Mei-Mei

Debbie, my sister who lives near Guy, Arkansas (pop. 523 with the arrival of her great-grandchild Rylie), is staying a few weeks with us at the Dancing Toad Ranch; she is my younger sister, so her name in Chinese is "Mei Mei." If I remember rightly, my name in Chinese as the older sister is "Lei Lei." (I'd ask Casey, but she is in China until the 11th.) Mei Mei is constantly telling me that I am "big sistering" her or someone else -- it doesn't mean giving astute and wise advice because of my years of experience -- it means that she thinks I'm getting bossy! Imagine that...

Earlier in her visit, we had lunch with Allan Northcutt, someone who was at our grade school, intermediate school, and high school. At one point Deb and I were going back and forth about some embarrassing even in our younger days, and Allan said quietly that if we got any louder we were going to be kicked out of Red Lobster...and I don't think that's a common occurence in Allan's life. Imagine that...

Plans for my trip down the Lewis and Clark Trail with my brother and Dad's ashes are complete. I will fly to Seattle on the 18th, and I'm spending the 20th with a good friend Nancy Kress. Then we leave on the 21st. First stop is Fort Clatsop, Oregon, where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805-6. The fort burned several years ago, but Brad says it's been restored. I'm anxious to see it. To my relief, we are NOT:

camping
portaging
eating only what we can kill

Our goal is to be back at TDTR on Thursday, the 25th (what would have been Dad's 86th birthday) to start picking up relatives at the airport.

I had a lovely birthday on the 5th--thanks to all those (e)cards and e-mails!--Van and I drove to Lawrence to attend a day-long "Funday" put on by the North East Kansas Beekeepers Association. It was a blast, from holding bees to eating honey strawberry icecream to learning how to catch swarms.