After The Storm.......

My dad called today, to see if we were affected by Katrina. He said that the aftermath of the storm is all over the news up north, and even though we're in Texas, not Louisiana, he said he just wanted "to be sure." "You know how those weathermen are.... they never get anything right," he told me.

The headline of today's Chronicle was "Heartbreaking." Underneath that, you could see photographs of the devastation of Louisiana and Mississippi. Portions of I-10 (the interstate between Texas and Louisiana) were just washed away by the storm, as if the bridges over the swamps had been constructed with Legos instead of steel and concrete.

Just a couple of years ago, my husband and I drove across I-10 on our way to New Orleans for a summer weekend trip. Such a historic city surrounded by neighborhoods filled with incredibly beautiful homes and lush gardens. Katrina has left her mark on that city now and heaven only knows how long it will take for it to bounce back.

I just couldn't imagine having to evacuate our home and pray that something is left standing after the storm recedes. And what did those people do with their dogs and cats? Surely the shelters wouldn't have been able to make room for countless house-pets. I told my husband that if that ever happened to us here, then we'd be taking both cars so we could drive as far north as possible with Gracie and our four cats. No way would I be leaving any of them behind.

This Bead's For You.......

Or maybe that should be "This bead isn't for you, so don't touch it!"

Mickey Kitty not only loves shoes, but he's very interested in anything with beads, tassels, or glass prisms. Being that our home is very Victorian in style, there's lots of beads and tassels and prisms.

This little kitten is getting very used to being inside the house now. So much so that he doesn't much like it when I put him out on the screen-porch and shut the window so he can't get back in. I did just that last night while we were having dinner (steamed gulf shrimp and fresh-grown corn)... and wouldn't you know it, Mickey Kitty managed to squeeze himself through the two-inch space between the bottom of the window and the sill. Did I neglect to mention that Mickey Kitty also loves steamed shrimp? (We're still shaking our heads over the fact that he was able to squeeze himself through that narrow space. I guess freshly steamed shrimp is a good incentive.)

Other than his fascination with all things covered with beads, rhinestones, tassels, and other embellishments, Mickey Kitty is growing into a very fine little cat. Sometimes when he wears himself out playing (or chasing the other cats) he will just sit in the middle of the living room or breakfast room and just look around. I hope he's reminding himself that he lucked-out in coming to live here, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he will learn to be as gentle with the things in this house as the other cats are.

This afternoon, I couldn't keep Mickey Kitty away from a Victorian fan that I keep on the table near the sofa in the breakfast room. Not only does the fan look pretty sitting on the table, but it comes in handy when I get a hot flash. Mickey Kitty managed to hook his little paw through the ring of the fan and he scooped it up and let it drop on the floor, where he discovered if he moved it clockwise with his paw, the fan would spin on the tile like magic.

No sooner had I gotten him to leave the fan alone, and he found that if he ran his paw along the beaded edge of the lamp that's on the sofa table in the breakfast room, all the hanging beads make a tinkling sound which he finds hard to resist.

Nothing like a new kitten to remind you of everything that's in one house (or just one room) that can capture the attention of a tiny golden-brown-eyed bundle of fur.

Clear Lake Balloon Fest -&- Jingle Cat-Bells

We went out to dinner last night and got back into town in time to see the hot-air balloons lifting off from the grounds of the Johnson Space Center. The traffic on NASA Road One was practically at a stand-still as cars pulled off to the sides of the road to watch the balloons. One balloon was having a particularly difficult time getting up into the air. No matter how hard the crew tried, they just couldn't seem to inflate the balloon enough to make it rise higher than twenty feet into the air.

We watched some of the balloons going up, then noticed that one of them was headed towards the local college, so we drove up that way following the path of the balloon. We thought the balloon pilot was heading towards the soccer field on campus, but just before he reached that area, he slowly let the balloon drift down into a field behind a small office complex across from the college. How he managed to land on such a small patch of grass was just amazing, but he must've had it planned because he had people there waiting to grab onto the ropes and secure the balloon as it deflated on the ground.

The last weekend of August is usually set aside for the balloon festival here. We can see a lot of the balloons from the park in our subdivision, being that we're not that far from the Space Center. Sort of magical, to see them floating around in the sky. I don't want to go up in one, but I like to watch them soaring.

Mickey Kitty has now learned to go in and out of the breakfast room window. It was easier than I thought it would be to teach him, but I had help from ShadowBaby. I opened up the window between the breakfast room and the screen-porch (just enough from the bottom to let the cats fit through) and Mickey Kitty followed ShadowBaby right out. It only took Mickey Kitty a few times to learn that he can get to the litter boxes on the porch by going through the window, plus he has already used the litter boxes in the house.

One thing that's taking him a little longer to understand is why he can't get through the glass when the window is closed and locked. He'll put his little nose up against the glass and meow in the most pitiful way. He sounds even more pitiful than AngelBoy, and that's going some. Each of the cats have their own individual meows, and it's easy for me to tell them apart. My husband has asked me how I can do that and I tell him Because I'm the mama cat, that's why.

Even the little bells on the cat collars sound different on all of them. Since they all have a different pace to their walk, the bells don't sound the same as they move. AngelBoy walks like a fashion model walking a runway-- slow and deliberate, as he watches to see who's looking at him. AngelBoy's bell sounds sort of like jingggg...gle.... jingggg...gle.... jingggg...gle as he prances his prissy self around the house.

ShadowBaby has shorter legs than AngelBoy's, so his walk is more duck-like than model-like. His little bell sounds like jin-gle, jin-gle, jin-gle. Mickey Kitty's legs are long and slim, and he's going to be a taller cat than ShadowBaby, I think. Mickey's little bell has its own unique sound: jinglejinglejinglejingle.

As for Rusty's bell... that's long gone. He still wears a collar, but he has managed to make every bell disappear. I caught him in the act with the last bell he had, so I know it was no accident that he lost them all. Rusty would roll around on the concrete driveway and rub his collar on the ground, again and again till the little threads holding the bell tore away. Like cat-magic.... no more bell. I think I sewed five or six bells onto his collars until I realized what was happening, then I just gave in and left him bell-less. He doesn't mind the collar, but I guess he thought the jingle-sound was an affront to his cat-dignity.

"Rococo"

I've just finished a very good book by one of my favorite authors. The title is Rococo, by Adriana Trigiani. It's a wonderful story (fiction) about Italian families in New Jersey and their local Catholic church (the history behind it and the renovation of it). The author takes you to the historic churches of Italy and to the fabric/decorating sections of New York City. If you appreciate fine fabrics and interior design, then you'll love the descriptions of the decorator who is telling the story.

The characters are wonderful...... some over-the-top, but most of them found in just about any Italian family you know. A surprise in most of Ms. Trigiani's books are the recipes tucked into the story. Genuine recipes that I'm sure come from her own Italian family. Her best book so far, Rococo made me laugh out loud, then reach for the tissue box near the end.

I want to write more about it, but doing that will just be telling the story of the book itself, and it's much better to just read it for yourself.

Downtown Tea

We met friends today who live near the downtown area of Houston, and tried a restaurant that advertised an afternoon "High Tea." Our friends K & B have traveled extensively, and have had High Tea in other countries, so they knew what to expect. I've been to quite a few tea rooms since living in Texas, and I have a lot of books on tea parties and services, so I knew what to expect as well.

This afternoon's tea, in all our opinions, wasn't as "high" as it should've been, and I doubt very much we'll go there again for tea of any sort. The place to go for "High Tea" in Houston is the St. Regis Hotel, but they couldn't get reservations there because they're booked up so far in advance.

