Socks for the MAN in my life

Mike didn't get any socks for his birthday this year. We kind of forgot about him and I was gone and I never mentioned to anyone that he NEEDED them.  He's been trashing the ones with holes and was down to just a few socks. Not a few pair, a few socks.  I mean, he has others like white cotton ones, and some skinny black dress socks and some really FAT and insulated hunting socks to wear with boots.  But his every-day go-to socks and his favorite and the men's crew socks that are acrylic. They can't have a band around the top, just straight crew.  We've been buying "Gold Toe" brand for a while and have mostly found them at JC Penney.

On Saturday, I decided I'd better make a few stops in some local shops to see if anyone had that kind.  I checked WalMart. Nope. I checked Ross. Nope, but I did have a bit of fun roaming the store since my next stop wasn't open yet It was the first time I'd been in there. Next I tried Christensens' .  Nope.  I found them at Bealls!  And they had exactly 2 packages of them.

It wasn't until I got them home and was unwrapping and removing stickers and plastic ties that I noticed the name of these favorite socks:

FLUFFIES

Yep. Mikey wears Fluffies. Every day.  He even said this morning as he was dressing, "Yes, there's nothing like a new pair of nice, soft Fluffies." :-)

"Dear Uncle Eric"

I like to save things like this and it's too cute not to share.
Eric got this in the mail earlier this week from his one-year-old nephew, Logan.

"Dear Uncle Eric, 

How are you? I hope you are enjoying life. I know I am! Despite being a little less warm and cozy out here, I really like it.

I am excited to see you...I don't know when. I do not have a good conceptualization of time. I have been told that I'll see you sometime, though.

I have also been informed that I have the opportunity to give you a gift for Christmas. Yay! I love Christmas! I am so excited.

This does pose a challenge to me. You see, in my short time here, I just have not learned what would make the perfect gift for a distinguished man of your life experiences.  Do you think you could help me?

Some ideas I have had include custom artwork, clothing, or bath toys. Who doesn't love bath toys, right?

Would you like some kitchen or home goods? Would you like a job? Just kidding on that one. I'm not hiring right now.

For your convenience, I have enclosed an idea list that you may return to me. I appreciate your assistance.  I hope to make this your best Christmas ever! I am sure that it will be my best so far!

Love, Logan Liebhardt

encl: gift idea list

****

GIFT IDEAS

for Uncle Eric

□    Custom Pen (I'll need my dad's help for this)

□   Custom Shirt (I suggest that it says "Logan is my favorite nephew")

□   Socks/Underwear     size:_____

□   Housewares

□   Gift card     (favorite places: _____________)

□   Bathroom necessities

□   Books (Have you read "That's Not My Dinosaur" ?  I couldn't put it down!)

□   Other                   --------------

October in the Library

Here are some higly decorative and entertaining doors done by a student worker, Kira Reusch, here in tbe library. These are all upstairs on the third floor. She works sometimes down by MY  desk for Interlibrary Loan. I wonder if she would do our door, too?  They have Count Dracula, above.

A version of Frakenstein. Students studying on the third floor have a clear  view of Frankenstein and the mummy. The other two are behind those doors, out of the public view.

A mummy.

Some creepy dude peeking through the window on the door between Acquisitions and Cataloging departments.

And this happy little Creeping Charlie plant lives in our library break room. I have never seen one with so many blossoms on it! Fun.

A close-up of one of the many blooms.

This was outside my front door on Saturday or Sunday morning. You can't tell, but this poor tree is half dead. What IS still alive still makes me smile. It always has shown off really nice fall colors.

And sometimes, you just gotta be real and let tbe world know that there are bad days where stuff that should get done, just doesn't. There now. Don't you feel better about YOUR kitchen?

Friday, October 6, Georgia USA

I made it to the Boston Airport with Athena and said Goodbye to her there.  My customs photo as we went through automated kiosks took such an unflattering photo of me after our 11 hour flight from Istanbul.  But it was a very accurate representation of how I felt at this point.  My diarreah was really taking a toll and when I hit the Atlanta Airport, it was really getting out of control.  I got my rental car. One of my first thoughts was, "Oh dear. Those are not leather seats."  But I made it to Mom and Dads. I only got lost once or twice and it did take longer than expected . I had poor Mom all worried.  I dropped my phone off my lap and was too stubborn to pull over, stop, and fish it out from under the seat. But I was mostly on the right track. I came in the back way because I was looking for "Perry Parkway" not "Thompson Road" . Oh well.

