Road warriors return

Mr. Gadget and I are back from our trip to the prairie. Please, if you ever hear me agree to making another 3,000-mile-six-days-in-the-car road trip, just slap me upside the head.

Most of our westward journey was in pouring rain. When we saw clear skies over Wichita, there was much gladness.
The weather was perfect for the eastward trek, so we were able to see some sights along the way.....like Nostalgia-ville, grandmas on Harley's.....and funny things on trucks, like a hand-lettered sign, "Show 'em if ya got 'em!"
There were 3 reasons for this trip: 1) to visit family members we don't see very often, 2) to be present when my sister-in-law received her Master's degree, and 3) to make a cheesecake for my brother-in-law (aka Uncle Birdie...more on this later).

Notice those cloth napkins and coffee mugs? Long ago I made some cloth napkins as a gift for Uncle Birdie and his family. They loved them and use them every day. Did I mention, Uncle B is a college professor and teaches environmental sciences? At one point he got right up in my face and demanded, I mean respectfully requested that I make some more, since their current supply is getting threadbare.

Here's a close-up of the coffee mug:

And here's some fabric I have in my stash for napkin-making:

So I mentioned that my brother-in-law is also known as Uncle Birdie, but not by his students or colleagues or anything like that. Just family. When Tech Guy and Big City Girl were very young, Uncle B was living nearby and getting his PhD in animal sciences....specifically ornithology, and that's how the name came to be. It was also during this time that I was going through my counted cross-stitch phase and I did a special piece for him.

And since we were right there in the presence of a bird expert, I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the wrens.

"Once the nest-building is done and the female lays the eggs, how long before they hatch?" I asked.

"Typically about 12 days," he said.

"And do you think they are happy with the red and white house, or should I have chosen something in more earthy tones with a front porch and an attached garage?"

"They'll be fine," he assured me. "Why don't you just stick to making cheesecakes."