Red Hatters Lunch At Rocket City

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Members of the New Mexico Road Runner Chapter of the Red Hat Society located in Alamogordo, New Mexico went to the new family fun center called Rocket City for lunch, table games and to play Laser Tag. Our excellent hostess for this event was Vice Queen Alice Evans.

The food at Rocket City is excellent and after enjoying a delicious lunch, Queen Ladybird aka Carla Kerr provided Easter eggs stuffed with chocolate candies for dessert. We played the dice game, Left, Right, Center, which we played last time we were together, but it happens to be a favorite with everyone. Carmen Veenpere won all the quarters because she was the only one having a quarter left when the game was over.

Most of us decided to play Laser Tag, mostly because none of us had played it before and we thought it would be a new FUN experience. We made quite a commotion when we walked over to sign up for Laser Tag and, in fact, their official photographer took a group picture of us.

Each of us put on an interesting "vest" to which our laser gun was attached. One girl told us the rules such as, "Do not shoot a person in the eyes" and some other rules which got away from me. There was also a family going in the same time we were (a man, his wife and their son and daughter). So off we went into the darkness. I don't know about the others, but if I saw something move, I shot at it. The layout is somewhat like a maze and I kept running into the man of the family. One time he said, "Oh, no. Not you again."

We will definitely put this under our #POWEROFFUN because we had a blast. They also have a fabulous bowling alley, but lifting that bowling ball might have been difficult for most of us.

Carmen Veenpere and Trudy Reese

Margie Purcella and Vice Queen Alice Evans

Royal Scribble Gail Swineford and Rosanna Heath

Nancy Brooks

Carla Kerr

There were some interesting characters roaming around Rocket City that day and Rosanna made friends with them.

Of course, Queen Ladybird had to join in.

Here we have Alice, Carmen and Rosanna with the group

Carmen with her winnings from the dice game

Unfortunately I did not shoot  pictures of the Laser Tag because no cameras allowed, but their photographer took shots of us before we went in to play so I will post it or them as soon as received.  It was indeed a FUN day for all of us.

Thanks to Douglas Kerr for processing the pictures.

This is all I have to say for now.

Red Hatters Lunch at Nuckleweed Restaurant in La Luz, New Mexico

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Members of the Red Hat Society New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter from Alamogordo, New Mexico dined and played games at the Nuckleweed Restaurant in La Luz, New Mexico on Saturday, March 23, 2019.

We always love going to this restaurant because the food is excellent and it is actually located in the Sacramento Mountains on La Borcita Canyon Road, a lovely drive this time of year.

Rosanna Heath was hostess for this event and she had little gift bags containing favors for each of us as well as door prizes. She had asked that we each bring four quarters for a dice game and a favorite joke or riddle to share.

After partaking of a delicious lunch, several members ordered their amazing brownie sundae for dessert which is the size of a dinner plate and a lot of sharing took place.

The dice game consists of three dice on which there are the letters L, R, or C and dots. One rolls the dice and passes a quarter  left, right and/or to the center depending on what comes up on the dice. Dots don't count so if you get one, two or three dots, this is a good thing. When your quarters get down to two, you only throw two dice and down to one, you throw one die. When you run out of quarters you are out of the game. This actually takes a while and we had a lot of fun playing. The last person with a quarter or quarters wins all the quarters in the center. The winner was Margie Purcella aka Countess of Karr Canyon.

Our Pink Hatter Alice Cuevas shows off her favor gift from hostess Rosanna, Red Hat Salt and Pepper Shakers

Jean Courtier aka Marquesa Corte Alegre and Trudy Reese aka Lady Sunshine

L to R: Trudy, Karen Townsend aka Enchanted Empress and Alice C.

Vice Queen Alice Evans aka Madame of the Mountains and Margie

Hostess Rosanna with Royal Scribe Gail Swineford aka Baroness Von Doolitte

L to R: Karen, Carla Kerr aka Queen Ladybird and Alice C.

We than enjoyed telling our jokes and/or riddles with a lot of laughter and smiles displayed proving our #PowerofFun was in abundance.

Thanks to Douglas A. Kerr, Photography for processing my photos for this article.

This is all I have to say for now.

