Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.
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69 at dawn – another night I could turn off the A/C before I went to bed (still couldn’t actually open the windows til my middle of the night bathroom run) and air out the house before going to work. The kitties love it. Especially since I haven’t been letting them outside since the fleas got so bad. (Holding our own against the fleas in the house but the further out into the yard I go, the more bites I get.)
Will try to watch President Obama’s speech today. Got to see most of Hillary’s town hall last night (link posted in the evening Hillary diary at GOS). Damn! She’s good! I’ll be sick-to-my-stomach scared until she’s sworn in 1/20/17 – and doing my part to make sure she is. But I’m also proud and excited that this could be a blow-out election. If she can just get enough Dems in Congress to do stuff the media will have to cover and the regular folks all over America will notice. That’s what it takes to get our people to the polls in 2018 – money in their pockets from jobs, clean water in areas that need it, debt reduction on the student loans – things people know they have, know where it came from, and damned-sure don’t want to lose.
Didn’t manage to get much done yesterday and today is the last of FY16. The books don’t close until end of next week, but I’d like to get as much done as possible today. Wish me luck. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{HUGS}}}
The transcript has not shown up yet. I have the videos gathered.
This video snippet was making the rounds this morning:
I know how they feel! I am glad that Hillary realizes that she will be a wonk-star instead of a rock-star. I would not want to follow him onto any stage.
Hillary’s been married to a rock-star for a lot of years. A rock-star who has also been the Team Leader for getting a lot of their shared goals accomplished. She’s very comfortable being the wonk-star giving guidance to the rock-star she’s standing behind. This business of having to be in the limelight is harder for her.
I may be in a minority but I don’t see Bill Clinton as a positive thing in Hillary’s campaign or “who you are married to” as a qualifier or disqualifier. It just “is”. She has to run against his mistakes, personal and professional, as well as running on her own vision for America. In my mind it makes her job twice as difficult. Maybe that would happen with any married woman running for high office but her husband’s flaws are a matter of public record.
I wish she were running as Hillary Rodham so that people would focus on her background, her life, her biography. But the right-wingers made that impossible with their 18th century views on a woman’s role in a powerful man’s life. I wonder if Eleanor Roosevelt would have kept her name (it was already Roosevelt, as you know) when she married FDR if his name had been Franklin Delano Smith?
Bill is still very popular in America, statistically speaking, and he’s been under attack almost as long as she has. Bill is a political asset for her – as he was for Obama – as far as campaigning in the general election is concerned. There will always be “Clinton Rules” reporting about him, as there is with her, but the majority of Americans love him. He made at lot fewer mistakes, personal and professional, than Clinton Rules will ever allow on the Front Page – most of his professional “mistakes” weren’t. They were the best he could get at the time. America has progressed and judging the road we traveled as being less than the road we’re on or the road ahead is dismissing the work of those who came before us.
Obviously I cannot say that Bill didn’t have any extra-marital relationships and any is bad, but I can and do say that the entire meme of Bill being a womanizer was started by the Rs when he was in Little Rock. (Partly because at least at the time and going back to before the Civil War the media basically suggested, sometimes blatantly, that the only reason anybody ran for state office was to go to Little Rock and get laid. Partly because, for all the garbage about him being a centrist, he was very liberal for his time and they hated him. And partly as a cheap shot at Hillary.) This was long before the Scaife-funded, Atwater-created Arkansas Project started paying $10K a pop for anybody who had any dirt on Bill – no evidence required, just accusation.
I wish Hillary was running as Rodham as well, if for no other reason than to shut down the “dynasty” crap. But that’s a sacrifice she made for Bill to help his career. And I imagine Eleanor Roosevelt would have done the same for Franklin.
I know that you are a big Bill Clinton fan but I hope that you leave room for those who are not. Not everything “happens to” Bill Clinton, he is responsible for his personal behaviour and the sometimes cynical choices he made while in office, in Arkansas and in Washington D.C.
In order to win this election, we have to look at our candidates, warts and all, and be honest about the things that will be unattractive to voters. Especially in light of the lies that have been told by Sen. Sanders and his surrogates and the lies that have been and will be told by Donald Trump and his surrogates, we make a mistake if we try to airbrush history or blame everything on Clinton Rules or a dishonest media.