It was very easy to get reservations for today's tea, which should've been our first clue. But we all went, and enjoyed the afternoon together, so it wasn't a total loss. The desserts offered today were very good and there was a nice variety-- chocolate cake squares and tiny cream pies, French brioche (cut into slices) and raisin scones, and cute little apple tarts. The little sandwiches (chicken salad, salmon, cucumber) were lacking in imagination and they were all on tiny squares of white bread. No wheat, no whole grain, nothing fancy there.

The waiter offered us various kinds of tea in a beautiful wooden box, but the tea brands were those which can easily be found in any of the local supermarkets. The tea cups were too big and clumsy to hold, and by the time you were half-way through with your cup of tea, the remaining tea in the cup was cold. I was so tempted to ask the waiter for "boiling water next time," but I kept that request to myself.

On top of every other tea rule that they chose to break, the hot water was poured into our cups and then we just put our teabag of choice into the cup. No teabag holders for the used teabag, so that had to rest on the saucers, and the waiter didn't remove the teabags till he was clearing the table.

High tea indeed. I think this restaurant just wanted to do something between the hours of 2:00 and 5:00 to bring a little extra money into their cash register. "Let's serve some tea and tiny sandwiches and sweets and call it 'high' tea. No one will know the difference."

The four of us agreed not go return there for high tea, low tea, or any sort of tea. But as I said, it was a great afternoon with K & B.... plenty of good conversation and a lot of laughs. We met them at their home, which has been undergoing a transformation from a one-story cottage-style house to a two-story Victorian. This construction has been going on now for a few years... the upstairs is completed except for interior finishes and plumbing fixtures, and today the painting crew was there working on the outside. They're making it a true "painted lady" house, with 7 colors on the outside. With all the trim and "gingerbread," it looks like something out of an architectural digest. They expect every bit of the work to be done in the next five years. Seems like such a long time, but after the upstairs rooms are completed, they will renovate the downstairs rooms.

Every time we've gone there, we always have something new to look at. One great thing about their home--- they turned their garage into a guest house. They call it the "Casita" (little house). So cute... it has a living room with a small kitchen, full bath, big bedroom, and there's a small deck and Japanese garden right on the side of it. Very private and peaceful and welcoming. So of course sometimes I look at our garage and think: "Let's see... our garage is as big as theirs... we could easily do that."

But then I come to my senses...... if I'm going to put that much money into the backyard area of our house, then we should be able to swim in it, not just have a "casita" waiting for out-of-town guests.

If The Shoe Fits...

Mickey Kitty's fascination with shoes is getting to be a comedy act. He inspects every pair of shoes that he finds, whether they're attached to someone's feet or if they're sitting in the foyer by the front door or in the laundry room by the back door. It doesn't matter to Mickey Kitty if the shoes are mine or my husband's, he has just got to inspect them all, inside and out.

He likes my husband's "Dockers" because they have shoelaces, which he's always trying to pull out. He loves the black sandals that I usually wear around the house because they have tiny rhinestones covering the flower design on the front. He found my "winter" slippers in the closet this morning (a pair of soft leopard slip-ons) and he tried to force his small body down into the front of them. If he had found those slippers shortly after coming into our home, I think his whole body would've fit into one of them-- he was that small. Mickey Kitty weighed just a few ounces over two pounds when we found him, and I think he's about five pounds now.

This little kitten's adventures in the house are getting more frequent. In another week's time, he will think his name is Mickey No! instead of Mickey Kitty. I think he already knows his name, though, because he looks straight at me when I call him. He doesn't run over to me, like the older cats do, but he's young yet. I even tried testing him by calling Rusty's name instead of his own, and he didn't even glance in my direction.

Right now, though, Mickey Kitty's passion in life is shoes. Hopefully, Mickey Kitty won't be a shoe-critic like AngelBoy is. AngelBoy only likes shoes if they feel soft to the touch-- his touch. He loves my leopard slippers because he can rest his dainty little chin on them and have a nice nap. When I first bought those slippers, I had to hide them from AngelBoy if I wanted to wear them. I couldn't ever just leave them by the side of the bed because he'd curl up with one of them and I never had the heart to disturb him. (No, my cats are not spoiled. Whatever made you think that?)

I think AngelBoy has out-grown the leopard slippers now. We'll find out for sure on a cool night in December and see if Mickey Kitty and AngelBoy are fighting over those slippers. (AngelBoy will be the one meowing, and saying Mine! Mine!)

The "Kids"

When we go away, we have a wonderful house and pet-sitter who takes care of everything here for us. Nice to know that our "kids" are treated just as well when we're gone as they are when we're here. I still have last-minute moments of panic before we get on a plane...... what if we don't come back..... who will take care of the cats and Gracie.... but our pet-sitter has instructions for that as well. I'm sure he thinks I am totally out of my mind, but he's learned to just listen to all of my going-out-the-door worries.

I swear that Mickey Kitty has grown since we left last week. He can no longer easily fit under the wicker cabinet that's in the porch. He used to be able to just run under there without his head touching the decorative bottom.... now he has to slowly ease his body underneath-- folding back his ears and inching his way under. Comical, really, to watch him do that.

AngelBoy and ShadowBaby have been following me all over the house since we got home, and Gracie is following my husband around. Every time we've gone out the door since we got home, she's put herself right in the front hallway, in front of the door. We've had to make her move, and make her "sit and stay" so we could get out. She usually doesn't do that on a daily basis, but I guess she's just making sure now that vacation time is over and it's back to business as usual around here.

Mickey Kitty has been coming into the house now, a little bit at a time every day, when I can watch every move he makes. He's already used one of the litter boxes inside the house, so I know he'll be okay with that, but there's so much here that he can get into, underneath, or on top of, so I'm watching him closely until I'm certain that he knows the #1 Cat Rule of the house: "Don't play with anything that isn't yours." Rusty, AngelBoy and ShadowBaby all know that rule very well, and they don't even bother with the greatest temptation in this house: the big Christmas tree that goes up after Thanksgiving. Come to think of it, they don't even touch any of the many table-top trees that I put up all over the house. Very well-behaved cats, I must say. Hopefully, Mickey Kitty will take after his "older brothers." (Either that, or he'll spend a lot of time on the screen-porch.)

Christmas.... right around the corner, I swear it is. By this time, I usually have our Christmas cards made out and ready to be stamped and mailed in December, but I didn't get to it this month. Don't laugh.... card-mailing time comes sooner than you think. Seems to me that once September gets here, Christmas is here and over in ten days flat.

We're talking about maybe having a card party before the end of September. I found the greatest invitations--- with the King of Hearts on the front of them. Had to buy them, of course with the thought of giving a card party. We had to run into Target for some office supplies on Saturday, and I found paper party-napkins decorated with hearts/spades/diamond/clubs.... so of course I had to buy a few packages of those.... just in case we do have a card party, of course.

Then there's the Halloween party. I have all the invitations for that...... as well as gifts for the party bags, and prizes for the guessing contests. So that's pretty well set, even down to the decorations, all of which I saved from last year's party.

Card party. Halloween party. Christmas Open House. Christmas Day dinner party. New Year's Eve dinner. Another year.... it's going faster than we think.

"This Ain't Disneyland...."

Which is exactly what I said to my husband this afternoon while we were in the supermarket shopping for groceries. You know the vacation is over when you get back to the "normal" day-to-day routine....... laundry/errands/groceries/housekeeping.

Out of all the routine chores, it's grocery shopping that I hate the most. It takes so much time, most of it annoying and repetitive. If I could design a kitchen from top to bottom, I'd have a built-in salad bar (refrigerated, of course) filled with fresh greens and vegetables and fruits, and anything else that would make a dull salad into a main-course meal. (Chocolate chips do not count.) Of course, I would still have to shop for the ingredients...... and chop and peel and dice and slice...... so the "ideal" kitchen would have Disney elves available around-the-clock to keep the salad bar filled with all the fresh ingredients.

