In The Swim

It started out to be a doubly cold week here… cold outdoors and colds in our noses. Fortunately we woke up today to a bright warm sunshine and reasonably unstuffed noses. Little J’s first swim lesson was a huge success.

 

Real Easter Eggs?

In the midst of our annual church egg hunting Little J drew a crowd of attention when he discovered a nest. No one touched the egg speculating that possibly it is a real egg.

 

Turning 60

 

So this is what happens when one turns 60. Pretty Scary huh? Big Brother is helping me find a place to spend my final decade and was so kind as to send me an article about an assisted living place near him… accompanied with a picture of a bunch of senior red hatters.

Jelly Belly

Did someone mention Jelly Belly? After consuming a Jelly Belly pizza, Little J was anxious to get on with the Jelly Belly Factory tour. He found out it takes 7-21 days to make a jelly bean and less than a minute to eat one. There are over 50 flavors but he was impressed with only one…lemon-lime. Grandma got her bag of jelly flops and realizes that at 4 calories per jelly belly she will need to be careful with her portions lest that 20 pounds she just lost could reappear overnight. Grandpa decided to keep his personal jelly belly and headed straight for the giant chocolate rocky road muffins – they don’t tell you how many calories there are in those.

 

Spring Blossoms

There are some strange things growing in the trees around here this spring.

 

East Bay Then and Now

 

We made yet another trip to Mountain View Cemetery, the 3rd this week. This time we went to meet author Dennis Evanosky and purchased two of his books. Little J was intrigued to talk to Dennis and have our copies signed. His favorite of the two is Eastbay Then and Now and it kept him occupied for a good portion of the afternoon. His interest waned with Mountain View Cemetery when he couldn’t find the Grim Reaper in there.  

Lipstick on my...

Funny, I just saw Sunshine Cleaning, a movie about cleaning up the worst parts of life (and death). I have a minor cleaning problem (depending on how you look at it). When I got home I threw a load of dark clothes in the washer. I remembered to throw them in the dryer at dinner time. Half way through dinner we heard a "pop"... then another... and another. My first thought was to accuse Little J of storing microwave popcorn in the dryer. Then I thought it might be a maintenance issue with the dryer. By them time I got to the dryer I had this incredible fear of shrapnel injuries when opening the door. Well I mustered up the courage and as I was pulling out the clothes, out popped a lipstick tube, melted lipstick oozing out the sides. So now what do I do?... my clothes look like they've been attacked with paintball spatter. I re-washed them... no luck. Shall I tie dye them, see if I can start a new fad, or go shopping?

I did go online and search for lipstick stains... there's plenty of info out there for guilty men with lipstick on their collars but I'd be afraid to try toothpaste, ammonia, or alcohol on my dark clothes. Plus it would be an endless task to try to get to all the spots. HELP

Cemetaries and Feasts

After yesterday's sad funeral for an old friend, today I returned to Mountain View Cemetary for the Tulip Exhibit. First I checked out the panoramic view of the bay area from our friend's gravesite high on the hill. It was truly a beautiful site on this glorious spring day, a spectacular final resting place. All the exhibits were colorful, imaginative and creative but for or some reason us red hatters were drawn to this. Rather than indulging in a bittersweet temptation, we hurried down the street for a caloric absorbtion of the extraordinary proportions at Fenton's Creamery.

Barbie's Red Hat Birthday

In celebration of Barbie's qualification as a Red Hatter yesterday I brought out the Barbie's and her friends.

There is this box of old dolls, some of them Barbie's, tucked away on the top shelf of my closet. Little Sister wrote her name all over the top of the box. Then she gave the box to me for storage. The dolls are familiar. There's a bunch of hand made clothes in there, clothes that Grandma made out of bits and scraps of material. Now here's the kink in the story... Little Sister insists the dolls were hers. I insist they were mine. Some of the doll cloths match dresses Grandma made for me. I'm thinking now that maybe some of the dolls were mine and some hers. Hers would be the decapitated one, I'm sure of that.

Good News Bad News

Little J snuggled under his covers last night, without a lot of drama much to my relief. It always feels like a miracle when the bedtime routine is accomplished in less than 20 minutes. But, in spite of my own exhaustion, I had to return to his room when he called me back with, "Grandma, don't you want to hear the good news bad news?"

It's not our usual routine to discuss good news bad news. We usually just do the what's-the-best-thing-that-happened-today routine. Curiosity brought me back to his bedside.


"OK, what is it?" I asked.


"Well do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

I thought for a minute before responding, "maybe you better give me the bad first to get it out of the way."

He squirmed a bit under the blanket. I'm thinking this must be really bad. "I dropped my new Pikachu toothbrush in the toilet." I'm thinking, well there goes another $6.99 toothbrush plus who knows what for the plumber. Before I could think any further, he follows up with the good news. "Grandma, here's the good news... I didn't flush the toilet."