I often communicate with people who are having a difficult time coming around to Hillary Clinton: some from her 2008 campaign, some from things Bill Clinton said during her 2008 campaign, some from just a general disgust with Bill Clinton, some probably born of the unfairness of the right-wing lie machine. I want all of them to vote for Hillary in 2016 and then to support her presidency. That means, in my opinion, treading lightly and making it about her not some sort of requirement related to liking him or even liking her!
I hope that helps you understand where I am coming from. I want to respectfully disagree without being disagreeable.
Bill of course should take responsibility for his actions – but not for the witch hunt he and Hillary have lived with for over 30 years. And I do hope that people, like you, who have problems with Bill will still look at Hillary and her plans and vote for her, Hillary, not Mrs. Bill. And I’m sorry if I was being disagreeable.
No! You were not being disagreeable, I wanted to make sure you knew I was trying to not be disagreeable!!
I am definitely and wholeheartedly with Hillary but I took a long and circuitous route. I simply want to make sure we are not saying to people that they are wrong somehow to not like Bill Clinton and that the Clintons are a take it or leave it package deal.
Morning all. Hot, humid, rumbles of thunder already this morning, yep it’s summer in north Florida.
I am not sure things can get much more chaotic in British politics before just literally giving up and letting the zombie apocalypse start – Johnson saw what a mess he helped create and decided, nope, too much work for me! Seriously, it’s scary what has happened to both Tory and Labour over there – neither party seems to have a grip at all, at a time when someone needs to actually figure out this mess and lead. At least our stock market has calmed down and recovered about half of the losses since the Brexit vote.
Meanwhile, our outgoing President gets cheered with cries of “4 more years!” from the Canadian Parliament – I cannot adequately convey how much I love that! I am making a point of listening to the President speak every chance I get between now and January, as I am going to miss him so much – I think Hillary will be a good President, but Obama’s touch in public speaking is just magical. And his beautiful family will be missed too – the picture of Michelle and the girls in Morocco I think it was? is just so wonderful.
Well, have to go get doggie medication in a bit – Max, my rottie-retriever mix big guy rescue suffers from congential joint problems, but Carprofen (which I think is basically Rymadyl) has worked wonders for him and allows him to move around. He’d be crippled without it, and doesn’t seem to have gotten the bad side effects many dogs have suffered from rymadil (however you spell it!). Also have to clear up the study and make room to move my old computer tower over when my new computer arrives in a couple of weeks – I’m going to keep this one with all my school files on it so I don’t have to transfer them over. Also have to stop at the bank and deposit the check I got in the property sale that we concluded last week – but I hate driving in thunderstorms around here, as people seem to forget how to drive in the rain.
Have a great day everyone!
At least in our country, one of the political parties is pretty well organized and has a strong grip on sanity and reality. I am going to ignore Brexit for a while because it is too difficult to keep the characters straight. I do know that the guy with the Donald Trump hair will NOT be the new Prime Minister. It appears to be like a speakers gig at the Republican National Convention – a job that used to be considered an honor but right now not particularly attractive.
The president’s address as well as video from and transcript of the tri-lateral news conference:
Good morning, 59 partly sunny and breezy in Bellingham. The house is quiet as the grand kids are still asleep. The girls arrive early and quietly go to “their” beds. It’s nice to know they are here but not needing anything!
I really enjoyed my planting time in the garden yesterday but I’m tired this morning so I’ll rest and enjoy the peace and quiet.
Good Friday morning and first day of July Meese.
I still can’t figure out why I get logged out of Moose every day. On well.
Having my first coffee and looking at headlines. Seeya later.
I am not sure about the logging out but I think it has to do with shared cookies. In the olden days when WordPress was just used for a few blogging sites, it was not a problem. But now lots of major sites used WordPress and I think that the software does not do a very good job of figuring out where the moose cookies are!
At least once a day, I find on preview that the site thinks I am no longer logged in. I click on the Howdy, JanF in the upper right hand corner of the screen and it gives me a chance to log back in with my password nicely laid there. Annoying for sure. I hope someday they fix it but WP seems to want everyone to log in with their Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts and they don’t have a lot of interest in making the WP native login work well.
