the finishing touch

 During the last several months my spouse and I have done, or hired done, a lot of spiffing up of our house.  It started with the new kitchen back in February and finished most recently with the painting of all the interior woodwork.  It was already white but now it's shiny clean white.

But today we did what I consider the real finishing touch.  We had new shades installed in our breakfast nook windows.  Our main reason for this improvement was to be able to block out some of the glaring early morning sunshine which comes in our east facing window.  Of course today was a cloudy, rainy day so we haven't appreciated the full effect yet.  Here are a couple of pictures.

Before, pretty windows even without the shades.

After with the shades fully closed which they will seldom be.

They really are beautiful and beautifully simple shades.  Zeigler's did a fine job. 

so delicious..

 Today two friends and I met for lunch.  Lunching with friends is always fun but it's even better when you also love the food.

I do love Thai food and we went to my favorite Thai restaurant "Spice and Herb."  It's on Coldwater Road in case you're ever in the area. 

Before I get to the food I should mention the Thai iced tea - rich dark semi-sweet tea with ice and two inches of heavy cream floating on top.  So delicious!

I would never ever complain about their food but I do have a tiny concern about their portion sizes.  I had my usual, and favorite, Pad Thai medium spicy today and it was as tasty as ever.  However, after I had eaten all I could and boxed the rest, I brought home enough for my spouse and me to share for supper (I have no problem eating Pad Thai twice in one day).  After we each ate our fill we still had enough left over for one lunch tomorrow.  We may toss a coin for that.  If you're keeping count that means that my one order of Pad Thai will have provided four filling meals.   

As I said I'm not complaining, just applauding their generosity.  

blogger's block

Night after night I write my blog, coming up with different topics every evening, some humorous, some a little more serious, but always something to write about, but tonight - nothing.  It's not that I had a bad day.  I've actually had a very good day.  

We had a very interesting discussion in our Sunday school class.  The curriculum we use is called Wired Word and I highly recommend it. Our discussion today was about how long the brain stays active after someone is declared physically dead.  As I said it was an interesting discussion.

We celebrated World Communion Sunday in a combined service with our English speaking and Korean speaking members, very moving.

After church I visited with my cousin who celebrated her 90th birthday a few weeks ago.  Our discussion topics ranged far and wide but, among other things, she told me she would like to get married again.  I don't know if she has someone specific in mind but she might have.

After I got home with my visit with my cousin, my spouse and I went to Guadalupe's for a Mexican late lunch / early supper.  Delicious!  While I enjoy the food, my favorite part of eating there is their home made pineapple water.  It's delicious.

The rest of the day included the obligatory Sunday afternoon nap, a rousing game of Mexican Train (he won) and some TV. 

So there you have it, just an ordinary day, really not worth blogging about so I'll just go to bed.

It's back!!!

From the opening chord of the "Star Spangled Banner" to the closing notes of the guest violinist's encore, this opening night did not disappoint.  In fact, this first of the season Masterworks presentation by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic was awesome.  I know that's an over used word but it really was.

The first piece, Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" was lovely and lyrical and quickly overshadowed by the second piece, Bartok's "Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin."  This was a jangling, jarring, exciting, totally captivating piece which I enjoyed but don't care if I never hear again. 

Finally, after the intermission came the piece I'd been waiting for - Brahms' "Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77."  It was no lullaby but it was an amazing listening experience thanks to the guest violin soloist James Ennes playing the "Marsick" Stradivarius of 1715.

He began studying violin at the age of five, has received numerous awards and accolades, and since 2024, has been a professor of violin at Indiana University.  I truly hope you have a chance to hear him play.  He was phenomenal. 

 

it tells a story...

When I was dressing to go out to dinner with friends this evening (not a very dressy occasion but I wanted to look nice) I decided that gold colored jewelry would look fallish, appropriate for October, even though the high today was 86 degrees.

It was only after I clipped on my earrings and hung a gold chain with a topaz pendant around my neck that I realized each piece of jewelry I was wearing had a story attached.

The story of my gold wedding ring is obvious, although not everyone who sees it realizes that I've been married less that two years this time around.  My wedding ring is practically brand new.  

My gold earrings, beautifully made with posts and clips for security, are from the Gold Corner in Florence, Italy.  I bought them when I was there in 2023. My first husband bought the gold chain for me for Christmas one year and the glorious topaz mounted in the pendant was one my father brought home from Brazil where he was stationed during WWII.  

I am not a collector of antiques for antiques sake but I do like things that tell a story.  

lost in corn

 Our daughter-in-law shared some pictures today of her daughter (our youngest grandchild) who was on a third grade field trip to a farm where they had a corn maze.  

They were cute pictures but they reminded me of an incident in my childhood that wasn't so much fun.  I think I was about ten, we were living on our country five acres and three of those acres were planted in corn that year.  It was late summer so the corn was taller than me.  For some reason I went into the cornfield.  I think I might have been following a cat; we always had several of them around.

Anyway, I went into the corn field and once in got turned around and couldn't find my way out.  I did know that if I kept walking between two rows I would eventually come to the end of a row and see my way out of the field.  I walked for what seemed like a long time and finally came out at the road on the far edge of our property.  From there, of course, I could find my way home.  It was another long walk but I made it.

In later years my brother would work for farmers walking through corn fields with other tall enough kids detasseling the corn.  He got paid pretty well for this but I was not tempted, not even a little bit.

Lucky for me this incident did not in any way affect my love of corn on the cob.  Please pass the butter.

little bandits..

 My west coast brother informed me that today is "International Coffee Day" and also "International Day of Older Persons."  Since we qualify on both counts and were out and about taking me to a doctor's appointment (something older persons do) my spouse and I celebrated with drinks from Biggby's.  My spouse had his usual large black coffee - Biggby's best, while I had a frozen chai tea latte - so good.  

My brother also informed me that today is "International Raccoon Appreciation Day."  I don't know that I've ever met an international raccoon, and appreciation may be too strong a word, but there was one fearless raccoon that I admired a little.  

It was in the summer of 2010 and I was still living in my 'country house' on one acre on Tonkel Road.  I discovered that their was a ground hog living under my deck at the point where there was only about three feet of space between the deck and the ground.  I knew it was a groundhog, because a few times I found it sunning itself on my deck.  A few other times it left little 'gifts' to let me know it had been there.  I was concerned that the groundhog might start gnawing on wrapped electrical cords that ran under the deck so I hired a man to trap her and set her loose in the woods somewhere far far away from my house.  I think he was a 'pest control specialist' but I thought of him as the trapper.

The deal was he would trap it in a "live trap" that wouldn't hurt, and then haul it away.  The first evening he set the trap with an apple as bait.  In the morning there was a very contented looking raccoon sitting in the trap, not looking very distressed at all, just ready to be let out.  The apple was gone of course.  Since raccoons didn't usually come near the house I thought it was funny and wasn't too concerned.  I let the raccoon out, the trapper came back and reset the trap for the next night.  The next morning, you guessed it, the raccoon was back in the trap.  

By the way, every time the trapper came back I owed him more money so he really didn't care if he was catching raccoons or groundhogs.  Finally, finally, after about five nights, we caught the groundhog.  The trapper assured me that he would let it go in a safe place far, far away, and I guess he did.  I never had a problem with groundhogs again.  

Frankly, by that point, I wouldn't have cared if he told me he planned to take it home and eat it.