11/30/08 I Ain't Kissin' No More Butt!

My butt kissin' days are over as of today! I'll explain this a little later.

I thought I'd go right to sleep last night! No such luck! I couldn't fall off to sleep because I was just so wound up. The last time I looked at the clock it was 11:30. I was really hoping I would sleep past four in the morning and I did! I finally got up around nine and it felt so good to sleep that long!

I just kinda vegged this afternoon until it was time for line dancing. Bob didn't do too much more than me. He seemed to sit in deep thought for most of the day so he must be planning our Christmas decorations.

The Tuesday morning line dancing session is getting way too crowded, I think I may have mentioned that before. Another session was set up for Sunday afternoons but you had to pick which session you wanted to take part in, you couldn't do both. Well, that didn't sit right, I wanted to do both! I love these dance sessions and I love spending time with Carl and Sandy. I begged, I pleaded, I promised, I swore, everything you can imagine to get them to let me attend both sessions. I kept getting the answer "no". I asked them if I got a petition signed by 100 people in the park would they let me dance. They said to do it and they would think about it. Now of course I didn't go around to everyone in the park and ask them to sign a petition, I did the next best thing. I have a list of everyone in the park and I made a typewritten list of 101 residents, including myself. Hey, there's no law that says you can't sign your own petition is there? Anyway, I presented it to them and they got a huge kick out of it. Here's what it said:

"We, the undersigned, winter residents of Quail Run RV Resort do hereby give permission to Snookie to type our names, in alphabetical order no less, in her petition for permission to partake in the Sunday Line Dancing session she so dearly loves. Lessons given by that wonderful woman we all love, Sandy, to the music played by the greatest man on earth, affectionately known as Cactus Carl. We give this permission for our names to be typed because our handwriting sucks and we want you to be able to read it. Along side of our names are comments that we might have said, might have thought about saying or what Snookie wanted to hear us say. You pick."

Below this was one hundred names, randomly picked from the list of winter residents that I have. Now I made comments along side about 20 or so of the names that Carl and Sandy just got the biggest kick out of. I'd list them here but they wouldn't make any sense to you so I'm not going to bother.

So the time came for the dance session to start and I walked up to the Carnaval Room. I stood outside and looked pitifully in,,,,I was going for their heartstrings here. Sandy saw me and she called four others close in by her like they were having a conference. She walked over to me at the window and said, "Snookie, I'm sorry to tell you,,,,,pregnant pause here,,,,,that you can't stand by the window anymore, get your butt in here! They are gonna let me do both sessions! Hooray for me! I am a happy camper!

Halfway through the session Sandy says to me, "You know Snook, Carl and I were going to let you dance both sessions all along." I replied, "You mean I have been begging and pleading and whining and kissing your butts all week for nothing?" Sandy said, "Oh, it wasn't for nothing, Carl and I got a big kick out of it and we loved it." So that's how the story ends. I get to line dance both sessions after all. Oh in case you are wondering, I get to do this because I'm a "helper" in the Sunday session because I know how to do all the dances and I can "help" the newbies. Works for me!

I watched Amazing Race tonight and cannot believe that guys from my home state are still in it! In fact, they are one of the three teams going for the million dollars! Unbelievable!

I'm glad these last few days are over. It should be clear sailing here for the next two weeks anyway.

11/29/08 Does It Get Any Busier Than This?

Our day started at o'dark thirty today! I had set the alarm for six but that was a waste of time since I seem to be up long before that anyway. I wish I could get out of this 4 a.m. habit!

I was out the door by 6:40 and it was DARK. Everyone was on time this morning and raring to go. Oh ok, everyone was on time. We took all the baked goods we had in the Oasis over to the main building and started setting up the bake sale right away. Within minutes of our arrival the outside vendors started coming.

I managed to get this shot of the Carnaval Room before it got crowded. Take notice of the clock on the wall. It's 6:50 a.m..

