November and December, 2006
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: EVOLUTION OF A QUILT (Colleen McKay) Click A MEMORABLE SCRABBLE GAME (Nancy Murdock) Click SETTLING IN (Mary Cosgrove) Click ONE YEAR LATER (Becky Murdock) Click NEWS FROM HUBBARDSTON (Tom Howlett) Click THE FINAL COUNTDOWN (Darrel Murdock) Click Part 2 BACK-TO-BACK VACATIONS (Nancy Murdock) Click WATERFALLS AND FALL COLOR (Nancy Murdock) Click REVISITING THE SCIENCE MUSEUM WITH JASON (Nancy Murdock) Click DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH ROY (Nancy Murdock) Click SOUTH SHORE, ETC. (Nancy Murdock) Click CONNECTING WITH AN OLD FRIEND (Bob Murdock) Click FIVE DAYS LATER (Nancy Murdock) Click AROUND THE TOWN (Nancy Murdock) Click Part 3 HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, MOM (Bob Murdock) Click MY FIRST PEDICURE (Nancy Murdock) Click ALSO RAN (Darrel Murdock) Click MODELING (Krista Reese) Click MANY THANKS (Meredith Murdock) Click THE LOUP RIVER REPORT (Gene Murdock) Click THE SCULLERY MAID (Claudia-Lindsay) Click SCHOOL STUFF (Valerie Davidson) Click TO MY SURPRISE..(Valerie Davidson) Click LOTS OF CHANGES (Deanna Murdock) Click BASEBALL AND FILM (Charlie Frost) Click THIS AND THAT (Gene Murdock) Click HEADING OUT (Margery Aukstikalnis) Click |
2006 church photo
Parrot quilt Gallery photo Quilt index
Roy's 2006 Twin Cities visit |
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Nancy Murdock On June 11, 2006, Colleen, Bob, and I played our all-time best Scrabble game. We play frequently. On any weekend when Colleen isn’t trotting around the world or attending a conference, we tend to ask her over for dinner and Scrabble. We now own four Scrabble dictionaries, all of which are on the table as we play. Sometimes, though, we start the game with a stop long enough to eat some of her warm brownies! Several years ago, Bob and I worked out a batch of goals for Scrabble. We say that a total of 600 is par, no matter how many are playing. We count one goal for each of the following: • 700 total; • Each player has a score of at least 600 divided by the number of players (200 for three players, 300 for two, 150 for four); • One goal for each play in which a player uses all seven letters from his/her rack. As of June 11, 2006, we added one additional goal: total of 800 or more! This game was 800, the first time we had ever seen that score. In large part, what made the evening memorable and high-scoring was that each of the three of us had an all-letters word! We have had more than one evening in which two “7-letter” words appeared on the board, but all three of us? It may never happen again! It was truly exciting. So much so that I took a photo of the board and Colleen wrote out all of the letters on one of those never-used sheets that came with the game. The following were our 7-letter words: Colleen - DOUBLING, Bob - TEENAGED, and Nancy - STEALING. Our scores were: Colleen, 296 Bob, 224 Nancy, 280 It was early when we finished, but we all agreed that we didn’t want to try another game, figuring it would be a downer. Instead, Colleen and I started some 8.5"x11" quilts for an Abstract Art Quilt Challenge by Quilting Arts Magazine. But five days later, when we tried the game again, two of us had “seven-letter” words, and we were only two points short of 700. As I write this article tonight, August 17, Bob started our two-person game by getting seven-letter words in each of his first two turns! His score as we reach the end is 440, and mine, in spite of some hassles with lack of usable vowels, is 334. So we have a total of 774. We have made par plus four goals. Not bad for a game that started at 10:30 PM! |
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Mary Cosgrove Nov. 2: We are having fun with so many projects! We have plenty more to do. Just this morning Bob hung, over our eating table, a lamp which I picked up for $3. We LOVE the mid Willamette, Oregon location. It's country here, but we are about an hour away from things in every direction. It's about 20 minutes to the border of Salem, the capital, but Salem is so big and everything is spread out all over; it's a challenge to get all the errands done in a day, even with Bob as the copilot with a map. Friday we go in for Bob's dr. appt., and I have a long list of errands. I never expect to get through the list but keep things on the list in case I happen to pass by the place. About 2 weeks ago we went for an overnite at the coast. We are almost directly horizontally across from Lincoln City (1 hr). We stayed there awhile, then headed south (25 min. drive) to Newport, which we really liked. We visited a science extension of one of the universities where we saw a baby octopus, etc. The lady who works there was helpful regarding info in the area. We loved the back bay but didn't drive far enough to the crabbing area (next time). Bob actually got me to drive over this tall, long bridge! We scouted out some restaurant locations with local recommendations. Visited one of Mo's locations (famous for chowder)..the annex, on the bay. Looking out the big window, it was all fog!! A group of volunteer senior musicians show up on Thursdays and play for the customers. You never know how many are going to show up. Bob was loving it as they were playing some real oldies. Coming back through Depot Bay, we saw (from the Whale Watch center) a whale spouting. October was a huge month for whales in the area, i.e., 9 spottings in a day, more or less. Nancy, there is a store in town called Granny's Attic. The owner designs quilts and holds classes. She designs her own ideas for each month also. I went there in search of things for embroidering. I'll send you a postcard with her design on it separately. If you are ever in the area, we would love it if you could visit. Sometimes we go to a good Mexican restaurant here even though it's outside the box health-wise. Dallas is limited in the area of restaurants. My goal is to offer more variety from my kitchen, now that I'm not traveling long distances to and from my former work. It's very therapeutic :-) . I'm not sure, but I don't think I sent you a pic yet of Bob and me. I have one available (we are just getting a disc together to send to my sisters). The rainy season has started. However, we will find that the temperatures here will be easier to deal with as opposed to Upland, which is in the foothills. Rains there were torrential and the summers were too hot. We actually were limited to about 2 weeks of desirable weather in Upland, CA. The rains here are milder, fall is BEAUTIFUL, and we are having a heat pump installed next week to cut the electric heat costs; plus we'll have air conditioning for the hottest days in summer. Hope you can visit sometime!! |
