extra time....

 Happy Leap Day.  I hope you've enjoyed a whole extra day today.  As you no doubt know, leap years come around every four years.  The purpose of leap year is to correct the lost segment of a year each of the other three years, because each year is actually 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds long.  But adjusting for that every year would be a lot more trouble than just popping another day in there every 4th year. But did you know that not every fourth year is actually a leap year? For example, the year 1900 was not a leap year because it's divisible by 100 but not by 400.  Every 400 years we have to adjust back because too many leap years have occurred and we've over compensated.  So now you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about Leap Day, so you can really look forward to 2028.  

world's best...

 I just finished a cup of my very favorite dessert.  I haven't had this particular dessert for months, but my husband found some in the Meijer's on Dupont today and brought it home - such a good spouse.  What is this wonderful dessert?  Luigi's Real Italian Ice.  It comes in several flavors and in little individual serving cups. You can have all of them except lemon.  Lemon is my favorite.  It's delicious and also reminds me of Italy last September where we had gelato almost every day.  My choice was always lemon.  That's it, it's all I'm thinking about right now, except do I want another one tonight.  No, no, I must pace myself.

a fun new toy

 First of all, I must acknowledge that in our last three series of Gin Rummy games, while I won two, my husband came roaring back this evening and won big time. Kudos.  The other fun thing is that he has discovered the joys of having a Roomba, one of those nifty little floor cleaners.  I received it as a Christmas gift a few years ago and it's great. I've used it in my apartment ever since.  Well, now my husband has had time to charge it up and give it a try.  When fully charged it will run for and hour and a half and that's what it did last night.  He set it loose in the kitchen / family room area (we could hear it quietly running from upstairs).  This morning there was proof that it had covered the entire area and then perfectly docked itself to recharge.  Good little Roomba.  By the way its name is Rhoda. You have to name them when you first get them.

found!

Today, when my spouse stopped at my apartment to bring a few more things home, he found, still in my closet, on the floor under some carry-on bags, my very best travel slippers - flat, warm and easy to pack.  But, best of all, they come from Dukes of London.  If you are ever travelling to London, and I hope you are, I highly recommend staying at the marvelous little  boutique hotel, The Dukes of London, which is hidden at the end of a quiet little cul-de-sac.  Some years ago, three friends and I had decided to spend a few days in London before joining our larger group for a Presbyterian tour of Scotland.  Two of us were staying at one hotel, two at another.  I knew The Dukes was the place for me when we walked in to register and were told very politely that our room wasn't quite ready but would we care to wait in the parlor with some tea and biscuits.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love tea and, no surprise, in England (and Scotland and Australia for that matter) they do it right.  Brewed tea, served hot with milk and sugar always available.  Also, through the three nights that we stayed, there was always a treat in our room. One night champaign, one night the most delicious peaches you have ever seen, large, deep almost ruby red and deliciously juicy, and one night cookies (or biscuits if you prefer).  And as I mentioned earlier the slippers were a gift.  To top it off, they were able to get us tickets to the original cast performance of "Kinky Boots," a play which I highly recommend.  All in all, I think you can see why I was so pleased to have my slippers returned.  Comfort and memories, hard to beat.

still merging...

 I thought merging our books and large pieces of furniture was a bit of a challenge, but we are getting things organized, rehoming (thanks to my daughter for that term) many items, and are just about ready for the big move on March 7.  However, today we moved things from my kitchen to his.  And it seems we have a surplus of lots of stuff.  My spouse, who is trying to get things organized as I write this, has just informed me that we have over 2000 toothpicks.  I think a party with lots of cheese cubes may be in our future.  Evidently we also have several containers of garlic powder and garlic salt, and many packages of Ramen noodles, mine chicken, his beef.  Coincidentally, today is, according to my west coast brother, "National Let's All Eat Right Day."  We are working on that in two ways.  First, we are throwing away several expired cans of food, that were carefully tucked to the back of my cupboards, and second, we played hooky from all this sorting and merging, to have a delicious dinner at Ziano's. Yum!!