Now here's another shot of the room. Take notice of the window. See! It is o'dark thirty! It is still night time!

Soon the room was a abuzz with the setting up of homemade treasures for display.

Our Bake Sale table, we couldn't even get everything out at once. The winter residents really came through for us! They baked their little hearts out and to each of them we send out a heartfelt THANK YOU! Oh the calories! We sold every single item donated!

This lady makes all kinds of canned goods. Her corn relish is to die for!

This fella etched all these scenes into these blue plates. So beautiful! And he makes wooden signs too!

Ahh,,,the potato bag lady's table. I have one of the potato bags she sells. I swear by them! They make THE best baked potatoes! See the lights here? They are made of plastic drinking glasses. She's going to teach a class here after the first of the year so we can make our own.

And the same lady does plastic canvas too! Where does she find the time?

We can't forget the pets! Doggie coats!

Our own Marilyn with all the crafts she makes.

Remember the Iris Folded card I made last week? Here's a whole table full of them. These belong to the lady who held the class I went to. Aren't they beautiful? These are done with folded paper.

This is probably my favorite table of all. I just love these things! Potted Pants!

Look at the intricate detail in these creations.

At noon it was finally time for our lunch. We served meatball sandwiches, a tossed salad, a choice of potato chips, corn chips or Cheese-its, iced tea and choice of cake, all for $4.00. Salad with a smile from Mary.

Chris serving up meatball sandwiches and Carol taking care of the assorted chips.

I did manage to get some of the homemade treasures for myself. I bought this "glass brick" that had a hole drilled into it, lights pushed into the middle and adorned with a pretty bow! I'll have to get a picture of it all lit up in the evening. Why don't I ever think of these things?

Now here's something else that went over very big! These are made from, gee, I don't know what you call them....parts of a palm tree.

I could have looked at that until the cows came home and I would have never seen a reindeer!

I haven't done the final tally as yet but I do believe our Craft Fair/Bake Sale/ Luncheon was a huge success!

I did have one winter resident come up to me this morning and tell me that she was disappointed. When I asked her about what she replied, "I haven't found one thing to complain about as far as Activities is concerned!" That made my day!

I have a few hours to rest before the dance tonight.

Bob spent his day working on the caulk on the 5th wheel. It seems like every time I turn around he's replacing the caulk but it is so dry here and the sun so strong that it dries out quickly and cracks and doesn't look very nice. Besides, I think he's gearing up for the Christmas lights season and wants everything to look nice.

I can hear a crowd forming across the street at the Turner's. It must be the first jam session of the season getting started. So much for a rest, I have to go listen.

Wilf, a fellow I don't know and The Peacock.

Rounding out the group for our listening pleasure is Pat and Bill.

This group could just sit and play and sing for hours. In fact, they did.

I stayed for awhile but knew that this was going to be a long post today so I came back to the house to work on the blog. Before too long it was time to go get things ready for the dance tonight.

Cactus Carl is DJ'ing for us and we're trying something new this year. In the past the dances were by donation only. Well, Halloween, the "take" wasn't very much and since Carl does put so much time into getting the music ready for the dances and he MC's, well it is only right that he be rewarded for his efforts. So we have started charging $3.00 per person. From comments we've heard in the park since this was announced the change is well accepted and thought to be something that should have been put into effect long ago.

Imagine our surprise when attendance wasn't nearly what we expected. These dances are always crowded and well, tonight, it just wasn't. Now that's not to say the people who did come didn't have a good time because we surely did. Carl and Sandy and I talked about the lack of participation and wondered out loud if it was in fact because of the entrance fee. I pointed out that many of the usual attendees were at the Craft Fair early this morning and maybe are just too pooped to party. I'm sure we'll learn more tomorrow as to why the number of party goer's was down. But like I said, those who went, had a great time.

The line dancers were out in force.

Jerry, just how low can you go? This eighty something never misses a chance to Twist!

