June 11, 2008. Double D Ranch, Harper, Texas.

No exercise today. Not much reading either. Some days are just like that, where the whole day slips away, and then it is time for bed. No feeding the fish. No treating the cattle. What we did do was preparing for the future. First thing this morning, a gentleman came from "Inside Story" to measure the ranch house carpet. The carpet is original to the house and is ugly as sin, so in the Fall we will have this lovely blue carpet replaced with ceramic tile. The burrs stick to the carpet and then the little girls step on the burrs, which does not please their grandmother, so the ugly blue carpet must go. The carpet in the bedrooms are new just before we bought the ranch, so it is fine, but the living room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen will be tiled. After the man measured, Ken and I went in to choose the tile in their store. Our drill is to put two tiles on the floor, then compare and decide which of the two we prefer. We both agree on the better one and leave it on the floor while sending the tile we don't like back to the rack. We continue with this process until we both are choosing the same one several times. It becomes our tile of choice. It is quite efficient and quite easily done. After we have chosen the tile and given our order to the wife of the measuring man, we leave the store, and promptly forget all about it. Now I tried to get in touch with Suzanne prior to our journey to Fredericksburg and "The Inside Story". but I couldn't reach her. Fortunately, she called to tell me that she did not care what color went on the floor of the ranch house. "Anything you and Ken choose will be fine" Said Suzanne. After all, they live in the ranch house when they are there, so she should have been given a vote, but she is unfailingly gracious.

Since we built our Top House, we have not bought any liquor to stock the bar. Poor Robbie always brings over his own gin and tonic when they come to dinner. But today we went to the liquor store. Now we are well stocked. It was great fun talking to the lady in the store. She seemed to know a lot about liquors. Now we are set up for the next 20 years. We were looking at some bottles of liquor in the cabinet over the refrigerator at the farm. Alan wanted a drink and I was rooting through the bottles and discovered that many of those bottles of booze have travelled from Old Spring Road to Franklin Street to the Farm with the bottles still full. Goodness, at the rate we use them up the bottles we bought today will be there for the next thirty years or more. Probably not the single malt Scotch though. That bottle seems to be popular.

It was way out of our way, but we came home via Doss. At the beginning of every road, they list the names of the folks who live down that road. It is interesting to see that most names are still German.