Maybe that's the problem with grocery stores.... not enough Disney music playing, not an elf in sight, and no sign of Mickey or Minnie anywhere. No wonder the supermarket is such a boring place.

But the grocery shopping got done today....... and the problem is that it's just never-ending. In a few days time, I will need more avacados, more grapes, more lettuce. The orange juice will be nearly gone, and so will the fresh cream for my husband's coffee. And back I will go....... with one eye on the produce shelves, and the other eye on the look-out for women on cell phones who aren't paying attention to where they're pushing their shopping carts. A very un-Disney way to shop.

I guess I'll have Disney on my brain for a while now. The same thing happened last year when we went to Walt Disney World in Orlando. And I'm not alone here.... my husband has been singing the song from The Pirates of The Carribbean ride since Wednesday. ("Yo-ho, yo-ho.... it's the pirate's life for me.........")

Disneyland

We left here on Monday morning, headed for California. We had been to Disney World in Orlando last year, and we thought this would be the best year to have a look-see at Mr. Disney's original California park--- this year is the 50th anniversary of Disneyland.

We landed around noon-time, and within the hour, we were walking towards the gates of Disneyland. We stayed at a hotel right across the road from Disneyland, so it was just a short walk to the gates-- no waiting for a shuttle-bus, as we had to do in Orlando. As soon as you walk into the perimeter of the park, you can hear the Disney music playing and you really forget about what's going on in the real world-- you're on Disney-time and that's all that matters. I barely read the headlines of the local Anaheim, California newspaper each morning before we went for breakfast and headed to the park.

I made the same mistake at Disneyland that I made at Disney World: going on rides that had those little red triangles on the signs. Translation: those little red trianges mean the ride will be fast and furious, and my husband ends up with black and blue marks on his arms where I've grabbed on for dear life and didn't let go till the ride stopped. The Disney World ride was the "Rock & Roller Coaster" and the Disneyland rides were "Indiana Jones" and the "Thunder Coaster" or some such thing that was an innocent-looking railroad car. I don't know why I don't trust my instincts on these rides.... I don't like being knocked about and/or turned upside-down. My speed for rides are the cute Disney story-rides with lots of colors and pretty things to look at. About the most adventurous ride I enjoyed was "The Pirates of the Carribbean" -- and we did that one twice.

The nicest restaurant in Disneyland is The Blue Bayou in the New Orleans section. The restaurant overlooks part of the "Pirates of the Carribbean" ride, so you can watch the pirate boats go by as you eat your lunch or dinner. Reservations at The Blue Bayou are a must, though, and well worth the trouble. I broke all my sensible-diet rules and ate very rich oatmeal-raisin cookies, and caramel corn, and ate pancakes for breakfast instead of my usual oatmeal. I think I ate just two healthy meals while we were there--- a spinach salad at The Blue Bayou, and grilled salmon and vegetables at a restaurant near the hotel.

We watched the fireworks over the castle three nights in a row. The first night, we had seen the Fantasmic light show, so we couldn't get close enough to the castle to hear the whole Disney story connected to the fireworks display. The light show around the lake was wonderful, but nothing compares to the fireworks. They actually had a (real live) Tinkerbell suspended from wires high above the castle, and she glided around the castle sprinkling her fairy dust-fireworks.

Fireworks like none other anywhere on earth, I swear. Colors and shapes we had never seen before, more fireworks shot off at one time than any other show we've ever watched. Plus the music, the light displays against the castle... it was all just breath-taking, and your eyes just puddled up with tears at the end.

By the time we left there, I had bought two books on Walt Disney and his work, a fairly large stuffed Mickey and Minnie, a stuffed Thumper (my favorite rabbit from the Bambi movie, various commemorative pins (for me and for gifts), countless postcards & Mickey and Minnie keychains, and a tiny gold/amethyst Mickey charm for my bracelet. I also found a tiny Thumper charm for my "Italian charm" bracelet... the last one left, so I couldn't very well leave him there.

No matter which Disney park you go to, you just get hit from all sides with nostalgia.... you watch all the characters and listen to the music, and your mind just recalls all the Disney movies and music that has been in your life since childhood. No matter how old I get, I will still remember my father imitating Thumper the rabbit as he thumped his foot in Bambi, and hear daddy singing "When You Wish Upon A Star" from the Pinocchio movie. That song just makes me cry all the time, and every time they played it during the parades at Disney, I stood there with tears in my eyes.

We were there for four days... we walked every inch of Disneyland, plus the California park adjacent to it (with the most beautiful, fabulous Ferris Wheel), and we walked around Downtown Disney. We watched all the parades, saw all the fireworks and light shows, enjoyed the live musicals of Aladdin and Snow White.... we went on the rides, the carousel, saw the exhibits, bought the shirts and the trinkets. I remembered to wear the pedometer every day, and we averaged 20,000 steps each day we were there.

You would think that we'd be all Disney-ed out by now. No way. I would go back again and again.... to see the parades, to watch the fireworks, and to cry to "When You Wish Upon A Star." I think that anyone born in the US in the 1950s is a Disney-baby, and there's just no getting away from that.

I hope, in the decades to come, that the Disney Powers That Be always remember to applaud and salute the man whose dreams made these parks such a wonderful reality. The motto of the Disney workers should be "WWWDD." (What Would Walt Disney Do?")

Sunday Sniffles

Don't ask me how I caught a cold in the middle of the summer, but I've got one. Coughing, sneezing, sniffling... the works. Thankfully, I think it's on the way out. After a good, sound sleep last night, I think the worst of it is over. My friend A came down here this morning with a cold remedy called "Airborne." Made of all natural herbs, it's very popular (Oprah loves it) and works wonders on cold germs. I opened the package and found large Alka-Seltzer type tablets.... put them into some cold water and them them fizz up and dissolve, and it tastes like orange soda when it's ready to drink. I hate being sick... such a waste of a good day.

The balloon ride for my husband and C went just fine yesterday. They came back with beautiful photographs, and a thrilling experience. The owner of the balloon is on the committee for the annual Balloon Festival that's held at the Johnson Space Center at the end of August each year. He was saying that those balloons range in price from $40,000 to upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the size and design of the balloon and its basket. An expensive hobby, to say the least. No wonder they charge so much for a balloon ride. ($350 for two people, for 50 minutes up in the sky.)

We took C out to lunch before bringing her home yesterday. We had a gift certificate for The Olive Garden restaurant, sent to us by my aunt & uncle out in Arizona. We've had it since Christmas and just never got around to using it. So yesterday was the perfect day for lunch there, since Babbo Bruno's isn't open for lunch on Saturday and we had promised to get C home by 3:00 in the afternoon. Funny thing happened when we picked C up at her house the evening before--- as she was saying goodbye to her mom, she put out her hand as if to shake hands with her and said "See you next summer!" Even with that cute little smile on her face, that wasn't exactly the proper thing to say when you're saying goodnight to your mom the day before you're going thousands of feet up in the air for a balloon ride. I keep reminding C that although we do a lot of fun things with her when she's here, her parents are still her parents and they're the ones with all the major worries and responsibilities.

I need to polish my nails.... haven't had color on them all week and I'm getting tired of looking at "naked" nails. So that's what I'll do... polish my nails and get a book to read from my always-growing pile of books-to-read and relax and let this "Airborne" stuff do its thing.

Up, Up and Away

It is just a little after 5:30 in the morning here. My husband and our young friend C have already left the house, on their way to the other side of downtown Houston to meet a hot air balloon. They are going for a ride.... and yes, we asked C's parents first if she could do this, and they were happy to let C have the experience. They are so good that way-- letting C choose what she'd like to do or not do (within good reason, of course) in order to give her a firm sense of confidence and independence.

