Didya' Miss Me?

I've been away. And come back and gone away--well, it's what you do when you are retired, and have enough sense to go and do it as long as the money holds out, and your legs...


We went to Hawaii for a week, with Garden Fairy and her spouse, since it was the occasion of their 40th anniversary, and they invited us to go along. Well, what the heck! It's a long ride, but you end up in Hawaii....We went to the "Big Island", and did the volcano park tour--that was an eye-opener! And, considering what is going on this week in Iceland, fascinating! The Island is half black lava fields, and incredible to look at and drive through. No describing it. You have to go there and see it--beautiful in its own way, and so different. I could never stay there for long, just because of it being so far from anything else, in the middle of the Pacific. Less ominous than the volcano and its lava fields were the signs at the edges of the island that read "Tsunami Evacuation Area", accompanied by the tall poles each attached to six or eight warning sirens. We stayed in someone's lovely two br/two bath condo, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We generally ate lunch out while sightseeing, and had dinner in on our beautiful two-sided lanai.

We got back in time to have the fam in for the annual egg-hunt and Easter dinner, which turned out nicely, partly due to the lovely weather, and all the flowering things in bloom. After that was the wedding--very pretty, and meaningful. And then I headed to Florida by myself for a few days of outlet hopping with the fine ladies of my family, some of whom I only see only on such occasions. These things have to be scheduled in at least once a year--they talk about male bonding--well, this is our female bonding. MyTreasure makes fun of it, but he has his days when he and his friend go off to the ranges to spend their dollars shooting off boxes of "ammo". I at least come home with something I can wear...





Well, the good news is that the shopping marathons balanced out the wine drinking on the lanai, and I lost a pound at Weight Watchers this week. WoHoo! Salad season is here, so maybe I can undo the damage that I did in February and March, and find my way back into my summer skirts by the time I need them. One more little hurdle--the wedding reception this weekend. But--it's only one day, right? And, we are so looking forward to seeing everyone. After all, this is our last wedding! Everyone is married, and how nice is that! Congrats, Sue and Jon!

Spring Or Else!

You know it was a bad winter when you feel like you have been let out of jail. Finally our weather broke, and we have had a string of decent days that could actually be called "spring-like", even though the official arrival of spring was not until this weekend. Only last weekend was that horrible storm--which could have been so much worse, had we had lower temperatures. Somehow, we escaped without any water in our basement, and we didn't get involved in the power outages that so many households suffered. I guess we did our time that once, and it was bad, since we were an isolated incident on our street, and of course, they got to us last. Our sympathies to all those families who had to wait it out this week.

My mini-daffs are in bloom, and the regulars are budded, and ready to go. The snow drops appeared last week, and were most welcome, and the crocus have popped the last day or two. How pretty is the color purple, after a long winter of brown!


I bought two batches of tulips and put them in a vase. The yellow ones were bigger, and I picked out some red with yellow edges, for pretty contrast in the vase. The yellows stayed the same, but the reds kept growing, and look how they ended up! A little odd, I thought.





Our niece was coming for the weekend, and I looked at my "Attitude Vase" and thought "too bad I didn't pick up some flowers". CarolA came in and she had brought the absolutely perfect cut Gerberas for that vase, and I just had to take a picture of it. I'm still enjoying them--those elbows just say it all, as far as I'm concerned! And happy spring to Y'all!

Wild Weekend

Sometimes the fun never quits. We started with a big storm that promised to hang out over several days. We always get at least one dramatic weather incident in the month of March, even though I try to convince myself that spring is in the air. For heavens sake, there are robins outside--in flocks, no less, picking away at whatever is in the lawn, and the little pokey things are coming up through the dirt--some are even budded. The temperatures are sticking solidly to the high 40's, and the air feels soft, not bitey, so at least it won't be snow.

Friday isn't great, with gloom and rain, but the weather men are offering up Saturday for the big show. We didn't have much to do, except get some appetizers ready and spruce up our fiddle/piano duo for a little entertainment at Garden Fairy's St. Patty's party.

Saturday WAS a big show. The rain came down, the gales blew, taking out trees and power lines all over Long Island, and plenty of other places as well. Our power flicked a couple of times, but never actually went out, so the food got prepared, and we had a fine time at the party. Cycle in "Spring Forward" on the old clock, and all is well. Choir in the morning, so don't hang out too late. We came in at 12:30, plus our one hour time loss, so call it 1:30.

Our clock radio does it's thing at 7:30, and at 7:38 there is a phone call from our church organist that he and his wife and baby are all sick, and can I play the morning worship services (first service 9 am). Well. That wasn't how I was expecting to begin my morning...

