About those Tarot Cards....

I keep thinking of our Harry Potter party, and our friend R who brought along her deck of Tarot cards. She has taken classes and lessons on Tarot Card reading, and she's extremely serious about her cards. She has several decks, and uses two favorite decks for her readings.

Without giving away anything about what she "read" in the cards for us and for our other friends who were here, I have to say that we all agreed (and were truly amazed) that R was right on target with everything she saw in the Tarot cards for us all. She was even extremely definitive about certain things she saw in the cards for K and B... things that K and B hadn't mentioned to anyone else.

When R did the reading for me, both myself and our friend K noticed that R was just about lifting herself off of the chair as she was looking over my cards. R kept telling me to "Do it... there's something that you've been wanting to do for a long while now, and you need to just do it." She said she couldn't tell me exactly what it was, but it had to do with sitting and writing, but she said she was certain that the "activity" didn't involve sitting in a classroom. R said she couldn't figure it out, because what she was seeing in the cards wasn't that detailed, but she said I must know what it could be. (R doesn't even know that I write this blog, for goodness sake, nor did she know that I've been writing for as long as I can remember.)

Well, of course I knew what she was talking about. And, of course, no one else would know because I haven't said a thing to anyone. The "sitting and writing" has to do with writing a book, which I've been thinking (seriously thinking) about for the last couple of years. R doesn't know that writing is my secret passion, that I'm always writing..... that even when I'm not actually typing, I'm writing things in my mind...... playing with sentence structure and descriptive phrases and all that. When R was finished with my reading, I did tell her about my longing to write -- actually write! -- a book. Her final words: "Just do it! You've got to do it!"

Yesterday, when K and B called to tell us what a great time they had at the party, B told me that when I was telling R about wanting to write a book, she wasn't surprised. B said that when she first met my husband and I, she told K that "Of course that girl must be an author... is she working on anything?" I asked B what made her think that, and she said it was the way I spoke, and the way I described things.... she said only a writer could manage both so effortlessly.

Well..... how about that. Needless to say, I was very flattered.

Also, needless to say, I know that in order to write a book, you need time... lots of uninterrupted time. Which I just don't have. I could have more time, but I'd have to give up other things. Like the Pajama Program. And reading. And making greeting cards. And planning parties. And keeping this house (as well as the lake house) so blessedly organized.

Writing a book brings such a large block of uncertainty with it........ and that would be a lot of time wasted if nothing came of it. And do you know the odds of a new author's book getting accepted by a publisher? Millions to one, would be my guess.

But the idea is there......... and someday I just might be able to do it. Maybe it really is "in the cards," as that old saying goes.

Labor Day Weekend....

How can this be? The end of August, the beginning of September. Seems like the first week of June was just the day before yesterday. Maybe it really is true that time passes more quickly as you get older. Older? Who's old?

I went to two different churches today, and it seems like I've been to more churches in the last few months than I've been to in the last twenty years. This morning, I was at St. Bernadette's, to deliver pajamas for the infants and flip-flop slippers for the moms of the Gabriel Project of that church. Truly an amazing church, with lots of buildings and in-church organizations to help every segment of the population that you can think of.

This evening, I was at a local Baptist Church-- they were hosting a "Back to School Bash," and they asked the teenagers to bring a pajama set to donate to Houston's Pajama Program. I went there to say hello to the directors of the Youth Group, and to collect the pajamas.... 24 sets in all, with more to come from members who forgot to bring them to the church.

Total number of pajamas, to date, is 1400. Plus 68 pairs of those colorful flip-flop slippers that one very generous local woman has been making for us. Sometimes I just shake my head in wonder...... our Houston Chapter has done very well, considering we've had extremely little help from the corporate groups in the area. I really need a Marketing person....... and that would certainly do wonders to get the word out about our Chapter. But until I get a volunteer who's willing (and able) to put in that amount of time, there's only me, and I'm doing the best I can.

As for the weekend.... we don't know exactly what we're doing yet. The weather has been cloudy and rainy for most of today, and the Weather Gods are predicting more of the same until Monday. Oh goodie.

Harry Potter lives on...

... at least in the seven volumes sitting on the bookshelves of everyone who was sitting around our dining room table this afternoon.

