a sweet look back....

 New Year's Eve seems like the perfect time to take a long look back.  Having celebrated the impending new year with a friend at lunch (we're such party animals) I have had time to think back this evening and I have the visual aids to help.  My daughter and her husband were married in 2008 and beginning that Christmas, he has gifted me with a calendar every year; a wonderful personalized calendar filled with pictures of children, grandchildren, other relatives, pets and more.  It was fun to page back through and see how the grands have grown from cute little four, six, seven and eight year olds through grade school pageants, middle school band and baton, high school marching bands, graduation pictures, and so much more.  I love the progression of Halloween costumes and Christmas morning pictures.  Not quite so much fun to see how the adults have aged during the same 13 years but still interesting.  Changing careers reflected in many pictures.  But I noticed that my most recent calendar (2022) contained many grand-dog pictures, a reflection I think of the fact that my daughter and son-in-law are now empty nesters.  It's bitter sweet that children will grow up and move on, and their parents can't follow them to college campuses and job sites to take pictures.  So I wasn't too surprised that this year, instead of a calendar of pictures, I received  framed pictures of their son and daughter, each with their significant other.  Grandchildren grow, new relationships blossom, and, who knows, no rush here, but maybe one of these years I'll get a Christmas calendar full of great grandbaby pictures.  Happy New Year everyone. Enjoy the anticipation of new things to come.  

Procrastination again?

 

And speaking of putting things off, I certainly understand why much mail didn't get delivered before Christmas.  I'm happy to blame it on deep snow and subzero temperatures.  I must also admit that when letters are mailed on the 23rd the likelihood of them not being delivered before the 25th is not all the fault of the post office.  So here, for those who haven't received this year's Christmas greeting from me (or have fallen behind in opening your mail) is my holiday greeting by blog.

Still Acting Out

By Luci Foltz

 I’ve had fun playing in 2022,

first as the gender non-specific marriage counselor Leslie in “Sylvia”

(“I may be a man pretending to be a woman,

or I may be a woman pretending to be a man.  I let my patients decide.”)

and then as the over-the-hill drunken actress Gay Wellington in

“You Can’t Take It with You.” (“When I see snakes, I know it’s time to lie down.”) 

I spent half of that show ‘passed out’ on the couch,

Such an easy role.

Now I am playing a ‘church lady’ (talk about type casting)

in “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”

When I wasn’t playing make believe,

I finally, finally got to travel, a glorious Rhine River cruise.

Beautiful scenery, cathedrals and castles, and fabulous food.

Later in the year a lovely driving trip to Michigan,

and a gathering with long-time friends in Woodburn

to celebrate our (gasp) 60^th high school reunion.

And here’s a shocker.  My much-too-young children and their spouses

are now empty nesters,

(well, except for the dogs and the cat)

while my grands experience college, careers, travel, and new loves.

Was there sadness this year? Yes.

A dear friend died, and another is living in the cloud land of dementia.

Grief indeed.

 

            May God hold you close during this busy time and always,

            comfort and console you when such support is needed,

            and cheer you on as you live your life to the fullest. 

                               

                        Happy New Year, 2023.

 

pass the pepper please...

 Here I am, stuck between Christmas and New Year's Day and wondering what I can write about.  My west coast brother hasn't been much help recently.  Between blizzards, slide offs (no injuries), family home for the holidays, and taking care of their grands, he and has wife have been kept quite busy lately.  So I was left to check out anything special about December 29 besides the fact that it puts us firmly on the slippery slope into 2023.  To my amazement I discovered that today is National Pepper Pot Day, a day that celebrates the 'soup that won the war,' the Revolutionary War that is.  Pepper Pot soup, made of tripe, beef and whatever vegetables you can find, seasoned with liberal amounts of pepper, is presumed to have come originally from the Caribbean, and was sold on the streets of Philadelphia. A side note here, we tend to think of fast food as a modern invention but, according to historical sources, lots of sandwiches, pasties, chestnuts, etc. were sold on the streets of large cities.  George Ludwig, who lived in Philadelphia, was George Washington's Baker General, charged with providing bread to the troops.  Sadly there wasn't much grain available.  The farmers were evidently selling their crops to the British, who probably paid with real money.  So George W told George L to feed the troops whatever he could to keep them alive during the cold winter of 1777-78. Pepper Pot soup is what he made.  I think it probably worked really well.  Soup is warm, can always be watered down to feed more, and plenty of pepper can disguise the taste of not quite fresh ingredients.  Maybe next year I'll have a Pepper Pot party, but I will use fresh ingredients and probably leave out the tripe.