start when they're young

 My west coast brother has informed me that today is "International Sword Swallowers' Day."  Which led me to the first logical question, why?  I've seen some pretty spectacular demonstrations of sword swallowing but it has never inspired me to want to try it.  But then I thought, if I was the mom in a sword swallowing circus family and wanted my toddler to follow in his father's foot steps, I'd start by telling the little one "No."  Or maybe something more subtle like "You can play with your daddy's little sword but not the big one."  If you have ever parented a toddler you know that telling them "No." (or some variation thereof) is the surest way to get them to do something.  Case in point, when my son was about two and a half, his grandma had just moved into a new little house, and, while she watched him, I was painting her bathroom.  A chore I was happy to do because it really was an awful Pepto Bismol pink.  As I painted, I could hear them chatting in the living room while they ate some fresh cherries.  Grandma had shown my son how to bite the cherries in half and spit out the pits, and all was well until I heard her say those fateful words "Now don't put that up your nose."  Really! Why would you say that to a toddler?  So we two were off to the nearby old Lutheran Hospital emergency room, where I learned, to my intense relief, that this was not an unusual occurrence. In fact the very kind ER doctor had a perfect little tool, a tiny wire loop, that he stuck up in my son's nose, looped around that cherry pit and pulled it right out. So the moral of this story is be careful about how you say no to toddlers.  Some of us who are now grandparents or great-grandparents need to keep this in mind.

the adventure continues...

 It seemed like a simple, straight forward request to me.  This afternoon my spouse and I went to the BMV (the New Haven branch which is very close to us) he to renew his driver's license and me to renew my license and have the name and address changed.  When we walked in, I pulled ticket number 261 and only had to wait about five minutes to get called to a window.  The gentleman who called my number (lucky him) was evidently still in training so he got lots of back up guidance through the process, but it was not easy.  I did fine with reading the eye chart and getting my picture taken, but when it came to the actual paperwork, things didn't go so smoothly.  They did have notice from Social Security about my name change and I did have the same printed out information, but somehow through errors and reprints it took us 45 minutes to get the deed done.  I lost count of how many times I signed copies of the same forms, but finally, finally, as they were calling number 345, I walked out, the proud possessor of a temporary paper license.  Needless to say my husband had renewed his license much earlier in the afternoon.  But the story doesn't quite end here.  As we were driving on Maplecrest, almost half way home, my husband and I each got a call requesting us to return to the BMV to correct a paperwork error.  Obviously we went back, but with some fear and trepidation, to find out what we needed to do.  Happily, it turned out to be one simple form that we each had to sign. Mission accomplished, we headed home.  One sure thing, at this point, I am in contention for "worst driver's license picture ever." I'm not sure if there's a prize but if there is, I should win it.

Introducing....

 It's my pleasure to introduce to you the newly named Mrs. Lucinda Foltz Gilpin.  It's official, my husband and I made our way to the Social Security office (which, by the way, is not that easy to fine) and I officially changed my name.  We had done most of the paperwork on line and had an appointment so the whole interview went very smoothly.  Some people have questioned why I am bothering to change my name at this late stage in my life, but I feel like, late as it is, this is a whole new part of my life and I want to honor it.  So there you have it.  Tomorrow I will get a new driver's license, some time after that a new passport, and then sooner or later, about a bazillion credit cards, but it will all get done eventually. So, signing off for today, Luci Gilpin

Farewell to drawers

 As it turned out, all that drawer cleaning we did yesterday really paid off.  My husband's granddaughter decided to take, not only one of my queen size beds, but my entire bedroom suite - dresser, chest of drawers, bed, headboard and bedside table.  So that's another big bunch of furniture that I have found a home for.  I do admit to a twinge of sadness as it was all being carried out this evening.  That was the first furniture that my first husband and I bought when we got married and moved into our first apartment.  We decided, wisely I think, that a bed was a priority.  As you may have calculated, that makes it pretty much antique by now.  My husband and I did get a chuckle though as they (she and her dad) loaded all the furniture into their trailer, because, when we first asked her about wanting a queen size bed, she had to measure to make sure it would fit in her room, but now she's decided everything will fit.  I'm so pleased that it's all off to a happy home, and still in the family.

treasure or???