Our Harry Potter lunch was great, absolutely perfectly great. The table looked amazing, with all that black and silver and purple, and the extra touches (Polyjuice Potion, Butter Beer, Essence of Dittany) were unexpected surprises.

Speaking of "unexpected surprises," our friend R brought her Tarot cards and gave us all a reading (she's been doing that for years and takes it very seriously), and she even took the time to dress up in her Renaissance costume, to make the card readings more mystical. She also had a bag filled with Harry Potter candies for all us (Bertie Bott's EveryFlavor Beans, Jelly Slugs, and Blood Pops).

It was amazing to see the transformation in R, and I think it was the flouncy, flirty, layered Renaissance dress that did it...... somehow, that dress (blouse and skirt, actually) changed R from a seriously proper lady into a carefree and magical girl. All these years that R and C have been coming to our Halloween parties, neither of them has ever come in costume. Of course, I had to tell R to keep her Renaissance costumes in mind when she receives our invitation for this year's Halloween party.

Today's menu was fun as well....... we started off with a tossed salad and small cranberry/date muffins. Then the dinner plate had a sampling of four foods--- C & R's potato salad and zucchini pie, my deviled eggs made with tuna and avocado, and my Greek spinach pie. We had Butter Beer and Polyjuice Potion to drink (as well as plain old Muggle-water). For dessert, K & B brought a delicious Pistachio Cake from one of the downtown bakeries....... delicious tasting, and so beautifully decorated.

My husband's Harry Potter Trivia Quiz was a big hit...... there were ten questions, which I thought was enough when he asked me if he should do more---- and wouldn't you know it, everyone was looking for more than one page of questions, so his suggestion of 25 questions wouldn't have been over-the-top, as I had thought.

The Harry Potter gifts that I used to decorate the table were perfect.... Harry Potter bookmarks and pens, plus special gifts picked out for everyone--- a Harry Potter charm bracelet for R and myself, Harry Potter necklaces for K and B, a mug for C, and Harry Potter's wand for my husband (which came with batteries, so it makes wand-like sounds)....... I figured he could incorporate that into a costume for Halloween, should he decided to be a wizard. (If not, the wand would make an interesting pointer for a business meeting.-- Just kidding.)

Everyone got here at 2:30, and the party didn't end till nearly 8:30...... so I'd say we did Harry Potter proud. Lots of surprises in those Tarot card readings, but I won't go into everyone's details. What happens at the party, stays at the party.

Getting ready for Harry Potter...

Sometimes I think I spend more time "dressing the table" than I do cooking the food for a party. Truth be told, I'd rather decorate the table than chop and peel and mix and bake anyway. The table looks great, though, and well worth the effort. Everything is in ivory, purple and black, with a little gold and silver tossed in for glitter.

The place cards are purple, each decorated with a little owl sitting next to the person's name, plus I used a gold glitter-pen to highlight the tree branch that the owl is sitting on. At each place setting, there's a Harry Potter bookmark and a Harry Potter pen. There's also the Dumbledore-decorated "crackers," which we'll pop open during dessert. Those are always fun, and each of these wizard-crackers has a puzzle or magic trick inside of them. My husband has made up a Harry Potter Trivia Quiz, which we'll all do after lunch and before dessert, and we can use the H.P. pens to write in the answers.

For the centerpiece, I have a black runner going down the center of the ivory tablecloth, and there are black beaded spiders along the web design of the runner--- that was an after-Halloween sale item last year, and it's perfect for a Harry Potter lunch because of the giant spiders that were in one of the volumes. A couple of months ago, we found a Harry Potter doll at a yard sale, so he's sitting in the center of the table, surrounded by the purple-paper wrapped gifts for everyone. I also have dark purple-blue goblets with tea-lights in them along the center of the table. The sideboard is decorated with more dark candle-lit goblets and all seven of the Harry Potter volumes. (I didn't pay a penny for those vintage goblets... I brought the rest of my porcelain swans into the antique shop and traded those to L for the cobalt goblets, which are decorated with moons and stars--- very Harry Potter-ish, and very Pajama Program-ish, because of their moon/star logo.)

I've got the jar of Essence of Dittany (table sugar) propped up on a gold pedestal, and the bottle of Polyjuice Potion (green apple soda) is also displayed on the black-spider table runner. Ivory china, gold flatware, purple napkins...... and three glasses-- a goblet for water or iced tea, a sherry glass for the Butter Beer (cream soda), and a shot glass for the Polyjuice (green apple soda). -- You can't drink too much of that Polyjuice, so a shot glass is just perfect.