About eight o'clock I hit a second wind and had so much energy I didn't know what to do with it! It is so NOT like me to get up in front of a crowd and sing. No, the mike wasn't on,,,,THANK HEAVENS!

Jeannie, our park manager, (left front) had a ball at the dance. I think she laughed the whole night away. Her daughter, Kelly, (right behind her, you can't miss her they look exactly alike) is visiting from the West Virginia and I'm sure that makes her even happier.

After we turned the dance hall into a place for church services we all headed home. I thought I would crash as soon as I hit the door but that wasn't the case. I was up until 11:30 before I finally fell asleep.

I'm glad this day is over.

11/28/08 The Day After and the Day Before

Today was a two hitter. The day after Thanksgiving and the day before the Craft Fair/Bake Sale/ Luncheon and dance at night. A busy day to say the least. We still had more shopping to do, the newsletter to get printed, food to prepare for tomorrow, cakes to bake, tables to set up, baked goods to collect and price and list goes on and on and on.

While some of the team members were setting up the Carnaval Room for the Craft Fair, Steve was busy making our cakes for the luncheon tomorrow. One carrot, one Devil's Food,,,,yummy!

The rest of the day was spent setting up cash boxes for the different areas where we'll be involved with money, tweaking schedules for the Activities Staff, getting signs affixed to the boxes we'll put out at the intersections. Listing the craft sale on Craig's List and again, the list goes on and on and on.

Kim and I went shopping for the salad fixin's and dropped the newsletter off for printing. When we got back we had all the salad veggies to get cut up in preparation for tomorrow's lunch. We had entertainment as we worked because the Thursday night Happy Hour with Jim has been moved to the Cantina. Since it gets dark so early now and it cools down when the sun goes down it was thought to be a good idea to move the Happy Hour/Karaoke indoors.

These three were having a good time!

....and all the while, Kim chopped.

Now, I don't know what it is about socks and shoes here in this park but I'm praying every day, "Please Lord, don't ever let me out of the house like this!"

Finally, we had done all we could do. We were as ready as we were going to get and our starting hour was going to come early. It was time to go home.

Today we got DirecTV back. We had had a problem with them when we first arrived and they kept sending us notices about special deals they were having in order to get us back. Well, they sent us one we couldn't refuse so we signed back up again. I'm glad we got it back, I was missing my MASH reruns!

It didn't take me long to fall asleep tonight!

11/27/08 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Today was one busy day, but I guess that's how it is when you have one hundred and fifty four people over for dinner.

This was the first "all work" day, one where all the team members work and we started the day off with a meeting. Since we have had some new activities team members join us recently it was time to introduce everyone. That out of the way I distributed the typewritten "schedule of events" that I hoped would be followed kinda, sorta, closely.

Since the turkeys were all prepared yesterday it was just a matter getting them from the fridge to the roasters. That didn't present any problems.

The tables and chairs were set up yesterday so that was another big chore out of the way already.

By noon we had taken care of all of the little chores we had to do and we were off until two.

When we returned the fourteen turkeys were done and things were in full force now. Teams were carving turkeys, cranberry sauce was being sliced and plated and we were all reheating our offerings to take to the table.

The other jobs, mundane but necessary are too numerous to mention here but believe me, the team was jumping! But not so much that they couldn't stop to play a little. Oh those dreaded gloves!

Right on schedule seven heaping platters of turkey were carried to the tables in the Carnaval Room. The tables were overflowing with food. Huge bowls of mashed potatoes, every veggie you can think of, except my favorite, brussel sprouts. Pies of every flavor adorned the tables. It was truly a feast. Everyone ate too much but isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?

The Activities Team received a welcomed round of applause from the winter residents for a job well done. I was so proud of them. They worked hard and in harmony.

We also had our first 50-50 drawing. We've been selling tickets for this since Halloween and one of the Activities staff, Gayle, had the winning ticket. I was happy to hand over the $119.00. Each month now the total should be higher than the month before.

