Just a few more minutes

How can it be almost 2010? When I was wearing the above outfit in 1967, I was thinking that maybe I'd see the year 2000. I didn't think much past that. I was also thinking about where I wanted to go to college, what kind of person I wanted to marry someday and whether I should wear my hair long or short. (Answers I came up with in 1967: Baylor, someone just like Michael and short.) I cannot believe all the water that has passed under the bridge since I was a size 3 Junior Petite.

So welcome, welcome 2010. I'm running a new motto past old family friends who always helped us make up a theme for the new year. How about "Grin and win in 2010?" (This rhymes in Texas.) If my readers out in blogland have got something better, I'd love to hear it.

Second Annual Vaisselle Awards--2009

Okay, it's unlikely that any of you will have a statue erected in your honor. But the second annual Vaisselle awards recognize achievements in the year of 2009. If you find yourself here, great. If not, I still know you deserve one. So since I can't honor all of you, again I am going to honor my nearest and dearest. But if you've been a little kinder, worked a little harder, tried harder to take care of someone less fortunate or less able than yourself, or even smiled more this year, pat yourself on the back. If we depended on the rich, the mighty and the influential to make our lives great, we would all be in sad shape. It's the little benevolent acts that change the world.

So enough blah, blah, blah. On to the awards:

Drum roll please....

To Michael, the Roger Bobo award for tuba playing. After a long day at work, hauling his horn to a town thirty miles down the road to band rehearsal wasn't easy. But diligent practicing paid off. His big ole tuba made a big difference in his band this year.

To NS, my firstborn, the Pablo Picasso award for wild artistic success in her grad school classes. She's impressed the heck out of everybody at UNT and gotten a quilt into a major exhibition, the Materials Hard and Soft exhibit which just happens to be held in Denton. A real biggie. Go red!

To ZT, her husband, the very bittersweet Florence Nightingale award. His concern and care helped  their dog Wrecks have a wonderful life until the very end.We were all impressed by his compassion.

To MF, my second, the Leonardo Da Vinci award. Whether she was acting as Primary President, Choir Director, hostess with the mostest, mom, wife or dutiful daughter, she did her very best to use her multiple talents. In a very Renaissance kind of way, she wore her multiple hats beautifully this year and even added sewing to an already long list of activities.

To NL, her husband, the Marco Polo award. Not only did he spend the year traveling all over Europe and to the US for his business but he and MF intrepidly took the family to Egypt to see the pyramids. He even traveled to Pennsylvania twice to bring and to take back his family so that they could visit us in Pennsylvania for a month.

To GL, my third daughter, the Barack Obama award. Taking on enormous tasks with courage and enthusiasm was Georgia and our president all over this  year. She continued building her business, did her church work, excelled at the mommy job, started homeschooling her two oldest, and then she had a baby too. Yes she can!

To DS, her husband, the David Plouffe award. David Plouffe was the mastermind behind President Obama's campaign. DS also learned how to run a political campaign this year. Although his candidate didn't win the way David Plouffe's did, DS gave it his all and learned a lot in the process.

To ZL, my son, the Sir Isaac Newton award. Mastering Calculus is hard even in good times. So getting a super grade in Calculus 2 while supporting himself and paying college bills by running his own business in a bad economy is a supreme achievement. So on to Calculus 3!

To my folks, the Dolly Madison award. Like Dolly, they charmed everyone at Dad's 90th birthday  celebration. It was a great party and a wonderful milestone.

And moi? Little moi? I give myself the Marvin Bell award this year. Who is Marvin Bell? I'm so sad I have to explain. Marvin Bell is one of the greatest living American poets. Not only is he a fine poet, but he is an exceptional writing teacher and mentor as my husband Michael can attest. I think I deserve this award because I started up a writing critique group in Wilkes-Barre this year. It's really turned out well and we have a good solid group going. Go me!

To all the rest of you, pat yourself on the back.You're probably harder on yourself than anyone else. Think of something wonderful you've done this year and give yourself an award.

White Christmas in Utah

We did have a lovely white Christmas. The grandchildren were in fine fettle, my son, daughter and son-in-law were amusing and fun to be around. I got to see my other grandchildren on Skype. Little EG, the one-year-old who lives in Prague, had the chickenpox for Christmas and yet still tried so hard to wave at us. So sweet. Although there were some lovely gifts, the most popular one was a set of mustaches (I'm not kidding) that my son gave to his little nieces and nephews. Wildly successful! My daughter laughed so hard at her kids with full-grown mustaches that she had a hard time taking pictures of them.

The kids said some enormously funny things but it was such a whirlwind, I can't remember them all. One of my favorite moments was when the six-year-old was standing with the fridge door open, air conditioning the room. He obviously couldn't decide what he wanted to eat. I asked him what he needed. He said, "I need something that I can eat with a spoon." He had one in his hand. I offered yogurt and he took me up on it. Another prime moment was the two and a half year old who walked up to her mother and said, "I need to take a bath." Her mom answered, "You need to take a bath?" and she said, "No" and walked off.

It was a great trip. It's hard to go back to work after such a lovely time. But laundry will be calling tomorrow morning.