I had arranged this balloon ride as a gift for my husband... a birthday gift from a couple of years ago. He had always wanted to do it, so I thought it would be a surprise. Turns out that the surprise was how long it took to actually take the ride. He had scheduled it many times, and each time the ride had to cancelled because of weather. I had just about given up hope of the balloon ride ever happening. This balloon flight is for two people, plus the "pilot" of the balloon. When I gave the flight certificate to my husband, it was with the understanding that I wouldn't be the second passenger.... going up in a hot air balloon was never on my must-do list.

When we decided to have C come here for one last sleep-over before school starts, my husband called the balloon man to see about a ride/flight this weekend. They scheduled the day, but we didn't find out for sure till 5:00 this morning, being that the weather has to be checked just before going up. So the early phone call this morning was well-received by the two adventurers in this house, and off they went-- one with a cup of coffee, the other with a bottle of chocolate milk. They should be up in the air by daybreak.


Last night when C came over here, she was surprised with a "scavenger hunt" that my husband made up for her. Her first "clue" was in the form of a letter from Scotland Yard that we had waiting for her on the back seat of the car. It looked very official, given my husband's talents with the computer. He had ten clues scattered around the house, and I have to say that I was impressed with C's quick-thinking.... she knows this house as well as we do. The prize at the end of the hunt was a certificate for lunch out this afternoon... where we will all go and try to keep C in her seat because I know she'll probably still be flying high after this morning's balloon ride.

Friday Stuff......

Busy day today........ as if today is different from any other...

I sent my friend Bill Cherry (the Galveston writer who recently moved to Dallas) a copy of the Sprinkles story about Carvel ice cream. He in turn sent it to his friend who runs the Galveston newspaper that used to print all of his stories. Bill suggested to him that they run the Carvel story in their paper. So of course, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Speaking of the Houston Carvel store, Bill got a phone call this afternoon from a friend of his in Houston, telling him about the new Carvel ice cream shop there. As they were on the phone, Bill eMailed him a copy of my Sprinkles story. My, my... how this does get around.


I phoned my Aunt Dolly today, to say hello and see how she's doing. "Doing just fine... except I can't do anything fast enough anymore," was her answer. She recently had a doctor's appointment, because she's having back pains. The doctor told her she needs to relax and slow down a little bit. She told the doctor that she doesn't have time to slow down because she has "too much to do." My Aunt Dolly's theory is that when she dies, she'll be dead a long time, so she can relax then.

I also phoned my dad........ not to tell him about Carvel, but just to say hello. Usually, when I talk about "the good old days," it makes him sad. So I just listen to what he has to tell me and hope that his own memories don't make him sad enough to cry. He's doing fine these days, except for the fact that he lives in New Jersey instead of New York. He's been sorry he moved to Jersey since the day after he got there. My father's theory being "I was born in NY so I need to die in NY. Can you imagine if I die here in Jersey? They'll plant me here and no one in the family will know where to find me."


Tonight is another sleep-over night for our 14-yr-old friend C. My husband and I are going out to dinner, then we'll pick C up on the way home. This way, she can have dinner at home even though, as her mom says "She'd have a better time with you." That made me sad, to hear her mom say that. I know we've always gone out of our way for this little girl, but I'm not trying to up-stage her parents. I explained to her mom that I just do for her daughter what I'd be doing for my own child if I had one. Plus all my "great ideas" are things my Aunt Dolly used to do for me, so I'm just trying to keep good traditions going here. Hopefully, years from now when C has children of her own, she will do for her children what my Aunt did for me.

For C's surprise tonight, my husband wrote up ten clues for a "scavenger hunt" for her. The first clue will be in the form of a letter addressed to C from Scotland Yard... we'll have it on the back seat of our car when we go to pick her up later. My husband wrote all the clues so they rhyme, and he's got them hidden all over the house. C is very adventurous, and competitive, so she'll love this.


Mickey Kitty......... he loves my morning oatmeal. I've taken to having my breakfast on the porch on most mornings, while my husband walks Gracie. I do this to take myself out of the air-conditioning for a bit, and to keep Mickey Kitty company for a while each morning. This tiny kitten has decided now that my oatmeal tastes better than his Purina Kitten Chow. My oatmeal is sweetened with crushed pineapple, dried cranberries, and a spoon of mashed pumpkin -- a la Oprah. Don't laugh-- it's quite good. So now, of course, I'm saving a tiny bit of oatmeal for him and letting him have it after it cools down.

AngelBoy is my fruit-loving cat. He loves fresh cherries, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, oranges, raisins.... but don't even bother him with apples and bananas. And sweet potatoes... I can't slice open a baked sweet potato without AngelBoy making a mad dash into the kitchen for his share of it. I swear, this blue-eyed cat of mine has a sweet tooth behind those long white whiskers of his.

Carvel Ice Cream

One of the articles in this morning's Chronicle tells of the opening of a Carvel Ice Cream store in downtown Houston. Anyone who has grown up in New York will know Carvel, which (in a Yankee's opinion) is much better than the southern equivalent-- "Dairy Queen."

We have Dairy Queens in many of the towns close to Clear Lake, and in all the years that we've lived here, I've tried DQ (as the locals call it) about two or three times. Each tasting never had me wishing for more. I guess I just expect soft-serve swirled ice cream to taste like Carvel, and the only thing that's going to taste like Carvel is going to be Carvel.

When I was a kid, we lived in Woodhaven, Queens, and the closest Carvel store was just a short bicycle-ride away (four streets). One of those streets was busy Atlantic Avenue, so I was never allowed to go alone or with friends. If a bicycle was going to be taken up to Carvel, then my dad led the way on his bike, and we always walked our bikes across Atlantic rather than riding them across the six-lane avenue. (In my mind's eye, I'm seeing 6 lanes, and I think that's the way it was, and still is now.)

Carvel never tried to out-flavor any other ice cream company. Their selections were vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Period. In most Carvel stores, they had a machine that would give you a swirled combination of both vanilla and chocolate. Their cones were simple sugar-cake cones, in sizes of small and large. I seem to remember a cone that had two "tops" to it, so you could get two individual swirls of two different flavors.

They also offered sprinkles.... chocolate ones, or rainbow-colored ones. This "blog" is named after those Carvel sprinkles, as was the newsletter I wrote before joining the blog-craze. The newsletter was named "Sprinkles" because it was filled with a little of this, a little of that, stories and short articles written in no particular order. Just like this blog.... so I thought the name "Sprinkles" would work out just fine here also.

The trips to Carvel for me and my dad are stamped into my memory as if they happened just yesterday. We'd ride our bikes up there either after dinner on a summer's evening, or on a Saturday afternoon (post-lunch, pre-dinner). I would always order a chocolate cone with chocolate sprinkles, my father would order a vanilla cone, no sprinkles. My dad was (and still is) a purist with ice cream. He likes vanilla. Period. No sprinkles. No nuts. "No nothing." I can hear him now--- "If I want nuts, I'll eat nuts. But not with my ice cream."

We would both get small-sized cones.... small for me, because that's all I could handle, and because my Aunt Dolly was always telling me that "A lady should order a small of anything, except a house or a diamond." My dad always got a small-sized cone because, as he always said: "I have to watch my waist-line or I won't fit into my Army uniform, and the way the world is, you never know if you'll have to wear it again." (Our bike-riding-to-Carvel days were in the 1950s.) To this day, I would bet that my dad could button up his Army jacket.

My father and I would sit at one of the small tables outside the Carvel store and eat our ice cream. My father ate his cone faster than I ate mine, and he would keeping asking me "Want to trade?"-- offering me his quickly-shrinking vanilla cone for my slowly-eaten chocolate cone. My answer, of course, was always no. I was not then, and I'm not now, a vanilla girl. Still today, if I don't have chocolate ice cream, then I don't feel the need to splurge on the calories for another flavor.

When my dad came down to Texas in 1997, he felt like having some ice cream one afternoon. He asked me to drive him to Carvel.

"We don't have Carvel here, daddy.... we have Dairy Queen."