PS If this doesn't appeal to you at all, tomorrow is Bacon Day!

simple pleasures

 Today was a day of simple pleasures.  It started with doing laundry this morning and realizing, as I took clean clothes out of the washers, that our wonderful new Maytags have lighter colored tubs than the old ones (silver instead of black), making it much easier to find the errant black socks that stick to the side.  Next, as I was getting ready to meet a friend for lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant, I realized that I would need my sunglasses.  Hooray for sunshine!! I was so inspired that, after a delicious meal, I filled my car with gas and went grocery shopping. Alas, no fruitcake, but we must all bear up under some disappointments.  Finally I went to my appointment with my hair stylist and was able to use my daughter's very generous gift card to pay for the haircut.  Merry Christmas to me.  Now I am relaxing at home, watching a show about kindness, remembering what a good day it has been and celebrating with a yummy piece of fair trade chocolate, which allows me to feel virtuous while celebrating "National Chocolate Candy Day."  

Well I like it.

 Today is National Fruitcake Day, and, to further complicate things, December is Learn a Foreign Language Month.  Sadly, I just learned about the foreign language thing today which leaves me with three days to learn a foreign language.  I don't think that's going to happen.  About fruitcake, I know I'm in the minority but I actually like fruitcake.  I'll admit some are better than others, but in general, I like them. I usually buy a small fruitcake for myself (I try not to inflict my biases on others) but this year I didn't see any on the grocery shelves.  Perhaps on Thursday, when I plan to shop for groceries, I'll see some on sale.  Hope springs eternal.  I have, at times, considered baking my own fruit cake, but when I study the recipes they all seem to require being baked way ahead of the holidays so they can be soaked with rum (or whatever) several times.  While I'm thinking about doing this, the time runs out, unless I want to have fruitcake to serve for Easter.  (See my earlier blog on procrastination.)  Ah well, maybe next year.  

The day after...

 It's Boxing Day, celebrated in many British related areas of the world.  What you may ask is Boxing Day?  Or you may not care, but I tend to look it up every year because I've heard various explanations.  First, just to clear up any misconceptions, it has nothing to do with boxing kangaroos or the sport of boxing.  According to Google, what else, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas (we knew that).  In days of old, the servants of the wealthy aristocrats had to work on Christmas day to keep their masters happy and well fed.  Then, on the day after Christmas, when no one wants to do much of anything anyway, the servants were given boxes of gifts (like used clothes), monetary bonuses, and left over food, and allowed to go home and spend the day with their families.  It occurs to me that if those servants were thinking ahead, they made sure there would be plenty of good leftovers to take home.  Evidently, according to a BBC news cast I was just watching, these days Boxing Day is celebrated in England by shopping for all those things you wanted and didn't get the day before.  We actually have a similar tradition here in the USA.  Perhaps we should call it Return & Exchange Day.  

Merry Christmas...

 It has been a very good Christmas.

Being a family of solid German origins we celebrated with a Mexican cheese and chicken casserole and a Mexican chocolate cake for dinner, yummy, and a fun gift exchange.

I also was able to say bon voyage to my oldest granddaughter who is heading to France for her spring semester, still studying business, but in Rouen, and "good job" to her sister who finished her first college semester with straight As.  

My other grands were with their serious? significant others this Christmas, which is a different, but I think inevitable, family dynamic. What fun.  

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Ho ho ho...