Alamogordo New Mexico Red Hatters Attend Red Hat Western Roundup

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society traveled from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Las Cruces, New Mexico to take part in the Las Cruces Queens Council Red Hat Western Roundup Funvention on Saturday, March 16, 2019.

We arrived early Saturday morning to engage in Red Hatters favorite sport, "Shopping", with vendors at the event. While waiting for registration to begin, we occupied the Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces restaurant for coffee and sweet rolls. We definitely needed sustenance after all that shopping.

The fun started with some fun games and door prize drawings. We also purchased raffle tickets in hopes of winning some lovely items on the raffle table. Then, it was time for the "Hat Parade" peopled by those Red Hatters who created and/or decorated hats for the event. I did not get the name of the pretty lady who won for most beautiful hat, but in our chapter, Rosanna Heath's hat won for best representing the western theme and Carla Kerr's hat won for being the most outrageous. We were on a roll and it got even better from there. Karen Townsend won a prize for the worst Red Hat Bingo Card and she also won the table centerpiece which was a lighted red cowboy hat on a small bale of hay.  Carmen Veenpere won a door prize.

We enjoyed a chuck wagon buffet consisting of salad, fried chicken, barbecued brisket, potato salad, corn on the cob, pinto beans and spiced apples for dessert. The food was truly delicious and it looked like it was enjoyed by all.

We were entertained by a "senior" singing group of ladies with a gentleman director. They even brought in a keyboard, drums, and maracas for backup. They sang all the golden oldies that we learned as kids and a lot of us even sang along with them. This was a lot of fun as well.

For the next hour and a half Hatters went to different rooms for activities that included Decorate a Fascinator Class; T-Shirt Class; Line Dance Class and Red Hat Bingo. Everyone returned to the large meeting room for more door prize drawings, announcements and raffle ticket drawings. Trudy Reese won a door prize; Carla won two beautifully made throw pillows in the raffle and Carmen won a set of Red Hat plates and with another ticket won a Red Hat candy dish. We had a lot of winners at our table for a change. Table favors were mugs with purple or red western bandanas in them.

Driving back to Alamogordo was another experience because we drove through rain and as we approached San Augustin Pass in the Organ Mountains, we were hit with a blizzard. Being one of the drivers, I was so grateful the temperature never got down to 30, but close at 33 degrees because I don't have 4-wheel drive. Once we got further down into the Tularosa Basin, everything was bone dry and it was smooth sailing from there on out.

Royal Scribble Gail Swineford and Twinkle Toes Carmen Veenpere

L to R: Queen Curvy aka Kimberly Gugliotta, Lady Sunshine Trudy Reese and Enchanted Empress Karen Townsend

Rosanna Heath

Random shot of the attendees

Karen holding up her door prize ticket and Gail wishing it was hers

More attendees and the girl in the middle was in the Hat Contest

Another random shot of the attendees

Back Row from Left: Queen Ladybird aka Carla Kerr, Carmen, Rosanna, Gail. Front Row L to R: Kimberly, Karen and Trudy

Rosanna and Carla sporting their winning hats

Side view of Carla's hat

Front view of Carla's hat

The back of Carla's hat

If you enlarge the photos of the hat, you can see more detail. It took me a while to put it together with my trusty glue gun.

Thanks to Doug Kerr for processing all the pictures for this article.

This is all I have to say for now.

Spring is Coming

Sunday Morning, March 10, 2019

When I rise every morning, I do my necessaries i.e. brushing teeth, brushing hair, washing face, etc, and I then do what I call "Waking up the house" by going through, turning on lights, turning on our FM Radio Station set to WRR in Dallas, Texas for wonderful classical music, opening the shades on the glass patio door, etc.

This morning when I looked out the patio door I observed our first Robin of Spring and grabbed my camera to immortalize this welcome sign.

Isn't t his a healthy looking robin, harbinger of Spring!

Good morning everyone. Hope your Spring will come to you as a positive event of a great year ahead. Thanks to Doug for processing the photo for me.

This is all I have to say for now.

