Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL!  The morning started off with coffee on the deck, listening to the birds. I can tell time by the birds in the backyard.  I know it's around 6:30 if I hear the Mocking Birds, unless there's a full moon, then they are partying all night long. 

Around 7 the Mourning Doves start in. Most of ours this year are White Wing Dove from Mexico. They start in with their coo coo ca choo, which is more like a "who cooks for you?" 

This must be the official mating season, I thought they mated for life.  I don't understand why they have to go through all this rig-a-ma-row all over again every year.  Have you ever watched dove?  They coo coo call for each other back and forth from one tree or roof top to the other. Then one will fly over to the other, I'm assuming it's the male going to the female what do I know?  then the one who flew in puffs his/her feathers out to make themselves look like Orson Wells of the dove world and he/she prances around a bit until the other one flies off.  Then the chase is on, until Puffy gets really tired and flies off in another direction playing hard to get.  Then Slim the unpuffy comes flying back to his/her side and it all starts over.  Later on when I'm not out here they decide to make a nest with 3 twigs.  Before you know it there are little dove in our tree.  They love our tree, and come back every year.  Coo coo ca choo.

Sorry about that, my train of thought just jumped the track, it's the cooing! What was I discussing?  Telling time...   So, I know it's 8 when the dogs next door come out and all 3 or 4 of them start barking, only one has a true bark, the others have yaps and yips.  You know how dogs have that super sonic hearing... well the German Sheppard two doors over on the opposite side can hear her yappers and yippers from inside her house and she then wants out to converse with them from across two yards. 

It's 8:30 when the guy out back sticks his head out his back door and yells "Shut your F-in' dogs up!"  No need for a clock out here.  I just depend on nature. 

I did manage to get the last few rows finished on Michael's socks while I was out yesterday morning.  I can't believe I'm still working on these. I need either Jody or Jeff to try them on this evening to make sure they fit.  Then I'll send them to him, at least he'll have them when it turns cold next fall.

Have I ever mentioned how I despise shopping?  Unless of course I'm in New Braunfels or Gruen with my Mother-In-Law, or with Jolea, or with Nita.  I just don't like dealing with all the traffic and people in the stores and I VERY rarely go to a mall.

Yesterday I had to go return a skirt I bought a few weeks ago when I was at Nita's house in Houston.  Luckily I had bought it at SteinMart and thought I could just take it back over to the store in McKinney.  You see what the Houston store did?  Yeah, they left that little anti-theft thing on my skirt! Is this a ploy to get you back in the store to do more shopping? Well it works for me.

I walk in to the store and their alarm goes off,  I look at the guy at the register and say "that's why I'm here!"  He takes one look at my skirt problem and says "oh, we don't have that kind of device at this store..."  So if you can't get it off, give me my money back.  You would have thought they were going to go broke by giving me $20 back.  They wanted to take it to the back to see if they could get it off.  They got it off alright, but they put a 1/2 inch hole in the skirt!  I got my money back.   You see why I don't like shopping. 

Just for that, I put the top down on my car and drove home to eat chocolate and watch Couple's Retreat.  I am trying not to think about the fact that I need to go buy new glasses.

You may or may not want my review of Couple's Retreat but here it is. My scale is an A B C scale.  A = awesome.  B =  could B better.  C = crap.  Couple's Retreat is a B, there's a reason why none of us ran to the theater to see it.  Too much bickering and not enough funny moments of things that could have happened when 4 couples go off on a trip like this.  The message I got out of it was that Couple's Therapist make it their mission to screw people up.  This movie won't be on our Netflix list again.

Hope you all have a great week.  Take one last look at the Lady Banks Rose Bush in all her glory.  She's history as soon as the blooms are gone.  Jody is tired of fighting her and he's determined to win the battle even if he has to use a chainsaw.

Up close...

In Jolea news.... she's made it to New Haven, CT and the Schooner Quinnipiack.  She's cold, again. Maybe she'll put some Cuban pictures on her blog someday.........