It didn't take long for the whole thing to be over. All that work and it was over in an hour. I was too wound up to just go home and veg in front of the TV so I walked waddled over to see Sandy and Cactus Carl.

Our first really big event and all went well. For that I am thankful.

11/24 - 26/08 Getting Ready for Turkey Day

Its been a hectic three days, these few before Thanksgiving Day. Jeannie had scheduled the teams off on Monday and Tuesday and I didn't take notice of the schedule until yesterday that everyone was off! OMG, there is so much to do yet. I asked why this was scheduled this way and she told me so that everyone could rest up for the rush of Thanksgiving and the Craft Fair/Bake Sale, Luncheon and dance we have Saturday night. I suggested that next year the two days off be scheduled for the two days after all this so they could rest up. She agreed.

Our Quail Run T-shirts and ball caps have arrived! I ordered these things just over a week ago and they're here already. They are flying out the door too!

Kim and I delivered all the food that was donated from the winter residents for the Food Bank. They were certainly grateful for our donation. By the time we got back to the park a new box had been started and more food collected. We've decided that we'll do this all winter long as the bank is in dire need.

Kim and I also went and did the last minute grocery shopping that we needed to do. Since turkeys were now on sale for 37 cents a pound it was decided that we would get the ones for Christmas now, just in case they weren't on sale next month. We only bought seven as we'll also have seven hams. I'm so tired of carrying turkeys! When we bought the fourteen Thanksgiving turkeys they let us get them all at one time but ring them up separately. Not this time. It was buy one, take it out to the truck, buy one, take it out to the truck. I was tired after this shopping trip!

Tuesday evening Bob played pool and I met with about 30 of the other workampers around a campfire for dinner. Everyone brought baked potatoes and half the people brought toppings for the spuds and the other half brought dessert. Next week we are to bring a finger food that starts with the first letter of your last name. My last name is Quinn! I can't think of a finger food that starts with a Q. Not one that I know how to make or can even spell! I'm thinking of that Mexican thing. I know, I'll bring Quality brownies!

Today, we spent getting the turkeys ready for tomorrow and getting the dining room set up.

Gayle, opening the packages, the first step in the assembly line.

Richard cutting the onions. I don't know how he did this, they were soooo strong!

We have one hundred fifty four coming for dinner. Four team members spent the morning ironing cloth tablecloths, others were making signs for the Craft Fair on Saturday, birds were being bagged left and right, tables and chairs were set up, covered and decorated and we did this in three hours!

I don't know if I'll get the chance to write tomorrow so I'll take the opportunity now to say:

Bob and I wish a wonderful Thanksgiving Day for every one of you.

HAVE A GREAT DAY FRIENDS!

11/23/08 Another Ice Cream Social

I started my day out with a run to the store for ice cream. We had four and a half containers leftover from the ice cream social two weeks ago but we've had such a good response from the winter residents that I was afraid we would run out. Thinking it was better to be safe than sorry I ran into Casa Grande to use the rain check I had for Breyer's Ice Cream at $1.50 a container. It was quite warm today so I'm glad I remembered to bring the cooler or I would have arrived back at the park with vanilla soup!

At ten minutes to the start time for the social they were starting to line up. We had thirty seven today for ice cream, more than last time so that's a good thing.

Oh My Gosh. I just read what I wrote. I think I need to get out of this park and do something if the most interesting thing I can find to write about is how many people showed up for an ice cream social. On that note, I'm going to close this for today, I think its best for all concerned.

Look at the Counter

Look at the counter.

Does it say 43,000?

If so, please leave a comment and let me know it was you.

Thanks, Snookie

Well, whoever it was didn't notice it.

11/22/08 Our First Pancake Breakfast

I strolled in at seven, oops, sorry, gloating again, and all was ready for the diners at 7:30 when the doors would open. This was our time to eat. The pancakes were perfect, lightly browned and fluffy. The sausage patties, aromatic and they had absolutely no resemblance to hockey pucks. The orange juice was perfectly chilled and coffee hot and steaming. Kinda makes you hungry doesn't it? Oh yeah, strolling in at seven is good! Note to self: STOP THAT!

