September stuff

It has been a week of UTIs. Both Steve and I were diagnosed with ones on Monday and we drove Sally down to the vet at Open Door on Wednesday to see if she had one. Of course, she wouldn't pee but we were sent home with a round of antibiotics regardless. There were several kitties roaming around the reception area of Open Door and one little tuxedo cat got up close and personal with Sally. And, surprisingly, Sally was very tolerant of all the kitty overtures. Maybe she was raised with cats in her former life? It took a great deal of willpower for me to NOT take home a half-grown tuxedo kitten!

On Friday, I started a new piano student, we had the elders over for pizza for dinner, and we played games next door at Mona and Ed's well into the evening. The second game was a new one - a combination of trivia based upon the United States and chutes and ladders - and we kept getting the chute sending us down and some of the questions were extremely difficult and yet others were stupidly easy. We finally ended at 9:30 in a draw because we all needed to take dogs out to go potty and we are all old and needed to go to bed!

Saturday morning, Steve and I drove down to the Gateway Arch where we met Emily, Joe, Quinn and Larkin to view the Paint Louis graffiti mural wall. Every Labor Day, graffiti artists from around the world are invited to come and create on this hugely long wall along the Mississippi River. Emily has taken senior photos with that backdrop for years and I saw it when Kirsti was getting her senior pictures taken. It was quite impressive!

Afterwards, we brought Larkin back home with us for some grandparent time. She painted her own bottle gourd, she organized my two doll houses, and she helped me get the guest bedroom prepared for her other grandparents who are arriving later today. Papa Joe will be spending the upcoming week doing some work on the Ballwin house and they will be staying with us. As Larkin helped me dust, she found the wooden shoes that Steve bought in Minnesota while he was on his mission. He was stationed in Sioux City which was across the river from the little Dutch tourist town. Larkin had to try them on and she declared them to be quite comfortable.

We took Larkin home around 3:00 and, as we drove out of Holly Hills  and towards the snow cone shack where we bought a treat for each of us, we noticed the cute little hedgehogs that have been recently placed in a grassy median inside the neighborhood. We stopped to take photos....

The rest of the week was pretty  average. It is still very hot and dry so I spent one morning moving the sprinkler all around both the front and back yards. I am almost finished with cropping photos from 1979 through 1981. I have been practicing the music for our first civic orchestra concert. And, Steve and I watched Seven Years in Tibet in snatches over three days. And, of course we watched Strange New Worlds (two episodes). 

Today, Steve and I attended Emily and Joe's ward because I played my cello along side Quinn in a special music number that featured Emily and Lucy singing Be Thou My Vision. It was a beautiful arrangement and Emily and Lucy sounded so good! And, Quinn and I did a good job, too!