 Happy Christmas Eve everyone.  Like many of you, I still had a to-do list to accomplish today to be ready for Christmas Day, but by 3:00pm things were pretty well under control and I was ready to assemble my sweet potato casserole, to be baked at my daughter's house tomorrow morning.  Contrary to what yesterday's blog might make you think, I don't procrastinate on everything.  Two weeks ago, after checking for ingredients in my cupboard (it's not big enough to qualify as a pantry) I bought everything I needed for the casserole during a regular grocery run.  Imagine my dismay this afternoon when I was putting the ingredients out on the counter, to discover that the soft bag that I had thought was brown sugar, by feel, was actually flour in a brown bag.  After digging deeper I found one bag of rock hard brown sugar and one more carefully wrapped bag of brown sugar that I had layered first in a zip lock bag and then put inside a square glass cannister with a tight sealing lid. It too was rock hard, but had also assumed the shape of the container and could not be removed.  The amount in the simple bag looked like it might be enough for the recipe except for the rock hard condition.  So naturally I turned to Google for help.  The first suggestion to soften brown sugar (there was a long list) had something to do with an apple and a four day wait.  Well, that was no help, so I dug a little deeper and struck gold (metaphorically speaking).  The instructions said to put the brown sugar in a microwave proof bowl, cover it with a moist paper towel and heat it it for 10 seconds, then repeat as necessary.  In 20 seconds total my brown sugar was soft and usable. I was so excited to have nice soft brown sugar that I dumped the whole bowl full in my mixing bowl without measuring, so the casserole may be a little too sweet tomorrow, but I doubt if I'll hear any complaints.  Merry Christmas everyone. 

Procrastination

 I must admit, I am a world class procrastinator.  In high school and college I was the one finishing term papers at midnight and working all night on due-the-next-day art projects.  I remember one particular hand woven carpet that ended up a foot shorter than originally planned, but I did pass the course.  I've been told that people who procrastinate are perfectionists, putting off things that they are afraid they can't do well, but I'm not sure that's true.  I think procrastination has something to do with just finding more interesting fun things to occupy one's time.  Over the years I have, out of necessity, become less of a procrastinator.  There are a lot of deadlines in adult life.  Yet here I am, on Christmas Eve Eve, with one project still to finish.  So enough blog writing.  Back to work....

seems reasonable to me

 The weather guru is saying "If you don't have to go out, don't.  Stay off the roads."  I am perfectly happy to follow that advice.  It's easy for me because I already have everything I need to be ready for Christmas, and staying at home is giving me the time I need to finish a few last minute projects.  I will admit that I am considering live streaming the Christmas Eve service, especially if it's super cold.  I do not like wind chills in the double digit negatives, and driving on ice has never been one of my favorite activities.  Even though I'm a cautious driver I once did a 180 degree spin on Coldwater.  Happily there was no one coming in either direction.  They were obviously smarter than me and had stayed home.  I took the hint and headed home.  No appointments that day were worth the risk.  I just happened to glance at the TV as I write this and saw, on the weather map the number 29 on our area of the map.  I thought "Well, 29 degrees isn't too bad."  But then the friendly weather lady explained that that is the current wind speed.  Burrrrrr.  Use your common sense everyone and stay safe.

Woops, I forgot...

 PS. One of my readers answered yesterday's question correctly.  The song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was originally sung by Gene Autry, one of my favorite singing cowboys. 

a faint light...

 I think I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  With play performances and weekend company I've been busy enough not to notice how quickly Christmas was coming.  But today, heeding the weather predictions, I got out and finished all of my last minute gift shopping and mailed three gift packages.  One of them might actually arrive by Christmas Eve. I also have all of my Christmas letters ready to mail in the morning.  Of course they all say Happy New Year instead of Merry Christmas, but I figure people will have more time to read them next week anyway.  I'm still working on a craft project that I must finish but I still have three days, right?  Yes, indeed, I'm seeing that light.  Let's just hope it's not a train.  

a history lesson...

 I knew this started with Montgomery Ward, a long gone department store that holds happy memories for me.  My brothers and I spent long hours pouring over the Montgomery Ward and Sears Christmas catalogs, pages and pages of dreams.  But this is another bit of history, from my trivia calendar.  In 1939, Robert May, a copywriter who worked for Montgomery Ward was instructed to write an original Christmas story that could be printed as a small booklet and handed out to customers.  He created the red nosed reindeer.  My husband, who was born in 1935, actually had one of those little booklets.  Later of course, Rudolph became the hero of a song.  Do you remember who first sang it?  I think I know and will tell you tomorrow.  A side note here - the Santa and reindeer that are displayed every winter in downtown Fort Wayne did not originally have a red nosed leader.  That was added after the song became popular.  

restaurant review

Sometimes, when I'm in a restaurant, I order some dish (usually a main course), thinking that I know what it will taste like.  When it arrives, it may taste very good but still be not quite what I was hoping for.  You've probably had a similar experience, good but just not quite right.  Well I'm happy to report that this evening I was not disappointed.  Some of my family took me out for a delayed birthday supper.  If you're keeping track, this was my third birthday meal.  Lucky me. This evening we ate at the Hoppy Gnome, and instead of my usual tacos I ordered Chicken and Dumplings, one of several new things on the menu since the last time I was there.  It was a chilly evening and that sounded like the ultimate comfort food to me.  My dear Aunt Dora was a master maker of chicken and dumplings, so I have fond memories of the dish.  I am so happy to report that this dish did not disappoint.  It was delicious, and very filling and tasted just right.  Half of it is waiting in my refrigerator for tomorrow evening's supper.  Oh, yum.

