Themeless Tuesday

I'm working with my old laptop this week, thanks to an incident with my cats (Parada mostly), my newer laptop and a vase on a bookshelf last week. The cats were allowed to live, albeit banished to the basement for the weekend.

It took some work to get the old laptop back up and running and connected to the internet. And its uses are limited. The space bar doesn't always work. When the chip gets hot, the other keys do funny things before the whole thing either restarts or freezes up.

I'm in a much better mood about the whole thing since I found a lower price than I expected for a new screen on-line. Plus I had the visual amusement of seeing Zelda and Parada all slicked up with their monthly flea treatment. It makes their fur all spiky for a couple of days. Maybe I'll get some pics of that later.

In the meantime, I've been going through the pictures on this laptop and found a few to post up here.

Vacation at Grandma's House

Here I am with Uncle Rick and a grandma-made stuffed bear are at "Grandma in Iowa's house" where I spent lots of Thanksgivings and Easters while growing up. It took days to get there when we were kids, or so it seemed then.
There are scads of photos with the cousins and Rick standing in front of these orange curtains. Sometime around 1980 they were replaced with a lighter color (and we still stood in front of them for photos) but I still see the house with these orange curtains in my memory.

Storms in Chicago

For some reason, nearly every time I drive to Chicago to see Melissa, the weather is awful during the drive. The first time I drove out, in a Chevy Metro, was the worst I think. I had rain, snow and ice. The winds were blowing Lake Michigan right up on to Lakeshore Drive. About 1/2 way there, I thought 'I should go back home' but then realized I'd have to drive back through what I'd just survived. It had to get better, right? Pulling over on the highway to chip ice off the wipers is not, as it turns out better.

I made it on that trip and this one too. This trip was tame by comparison and actually the storm hanging between the highrise building was pretty neat looking. This picture was taken in stop and go traffic and does not give the scene justice.

How about some eye candy?

From Melissa's bachelorette party which took place in Chicago. And this guy is built like a bear. So maybe there is a theme here, subtle though it may be.