Another Saturday morning blog update. I didn't post anything during the last week because we were visiting my husband's family for the Thanksgiving holiday. My mother-in-law does not have Internet access. She lives in Owensboro, Kentucky which is where my husband grew up. Since he's been retired this year he's made multiple trips to Owensboro and done multiple tasks around her house. This was supposed to be a fun trip but somehow he still had a list of to-do items. We compromised by doing one or two projects in the morning and going out in the afternoon and/or evening. His Mom stayed home cooking for us which is why my husband is downstairs on the treadmill right now and I'm eating a piece of pumpkin pie while I write this.

    I'll recap the fun things we did. We visited the International Bluegrass Music Museum which chronicles the rise of Bluegrass music from its invention by Bill Monroe in Rosine, Kentucky to the international following it has today. All along the way you can listen to music created by famous Bluegrass artists such as BIll Monroe's "classic" band which also included Earl Scruggs and Lester Flat (best known for "The Ballad of Jed Clampett").

    We visited the Owensboro Museum of Science and History. This museum occupies the Anderson building that was once the premier department store of downtown Owensboro. All my husband could recognize of the store were the elevators. The museum has an extensive kids area with interactive science exhibits. We were more interested in the Owensboro historic photo collection, the Wendell Ford exhibit and the racing exhibit. Owensboro has a rich racing history with a long streak of local boys running in NASCAR including the Waltrips, the Greens and Jeremy Mayfield. They also have a history of hydroplane racing on the Ohio river.

    The Wendell Ford exhibit was the nicest of the museum and included a biography of the long-time US Senator from Owensboro with a replica of his senate office. My husband had a special interest because his uncle was Wendell's barber and they had a tradition of cutting Wendell's hair the night before an election as a good luck charm. It must have worked because Wendell never lost an election. A replica barber shop including memorabilia of his late-uncle is part of this exhibit.

    One day we drove to Evansville, Indiana (less than an hour away) for shopping (of course) but we also drove through downtown where there is a nice river walk, a casino and a World War II era LST. LST's were used to transport and land men and equipment on the beaches in both Europe and the Pacific. My late father-in-law served on an LST during the war. Unfortunately it was not open for tours that day so we could only look at it from the parking lot. We ate lunch at a an old German restaurant (pictured) in a quaint area of town. The food was excellent and the atmosphere authentic.  

    Besides visiting with family, we also hooked up with a couple of his high school buddies and attended a Kentucky Weslyan basketball game. They are a NCAA Division II school and, although the school is very small, they have an enviable streak of championships. They look to have a good team this year as well.

   Happy Thanksgiving!

   It's Saturday and I have my niece and nephew with me today. We went to a movie and a Mexican restaurant. My nephew swallowed his fake lip piercing and was afraid to eat anything. We are looking at our blogs and Facebook pages and talking to Grandma on the phone.  I would like to take them to the hair salon but they both said they just got haircuts.

    What a beautiful weekend we are having! Sunny and warm with blue skies and the colorful leaves, at least those that are not in piles on the ground. We took advantage of the great weather to go to the horse races at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

There was a good size crowd and they simulcasted the Breeder's Cup races from Santa Anita, California. Simulcasted means they showed the races on the big screens and we could bet on the both the live racing at Churchill and the broadcast races from Santa Anita. The Breeders Cup races are the anuual "playoffs" for horse racing with trainers, horses and jockeys competing from all over the world. There are races in all different categories but the big race this year cause quite a stir because it was the first time ever that a female horse (Zenyatta) won! Its very difficult for female horses to beat the male horses (its only been done 3 times in the 135 times the Kentucky Derby has been run). Earlier this year another female horse, Rachel Alexandria, won the Preakness which is the second race in the Triple Crown (the Kentucky Derby being the first and the Belmont the third). Quite a year for the fillies!

  

All my clothes are back in my closet. Here's the after photo (with the sliding doors back on).

It looks like it will work out well and I have 5 bags of stuff to donate to the clothing drive. I went ahead and cleaned out all my drawers as well. My husband threw in three bags of his stuff, too. Next thing will be to clean out all the clothes in the basement but that can wait until after I retire (only 37 working days left!).