The final show...

 This afternoon we put on the final performance of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  It was the same script, almost, that we've followed for the last five performances and all the many rehearsals, but today felt like we were in the middle of "The Play that Goes Wrong."  Yesterday one of our little actors, with a fairly major part got sick and another young actor had to step in to the part with a few hours notice.  He read the part of course, but did a good job carrying it off.  Today, when we arrived the usual hour before the  performance, this time a matinee, our director gathered us together to tell us that another young actor was sick, and explain how roles would be rearranged so another young person could cover the absence (she went from being an angel to being a little hellion, and did it very well).  In the meantime her role, as the charming little 'angel' who narrated the Christmas story, was covered by our 30 something chubby stage manager, swiftly stuffed into an angel costume.   All proceeded pretty smoothly until the second act.  At the beginning of the act five musical groups performed, nicely spotlighted until, about 3:30pm, when all the lights went out. I mean all the lights went out.  It was not a sunny day and the shutters had all been closed so it could be darker, to make the spotlighting more effective.  We were performing in the sanctuary to give the feeling of a true church Christmas pageant, and also to let the youth theater perform Frozen Jr. on our real stage, which was very, very dark when the lights went out.  Turns out it was a several block wide outage with no sign of lights coming back on soon.  Nothing, to her huge relief, that our lighting and sound director had done wrong.  But the show must go on, so our final singer performed on a gray dusky stage and then our pageant players finished up the show in the semi-dark.  We even took our bows in the glooming.  Live theater is such fun.  

I don't think so????

 Today is "National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day" and what I want to know is who decides what is an ugly Christmas sweater?  I mean, just because most of them are brightly colored (usually red and green) instead of tastefully knit in muted colors, does that make them ugly? Would you rather have everyone dressed in mauve and taupe at your next holiday party?  And all the bells and bangles and sparkles that are sometimes tied on?  I think they're festive.  But speaking of holidays, are we being fair?  Where are the ugly Hanukkah sweaters, or ugly Kwanza sweaters?  If not, why not.  What ever happened to equal opportunity?  

more special days...

 Today is "National Lemon Cupcake Day" and "International Tea Day." Doesn't that sound like a delicious combination.  Sadly I don't have any cupcakes, lemon or otherwise, but I do regularly drink British blend tea so that should count.  But, in addition to deliciousness, this day also contains drama.  It's "Cat Herders Day."  Now I'm not sure if this is a day celebrating people who herd cats (good luck with that) or cats who herd something.  There are wonderful dogs who herd sheep, cattle, goats and who knows what else, but I've never actually heard of cats herding anything.  What would they herd?  Other cats? Tiny little dogs? Mice? Turtles? That last seems about their speed.  Cats I have know (I'm talking domestic cats here) generally don't seem to want to expend much energy at all, although hearing the sound of a can opener can be a motivator.  But I must say watching our director work with the 14 very lively kids in our cast, does give me a very good idea of what herding cats would look like.

Such a thrill..

 One of my husband's favorite jokes, from back in our dating days, was "laundromat dates are loads of fun." I know, another groaner, but today it proved true.  Last week our laundry room was closed all week for improvements.  These were way overdue, since, on any given day, half of the old machines would be out of commission. Wisely, the laundry room in the other building was open in case anyone was desperate for clean clothes.  I was happy to wait.  Yesterday I followed the directions on the new money kiosk, which is in the other building for now, was able to buy and load my brand new money card, and felt ready.  Early this morning I trundled my cart full of dirty clothes down to the laundry room and saw the new equipment for the first time.  Picture it; a row of ten brand new, gleaming white Maytag washers, with their lids open in a cheerful salute, ready and waiting, and across the room an equal number of brand new dryers.  They were so pretty.  I just stood and admired for a while. Then I followed the directions printed on the washer lids, loaded everything, noted that the new washers hold larger loads, and used my money card to start the machines.  I was doing two loads of laundry.  Forty minutes later I was back to load everything into a dryer (except the stuff I hang to dry) and that worked well too.  Compared to the old dryers, this one was so quiet, I had to listen closely to make sure it was running.  No squeaks, no groans, no wild vibrations, just drying. What a pleasure.  It makes me look forward to my weekly laundry day (well, almost).