We had concert tickets for this afternoon in Manhattan, and the trains on our line were running, so we got there only a little late--missed the first piece. At least all that was required was to sit in a seat and do my best to stay awake. We caught some dinner in a restaurant next to the concert hall, and were back home by 7 pm--or is it 8 pm--or 6 pm? I guess it will take me a day to get it all straight in my head--which is still whirling a bit...

Wednesday Night Routine

Every year now, for many years I have played the mid-week Lenten service at the church founded back in the 1920's by my grandparents. I do not attend this church, but I have family ties there, so I go there whenever I can, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to play services for them, even though they have a miserable organ. The stained glass windows are nice...

I now attend Weight Watcher meetings on Wednesdays, and it works out that I go from there to the church service, and eat a late dinner when I get home. The pastor has made his sermons into a series each year for the weeks of Lent, which number six. The themes have varied from year to year--and this year he is preaching on the Seven Last Words of Christ. My attention sometimes varies, depending on how hungry I am, and what is going on in my life at the time, but I have been able to tune in this year pretty well.

At the end of the service the pastor announced that next week they would be serving corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. Patrick's Day downstairs in the church hall, and that his sermon would be based on the sixth word "I thirst!" On my way out, I confess that I couldn't resist asking him if there was any coincidence with the sermon topic and the date, and I did get a hearty laugh. I'm wondering what he'll do with the sermon....

Getting Implants!

Yeah, well it's not what you think...

Last spring, I was given the bad news from my dentist that I had to have a tooth pulled. It was a six-year molar, and I was mortified. I have good teeth. No way anything like that was going to happen to my good teeth. I sought a second opinion, with exactly the same verdict--it has to come out. Despair...Well, they weren't taking off a toe, or a hand--just a tooth. "We can do a bridge--since the two teeth beside the offender have fillings." Not on your life! Don't touch my two teeth. Do an implant.

So. Three months to heal, more time for the implant. More time to heal. Then the cap. $$$$$. July for the extraction. September for the implant. December for the cap. Extra time for the lab for the cap for the remake, since the first one didn't fit. Cap finally goes on Feb. 25th. Feb. 26th six-year molar on the other side breaks off well below the gum line. Yeah, I know the drill. Just take the thing out, and get the process started all over again. What the heck was I doing when I was six, and those teeth were supposed to be in formation for the rest of my life?

Well, you wouldn't want me to be unbalanced with an implant only on one side, would you? Think about it--how that would look?

Stalling....Again....

I am in my "don't want to get back to my real life" mode. I confess this always happens whenever we come back from a trip. This time it feels like we were gone for a month, instead of only eight days. We started with an overnight babysit in Connecticut, flew out to Las Vegas for a few days, then went over to San Diego for a few more days. We came back on the red-eye, which was a great flight, but I found it very disorienting. I understand losing a day or part of a day when you cross time zones, but it was so strange losing the night instead.

So, yesterday I vegged on the couch with my book and my down quilt. Today I am doing laundry, because it requires no brain power, and yet is a worthy use of one's time, because it needs to be accomplished, especially after a trip. I am hanging on the computer, because it requires no brain power, but it really is not a worthy use of one's time--just an excellent way of stalling. Maybe by tomorrow I will be ready to get my brain into gear and come up with a prioritized to-do list.

Our trip was great--caught up with some fine family, and got thoroughly sensory overloaded in LV. Saw some good art at the Getty in LA, and ate entirely too much all around SD. I'll be paying for that later this afternoon at Weight Watchers... Come on brain--defuzz, so that I can get back on track!

Calligraphy Issues or How I Spent My Last Three Days

I confess that I have always enjoyed beautiful pen and ink work. I got the pen--actually the first one that I had was an old one that came out of an attic, the old style holder with removable points. I fooled with a bottle of India ink--you had to dip the pen each time you wrote. Then I moved up to a set that worked like a fountain pen that filled with a little squishy thing inside, and it wasn't necessary to deal with the ink bottle every few letters. There was also a third set that had cartridges. With all of the systems, I ended up with black fingers, ala Amadeus. Sadly, my small motor coordination is so poor that no amount of practice was going to allow the lovely, symmetrical lettering that showed in the workbook illustrations.

And yet, I persist. There were wedding invitations to be addressed, and I stepped up and volunteered to do the writing. I pulled down the boxes with the pens and ink bottles, and tried out a bunch of points before making my selection. Then, there was the matter of lettering styles. I filled up a couple of sheets of copy paper before settling on what looked best. My fingers got black. I figured out how to rule off a sheet of card stock, so that I could slide it into the envelopes, and it would show through, and allow me to place the addresses in the center of the envelopes. So far so good. My writing is a little spidery, and the pen was crotchety until I changed ink, but I still like the look of hand addressed envelopes. I just wish I was a little better at. I would really enjoy doing more if I thought I could do it really well. Oh well. The envelopes are finished, ready for their stamps. Best wishes, bride and groom!