 Today, as part of the on-going process of clearing out my apartment, my husband and I spent a few hours this afternoon cleaning out the drawers of my bedroom dressers.  I may have a taker for my bedroom suit, yay!  This was not the simple matter you might imagine.  If you are one of those people who keeps all of their drawers perfectly organized I salute you.  I am not, so our adventure this afternoon was a little more like dumpster diving.  Every drawer contained new revelations.  For example, one drawer contained nothing but t-shirts, many of which are mementos of plays I was in.  Fun memories but not really needed.  We did decide, early in the process to put anything I don't need in bags for Good Will.  We filled two large bags.  In my nightwear drawer I discovered lots of summer pajamas, which I kept, and a brilliant fuchsia strappy, floor length very sexy night gown.  I do not remember ever seeing this before, ever, but since we are both old but not dead, we decided to keep it. The process went on through ten drawers.  I did find some treasures like the baby pillow my mother-in-law crocheted, and several other home made items.  But then there was also the drawer full of socks, nothing but socks, and another for hose, including panty hose which, I readily confess I only wear under duress.  But enough of this.  We did succeed in emptying all the drawers and the furniture is ready for pick up tomorrow.  One step closer to the big move on March 7. 

so old...

 My west coast brother was bemoaning the fact that today is "Presidents' Day" with two presidents' birthdays just lumped together.  I will admit that I am so old that I remember celebrating Lincoln's birthday and Washington's birthday as separate entities.  With quite a bit of emphasis put on chopping down cherry trees when we were young and memorizing Lincoln's Gettysburg Address when older.  I don't remember memorizing any of George's speeches.  I do remember, with humiliating clarity, reciting the Gettysburg Address.  First, as a little background, I attended Lutheran school from K through 8th grade so I was very familiar with memorizing (hymns, Bible passages, catechism pages, patriotic poems and more) so memorizing the GA wasn't the challenge.  But this was my sophomore year in high school, where, being the glasses wearing, geeky, tallest girl in the whole school, I was, to put it mildly, self conscious.  Still, I was feeling pretty confident until I walked into class and saw that our teacher had set up a microphone and was going to record everyone's recital.  I have no idea why he would want to do that.  I made it through the ordeal, but years later, at a class reunion, one of my classmates was remembering the event and said he could see my knees knocking.  Ah, high school, so much fun.

the good and the snowy

 First, let me apologize to my faithful readers for not blogging for two days, but it has been a busy time, with some things not going according to plan.  On Friday evening my granddaughter and her SO drove from Columbus, Ohio to move some furniture from my apartment.  I have offered furniture to all of my family members in hopes of having less to move to my husband's house.  I mean, how many beds does one house need?  Happily, my granddaughter wanted several pieces.  They were due to arrive about 5. My husband and I were supposed to take his brother out for a birthday dinner at 5:30, but just needed to be there to let them into the apartment and show them how to use the freight elevator.  Sadly, they had to drive through a snow storm to get here, so, after taking time to rent a UHaul truck, didn't arrive at the apartment until after 6:00.  Happily, as it turned out, we were still there to greet them, because my husband waited too long to make a reservation at Cork and Cleaver.  So the birthday celebration was postponed until Saturday evening.  Are you following all this so far?  Friday evening then, I sat and supervised as my husband helped them load my blue sofa, coffee table and end table, standing lamp, table lamp, small dresser and mirror and one TV into the 9 ft truck.  I understand it was quite full.  After the loading was finished, we took them to dinner then brought them to our place to spend the night because it was still snowing and I didn't want them driving back to Columbus in the middle of the night.  Happily, this gave my granddaughter and me time for a lovely long chat (with no thought of blogging) before I collapsed.  It had been a very long day.  Saturday morning my husband, who is the perfect host, treated us all to waffles before they headed out for a much safer drive home.  Saturday evening we did take my BIL out for his delayed birthday celebration after which I fell into bed without a thought to blogging.  It had been a very busy couple of days for this old gal who hadn't been out of the house for weeks.  

praise for a good doctor...

