Morning Rain

Stupid weather........ it's raining this morning. Not a pouring rain, but just enough to be annoying. But on the bright side, it's warm out there, so at least that's an improvement.

Last night's dinner with J, L, and B went very well...... the table looked great, the food was delicious (if I do say so myself), and we had a really nice night. J made Italian pastries for dessert.... little cupcake-shaped pastry filled with chocolate cream. I know the Italian name for them but I don't know how to spell it. J surprised us with his baking... we knew he could cook, but I had no idea he could bake as well. He brought the pastries on a very pretty Christmas china plate, which he gave to us as a gift.

We had gifts for everyone as well....... we gave B a jar of the Donne di Domani spaghetti sauce (which will give him a great dinner without having to fuss too much, since he lives alone); for L, I had her favorite hand cream all wrapped up, along with a scented jar-candle (she likes to burn those in the shop while she's working); and for J-- a mini slot machine that is decorated with photos of Barry Manilow. The Manilow store in Las Vegas sells those, and I knew J would love it because he loves to play the slots..... instead of cherries and oranges and numbers coming up in the wheel when you pull the handle down, they have all things Barry in the little windows. J is lucky with the slots..... within half a dozen pulls on the handle, the slot machine was ringing its bell and lighting up. When my husband and I were "testing out" that little machine with pennies, we worked at it for nearly twenty minutes before we were winners.

"The Amazing Race"........ I got to see the show late last night, after everyone left. My husband had set the VCR for me, so after the last dish was put away, I took a break and sat down to watch it. The two guys won, which I kind of thought they would, even though my fingers were crossed for the two girls from Alabama. It was an exciting last episode..... my husband watched it also, even though he's usually not interested in it. He said that if he and I were a team, he'd be afraid that I'd be pulling out of the race when the tasks were too impossible. Well, of course.... my sister and I say that all the time. Neither my sister nor I would be wanting to swim in water over our heads, or scale down the side of a building or mountain on a rope, or eat some god-awful fried bugs or camel meat. Maybe that's why my sister and I enjoy the show... it lets us see just how much we would try to accomplish without actually having to do it and get our hands dirty. (Or, in my case, break a nail.)

"Little Women"........ my friend F up in New York sent me an eMail to let me know that one of the cable networks is showing the movie on Friday of this week. Not the version with Katherine Hepburn (which I have seen) but the one with June Allyson (which I've never seen). I looked in our television guide and found it in the listings, so I will watch it on Friday night. I used to watch all the "old movies" with my Aunt Dolly when I was a kid. After everyone else in my grandmother's house went up to bed, my aunt and I would stay up late to watch "The Million Dollar Movie" on the television in the living room. Just she and I..... we'd have hot tea and cookies in the winter-time, or a little dish of ice cream in the summer. I think I was the only kid on my block who could identify all the Hollywood stars of the 1930s and 1940s.

I'm sure my Aunt Dolly is still watching late-night movies these days. I just spoke to her last week...... she still sounds as young and as vibrant as ever, although she does have back pains these days. She will be 94 on her birthday next June. If anyone in my dad's generation can live to be 100, it will be my Aunt Dolly, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her. And my dad....... if he were living back in Queens instead of in New Jersey, I'd be betting he could live to be 100 as well. But New Jersey is taking the life out of him, one breath at a time.