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.