Happy birthday to me

 Riddle answer: neither, candles burn shorter.  I know, groan. 

I've had a busy birthday. First a dental appointment (just cleaning, all is well), then grocery shopping for company coming this weekend.  Then I took time to learn the new laundry system in my building and load my money card.  More about that tomorrow.  And finally I topped everything off with an evening church meeting.  Then home to doze off in my recliner.  How do I take the excitement?  But don't waste any sympathy on me.  By this time next week I will have enjoyed three celebrations of my birthday.  In the meantime I must admit, when asked my age, that I am closer to seventy than sixty.  

riddle and more

 A holiday riddle, thanks to my west coast brother: Does a red Christmas candle or a green Christmas candle burn longer?  Guesses appreciated, answer tomorrow.

On another subject, today is my birthday eve.  Just coincidentally, a couple of friends and I went to Takaoka for dinner.  Just as fun as ever with the flaming onion volcano, the bouncing egg trick, the rapid fire knife wielding, the shrimp flipping and the lazy pleasure of watching someone else do the cooking.  Since someone, not me, mentioned to the waitress that tomorrow is my birthday I also got to end the meal with sherbet with a sparkler and tiny umbrella and the song of course.  A delicious and fun evening.  

mountains

 Today is "International Mountain Day" according to my west coast brother.  He lives where he can see mountains whereas I live in northern Indiana which is quite level.  Some years ago I was showing properties near Woodburn to a client from California.  Some of you will know that that area was originally part of the Great Black Swamp which stretched from east of Fort Wayne well into Ohio, so it is very flat.  As we were driving around, the client said "You don't have many mountains around here do you?" to which I replied "No, but we do flat very well."  I'm happy to say that he has adjusted well to living on flat land.  I do love mountains, but I will admit, when I've come home from driving trips out west I have found it very relaxing to be back to driving on level ground.  But thinking about international mountains, one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen was during a trip to Italy.  Don't get me wrong, we have glorious mountains here in the USA, but on that trip we flew from Chicago to Amsterdam and then south to Venice.  That meant we were flying over the Alps.  It was a clear day and I had a window seat.  The view of miles and miles of snow covered peaks absolutely dazzled me.  I had a view of the Alps in the distance when I was in Switzerland this fall; they were beautiful but not nearly as impressive as the overhead view.  

Well, that was fun.

 This evening was the second performance of our play "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and everything seemed to go right (except that the baby Jesus doll's head almost came off).  After the show, I passed people coming out who all said what a good show it was.  Everyone was smiling and that's a good sign.  One gentleman even stopped me and asked me if I had ever been in a play at Arena.  I said "Yes, I had been in "You Can't Take It With You" and I played the drunk over-the-hill actress.  He turned to his wife and said "I knew it, I told you."  Needless to say, I was flattered that he remembered me, although, when I thought about it, I realized that in the Arena play, I spent most of the time 'passed out' on the couch so I'm not sure what part of me he recognized.  He thought it was pretty funny that I had gone from playing a drunk to a church lady.  I left him wondering which role was closer to the real me.

Opening night

 Our opening night performance went pretty well, all things considered.  The kids remembered their lines and so did I, although the person playing opposite me in one scene dropped a line and I had to come in at the wrong time.  The speaker that we can listen to off stage to know when we go on wasn't working, which caused a minor panic, and there were some jitters among the children.  Some had never been in a play before, although several have been involved with FW Youth Theater for years.  Parking was a problem, since our play (in the sanctuary) and Frozen II (on our stage) are on at the same time, but just for this weekend.  On the positive side, and there were lots of positives, part of our musical interlude was the Amistad choir singing "Feliz Navidad" (beautiful) and one of their singers is a friend of mine so we got to catch up a bit.  Our head pastor was shown a back stairway she didn't know existed (not too surprising in our building).  All in all, quite an interesting experience, although I think the next time I audition for a play I might try for one with fewer children.  Ouch!  That makes me sound like the Grinch, doesn't it?  There are only 14 of them but they are a busy bunch,  I do think it's amazing how well our director works with these kids.  He is a very patient man.  

