Sonnystone Acres

i’ve been sick all day over the closing of ellis park.  if you don’t know about it:  a dispute over money between management and horsemen’s association caused the owner to shut the place down.  he has a point, but all over the commonwealth and our adjacent hoosier city jaws have dropped and veritable panic has set in.  the horsemen, at first mad at the owner, then became upset with their leaders and this has started some new talking.  it looks now like they may compromise and get the place running by next wednesday — just in time for our planned soiree’. 

i’m seriously ill thinking that i could never go to the races again.  it is such a part of my summer and of my memory-bank that i just can’t imagine losing it.  it’s been a rough day. 

she just wants to be, originally uploaded by Right Moon.

haven’t had a picture of emma posted for a while, but very soon she will be here! 

 

1st Fathers Day, originally uploaded by jltmmc.

i just couldn’t resist posting this picture, even though it’s a few weeks old.   

this year’s freedom fest had a new event:  dock dogs.  they set up a pool down toward cherry st. and had a national competition for dog long-jump and high-jump.  it was so fun.  while most of the dogs were labs of some sort, there was a springer spaniel who reminded me of a high-class odie (our late pet) and some other rather exotic breeds.  the training was remarkable and the jumping was great.  the winner was a yellow lab named abby who jumped 23 feet to get her toy, followed by several fellas (chopper, bo, and alex to name a few) who generally jumped 22 some odd feet. 

the weather was not the usual hot sweaty and while we did have to skirt around a little straight-line windage on friday evening, overall we enjoyed the heck out of this year’s events.  the air show was fine.  the boats were fast.  the food was greasy–the way we like it.  because the weather was cool, i didn’t get to see as many trashy half-dressed people, but maybe that’s a good thing. 

no pictures, if you’ll notice.  i must be getting a new camera, but keep putting it off. 

we’re in high gear for the upcoming visits.  rummaging has been exceptional:  we found the perfect foldable high chair for $3.  9 new “little people” to go with our many sets for 75cents.  books (if you give a mouse a cookie), poddy seats, another (smaller) gnome, some articles of clothing.  we put together the old a-frame for a small swing.  we’ve got the upstairs ready.  all that’s missing is the guests.

melissa called and is ill.  i haven’t heard back from her today, but she was supposed to see a doctor because she was running a fever.  

miss emma magnolia mayne jose’ and her mother will be visiting sonnystone 7/8-7/15. 

i’d like to have nieces and their offspring come by for a playday on 7/9.   let me know how that sounds, please. 

miss olivia mayne casey and her parents will be visiting 7/13-7/14.  that’s a sunday and monday.  how many of you can be here sometime those days? 

friday, 7/11, is tentatively planned as a day at ellis park and all are invited. 

all other times are open and sonnystone will be in full catering mode.  i hope as many people as read this can be here.  there will be extra beds. 

more later………….

olivia 5 wks, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

isn’t she just the sweetest?  she really is a doll-baby.  we had such a great time with olivia and her parents this week-end.  i can hardly wait for everyone to meet her and it looks like it will be soon. 

larry garcia gnome, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

i found the camera and here are your long-awaited pix of my new friend.  at first i thought he looked just like jerry garcia, but now i’ve decided he looks just as much like larry caplan, our county ag agent.  hence his name.  he’s now safely ensconced in my gnome garden with his buddies. 

we’re off to lafayette to do some work and hold olivia. 

while we were frolicking in the ocean last week, casey walked out into the water to take a picture of me floating on a raft.  after snapping a couple of shots, a big wave came in a splashed the camera, rendering it….ruined. 

obviously, the card was still alive, but camera itself is a pillar of salt.  luckily we had the old camera and i “just in case” took a bunch of token shots of the beach on it before we left.  it works fine. 

since returning home, i have done very little but garden, cook, and rummage.  i found a wonderful concrete garden gnome, and took a picture of it for posting, but now have misplaced the camera. 

just wasn’t meant to be…for now.  anyway, i’ll be back to the blog very soon, but come and see me! 

on vacation, originally uploaded by rightbug?.

had a great time at the beach–the weather was picture-perfect, hot and humid.  it was just like jumping into summer and i needed that. 

if you look at the picture above, just to the left at the back of casey, you’ll see a “waffle house” sign.  there is no waffle house there.  in fact, if you look at that whole area of trees (live oaks) lining the road you’ll see there are very few buildings at all.  that stretch used to be covered with hotels, condos, and restaurants.  they are gone.  the one high-rise you can see down there is boarded up and not in use—not sure why they let it stand.  however, the whole scene is just mouth-dropping even now 2 1/2 years after katrina.  the casinos were about 5 miles from our area (our hotel was right in back of where we’re sitting) and they are up and going.  just west of us was gulfport and their port (or where it used to be) is still not there.  what an amazing amount of work these people have done to get where they are, and what a staggering amount of work still needs to be done to really recover. 

however, we just needed a beach.  we didn’t realize there were so few restaurants outside of casinos and did eat one night at the hard rock casino.  the second night we went to a local place called the biloxi schooner and had a so-so po’ boy.  atmosphere was smallsoutherntown and just what we like. 

beach, water, sand and what does that spell: sunburn.  i was cooked, baked, broiled as we headed up toward home, but revived, vivified, reloaded, ready for summer fun.  yee-haw.