October 21, 2005

Today is my daughters birthday, won't say how old she is but she keeps looking better and better! I was planning on going up last week, but the hotel we stay at was full, and the other hotels around were way too high! We'll be going up in a couple of months for Christmas anyway.

I made some sugar rock candy to show my kindergarteners at Lawson. Boiled one cup of water and melted a little over two cups of sugar. Put a string with a weight on the end supported by a pencil and in about a week I got some very nice crystal sugar candy, better known as rock candy. I put some red food color in one of them and it turned out pink. The teacher hung it up in the classroom, since October is breast cancer aware month ... denoted by wearing pink.

We took a day trip to Clarksville last Sunday. The trees along route 79 by the Mississippi river were just starting to change. Lots of reds and yellows among the green. When we got to Clarksville we visited some of the shoppes (lots of craft and antique). A tugboat was about to go upstream through the locks so we decided to watch. They have a great viewing platform where you can watch the tugs push the barges in. They closed the lock on the low side and let the river water fill up from the other side. We could see the tug and barges rise up about twenty feet. Then they open up the other side and pushed them out. I posted some pictures on my web site. We ate at "Joe's Crabshack" at Mid River Mall and interstate 70. I was quite impressed! Although it did seem kind of strange to see all the waiters and waitress wearing shirts that said, "I Have Crabs!"
Here is the url for the pictures http://www.grandpag.com/index20daytrip.htm