Cinderella shoes at Macy's

While I was trying on shoes at Macy's, Michael took a shot to show what chaos there was at the store that day. I really, really need a pair of brown or beige heels. The pair I wore to GL's wedding wore out (she has five kids now so that's no surprise) and if I wear the pair of Bandolino's I bought to replace them, my feet are bleeding before I get home (this is no exaggeration.) So, unbelievably, they had dozens of pairs of shoes in my size (5 1/2) at Macy's and most of them were brown. You have to understand that most stores don't even carry one pair of shoes in my size. They start at 6. I tried on several pairs but did so quickly, trying hard not to bore Michael. I was looking at the sale rack exclusively, of course. He took pictures of the shoe racks which showed what pandemonium there had been that day at the store. Then Michael handed me a shoe and said, "Try this one on." What a mistake! I don't wear pumps any more because my foot is narrow and I can't find any that fit. I always buy shoes with a strap of some kind. But these fit perfectly. I felt just like Cinderella when they put that glass slipper on her foot. Why was it a mistake? Because they were $89.00 on sale. I have never paid that much for a pair of shoes. Ever. Don't get me wrong. I almost always buy well-made shoes because they fit me better but I always buy them at rock bottom sale prices. I did pay (or Dad paid) $40.00 for a pair of knee boots in 1970. They were beige and I wore them on my honeymoon. I loved those boots. But really. $89.00 for a pair of shoes? What if I wore them twice and they stretched out and didn't fit any more? What if I nicked the toe? So I didn't buy them. I have no real regrets but if they go on a really good sale online after Christmas, those babies are mine!

No Christmas program either but I did see Rudolph

As choir director and organist, today was pretty weird. My soprano soloist is in Cancun trying to get a flight to Baltimore, my bishop and his wife (and prime alto) are snowed in in New Jersey and the rest of us made it to church as best we could. Seriously, we had a very minor snowfall compared to the big snowfalls down South. Just a few inches. But we still called the church music program off. It will be next week. Today we just had a few impromptu talks and lots and lots of carol singing. Luckily, I get paid by the note. (For those not in the know, that's a joke. No one gets paid to play the organ in LDS church meetings.) My fingers certainly got a workout.The photo is not of my organ at church! This is a bit of the console of the Wanamaker organ in Philly.

We're still looking good for flying out tomorrow from Philly. The storm is over down there. The only snag could be if they have hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to fly out because their flights were canceled. I will be checking us in online as soon as it's possible to do so today.

Last night we went to have a hamburger and then do a little shopping. We'd had snow earlier and everything looked beautiful. The snowflakes were so tiny they shone like diamonds. I've always pooh poohed those snow globes with the sparkles inside as being unrealistic, but that's exactly what it looked like.  On the way out of our neighborhood, I noticed that the yard art was moving at one house. Lots of people here have deer statues in their yard. Tell me why you want one when we have so many of the real thing wandering around.  I pointed out the deer to Michael and he stopped the car. Nine deer walked right in front of us. That's all eight of Santa's reindeer and Rudolph thrown in. They crossed the road in front of us and then easily vaulted over a hurricane fence to go the yard on the other side of the road. So much for fencing in your garden. Then while we were at the restaurant, it started to snow again. The ride home was so beautiful it was breathtaking. We followed deer tracks all the way home. Tell the grandkids that I didn't see Santa but I did see his ride. Awesome!

No TubaChristmas!

No TubaChristmas this year! We checked into the lovely downtown Marriott Friday evening at about 3:00 PM. We had Pricelined a room for $61.00. Rack rate for this hotel was $445.00. I found a bill in our room left over from another guest and he had paid 295.00 a night. Anyways, they were lovely to us. Had them park our car (which was going to cost almost as much as we had paid for the room) and then rested up in the room for a bit. Then we went to our destination of choice, Macy's! It was just across the street from our hotel. We wanted to see the Dickens Village and the light show, but most importantly, we wanted to hear the Wanamaker organ.

The Macy's store is the former Wanamaker's department store which is on the National Historic Register. Reminded me of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris. Our local Macy's in Denton was so disappointing. It was just like Dillard's. But this store was very satisfying with lots of designer clothing and stuff I couldn't afford in a million years. A 385.00 Coach purse, for example. So much fun! Just like being in Paris. And so Christmas-y. Just like we had thought New York would be at Christmas time. But last year during our visit to New York everything was so crowded, cold and slushy.

We loved the Dickens Village. It was completely charming. You travel from room to room seeing animated figured (about three feet tall) in settings from "A Christmas Carol."  No details left out. The costumes on the figures were amazing as were all the shops and furniture. We loved it. I just said that, didn't I? I guess we really loved it. Then we caught some of the light show (see picture above) and then returned to our hotel to warm up a bit before going  to dinner. We ate at a diner (see picture) at the Reading Terminal Market. We toured the market a bit before eating. This market put the Lancaster market to shame. The Italian bakery had beautiful arrangements of Christmas cookies including our family's favorite biscotti. Michael says there was one aisle of just salmon. We both saw the largest shrimp we'd ever seen--maybe six inches long and an inch in diameter. It is almost impossible to describe the kinds of fare they had for sale there.