Today, I had my first meeting with my GP since I've been out of the hospital. We were supposed to meet last week but he went home with food poisoning.  My doctor is an DO and the best doctor I've ever had.  Today he spent a long time with me and my husband, listened to the whole story of what had been going on with me for the last five weeks, looked at all the test results that have been posted, promised to be actively involved from here on (which is more than I've gotten from the kidney doctors). He did discuss the cists, and the necessity for scanning them when my kidneys are closer to completely back to normal.  One thing he said that I found weirdly reassuring was that there is almost never cancer in both kidneys.  At least he was willing to talk about it.

love is in the air

 I've enjoyed my first Valentine's Day with my handsome husband.  We've been married for one month now.  I celebrated by having a blood draw and a PT exercise session.  But I am alive and that is worth celebrating.  

Here's a picture of my sweetie and me at our wedding.  Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.

what a day....

 Well, my west coast brother has really come through.  I think perhaps I hurt his feelings a week or so ago when I commented on his inability to provide me with interesting days. (Not really his fault, it is February after all.)  So today, he informs me, is "Extraterrestrial Culture Day," "International Pancake Day," "National Cheddar Day," "National Crab Rangoon Day," "National Tortellini Day," "National Italian Food Day," and "Kiss Day." Pancakes, cheddar cheese, crab Rangoon, tortellini and all kinds of Italian food sound wonderful.  I can celebrate that kind of food with enthusiasm.  What stumped me for a little while is how to experience extraterrestrial culture.  And then the answer came to me, I will snuggle down after supper and watch the original Star Wars trilogy (episodes 4, 5 and 6, obviously).  Almost 50 years ago these movies introduced us to Wookies, Tontons, Jedi and so much more.  I hope you will join me in this deep dive into extraterrestrial culture.  And sometime come up for air and kiss your SO.

My Hero....

 Back in the days before I ended up in the hospital with kidney failure, one of my volunteer positions at my church was as Clerk of Session.  This involved taking minutes and keeping other records for monthly meetings, and, at the beginning of each year, preparing a comprehensive report to Presbytery, with copies of more documents than you can imagine.  It was my intention to resign as Clerk at the end of 2024 because I would be 80, and would have served six years.  It seemed reasonable to me.   Happily, a really, really competent, brilliant, incredibly well-organized person agreed to serve as Clerk Elect (CE for short).  It was my intention to show her the end of year process this year, then let her take over in 2024.  We both thought that was a fine plan.  Weirdly, I remember coming half awake in the hospital one morning and thinking "OMG, how am i going to get the end of year paperwork done?"  I am a believer in small miracles.  Within a day I received a text from CE saying "Don't worry about anything.  The head pastor and I will take care of it all."  Have you ever felt like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders?  I rolled over and went right back to sleep, which I was doing a lot of those days. Between then and now, I have had a steady stream of emails and texts letting me know how things are going.  I've been able to contribute a little here and there, but bottom line, CE has performed a miracle.  This afternoon, I sat down with her to sign some pages that needed my signature.  It was such a joy to page through the perfectly finished book, ready for the Presbytery review, Thank you CE, you are my hero forever.  

ambrosia...

 This afternoon, for the first time since early December, I visited my apartment. My husband has been pretty regularly bringing loads of clothes and other stuff to our house, but this time I went along to look for something specific.  I'm still using my walker and it felt a little strange, but I found what I was looking for, and we loaded up more stuff and headed home. And here's the good part.  My husband suggested we bring home hot dogs from Coney Island for supper, an impossible suggestion to turn down.   We got them home and they were delicious.  I like mine with chili and cheese.  Yumm!!!  To top it off, he surprised me with pie for dessert.  I had blueberry, outstanding.  It was all so good.  I guess a little fast food every once in a while can't hurt, right?  In case you're hungry, Coney Island is open til 8:00.

Happy Chinese New Year...

