In Memoriam

Shirley T., Brian's amazing and wonderful adopted grandmother, went to be with the Lord last month.  She was a great lady, and I'm glad I got the chance to know her, but we all miss her. I'm also glad the Mimi got to know her namesake some before she died.

Last summer, the Mimi wasn't getting the whole "great-grandparent" concept, so we started calling Shirley and her husband "SuperNana" and "Super PopPop." That was the week before this picture was taken. At Shirley and Jim's 60th anniversary party, the Mimi walked up to Shirley and promptly asked "SuperNana, where's your costume?"





"I'm so awesome I don't need a costume,"Shirley said, right before she gave the Mimi a large stuffed pink and white glittery unicorn wearing a sequined jumpsuit and a pink marabou feather-trimmed bolero. (It used to sing "You are my Sunshine" when you hugged it, but some minor surgery fixed that.)



And a picture of my mother-in-law trying to look nonchalant at a formal dinner party while carrying the "it's so pink and fluffy I could die!" unicorn around:

When we went to Shirley's funeral a couple of weeks ago, the Mimi looked around the packed room very wide-eyed before saying "Wow, SuperNana's got a huge fan club!" And we were all blessed to be part of that club.

pictures that amuse me

For years I've been confused by the Protestant tendency to label churches "First Church of Denomination" even when there's only one church of that denomination in the town. But finally some congregation has gotten honest! This is the Second Baptist Church of Cheyenne.



Wyoming was the first state in the country to allow women to vote. I think their State Seal is much nicer than Washington's. (Washington's has the picture of George Washington, and not much else.)


Also at the historic Governor's Mansion museum, (the above seal is the carpet in the office) we saw this amazing log cabin quilt. I am in awe of the maker's color sense!



The Western Wyoming Community College has a permanent exhibit of dinosaur fossils!

All through driving through Wyoming, we saw these bilboards for buying fireworks. Aparently you can buy fireworks year round in Wyoming, not just for Independence Day.

On our return journey through Nampa, we discovered that in the three years since we'd been there, our beloved university had acquired a large water feature and life-size bronze elk statue. (I wanted to get a picture of Shirley riding the elk, but wiser heads prevailed.)

And at long last, we got to introduce the Mimi to the last of the three Shirleys she's named after. Shirley Lee-Warner was like our mom away from home when we were in college.

How I spent my September vacation

Right after Labor Day, we drove 590 miles north to visit Brian's parents. Shirley had a fantastic time, as this effectively doubled the number of people available to hold her.

We also managed to introduce the Mimi to Brian's adopted grandmother Shirley. So far, we've introduced her to two out of her three namesakes!

Then, Brian's mom drove back to San Francisco with us to help us pack. We took a couple of days off to see some of the sights of the city, such as an exhibit at the De Young art museum by my favorite sculptor. Extra points if you can guess who it is and spell his name correctly!

(Although he's really not a bad painter.)

This is from his Persian Ceiling installation. It was like imersing myself in colored light. The entire room pretty much looked like this:

We have safely reached our new home in Albany, Oregon, for those of you who were curious. I will be regularly posting vacation pictures until the novelty of them wears off or I locate the camera so I can take pictures of my current knitting projects.