We did some shopping in Macy's and then got settled in (on the floor) for the organ concert. Alas, it was just the light show all over again. I was so disappointed. But as we were walking away, the organ cranked up. We rushed back and caught the whole thing. We went up to the second floor facing the pipes where you can feel the bass notes through the floor. You can also see the console. After the concert, you're allowed to tour the console. What a thrill! There's a whole percussion section of stops, and the ranks are color coded. How else would you be able to find what you wanted? I noted that the keys were made of ivory. We met the organist and bought a CD.

Sadly, we had heard intimations from many folks that the weather was going to turn very bad. We looked it up online at the Fedex center and we checked the weather channel. We made the decision to return home at midnight, making this the shortest hotel stay on record for us so that we wouldn't get snowed in. The young lady who had checked us in also checked us out. They didn't charge us for parking, I don't think. And if we hadn't already paid Priceline, she wouldn't have charged us for the room. We got in in the wee hours and it's as dry as a bone here. But we couldn't take a chance getting snowed in since my big Christmas program is tomorrow morning at church.

So alas, no Tuba Christmas this year. But Michael and I agree that it was one of the best mini-vacations ever.

Dumbfounded

The picture here has nothing to do with the post. But if you look carefully you can see a really big tuba with a white-haired guy playing it. The Hazleton band played a delightful concert at a nursing home the other night. The band members' service represents absolutely the best that Americans can do with their free time.

But back to the matter at hand. I don't really have time to blog but I am absolutely dumbfounded. I have to say something. Remember that for years now, local judges have been denying teens due process, rushing through their convictions and sending them off to wilderness camps and juvie centers so that the judges could get kickbacks from the owner of the juvenile detention center.

So what's on the front page of the Times-Leader today? The ACLU had threatened a restraining order if  the city didn't take down the manger scene and menorah in front of the Courthouse. The city complied because they have so many budget issues they can't justify any funds to pursue a lawsuit. My question is where the heck was the ACLU when the kids and their parents were having their civil rights all trampled over?

Let's put this into perspective. Having a manger scene in front of the Courthouse might make someone who wasn't a Christian uncomfortable. I've seen this manger scene and I don't think there's any chance of someone being converted by looking at it. On the other hand, denying a kid the right to a fair hearing and sending a kid to prison or detention can ruin his or her family life and affect his or her future.

So thank you, ACLU, for doing the right thing. It's clear that you make sure your attorneys earn their salaries by sticking to the important infringements of people's rights. That manger scene was a really hot issue and must have offended thousands of people. I'm impressed by the way you jumped all over it. So Merry Christmas to you, ACLU, and a Happy Hanukkah too.

Partay!

Okay, it's taken me this long to throw our first party in our new home in Pennsylvania. Let's not count up how many months I've been here, shall we? We owed so many people hospitality that we decided to have a crowd over on Sunday night. We had sixteen people in all. Way fun! The hit of the evening (as it always was  at Christmas French Club parties at our house) was Apples to Apples. If you don't know this box game, you should definitely check it out. It's some of the best clean fun you will ever have. (And that's the only kind worth having, IMHO.) I thought that our original box had belonged to one of the children. I looked for it in the attic, but seemed to remember that it was ZL's or GL's. So I sent Michael out on Saturday night (after making several phone calls to find one) to buy the party box edition. Of course, after he bought it, I found our original box! But it's okay. The new edition makes the old one look really sick. The new one has some ridiculous number of red cards like 749.

It was a great evening. I had made two Bundt cakes, two pumpkin pies and a dip that I threw together that turned out to be the most popular thing. As all asked for the recipe, I had to admit that it was one of those "a little of this" and "a little of that" improvisations. You really can't expect one to write down everything one cooks, can you? The Mrs. Renfro's (made in Fort Worth, Texas) peach salsa was also well received. Can you believe that they carry her whole line at a local grocery store?

Can you tell that Michael played a few hands of cards when he was a kid? Look at that perfect fan he's holding. He turned out to be competitive. He won one of the three rounds. I only got to play one round as I had hostess-y things to do. I had fun. I hope everyone else had a good time too.







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A Virtual Christmas Card

Dear Blog Readers,

Nothing can replace the look and feel of a real paper Christmas card and I wish I could send you each one. As the next best thing, I'm sending you two of my favorite old photos with wishes for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

So much of what I would put in a Christmas letter is already posted on this blog. You can look forward to the traditional Christmas letter info when I give a shout out to all my children's accomplishments in the second annual Vaisselle Awards at the end of the year.

In a recent church meeting I attended, a wise man pointed out the difference between happiness and joy. He said that many people in this world make a mistake in seeking happiness. But happiness can be fleeting and superficial. Instead we should seek joy. Joy is deep, meaningful and life-changing. To all my readers I wish the joy of this holiday season. 

Susan 

Tuba groupies

My daughter MF will remember the trip we made to the nursing home this summer to hear my sweetie play a concert there. Well, he returned there for another concert and all the lovely white-haired ladies greeted him by name. He couldn't understand it. They didn't seem to know the names of the other members of the band. The only conclusion he can reach is that he's got groupies! He's pretty sure he was remembered because of the cute grandkids he brought with him. Or maybe it's because you can't miss that giant horn he plays. In any case, they know him there. How cool is that!

I have gotten a few sweet notes from the buyers of my patterns, telling me what their plans are for the pattern. One is making art with it, another is making bassinette covers for a home for teen moms. Amazing! I'm not going to get rich selling patterns, but I am having an enormous amount of fun. (And a little income.) Plus, it's nice to have a place to plug my daughters' shops.

