#281 Magic ice at Sonic

Way back in Kansas City, my friend Carol taught me how to order drinks at Sonic. She said, "be sure to ask for extra ice." And she was right. Sonic has magic ice.

And now Sonic Drive-in has come within 30 miles of Charlottesville. On Saturday, we celebrated by driving over the mountains for a Sonic drink with extra ice. Sure the drive through Virginia's springtime was gorgeous with too many blooming redbuds and dogwoods to count.

But the magic ice. Now that was beautiful!

Yours in appreciation of Carol for my education, of Ronda (my Sonic scout), and of the Sonic company for following me around the country,
Mary

#280 Happy Earth Day!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle all day long and every day!

Yours in appreciating the earth on our walking commute,
Mary

#279 Book jumping for National Library Week

I hope you've all enjoyed National Library Week and that you properly celebrated Thomas Jefferson's birthday.

I celebrated by reading Lost in a Good Book.

This is the second in a series (after The Eyre Affair) by Jasper Fforde about the literary detective Thursday Next. Thursday is a book jumper. With the help of Miss Havesham, she jumps in and out of books to do her detective work and to get to the bad guy. In this book, she works in the Jurisfiction division and her destination is Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven.'

When Thursday travels into the book world and meets the Cheshire Cat, she naturally asks the cat what he does. "I," said the cat proudly, "am the librarian."

Yup, it's true. The Cheshire Cat is the librarian of the great library in the book world, though he has been renamed to the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat because the county boundaries were changed.

So, it's been a good week what with all the book jumping. But I still wonder whether NLW was scheduled for the week of Jefferson's birthday or if that's just a happy coincidence.

Yours in traveling through the book world,
Mary

#278 Our Texas Visit - Revisited

Kelly's right. Sometimes things just work out.

But sometimes the things that work out aren't even related to basketball. Shocking!

Sure, KU's last-second shot to send the game into overtime was pretty fun. But lots of other things worked out to make this weekend just about as fun as it gets.

Hanging out on the Riverwalk and running into friends was a highlight for me! Friends provided us with tickets, so that not only we could attend, but so could 4 members of our family. Though Mizzou and UTexas fans, our family helped us root for KU. (It may have been slightly more difficult for those Mizzou faithful, but we appreciate it just this one time.)

The weather was gorgeous - sunny and warm with plenty of Texas wildflowers. The bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, lavender, and pink evening primrose made for a beautiful drive through the Texas hill country where we stopped to play in this clear creek. The food was scrumptious - Texas barbecue, Mexican food, and large margaritas each and every day.

And as if all of that wasn't enough, American Airlines canceled our return flight (along with about 3000 other flights), so we got to stay 2 extra days in Texas. Our pictures have all been uploaded - just click on the 'see all our photos' link to the right. But the best image of all may just be this video of Kelly riding Uncle Bob’s Pedal-o.

Sometimes things really just work out.
Mary

P.S. to Principal Larry, the KU alum: Sharon is telling the truth. Her brother and sister did go to the Final Four and cheered loudly for the Jayhawks.

#277 Our Texas Visit

Last year, we started working on a plan to attend the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship in San Antonio with our Texas family. And through the generosity of friends, we secured the tickets. Only once in our previous seven men's Final Four visits did we have the pleasure of watching my favorite team, the Kansas Jayhawks, compete. But sometimes things just work out. On Selection Sunday, the Hawks received a number one seed. Two weeks later, we watched in stunning HD as Kansas won the Midwest Regional to advance to the Final Four in San Antonio.

On April 5 in the Alamodome, I watched from section 105, row 31, seat 20 as Kansas overcame a 9-point deficit in the last two minutes, hit a miracle shot to tie the game with 2 seconds remaining, and in overtime, win the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

Yours in appreciating how sometimes things just work out,
Kelly