movie date...

 This afternoon my spouse and I went on a date to the movies.  But these movies came with a twist.  They were silent films from 1923 and 1924 accompanied by an excellent organist playing the magnificent pipe organ at the Embassy theater which was built in 1928.  It was such fun, even with a few little glitches.  The first movie was introduced by the organist, he began playing intro music, the curtains opened to reveal the giant movie screen and then nothing else.  The organist played on and on but no movie.  I thought maybe they didn't have anyone on staff who knew how to run an old time projector, but of course the movies had been digitized.  We knew this because what did show up on the big screen were computer symbols (suitable for a silent film) showing that something wasn't connected correctly.  Finally the title screen came up and the show began.  Both movies starred Buster Keaton who is an amazing visual comedian.  The first was a short film (20 minutes) called "The Ballooniac" and the second was a feature length film (45 minutes) called "Sherlock Jr."  The stories were funny and the music blended beautifully with the action which involved everything from clinging to the top of a hot air balloon to one of the craziest chase scenes I have ever enjoyed.  I was honestly amazed at the special effects they were using in 1924.  These days we are so used to television and movies showing unbelievable things that we take much of what we see for granted, but I was imagining how amazing it must have seemed to someone in the audience in 1924.  It did occur to me that one of those audiences could have included my mother who would have been 14 years old at the time.  All in all, it was a great movie date.  I highly recommend it.  

some of my favorite people...

 According to my west coast brother today is "Embrace Your Geekiness Day" so that is what I have decided to do.  A geek by definition is "A person who is knowledgeable about and obsessively interested in a particular subject, especially one that is technical or of specialist or niche interest." according to "Oxford Languages" and Google.  If that definition is true, my first husband was a computer geek, my son is a space geek, and my current spouse is an electronics geek.  Which is reasonable since he is an electrical engineer.  I realized though, as I read this definition, that I am also a geek as are several of my friends.  But our geekiness is more of the 'niche interest' variety.  We are fiber geeks.  You can judge our geekiness by the quantities of yarn, fabric and related tools that fill our homes.  We generally try to contain these things to one room, but there is frequently spillage.  My particular fiber related geekiness involves weaving which requires lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors.  Joann's is my favorite store, which is convenient because it's located near Best Buy, my spouse's favorite store.  It works well when we want to shop at the same time but never in the same store.  

Here's a piece I'm working on right now,

and this is one I recently finished.  Don't you just love the geeks in your life?

WS does it again!

 This evening started as a perfectly normal, enjoyable dinner with my spouse's son and family.  We ate at Outback Steak House where I had not eaten before.  I must say the potato soup was delicious and so was the cheese cake.  I had mine with caramel sauce.  It began to diverge from just a dinner when our oldest granddaughter mentioned that her car had started misbehaving on the way across town.  It was running alright but lights and gauges on the dash were turning on and off in a peculiar way.  My spouse and his son quickly deduced that something was wrong with the battery.  They were right as it turned out.  Our granddaughter's battery was dead when we left the restaurant. Luckily my ever prepared (once upon a time boy scout) husband (her grandpa) had a nifty little portable battery booster and was able to help her start the car.  Then, and this is where the Wonder Spouse part comes in, he said "Follow me to the nearest battery store and I'll buy you a new battery." Which she did and he did.  He told me later that he just didn't like to think of her coming out of work in the dark (she works second trick and is still taking college classes) and finding that she had a dead battery.  I totally agreed with him.  So the new battery was installed and the car started like a dream which is saying something for a 2007 Honda Accord V6 with almost 300,000 miles on it.  Just to finish the full service evening, at my spouse's invitation, she followed us home where he supervised as she inflated all her tires to the proper pressure.  She is safely on the road again.  Thank you WS for a job well done.