My mother, bless her, found it difficult to go Christmas shopping unless the weather was at least a little Christmas-y. The first rainy, cold day and she was out shopping with the best of them. Some years with lovely weather we wondered if we'd get any presents at all. She would find my new home a shopper's paradise. We've had two nice snows and will get more this week. Very, very festive. And when you drive down the road and see all the Christmas lights shining on the snow, it's a real live Christmas card.

The photos are views out my window of the first big snow which was last week. Isn't the little living Christmas tree cute? Michael's always wanted one.

Why my house will never be uncluttered

This is why my house will never be uncluttered. There are just so many things I can't throw away. Unfortunately for my future heirs, none of this stuff will have any value on Ebay. But this little memento I don't have to feel too badly about. My mother-in-law who didn't save a whole lot of stuff (she did have to pack up and move to Australia, then England, then the Netherlands) kept this paper which is one of a set of four. It's my husband's first (and last) screenplay. I believe it was from second grade as it isn't in cursive. He was a really good writer even then. This story has everything--emotion, suspense and, of course, a happy ending. Unfortunately, his spelling was amazingly good. Nothing is more amusing than kids who are just learning how to spell. But he did misspell a few. My favorite is the word "throught." He knew he had to use silent letters, he just didn't know when to stop.

Of course, I have the original story, but at some point the cheap paper from his Big Chief writing tablet will disintegrate. Remember those tablets? They had newspaper-like lined paper and a red cover with an Indian on the front. Do they still make them?

So that's why there are boxes of papers, cards, schoolwork, photos, postcards, etc. Even a few of my school things survive. A poem about a cat which I wrote seemed to me wonderful enough to save at the time. In retrospect, I see that Michael definitely showed more writing promise than I.

The Birthday Quilt

I've been lugging around boxes of scraps for years. I always thought how cool it would be to make a quilt of all the clothes I'd constructed (and that my girls had constructed) over the years. At the last big family get-together, I divided up all the scraps and gave a selection to all the girls so that that they could start lugging around their own set of scraps. Lo and behold, my darling daughter, GL, actually made them up into something--a wonderful birthday quilt for me. I tried not to tear stain it because I was truly touched. And no, I am not using is as an antimacassar. I'm still looking for the perfect place to hang it. This house gets a lot of sun, and I don't want it to fade, but I also want it to be in a prominent place so that I can look at it often. Be sure and click on the photo to get an up close view of all the wonderful fabrics she included.

It's a beautiful object all on its own, but if you don't sew, you can't quite get the importance of seeing all those projects. Every small square represents a memory. There are tons of beautiful dresses on here but some are not dresses at all. My clown suit (GL had one that matched), NS's beloved cow shorts, some of the fabric from the Hawaiian shirts I made for the whole family, lots of  80s bloomers--those sure were cute, and even a piece from a flour sack that I used to play fashion designer with when I was a girl. GL and I are sure that she made up at least one of these projects, that NS did and that my mom did. I am almost positive MF will find a square on here that represents one of her many sewing projects as well. Those years we were making so many dresses, it is kind of a blur who made what. But that would make it truly unique and would represent three generations of sewing machine magic. 

I realize how blessed I was to have all those girls at at time when home sewing was not only possible but affordable. Beautiful dresses made out of cottons were all the style and we made some absolute gorgeous ones. We even had an orange one that had a big square collar and ribbon ties at the side waist that fit all of us. You never knew which one of  us would be wearing it.

Thanks to GL for an amazing present.

Birthday Fun

It's been an awesome day!

What a great day it has been! It really started yesterday with Skype calls from my parents and my daughter and her two daughters in the Czech Republic. I've received greetings from friends and former students from around the world, I've opened some lovely presents, Michael bought me flowers, and we had lunch in Bethlehem with my niece, Holly and her husband, Mark. And I've talked to all four of my children, my parents and my brother and nephew on the phone. The Playmobil guy was standing in front of a toy store in Bethlehem and I couldn't resist.

Lunch was especially nice. It was great to get to know Holly's new husband, Mark, better. And visiting with Holly makes any day a good one. We were somewhat early getting to Bethlehem for lunch so we visited the Moravian Bookstore. I had read much about it on the Internet. It is a truly wonderful independent bookstore. The restaurant was called Mama Nina Foccaceria and it's on Main Street.  The food was very delicious and out of the common way. I had a crab cake on a bed of spinach in a red cream sauce with scallops and shrimp. Very, very nice.

We came home after lunch and for the rest of the day I've been enjoying telephone calls. No wonder I decided to have more than one birthday! They're fun!

Why I'm Having More Than One Birthday This Year

1. I just thought it was a good idea.
2. I've had a few memorably bad ones (the funeral of JFK comes to mind) that I need to make up for.