The thing with pancake breakfasts is that you don't know how many to prepare for. Twelve pounds of sausage patties were cooked up yesterday and about 50 pancakes were warming in a roaster and more were on the griddles and there was batter in the bowl still to be poured. I was hoping three boxes of pancake mix was enough. Of course we could have twelve people show up for the breakfast too. Actually, I knew that at least 30 were coming because I had put up a sign up sheet asking winter residents to sign up if they thought they might attend. Thirty two did.

Bill and Paul, our chief cook's this pancake breakfast. Now don't they just look like happy campers?

Did more than the thirty two show up? Let's put it this way, I had to run to the store for more pancake mix and at 9:00....not 9:30....we served the last of the fourth box of pancake mix and the last sausage pattie. Seventy two diners! Lucky for us the last people we served were the last ones to come in, we didn't turn anyone away! How lucky was that???? No wait,,,,let's look at that this way, WHAT GOOD PLANNING! LOL!!!!

Since my usual wake-up times seems to be four a.m. now I was able to catch this sunrise picture this morning.

I was talking with Marlene this morning at the pancake breakfast and I happened to look down at the floor while sitting across the aisle from her. She noticed the expression on my face because she said, "My feet were cold this morning!" Here's what I saw. I just had to get a picture!

Bob was busy all afternoon on the computer with the road atlas and campground books spread all over the table. He's planning our trip when we leave here in April. Gosh, I'm just getting settled and he's planning on leaving already. He did ask me how I felt about a trip to Alaska next summer so who knows, we may end up there.

Diesel fuel is at $2.21 a gallon here. That is LESS than the cost when we started two years ago. I never ever thought we'd see prices this low again. Oh, if only they would stay this low....or go even lower! The price is dropping everyday now so we could possibly see diesel below two bucks! Oh what a happy day that would be!

We left home two years ago as of the 13th of this month. The time has flown by but we sure we have had fun along the way. The best part is the friends we've made as we've traveled.

11/22/08 WHAT Did She SAY?????

Busy, busy day here for the Activities Team. First thing we had tear down the tables from yesterday's luncheon and set up for the comedy team that is coming in tonight. Halfway through the day we had to go back and add more chairs because ticket sales had certainly picked up. Thank heavens!

This afternoon the team had to get ready for the dreaded pancake breakfast we're having tomorrow. I don't like pancake breakfasts! Don't get me wrong, I love pancakes, I love someone else cooking them, I like eating them in a restaurant, I don't like having to be on the cooking/serving end of the breakfast! I don't like having to get up that early in the morning. Oh. Wait. I don't have to do that anymore. Never mind.

By days end the syrup was poured into the serving containers, the sausage almost cooked all the way but not quite, the butter pats were put into bowls, plasticware was wrapped and anything else that could be done was. All was ready for the team's six o'clock in the morning arrival! I'm sorry, I apologize, I'm gloating. I know I shouldn't do that but hot damn(!) I don't have to get up at 5:15.

As soon as the sausage was done and the kitchen cleaned up we called it a day since the team had to be back for this evenings performance of the comedians.

Since the show was to start at seven. Yes, I'm sorry to say our evening entertainment always starts at seven and is usually over at nine. Its a senior thing! Not MY thing, but a senior thing. Its funny, 95% of us talk about how it seems like yesterday that we were going out at nine and here we are now the night is over at that time. I would say this is the only complaint I have about being in a 55+ community. Things are timed like we're ninety five! Just once I would like to have an evening of entertainment that starts at eight! Before I leave here, SOMETHING will start at EIGHT! Snookie clutching her hands at her chest, staring at the sky ::::: With God as my witness, something in Quail Run RV Resort will commence at the hour of eight this year! Whew, got that out of my system!

After a very good dinner of pork chops I headed back to the Carnaval Room for an evening of what I hoped would be a whole two hours of laughs.