Just about everything is done in the kitchen..... I've made a Greek spinach pie (which you won't find in the Harry Potter series, but the green color makes it wizard-worthy). Tomorrow morning, I will make Hippogriff eggs (deviled eggs mixed with tuna and avocado-- green food once again). I also have some Petrified Vegetables (slices of real vegetables that have been oven-dried). K and B are bringing a pistachio cake for dessert (there's that green color again), and C and R are bringing along another side-dish, which we're hoping will be their delicious Italian zucchini pie (do you see a green theme going on here?).

Harry Potter would be proud of all this fuss, I'm sure. Maybe we should have sent an invitation to J. K. Rowling.


The girl who is making the flip-flop slippers for the Pajama Program stopped by today.... she brought 30 pairs of her colorful slippers, plus 8 pairs of boy's slippers from Wal-Mart. Her crocheted embellishments on the flip-flops are for girls only-- they're just not what boys would want to wear, but she found some Spiderman slippers at Wal-Mart at end-of-season sale prices, and she was kind enough to include those also. While she was here, we got to talking about different things... and I found out she's a big fan of Barry Manilow. (I knew I really liked this girl!) She also likes to play cards and games, and I asked her if she'd like to join our Charades group...... so she will be getting one of the invitations to our next Charades night, which will be the Halloween party. And that will be here before we know it.....

But for the moment, Harry Potter is number one on the Hit Parade.

"Southern Ladies Enjoying Wine"

That is the name of a group of ladies who get together once a month for sort of a girl's night out, or girl's night in... depending on where they meet, I would guess. Southern Ladies Enjoying Wine, or SLEW, for short.

The founder of this wonderful group, along with her husband, stopped by our home tonight with 27 pajama sets that she and her Southern Ladies collected at their August meeting. Every set is just as cute as it can be, and I was totally overwhelmed with the generosity of this women's group.

Always, when I think the pajama collections are slowing down a bit, someone calls or eMails me with a wonderful surprise of pajamas. Next week, one of the local church groups is having a "Back to School Bash," with all the kids bringing a pajama set to donate to the Pajama Program. They're expecting 150 kids, so that could mean a lot of pajamas if everyone brings just one set.

To date, the number of pajamas we've collected is 1359....... not bad at all, considering that this has all been done on a personal level, without large corporate pajama-donations. Come to think of it, only the Marshalls Store kindly sent me a free shopping certificate, which I immediate took to their store and purchased pajamas.

Three cheers for the Ladies of SLEW...... their generosity is very heart-warming!

Harry Potter.... a Tea for Two

Our neighbor J came by tonight, for an after-dinner tea party for just the two of us. She was supposed to join us this weekend for our Harry Potter Party, but she has to attend a family event that same day. She was so disappointed to have to miss our lunch party that I asked her to come over tonight instead. My husband had to work, which was fine with him-- he's not into having "a tea."

I set up the table in a low-key Harry Potter design, saving all the extra bells and whistles for Sunday's lunch party. But I did have some surprises for J on the table.... a Harry Potter bookmark, a Harry Potter pen (which has "attachments" for the other main characters), a bottle of Butter Beer (which is really cream soda in a vintage-looking glass bottle), and a silver Victorian "cracker" which had a Dumbledore-like wizard on the outer wrapping.

I also put out the Polyjuice Potion (which is really a glass bottle of green apple soda). For Sunday's lunch, the six of us will each have a shot-glass of the Polyjuice, but for tonight's tea, I just used it as one of the table decorations, along with the Harry Potter doll (action figure?) that I had found at a yard sale a few weeks back.

Instead of the white sugar cubes that I usually use for company, I filled up a little jar with natural brown cane sugar and labeled it "Essence of Dittany." J loved that little touch as she added the sugar crystals to her tea. (Love those brown sugar crystals... somehow much nicer than the white-white sugar.)

J and I had a nice visit... discussing everything from J.K. Rowling's final book in the Potter series to vintage rhinestones to neighborhood dogs and cats. She's a very nice lady who used to manage a bookstore...... she truly loves reading, and she's also a talented artist.

