As the Disney song says

It's a small, small world (and it is.)

I use to tell people that I lived in a little town north of Pittsburgh, figuring they would at least be familiar with Pittsburgh. But ever since an experience I had at the Rose Bowl in California (where the guy had never been to Pittsburgh..... only Dempsytown and Oil City where I taught) I now proudly say where I'm from.

Today we had that experience again.  For the past week we've been at Disney World (sadly tomorrow is our last day.)  As we were riding the bus back to our resort (to take an afternoon nap...... we ain't what we use to be) we struck up a conversation with a young couple and their children.  When they asked where we were from, our friends said..... "A little town north of Pittsburgh."  Then he decided to say Oil City and their mouths dropped open.  The wife was from Oil City.  They still had family there and that's where they were married.  My friends knew their relatives and the wife's brother is married to the sister of one of my friends.

I actually had the wife as a student when I taught elementary art.  I did remember her after she said her name.  (They have a way of changing from when I had them in elementary school.)

The vacation is over and it's back to work.  I have several commissions to work on and a silhouette machine to master so come back often to see how that's going.  It's time to get back on track with the metal clay posts.  (But vacation was fun while it lasted and Disney World is amazing.)

The operative word is "locked"

Spending a few days in Hilton Head, SC with a couple of friends.

The weather is gorgeous.  Back home today it was 24 degrees.  Here it was 64 degrees and we actually saw sunshine.  I almost forgot what that was.

We had a great lunch at a restaurant on the inter coastal waterway (actually got to sit outside.) The picture is showing the 18th hole of the Heritage Classic Golf Tournament.  (The tournament starts the week of April 14th on Hilton Head Island.)

My friends

The day turned out to be a great day but did not start out that way.  

We got ready to leave and my friend discovered that both her car keys and her condo keys were "locked in" her house.  Her friend who has her spare key was away on a cruise.  What to do?  What to do?

Call a locksmith?  Borrow a ladder?  But where?  With a ladder we could crawl up to the second floor balcony, over the railing and get in through the french doors.  (You go...... I'm afraid of heights.)  The high school kid who lives downstairs was taking down Christmas lights but didn't have a ladder.  He pulled out a chair put wasn't tall enough.  

My other friend mentioned that someone told her you could pick a lock with a credit card.  They only do that in movies right?  To shorten this story, the teenager said he could try it for us since he got into his house that way once.  It took him all of two seconds.  From now on she is locking the deadbolt too when she goes out.  It's scary how fast he got that door open.  

Got in the car and headed to another friend's condo.  She lives on the third floor.  Now, when the elevator is making a high pitched whistle it should be a warning to not go in.  We didn't listen.  Earlier we were "locked out", now we were "locked in."  No amount of button pushing would make anything work.  And the damn whistling just kept up.   Not sure how long we were in there.  Thank goodness it wasn't long (or that whistling would have driven us nuts.)  (Okay, nuttier!)

Just another typical day!

Some of my favorite things

Lake Erie was exhibiting beautiful colors

The lake was just roaring

A view of a grape orchard (There are miles and miles of grapes!)

Whiskers on kittens and warm fuzzy mittens.  (Wait..... that's not my favorite things.  Those are Julie Andrew's favorite things.)

My favorite things are listening to train whistles in the distance, smelling the grapes when they begin to ripen in wine country (there are thousands of acres of grapes) and the sound of the water lapping at the beach.  (Well, actually this weekend it was pounding the beach.)

This past weekend I was able to enjoy all three of those things as it was my annual holiday to spend with my college roommate.  We go to our family camper at Lakeside Campground in Ripley, NY.  

The campground is near the Chataqua Wine Trail.  Now I am not much of a wine drinker.  (Although one might disagree as there are six bottles of wine in my camper refrigerator at the moment.)  Every time I go up I try a new winery and this time it was The Heritage Winery.  Their Half and Half wine (half concord grapes and half niagra grapes) was recommended to us.  So...... It joined my bottles of Dazzle from the Courtyard Winery, Blueberry Wine from the Presque Isle Winery, Pink Catawba and Lambruscano from the Penn Shore Winery.

Hey, it helps me get to sleep!