"If I wanted milk, I'd go to a dairy..... where do you go for ice cream around here?"

"There's a yogurt shop right near here... the best chocolate and vanilla yogurt around. It's called TCBY, and yogurt is healthier for you than ice cream anyway."

"T-C-what??? I want real ice cream, not yogurt. I'm 78 years old... how healthy do you want me to be at my age?"

We ended up going to TCBY for the yogurt anyway, since I was the one driving. And at the time, that was the best "ice cream" around here. My father ordered a small vanilla cone, I ordered the chocolate. He ate it all, and he said it was "Okay, but if this place was next to a Carvel, then T-C-whatever-this-is would be out of business in less than a day."

So now, Carvel has come to Houston. Downtown Houston, that is, which is an hour's drive away. I'm tempted to drive all the way down there for a chocolate cone, but I may just wait. I have a feeling that the chocolate Carvel that I remember from the 1950s is not going to be the chocolate Carvel of 2005. Maybe the next time my husband and I are in the downtown area, we'll search out the Carvel and give it a try. Still......... no bicycles crossing Atlantic Avenue, no daddy asking "Want to trade?" ..... no matter how good the ice cream could be, it just isn't going to be the same.

"Bee Season"

For the past couple of days, I've been totally immersed in a wonderful book-- "Bee Season," by Myla Goldberg. Wonderful, wonderful story... my sister found the book up in NY at Barnes & Noble and I found it on Half.com for just a couple of dollars. My sister was right... she told me to buy it because it would be one that I'd want to keep on my shelves and read again.

The cover of this book looks like a well-used dictionary. So well-done is this cover that when I removed the book from its mailing envelope, I thought the cover was damaged-- but it's actually an illusion created by the artwork on the dust-jacket.

I don't want to give the story away, and I'm only three-quarters through the book, but it's great reading. "Bee Season" is a reference to spelling bees... the book's nine-yr-old Eliza, previously plain and uninspired, has found her niche in the spelling contests that she enters. Her mother, father, and older brother are also forever changed with Eliza's brilliance.

The blurb on the dust-jacket hints that the "outcome is startling." My sister told me to "be prepared for the ending." I've never peeked at the ending pages in any book I'm reading, so I don't know what to expect in the last chapters of this book. I don't know want to know how it ends until I actually get to the last pages, so I asked my sister to stop talking about it until I've finished the book. When I do, then we can have our usual "long distance book discussion" over the phone.

Still Stepping....

I think the highest number of steps counted (so far) on my pedometer was yesterday's total of 17,283..... I would love to give my Aunt Dolly one of these little counters-- she's another one who is constantly on the go. Which is a great thing to be able to say about someone who's 93 years old.

I was thinking about a question that 14-yr-old C has asked me from time to time. Come to think of it, she's asked me the same question every year since I met her when she was just 7 years old. Her question: "Why do women wear make-up?"

My answers to her have changed a little bit over the years.... I've told her that some women just like the look of make-up, some like to experiment with different styles and colors of cosmetics, some women never get the urge to use it and some won't go out of the house without it.

I think, however, I finally found a really good answer for C's question: "Young women want to wear make-up because they think it makes them look older, and older women wear make-up because they think it makes them look younger."

So far, my little teenaged C hasn't had the urge to try cosmetics, other than simple fruit-flavored lip glosses. She was talking yesterday about how cool it would be to find a chocolate-flavored gloss. Cool indeed..... I'll have to see if I can find that for her and surprise her with it.

Mickey Snoopy Kitty

This tiny kitten is the funniest thing....... he has really made himself at home on the screen porch and is having the best time with the cat-sized wicker furniture that I have out there in one part of the porch for them. Mickey Kitty's favorite thing is the wicker doll-house, which is made in a Cape Cod design with a slanted roof similar to Snoopy's doghouse in the "Peanuts" comic strip.

Mickey Kitty will play inside the doll-house with his toys, but when he's ready to take a nap, he climbs up onto the slanted roof to sleep. Of course, he looks absolutely cute, and if I go out there to tell him that he looks like a feline-Snoopy, he will twist his head so he's looking at me from an upside-down angle. He looks at me upside-down so much that I'm beginning to think that maybe I look better that way to him than right-side-up.

I've also noticed that the kitten likes to watch television. To get him used to the inside of the house a little at a time, I bring him in here and confine him to just one room (always after he's used his litter box, so we don't have accidents). Every time I've brought him into the TV room, I'll turn on the television and sit with him in my lap for a little while as I whisper his name into his ear over and over. (Which is how I've taught all my cats to recognize their individual names-- it truly works.)

When I sit in my chair with Mickey Kitty, I "mute" the television so he hears just my voice, but I swear, this kitten doesn't take his little golden-brown eyes off of the TV-screen. And it doesn't matter what's on. I've switched channels while he's watching, and he seems to notice everything from commercials to talk shows to the Home Shopping channel. I can actually see his little eyes following the movements of whoever is on the television.

When Gracie was very young, she used to watch the television when it was on, but only certain shows would interest her--- the "Animal Planet" channel being her favorite. Sometimes I would put the television on for her and she would actually sit there and watch it. Her fascination with the television lasted for just a few years. We used to call her a "couch puppy" when she couldn't take her eyes away from the TV.

So I guess we now have a "couch kitty" in our home.

The Sleep-Over is Over

Both girls are now back in their own homes.... with a shopping bag filled with the goodies that they "purchased with pennies" at our Midnight Shopping Boutique in my living room. They also have a bag of books from our local bookstore, where we went this morning after having breakfast at IHOP (International House of Pancakes.).

I gave the girls a choice of having breakfast here or eating out, and when L told me and C that she had never been to an IHOP before, that made the decision to go out very easy. So off we went, and both L and C read every single item on the menu before giving their requests to the waitress.

We truly had a wonderful time last night.... the girls had a blast with the dress-up tea party. They loved the ("really truly way cool!") boutique I set up for them, and it was just so enjoyable for me to watch them having such a good time..... beaded shawls around their shoulders, rhinestone slippers on their feet, and pearl tiaras on their heads as they walked around here last night.

L and C are such good friends.... I can see now that I'll be inviting L to join us more often when we spend time with C. Being an only child, C gets a lot of attention from her parents, as well as from my husband and myself. In contrast, L has a twin brother, plus a three-year-old sister, so she's sharing parental time and attention with her siblings. I think she truly enjoys being one of the "stars" when she spends time here with us and C.

While the three of us were in the bookstore this morning, I was walking around the store looking up and down the aisles while L and C were in the "young adult" section. I think the bookshop must have just put Christmas gift items on display because those shelves were very neat and fully stocked. I found holiday gifts for both L and C, plus for my friend A's two nieces and nephew. I managed to pay for those items and get them into the car without L and C noticing what I was buying, and right now the gifts are in my Christmas closet waiting to be wrapped.

And as we all know.... it's the middle of August, and Christmas will be here in a heartbeat.

So life this evening is back to "normal" here.... laundry in the washer.... a super-quiet house..... and my husband comes home from his out-of-town trip tomorrow afternoon.

After Midnight

C and L are now in the king-sized bed, propped up on pillows and paging through the Teen magazines I gave them tonight. I was going to save them till after breakfast in the morning, but I thought they could relax in bed with the magazines while I relaxed.

It has been a night, and to say this was successful would be an understatement. The girls were thrilled to have the fancy clothes and shoes for dressing-up. They chose their outfits with care, each of them not wanting to take something that the other "really truly-for-sure wanted." I think they were both surprised that I set up the dining room table (candles, good china & silverware, pretty napkins and placecards) --- "Just for us?" was what I kept hearing as they looked at the table.

