My Alphabe Thursday theme: Places I've Been Vegas as in Las Vegas. The fertile lowlands of a city that's in southern Nevada. Yes, fertile lowlands is the English translation of the Spanish plural las vegas . Hmmm, could that be why you can find quite a lot of golf courses is Vegas? Some might say that the fertile lowlands refer to something other than terrain. But, I'm not going there. I've been to Vegas four times. The first time was in 1975 when I went cross-country with a college friend. The Strip wasn't a big deal yet and Downtown Vegas was so-so, but then I was still 20 so what was the use of being there. The second time was another quick stop as the first, late dear Husband and I were driving back from our first big camping trip together. Again, yawwwwn. We had after all spent a week down in a canyon by the Colorado River. In the late 1990s, the Husband and I spent a few days in Vegas and by then the Strip was a very big surreal deal. The p

The Husband and his Sun Flame rode with Tilda-Hilda and me today. Hurrah! That's always fun. We pedaled nearly six miles on as flat of a route as we could find. There were a couple of hairy spots with inattentive drivers. Silly people. The lighting was strange this morning because of a fire about 20 miles away to the south of town. It's very dry out there; unfortunately, the fire has spread over 300 acres, the last I heard. Hopefully, the firefighters can contain it today. Talk about being brave. Those men and women are the best examples of courage. See you tomorrow with Jane Austen, Action Doll. Update: The fire has now spread to 600 acres, eating up hillsides and mountainsides. More than 200 fire fire fighters, including firefighting pilots, are working on the blaze. According to afternoon news reports, only 10 percent of the fire was contained by mid-afternoon.

Yesterday, Tilda and I pedaled more than 2 blocks. The last time before that was 2 weeks ago. I contracted that silly bug that lingers in your throat and chest, which causes you to cough and cough.  Fortunately, I didn't have a horrible bout of it and, best of all, neither the Mama nor the Husband caught it. Even though I can still feel something in me, I decided to go for a bike ride that meant putting on shoes rather than sandals today. Tilda-Hilda and I pedaled 4.6 miles in 24 minutes. We are stronger than I thought. Hurrah! Who knows, we may be able to pedal longer miles by the end of the month. We shall see.

I wonder if Molly the Cat knows that she's a cat. Does she think we are different-looking cats? Or, maybe she thinks she's a human. Does she ever wonder why we're in charge of food, and, why we can't always get right what food she truly likes. The Husband wondered about the time she was stalking a mouse and whether she thought she was shopping for food. Did she wish she had a shopping cart? Molly is sleeping at the top of the stairs as I'm writing. She has a new routine of coming upstairs in the evening. Earlier this week, she was having tummy problems, and it was cold downstairs, so I brought her upstairs to sleep with us, if she liked. She did and does. She generally waits until we're both asleep before she jumps onto the bed. In the early morning, I've waken up to find her squeezed between us or settled into the back of my knees when I'm on my side. Sweet Molly the Cat.

"And that's how our generation does it!" exclaimed one of the rocking band members, who was in his early to mid-60s. "Whoooo-hoooo!" shouted the Husband and I, clapping wildly on the dance floor. We'd been dancing our hearts, souls, and bodies out for the past three hours to soul, funk, and good old rock 'n roll. That last dance—Johhny B. Goode. Whooo-hooo! Most of the evening, we shared the dance floor with a few other old fogeys and one younger couple who had sweet technical dance moves. During the last hour, young men and women of the reunion Class of 2005 streamed into the lounge. But, it was not until the last two songs that they had enough liquid courage to get out on the dance floor, and finally get into the music of their grandparents generation.  What a fun night! The band even dedicated a song to me— Cinnamon Girl . First time, ever. 

The fronds kind of form the letter E. Roger Green of Ramblin with Roger did this fun game for his post on ABC Wednesday some weeks back. When I read the post , I thought I'd like to do the game one day. You're in luck, this is the day. Directions of The Last Name Game: Use the first letter of your last name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names, things, nothing made up. 1. Last name?  Echaore-McDavid.  Yup. That's my legal surname. Some people file me under E, while others file me under M. 2. An animal? Ewok. Okay, that's made up. Or, is it?  Emu, then. 3. A boy’s name: Evan, the coffee guy at Vertigo Coffee who can make amazing designs on coffee drinks. 4. A girl’s name: Edith, as in Edith Bunker and Jenn's sister. 5. An occupation? Event Coordinator is a real job, which I think would be fun to do. My first thought though was an Eagle Tamer, which is probably not a real thing. 6. A color? Ecru.  Is th

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