3. I've spent a lot of birthdays over the years either preparing or cooking or eating leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner.
4. I've missed a few to headaches.
5. I don't have any of my children with me on my real birthday this year.
6. I can't have my favorite German Chocolate cake any more so I must deserve some other kind of reward.
7. It's been a long year.
8. Having just one birthday puts too much pressure on the day.
9. I've spent many of my birthdays with my inlaws because we were there for Thanksgiving. Not that they weren't wonderful, but...
10. I'm worth it. 
I'm thinking a half a dozen this year. I've already had one of them. I treated myself to a day at JoAn's Fabrics on Friday. I had coupons and the Vogue patterns were on sale for 3.99 each. I spent hours there and bought six gorgeous Vogue patterns for myself for less than 25 dollars. Then I had lunch at my favorite fast food, Taco Bell, (two crunchy low fat tacos) all by myself and then went to one of my favorite stores, Big Lots. What an awesome day!

I will, of course, celebrate on the real day tomorrow, but I reserve the right to randomly deem any day my birthday I feel like it from now on. These alternate birthdays won't require any effort on anyone else's part. I'll just call them when I have something fun I want to do that I don't want to feel guilty about. I'm feeling rather mortal this birthday and I'm going to start doing some things that I've always wanted to do.

Life's patterns

As I approach my birthday, I wax philosophic. I never like to be a cookie cutter person, but I must follow the crowd on some things. Baby boomers are averse to growing old, and I'm glad to be part of that group. There was a day when women settled into a middle-aged homey look and they didn't worry so much about waistline or style. That's not me or practically any other boomer lady. (It's not my mom either so I've got a good example to follow.) Boomers follow another pattern. We tend to be very nostalgic as a group. I think it's because our young era from the 50s to the 70s was a memorable and exciting part of the twentieth century. We had cool stuff. In fact, the 50s saw the beginning of the concept "cool." Roy Rogers lunchboxes and hula hoops. We also got to wear cool things like Converse sneakers (for boys only at that point) and poodle skirts. We had the best rock music. Sorry for everyone else, but it's true.

Speaking of patterns, don't you love this one? I bought it a thousand years ago at a garage sale. It's missing the instructions so I won't be selling it, but the picture on the front just sends me. The guys are playing golf, smoking pipes and discussing a business paper in their PJs. Awesome, is it not? What kind of man would walk around with a golf club while wearing his shorty pajamas and his houseshoes? Hmm, maybe I shouldn't ask that question. This picture is a slice of the past. It's what a man was supposed to be.

Mom and Dad and Sidney Poitier

Mom and Dad made the front page of a local Shreveport hospital magazine. It must be a magazine that is adapted for use by many hospital systems as I doubt that Willis-Knighton Hospital in Shreveport landed an interview with Sidney Poitier. It's a really good article about them keeping their home and living in the retirement village most of the week. I am quoted as having said lots of things I don't remember saying. I am always so scrupulous when interviewing. I keep a tape recorder going and listen to my tapes to make sure I don't misquote anyone. Alas, that is not always the case. The file is pretty big so if you click on it you can see Mom and Dad better.

In other news, the writing group I started a few months ago is going well. We had a really good group last night at the Barnes and Nobles downtown Wilkes-Barre. For possible Wilkes-Barre blog readers, the group meets at 7 on the first and third Tuesday of each month.

Also, the Etsy shop is going. I don't make a sale every day now, but enough is coming in to make me want to keep it open. I've already paid my fees for the things I have listed so I wouldn't close it up anyway. I add a few things each day. It's my goal to keep about 100 patterns offered at my store. I'm up to 95, I think. But if I'm going to keep this up, I need to get a new supply of patterns. I've been asking around and have posted an ad on Craigslist so maybe I'll find some more soon.

I'm pretty excited about Thanksgiving. I don't have to cook but will be sharing the day and meal with former Texans. This is a really good thing. I will bring the cornbread dressing.

I also have a birthday coming up. Michael and I talked about a birthday present for me and I told him that putting one more thing into the house might not be the best idea. (Although diamonds take up very little room.) I asked if we could go to Kazimi's for lunch. Even at lunch it's a big splurge for us, but the food is divine. And they make this caramel banana cake for dessert...excuse me while I wipe the drool off the keyboard. He's actually taking the day off for my birthday. He's taken so few days off this year that I am really honored. He said we might even go somewhere. And folks, going somewhere in this part of the US can be pretty exciting. The art museums alone could keep us busy for several years.

R.O.U.S.

For those uninitiated among you, ROUS stands for Rodents of Unusual Size. We watched The Princess Bride again last night. I always forget how funny and wonderful it is. That whole schtick when Wesley is coming back from being mostly dead is insanely funny. And both Peter Falk and Freddie Savage are still too cute for words.

We did have a little run-in from rodents the other night. Or so we thought. There was this odd munching, scritching sound in our bedroom. It finally drove me to sleep in the guest bedroom. Very unnerving. After much searching, we found that one of the windows in our bedroom was slightly open at the top. The sound was the edge of the window shade scraping the side of the window as the wind blew it. Have no idea why it just started making noise. Nice to know that something wasn't eating our wiring.

The photos are of a hair salon in the poshest Park Avenue area of all places. Shows that even New Yorkers can be a bit unsophisticated. Also, the inside of the Empire State Building shot is me from the back. Michael takes far more photos of me from the rear than from the front. That will inspire a girl to keep on her diet, let me tell you. These are big files so you can click on them to get the full detail of that wonderful Art Deco wall art in the Empire State.

