Birthday cake and good books

Just like the car that won't act up when you take it to the mechanic's shop, Michael's cake wouldn't act up this year. I was hoping for a really funny picture to post but the fudge frosting actually came out perfect this year. One of only three or four times it has done so in the past thirty or so years. I know I've been making the cake since 1973 at least because I remember it drooling all over the floor in the Mayflower apartments in Iowa City. I'm not really complaining. He has enjoyed it thoroughly and I have even found that I can have a small, small sliver each night without waking up with a migraine at 3:00 A.M.

People have been posting a list of one hundred books on Facebook. Supposedly some list made up by the BBC. It was an interesting list wherever it came from. I picked a few off the list to look up at the library. We found a couple. Michael just finished Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and loved it. I have really enjoyed the first 900 pages of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Only four hundred more pages to go. Truly, you have to block out some time to read this novel. Because if you wait too long between reading sessions, you lose the thread and can't keep the characters straight. But I feel like I'm getting the whole culture of India in the 1950's in one book.

Michael's birthday today

We are making such good friends here but because of Michael's unpredictable schedule, I didn't feel I could invite people over tonight. I get very nostalgic at birthdays because we used to have so much fun en famille. It will be tough this year with just the two of us. I don't even remember his birthday last year. I'm assuming we were apart which was even lonelier than this will be.

In our home, you always get to pick what you have for dinner and what cake or dessert you want. Remembering what all the kids used to ask for makes me miss them. NS may remember that putting candles in lemon meringue pie is very difficult. MF's was my favorite dinner to make because she wanted what I like best, fried chicken with rice and cream gravy.

But Michael's birthday always keeps me busy. He's never able to narrow his choices for what he wants for dinner so I make suggestions. The suggestion he took this year is spaghetti with sweet Italian sausage. But the cake is a no-brainer, it's the white cake with his mother's fudge icing recipe. In an act of great nobleness this year, he offered to have something else since I'm having trouble standing. But I will just have to sit on a stool or something since I only make it once a year. Here is why. His mother wasn't the best cook in the world, but she was a wonderful baker and could get that fudge icing right every single time. I either have puddles of icing on the floor because the fudge didn't set up or a big clump of fudge lying on the top of the cake because it got too hard before I could spread it. He never seems to mind that I seem incapable of doing this recipe and loves it in all its permutations. I will definitely post a picture of the cake so that everyone can laugh at me.

I have to share this in case I forget. My physical therapist told me something very funny today. We were talking about Texas and I told him how much I missed the sunrises and sunsets. He said he had had a client from Kansas who complained, "You have no sky here!" He couldn't understand it. When he looked up outside, he saw sky. But I totally know what she meant. You only see a little piece of sky at a time and no horizons at all!

Buenos Aires

Hm-m-m. I've been wondering what it would take to get me writing again. I think I know. Buenos Aires. I found (quite by accident) a low-residency MFA program that includes fiction and nonfiction for children in Louisville, KY. Too late to apply for this year but their residency program is in Buenos Aires next summer (2010). You can get your degree in three semesters if you've already published a book by the time you get there. So I've got a year to get a book contract. I have wanted to go to Buenos Aires for a long time. Me and Evita, baby. Getting an MFA is not something I'd considered until now. I was always pretty good at school but getting into a program in the arts is another thing altogether.

If not Buenos Aires, then maybe Chautauqua. This is a special Highlights children's writer's conference in New York. Just up the road five hours or so. No biggie for someone used to Texas driving. But the tuition is almost two thousand dollars! Yipes. More motivation to make enough money to do that. I also found by accident that a very well-known children's writer (who teaches at this MFA program in KY) lives close by in Moscow, PA. I've sent her an email asking for an interview for an article in an online newsletter I write for.

On another topic altogether (OATA--is that an acronym in texting language like LOL?) my friend Steve sent me the obit of a family friend named Beth Krush who did those miraculous illustrations in The Borrowers books. I remember all of them so clearly. So does Michael. I had no idea Steve knew her. She grew up in Forty Fort. Her work made quite a favorable impression on me when I was a kid.