 Today is Chinese New Year, a day that typically stretches into two weeks in China, or so I'm told.  When a friend and I travelled to Australia in 2017 it was during the Chinese New Year celebration time and I was amazed at the Chinese decorations abundantly displayed in all of the malls and stores.  It shows what a narrow minded 'westerner' I was.  I had never thought of how close, geographically, China and Australia are, and didn't realize that Australia was a favorite tourist destination for Chinese travelers.  One of my favorite visual memories from that trip was a balloon dachshund (it was the year of the dog) suspended near the ceiling of a large open store by multiple colorful balloons. What made it memorable to me was, that hanging on my wall at home, is a pen and ink drawing, created by my son, of a very happy looking dachshund suspended in the air by multiple balloons, titled "Freedom."  My son said this is how I felt when I sold my house and down sized and he was so right.  Like a huge load had been lifted. When he was a child we had a pair of miniature dachshunds, so that was the perfect dog for the picture.  

Happy Fat Thursday....

 I know that doesn't sound right.  I've heard of Fat Tuesday, and of course Ash Wednesday, but evidently, after fasting on Wednesday, some cultures go back to stuffing themselves on Thursday.  Consider the Polish.  Believe me I am not making fun of the Polish.  My stepmom was Polish and an excellent cook.  But today, according to my extensive research, is "Pakzki Day."  Don't worry I had never heard of it either, until my west coast brother pointed it out to me.  Evidently a pakzki is a kind of sweet pastry, like a donut, but filled with a fruit filling.  Sounds delish.  We actually sort of accidentally celebrated, almost.  After an early morning appointment, my husband brough home a little white bag with two sour cream donuts from Coliseum Donuts, which he claims is the best place in Fort Wayne for sour cream donuts.  You'll get no argument from me.  I hope you all also found a way to celebrate Pakzki Day, deliberately or other wise.  Cheers!

a special day???

 You would think that a month that begins with Ground Hog's Day (a day that garners national interest) would continue with more special days, but not so far.  Today, for example, as shared with me by my west coast brother. is Fettuccine Alfredo Day.  Now don't get me wrong.  I do love pasta with a delicious alfredo sauce, but as exciting days go, ho hum.  Upon doing a little deeper search, I did discover that today is also "wave all you fingers at your neighbors day."  All your fingers, all at the same time, none of these one finger waves, no matter how you feel about your neighbors.  So go out and wave at your neighbors.  Tomorrow, interestingly enough, is "Kite Flyers Day."  Generally, it would seem ridiculous to think about flying kites in February.  Everyone knows you fly kites in March, but tomorrow, the high temperature is supposed to be in the mid-50s, so get out there and fly that kite, or sit back and watch "Mary Poppins."  "Let's Go Fly a Kite,,,,"

bill paying....

 As I sat paying bills this afternoon, on line of course, figuring out when money will go in, when money should come out, and pushing some keys, I found myself laughing at how bill paying has changed since I first started paying my own way.  When I was a freshman in college we were required to take a personal finance course.  This was a very smart requirement.  I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only very green freshman who had never written a check.  They did teach us to balance our check book and how to write a check correctly.  I had a job in the campus library so there was some income, but at times, as with many struggling students, finances got skimpy.  I opted to go through my bachelors degree in three years, since I had a job on campus.  One particularly skimpy summer, I was living on a dollar a day for food (10 cents for milk in the morning, I had brought some cereal from home, 10 cents for peanut butter crackers from the machine at lunch, and 80 cents for meat in the cafeteria at supper).  One event from that summer stands out.  I got a phone call from the bank telling me that my account was 17 cents overdrawn.  I hurried down to the bank and gave the cashier the only money I had, a quarter.  What amuses me looking back is that the cashier didn't even blink.  It's like she got 25 cent deposits every day.  Now in case you are feeling too sorry for poor Luci, you can put away your tiny violins.  The next summer one of my best friend's parents moved to Muncie when he took a job with the college and I was able to rent a room from them for two summers, with food.  Alice's mom loved me because I had a healthy appetite, oh yes!  

let's hear it for leftovers....