Ok, I'm officially tired of blueberries. Not to eat, just to write about.  It turns out that today is "National Blueberry Muffin Day" and while blueberry muffins are delicious, especially warm with butter, that has really exhausted my interest in writing about blueberries.  So instead I'll turn to current events.  Tomorrow is the first day of the Three Rivers Festival, Fort Wayne's biggest and, I think. longest running festival.  The first one I attended was in 1969.  I know this because it was the first anniversary of my first marriage and the first Three Rivers Festival.  That's a lot of firsts.  Since then I have attended at least a small part of each successive festival except for the four years when we didn't live in Fort Wayne.  This year my current spouse and I will probably attend at least once.  We need to go to Junk Food Alley (which is in a new location this year) to get Elephant Ears, those wonderful huge cinnamon sugar coated pastries.  It would be good if we just split one, but we probably won't.  You knew I'd bring this blog back around to food, didn't you?  Enjoy the festival!

river

another day...

 Today, again credit to my west coast brother, is "Pick Blueberries Day" and also "Don't Step on a Bee Day."  Honestly, shouldn't every day be don't step on a bee day?  It's generally not a good experience for you or the bee.  Perhaps the idea is that you might encounter bees while picking blueberries.  If so, be careful.  While I do love blueberries, I pick mine from the produce department of my local grocery store.  I've never had a bee encounter there.  But thinking about blueberries reminds me of my daughter's favorite book when she was of an age to be enjoy listening as I read stories to her.  The book is "Blueberries for Sal" written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey in 1948.  It's a timeless, multiple award winning classic about a little bear cub and a little girl who have a close encounter while picking blueberries.  If you've never read it you really should. Better yet snuggle up with a child and read it aloud.  

on our way...

Today, my west coast brother has informed me, is "Call of the Horizon Day."  This is so appropriate because my spouse and I were really feeling the call of the horizon today.  For several weeks now we have been planning to take a driving trip west in September, and there is no greater horizon, in my mind, than the wide open spaces of Montana, except maybe Wyoming or North Dakota or South Dakota. In case you're wondering about my choices, you should know that I've traveled to 22 other countries and seen many excellent horizons but these are still my favorites.  We've been planning this trip in our minds and in casual conversations but not really planning if you know what I mean.  Today however we made a start.  After looking at an atlas of the world and deciding that the map of the United States was just too small to be of any real help, we took a quick drive to the nearest AAA office to get some good maps.  Yes, actual paper maps.  I love AAA.  I have been a member since 1972 and over the years they have towed my car, jump started my car, brought gas to my car and unlocked my car.  They have also provided me with many maps and triptiks, and even helped me plan a trip to Italy.   Do you remember triptiks, those spiral bound tablets of page after page of maps that would take you from city to city along your route?  I think they were the forerunner of GPS.  The nice lady who assisted us this afternoon loaded a bag with eight maps, with print large enough to read, and two state magazines.  We were so excited that we came right home and started planning our route.  We spotted several sights that we want to see either going or coming, roughly calculated how many days it will take to get to my west coast brother's home, our ultimate goal, and are heading to bed now, feeling that we've really accomplished something.  The next big step is to plan our departure date.  We are practically on our way.  I love a good road trip.

cool down...

 According to my west coast brother it's going to be 100 degrees for the next three days in his city.  Consequently, he plans to celebrate the following special events which he discovered today.  It is 'National Blueberry Day,' 'National Freezer Pop Day,' and 'National Ice Cream Sundae Day.' I suggested that, whichever frozen delight he selects, it should be eaten indoors, in air conditioning but he's the outdoors type so he may let those freezer pops drip in the grass as he swings in his hammock.  However, I have a better plan.  I happen to have some blueberries in my freezer.  My secret recipe for frozen blueberries is 1. buy a container of fresh blueberries at the grocery store 2. bring them home and pop them in the freezer.  That's it. Later you can take them out, a few at a time, and eat them like tiny delicious freezer pops.  Or, if you really want to get fancy, sprinkle them on top of vanilla ice cream and presto a blueberry sundae.  Happy cooling off everyone.