Wow - you'd really think by the lack of posting that I've been on vacation or something! Not the case - just the everyday scramble with a couple of monkey wrenches thrown into the mix for fun. Last weekend, we finished up the retirement festivities for a good friend with a Friday night party. I did the flowers and helped set up for the event. Decorations were really secondary to the great venue - a clubhouse overlooking the river, that also happened to be both poolside and dockside! A great place for an indoor/outdoor party on a summer night. Here are the flowers the night before the party - I emptied out our party fridge of all of the beer and wine (should have taken a picture of that!), and put the flowers in it in order to keep them fresh for the event the following night: 
This should have been a great idea - after all, I see flower arrangements in refrigerated coolers in florist shops and supermarkets all of the time. However - and this is a big however, what I didn't realize was just how inaccurate the thermostat on my party fridge was! Some - not many - of the flowers were frozen the next morning! I took them out of the fridge and admired my handiwork, only to realize that some of the flowers were covered with crystallized ice! And that the oasis floral foam in a couple of the containers was frozen. Solid. The crystallized flowers quickly went from bright to brown, and then sagged sadly. I pulled them out and went out into the yard for replacement greenery. The loss wasn't too major, and I learned a valuable (or expensive) lesson. Here's a couple of pictures of the flowers after the party was set up and waiting for folks to arrive.
We had a home swim meet last Saturday morning, and the no-fail bbq brisket dinner (see here) with great friends Saturday night, and a day off on Sunday complete with a NAP! The next few days were full of shopping, packing, preparing and anticipating for our oldest son's trip to the National Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico. As he's going to be hiking and backpacking for a couple of weeks over 80+ miles, we did as much editing of his gear as we could. He sent a couple of pictures from his cell phone from their hike in Rocky Mountain National Park - and it is spectacularly gorgeous there.
Although we know he's having a terrific time, it's awfully quiet without him around, and Riley the wonder dog is a little mopey. Everyone that we know who's either done this trip or who has know someone who's done it, has said that it was an amazing experience. While I don't doubt that, I do wish that I'd been able to put a Martha Stewart-style GPS ankle bracelet on him - just in case.
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