 My husband and I are great fans of Wu's Chinese restaurant and one of our wedding gifts was a gift card for Wu's.  I am still not up to sitting in a restaurant for a whole meal, so last night we decided to do carry-out.  We are both very fond of their 'pungent beef' so we got two orders with rice.  Now, we almost always carry home leftovers, so we were not surprised when we had leftovers after supper last night.  We put them in the refrigerator for tonight.  Here's the interesting part.  We did have beef and rice again tonight (equally delicious), but when we finished, we still had enough left over for another meal for two tomorrow night, or whenever.  This seemed very strange to me.  Is this like a never ending meal?  Or maybe just that the fried rice expands?  Whatever.  I'd say we're certainly getting full value out of this meal.  In case you haven't caught on, I do highly recommend the 'pungent beef.'

Patience....

 Have you ever notice that "new and improved" often isn't?  I don't mean to sound like the 'grinch' but I will admit that new and improved doesn't always bring out the best in me. A flashy new package with contents noted as 5oz less than the previous package, really doesn't seem improved to me, even if there is some new ingredient included that I probably don't want in my food anyway, or in my laundry.  But enough about food.  This evening, I logged on to the ACPL site to renew some library books.  Now please don't misunderstand, I am a huge fan of the ACPL and have been a regular borrower since I was a child.  Naomi Tremp was our ever helpful librarian at the Woodburn branch and had been librarian there since my dad was a child.  She told me once that he had read every book in the library. Possibly an exaggeration, but one certain source of my love of reading.  Years later my children and I were regulars at the book mobile that stopped just down the street from our house when they were pre schoolers. One of the joys of my life was when I had a job right across the street from the library.  You get the idea.  So imagine my dismay when I logged on to the ACPL site this evening only to discover that while I was sleeping through much of the last month, the site has become 'new and improved.'  But I was patient.  No way I'm going to give up on the library, so I took a deep breath, looked carefully at all of the 'buttons' and gradually found my old familiar links and was, finally, able to renew my library books.  Hooray, success!!!

Adventuring out....

 Since January 7 when I collapsed and yesterday, one week after I came home from the hospital, I haven't been out of the house except for to and from the hospital, which really doesn't count for much, and the wedding which really does count for everything.  But today my husband and I decided that the time had come to go out for breakfast.  Not sure why, but the time seemed right.  So we go up, dressed, and ventured out.  We went to one of our very favorite breakfast places, Divine Encounter, and I ordered (oh bliss) a half order of biscuits and gravy with one egg over easy on top.  After all the hospital food and cereal and stuff at home, that first bite really was divine, and so was every subsequent bite.  Best breakfast ever.  Tomorrow it's back to cheerios probably but that's all right.  I will bask in the glow of the happy memory.

PS don't get me wrong, my husband makes wonderful scrambled eggs on request.  I am certainly not wasting away here. 

newly wed scene....

 Picture, if you will, a scene from the life of a newly wed couple.  I'm thinking of the typical kitchen table.  Perhaps there are pretty matching placemats (my west coast SIL made me some really cute ones) and a very pretty matching sugar, creamer, salt and pepper set.   So sweet.  Now let's look at the kitchen table of a, maybe, typical nerdy second-marriage couple.  No placemats, unless company is coming, two lap tops (it turns out we like the same brand) two mice (mine is blue) multiple power cords. a cup of pencils, pens, scissors and a letter opener, and yes, somewhere in the array, salt and pepper shakers and a sugar bowl.  I knew we were soul mates.  

from the west coast...

 Some of my faithful followers may be wondering how my west coast brother and frequent contributor is doing.  Happily, he and his wife are doing very well.  They did come here for my recent wedding, allowing me to earn the title of "worst hostess ever."  I had intended for them to stay in my apartment with me until the wedding and have a lovely visit.  Instead I was in bed at our house and they were faced with an empty apartment, not even stocked with food.  Happily, my WCB grew up in FW and they had my car to use, so they weren't totally stranded.  But forward to the present; my west coast brother informs me that today is Spunky Old Broads Day, National Get Up Day and National Dark Chocolate Day.  This day was almost made for me.  Most of my friends would agree that I'm spunky, especially in my recent healthy days, like when I went zip lining two months ago (amazing fun) and I do love dark chocolate.  I must admit though that I am still having trouble with getting up, or at least staying up.  I do like my naps.