Kilts and Hairy Cows

Yesterday was the annual Highland Games. It the day when all the people with just the tiniest bit of Celt in them come out.The day started out with a good down pour. If this was the real highlands it would be a normal day,but here in the Midwest we like it clear and sunny. I sure all the hearty Celts ran off to a shelter at the first sight of rain. Celtic pronounced with the K sound....the C is the basketball team.And if I hear it mispronounced I correct you...Its like the people that say tarot like carrot.
They hold the games at the fair grounds. Vendors from all over the Midwest come to sell their wares. This year I noticed that there was a lot of weapons for sale. Broad swords,battle axes,and all the other fun stuff. Then there is the authentic Scottish,English,Irish,Welsh food stuff that you can get at TJ Maxx for half the price. And then the lovely hand crafted jewerly that is made in china...They had a man there explaining all about the history of the collie dogs and how they herd the sheep..It was first said at Colleie...Which is Gaelic for dark eyes..Which the dogs have. It was fun to see the stare down the dog and one of the sheep had...On the other side of the field was the highland cows...Big hairy beastys who really need to get there bangs cut.
Now the games I really don't understand...Its mostly men and now some women that throw things. There is the caber toss. This is taking a telephone pole running with it upright and then tossing it.And you would do this in real life how? Then there are two others one it throwing a bale over a bar and then the highland version or the discus.
The people walking around are the most fun. You have then dressed as they think they would have been in the 1500s...You know the black death time. Ladies in long dresses and men in their armor....Maybe they did...But then the ones that look like Stevie Nicks backup singer would have been stoned or burned at the stake...
Every year I go and see if they have anything with my family name on it. But we aren't one of the popular names so I never do. Well maybe next year...or the year I do wear a kilt to it.

Zion

This is to show that I have other nieces and nephews besides the twins...This is Zion. He is my great nephew. His mother is my niece Lena and her mother is my older sister Dianne. Zion has pick up a bad gene from somewhere. His uncle Joseph has it also...they can always play Vulcans at Halloween and not need to buy any fake ears..In a couple months he will be a big brother. Maybe he will have a little sister...He did tell me that he wouldn't mind being an only child for a while longer.

 

More pictures from the Flamingo Follies

The Red Hat Club
Bride and Groom
Don't remember and Finally don't remember

I know who did that

Old lady Gimm's irish one
Care taker Janes
One I thought looked neat
And look its a cow!!!!

The Flamingo Follies

The Flamingo Follies were held Aug 4th at the Quad Cities Botantical Center. This is where local and loco...artist put there personal touch on the feathery lawn ornament of old...Some paint, some dress them...others chop them up and melt them down...Here are some of the fine examples. Wish I had written down the names.

The Running of the Bulls...ah I mean Bix 7

On July 29th at 8am was the running of the 32nd Bix 7. 20,000 people run or walk past my house on this hilly 7 mile course. I'm just after the 1 mile mark so people are just getting going and look pretty pleased with them selves...
I'm also just after the 6 mile mark coming back so you see the pained looks and the red or worse gray faces.
Its really a site to see with all the people running down the street in the neighbour hood.
Then three hours after it starts its over. the last walker drags themselves down the hill to victory.A hour later the clean up crew comes thru and its like nothing ever happened...

The girl in pink on the right side had on her shirt....I'm getting married today.... 

Who you gonna call....Ghost busters...and the Hulk? 

The Superfriends out for a little run  

A gorilla trying to get his bananna 

The running of the 32nd Bix 7. Runners fill both sides of the street. Looking Northwest across Kirkwood to First Pres Church 

I'll Second That

For the last half decade July hasn't been a good month for my family...Its like the cosmos waits until those 31 days and throws it all at us...We would like to have the month renamed or better split it up...Give some to June and the other half to August. June 34th has just as good of sound as the 4th of july. I'm sorry for anyone who has good memories from the month, but I'd like on the whole to just do away with it until I'm dead.
Speaking of dead I tried to off myself...Not on purpose...the 22nd of that month with no name I got what I thought was a migraine...I was at work so I took Advil to try to put it off til I could get home and take the big guns...2 Advil every hour for 8 hours, Got home and took the migraine stuff. Instant relief....NO!! Whats up with that. Maybe its bad enough that it will take a while to kick in. still in pain in what I thought was a couple hours,I took that mega pain stuff. Aleve. and waited what I thought was 2 or 3 hours...still blinding painful. Well it hit a peak for me and I took another migraine med...then I sat down and noticed little black spots and my heart slowing down...Well a quick trip to the ER told me...One it was only about 6 hour between first and last...I had a lot of stuff in my system. Two it was a migraine but a sinus infection. So as I ready to leave the nurse is running around trying to find my shoes...I had no shoes....they lost my shoes...I told her I bet I didn't wear any in. Fast forward two weeks. Blinding head ache again. but this time its below the sinus. So I call a differant Dr. I go in and they x-ray my head...Brain was fun. But also found the problem. There was a "mass" sitting on the top of my one tooth all wrapped up in the nerves and roots of it....It had to come out. This is not the first time this has happened...three years ago I had another one just like this...So I see a bad pattern starting here.So the next day out it came. The last think I heard was the doctor saying...now this may hurt and then you will feel sleepy...15 hours later I wake up to my alarms going off to go to work...Now I just have to wait to see if its a harmless little mass or a problem...Oh it should be good news....Its not July....