Shifting Gears   Baby Boomer…Member Life 2.0…Wife, Mother, Grammie…Bicyclist…GoldWinger…Mensan…Girl Scout…Reader…Knitter…Rotarian

Yesterday was the Go Red for Women luncheon to benefit the American Heart Association.  The event featured an auction of handbags filled with goodies called “Purse-enalities” and I was asked to donate a bag.  I knitted/felted a red wool bag and filled it with some of my favorite things – gift certificates to Talbots and [...]

The biggest bicycling event to ever hit the state of Missouri rolled into Springfield today – the inaugural Tour of Missouri.  The Tour started yesterday with an out-and-back ride from the Plaza in K.C. north to Platte County with a dramatic finish around Ward Parkway.  We volunteered to assist with the race and ended up [...]

About 2:30 a.m. yesterday morning Burl’s cell phone went off – it took us several rings to come out of our sleep stupor and realize what it was and then no one was there.  A few minutes later, the same thing – so we forgot about it and returned to our slumber.  Last evening our [...]

……..was the name of the bike ride I did today – turned out to be 74+ miles but I felt nary a raindrop and while it was incredibly humid, the cloud cover kept it being unbearably hot.  The route was moderately hilly but 90% of it was on roads I hadn’t ridden before which let [...]

Here was the original plan for today: 5:45 – wake up, get dressed for bicycling, drink coffee, water, eat breakfast 6:20 – leave house to drive to start of ride with bike in tow 7:00 – start 70-mile bike ride 2:00 – be done with ride, stop at QT for special Diet Coke, get home, [...]

Last weekend while we were in Kansas City we went to Harrah’s Casino with some friends.  We definitely needed an orientation to casinos as we hadn’t been to one since we were in Vegas over 3 years ago – for instance, we didn’t know you had to show your driver’s license to prove you’re over [...]

A couple of times a year a group from work gets together just to drink, eat and laugh – tonight was such an event and I reflected on my drive home how important these friends are to me – not just as co-workers but as friends I’d want to see even if we didn’t work [...]

Tonight I got a rare treat – dinner and shopping with daughter #1, better known as Tammy.  I’ve been so swamped at work all summer that our time together has suffered so I was thrilled when she mentioned Steve was out of town and she’d love to get together for dinner and a run through [...]

It’s a far cry from the NFL but watching the freshman football team from Nixa High School was really lots of fun – especially when we got to see grandson Corey (#72) out on the field.  They came from being down 13-0 to whip the Carthage Tigers 28-13 on a picture-perfect summer evening.  And to [...]

The Branson Imax is currently showing “Wired to Win” so we took off late this afternoon for a quick jaunt to Branson and to see the flick.  Our expectation was that the movie was about the Tour de France and since we’re among the few geeks who actually watch the race every summer and know [...]