The seven Harry Potter books are still displayed on the buffet in the dining room...... may as well keep them out till after this weekend's party, then back on the bookshelves they will go. I swear, I'm going to read those books over again, beginning with the first volume and going all the way to the seventh, without reading anything else inbetween.

Hot and dry. Hot and wet. Typical August weather.

I am reminding myself not to complain about the 100-degree temperatures. I am reminding myself not to complain about the rain. We have had a lot of both..... and I'm trying to remember all the cold snaps we had last Dec. and Jan., when I was wishing for summer to begin.

So, summer it is, with over 100 degrees for days on end, and if it isn't broiling outside, it's storming with rain and thunder and parts of the city are flooding. Same city streets that flood each and every time. Will anyone ever fix that problem?

We spent a few days up at the lake cottage this past week. Hot up there as well, with the lake water as warm as a hot bath. Not that I went into the water, but my husband did. I still can't get myself to "jump in the lake," as that old saying goes. The water is much too deep around our bulkhead (over 15 - 20 feet at least) and I can't see the bottom--- both of which just scare me to pieces.

Our neighbor up at the lake had her garage sale on Saturday, and her moving truck will be there at the end of this week. By the time we go up to the lake again, the new neighbor will have moved in. Oh goodie to that. Neither my husband nor I are thrilled with the new buyer. We were hoping for an older, retired, quiet couple to buy G's house. A fifty-something-year-old man bought that house.... his wife has passed away, and he's raising his pre-teen daughter. The man is a drinker... one of those obnoxious drinkers, sad to say, for the daughter's sake. Not someone that we want to be friendly with. So we'll just wait and see how it goes.

While we're waiting and seeing.... we went to Lowe's and bought some pink and red oleander bushes... my husband planted them along the fence on our side that runs around G's property. She had gates installed near the back of her property on both sides of that fence... one gate leading to our backyard, the other leading to the neighbor's backyard on the other side. Now, with this new buyer being in G's house, we didn't want to have this open-gate invitation..... so we planted the biggest oleander right smack in front of that gate, on our property. We thought of buying a big lock to secure the gate, then throwing the key into the lake..... but it isn't our fence. So the oleanders will have to do. Oleanders grow very fast and thick, so it shouldn't take long for them to grow up and obscure that fence, and, most importanly-- the gate.

While we were at the lake, the moving truck arrived with the furniture from my grandmother's house. The rattan sofa is now in the little TV room, and the two rattan chairs are in the living room. I originally had all three rattan pieces together in the TV room, but the two side-chairs just looked nicer in the living room with the other sofas in there.... and the two not-matching chairs look better in the TV room with my grandmother's sofa. Somehow, it all works and both rooms look just great, as if it was meant to look that way all along.

Also in that shipment was the little step-stool from my grandmother's kitchen....... I could have cried when I saw that stool. I can't even count how many hours I spent sitting on that stool when I was younger. The stool has two pull-down steps, so when I was really little, I could sit on the second step (as a chair) and use the stool-stop as a table. I would color for hours, or play with my paper dolls, and when my grandmother made her homemade macaroni, she would give me a piece of dough to play with on that little stool. The top of the stool still has a cut-mark in the vinyl top, where the knife went through it--- she had mistakenly given me a knife with a sharp edge instead of a butter knife. Everyone in the family spent hours sitting on that stool, since it was always set in front of the chimney next to my grandmother's stove...... we would all sit there and talk to Grandma and Aunt Dolly and watch them cook.

Our friends K and B came up to the lake yesterday.... K bringing her granddaughter with her as well. Both K and B sat on that little step-stool for a while--- it's right in the kitchen at the end of the island....... and they said that it was a delightful place to perch. It's amazing to me, to see that stool in my life again........... I started out in this world with that stool in my grandmother's kitchen, and I know when it's my time to leave this planet, that little white and silver stool will be in my kitchen, no matter where we're living. It is totally an emotional, sentimental little piece of nostalgia.

I called my Aunt Dolly while we were up at the lake...... she's in Florida now. I told her that the furniture arrived and all was well-- she had been worried that something would be damaged. When she answered the phone, I asked her to guess where I was sitting. In Grandpa's chair? (That was her guess......... probably because when Grandpa was alive, no one else ever sat in his chair.) I told Aunt Dolly that I was sitting on my little stool...... and both of us choked up and it was all I could do not to cry.

