been listening to him sing for almost 50 years!  50 years....that is a long time! Practically a life time!

The Paul I swooned about in 1964 looked like this

The little girl who did the swooning looked like this:

                                  

Yep 50 years is a long time!  

Almost a lifetime later, I still think Paul is the cute one!  And watching him still makes my heart flutter!

What an amazing 50 years I've lived since then!  My life has been full of 'heart flutter' moments much more profound than that little girl could have ever imagined.  For that I am so grateful! 

Portland Hiking

The Portland city planners did a wonderful job integrating hiking trails into their master plan.  Today a group of ladies took advantage of this as we hiked the eight and a half miles from Lake Oswego right into downtown Portland. The tree lined trail made me feel like I was in the mountains not in a big city.

Occasionally we had views across to Mt. Hood and the Willamette River.  Beautiful!

Then in downtown Portland we got to sample the variety of foods at the famous Portland food carts.  My Indian food was as good as in a nice Indian restaurant....other people had gyros, Thai, Japanese or even barbecue.  Delicious and so 'Portland-ish'!  After lunch we took a city bus right back to Lake Oswego.

 What a fun day with a great group of ladies!  Now I want to do it again with spouses!

Done!

I am so happy to report that all the photos in the box from my mother's house that I showed in my last post are now in albums, labeled and dated! It took me two weeks instead of one but it is finished!  Yippee!

Now a word of advice for anyone with photos not labeled and dated.....

LABEL AND DATE them! 

You think you'll always remember where you were and who you were with and the date but trust me you won't.  This is especially important with older photos.  I realized that my children don't know all my relatives and certainly couldn't recognize pictures of them when they were children.  So if I don't label who is in these photos, when I am gone, no one will know!  I am the link that makes these photos a valuable part of family history!

And I also have to confess that I have trouble being absolutely sure which of my newborn babies is which!  I often had to rely on the pattern of the couch or the wallpaper or my hair style to know for sure! Those four Lewis babies were definitely cut from the same mold!

Projects

 One of my friends told me that when her husband goes out of town on business she makes plans like 'take a flying lesson' or 'go to the Grand Canyon'.  When George leaves I think of things like trips to the Container Store and the Scrapbooking Store and what movies can I watch!  I guess I am just boring!  But this week I have caught up on my scrapbooking and I managed to organize my office closet.  On Friday it looked like this:

And after only two trips to the Container Store it looked like this, organized and labeled.

I'm excited and hoping the labels will help me keep it looking like this!

My next project is to do something with this box of photos.  They are from my mother's house and have been sitting in this box for at least 4 years.  I sorted them last night and there are pictures from my mother's childhood, my childhood and of my own children.  Should be a fun project for this week! Hope I can get it done before George comes home!

A few favorites from the Africa trip.....

Lets see....mans or gents??????

After more than 3 hours I finally have my Visa to enter Mozambique!  Some people waited 5 1/2 hours!!!

Would this discourage you from going for a little stroll after your picnic?

Hungry for some Kudu or springbok? Here is the place!!!

Early morning lily pond

Does anything say 'Africa' like the Acacia trees?

Maybe not a laughing hyena but at least a grinning hyena!!!

Victoria Falls! Looks photoshopped huh?

Birds more talented than I

When we were first married and I had the goal to be the 'perfect homemaker' I signed up for a knitting class.  I remember that it was a series that met once a week for several weeks.  After the disaster of the first week, I never went back.   It seems that I am 'knitting challenged', in fact I am 'knot challenged' as evidenced by my experience teaching knot tying to cub scouts!  I didn't even think about knitting again (except maybe in my nightmares) until just a few years ago when I decided that I wanted to be able to knit a baby blanket for each of our future grandchildren.  One of my treasures is a baby blanket knit by George's mother for Mary.  She had severe rheumatoid arthritis so I know that knitting that blanket was a real labor of love.  On the card she wrote, "there is love in every stitch".  So with some misgivings I set about learning to knit again.  This time I had a wonderful, patient teacher who just kept working with me until finally I could do it.  I'm no expet but when the time comes, I will be able to knit a blanket with 'love in every stitch'.  You may wonder what this could possibly have to do with birds....well when I watched this video about weaver birds I was reminded of my own experience knitting......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6svAIgEnFvw

I definitely knitted like the young novice bird!  My attempts were eerily similar to this......

Not tightly woven like this.....

Interestingly the variety in the nests!  Some are clearly done by experienced older birds who have been weaving for years, while other are obviously a first attempt.  I hope those young male with the odd shaped creations kept at it until they finally built a nest perfect for a first home!

It is an old adage but a wise one, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."  Good advice for birds and people!

Waiting

One of our excursions was to the Chobe National Park in Botswana.  As we zipped along in our bus we passed trucks and more trucks and more trucks, all parked on the side on the road.  We counted on the way back and there were 148 and we knew that there had been more in the morning.  The line just went for miles and miles.

                                          

Our guide told us that these truckers were waiting for the ferry across the Zambezi River.  The wait can be one to two weeks...yes that is right 7 - 14 days sitting by the side of the road waiting for their turn to finally go down the ramp....

And get on the ferry!  One large truck or two smaller trucks at a time, they finally get the chance to continue their journey. 

The ferry is open from 6 in the morning until 6 in the evening.  Why they don't stay open round the clock or at least until it is totally dark, I don't understand.  The truckers sleep in their cabs, cook by the side of the road, and use the 'facilities' in the bush.  We saw the local butcher making deliveries on his bike with a dead goat and a couple of dead chickens strapped across his basket.  Definitely fresh meat! Because of my time in Kenya I immediately wondered what impact this situation has on the young girls of the area.  It can't be good and I don't even want to think about the potential for the spread of AIDS. Truckers with a lot of free time and a little money in their pockets spell big trouble for teenage girls.

Why don't they build a bridge you might wonder.  Same question we asked and the answer was, the governments of Zambia and Botswana have promised a bridge for years.  Why don't the trucks go another way is the next question.  Other routes take them hundreds of miles out of their way and the cost of gasoline is just too high to add that expense.

I can not imagine truckers in America putting up with this.  There would be a riot or a strike or some type of protest.  My friend who has had vast experience in Kenya says that Africans have an amazing ability to just accept what IS.  So much of their lives are difficult that I think they just expect hardships and learn to make the best of things.  And our driver assured us that "This will be the year they build the bridge."  Eternal optimism!

And how did the American tourists get across, you might wonder.  In speed boats!  We had 4 wheel drive vehicles waiting for us on the other side of the river!!!  No long waits for us impatient Americans!