family fun..

 This evening my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter met my spouse and me for a casual dinner at Guadalupe's.  Always delicious and I do love their pineapple water.  Then my DIL headed home to prep for a special French food day tomorrow.  This is part of her end of year special events for her French classes.  I think the students are also supposed to bring French food to class.  French fries and French toast don't count.  Since she was going to be really busy we invited my son and granddaughter home to play Five Crowns.  I've mentioned this game before in this blog but it was new to them.  We played through the game twice.  I won the first game and my spouse came in second, but the second game (after they had really learned how to play it) they beat us soundly.  But that's ok.  The older generation always wants their children and grandchildren to be more  successful than they were.  On the other hand, that applies in life, not cards.  I can't wait for a rematch.  

 Today is, according to my west coast brother, Tulip Day.  It's also Frog Jumping Day and Leprechaun Day.  Since I have little interest in leprechauns and even less in frogs, jumping or otherwise, I will focus on flowers this evening.  When I lived in my apartment I could wak out the front door and enjoy beautiful flowers all through the spring, summer and fall without ever lifting a finger except to occasionally wave to a gardener and say thanks. But now I live in a house with my spouse.  Since I do, I plan to plant some tulip bulbs this fall.  In the meantime this Azalea bush is the only flowering plant in our yard currently in bloom.  Later there will be roses.  My husband tells me the azalea is at least 30 years old which is pretty amazing in this area.  I had an Azalea plant once, but it did not survive the "blizzard of 78."  The frogs and leprechauns also had a hard time that winter.  Ah well, I will have tulips next spring, and probably daffodils too.

Oh happy day...

 It has been a great day. HMD greetings from my children and other family members then a music festival in church.  The Bell Choir did an amazing job with the prelude. Then I enjoyed singing some old favorites including "Jesus Loves Me" (the children's choir did a fine job leading that), "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," "Amazing Grace" and "Abide With Me."  I always enjoy singing familiar hymns because everybody sings loudly so I can also, and no one can hear me.  I am admittedly a poor singer at best, but I am enthusiastic.  Later in the day my Wonder Spouse came through big time.  He knows that I don't enjoy eating out on Mother's Day.  The restaurants are usually crowded and noisy.  So he cooked for me.  He is a very good cook.  We had twice baked potatoes, perfectly grilled steaks and, for dessert, chocolate molten lava cakes.  To top it all off, we enjoyed some excelled wine that my great nephew had given us on our recent trip to Florida.  All so good.  The only thing that would have made the day better would have been if he had let me win "Five Crowns" but we do not cheat at games, alas.  

a happy ending

 This evening was the final performance of the Philharmonic Pops series for this season.  Last Saturday was the final for the Masterworks Series.  They ended with a smashing success tonight.  The group that performed is called Go Now! and they played the music of the rock band the Moody Blues.  I actually wasn't that familiar with the Moody Blues, an English group.  I think during their heyday I was busy caring for children.  I can still sing a lot of Sesame Street songs, but I digress.  I was surprised to learn that the Moody Blues frequently played with full orchestras accompanying them.  That's what this group did tonight.  Go Now! is composed of three singers/guitarists, a director (who also directed the orchestra) and a drummer.  The drummer actually played with the original Moody Blues for 25 years.  The Philharmonic flautist, who is very good, played several solo parts in a couple of their pieces.  She looked like she was having the time of her life.  It was all loud and bright and fun.  Kudos to the Phil and Go Now!

PS After the show we drove to a dark spot to try to get a look at the Aurora which is supposed to be visible in our area, but no luck.  Too much ambient light.  

Yummy....

 According to my west coast brother (what would I do without him?) today is "National Liver and Onions Day."  This is not a dish you see on menus very often, at least at the restaurants my spouse and I frequent.  This evening, for example, we ate at "Shigs 'n' Pit."  Excellent ribs with garlic toast, green beans and tomato cucumber salad.  Great food but nary a sign of liver and onions.  However, I do know how to cook liver and onions.  My high school Home Economics teacher (do you remember Home Ec?) taught us how to cook it correctly.  The trick is to not over cook the liver.  I suspect that she taught us this recipe because it would be an inexpensive meal when we became young housewives, which it was assumed we would all become.  Also, liver is supposed to be really good for you.  At least that was the belief back then.  It's probably something like coffee, eggs and butter that are good for you one day and not the next.  Interestingly, I don't remember my mother ever cooking liver and onions for us.  I actually did cook liver and onions for a boyfriend once.  I think that was in 1967.  It was good, he said he liked it, but we broke up later that year and I've never cooked it since.  Neither of my spouses ever asked for it.  I don't think it's a great loss.  If I've offended anyone who loves liver and onions I do apologize.

I'm so impressed..

 My son recently took a new job with a company called NearSpace Education or NSE.  All I knew about the company was that they launch high altitude balloons and that he will be designing their summer camp programs and other educational offerings.  This evening my spouse and I attended their "Dream Big Banquet" and learned so much history about the company and what they do.  They offer programs on the basics of programming, launching those high altitude balloons, and sending satellites into orbit.  What really impressed me was that, unlike typical classroom lessons, their students were working with real satellites, real balloons and sending their own experiments into space.  In case you're wondering why you've never heard of NSE, it's because it is located in Upland, Indiana.  However, their reach extends much farther.  For example, tomorrow my son will be teaching a group of students in India, via Zoom.  I'm very pleased for my son.  This is a great place for him to be working. 

On a lighter note, my west coast brother informed me that today is "Lost Sock Memorial Day." He then went on to say "It has been reported that lost socks are reincarnated as plastic lids that don't fit any container."  I've always wondered where they disappeared to.  

family ties...

 I had a wonderful visit with my youngest grandchild this afternoon.  She's 20, starting her junior year at IU in Indianapolis and has a fondness for vintage clothing.  Evidently much of my wardrobe qualifies.  My Wonder Spouse hauled all of my clothes (and shoes and purses) from my apartment to his house after we were married, but while I was too sick to care, and stashed them in the closets in three upstairs bedrooms.  He isn't so sure about vintage but would certainly agree that I have an abundance of clothes.  

My granddaughter and I spent an hour looking through my clothes and ended up filling a large garbage bag for her to take home.  All those clothes gone, and it didn't even make a dent.  But the fun part of the afternoon was the two hours we spent, after the clothes search, just sitting and talking.  It's so rare that I get to spend one on one time with any of my grands.  Their lives are so busy, as they should be at their age.  I loved hearing about her college life - friends, boy friends (no one serious yet) housing and roommate situations, campus jobs, scholarships and all the rest.  She's an excellent student and I'm very proud of her, in case you couldn't guess, and I'm so glad we had some time together.