An inexpensive little stool........ and it means the world to me. Go figure.

Weekends are flying by...

Mid-August already.... we say this every year, but I will say it again-- the summer months go by so quickly. Even though "summer" lasts more than just a few months here, my mind still thinks of summer as just being June/July/August. Which is far from the truth in this part of the country.... a typical "summer" can last from March through October, with the rest of the year being like Spring--- except for a cold-snap every now and again to make sure we're paying attention.

We had dinner on Saturday night with young Miss C and her mom. They came for a pizza dinner and dominoes, which we had done at their house a couple of weeks ago. We just reversed it to our house this time... C's mom brought the salad and we got the pizza from a local Italian restaurant. (Much better than Pizza Hut or Domino's.)

I made place cards for our dinner..... Miss C had told me not long ago that we hadn't had a "place card dinner" in a while, so I made them with her place card collection in mind. I had bought a deck of cards at a yard sale awhile back, and kept them just to use as place cards. (I was thinking of having a card party at the time, but we never arranged it.) With a little name tag attached to them, the cards looked really cute on the table, along with napkins with hearts/spades/diamonds/clubs on them. It looked more like a card-party than a pizza & domino night, but the table looked casual and fun, and that was the point.


We're waiting for the bug-spray guy to come today....... he'll spray everything outside, including the garage, and everything inside, including the attic. I truly hate to get on an every-three month plan with a pest control company, but that whole episode with the wasp sting just made me a little bit nuts. Not something that I want repeated, that's for sure.

Yesterday, my husband hosed down the front of the garage, above the door where the wasps had their nest. A tiny bit of the nest was still up there, which is why the wasps were coming back. There's not a trace of their nest there now, though, and after everything gets sprayed this afternoon, I doubt a wasp will want to come near our house. Neither will a butterfly, and that's the problem. But that's the way it goes.


My Aunt Dolly left for Florida on Friday of last week. I am sure that walking out of that house for the last time was probably the hardest thing she's ever had to do. Just the thought that it isn't the family home anymore is hard to believe. 89 years in that house...... more than a life-time. I will call Aunt Dolly this week and see how she's doing in Florida. I wanted to give her a few days to get settled down there, before trying to speak with her. She was so upset during her last week in NY that I barely got to talk to her on the phone for more than a few minutes. She sounded very stressed...... and I know that if given a choice, she would not have left that house. "The house that Papa built." That's what it will always be to her, no matter who eventually buys it and lives in it.

Or maybe that was a W, as in wasp.

I don't think it was a bee that decided to sting my face the other day.... it was probably a wasp. We've seen at least two dozen wasps flying over near the garage door, near the space where their nest used to be. My husband sprayed the nest and the floral arrangement that was hanging up in front of it..... then I took the can of wasp spray and sprayed it till it was empty. By the time I was done, that floral arrangement was dripping with Agent Orange (or whatever it is that's in those cans). My husband took down the floral piece, knocked down the nest, and tossed them both into the trash can. (My hero.)

The wasps, however, are still flying back to that same spot. We've sprayed and sprayed, but they're still determined to reclaim their prime location over the garage door. No more fooling around: I called the bug-spray company. They will be here on Monday with their truck, filled with super-duper wasp-killing stuff. Unfortunately, all of the good bugs (lady bugs, butterflys, grasshoppers) will be eliminated along with the bad bugs (wasps, bees, wood roaches, fire-ants).

The left side of my face, along the cheek-bone, is still a little bit swollen. There's a bright red dot right in the spot where the stinger got me-- looks like a pea-sized circle from a red marking pen. If I put a bandage on my face, I look like a pirate. If I don't, that bright red spot looks like a Bingo marker. I now have Benedryl and Epinephrine in my purse.... don't leave home without them.

My husband and I drove to a nearby park along the Kemah waterfront this afternoon. A friend of ours had told us about the hidden waterfront park and we wanted to go there and see if it was dog-friendly enough for Gracie. Beautiful park, with a half-mile-long fishing pier along Clear Lake, and walking trails that looked as if they wound deep into the woods. We walked nearly to the edge of the fishing pier-- I was walking slower, staying about four feet behind my husband (I figured if the boards gave way underneath him, I would still have a chance to run backwards).