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Becky Murdock Oct. 17: Long time no write....sorry about that!!! Well, I am writing now, so I will try to fill you in on everything that has been going on. Let's see, Oct.9th was a year since my heart attack, and so far so good (knock on wood). It seems like a lifetime ago, but it also made me enjoy life more, and not stress so much. The doctor calls me his miracle patient, since most people don't live thru what I had and come out stronger, and more fit, and have a great tan. I play an hour of volleyball every day. We have a court here at work and play at lunch. I am the only girl playing, but I keep up with the boys (who are younger and fitter than I am) lol!!! And I joined the gym, and work out every day after work except Fridays. I love it; I feel better than I ever have. I got a call from Tim on Sunday. He was getting ready to go to Germany for 3 weeks, for a training class. I am not sure if anyone told you, but Tim got Soldier of the Month award last week. He is doing extremely well, and loves it. He is hoping to make it home for Christmas, I sure hope so because it wouldn't be Christmas without him. He is hoping to make it to Egypt soon to see the pyramids (my dream also). I am so happy he is seeing the world, while he is young, and they are paying for all this good stuff for him. He has a good head on his shoulders. Natt is also doing very well, I see her quite a bit, she comes over and hangs out with Mer and me. I feel very blessed with my two great kids. I hope you have all your scary Halloween decorations up...boo!!!!! |
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Tom Howlett Oct. 16: Looks like we all had an early end to baseball this year. Am glad that Ortiz gets the applause he richly deserves. Already thinking about next year's crops as St. Patrick's Day will be upon us in a mere five months. Silver Sneakers today, and later this week I'll put down a maple floor with the librarian and her husband. It is fortuitous that I have the special tools as I purchased them three years ago for another job. Have a good week. November 12: Thanks for the birthday wishes and the thoughts to kindle fond memories. I do remember the sandbox and I think of other things our parents did to make life interesting at low cost. I also remember some of the naughty things we did for amusement. Releasing Isaac Walkinen's chickens to roam on our land so we might have "regular" poultry comes to mind. I remember when Steve broke his nose after falling from the large maple because he was convinced he could hang by his feet in a limb crotch. I always liked rice with milk and sugar and I did not care for buttered rice until the age of eighteen. This came about because the Marine Corps served lots of rice with turkey etc. but ,alas ,without my beloved m&s. My birthday 71st party with Silver Sneaker friends was celebrated at Wendy's and I laughed at the cheerleader Lorri's calling the manager to reserve tables for nine. Darned if he didn't do just that and stopped by to see that all was well. My first choice of Monty Tech dining fell by the wayside because of special stuff there and I chose Wendy's and had a memorable time. The place is nowhere near as important when with good friends. |
October 2006 |
Darrel Murdock October 15: The July-August heat wave and drought ensured a scanty fall color show for the Twin Cities area, so we had scrambled Up North and to other states to get the blazing oranges and scarlet reds that mark the beginning of the Upper Midwest show. Even at the other locations the drought had left its mark, the birches and aspens had turned to toast, and even some pines were yellowing. We managed to get some goodies still; in fact Bond Falls was more beautiful than I have ever seen it. Having the luxury of being able to view the local foliage daily, I had watched like a hawk as what little color we would have came to its peak. I dashed around grabbing the first of it between jobs; it was green one day, peaking the next and falling off the third day, so it took flexibility and persistence plus luck with the weather to get some. Then just as it was crawling to a start, a four-day cold snap with bitter winds robbed the locals of their annual eye candy and left the photographers shaking their heads. All that was left when the sunshine returned were the later maples (which were damaged) and the oak trees. I had never looked too closely at those majestic oaks for their fall offerings, which I called the bronze brigade. The flaming colors wrapped in healthy pines had been my first love, and we had chased them from Extreme North to the southern Minnesota border the last two years. Yet I was not one to give up even though we had gleaned enough to keep my photo editor smoking for months. I just can't stop taking pictures of fall color until the last stand turns brown. It is so long before the next opportunity, you know. So when the sun showed up on the last good weekend we grabbed our cameras and went to the best local spots that we knew of to see what we could see. I knew if nothing else that we would find some oak trees blushing, as they hadn't been bothered one bit by the summer scalding or the high winds. We also knew we might find a stand or two of trees that had been sheltered from the harsh weather. We found a scraggly assortment of maples and sumacs struggling here and there, but this year was totally dominated by the oaks. It was a wonderful discovery as we looked closer; the oak leaves were virtually bug-free and appeared preserved by wax. Those thick leaves were as tough as they were gorgeous, turning shades of red, orange, burgundy and plum before bronzing into oblivion. I couldn't believe I had overlooked our vast supply of these impressive trees until I had been forced by default to examine them. They not only picked up the slack, they added a whole new dimension to our color coffers with some of the finest close-ups I had ever seen (or taken). As the final weekend for autumn madness came to a close, we realized that we had managed to get quite a harvest of digi-data after all, despite the skeletal remains that had been the rule, not the exception this year. Somehow the rag-tag team of RedFox and AAALynx had scored again, against all odds. |
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