Thanks for explaining that.
That little “remember me” box doesn’t remember :)
It taunts you with the user name and the asterisks in the password field so obviously it DOES remember you … just refuses to remember that you are logged in!! I always check the Remember Me box again and login. I am glad it remembers because when I am on my phone or Kindle, I am not at my desk and I do not have my password memorized.
This morning’s headlines brought some welcome news from the courts in Indiana and Mississippi and a big smile: both the Indiana federal judge and the Mississippi federal judge were young people of color, Barack Obama appointees and graduates of HBCUs. I am going to put a post up about how the federal courts were infused with young talent in the first 6 years of the Obama presidency (when we had a functioning Senate) and how a Hillary Clinton presidency and a Democratic Senate will remake the federal courts for a generation.
I sometimes get logged out at home, I can never figure out why. But my computer remembers my password, so logging back in is easy.
Good morning, meese! Friday …
It is 57 degrees in Madison on its way up to 70. The forecast calls for mostly sunny skies or as my desktop widget says “mainly sunny”. It is from a Canadian company and I believe that is a more British phrasing.
The president signed a few bills including the Puerto Rican debt bill. I don’t completely understand it but I know that it made some people worried about sovereignty. It lets them make a debt payment which I guess is a good thing but that seems more helpful to the banks that loaned them money than the people of Puerto Rico.
Paul Ryan will let the House vote on a terrorist watch list bill when they come back in session but it is not the one House Democrats wanted to vote on, it is the Cornyn bill that was authored by the NRA. That bill was voted down in the Senate so if it passes the House, it dies anyway. So the victims of gun violence in America get a “show vote” which shows absolutely nothing. Sigh.
Joe Biden will be campaigning with Hillary in Scranton PA next week. He thinks that Sen. Sanders will endorse Hillary Clinton at some point. I am with those who say “who cares?”. There is no one left who will be swayed by his tepid endorsement that was not already brought on board by Elizabeth Warren’s full-throated endorsement. The deadenders left berning won’t support her, preferring a Trump presidency, destruction of the entire world, and then being called to ride their unicorns in to establish a workers paradise. Meh.
See all y’all later!
NYT has a long piece
Puerto Rico Debt Relief Law Stirs Colonial Resentment
What I have been told by folks who are there – is that Independence groups and Occupy types have little impact – the average person is simply worried about hospitals, schools, unemployment and when the Times talks about “resignation” they bare probably correct. What else can people do?
Thanks for the link! A kind person just gave me a free 12 week “trial” of the NYT so I can now read those articles without worrying about the paywall. I want to understand more about it.
And yes, what else can people do when they are over a barrel? Sadly, that is what our dysfunctional government has gotten to. The wealthiest country in the world has a Congress whose focus is to cut social programs and deny help to people in need so that they can give tax breaks to their donors. The demographic tide will eventually swamp the gerrymanders but I worry about those for whom it will come too late to be of much good.
The entire PR situation and history is about it being a colony. I’ve been close to independentistas for decades ( I was one)- however the reality is that though their voices are loud (college students mostly) they are no more supported than many of our own 3rd party groups
See this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_party_strength_in_Puerto_Rico
Parking garage was even emptier than usual. I guess some people are making it a 4 day weekend. Anyway, I’m here, eating oatmeal & drinking tea. My head is playing Snow Patrol at me. Looking at pretty pictures of auroras on Jupiter. The Universe is pretty amazing.
69 at dawn heading for upper 80s air temp, 100s heat index, partly cloudy and a possibility of rain. Of course that may already have happened – I woke around 3 to the sound of rain and rumbly thunder (so didn’t water this morning). Walked in again. Exercise is supposed to make you stronger and more capable of physical exertion. Not working. This is my 4th day of walking in and it’s taking longer and that hill is starting to make me cough. (I get exercise asthma when my heart rate goes up.) I may go back to taking the bus when I’m not riding in with my friend (who’s on vacation this week).
