remembering

 Today is Pearl Harbor Day, "a date that will live in infamy" and yet I wonder how many people my grandchildren's age or younger have ever heard of it.  Is it taught in US History these days?  I really don't know but I hope so.  I asked at the downtown library recently for a copy of a current US history book, middle school level or older and was told that the library doesn't stock text books.  I'm sure they have their reasons but I was disappointed.

Seventeen years ago my 'outlaw' (my daughter-in-law's mother) and I took a trip to Hawaii.  We stayed near Honolulu in her time share, while I provided the transportation in the 'only rental available' - a bright blue mustang convertible, great fun to drive but I digress.  While we were there we took a Duck Boat ride around Honolulu and then out into the bay to visit the memorial.  The memorial is built over the USS Arizona which was sunk on Pearl Harbor Day.  As you walk around the memorial you can look down through clear panes of glass at the ship which still lies on the bottom.  It was a very moving and also very eerie sight.  Everyone there was very quiet and respectful.  It's not something I particularly want to revisit, but I'm very glad to have seen it once.  

just so so...

 Usually, when my spouse and I come home from some theatrical production, I am bubbling over with enthusiasm for what we have seen and anxious to share the experience.  Not so this evening.  We went to a production of "Christmas My Way, a Rat Pack Holiday Bash" which featured six singers, three men and three women, and a key board, bass and drums musical group.  I will say the instrumental music was good, and the singers all had decent voices.  They could certainly carry a tune far better than I can.  But the show just didn't seem to come together for me.  There were duets, there were jokes and solos, jumping from Frank Sinatra hits to familiar holiday songs.  It wasn't all bad. Their version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" was funny and the final song, sung by all six, "I Did It My Way" was well done.  In their defense, we had terrible seats, right up front and off to the side, definitely not the best seats at Arena, and the dinner before the show was a disappointment.   The same company catered the meal at the last play and the brisket was amazing.  This time around they served us grilled pork loin with golden raisin glaze. It was dry, tough and hard to cut and the glaze was almost nonexistent.  My spouse did get three raisins, I got none.  The herbed carrots were ripple cut slices, gray in color and tasteless; really not good to look at at all, let alone eat.  On the up side, the au gratin potatoes, dinner rolls and Merry Cherry Holiday Fluff were all good so we didn't starve.  Even better, we were given free tickets to this show.  We will definitely be going back to Arena.  Most of their shows are very good, but this one may have proved the old adage, at least for us, "You get what you pay for."

so fashionable

 Earlier today my west coast brother informed me that today is "Bathtub Party Day" and "National Blue Jeans Day."  Since I am not old enough to have been around during Prohibition, I have never made bathtub gin, nor do I think that holding a party in my bathroom would be my first choice.  However, I am very fond of blue jeans, and will celebrate by wearing them any chance I get.  In fact I was a blue jeans trend setter in my youth.  In high school (but not to high school, we were only allowed to wear skirts) I wore my brother's jeans because we were both equally skinny and women's jeans weren't long enough for me.  But even earlier than that when I was six years old, I received my first pair of blue jeans.  Little girls didn't wear pants much at all back then, except for snow suits. These were great jeans because they were lined with plaid flannel (which showed because the cuffs were turned up) making them wonderfully warm to play in.  Coincidentally, a few years ago my west coast brother and his wife gave me a pair of flannel lined jeans for Christmas.  They are farm people so they know where to get such things. Happily blue jeans never really go out of style so I will be wearing these lovely warm jeans quite a lot this winter.  Now that I'm thinking about it, I should have worn them today.  When we woke up the wind chill was -5.  Of course by Sunday the temperature is supposed to be up to 50 degrees.  Fort Wayne winters are hard to dress for.  One type of jeans you will never see me in are the stylishly ripped and frayed kind.  Not only do they look cold, but my legs are not as toned as they once were and bulges through the rips would not be a good look.  But happy Blue Jeans Day everybody, wear them any way you like them.

rolling dice, etc.