Then my husband wanted to try one of the walking trails. I looked at the beginning of the trail, which was very pretty... but of course I couldn't see the end of it....... couldn't see more than eight or ten feet into it because while the path was wide and clear enough, the overgrowth of trees was very thick.

"You want me to walk in there? What about bugs? Bees? Snakes? Poison ivy?" My husband looked at me and said I guess that's a No? No indeed. We walked a bit along the water instead, then turned around because it was at least 113 degrees in the sun. (Cooler along that walking trail, I'm sure, but I wasn't going to try it, no matter that my husband was carrying the Epinephrine spray in his pocket.)

B.... as in bee.

Well, guess who just found out she's allergic to bee stings?

I was out in the driveway this morning, trying to take down a spray of artificial flowers that I had used as a decoration above the door of the garage. I didn't realize there were bees hiding in the flowers and when I went to grab it, the bees came out and one of them stung me on the left side of my face.

Of course I screamed, which got my husband to come running of the house to see what had happened. He said he hadn't ever heard me scream like that before. I told him that I've made that sound many times throughout all our years in Texas, but he just hasn't been home when I was "surprised" by flying, crawling, and/or slithering things. Lucky for me, he was home this morning, because we were nearly on our way to the emergency room.

Ten minutes after I got stung by the bee, my heart was going a mile a minute (I now know what that phrase really means) and I felt faint and sick to my stomach and my hands were shaking and I couldn't stand up. The world was spinning out of control, and all because of one tiny bee sting. We were on our way to the emergency room of the local hospital when my husband thought of our friend J who is a retired doctor.

We went to his house first, and he was there...... he checked my pulse, put ice on my face, gave me aloe for the sting, and told me to go back home before the two tablets of Benedryl that I had taken before leaving kicked in and made me sleepy. So that's just what we did...... and as soon as I put my head down on my pillow, I fell asleep for two hours.

One little teeny-tiny bee...... and I thought my world was coming to an end on this bright and sunshine-filled hot morning. Bee stings and fire-ant bites...... I now know I am allergic to both. Give me a blessed break.

Crab House for lunch & Slippers for dinner.

Gorgeous day today...... we drove into Kemah and had lunch at the Crab House. We decided to eat outside and watch the boats go by. What were we thinking? It must have been over 100 degrees out there, but we stayed outside at the table anyway. We weren't the only ones out there, but more people stayed inside in the air-conditioned part of the restaurant. I usually don't make a fuss about the heat, but today just seemed to be hotter than hot.

I absolutely refuse to complain about the heat...... I can still remember the cold snaps we had during December and January.


This afternoon, I had a visit from a local woman who had called me about the Pajama Program. She saw an article about us in one of the local newspapers and wanted to donate some of her hand-made slippers, to go along with the pajamas I deliver to the children's shelters. True to her word, she called me and drove over here with 35 pairs of flip-flop slippers. She buys simple, sturdy flip-flops at Hobby Lobby and crochets soft, colorful yarns around the front straps. The result-- cozy, comforting slippers that are so bright and colorful that you just smile when you look at them. The kids are going to love them!

We arranged the slippers on our dining room table and my husband took a photo so I can get it posted to the Houston Pajama Program web-page. I've already boxed up 14 pairs to send to one of our children's shelters on the other side of downtown, and the rest will be distributed this week to local agencies. This wonderful slipper-lady will be bringing me flip-flop slippers on a regular basis. I was so happy to meet her, and she was just so very nice..... my husband said we need to invite her to our parties, and I'm sure we'll be doing just that.

And that's been the day......... here it is 9:00 and I haven't even exercised yet. Time to get that done before it gets any later.

"Tuna Does Vegas"

We just got back from Galveston a little while ago..... we went to see Tuna Does Vegas at the Grand Opera House on Galveston's Strand. Anyone who follows the "Tuna" guys knows that they will see a great show.

Joe Sears and Jaston Williams are the two men who do all the characters in their plays. Not only that, but they write their own material for these very funny shows. Their others are "Greater Tuna," "A Tuna Christmas," and "Red, White, and Tuna." So very funny, all of them..... and after you have seen one or two of the plays, you get to know the characters and their personalities. Tonight's show introduced a few new Vegas people, but I don't think those characters will find their way into the other plays. The quick costume changes are amazing, as are the dialects and personalities of each person in the play.... each man does about a dozen different characters during the show, which lasts a little over two hours.