Hillary and team are doing really well – this actually could be a blowout election – and I know she’s got plans to hit the ground running. She knows that whatever flipping of Congress that might happen will only give her a 1-year window to get enough stuff done to bring our people out in 2018 and she needs to push everything everywhere to get as much done as possible in the 2-year window she has if our people don’t come out in 2018. As for The Other Guy (also referred to as the Junior Senator from VT), I don’t care what he does. His only remaining supporters are a very vocal, usually nasty, group of Greens, Libertarians, and assorted Hillary-Haters. Pounding sand is my basic Rx for him.
First day of the new fiscal year, but books don’t close until end of next week on the old fiscal year. I need to do a bunch of checking to be sure I haven’t missed anything. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning all! I am having a daring start to my day – first coffee in a week! It’s really cafe au lait – I heated up half a mug of milk/half and half, and filled the rest with coffee. That plus bacon and eggs, my favorite breakfast after oatmeal, which I’m out of this morning, will be a test of how well my stomach is coping with just the xantac.
I am trying to figure out why Bill Clinton met with Loretta Lynch in the airport – I thought they had just bumped into each other, but the press is making it sound like a get together. I can’t imagine what either of them were thinking, giving more fuel to the fake e-mail story at this juncture of the campaign – except it’s hard to believe they were up to much given how public the meeting seems to have been. sigh. Hillary just cannot catch a break in the press, it seems.
My twitter feed – and I agree – is of the opinion that Joe Biden was attempting to box Bernie in with the story of endorsement – I told a friend that I’ve figured out how to tell I’m an old: I had to google the phrase “fatality move” that folks in Twitter kept using to describe what Biden did with this statement. It’s from a video game I’ve never played – nor will play – Mortal Kombat, and is a “finishing” move, that blocks and destroys the internet monster you’re fighting. Or something like that. Anyway, Biden tried – but as I predicted last night on twitter, Sanders just lied to him like he has to everyone from POTUS to Nancy Pelosi to Barbara Boxer to Harry Reid – he’s not conceding and he’s not endorsing this morning. I really think he simply can’t stand to lose to a woman, and he’s just not ready to give up his time in the limelight – this behavior should earn him no cushy Committee assignments in January, no favors from anyone. He’s a jackass, and should be treated accordingly.
Ok, errands to run today – gotta get my eyes checked soon, these glasses are a 10 year old prescription and are not doing the job for me any more! Have a great day everyone!
Bill and Loretta did meet more or less by accident. Bill has given his people standing orders to set up a “Howdy” session with anybody coming through with Secret Service protection – no matter who (even Rs.) The reporting is Clinton Rules – this one being a real “gotcha” as they could slam Bill for being a “liability” while insinuating Hillary really is under investigation no matter how many times they’re told she isn’t.
Yep, that certainly seems to be the case. Apparently Bill will go say hi to “anybody” under those circumstances, including Ted Cruz whom he had the same sort of “meeting” with a while ago! What’s most disgusting to me about all this – and I am also basically a Bill Clinton fan despite his failings – is the way Bernie Sanders has sold the “evil Hillary” narrative birthed by the right wing to his young followers. I don’t know how we bring them back from that, and it’s extremely frustrating to hear supposed Democrats parrot these RW talking points.
That is an unfortunate bit of fallout from the Sanders campaign – when he turned negative it wasn’t just about Hillary’s policies but it got deeply personal suggesting that she is corrupt and dishonest and not qualified to be president. Sigh.
I think that in time many of those people will come to admire and respect and maybe even love Hillary Clinton. My daughter told me that her friends who were berners were disappointed but realize how horrible Trumpism is and are now Hillary supporters. They can’t vote yet but it is a good lesson for them in pragmatism and the dangers of purity. If you support a candidate who doesn’t win, you have to switch that support to the party’s nominee for the greater good. I have not always had candidates who I “fall in love with” but I was always willing to “fall in line”.
Now that we are all pulling together, it is important that we respect each other’s reasons for early hesitancy (or continued less than full-throated support for our nominee) and keep our eye on November 8th. I noticed last night that Al Giordano posted about his reluctant then wholehearted acceptance of Hillary Clinton as our standardbearer. I see a lot of those stories all over the Internet, @Karoli had one last week. Our paths may be different but they all lead into our big tent.