Time travel??

 Once again, credit to my west coast brother for this goodie - today is "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day."  He says I get to be a time traveler whenever I'm in a play.  I'm not so sure about time, but I certainly get to be a personality traveler, at least sometimes.  Several years ago "Back to the Future" and its sequels were very popular, and I think a big part of the appeal was the time travel that occurred in each episode.  It's fun to imagine what life was like in ages past or what might be coming in the future.  "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" certainly kept our interest.  But what about you?  If you had a time machine, to where and when would you travel?  Don't say the day after the Power Ball numbers are announced.  That's just cheating.  Would you like to experience life in a colony on Mars, or walk the Palestinian countryside with Jesus and his followers?  Or maybe you would like to live for a while in Elizabethan England or with the ancients at Mesa Verde?  It might be nice to have a taste of those experiences but only if I was sure I could get back.  I must admit I find right now quite comfortable, with computers and cell phones and TV and cars, and recliners.  Never forget the recliners.  For that matter with  a comfy recliner and pile of library books, it's easy to pretend to be a time traveler.  Bon voyage.  

tick-tock

 A recent entry in my page-a-day trivia calendar tells me that there is a clock museum in Vienna, Austria that houses clocks dating back as far as 1699.  Every hour on the hour the museum resounds with the ringing of many clocks displayed on the three floors of the building.  I have visited Vienna but did not see the clock museum (Uhrenmuseum).  However I have had a similar experience on a smaller scale.  On the rare weekends when my college roommate and I were heading home from Ball State, we would get a ride as far as her home in Fort Wayne, then I would call my father and he would make the half hour drive from Woodburn to take me the rest of the way home.  My roommate's parents were both from Germany and had quite a fine collection of cuckoo clocks.  Almost all of them were displayed in the living room, and, since it is hard to exactly coordinate 20 clocks, we would be treated to an amazing cacophony of sound for a minute or so at the top of each hour.  I didn't mind at all because, in addition to being a clock collector, my roommate's mother always had an assortment of home made cookies and other pastries waiting for us and she made sure I ate plenty.  She thought I was too skinny (those were the days).  

How much???

 Today I took a friend to her final class in a series of four she has taken  over the last six months.  These classes, sponsored by Parkview are called VeggieRX and when people who qualify successfully complete the classes they get credits to use at farmer's markets and other sites to buy fruit and vegetables.  This is a great program for people on a limited income.  Since I was there as my friend's guest today, I got to help fix some of the food for a healthy lunch I wasn't expecting.  A free lunch is always good.  My friend and I opted to make an artichoke dip, and I got to play with a food processor/pulser for the first time ever.  The only appliance like that that I own is a blender, and it is avocado green which will give you some idea of it's age.  Along with the lunch (everything was very tasty) there was a brief educational talk and one thing that was stressed over and over was that a healthy diet should include three cups of vegetables and two cups of fruit every day.  Now I do make it a point to eat fruits and vegetables every day but five cups?? I don't think so.  After I dropped my friend off, I came home and pondered all this while I had a cookie.  It was an apple cinnamon cookie.  Does that count?

a scary situation...

 Tonight is Krampusnacht.  In case you're wondering, the Krampus, which means claw, is, according to German tradition, a monster/devil who roams around checking to see if little children are being good at Christmas time and all year long.  There's a really scary picture on Google.  

But thinking of scary things, my husband, who was very handy around the house and always ready to fix electrical and appliance problems, really loathed plumbing issues.  He said no matter what the problem seemed to be on the surface, it would always turn out to be ten times worse.  That seems to be proving true in my apartment.  For some time now I have reported that the faucet in my shower is dripping.  Two weeks ago our maintenance guy stopped buy to fix two plumbing problems.  One, a leaky water line to the toilet was quickly fixed but he said he would have to go get some parts to fix the drip in the shower, which probably just needs a new washer.  I wasn't too upset when he never returned.  It's an old building, with lots of necessary upkeep, and a little drip isn't an emergency.  Finally though I got impatient and called the office, twice.  The same maintenance man showed up today.  After working on the faucet for quite some time (three hours) he decided there's more of a problem than he first thought. He's going to bring another maintenance man back with him tomorrow and together they will cut a hole in the hallway wall to access the pipes and then replace everything that needs replacing.  Meanwhile there is a hole in my shower wall and the water to that shower is turned off.  Lucky for me I do have a second bathroom.  But, my husband's wisdom seems to have proved true again.  Plumbing, bah, humbug!

given the choice...

