In honor of Labor Day, here's a little red, white and blue.
This Stephanotis vine grows just outside my front window. It blooms almost year-round in our mild coastal climate and always reminds me of my mother; it was one of her favorite flowers. When mom passed away over 18 years ago, sister Donna dug this up from her yard and potted it. I inherited it when Donna downsized a few years later.
I have no idea what this flower is (anybody know?) 
Dick planted it at the edge of the fountain he built - and promptly tried to kill it with over-watering. The original leaves and stalks died but before he could yank it out, it started growing back. I love the color and how it dances in the breeze.
This is Miss Scarlett, my new Trailblazer. 
Dick has been researching cars for several weeks - he had the new car bug bad - to replace my beloved Tahoe. Big Red had almost 90,000 miles and it was time to let her go before she started having mechanical problems. Since the kids are mostly grown and we don't transport entire soccer teams anymore, we wanted something smaller - but not too small since it needed to pull Dick's boat and make regular runs to home improvement stores.
We drove two contenders today - Toyota Highlander (very nice), Ford Explorer (yuck) - before settling on the Chevy Trailblazer. It met the towing requirements and satisfied our desire to buy American-made. 
I love new cars but I hate the process involved in buying them. The negotiating, arguing, dickering - the whole thing makes me crazy. Dick said he'd rather go to the dentist and I have to agree. But this time was different and much, much easier. Last night I sent an email to several local dealers, telling them what we were looking for and asking for their best price. Several responded and we were able to weed out those we were no longer interested in. (price too high, not in stock, refusing to give pricing info over the phone or Internet.)
When we got to Todey (that's Toddy) Chevrolet in Oxnard, we talked directly to the Internet/fleet manager (Bobby Underwood; if you go, tell him we recommended him) who had offered us $300 under invoice on any Trailblazer in stock, plus the current rebate. And that was the deal we got; no bait and switch, no high pressure tactics, no 'salesmanship' stuff - just a fair price on a new car. The dealership also gave us a fair trade-in amount on Big Red (that took a little negotiation, but nothing unpleasant).
We've purchased two other cars from Todey, including my favorite car-buying experience. When we bought Big Red, I'd called Todey and told the salesman the exact car we were looking for; we'd done test drives a few days before. When we arrived 15 minutes before closing on a Friday night, they had the car sitting ready for us to see, we agreed on a price, and drove off just 45 minutes later.
A pleasant car-buying experience. How novel.
On the way home, grandma made me laugh so hard that I got the hiccups. That was funny too.
Grandma was really proud of me - I ate 2 sticks of meat and almost an entire jar of fruit. 
Or I should say, she was proud until she found almost all the meat in my lap where I'd spit it out when she wasn't looking. 
I liked the fruit best; it made a really big mess on my face and hands.