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is National Sock Day, National Cookie Day, and National Dice Day.  Quite an array, I'm sure you'll agree.  I don't play dice games much, except Backgammon and Yahtzee, but the little guy that I tutor and I have recently discovered a board game using a large 12 sided dice and six ordinary six sided di.  Each player rolls the large dice, then the smaller ones and tries to find the numbers that add up to the number on the large di.  If you can do it, you get to move that many spaces. If not, you loose your turn.  This is such a simple game, but very ingenious, and tricky.  He doesn't even realize that he's adding.  This has become our 'play' time when all the reading work is done.  But enough about dice.  I am not going to comment on cookies because I'm trying to avoid food talk for the next couple of weeks.  Of course there are the cookies that show up on my phone, laptop and tablet - very annoying but nicely calorie free.  That brings me to socks. Notice that it's National Sock Day; not socks, sock, singular.  There is a reason for that.  One of my all time favorite humor writers, Erma Bombeck, once observed that it's a sad but true fact that socks do not mate for life.  It's so true!  Different people deal differently with this dilemma.  When I take my socks from the dryer, I match them up, two by two, setting aside any leftovers, and roll the tops down, trapping two socks together, then I stuff them in my tightly packed sock drawer, where they can't wiggle around and come loose.  My spouse, on the other hand, simply matches up his pairs of socks and folds them together - no rolling - and lays them on a shelf in his closet, where they can just hop off and run away if they want too.      I think he's taking a terrible risk, but at least I know what I can give him for Christmas. 

spread your arms wide

 Today is "Let's Hug Day" which sounds like a great day to me.  My west coast brother who sent me this information is a very good hugger himself, and so is everyone in his family, which makes visiting them quite wonderful.  I am a person who loves to be hugged.  Happily I come from a very huggable and hugging family.  My mother was a wonderful hugger, which came in very handy when I went through the inevitable breakups that come with high school romances.  My father would give my brothers and me one-arm hugs when we kissed him goodnight.  No lip kisses in our immediate family just foreheads or cheeks.  I used to laugh when my father would look up at me from his chair when I kissed his forehead, causing it to wrinkle in deep horizontal grooves that tickled my lips.  Interestingly, those deep wrinkles aren't nearly so funny when I see them in the mirror now.  But back to hugs.  Some people are just natural huggers (my wonder spouse is one) and you know that it's ok to hug them just about any time.  Some, not so much.  My first husband, who was an only child, was a fine hugger to me but I never saw him hug his mother.  They would shake hands if they hadn't seen each other for a while but never hug.  Happily, by the time my first husband and I had been married for several years, my mother-in-law would hug me, and she quickly learned to hug her grandchildren.  Going through life never hugging anyone would be very sad I think.  Lucky for me, I live where hugs abound.  

Don't cut yourself.

 Today is Safety Razor Day according to my west coast brother, and he does seem to know about these things. Do you remember the Christmas movie about the boy who wants a Red Rider bb gun, and his parents refuse, because, as they told him repeatedly, "You'll shoot your eye out."? Well, I had a similar experience in my youth except it involved a safety razor.  I was a freshman in high-school and desperately wanted to shave my legs like the cool girls did.  However, my mother was convinced that if I used a safety razor I would cut my leg off, or, at least slice an artery.  Now I grant you that I was not particularly coordinated in those days. I was a five foot, ten inch bean pole, with flailing arms and two left feet, so my mother had some cause to be concerned.  She was a kindhearted person though. For Christmas that year I received a lovely little red Lady Shick electric razor.  I used that for my legs for some time, finally switching to a safety razor in college, with an occasional  nick but no serious blood loss.

Lights on!!

 According to my west coast brother, today is "National Pie Day" and "National Christmas Lights Day."  Since I have vowed to myself that I will post no more blogs about food, at least for 24 days, I will skip any pie talk and go straight to Christmas lights.  With my wonder spouse's help (after I managed to get one super long string of lights hopelessly tangled on and off the tree) we did manage to get all of the lights on the tree.  We were just in time to celebrate National Christmas Lights Day.  Tomorrow we will start adding the ornaments.  I wonder if tomorrow is "National Ornament Hanging Day?"  I think it should be. 

Here is the result. We're making progress.