Once again my west coast brother has dazzled me with a choice of special day celebrations.  Today you could have celebrated National Sock Day, Wear Brown Shoes Day, and National Cookie Day.  At first glance at the list, I thought I should choose one, and naturally (at least for me) National Cookie Day was my first choice.  Although I think I prefer cookies, plural.  But then I thought, why limit myself?  I have many comfy pairs of socks and brown shoes, actually brown warm wooly slippers (but that should count), so when I got home from rehearsal this evening I slipped into those comfy socks and slippers and heated a cup of tea to enjoy with, I must admit, three cookies (but they were small). Merry Sock Brown Shoe Cookie Day everyone.   

a special day???

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is National Green Bean Casserole Day.  I'm not sure why we should be celebrating this more than a week after Thanksgiving, (are people still eating leftover green bean casserole?) or anytime for that matter.  In our family green bean casserole is a part of Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving dinner, and that's all.  For years, until his death in 2019, my other brother was the undisputed master of and provider of the green bean casserole for our family festive occasions.  His was very good because he added lots of melted cheese to the mix.  But I must admit, this is not something I crave.  Unlike apple pie, which I will happily eat any time of the year (today is also National Apple Pie Day) I never say to myself "I think I'll make green bean casserole today."  Do you?  I really prefer nicely cooked (not soggy) green beans with butter and salt and pepper, maybe with slivered almonds for special occasions.  But don't tell my family.  Traditions are good and someone else (not me) has taken over the role of green bean casserole provider.  I shall continue to eat one helping when it's served.  But now that I think about it, I do have an apple pie in the freezer waiting to be baked.  Yummy.

the great debate..

 I went to lunch with a friend today at a nice little restaurant called the Bluebird.  It has evidently been around for a long time, but I had never been there before.  I recommend it.  During our lunch, my friend, who will be hosting his family for Christmas this year, said that after lunch he would be shopping for his Christmas tree, only the real thing will do for him.  I told him my artificial tree was already up and that we were not allowed to have real trees in my apartment complex because of the  potential fire hazard. He agreed that that was a possibility, and also admitted that he was expecting sticker shock, and anticipated only being able to afford a tree so small that he would need to lean down to put the angel on top.  I have not yet heard what size tree he decided to buy but heard an interesting discussion on the evening news about the ecological virtues of real versus artificial trees.  The person being interviewed, a Christmas tree farmer, contended that natural trees are much better because all parts of them can be recycled or naturally disposed of and they are easily replenished, while an artificial tree would need to be kept for at least seven or eight years to have an equally small impact on our environment.  Well, I feel better now.  Since my artificial tree is 40 years old, I'm pretty sure I'm doing ok, especially since I'm not planning to toss it for some time to come.  In case you're wondering, I come by my comfort with artificial trees quite naturally.  My father had a great fear of Christmas trees catching fire.  I think that when he was a small child he actually saw this happen.  That was back in the days of real candles on the trees.  He was ecstatic when the aluminum trees with revolving light wheels came out.  We had one for several years.  Later we had green artificial trees with bubble lights, but as long as I can remember, artificial.  Lucky for me, when I married, my husband was perfectly ok with an artificial tree, and, while they got progressively larger, we always had artificial trees.  I guess that's a legitimate family tradition.

say it louder...

 Opening night is next Friday for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" and it's really shaping up.  All the kids are doing great, and we adults are pretty good too.  Except for one thing.  Every time I have been in a play I have had to relearn to project.  Every director, at one time or another, has told me to speak up, speak louder.  But this time I thought things would be different.  Rae, our amazing tech person, has hung lights and mics around the front of the church and I thought, finally, I won't need to worry about volume.  Wrong.  This evening's rehearsal was only for the adults in the play.  I have a small but fun part and it was good to really work on my lines and delivery, but, wouldn't you know it?  One of the first directions I heard was "You won't have a mic so you will need to speak louder.  Since we are performing this play in the sanctuary it's a big space to fill with sound.  Happily, I was able to rise to the occasion.  Now if I can just keep this big sound going for my small part, for six performances, all will be well.  Fingers crossed.