Arrived at 3 am. Slept fairly well till morning, but ended up having Mom take me to the Emergency room. The Diarreah was totally out of control and I'd had it for many days already.  Made several trips to potty while at the ER for those few hours.  One with disastrous results. I ended up wearing home paper hospital scrubs. Oh dear. What a day.  I had blood and stool testing done. No indication of infection. Just a virus that would need to run its course.  Ugh.

I didn't have TIME for it to "run it course." I needed to get home.  Rain was expected on Sunday, so Mom and Dad didn't attend Church. I did get to visit with Donna a bit. She came by on Saturday and Sunday. AND on Sunday when it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to travel home that day, she was a sweetheart and her family took my rental car back to the airport in Atlanta for me . Otherwise, it would have cost me about $500 more. Yikes. I had to cancel my return flight, my shuttle in Las Vegas (or maybe I Had Mike do that...I don't remember). I just rested and slept and rested and slept Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday I was doing not too bad, so I booked my flight home for that evening and Mom drove me to a shuttle to get to the airport.  I was there plenty early, so I got some soup at a restaurant.  And some Sprite and some mashed potatoes. I didn't want to sit at a bar or tall table, so I waited for a regular table and felt bad for taking up so much space for just lil' ol me. But I could only eat part of my soup, a few sips of soda and a couple of bites of potaotes. I wanted to eat a lot more, but just didn't dare.

I made it to Las Vegas sitting next to a very chatty lady and a guitarist from "LA Guns" rock band--who travels with two Pekinese dogs. ha! Mike came to Vegas to pick me up at 10 pm and we were home by 1 am our time.  What a long day  .  But I was glad to make it home with no incidents.  I felt fairly good on Wednesday after sleeping in, but decided to rest up at home that day.  And I did. My sweet Relief Society President brought me some chicken soup for dinner and that was a lovely treat.

Now, almost a week later, I'm still kind of not quite back up to snuff, but I'm definitely on the mend. That was a long haul!  And then the little complications that we women frequently get when we take an antibiotic that kills good bacteria along with the bad...been treating that and a possible bladder infection/flare up . I've had a gallon (literally) of cranberry juice and that has helped a lot.

So, the worst of it is over. I'm home. I'm safe. I'm healthy. And I'm VERY happy--happy to be home in a relatively safe environment with good water to drink and nice co-workers who did a great job of holding down the fort in my absence.  My lawn, on the other hand, is another story.  I just need to hire a gardener when I leave next time, I suppose.

Thursday, October 5. We depart Istanbul

We had breakfast at the hotel, figured tips and left them in our room, made arrangements for a taxi to take us to Ataturk Airport.
Some last minute shots of our room.  I really loved our room. It was so comfortable and nice.

And we really enjoyed the sweeping views from the rooftop garden. It was just so pleasant up there.

OH! There was a bee on the rooftop garden!!

Driving out the the airport, I couldn't help but take a few photos as we were leaving.  I snapped some of the ancient Roman walls that surround this ancient city.

Little pieces of antiquity everywhere you look.  

 So different from our country.

But then, some things are the same:

Yep, there was KFC right there in Old Town Istanbul. I think I saw a McDonalds, too.

I don't know if you can see it, but we were driving past this body of water (Marmara Sea, technically--just before the Strait of Bosphorus)  and it is FILLED with ships.

 Ship after ship after ship. I am guessing that Istanbul and Turkey have all control over this teeny strip of water that gets ships between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea--which has seaports for many other countries besides Turkey.

Turkey is BIG.  We saw but a tiny part of Istanbul. Turkey is supposed to be America's ally.  We didn't feel like there were friendly feelings towards American's in general. As a matter of fact, Turkey quit issuing travel Visas to American citizens shortly after we returned to the states, so we feel like we got out just in time.  We met some amazingly nice people--the ones at our hotel, our cute guide on Saturday. Waiters were always a bit too friendly sometimes.  Gee, they just needed business! They had to make a living, too.  The bee people were all nice.  We felt lucky to find as many English-speakers as we did. It's a big place. The architechture and history is phenomenal. Their antiquities are impressive.