What We Did in Manhattan

Remember that scene in "Cars" when Lightning McQueen is talking to the two SUVs from Minnesota and they just go "bloop bloop" because they had no idea what he was talking about? This happened to me as I talked with a friend at church about our trip to Manhattan on Saturday. Nothing we did seemed like something she would choose to do on a day in Manhattan. It was pretty funny actually. So here's what we did:

We went to the Chrysler building but couldn't go up it. But just seeing the exterior (see photo) was awesome. The foyer is amazing. We went to the New York Public Library (that's me with the lion) and channeled Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in the famous reading room. We both picked up a reference book and read. It's what you do in a library, right? We also went to the Empire State Building but didn't go up. It was very crowded and a bit chilly. I don't think it would have been fun. But again, the lobby was iconic. We also went to the Guggenheim but didn't actually visit the museum. It was packed and the big exhibit was Kandinsky. My apologies to Michael's sister who is such a fan that she named a cat after him, but I'm not that big on his stuff. The exterior and interior both were beautiful. There are details on the building which you only get when you see it up close. We visited the museum shop which was pretty intense as museum shops go. Then we actually went into a museum, the Cooper-Hewitt. Not on my top list of museums to go to, but we were on foot and it was close. It was totally worth the visit. It's the old Vanderbilt mansion. If you really want to see wealth, it oozes from every inch of this building. We also spent a fair amount of time in Grand Central Station (actually Grand Central Terminal but who's going to call it that?). We could have pretended to be lots of people here: Cary Grant in "North by Northwest" comes immediately to mind. Another incredible building architecturally. We ate lunch in a cafe in the Empire State Building and dinner at Grand Central Station. The food may have not been the best, but what can you say about the ambience. It was a wonderful day!

Got upgraded

My bone density scores are in. I'm usually good at taking tests, but I've been failing this one for years. I was really, really worried because of the months of inactivity caused by the sciatica problem I had. But amazingly, my spine number is in the normal range for the first time in maybe ten years? My hip is still not so good, but it didn't get any worse in the past two years. I guess that was much better than I could have hoped for. The three main things that fight osteoporosis are calcium, medications and exercise. And I failed miserably at one of those. So I'm still fighting it and making slow progress. And I hope all you young ones out there are exercising, getting enough calcium either in your diet or in tablets, and that you're getting vitamin D2 or D3. We didn't know what to do when I was young. You young women have the advantage. Who told me what I could do in my youth to avoid being a tiny bent-over little old lady? No one.

Fall leaves and Happy Halloween

The leaves are almost all gone now, but I wanted to share two photos. One is my back yard seen through the branches of the maple tree. The other is a calling card that autumn left at my back door. Seriously, we came home and there was this one red leaf stuck in the door jamb. It stayed there for days. Looked very cool.

I played my violin today at a big church meeting. Something I really never like doing. But I got to conduct the stake women's choir on two numbers. It was totally awesome. I love conducting and these ladies were good. Wonderful experience.

The weather is yucky tonight so I'm not sure whether or not I'll have trick or treaters, especially with the flu going around. But I'm ready for them if they come. Sweetarts, Now and Laters and Sugar Daddy pops. It was just too cruel to buy chocolate candy since I can't have it. So I opted for some things I hope kids will like. I haven't made any sales on my Etsy shop today. First day I've gotten goose egg since I opened it last week. I'm hoping it's because it's a holiday.

Michael left at 7 AM to go to work and he's still not back at 5:25PM. Working Saturdays and Sundays stinks and he's done a lot of them lately.

Wish I could see my grandchildren in their trick or treat outfits. But the pictures I've already seen are great. I know they will have fun.

Sore Muscles

I know you're probably tired of cemetery pictures but I tried to make these more interesting. I went to Fern Knoll where my grandparents are buried. It was a beautiful misty day. I had stopped off at the hardware store for a trowel (our old one is in a box somewhere) and a kneeling pad. I also took gardening gloves, a bucket, a black plastic garbage bag, an umbrella since it was threatening rain, and, of course, my camera. My goal was to uncover my grandmother's marker. I started with my grandfather since I could actually see part of his name. The picture shows just how much stuff I took off of it. My muscles are so sore! The stuff on the markers wasn't dirt. It was pine straw and hemlock needles which has turned into a kind of peat. I could actually roll it off the marker like carpet. I also did my grandmother's and four more. Hence, the soreness. I was using some muscles that needed a workout, I guess.

I've been talking about my cousin, J, and here she is. I feel bad I didn't have Michael take a picture of both of us together. She's standing in Shawnee Cemetery in Tamaqua.

Otherwise, a very dear friend in Denton, K, let me know yesterday that her dissertation was accepted and she's now a PhD. Hooray! And my Etsy shop is going great.

A Cemetery, Etsy and my maple tree

First my maple tree. It's enormous. You cannot even see my house. I'm approaching it from the back. But because of the weird fall, it did not turn red this year. So I guess we get variety. This year it turned yellow. In fact, most of the trees turned yellow this year. The exception is always the burning bush which is more hot pink than red in some varieties.

Second, the cemetery is Fern Knoll in Dallas. It's five minutes from my house. I have over fifty relatives buried here. It is quite gorgeous to walk through the Pennsylvania cemeteries in the fall. I'm going to have to take a yearly pilgrimage. I realized after the fact that I could have brought my GPS and marked the exact spot of the graves in all the cemeteries we visited. That would avoid a lot of tromping around.