I have to wonder how the Tuna plays work in other cities around the country. Tuna is the name of a fictional small town in Texas, and all of the humor in these plays is very Texas. Greater Tuna was first shown off-Broadway in 1982, and the Tuna plays have been winning awards ever since, so I guess it really doesn't matter which city they're in. As always, when they're at Galveston's Grand theatre, every seat in that vintage venue is sold out.

Tonight was the opening show for Tuna Does Vegas, and as everyone walked into The Grand, they were handed little net bags filled with casino-chip/foil-wrapped chocolates and a pack of playing cards with photos of Joe Sears and Jaston Williams on them...... their characters' photos appear on the Kings, Queens, Jacks, and Jokers of the set.

We love the Tuna guys, and we laughed till we cried, along with the rest of the audience. Makes me want to see "A Tuna Christmas" again this year. We have it on video, but it's always nicer to see them on stage.

One funny thing about tonight's play...... two audience members came to the theatre dressed up Vegas-style. The man wore an Elvis costume, complete with white boots, dark sunglasses and an Elvis wig.... and the lady with him wore a showgirl costume (not very risque, since The Grand is a family theatre). The couple had seats up near the front, and at the end of the show, the Tuna guys saw them in the audience and gave them a good wave.

Great night..... and the Vegas theme of the play makes me want to host a card party here so we can use the Tuna Does Vegas playing cards. But.... one party at a time.... and the Harry Potter Last-Book Party is up first.

Too much going on at once....

.... but that's what happens sometimes.

First of all, we got back from a few days at the lake and there was a package waiting for me-- a box filled with pajamas from a Vacation Bible School Group in the Houston area. Thirty-eight pajama sets, plus one adorable pair of slippers. I've already sorted them into boy/girl sizes and I will deliver them to the agencies during the week. That brings the number of pajamas to 1,198... and still counting.

Secondly, I'm trying to arrange for a few things from my grandmother's house to be shipped down here from New York.... and that has to be done before the end of next week, because my Aunt Dolly will be leaving that house for the last time and going to her new home in Florida. Right now, my cousin L is helping my aunt go through the entire house.... deciding what to bring, what to give away, what to sell. Big job..... and as my Aunt Dolly reminded me just this afternoon, the family has lived in that home for the past 89 years. No matter how you look at it, that's an amazingly long time, and the amount of stuff in that house is overwhelming, to say the least. Everything that will be shipped from Queens will be sent to our lake house... and hopefully the delivery truck will find its way from the center of town up into the woods around the lake without getting lost.

While we were up at the lake this time, we drove around to some of the other communities..... some larger than ours, some smaller. All of them are so very different. Some look very blue-collar, others are more white-collar. Home prices range anywhere from just over $100,000 to three-quarters of a million dollars, depending on just where you are on the lake..... and how big the house is, and how spectacular your view of the lake is. That's the most important thing up there-- not what your lake-house looks like, but what your lake-view looks like. So far, we haven't found a view that we like better than ours. (However, I did see some larger, more beautiful homes up there this time.) But the big question... if we ever decided to move up to the lake, would we want to live in our lake house? We both say no..... we'd rather find a newer, bigger house in a new subdivision.

With all the new construction going on here in town, and all the high-rises that will be going up soon, this area here is going to be more downtown-like than ever. Not a good thing in our book. Do we stay here and watch it all happen? Or do we move out in the country around the lake? Or do we go one step further and look at options elsewhere? When I think of that option, my mind goes back to the Hill Country. We loved it there...... but do we want to live further west? There are other states, other opportunites, other ideas... so many choices.

As I said..... too much going on at once.

The upcoming Harry Potter lunch....... our five Potter-loving friends are reading the book now and we will all get together before the month is over to discuss it. I bought some small glass bottles of cream soda today at Kroger---- that will be our "Butter Beer" for the lunch. I also have a glass bottle of green apple soda, which we will cover with a label that says "Polyjuice Potion." The possibilities are endless for this lunch, and I will have a lot of surprises on the table for everyone.

If anyone had told me five years ago that we would be hosting a Harry Potter lunch, I would have told them that their Muggle-brain must have been sprinkled with Essence of Dittany.