The Lodge Resort and Murder Ink Presents "Game of Stones" Murder Mystery Weekend

February 22-24, 2019

Members of the Murder Ink acting troupe entertained about 200 attendees at the Lodge Resort and Spa in Cloudcroft, New Mexico over the weekend of February 22-24, 2019 presenting "Game of Stones" Murder Mystery. Murder Mystery attendees are avid fans of this type of entertainment and come with their lap tops and cellphones, ready to discover who the murderer(s) are to win lovely prizes.

The Lodge is a fabulous venue for this type of entertainment and it was completely sold out for this event.

"Game of Stones" character story lines was written by Jan Wafful who also directed and had an acting role in this production. Member actors in Murder Ink mostly provided their own 1600's costumes by either creating them or ordering them from costume houses. They did a phenomenal job of this, looking quite realistic in their roles.

It snowed all Friday night and some of the cast stayed at the hotel rather than trying to drive down the mountain

L to R: Ned Onyx Coal aka Joaquin Silva, Sirsi Garnet Landstar aka Andrea Garcia and Stark Emerald Eddard aka JD Hilliard

L to R: Sir Jorey Peridot Montmoor aka Gabe Mauger, Joaquin, Andrea, Ron Turquoise Jarryn aka Bob Berger and JD

Andrea with Sir McCain Topaz Landstar aka Tony Calderon

Galenerys Toronadoborn Tanzanyte aka Mary Cobb

Sensa Moonstone Eddard aka Heather Evans

Petra Jade (Big Finger) Wailish aka Jan Wafful

Whoa-sha Sapphire aka Mary Cobb

L to R: Mary, Heather, Sheespyder Beryl aka Carla Kerr, JD, Andrea, Mary, Joaquin, Gabe, Jan and Tony

Jan presiding at the Sunday morning breakfast Reveal

Andrea, giving her bio

JD giving his bio

Mary giving her bio and holding her daughter, one year old Lilyah

The third place winner in solving the murders was Mary Fitzgerald of Las Cruces, NM

The second place winner in solving the murders was Kay Cepracek of Las Cruces, NM

The absolutely thrilled first place winner in solving the murders was Myles Winter of Corrales, NM with Jan in background

Back Row L to R: Lilyah and Mary, Booby Prize Winner John Young, Heather, Carla, Jan and Mary  Front Row L to R: Andrea, third prize winner Mary Fitzgerald, second prize winner Kay Cepracek and first prize winner Myles Winter

Carla in Friday night costume

Carla in cape on Friday night

This was so much fun and a fabulously professional cast that added to the success of the event. There were many compliments and good remarks made from the attendees on Sunday after breakfast. Murder Ink is looking forward to doing another one soon. Stay tuned.

This is all I have to say for now.

Red Hatters Enjoy a Game Day at the Veenpere Home

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society in Alamogordo, New Mexico attended a Game Day and Luncheon hosted by members Carmen Veenpere and Jean Courtier.
Sometimes we play several games, but today we played Toss-Up, a dice game brought to our attention by member Alice Evans. We were able to get through one full game before we broke for lunch consisting of salad, pizza, freshly baked bread brought by Karen Townsend and a lovely fruit bread. Dessert was chocolate coconut cookies and brownies provided by Jean along with tea and coffee.

As Darla Shelley is moving away to Yucca, Arizona, we presented her with a lovely red handbag/carry-all, a card signed by all and sang "For She's a Jolly Good Sister" to bid her farewell. We are hopeful that she will find a new chapter in Yucca or nearby. She will be missed.

The winner of the first game was Darla Shelley and of the second game was Carmen Veenpere. We truly paid homage to our #POWERofFUN hashtag.

Darla Shelley and Trudy Reese

Our Royal Scribble Gail Swineford and Nancy Brooks

Jean Courtier, one of our hostesses

Carmen Veenpere, the other hostess

Karen Townsend

L to R: Karen, Trudy and Nancy

Darla

L to R: Margie Purcella, Vice Queen Alice Evans and Gail

Gail

Pink Hatter Alice Cuevas conversing with Margie

L to R: Trudy, Queen Ladybird aka Carla Kerr and Nancy

We hope to see everyone next month on March 15-16, 2019 in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the joint chapters Red Hat Western Funvention there.

This is all I have to say for now.