Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:00 a.m. in "The City."

It looks as though Yarn Quest 2017 is over. We made what are likely to be our last two stops yesterday. The first was @ The New Ewe in Newaygo, MI, where we also ate lunch across the street @ The Sportsman's Bar and Grill. Lunch was a bean burrito which turned out to be very filling.
We would have eaten in Rockford after our stop in Newaygo, but we were too far from Rockford and too hungry to wait. Our dinner was Sloppy Joe's and Tater Tots™ with an additional side of Coleslaw @ home.

The stop @ The Sportsman's Bar and Grill allowed us to continue the quest to Rockford, MI, and J.T. Stitchery, Both places were able to add to Mary's stash and the ride in the wilds of Western, MI was a great diversion from the daily activities of life.

I say it looks as though Yarn Quest 2017 is over because of the 11 possible stops on our grand tour, the only one left to visit is Stitching Memories in Portage, MI. Sadly, Portage is about 65 miles south and east of here and would require a round trip of nearly four hours. Too much time, too little desire.

So, unless Mary sleeps on it and decides we are going to Portage, she'll be turning in her Yarn Quest 2017 Passport @ The Needlesmith, our local participant in the quest, which is just around the corner from the PE. Oh well, there is always next year. However, the 10 stops we did make qualified Mary for the second place prize.

As proof of participation, each shop stamped Mary's passport with a stamp for their shop. Here are some pictures of the nearly completed passport along with the purchases made in the two stops we made.

This picture shows the stamps for the stops we made and our purchases.

This picture shows the one missing stamp and also the purchases.

It is worthy of note that we had walked the fur-children over to Ginger's Daycare spot where we dropped off Ginger and returned home with STWD. While we were on our return trip, we stopped @ the Bookman where Sugar got her biscuit and Mary got a tote bag that has the names of 15 independent bookstores on one side and their locations on the other.

We have one "X" for the Bookman.

This side shows the locations of all of the participating bookstores on a map of Michigan.

I did get to witness the southbound passage of the train on the RSTL yesterday morning. Locomotives 2057 and 2019 were rolling south towing five CHCs, four DWTCs, and 11 DBTCs.  we were traveling when the afternoon passage happened.

Sports news yesterday was mostly good. The Cubs came from behind when they bailed out John Lackey and defeated the Phillies yesterday afternoon by a score of 5 - 4. That took 13 innings. That win gives the Cubs a one and one-half game lead over the 2nd place Brewers in the NL Central with a record of 16 - 12. The Cubs host the Yankees this afternoon @ 1:20 p.m.

The Tigers game was postponed due to weather. That means that the Tigers are still in 4th place with a 14 - 13 record in the AL Central. The Tigers flew to Oakland to face the As @ 10:05 tonight.

My beloved Red Sox took it on the chin in a game against the Orioles by a score of 3 - 8. That loss finds the Sox in 3rd place with a record of 15 - 13 in the AL East. The Sox travel to MN for a game tonight against the Twins @ 8:10 p.m.

The Caps fared better yesterday with a 9 - 3 win over the Clinton, IA, Lumberkings. That victory ties the Caps for 1st place with the Dayton Dragons who also have an MWL East record of 17 - 10. The Caps host the Kane, County, Cougars, the current 1st place team in the MWL West @ 7:00 p.m. FYI, the Dayton Dragons are the "A" level affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Caps are the "A" level affiliate of the Tigers, and the Cougars are the "A" level affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

We have a current temperature of 47° under partly cloudy skies. Today's high is forecast by the NWS to reach 60° under mostly sunny skies. The sun will rise @ 6:32 a.m. and set @ 8:50 p.m.

Today, after the morning safari, Mary has to get back to indexing so that she is done before we travel. She is making progress, but it is slow going. I'll be reading, playing with the girls and little else. I do have to put a coat of paint on our vegetable pots. With the warm temperatures expected today this should be a good opportunity. That base coat of latex paint will allow me to add a finish color coat to each pot tomorrow. Ciao.