I'm getting more focused all the time. This is a good thing. It's like deciding what you want to be when you grow up. I'm not sure I'm ready to make that decision yet. (Neither is Michelle Obama. I heard her say that in a video the other day.)

Well, BTW. (Back to writing.)

Egregious behavior

"Egregious" used to mean "extraordinary" but now it means "extraordinary in a bad way." At last, the media powers-that-be have recognized the egregious behavior attributed to our local judges. According to the Times-Leader this morning, 20/20 is going to do a show on the local scandal. I really thought the idea of getting kickbacks for sending kids to jail was "dethpicable." Evidently the editors of 20/20 agree.

I clipped from the newspaper a recent letter to the editor from Philip E. Galasso of Shickshinny (I still love the town names around here.) He's decided that the county is so corrupt, it should just be parted out to surrounding counties. He says, "Since Wilkes-Barre would no longer be a county seat, what could we do with the courthouse? May I suggest that the building be turned over to the city, gutted and converted to a sewage pumping station?" You gotta love this guy.

On the home front, I did apply for a part-time job yesterday. I figured that if I'm not sending out queries at home, I should be looking for some income outside the house. Not that I'm going to get it. A person I know received 65 resumes for a $10.00-an-hour job he posted recently. Times are certainly tough in Luzerne County.

Valentine's Day in PA

If one of the reasons for my blog is to tell about the differences between Texas and here, I have to mention the Valentine's Day restaurant phenomenon. In Texas, we never ever went out on Valentine's Day because a) reservations were impossible to get and b) all the nice restaurants had special Valentine's Day menus. This meant that it cost twice as much to go out on Valentine's Day than any other day. I am reminded of the story I was once told of a gas station owner outside of Salt Lake (sort of a last chance-type location) who used to charge a lot more for cigarettes than the gas stations in the city. When he was asked why he charged so much more he said, "I make more." Obviously, the restaurant managers in Denton have figured out that people will fill their restaurants on Valentine's Day and that if they charge more, they make more. I've mentioned this to several people here and they were all shocked! Just something they don't do around here. But the stores get into the gift giving and flowers and stuff. And as I came in the door of the Weis grocery store, they were hand-dipping strawberries to order. Pretty good marketing. They also had huge Delmonico steaks in a case near the front door. They were butterflied! Michael wondered if they were for stuffing with crab or lobster. In newspaper ads I noticed that crab and lobster are very Valentine's Day appropriate. It is nice living close to the Atlantic!

I'm in physical therapy as of Wednesday for some leg pain I've been having which is actually caused by lower back problems. The doctor and the PT say it's not serious based on my reflexes etc. But my activities are much reduced. And the PT asked me to avoid climbing stairs often. I laughed! The bathroom is upstairs, the laundry and kitchen are downstairs, the bedroom and computer room are upstairs, the television is downstairs, the books are upstairs, the CDs and DVDs are downstairs. You get the picture. Michael says I should carry a little backpack with essentials to avoid going up and down the stairs. I just can't seem to get healthy here in PA. If it's not one thing, it's another. I'm plenty frustrated.

In spite of my limitations, I did make us a Valentine's Day dinner yesterday. We were going out to dinner last night and would have done it today but we had a last-minute appointment (which was canceled, of course). So only one nice dinner this weekend instead of two. I tried to copy a dish I loved in a Denton restaurant, Veal Francaise. It came out rather nicely. And we had fettucine and salad and I dipped some strawberries in that easy microwaveable stuff you buy in the produce department. The best I could do with limited standing up time. It worked out well, considering.

My plan to save the economy

I've been pondering all this money I'm paying for bailouts and realizing that I'm not benefiting from this at all. I'm not going out to work on a construction project and I'm not buying a car and I'm sure not buying another house this year. I realize that if things bounce back I benefit in the long term, but who knows how long that will be? So here's my plan for jump starting the economy.

