"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

May 29, 2003 We walk up to the Plum Senior Center once a week, a short two tenths of a mile, and attend yoga class with about a dozen other seniors, all women except for Will. Colleen is a wonderful instructor keeping things slow and simple. She has a great sense of humor and keeps us in stiches with her stories. Today was about her sister-in-law's botox injections-two times and the muscles relax naturally. Will goes up to the Senior Center for the arobic class also; Kathy uses this time to become more knowldgable with the new Picasa program she got for adding pictures to the blog. How do you like this combination?! We will miss you, Colleen, and our workout too.

May 28, 2007 Happy Memorial Day Carmine invited us over to celebrate Memorial Day and to send Stevie off to Texas where he will be staying with his girlfriend, Audrey and her parents. Robert did the grill thing and made his famous potato salad. Carmine put a yummy spread out. She even made everyone a old fashion rootbeer float! Brian was also there and shared his latest poem lyrics with is Aunt Kathy. We spent most of the day watching baby Cardinals fledge. By the end of the day they both had hopped up branch by branch far up into the pine trees with the parents encouraging them all along the way. Kathy got to ride with Robert; he has had his license now for about a year and is doing very good. Kathy didn't even have to close her eyes. It was a great gathering of family and friends.

May 27, 2007 Don, thanks for making this possible. Kathy's older sister, Sueann, retires this week from the workforce. We all got together at Olvie Garden and the theme was "Retirement Garden". Kathy, having retired before her sister gave her some ideas about life during retirement: 1.You have more time to read so don't get caught up in Romance novels; read a bit of everything. (She gave her a copy of American Gods.) 2. Write in a journal so you can look back on these years and recall all the neat things you did. (She gave her a blank book.) 3. Work on getting all those pictures you have into scrapbooks. (a miniture scrapbook) 4.You will be wanting to spend more time in the kitchen and don't want to gain weight so let your gourmet cooking include lots of good salads. (a salad recipe book) 5.Keep your brain active. (Sudoku book) 6.Don't just sit around waiting for something to do; make dates. (wordfind book of movies)7.Let the creative juices flow. (garden mosa

May 24, 2007 evening May 25, 2007 morning After kathy took Jayne to her eye doctor appointment (She has cateract, but not bad enough to have surgery.) we drove up to Moraine State Park and around to "Carmine's Spot" at Neely Point. We pulled in to our usual spot right at the bluff overlooking the lake. We relaxed, made some dinner, and relaxed some more. Fishermen came and went, some with families some with buddies, some with little boats and some with kids. By dark most had packed up and headed home. Will tried some fishing; we didn't get dinner or breakfast, but he had fun trying. One time down by the water he was competing with a duck. the little duck swam over and then went for his bobber a few times. A dozen or so geese flew over in their vee formation honking the entire way. We watched Terminal and went to bed. We woke to birds singing. There are lots of birds around in the trees and they love to announce the day. We spotted a yellow fungus growing on an old de

May 23,2007 Bear with me....

May 22, 2007 The Pittsburgh Aviary has some interesting birds. Two rooms are set up that you walk among the birds. The feeders come in and let you feed them too. We saw some farmiliar birds like the Rosey Spoonbill. and lots we had never seen from places far away.

May 21, 2007 We had a doctor visit; being in Pittsburgh we try to take care of as much of that kinda thing as we can. Kathy connected with some "teacher" friends. It was fun catching up with each of them. Sandy and Marlene are retired and Bonnie is still teaching. We chatted and enjoyed a meal together at the Chinese Buffet. We go up to the Senior Center at the top of the hill, a short walk, and participate in Silver Sneekers and the new Yoga class. We are trying to still do our two mile walk every day. The diet change is getting enough fiber. Bran Buds seem to have the most for the punch, so we have changed from oatmeal to Bran Buds for breakfast along with our half egg and fruit.