They both loved the little beaded purses filled with all the coins, and their eyes lit up when they saw the table I set up in the living room with all the goodies that they could "buy" with the money in their purses. Once again, they chose their items very carefully, neither one of them wanting to take something off the table if the other "really truly-for-sure wanted" it. Most of the items were in pairs of two, so there was one for each girl, but there was just one of some of the other things. For those items, the girls left them till last, then negotiated with one another to see who would "buy" it.

The last item on the table was a small teddy-bear dressed in the red/white/blue of the American flag. There was just the one, and I could see that they both "really truly" wanted it. I quickly went into my bedroom to get another small bear that I had bought while shopping with my sister years ago... this little bear was dressed in a leopard hat and a coat. I put that bear on the table and told the girls that the "price" of it was the same as the red/white/blue bear-- 25 cents. So now they had two bears to chose from, and their only problem was who got which bear. Both girls liked both bears, but C said her first choice was still the original red/white/blue bear because she felt sorry for it because it had been the last thing left on the "sale table."

The final result with the bears was that C bought the little patriotic bear, and L bought the leopard-dressed bear, which she thought was more stylish anyway. C said she was happy with the red/white/blue bear because she likes to "find homes for sad things." I swear.... this is just one of the reasons that I love that child so.

It's been a long day, and a busy night. We all had fun, and I'm glad I thought to take pictures. I will use up the rest of the film tomorrow and get the roll into the store tomorrow for developing. Tomorrow....... another day with the two 14-yr-old party-girls.

Over The Top

I usually end up making more of a fuss than I really have to, but it's fun, and everyone always enjoys it, so I'm sure today's efforts will be enjoyed by the two 14-yr-old girls tonight.

I've made a Midnight Tea Party poster to put on the front door before the girls get here later on. I had no intentions of doing anything of the sort, but when I was reading The Chronicle this morning, one of the ads for a local furniture store had a huge headline in their two-page ad, with the word "MIDNIGHT!" spelled out in big white letters, set against a night-time Houston skyline.

Now honestly, how could I resist using that for something? We already had a sheet of poster-board, left over from something or other, and I used that as a base for the "Midnight! Tea Party" welcome sign for C and L. I cut out photo-ads of teeny-bopper clothing, accessories, shoes, handbags, jewelry..... all sorts of fashions and items for a teenaged-girl's bedroom. Using a glue-stick, I made the cut-outs into a collage on the poster-board, with the Midnight! Tea Party across the top. It really came out very well, and I know that C will want to keep it. She's been making collages here herself since she was in the second grade, and I always keep a box of clippings from old magazines for her.

All the dress-up clothes, shoes, tiaras, and fans are arranged in the dressing room next to our bedroom. I'm letting the girls have the king-sized bed tonight, and I'll sleep on the small pull-out guest sofa. I'll probably be so tired by the time we're done tonight that I could probably fall sleep sitting up in a chair.

I drove to the store this morning and bought some Teen magazines... two for each girl, but I'll give them to C and L tomorrow morning, not tonight--- between the tea party and the "shopping" party tonight, we'll have enough to do. While I was out, I thought to buy one of those disposable cameras, so I can take pictures of the girls tonight. I'll make three sets of the prints, so we can each have the memories of what is turning out to be a "major" party rather than just a simple sleep-over.

Simple. Is that word even in my vocabulary? I know one thing for certain: the word "i*ma*gi*na*tion" is always first on my list of favorite words.

Slight Change of Plans for the Sleep-Over

Always have a "plan B." And that's what I needed tonight when I got a phone call from L's mom, the mother of C's best friend L, who is coming tomorrow night with C for the Sleep-Over party.

I had planned a "Close to Midnight" tea party for the girls, complete with dress-up shawls, gloves, fans and tiaras. They would get to keep their tea cups, plus I had small beaded purses for both of them, with a $20 bill tucked inside of each for tomorrow's trip to the mall.

Unfortunately, L's mom told me that the whole family has to leave Clear Lake by 1:30 tomorrow, in order to drive up to The Woodlands to visit with friends who just arrived from Mexico. There's no way that I can get the girls out early enough for breakfast and a trip to the mall and be back here by 1:30. And how could I give C shopping money and not give to L.... and wouldn't L feel left out of the trip to the mall?

So.... plan B. I took the $20 out of the little beaded purses and replaced it with $1.75 in quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies. Then I went through my party-favor boxes, as well as the box of Christmas favors that I'd put aside for C and her friends. I used stick-on tags to mark the items, with prices ranging from one-cent to fifteen cents. After our "Close to Midnight" tea party, the girls can have a "Close to Midnight" shopping spree-- right here.

I'll clear off the dining room table after we have our tea, then set up the items "for sale." I'll give the coin purses to the girls, along with the pretty shopping bags that I had found for them. Then they can "shop," filling up their shopping bags and "paying" for the items with the dimes, nickels, etc.

When I was getting all the shopping items together, I was amazed at what I found in the party boxes..... flag-shaped memo pads, nail polishes and decorated emory boards, eyelashes and fake nails for Halloween, heart-shaped soaps, star-shaped sticky-notes, fancy pencils and rulers, Mardi Gras dolls, and even those colorful fringed scarves that the teens are wearing. The dining room table will look like a display in a gift shop by the time I'm through with it tomorrow night.

I know that C will ask me for a "do-over" on this Sleep-Over party with L...... and we'll arrange that when we can, so we can all go out shopping to the mall together. But for this time, I'll take the girls out for a fancy breakfast in the morning and get back here in time for L's mom to pick her up for their drive up to The Woodlands. C and I can still spend the rest of the afternoon together, but we'll save going to the mall for when L can join us.

Aunt Dolly Rocks On....

Being so busy this week with "my" teenaged girls (L and C) got me to thinking that I've taken over my Aunt Dolly's role of "the fun Aunt." Growing up with my generation of cousins in our family, Aunt Dolly was the aunt who always made everything special, from a simple breakfast of French Toast, to a shopping trip to Green Acres Mall on Long Island. That shopping mall was just a 25-minute drive from where we lived, but getting in Aunt Dolly's car (a DeSoto first, then a Chevrolet) made that short trip seem like an adventure to the other side of the state.

Aunt Dolly was always the one with the treasures in the attic-- boxes of ribbons and gloves, feathers and fancy papers and old greeting cards. She always had something vintage (1920s & 30s) to see, something creative to do, interesting stories to tell. My generation of cousins, all of us now 50 and over, loved her to pieces. And we still do--- Aunt Dolly is 93 now, still living in Grandma's house, as we call it. My cousin R (who visited here in May) lives nearby and sees our aunt on a weekly basis. When we were growing up, the two of us were always at Grandma's house and spending time with Aunt Dolly and the rest of the family.

Aunt Dolly never had children of her own, so she "adopted" all of her nieces and nephews. I never had children either, and I guess I'm "adopting" my own along the way here. Maybe that's the secret to being the "fun Aunt" --- when you don't have your own kids, you don't treat other people's children as children.... you treat them like just adults, only smaller.

So here I am now.... far from Long Island... and sometimes my little friend C calls me Aunt Larrie instead of Miss Larrie. She wants all of her best friends to meet me and my husband, and we've included groups of her friends for holiday parties. C tells her friends that I'm "the best" and she lets all her friends know that she thinks my husband is "way cool." My neighbor V's two daughters were in and out of our home constantly when they were little girls, bringing their friends over for either ice cream or tea. This summer and last summer, I've had the pleasure of getting to know and spend time with A's teenaged niece L when she visits here, and the two of us keep in touch via eMail. L also has a younger brother and sister, both of whom I met during this past week while they were vacationing here.

Our neighbor across the street has two very young children who ring my bell to play with Gracie and the cats, and to ask me "Do you have anything special in the children's box?" Young E and her brother J know that I keep a box of books and puzzles and toys and surprises, all for the purpose of giving to kids who come here, so they have something interesting to do. That was a little trick of Aunt Dolly's--- keeping a child's hands busy with something appropriate so they don't bother with whatever you don't want them to touch.