Everybody who voted (I think that's fair. If you didn't care enough to vote, why should I pay you money?) gets $500.00 to spend. There are a few strings attached.

Firstly, you don't really get the money. You get it deducted directly off your tax bill when you file this year. (Already filed? Then you'll have to file an amended return. Nobody should be that organized anyway.) If you didn't make enough to pay income tax for 2008, then you'll have to file to get the $500.00 back in the form of a refund.

Secondly, you have to spend it within the next 30 days AND you have to spend it on something that will directly benefit an American. This means that you can't go to Wal-Mart and buy some cheap Chinese toy for your kid or get the latest iPod made in Taiwan. Sorry. You have to buy American-grown food, American clothing or fabric, furniture, whatever or you have to pay an American for a service like getting your hair cut or having your yard mowed or your car repaired. Etsy.com has thousands of things you can buy that were made right here in Murica. Check out www.madeinusaforever.com for more ideas. Save your receipts so you can prove that the money was spent on American goods or services.

What's wrong with this plan?

Don't have the $500.00 to spend? This does present a problem for those living close to the bone. This plan is mainly to get people like me who have that much tucked away to stop putting it in the bank for fear that things will get worse. But you can probably find a way to come up with the money or get easy credit terms if you know you're getting it back in just a few months after you file. Even if you had to pay some interest, you're still getting $500.00 worth of free stuff.

Paperwork? I laugh at paperwork. This would just be part of your tax return and the onus of proof is on you. You'd have to provide legitimate receipts. If you cheat, it's tax fraud. And I'm sure stores and people who do services would figure out pretty quick how to verify that you purchased an American-made item or used American labor. And the tax code would have to be tweaked. There are tons of out-of-work Wall Street types who could work on that.

The cost? I'm lousy at big numbers but if approximately 122 million people voted in the last election, then the cost is, I think, only 61 billion dollars. Dirt cheap compared to the latest bailout numbers. And the most beautiful thing about this is that the $500.00 you pay the guy to prune your trees might be spent on something else rather than get put in a savings account. And there are no restrictions on how that money gets spent. Everyone in the world benefits, not just Americans.

Imagine the kick to the economy if 61,000,000,000 dollars got pumped into it next month! This makes at least as much sense to me as the plans they're coming up with in Washington.

Valentine's Day--Not just for grownups

I loved Valentine's Day when I was a kid, and I still do. Sometimes we think of V-Day in terms of sweethearts, but I spent far more time with my kids doing Valentine's Day stuff than I ever did with Michael. At home we did tons of activities: making treats (I think I have five different heart-shaped cookie cutters), helping with classroom Valentines, making homemade Valentines for family members and even decorating a little. And I wasn't wild about the disruptions, but Valentine's Day at the high school was interesting too with carnation deliveries and fun activities in class. The upper levels were not allowed to speak English as they colored and did puzzles and watched my dumb Rugrags (Razmoquet) Valentine video I bought in Quebec. A few years we even sent Valentines to the upper level German classes. It was one of my favorite days of the year.

So here I am in PA with no kids. Sad, huh? But I've actually had a blast already making handmade Valentines. The Prague ones had to be made especially early. I mailed the Utah ones today and the Texas ones go out tomorrow. Who knows if any of them will arrive on time? But I sure had fun. I love my box of 64 crayons. It's mauvelous!

5.3? What kind of temperature is that?

Two days ago I got excited because I thought the outside temp thermometer in my office read 53. It was actually 5.3 instead. Ha ha! But today Michael says it's supposed to get up into the fifties. So maybe I wasn't being too hopelessly optimistic. Maybe we can try out those hiking poles today!

I've decided that my writing career is going nowhere because I can't work in chaos. So for the past few days I've been cleaning out filing cabinets and trying to get the office in order. I also read the other day that said that you shouldn't go back to old projects and keep trying to sell them. The writer said to remember that your writing is better now than it was yesterday and that you've got better stuff in you yet to come. (Tell that to Joseph Heller.)