#ExpectUs because #WeAreWithDemocrats
Good morning, 59 and mostly sunny in Bellingham. I’m enjoying a quiet moment before another busy day starts. Our Oregon daughter and her family and my sister (New Mexico) arrive today, so we need to decide on a dinner menu and do more shopping for the weekend. I have flowers ready to arrange so that will be my fun, in between doing laundry and other housekeeping chores.
Light rain is forecast for Sunday but I’m hoping for a partly cloudy day. Hope the weather cooperates!
Good morning, meese! Saturday …
It is 63 degrees in Madison on its way up to 73. Mostly sunny skies are in the forecast.
Yesterday was the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of Somme, a World War I battle that went on for 5 months and resulted in over a million casualties. It is a reminder that “European Unity” is not just an empty phrase but vitally important for a continent torn by two devastating World Wars in the span of 50 years.
Here is a link to some of stunning photography of the battle site: Incredible drone imagery shows how the landscape from the Battle of the Somme is still scarred 100 years later.
An acquaintance who lives in France said that there are still some areas that are cordoned off because of unexploded ordnance and chemicals still in the soil. The War to End All Wars, sadly didn’t.
It should be a quiet news weekend: SCOTUS is done for the year, Congress is in recess, the candidates will be out kissing babies at parades (Hillary) and biting the heads off kittens (Trump) and we can all ponder how we will survive another 129 days before election day. Greatest end of June polling news: Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is in a dead heat with his Democratic opponent, Patty Judge, and that is before ads tying him to candidate Trump air in a state that is now +14 for Hillary Clinton. Sad!
See all y’all later!
Good morning Meese – we had a horrid day/night here – were under tornado watch and had very bad thunderstorms all night – I had to shut down my puter around 4 in the afternoon – had a series of short power outages all evening. My dogs freaked out as they always do during storms and will be on edge all weekend since they hate fireworks and my neighbors all explode them :(
One of my students sent me information about this event next weekend in NYC:
WitchsFest USA – A Pagan Street Faire
In the news:
Trying to understand Australian elections
Australian Election Looks Like a Cliffhanger
More terror – this time in Pakistan
I saw the news reports about your storms! I am glad that the tornadoes stayed away.
I hate the Fourth of July “celebrations”. It is expected to be a nice day here – perfect for leaving windows open overnight – but I can’t sleep through the “bombs bursting in air” and my dog does not like them at all. Last year we tried having her sleep in the basement with my daughter (who also does not like loud bangs!) but being half underground didn’t really help much. Why can’t we celebrate the founding of our country with the sounds of pens scratching out the signatures on the Declaration of Independence?
:::scritch scritch scritch flourish:::
I’ll vote for the “pens scratching” sound
One year the explosions were so bad here – they were making our barn shake and a baby goat died of fright.
Though most fireworks are technically illegal here except for sparkling devices – local residents blast rockets and other big bang stuff.
I am going to wear my earplugs – wish they made some for dogs.
Our old dogs ( now sadly gone) hated fireworks. We finally had to board them at a quiet kennel because the neighborhood noise made them so upset. Bellingham has a fireworks ban now so it’s a safer holiday for everyone.
that’s so sad
Fireworks are illegal in the city of Austin — and they are serious about it after 2 incidents (a huge apartment fire, and a few years later, a lumberyard business destroyed). They’re legal out in the county, and they’re expecting lots out there since this is the 1st time in years that we’re not in a drought. But all the cities outlaw them inside city limits.
Unless they’ve rescinded it in the last 45 years, Houston has had a ban on fireworks within the city limits since the 1950s. Same reason – fires.
We have an unenforced ban. :(
Dee, have you tried “thunder shirts” on your dogs? I don’t know if they work for fireworks, but I know a couple of people who’ve tried them for their dogs in thunderstorms, and they seemed to work well.