Lastly, I have opened my own Etsy shop. My two daughters, N and G, have shops and they create things. But I'm just selling off the patterns I inherited. I had no idea what would happen when I cranked it up. I posted nine patterns last night and by this morning I had sold three. One was so hot that two people wanted it.

Who buys a pattern at 2:30 AM? (Well, it was a California sale so it was only 12:30PM for them.) But still... And one sale gets shippped to Spain. How exciting is that? If I can't go, at least my pattern can. I'll let you know how it goes. Just go to the Etsy website (www.etsy.com) and search sellers. My name is CoconutPie. If I were not so tired I'd have a link here. Ah well!

Couldn't resist

I know I should be blogging about all the wonderful family history stuff we discovered but I couldn't resist sharing these two. You'll have to click to enlarge both of them to get the full effect.

First picture: A large independent grocery store called the Sunshine Market went out of business recently. I really liked it but it was too far for me to go to shop. This is an ad for another local grocery chain called "Weis." If you can't read the ad, it says, "A Weis sunny welcome to our friends, old and new. Though Sunshine Market is closing...the sun's shining brightly at Weis." Ya think? Woo-hoo, another competitor out of business! I have no idea who thought up this tactless ad campaign, but I was appalled. Holy Schadenfreude! If you don't know the word "schadenfreude," it's an excellent one. It means "pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others."

Second picture: This one you must enlarge because it would spoil it to explain it. As I was taking pictures of the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Tamaqua, PA, I glanced over at a family crypt. Look carefully at the sign and the name on the crypt. It was just too good a photo to pass up. The family name was Hadesty, by the way.

Must run. I have lots of writing to catch up on. More important posts later, but you, like me, must need a laugh today.

150th Anniversary

Michael played in a concert yesterday, October 18th, with the Hazleton Liberty Band, celebrating its 150th anniversary. The concert began at the exact time the band was formed 150 years ago. They have all the records for the band (in the beginning in German) and have played continuously since that time. They enlisted as a group two years after they formed and served in the Civil War. This band still has the instruments that went to war.

It was really fun to see these folks celebrate a really old tradition in their town. Hazleton is south of us but still in the same county. They played the Hazleton Liberty Band March which was written for them by one of their directors, lots of patriotic tunes, a quickstep and a polka (Michael was very important to that number) and show tunes, movie tunes and even a cartoon medley. The crowd was rather elderly so the Animaniacs theme song was totally unknown to most of them. But they grooved on the Flintstones. I ended up being the official photographer. Somehow the newspaper missed the event. The last number was Auld Lang Syne which was played at Appomattox at the surrender. This band may have been the group which played it. They were definitely in attendance that day. In any case, a very historic and entertaining evening. And Michael played beautifully. He was oompah-perfect.

On another topic altogether, I'm wishing my darling daughter G a happy birthday today. She's come a long way since the days when she wore her favorite "I'm Three" barrettes. But she's still a cute little number.

Genealogy Spree

My cousin Judy came over from Chicago to do genealogical research and we hit a gold mine everywhere we went. It helped that she has this magic laptop with all of her fabulous research entered into it. Everywhere we went she could just bring up the info she already had and tie it into the new info we were finding everywhere.

We've managed to stand at the graves of our great-grandparents, our grandparents, several great-great grandparents and a great-great-great grandmother. We also found random things like a framed paper napkin with our grandmother's name on it from 1908. She had attended a class party. We found a stack of obits in local newspapers and found out that a great-grandfather and a great-great grandfather had been well-known for their singing abilities.

It's been completely amazing to find out all of these facts and realize that our ancestors in some cases were pretty important people around here. The downside is that of the fifty-plus graves of family members at Fern Knoll Cemetery, just up the road from my house, maybe ten are in good shape. The rest are buried and Michael and I will have a nice outing in the spring with shovels digging out the brass and marble plaques that are completely overgrown.

The first photo is of the plots in Fern Knoll where many more of my ancestors are buried than I believed possible. More on that strange story in the next post. The second picture, sadly, is all that you can see of my grandmother Florence's grave. It has been completely covered by pine needles and hemlock needles. So cleaning up all the family graves is a project I will complete when it stops snowing (maybe next April.)

Wacky wonderful Texas

It was great being back in Texas. The "welcome" mat is my daughter's who goes all out to decorate for Halloween. She has a pink Halloween tree with black garland and little stretchy skeletons hanging by the neck from black ribbon. She also has a big sign on the door that says "morgue." The black cat is my son's. His name is Winston. Z is living in a house with a couple of guys. The one who owns the house is a friend from childhood. The house is beautiful and spacious. About as unlike a boys' apartment as you can imagine. I also got to visit with Wrecks, Feynman and Mikey, the animals that keep my daughter company.

I loved the sky in Texas even if it was gray. And the parking spaces! Oh my goodness, they were so huge! There's just a lot of room there. The house in the photo was a surprise. Click on the photo for a close-up view. I was driving up Old North road toward the church building and saw this shack on the side of the road. It was in an area that had been laid out for lots and then abandoned. My thought was, "I don't remember a shack being there." Then I realized that it was a new construction. The whole neighborhood looks like sharecropper houses to me. Siding and weird shingles, tin roofs on the porches. You get the picture. It's the newest (oldest) thing. The houses reminded me of a lot of old houses here in PA, houses built in the twenties and thirties. Weird.