I am officially on a diet. Every woman I know has a magic number beyond which she will not go. I've hit mine plus two. So it's time to slim down and get in shape. I'll let you know how it goes. In any case, Michael is getting good food as I am cooking healthier meals.

Another missed birthday

What's bad about living in PA? You can't bake your son a birthday cake! So he goes cakeless this year unless the restaurant he is going to with some Supra guys provides some. But again, technology saves the day and I got to chat with him between his classes. His dad will call him tonight. Happy birthday, Z!

On the local front, the corruption scandal is spreading like cancer. It's hard to keep up. Not only was the newest accused official siphoning off confiscated illegal gambling funds (a crime to which he has agreed to plead guilty) but he has half his family on the payroll (not a crime but don't you wish it were?).

It was 11 degrees this morning when I checked the temp. It has warmed up to 23 in the bright sunshine. Br-r-r. I am truly grateful to be able to afford our whopping gas bill this month.

Happy Birthday, V and new word for snow

V is three. We had a great chat with her this morning via Skype. At 6:15 AM here we can catch her right before her nap in Prague. So Grandpa Bond (Michael) got to be in on the call. We're only six hours earlier here. Being one hour closer than Texas actually makes a difference. It gives us a bigger window of time to talk to MF and family.

It's a myth that the Inuit people have many words for snow, but I gotta tell you. We could use a few up here. Sometimes it's like being in a snowglobe with lots of small flakes whirling around. And sometimes the snow is sleety or feathery. But there needs to be a new name for what came down yesterday. The snow was coming down in big fluffy clumps almost like small cotton balls. Since there was zero wind and because the snow was so light, it stuck to everything. My clothesline is about an inch tall. It's a shame that my yard is only used by a bunny, a squirrel and a cardinal. What a party a bunch of Denton kids could have in my yard today! Some of the kids in the neighborhood do go sledding and build snowmen. My favorite yard has a whole bunch of snow rabbits with plastic Easter egg eyes. Snow bunnies! Get it?

So what did Michael give me?

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to see what Michael got us for our anniversary. (Well, I was waiting with bated breath anyway.) He actually gave me a present of my own. He started a tradition by giving me a pair of earrings for our first grandchild and promised a pair for all upcoming numbers. When they started coming very quickly I realized that a more realistic goal would be to get a pair for every granddaughter. Granddaughter number three is now represented by sparkly gold hoops given on a very romantic occasion in a very romantic restaurant since her name is so romantic. And I'll think of her every time I wear them. We'll wait a bit to see what granddaughter four is like before I get a pair to wear in her honor.

The present he'd bought for both of us was a set of matching hiking poles. We loved watching people use these in Switzerland when we went a few years ago. I liked the idea of using two poles for balance and stability. And since Northeast PA is the land of beautiful hikes, it is a great present. Unfortunately, we're doing a little bit of gift of the magi right now. I have sciatica from shoveling snow and he fell trying to get his car out of an icy snowbank. So he's pulled some back muscles and is walking bent on a diagonal. Thus, we did not get to go out and try out our poles on Saturday. But we will go as soon as possible. We may, however, have to purchase special snow baskets for the bottom of our poles as it is snowing heavily as I type.

Michael is fascinated by the poles because they're very high-tech. They're made by Leki, a German company, and they're beautiful and well-engineered. They only weigh a few ounces and telescope so that they fit in a small backpack and can be packed in a suitcase for a trip back to Switzerland! I am fascinated by clear, running water and there are hundreds of streams and waterfalls to see around here. I was never much interested in hiking in Texas. Wonder why? Could it be that brown, algae-covered water covered with mosquitoes isn't my ideal? But while we're here, I plan to see as much of the beautiful outdoors as possible. And, of course, a return to the Alps is definitely on the agenda.

I think he did great and I can see why he was so excited about them. And it's a totally appropriate Pennsylvania present. My poles are designed for women and are Diva models. So watch out PA, the hiking diva is coming!