This el-cheapo clock ...

This el-cheapo battery operated clock has hung on our kitchen wall for over 30 years. 

 It has served 2 very useful functions.  Function #1 has been to tell time.  Function #2 has been to cover this really ugly hole in the wall.

Until recently, it has performed both of these functions perfectly.  It quit performing function #2 when it fell off the wall, crashed onto the kitchen countertop and careened onto the Fritztile terrazzo floor.  At that exact same moment in time, it also quit performing function #1.  Sadly, it is no longer able to perform function #1.  Fortunately, it is still able to perform function #2.  In baseball lingo, it is batting .500.  

I think that batting .500 is excellent.  No professional baseball player even gets close to that and they earn millions of dollars a year.  Many college and professional football coaches don't win half of their games yet they also make millions.  Even the best NBA players don't make half of their shots.  Yep, I think that batting .500 is pretty darn good.  Besides, some people can't even perform one job function very well.

So, here's the question ... I want to keep this old friend and allow it to continue faithfully performing function #2.  Samantha disagrees.  So does Helen.  Their heartless attitude is to toss it out like dirty dishwater.  Apparently batting .500 isn't good enough for them.

If you have an opinion, I would appreciate hearing it.  In the meantime, Helen can look at her watch.

Trip to Minnesota - family and wedding

Last Friday afternoon, we left the 82 degrees of Kansas to travel to snowy Minnesota for the weekend.  Not smart?  Maybe not, but we sure had fun.  Our goal was to attend a friend's wedding and see our loving Minnesota family. 

Daya and Naomi are super-special.

Mark cleaned up his apartment and even hosted a Friday night dinner party.  We enjoyed meeting his friends ...

and loved eating the yummy food.  His apartment looked great and was very comfortable.  While some might say it remains cluttered, I would argue that it is "prepared." Do you need a standard slot screwdriver?  Check out this neatly labeled drawer:

Are you looking for a rubber band, a black marker or a Uniball pen?  Look on the red bin shelf:

How about some scissors?  The yellow bin shelf offers multiple options:

Some V-Neck tees?  The bedroom of course.

He even has a special place for white golf shirts!

I'm telling you, Mark's system is super efficient.

Saturday night we went to Ghazala's wedding.  Since we hadn't attended a Pakistani Muslim wedding before, we didn't really know what to expect.  We soon learned that punctuality was not expected.  We arrived on time and for almost an hour ... we were the only ones there.  The ceremony was 2 hours late.  So was dinner.  Even so, the entire experience was fantastic 

and Ghazala was BEAUTIFUL.

Thanks to Ghazala for inviting us to her wedding.

And mega thanks to Mark for making the weekend so much fun.