Are you warm???

Are you trying to stay cool? Me too! I thought maybe looking at some of my 'cool' Colorado pictures would help. Like I've said before, I love waterfalls and thought this was a cool picture. We were going up Old Falls River Road and spotted the water tumbling down the mountain. I couldn't resist getting a picture of it. I don't know if it makes you feel cooler, but it is pretty.

Jim and Mandy were here last weekend (July 22). One of Jim's friends had a birthday party and they decided to make a weekend of it in Dubuque. It was great having them here. They brought Odie so he and I got to know one another. I went out of town on Friday and Jim & Mandy beat me home. When I walked in Odie wasn't real happy to see me, but we made friends before the weekend was over. I 'dog sat' on Saturday night. Odie was well behaved! We even took a couple of walks together. He's a sweet dog.

This weekend we had a family reunion. My sister was the hostess. Barbie came home for the weekend this time around. She came in on Friday night. This past week was the Dubuque County Fair and, as usual, I helped park cars. It was a hot one!!! Tuesday night we got rained out -- I got soaked but it was so warm that it felt good!! Wednesday night wasn't bad at all, but Thursday and Friday afternoons made up for it. I worked my usual 8 hours at New VIew and then drove out to the fairgrounds every afternoon. I told the gang I had to leave early on Friday but could work for a couple of hours -- and that's what I did!! Fortunately I beat Barbie home and was able to get my shower in and look halfway human when she got here. We went out for supper and did a little shopping before we called it a night. Our mission for the weekend was to transform my spare bedroom. We picked up new curtains on Friday night. Saturday morning we did some quick errands and then got down to some serious shopping. I found a new/used TV stand and found a nightstand/table for the bed. We spent some time in the shoe store -- I have shoes to match a lot of my outfits! Cool! Barb's a good shoe shopper! Thanks kiddo! We came back and changed the room around. I know we moved one bookcase at least twice and maybe more. On Friday night already I noticed that my air conditioning wasn't working as well as it should be, but chalked it up to the hot, hot weather. By Saturday night it was apparent that something was wrong. We lived through it and headed up north Sunday morning. Jim & Mandy were able to come in from Des Moines for the reunion. It was nice having my kids there with me!! It was also extremely hot, but Glee & Ron have central air so we all enjoyed that too! I got home around 10:30 Sunday night and basically had no air at all. The unit ran but nothing but hot air was moving. I had a terrible time sleeping but around 3:00 a.m. finally got some sleep. I drug the fan into my bedroom and directed it toward my bed and crashed. I spent Monday at home waiting for the repairman. It was warm and I didn't have much ambition to get anything done. They finally got here at 5:30. What a wasted day. I could have gone into work and spent the time in the air conditioning. The new unit is working fine. It took most of the night to cool my place down but it's comfortable now.

Another picture of Colorado to help you think cool thoughts. There was a lot more snow in the mountains this time out than in 2000. Does that make you think cold!!! Hopefully we won't hve to deal with as much snow as we have heat so far this summer. But snow can be beautiful . . . so I had to share this picture with you also.

Gotta run. Work is calling. Stay cool.