At quarter till the party animals started arriving. Soon the seats were filled and the show was underway. I had some things to take care of and missed the first act but as I walked from the Cantina (just across from the Carnaval Room) through the Breezeway to the ladies room I heard something about FAMILY JEWELS, REAR END AND VAPOR LOCK! WHAT DID SHE SAY???? I stopped in my tracks! OMG the preacher and his wife are in there and I don't hear one laugh! What did she say about putting a tampon behind her ear and what did she do with her cigarette? Oh please floor, open up and swallow me now! I kept on walking, I didn't want to hear anymore. When I returned a few minutes later she was off the stage. There is a God! The second comedian got up on the stage and he was pretty good. I heard a lot of laughs, I saw a lot of wives nudging their husbands and vice versa. This is good. I was relaxing by now. My palms had stopped bleeding because my nails were no longer digging into them as I clenched my fists. OK, we'll get through this.

Note to self: Call Randy, that woman is to never play here again!

By the time the third comedian, the headliner, got up on stage everyone seemed very relaxed as if they were enjoying themselves. This guy was a riot! Not one off color joke, not one cuss word and we were rolling in the aisles! I saw many of the winter residents go up to him afterwards and thank him for the show and to tell him how much they enjoyed him. HE is welcome back! (The clock on the wall is wrong)

All in all it was a good night with the exception of the first comedian (sic).

11/20/08 And the Catch Is ????

I started my day in dance class once again but I didn't make it through the first one. Today "The Next Step" started, its a more advanced line dancing class with a different teacher. The first dance was difficult at best and I thought about the fact that I never saw these dances danced at the dances we have. Wow, say that real fast five times. What that means is this.... these line dances are learned but never put to use on Friday or Saturday nights when Cactus Carl is spinning the tunes for us. They stay in the class. Are they difficult to learn? For me, yes. I can Electric Slide and Honky Tonk Stomp with the best of them but these are way over my head. Maybe if I had a reason to learn them it would be different but to put the effort into learning them to only do them one hour a week, well, my time is better spent. So off to the office I went.

As soon as the class was over we all went to the Carnaval Room to get it set up for a Health and Wellness Seminar that was scheduled. This company was providing lunch for us to eat as they made their presentation. When we first got there, and there were 60 of us who signed up, we filled out a questionnaire and we were all interested about the topics covered. Ones that this age group is dealing with every day....high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure. That's not to say that these matters are restricted to the fifty five plus age group but I do think it is more prevalent.

Lunch was provided by Mimi's, a local restaurant that we've enjoyed several good meals in. We had roast beef sandwiches, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, cole slaw, grapes, pineapple slices, honey dew melon slices and something else but I can't remember what. Darn, I can see it in the picture but I can't make out what it is. It looks orange, but I don't recall carrots being on the table. Anyway, lunch was just delicious.

Now here is when I should have had an "AHA" moment but it went right by me. You see, I saw the bill for this lunch when I was helping the restaurant guy unload everything. When I saw that number at the bottom of the restaurants paperwork it should have immediately triggered the question as to WHY this company was spending so much money on lunch for us. I naively thought that this was a health based company and out of the goodness of their hearts were going to give us ideas and maybe some heart healthy recipes so that we can take better care of ourselves. That they would feed us at the same time so that we had something to do while they gave their presentation and told us things like lay off the bagels slathered in cream cheese and that olives are ok but not dunked in martini's! Quick, look, is STUPID stamped on my forehead?

So here we are, sucking down lunch like its our last meal enjoying our simply scrumptious noontime meal, watching the slide show with catchy little phrases like "The Whiter the Bread, the Quicker You're Dead" and hearing how distilled water is the best thing to drink because after all that's what you use in your car batteries and in your clothes iron to keep the holes unclogged. Hey great, I can drink distilled water! Ahhh,,,but you shouldn't drink it if it comes in a plastic jug, only a glass container. Well, ok, I can do that too, where do I get in glass? No answer.