I'm glad I got to go. Thanks to Athena and Athena's generous friend, Anne, I was able to go on this grand adventure. Thank you, Ladies! It's one trip I will not soon forget!

Wednesday, October 4 In Istanbul. Bee Day!

Today was the day of our "Field Trip."  Although I believe the official name was "Technical Tour."
We had to get up early and since it was before breakfast time in our hotel lobby, we just grabbed a bite on the way. Athena did. I didn't want anything. I just needed to make sure I took plenty of water so as to not become dehydrated since I still have...er...very loose bowels.  But still manageable.

We walked up to Taksim Square. It's about 5 to 7 blocks from our hotel. We waited around (after getting inside to use the bathroom, of course) outside until we could board one of SEVEN bus loads of people that were headed over to Sile, near the Black Sea, where we were to visit a bunch of Bee things.

First stop was a big plant and marketing place by Balparmar. They were one of the major sponsors of Apimondia. Their reception was big and loud and very Hollywood-ish.  Video presentation, speeches, light snacks served by waiters (and a very orange-colored bathroom in that place).  We listened to the speeches, took a walking tour past their laboratories where they test the honey. Very scientific and informative.  Then we boarded buses again and received a nice parting gift from them. A hard-back book on flowers and a plastic bottle of their honey. Yum.

Our next stop was over the river and through the woods to an exhibit they'd set up of different hives and types of bees. Interesting. My interest was the port-a-potty on a truck.  Very clean. Like a camper, but only with bathrooms instead of the rest of stuff you'd put in a camper (like beds and kitchen stuff).  Boarded our buses and headed over to

The the town of Sile (pronounced Sheila) itself.  Here we were taken to a farmer's market area where they had lunch prepared for us. It was not very tasty. The bathrooms there were pay ones, BUT no western toilet!! Yikes.  I didn't eat much.  A little soup. A few beans and a bite or two of rice. Some very good bread...I even took my big hunk of bread with me and nibbled on it the next morning.  Long lines for the food. Not much time to shop at the market.  Had a bit of a time finding our bus after the fact.  But we found it and headed on to the next place:

The Black Sea!  The sea port was pretty, complete with a castle, but since it was late, we merely drove by and took pictures from the bus windows.

We stopped at another place and had a little ceremony with speeches and presentations in a partially-completed building that was to become an education center for beekeepers and students.  It was a tiny village (one more potty stop here for me...public bathroom outside the mosque)...Getting to be a challenge, these squatty-potties!!

Back on board the bus for our ride back to Taksim square area near the conference hotel.  Which was blocks from ours. We had to make a stop at Starbucks where we bought hot chocolate (so I could use their bathroom, too). Then we meandered home to our hotel.  Was I ever glad to be inside!!! Ugh. Challenging day, but I made it.

Looking at the many displays of bees. Different types of bees were introduced.

There was a lot of hiking around that I avoided. I just wasn't feeling up to hiking about more hills. So I stayed close to the port-a-potty.

Hives, tourists from all over the world, checking out the hives, etc.

Beekeepers, and tourists and VIP's.

These are skep, the original type hives.

And there is really bees and honey inside there!

More touring people. They did a lot of infrastructure improvements, accommodating the many people they expected to attend. I think there were over 200.

Hives, hives, and more hives.  And lots of bees!

This was the typical forested area that we were driving through most of the day. Trees and shrubs.

This was the long line, and the cute videographer who photobombed my picture. He was documenting this grand field trip for Apimondia or for the sponsors. Not sure, but I saw him filming everywhere we went.

The Sile castle on the Black Sea. Sile is pronounce "Sheila"

See the happy (or surprised?) face on the castle?

There were fish markets on the pier that we drove out and around on.

The town of Sile, perched on the side of the hill.

The harbor full of fishing boats of all shapes and sizes. Nets and floats were piled everywhere. I thought it looked kind of messy, but Mike claims most fishing harbors look like this. I guess I just go to yaght harbors. ha.

Hills. Hills. More hills. I just about cried when I looked at the street we had to walk down for the presentation there in this little outlying town near Sile. "If I walk down that hill, that means I have to walk back up it..." ugh. But I did it.

We were quite the site to the locals, hundreds of people trooping up and down their little streets.  Everyone came out to see us pass by.

Ladies standing on the porches and looking out the windows. I thought it was rather quaint.

Even more people on balconies, watching the parade of us go by.