While A's niece L was here this week, I tried to arrange a sleep-over for her and C... I thought the two teenagers could spend a night here and we'd have a day of shopping, or whatever the girls wanted to do. Because of C's summer schedule with the "Color Guard" group for her school's football team, the only night we could arrange for that is this coming Saturday night-- the first night that L will be back in New York, because they're flying home early that morning.

C still loved the idea of a sleep-over.... she has stayed over here many times over the years. C asked me if her best friend could come for the sleep-over this time. Of course I agreed, on the condition that both C's mom and her friend L's mom gave their approval. They both got permission and we're having a sleep-over here on Saturday night. Of course, invitations had to go out. I had the cutest pink invitation cards with a French theme--- poodles and cafe tables under the Eiffel Tower. The cards read: "Zee invitation..... zee time.... zee venue.... What else? Zee you!!" (I bought these cards a few years ago and knew they'd come in handy at some point.) So off I went, bringing one to C's house, and one to L's house--- to make sure they didn't get delayed in the mail, plus I wanted to personally speak to the mothers of both girls.)

With that in mind, my "Aunt Dolly genes" kicked in and I've been busy planning this weekend since the night before last. When C and L get here on Saturday night, I will have the lights off in the dining room so they can't see anything. When the chandelier is turned on, they will find the table set for a "Close to Midnight Tea Party." At each place setting, there will be a special china tea-cup and saucer (which I intend to give the girls as favors)... there will be platters of tiny tea sandwiches and biscuits and cookies, and frilly fancy napkins.

Each girl will have a rhinestone tiara to wear, a beaded and/or fringed shawl, faux-pearl necklaces, and of course we'll each need a fan and gloves. I've made placecards decorated with birds and tiny paper umbrellas, and I put together a Victorian party-cracker for each of the girls (filled with a paper crown, a riddle, and a hidden surprise of costume-jewelry). Each of the girls will have a small beaded purse at her place-setting, and I tucked a bit of shopping money into each one. I plan on taking the girls to the mall on Sunday (after we go out for brunch) and they can spend the money on anything they like, as long as it's within reason, as my rule for C has always been. And C has known me long enough to know that Shopping Rule #1 is that I am the voice of reason. And Rule #2 is that if her mom doesn't like what she buys when she's with me, then we have to take it back. I've told her all these years that her mother gets the final stamp of approval for the simple reason that I may be her Aunt Larrie, but her mother is her mother.

The final touch was found at the local Dollar Store yesterday.... they had very pretty over-sized shopping bags and I found two decorated with girl-y type accessories (dresses, shoes, gloves, etc). I bought two of those, one for each girl, and they can fill them up with their weekend favors, surprises, party keepsakes, and (of course) whatever they buy at the mall. It would have been perfect if we'd been able to arrange all of this for a day while A's niece L was still here, but I will do my best to repeat all of this next summer. Fortunately, this group of young teens are still of a mind-set to enjoy this type of sleep-over/tea party and just have fun with it.

Of course it took some time getting all of this thought-out and put-together, but it was fun, and as the saying goes "Love is in the details." My Aunt Dolly was all about the details when I was growing up in the 1950s. I always liked my Aunt Dolly's style and flair, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me or anyone else that I've totally embraced it and made it my own.

If 14-yr-old C could meet my Aunt, her opinion would be "Aunt Dolly rocks!"

Step This Way...

I'm still walking around all day long with the little pedometer attached to the waist-line of my capris or shorts. The numbers of steps are just astounding:

18,871 steps (8.91 miles) for yesterday (Wednesday).

14,752 steps (6.92 miles) for Tuesday.

14,279 steps for Monday.

13,257 steps for Sunday.

I clip the pedometer on when I get up in the morning, and it stays on me till I get into bed at night. I would imagine that if I did all of those steps at one time, the benefit to my body would be greater. But it's been at or over 100 degrees lately.... Gracie doesn't want to walk around the park in this heat, and honestly, neither do I.

I had been thinking about getting a treadmill for the house. My husband wanted to know where we'd put it. (Details... details...) He said there really wasn't room for a large treadmill, unless we took some furniture out of the TV room, which I really don't want to do. And I don't want a huge piece of exercise equipment in the bedroom.

Guess I'll forget about the treadmill..... and start thinking about a pool again. Plenty of room for that out in the backyard. (I wonder if this pedometer works underwater.....)

Cracker Barrel Brunch

One more day with our Sweet 16 Birthday Girl today..... I took A's niece L out for brunch this morning, while A went out shopping with L's mom. During their visit, A has been trying to spend time with each family member... their own special time on their own special day. So I've been filling in, playing "Aunt Larrie" with L, just as I do with my 14-yr-old friend C.

I had some errands to do as well today, so L and I took care of those along the way. But the fun part was the Cracker Barrel Restaurant and Country Store. L hadn't been to a Cracker Barrel before, so she had fun looking around at all the Texas-made and country-style items in the gift shop. Our late breakfast/early lunch in the barn-like restaurant was delicious, and we had fun playing with the wood & peg puzzle that's on all of the tables there.

Only one more full day of this Texas visit for L and her family. They'll spend tomorrow at the Johnson Space Center, then they'll be driving to the airport on Saturday morning. This week went by so fast that now L wants to spend at least two weeks here next summer.... which seems so far away, but just like this year, next July will be here in a heartbeat.

Sweet 16 Lunch at the Tea Room

Today was our Texas celebration of the Sweet 16th birthday for A's niece L. We had reserved the prettiest table at the tea room in League City for the six of us-- A, me, the birthday girl, her sister and mom, and my teenaged friend C. There we sat, at a round table in the garden room, underneath an umbrella decorated with vines and roses and white twinkling lights.

There were three huge baskets filled with dress-up clothes for young girls, feather boas, rhinestone tiaras, fancy bonnets and frilly shawls. L's younger sister J held up each of the pretty outfits for us to see, but we all decided that we were dressed up enough as it was. C and L found some faux-jeweled tiaras to wear during lunch, and J gave me two feather boas to wear-- one in pink and one in purple and silver. I couldn't convince J to wear the pink one, even though it matched her pretty dress, so I just wrapped both of them around my neck.

Lunch was delicious... we picked sandwiches and salads or homemade soup from the menu... (9-yr-old J was disappointed that the menu didn't offer anything close to a McDonald's burger and fries)....... but she perked right up when they brought out the chocolate birthday cake.

We sang Happy Birthday to L, but with a twist--- in between each stanza of Happy Birthday, J chimed in with a rousing Cha! Cha! Cha! --- It surprised all of us, because she had been rather quiet during lunch, but one thing is for sure.... from now on, all of us will be adding that Cha! Cha! Cha! to every birthday song we sing from now on.

This is the second year in a row that L has celebrated her birthday in Texas. She loves it here..... so I think we've started a new tradition for L when her birthday rolls around. Sweet 16......... for a very sweet girl.

Welcome Home Mickey Kitty

I was up before dawn this morning and walked Gracie at first light. I wanted to get to the post office with eBay packages before picking up Mickey Kitty at the pet clinic. They let me know yesterday that he could come home by 9 o'clock this morning, so I thought it would be better to get him before my piano lesson, rather than after. Nothing against our friend Todd and his pet clinic, but I know Mickey Kitty would rather be on our screen-porch than in one of the cat-kennels at the vet's office.

That's where Mickey Kitty is now... on the screen-porch. For the last day and a half while he was at "Uncle Todd's camp" (as we call it) the porch was neat and tidy. All the kitten toys were tucked away in the toy basket. I think Mickey Kitty got most of them out of the basket within the first ten minutes of being back on his porch. And out of all of those cute little toys, his favorite is still the empty cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels.