Next the nice lady, Jan, spoke of the food groups. Hey, I'm in familiar territory now, I KNOW the four food groups! Meat, dairy, fruit/veggies and chocolate! Oh yeah, I'm at the top of my game now, she won't get anything past me here! How many servings of veggies should we have a day? I raised my hand, waving it wildly, yelling to myself, pick me, pick me! She didn't. Boy oh boy am I glad she didn't! I had the same answer, five. WRONG! The answer is nine. Nine servings of veggies a day? Oh please! Nine servings of chocolate I can do, but vegetables? I thought about what I eat during a typical meal and if a serving of brussel sprouts or broccoli counts as one and a baked potato counts as two.....can chives laying in a white creamy field of sour cream be considered a veggie? I thought not. Ok, I get two servings a day. We won't go into my chocolate consumption, thank you very much. So HOW does one get nine servings a day of vegetables? Juicing! She extolled the benefits of beet juice for us and I almost lost the lunch I just ate.

She had tons more information and then the catch was thrown at us. She threw the catch? Get it? She would tell us how to fix all our ills in a two hour personal interview in the comfort of our homes that had to be scheduled in the first three days of next week only! Lest we forget all the valuable information she just gave us about keeping our arteries as clear as the steam holes on the bottom of our irons of course! I threw my questionnaire away at this point. I didn't want her to have my name or my site number! Did some people get sucked into this? Oh yeah, and I'll be sure to ask THEM where to buy distilled water in a glass container!

Any Survivor watchers out there? Didn't you just love the show tonight? Was is not the coolest way Randy got kicked off?

11/19/08 I'm Sorry, I Have to Cancel You

As I looked at the schedule for the coming months it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't done anything about the act that was scheduled that I wanted to cancel. I got the contract out and looked it over to see if I could find anything about having to cancel so many days in advance of the scheduled date. The darn print was so small I could hardly read anything on it at all. I had to enlist the help of Steve to read it. Note to self: Bring your reading glasses darn bifocals to the office!

Steve assured me that he couldn't find anything at all about canceling so I let Jeannie know that I was going to call them. She asked me what reason I was going to give for canceling and suggested that I tell them that attendance in the park was down and that we are afraid it wouldn't be worth their while and we think it best to cancel now to give them plenty of time to get booked elsewhere. I replied with, "Jeannie, I think honesty is the best policy, I think I should just tell them that their act sucks and we don't want them". The look on her face was priceless! Once she realized I was kidding then she had a good laugh over it.

So back at the office I gathered my thoughts and put the call in. I talked with the male partner in the act and I felt so bad telling him that we were canceling. I told him your act sucks and we don't want you what Jeannie suggested and I thought he was going to cry! Maybe they've been canceled a lot? Who knows but I've got a date in January open if you know of a good act available in the Arizona area.

I had no sooner hung up the phone and it rang. It was Randy, the comedian we have coming in this coming Friday. My first thought was, he was canceling us! Actually, he wanted to know if I objected to PG rated jokes. Well, no, "I" don't. I told him there couldn't be any "F" words and he assured me it wouldn't be anything like that but maybe some mild innuendo. Well, geez, we're all adults and you hear that much and worse on TV. I told him it would OK, but I stressed no "F" words! He agreed.

I had another craft class this afternoon. This time it was a Judy's Sparkler class. This is new to our park this year and went over very well the first time she had it last week. Steve even got involved and made a shirt for his wife, April.

Here I am using the handle of a pair of scissors to go over the design I'm putting on my shirt. Oh wow, I am so in need of a haircut!

Jan, holding up her shirt so the centering of the design can be checked.

This class was fun and easy to do. The hardest part was picking out what design you wanted to put on the shirt!

My finished shirt.

Would I do this again? Yes, I think I would. It was fun, the designs are supposed to last hundreds of washings and dryings, so yes, I'd do this again.