It was wonderful to see lots of old friends. I cried in the Kroger. I miss it so much. I brought back a suitcase full of Biskits. And I went back to Denton High and had lunch with my former department. That was also a thrill.

Also, there seems to be no recession in North Texas. Things are still booming which was pleasant to see.

I've been happy here in PA but the feeling I got when I left Denton was that it was a great place to raise our kids. We chose that town and Michael managed his career so that we would end up there. I realized this trip that we had made an excellent choice. It has everything: it's near a huge city with amazing museums and music, it has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, there are two big universities that offered our kids a lot of opportunities, our kids got a fine public education and Denton is home to lots and lots of church members. I'm glad we were able to live there as long as we did.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

The first half of my trip last week was for Dad's 90th birthday. I was in Shreveport from Friday to Sunday. The weather was gorgeous and the family came out in full force. All but three of the grandchildren were there for the party and two of the great-grandchildren. (All of the children, of course, as my brothers and I put on the party.) My brother Keith is a newlywed and his new bride was absolutely essential. She planned all the decorating and she and Keith did a huge amount of work to put the party together. So thanks to them.

I also got to see my favorite uncle. Uncle Jim was there to tell great stories and I even got to bring home tapes of his best ones from Forest Hill, LA. The photos are of me with my Uncle Jim and my dad who is seated in the photo. The other photos are of my mom and the gorgeous birthday cake.

It was an awesome party and I think it came off without too much worry on my mom's part. I especially loved seeing all the first cousins and some spouses have a great time outside. Except for one young one who is still in elementary school, there is only an eight-year spread between all the Jones cousins who are in their early thirties or twenties. So the kids had a great visit.

I have a wonderful family and this kind of family get-together gives me something to look forward to as my children get older. I'd really like to have all of my kids and their spouses and kids together for a celebration and family get-together for our 40th anniversary. So that gives us until 2011 to work out the details.

Denton High School and other places

I went to Denton High School for lunch today. It was as if I had never left. Old friends have remained true and faithful. However, Denton High has not stayed the same. It's vast. They've added a whole new wing at the end of what we used to call the freshman or "West" wing. And they're adding another whole building. They've also completed a huge new field house. How could they do that so quickly? I got to see oodles of great folks and it was wonderful to see a few of my former students. The last batch I taught as freshmen are now seniors so I actually recognized a few faces.

I also went out to lunch with an old friend. That was so much fun. I had coconut cream pie. It's pretty hard to find a good piece of pie in Wilkes-Barre. This was the real thing with homemade custard and honest-to-goodness homemade pie crust. We had such a lovely time. Our husbands' careers are similar and we both have unmarried children. There was a lot to talk about. I realized that although the people in Wilkes-Barre are amazingly great, I haven't had the opportunity to develop those close friendships like I had in Denton. Tomorrow I get to see more old friends and tonight dinner with the children. They get the speech. For the unitiated, whenever one of our children did something remarkable or when they made straight A's we took them out and treated them to a meal or ice cream. There was always a speech though. We told them how proud we were of them. So tonight's speech will feature some mighty good grades, a scholarship or two and other accomplishments. Fun, fun, fun. And to my other two, I'm sorry I can't take you out too because you both deserve a good speech as well.

Home Sweet Texas

The birthday party in Shreveport was wonderful. I'll be posting pictures when I get home. We got a great turnout and it was really fun to see all the cousins (two of my kids and all but one of the others) visiting together. My parents will be getting three new great grandkids next year so that was fun. One was announced to my parents on Dad's birthday. None of them will be mine which is also unusual. Keith will have two new ones and Kevin his first.

I'm in Texas now and it feels good to be home. On the way to and from DFW to Shreveport and back I don't think I drove on more than a few miles of dry pavement. On the way to Denton Sunday afternoon I counted six cars that had run off the road. There was so much water. I even saw a doe and her fawn wading up to their chests off the side of the Interstate. I don't think I've ever seen a deer on I-20.

I had a great visit with N and Z last night and today I eat lunch with my buds at Denton High. I hope to see a few more old friends while I'm here. There were no church meetings on Sunday since it was general conference so I missed out on an opportunity to see a whole lot of folk on Sunday. But it worked out. I really needed to stay and help mom get beds made and the house somewhat back in order after the big party.

Denton still feels like home, so does Louisiana. And when I get home to PA it will also feel like home. I guess that's a good thing. The more homes the better, right?

Pictures and trip to Texas/Louisiana

I promised pictures and here they are. The gorgeous canned goods are from the central market. This was an Amish booth. And the choo-choo is a real working small scale steam engine at the Strasburg Railroad. Strasburg has a full-size steam engine with dining car which you can ride and the Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum. Fun! We didn't see either the museum or ride but we got to watch the steam engine come and go which was a thrill. And we saw the big locomotives outside the museum. We'll have to go back for that.

I'm on my way to Texas and Louisiana. I hope to see friends there. I'll be in Denton beginning Sunday night and leaving Wednesday morning. Monday night is reserved for my best buds in Denton, my children Z and N. I'll be in Louisiana for my dad's 90th birthday. How cool is that? So I'm off.