test

that all this is

It's still August

I just opened an email from Mary. She tells me that our September meeting will be at Judith Blake's house on September 12. 7 pm

I'm going to be there.

It's August!

and our next meeting is at Leslie's on the 22nd.

July and where is the year going to?

Carol sent an email asking for input on dates and places for a July meeting. I'm going to be gone the 13th through the 21st on a cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver so I'm voting for the end of the month. I'd host it on the 26th, but I think Maryann wanted to do it this month.
Nancy

June meeting

[Our next meeting] is at Maureen's house June 20th and she lives at:

2908 Water View CT

Home phone 329-8711

Go up Alameda towards the lake. There is a red light at 24th Ave, continue straight on Alameda past 24th Ave, we are the second right off of Alameda (Summit Lakes Blvd) and then take the second left off of Summit Lakes which is Water View CT. Park in my driveway or in the circle.

There are conditions to coming to my house. Bob and I have just spent $5500 to put in Brazilian Cherry Bellawood engineered hardwood floors and I have had new built in bookcases installed up in the bonus room. The man who installed the wood floor stretched my "putting green" carpet in the bonus room because the previous homeowner installed it and did a crappy job. I've been waiting 7 years to get that carpet pulled tight. Lastly, an Edmond "redesigner/house stager" is coming to my house on June 9th to tell me how to arrange the furniture I have and/or if I should buy another chair for the living room.

Therefore, you must all tell me that my house looks beautiful even if it looks like ca-ca because I am broke. Thank you in advance for being such good friends ....

Love,

Maureen who is not doing any more remodeling projects for quite awhile, even if I had the money

S.P.O.T

At our last meeting, Carol mentioned that Dan had found kittens under Dan's World. I piped up and said that I'd heard of an animal welfare clinic (SPOT- Stop Pet Overpopulation Today) in OKC that performed spays and neuters for very small charges. A friend took a litter of stray kittens like Dan's to this clinic and they charged her only $5 per kitten.
There are some income restrictions, but apparently stray litters are special. If you want to know more, go to:
www.vawokc.org
Another group that will help out with low cost spay and neuter surgeries is Best Friends of Shelter Pets (SNAP). Its website is:
www.bestfriendsokc.org

May 16, Ellen's house

I guess there were eleven of us last night. Maureen came late 'cause both her munchkins were home from school. They had to eat and she ate with them, but didn't abandon the WWE.
The talk was of local politics to start. "Why I didn't vote for the new library," was the main topic. There was a little rumor-mongering about proposed locations mixed in with comments about taxes and traffic. The conversation gradually rolled around to national politics and who Obama's running mate will be. A woman governor, Kathleen Sebelius, from Kansas was mentioned.
The march to the main event, eating, was not led by Carol but instead Ellen took the lead. As usual, everything was delicious. There was cake, two kinds with coffee and tea.
We stayed late, breaking up about quarter to twelve.

and the men who sleep with them

Some of the women who eat gathered last Saturday with their husbands at Susan's house. We assembled to go on an overnight to the Sulphur Springs Inn. The day was planned to follow the successful list of activities that the women who eat and sleep together participated in a couple of months ago.

It was the same, yet different.
Bryan, the mayor of Junk City, found men to talk to in our group. They were a little harder to sell to than the women alone were, but he managed to find a couple of buyers. At noon, some of us announced that we were feeling peckish so off we went to a local Mexican restaurant. We sat outside in the sunshine for a couple of hours, talking and eating. It was so friendly and cheerful. Art received the latest state quarter for his collection from the proprietor.
On we journeyed to the Inn. Charlie seemed happy to see us.
We kept very busy that Saturday afternoon.

• We geo-cached, hiking a couple of miles with Charlie, the innkeeper, as our guide.

Bob, Maureen and Susan struggle over the rocks to the cache.

Bob, John, Susan and Carol commemorate the find with a group portrait.

• We biked, hauling a** on big, ol' bikes with fat, soft tires, checking out the various picnickers.
• We waded in the river to see the cliffs at sunset, dousing ourselves in the chilly water and marveling at the quiet broken only by cardinals, wrens and a mockingbird.
• We ate and drank and played music far into the night.
• We steamed and stewed in hot water and went to bed, happy as little kids.
• Sunday morning we decided to hike to Antelope and Buffalo Springs. The whole group gathered around the spring to marvel at the clear water, unexpected in Oklahoma.

Maureen and Sheila engage in deep conversation.

What a trip!

Literary notes - Susan's house

Karen said, "

I was writing down book titles that several people were talking about, and some of you asked for the titles. These are books read by one or more WWE and are recommended by them. Slightly annotatee list follows. Corrections or additions are welcome.

By the way, it was really great to see all of you who were there.

Karen

Book Thief--Markus Zusak WWII, girl in foster care steals books to cope with life, good characters in book

Good Masters & Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medieval Village--Laura Amy Schlitz and Robert Byrd

Hound of Rowan; book one of the Tapestry--Henry H. Neff --Harry Potterish series; well-written

Three Cups of Teas: OneMan's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time--Greg Mortenson non-fiction about project to establish schools (especially for girls) to counteract poverty, terrorism, etc.--started when male nurse didn't make it on K-2 climb and was nurtured for weeks by local family

Tenth Gift--Jane Johnson--novel about embroidery patterns connecting two women across time--modern England and Barbary pirates (I think English girl was captured by piratesand taken to Morocco???)

1491:New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus--Charles C. Mann--lots of fascinating information about high level of culture and population densities, advanced state of society before Europeans arrived--several people had read this one

Pontoon; a novel of Lake Wobegon--Garrison Keillor funny"