May 20, 2007 Happy Birthday Justin We had a scare this morning when Cliff came over with Maria in the truck passed out. She had fallen and hit her head. Somehow he managed to get her off the boat and into the truck. She has always been one to faint when there is any excitment or stress. We gave her a few minutes and she came awake with, "Where am I?" Kathy got some ice for her head and we were discussing a trip to the nearest hospital. Maria didn't want a hospital visit. Her neck was stiff, but when Kathy went to put a support towel around it, her neck cracked and she was fine after that except for a little lump on the back of her head. Breakfast was at the Bonfire, a neat restaurant with the upper floor decorated with a western motif and the basement bar decorated in race car memoriblia. Maria and Cliff went back to the boat and we drove over to North Park. Will played some tennis with his highschool buddy, Owen, and John, an older guy that ran over to Will with a bag o

May 19, 2007 We drove over to the Marina where Cliff and Maria dock their boat on the Allegheny River. After the hello thing we left Cliff to “play” on his boat and took a walk to the waterfall along an old railroad bed. It was not much a waterfall, but it was a good walk. We could look down on the little marina. Cliff had one side of the boat all waxed and polished when we got back and the boat looked good. We walked along the dock when we got back meeting other boaters. Everyone is getting ready for a summer on the river. We decided to take a little trip down river to look at a houseboat that is for sale. We past the old steel mills, now rusted structures like some barbaric future city. On one of the bouys a seagull was sitting on her nest. Cliff gets going pretty fast and before we knew it we were at the lock. Maria assumed her position at the front of the boat with her hook and line ready. We entered the lock, Maria handed the line up on the hook the dock master had sent down. He p

May 18, 2007 After Kathy’s doctor’s appointment we went to Grace’s home where Kathy’s brother, Nick and his wife, Evelyn were staying while in town. Kathy’s brother, Tom, is fighting cancer and Nick came up to spend some time with him. Grace, Evelyn’s cousin, made us all a wonderful lunch. After eating we played Chicken Feet dominoes. Jayne was actually catching on by the end. It was great having time to just sit and relax chatting and catching up, building memories to recall in our rocking chair days. Evelyn, you look great after that operation! She had back surgery for a disk and is up doing the town.

May 16, 2007 Will drove Kathy to the new medical facility in Harmerville for the procedure. It was pretty organized with sign in, wait, go upstairs, wait, go to the preparation room, wait, meet the doctor, wait, meet the anesthesiologist, wait, and transfer to the procedure room. Kathy remembers nothing past that point. The drug worked quickly and she was soon unaware of anything. The doctor came out and gave the results to both of us; Kathy remembers nothing. Will told her over breakfast at the next door Bob Evan’s that everything looked good, but she needs more fiber. The doctor wants her to double the fiber in her diet. Back home it was her allergies that got her down with sneezing, runny eyes and drippy nose. She took a benadril; releaf, but now she had sinus clog. She crawled under the covers and slept all through night. May 17, 2007 Today we had the grandkids for a few hours. Damiana, pretending to be a doggie, wanted to drink her apple juice from a bowl today. Finnaeus has grown

May 15, 2007 The honeysuckle was blooming filling the air with fragrance. We took our morning walk along one of the trails. Trillium were showing their three pedals. We both had dentist appointments with our long time dentist, Carmen Cagno. His son-in-law is now in the practice and we both got to experience his techniques. We liked him. We didn’t stop for Coney Island hotdogs because Kathy has to get back to Jayne’s to start drinking liquid to prepare her for the Colonoscopy tomorrow. She spent the rest of the day in the bathroom or not far from it!

May 14, 2007 Will caught up with his high school buddy, Owen for some tennis. Between volleys they managed to catch up on politics, family, friends and issues of the day. After the match we drove up towards New Castle to McDaniel Point on Lake Arthur in Moraine (Did I get that right this time?) State Park. Will made us some dinner using the outside stove and we enjoyed the view of the lake. The Canadian Geese have come to this area to have their young which are no longer little fluffy yellow balls, but little Canadian Geese following their parents around. One family with one parent in the front and one following started out into the lake. From the near shore another family was also starting out. The parents of the first family started bobbing their heads and twisting them about. The other family kept coming. The head bobbing got more frantic. The parents of the other family stopped, but the goslings continued in a intersecting course. The first family has stopped moving now, but the pa

May 13, 2007 Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. We celebrated the day at Sueann's home in the South Hills. (picture by Cliff )It was a special treat with all four of us sisters, five of the neices and nephews and the little grand neice and grand nephew. It was a brunch with yummy egg dishes, sausage and Jen and Will popped the cork on the champagne. Jill and Nate arrived after running the Race for the Cure in Shenley Park with thousands of other. Stella was happy mom and dad got back. Cliff brought his computer and we were looking at pictures and movies of the day and of events past. Jessica and Rick watched his children, Drew and Jenna, play in the yard. We had news from Jen and Troy: They set their wedding date for September 7, 2008...enough warning so Van Go plans to be in Pittsburgh! Stella walked on rocks in the backyard creek. Silas hugged trees standing all my himself. Kathy presented Jen and Jill with glass blown slugs. (Picture by Cliff) The house was full