Rusty and AngelBoy are out there with him now, watching the kitten play with his toys. Mickey Kitty is just a bit unsteady on his feet, and I have to give him some liquid medication for the next seven days, but he seems to be doing just fine. When I was at the pet clinic this morning and talking to the girl at the front desk, I heard Mickey Kitty meowing in the room behind us. The receptionist told me that Mickey Kitty must have recognized my voice because they hadn't heard a peep out of him the whole time he was there.

So the baby-cat is back home...... and ShadowBaby is right next to my feet as I'm typing this. Without a doubt, I know he's thinking "But I thought I was the baby-cat around here...."

Jane's House

A neighbor from the next street stopped by yesterday to tell me that she and her husband were selling their home here and moving to an apartment in downtown Houston. I was surprised because they'd lived here for nearly 25 years, and Jane's house was always fixed up like a doll-house... filled with all her collections. Everything from dolls and vintage toys to china sets and Victorian lamps. Like me, Jane worked in an antique shop for a number of years, so it was very easy to add to her collections. When you work in one of those shops, you don't necessarily need money--- most of the time, you end up trading merchandise with other dealers.

So now Jane and her husband have rented a downtown apartment--- not wanting to buy until they're sure just where they want to be. Their furniture is already moved out of their two-story house here, and some of her treasures are in the new apartment. Jane asked me if I knew anyone who would want to come and look at her collections before she goes ahead and has a moving sale. I told her that I was still in touch with some of the dealers at the antique shop, and I did call them and tell them it would be worth their time to come have a look-see at what Jane is selling.

I went up to Jane's house for a look-see myself.... and it was kind of sad. All those years collecting all that stuff, and now she's stressing-out over what to keep, what to sell, what to save for her children and grandchildren. I suggested to her that she ask her children and grandchildren now to come and take what they wanted. Keeping it in storage for them seems pointless to me-- she'll have to pay for the storage fee, first of all, and that's a waste of money. And really, how does she know exactly what her children and grandchildren would like to have? Wouldn't it be better for her, and fun for them, if they could chose their own keepsakes now?

It just amazes me at how much stuff we can collect. We're all guilty of the collecting bug, some more than others. I think it either depends on how much space we have, or how much space we're willing to give up. Because if you collect on a grand scale, then you're leaving precious little space for living and giving up most of your space for whatever treasures you hold most dear. And if you're moving from a big house to a smaller apartment, then you'd be like Jane-- having to decide what to keep, what to make room for, what you need to either sell or give away.

And those treasures are only treasures in your eyes. That's what Jane is afraid of.... asking her children and grandchildren to come pick what they want and hearing them tell her that they don't want "any of that old stuff."

When I went up to Jane's house, I was determined not to buy anything. After all, we just re-arrange practically everything in this house last year when my husband's mom passed away and we had things shipped down here from her home. And my rule is "If one thing comes in, then one thing has to go out."

Jane has a huge collection of china. Entire sets, partial sets, all patterns, all designs. She had some Noritake bowls (both soup size and fruit size) that were just too beautiful and too vintage. There were 5 of the larger size, and 8 of the smaller size. And she also had the matching platter. Forgive me. I couldn't resist. I bought them. After I found room for them in the dining room buffet, I stood there remembering my "one in/one out" rule.

I walked into the kitchen and threw away a bag of carrots. They were no longer fresh because I had forgotten to use them. Plus, there were about 32 carrots in the bag, so I figure I'm ahead of the game on my "one in/one out" rule.

Tuesday... National Night Out

I don't know if National Night Out is really "celebrated" all over the United States, and I don't remember how long ago this started. What happens is that neighbors on each street are supposed to leave their front porch lights on and gather together at one end of their street for a very informal block-party. It's a "say hello to your neighbors" type of thing.

When I first told my sister about this Night Out, she told me that no one up in New York would participate because they'd be afraid of strangers breaking into their homes from the back doors as they were all outside in front of their houses. "Not a smart thing to do up here," she told me.

Our street being a cul-de-sac, there are just 15 houses. Except for two families that just busily come and go and wave as they drive by, we're all very friendly and neighborly. National Night Out is always held on the first Tuesday of August, which here translates to broiling hot. My husband and I used to go down to the end of the cul-de-sac and join the neighbors.... then the mosquitoes and the heat won out and we said good-night. Most of the other neighbors were enjoying Margaritas (which we don't drink) so I don't think they noticed the mosquitoes and the heat just gave them more incentive to drink another Margarita.

For a few years in a row, it just happened that my husband was out of town on National Night Out, so I went by myself, said hello to everyone, signed the "guest" list, and came home early. (This yearly event starts at 6:30 and runs till 9:00 pm.) Last year, my husband was here and decided he should go down the street and say hello to the neighbors. I reminded him about the heat, the mosquitoes, and also reminded him that we're always friendly with our neighbors. He insisted... I truly think that he thought he'd been missing something those years he was out of town for this Night Out.

I think our neighborliness last year lasted less than half an hour. If I remember correctly, the temperature was close to 100 degrees, and the mosquitoes were relentless. As we made our way back up to our house, my husband said "Remind me never to do this again." Luckily for him, he's out of town for a few days. I debated whether to go down the street and sign our names on the "guest" list.... say hello.... talk about the heat and swat the mosquitoes. Then I decided to clean the screen-porch and rearrange the furniture out there. Granted, it was hot on the porch, but there wasn't a mosquito or Margarita in sight.

Monday.... Busy, Busy

Busy day today........ I drove my husband to the airport for a quick out-of-town trip, so we were up and out early. When I got back home, I called A's house to speak to her niece L who is visiting here with her parents and her brother & sister. L and I spent a few hours doing some errands and shopping for a new CD player in Best Buy. Her portable CD player broke into pieces when she got down here, so she found a new one that she liked. That's one of the first rules of being almost 16--- you've got to have your music wherever you go. L is a sweet young girl... 15 going on 16, rather than 15 going on 38. This is the second summer that she's come down here for a visit, and I'm sure it won't be her last.

L will be celebrating her 16th birthday with us on Wednesday. We've arranged a lunch at one of the tea rooms nearby, and I'll be going along with my young friend C. One of the tea rooms in League City has a beautiful "garden room" that's painted with flowers and trees and vines and birds--- the whole room looks like you're sitting outside in a garden instead of inside with comfortable air-conditioning. One of the tables in the garden room even has an large sun umbrella stuck into the middle of the table, so that's the one we've reserved for L's birthday lunch.

This evening, I drove little Mickey Kitty to the vet's office. He will stay there tonight, then have his neutering and de-clawing done first thing tomorrow morning. More than likely, he'll sleep most of tomorrow, and I'll be able to pick him up on Wednesday morning. I swear, that little kitten broke my heart when I had to leave him at the clinic tonight.

No matter how many times I've brought one of our pets to the clinic for an over-night stay, my eyes puddle up and I could just break down and cry. Mickey Kitty was in his traveling crate and I put my fingers through the grate to pet his nose and say goodnight, and I swear that little cat melted into my hand and turned upside-down to look at me with the saddest little brown eyes.

The window is open again now from the breakfast room to the screen porch, and the other cats have been going in and out as usual. ShadowBaby has sniffed all around Mickey Kitty's basket, as if he's looking for him. AngelBoy took one look into the empty basket and put his nose in the air and his tail fluffed up high, as if to say "Well, finally... that woman has come to her senses and given us our porch back." Rusty has been sleeping all afternoon and I'm sure he hasn't got a clue that Mickey Kitty isn't here tonight.

It's amazing how you can take away one tiny little kitten and the house just seems extraordinarily quiet. In my mind's eye, I can see Mickey Kitty in the crate at the pet clinic, and he's looking for his basket, his toys, the other cats, and Gracie, who seems to be his four-legged favorite. And dare I hope that he's looking for me as well.....