Saturday evening and Sunday....

Saturday 6/26:

Good evening....I thought I would add an update before heading off to bed.  I did take a nap with the College World Series game on TV; then I got up and got started getting ready to go out to the graduation.  I got changed and put on makeup, etc. and then sat down and logged into my blog and made an entry.  I logged out and off; when I went out to the den, I found that our friend was already here and it wasn't yet 4:00 PM. 
 
We headed out and down to Byram [to the place we went back in late March that was "out in the country"].  We got on I-55 South and as we reached the curve by St. Dominic's Hospital, traffic was stacked up and backed up.  For some reason, MDOT had traffic southbound down to one lane and that was the cause of the snarl.  She moved over in to the lane that was moving.  We got past the cones that had the other lanes blocked off and she was about to move over when she saw an MDOT truck coming toward us with guys in the back.  They were moving slowly so that the guys who were in the back could reach and grab each cone on their side.
 
Once we cleared them, she moved over and we headed on down and exited at Byram.  Then we made our way to Rice Acres, home of Buried Treasures. Jane required our help in navigating her there.  We took her straight there since we had been there before.  We saw that there were quite a few vehicles already there and they were becoming "parking challenged". Jane found a space and we parked and went in.  She and my housemate sat in the back; since I had my camera and wanted to get pictures, I sat up front where I would have a good view of the proceedings.  
 
We were there early; the event started at 5:00 PM and lasted till about 6:15 PM.  I got a bunch of pictures; after the proceedings were over, I got to the 2 ladies who graduated and got pictures of them with their certificates.  Then I went and found our friend; we found my housemate - in the "chandelier room" - and then we all went out back and I got a picture of them together with the lake as a backdrop; my housemate got a shot of our friend and me; then a shot of just me with the lake as a backdrop.  We departed after doing that and headed back to the house.  When we got in here, we found that closing the house up had us at 79 in the hallway and 79.2 in my bedroom. 
 
I changed back into shorts and a tee shirt, then went and fixed supper and took my PM meds.  My housemate changed as well and she went to the club for a workout.  We were going to have a conversation about the "baby gate" issue - we were talking about getting a couple to put up to control Sukiey and keep the hallway open so we could have air flow.  Well, when she returned, I was on the phone with my Aunt and said that I would come out and talk with her when I got off the phone.  I did that - but she was gone.  
 
She returned a little later - she had gone to purchased 2 of the baby gates we had looked at this morning.  I came out and found she was working on trying to put them up.  She asked me if I knew how to do it and so I took one of them and easily got it up.  Then I got the other one and put it up on top of the 1st one.  Then we located some cable ties and I tied the 2 gates together.  We decided that we need another gate - a 3rd gate - and we will also need more cable ties as we had just enough to tie the 2 gates.  
 
We've decided to change which door we have them placed on.  We currently have them put on the door going out in to the den, but we plan to switch them to the hallway door going into the living room tomorrow.  Linda said that even though tomorrow is Sunday, we have a "donkey in the ditch" - and so we'll go back tomorrow afternoon and pick up another baby gate and more cable ties and will move the 2 that we already have and add the 3rd.  We would've gone back this evening but it was too late by the time we realized we needed another one.  
 
Well, I'm going to leave you here and head on to bed.  Later....
 
Sunday 6/27:
 
My housemate and I got up - different times - and had breakfast and got ourselves ready and headed out to church.  Afterward, we connected back up and went out for lunch.  There was a huge crowd that turned out and we had to wait for probably 20-25 minutes [maybe longer] in line to make our way through.  

When we were passing the area where the drinks were, there was a sign up about the boil water alert and that the ice was okay [they were getting it from somewhere not impacted by the alert] but that the drink machine was out of service and so they were offering canned soft drinks and bottled water for $1.00 each.  Okay, by the time we made our way back down the line and got to that area again, the sign was still up, so Linda and I each got a bottled water.  We reached the person printing the tickets out; I happened to look at mine when she handed it to me and saw that I was charged $1.99 for my bottle of water.  Linda checked hers and found the same thing.  We questioned it and the manager was called over and he said that the boil water alert had just been lifted and so the bottled water had gone back to its regular price.  He was willing to let us have our bottles for $1.00, though.  However, he didn't take the initiative and tell the ticket maker to change our tickets.  I was inclined to give back my bottle of water and go get a glass of ice water instead, but Linda didn't want to hold up the line any longer in order to do that.  The thing was - if the alert had been lifted, then they should've taken down the signs immediately so that customers wouldn't feel "ripped off" by the price suddenly going back up - right at double what the sign said the price was!  
 
We went on and joined some friends at the table.  They didn't know if we had waited in that long line or had gotten disgusted and left.  We had a nice lunch with them.  We were the first to leave.  We paid our checks and headed out.
 
En route to the store we talked about the situation.  My housemate said she doesn't believe that the manager handled the situation right and as far as she's concerned, they no longer need her business as a result of the way we were treated.  I agree.  I plan to see if I can contace their HQ and file a complaint.  

We got to the store and got another of the baby gates.  Then we went looking for cable ties as we didn't have what we needed.  It turned out that they didn't have them.  So, we went down the shopping center to a  home improvement store and went in there and got a package of them.
  
This was our "donkey in the ditch" project on Sunday.  I refer to: Luke 14:5 (NIV), Jesus is speaking:
 
Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?" 
 
We returned home to find that the house was cool and comfortable - since the hallway door to the den with the baby gates was left open and the "wind machine" was left on and blowing the cool air from the den down the hallway.  We were pleased with that.  We both changed clothes, then worked on getting the baby gates in place in the doorway of the door leading to the living room - since it was inconvenient to have them on the hallway to the den door.  We worked with them and had difficulty, so I finally checked the directions on the box to see what I might be doing wrong and found out what the issue was.  I corrected it and got all 3 in place - stacked on top of each other so that there were just a few inches [less than 6 I'd guess] open at the top. Once they were in place and tight, then I took the cable ties and tied them together - it took  ties [2 for each gate].  
 
We feel like Sukiey will not attempt to climb up to the top because she will have a 5 foot 9 inch drop directly to the floor and the cat is scared of heights.  We will find out tonight when we get home how successful we have been.  Sukiey did not try to climb on the gates after we put them up yesterday afternoon - we think maybe because we were home.  
 
Once we got done with installing the gates, we both went to our bedrooms to "chill out".  She  took the newspapers with her; I went and took a nap with the TV on.  The house stayed cool and we were both pleased.  I went out and got a couple of pictures of the night sky - with an interesting color/cloud formation.  

Eventually I went on to bed after trying to upload the photos from the graduation and getting frustrated with my PC not doing the work.