Slept in (not continuous sleep, but I kept turning over & going back to sleep). Watching the 1st day of Le Tour. And the news, which is so horrific. Hearing how Buddhist priests have been just stabbed to death — and other just random people, and now this restaurant. So sad. So I flip over to the beauty of the race & France. And it infects my joy because I see the crowds so close to the riders & wonder how long until Daesh decide to do something here. Today’s stage ends near Utah beach & they’re going to have a ceremony. (oooh, and the Eritrean team is back! so exciting to have an African team)
It is going to be really hot here today. Like heat advisory hot. So — I’ll see how crowded the complex’s pool is & maybe swim some laps. If not… I should think of something.
Good morning, 62 and partly sunny in Bellingham. It’s blissfully quiet at the moment, but the kitchen will soon be full of family and dogs. When the family arrives this old house is full of activity, which is one of the reasons we hope to keep living here. But we sure need the quiet moments to balance the fun!
Ron’s brother and his wife arrive today, and Ryan’s parents tomorrow so the fun has just begun.
The storms that passed through here yesterday/overnight dropped just over 1-1/2 inches of rain which we needed, especially before the 4th. At least no tornadoes (sending Good Energy to everyone who had them). The blasts started yesterday evening here, too. Not a lot but randomly so each one was a jolt. This will keep up until Monday when it will get as close to a war zone as you can get outside of a war zone and then taper off again over the rest of the week. I wish America would get over this fighting=patriotism crap (or has anything to do with freedom). If you are shooting at somebody in the name of freedom, what are they shooting at you in the name of? I will join the vote for pen scratching – the concept of freedom, then the definition of freedom, then at least a blueprint for freedom all come before the fighting.
Got a real slow start on the month as far as electricity generation is concerned. Just over 9 KWHs for the day – June started with something like 22. Oh well, month’s young yet. The world news is nasty and the national isn’t much better – and the only thing I can do about any of it is do my best to get Hillary and down-ballot Dems elected. I don’t expect miracles, unlike some, but I do expect that Hillary will make things better because that’s what she always does – and the stronger a Dem Congress we give her, the better she will be able to make things.
Clearing off and going to get hot again today – also heat advisory hot – so I’ll finish my running around before noon. Would be out doing it right now except one of the stores I need to visit isn’t open yet and I hate dead-heading. Got my fruit and veggies at the Farmers’ Market, some meat, GF crackers, and more Black Cohosh from the Co-op all before 8. Need CO2 bottles for my fizzy water machine, a new George Foreman grill, and maybe another muffin tin if I can find one that’s dishwasher-able and doesn’t cost too much. I wish I thought they’d be made in the U.S. but I know better. sigh. Bright the day, Meeses. {{{{HUGS}}}}
Morning all – cloudy and therefore not yet in the 90’s here hurray! Sorry to hear about your bad weather, Denise – we are in our more or less normal pattern of thunderstorms every afternoon but nothing really severe yet, knock on wood. Now is the time I always look at NOAA’s web site on tropical activity, though – that’s where our bad weather typically comes from.
I’m so tired of the faux scandalbrewing the media delights in when it comes to virtually anything Bill Clinton does – and it strikes me as more evidence of the decline of news organizations that all this ink and bandwith is being expended on Bill talking to Loretta Lynch for a few moments, in public view at the airport, while the rape cases that are being brought against Trump are not even mentioned. ugh.
I’m going to forget about all the bad news in the world that I can do nothing about, and spend the afternoon listening to a delight opera by Handel, Alcina. Everyone have a great day!
I have to work on developing a hobby other than “reading the news on the Internet” because it is making me crabby (my daughter pointed it out to me this morning). It is probably too late to develop a love of opera but maybe headphones and classical music.
Did you see the NY Times article about President Obama’s quiet time? It is the late night, between 11pm and 2am. I am the opposite, an early riser who enjoys my quiet time before the sun comes up. But in both our cases, dark is an essential component. I know this will not be popular but this time of year there is too much sun. I like to go to bed at 9pm and in July, it is still light out.
Has anyone seen Diana lately or remember her mentioning a trip that would take her offline? No check in yesterday or today!!
Weren’t they going to the beach w/family this weekend? I remember her saying she hoped they could go despite her husband’s knee injury?
Whew! Thanks! Yes I do remember that now and she is not Internetted via phone like I am.