Fifty-six.

Fifty-six.

56.

How can that possibly be? Today is my birthday, and for the life of me, I cannot tell you where all those years have gone. I don't feel 56. I don't think I look 56. So maybe I won't be. Maybe I'll just pick a different number. Like 45. That's a good one.... works for me.

My husband and I went out for a birthday lunch today..... to the local Thai restaurant. Always delicious food there, although their soup today was extra-spicy and neither one of us could get through more than a few spoonfuls. The waitress noticed that and she brought out a different soup for us... a much milder one, with different vegetables. Much better. We'll have to remember that at other times when the soup of the day seems to be too peppery. The rest of the meal was excellent, and we splurged on dessert. We split an order of fried bananas with sticky rice and coconut ice cream.

The presentation of that dessert is just beautiful--- a square serving of sticky (sweet) rice in the center of the plate, topped with one scoop of coconut ice cream, surrounded by four slices of batter-coated/fried banana slices, tiny dollops of whipped cream, and very thin slices of red grapefruit arranged around the plate like flower petals. Unbelievably delicious..... and the entire plate looked like it should have been pictured in the best of the best gourmet cookbooks. Every calorie--- totally worth it.

The weather for my birthday has been the pits.... mostly cloudy, mostly cold, not very Texas-like at all. Then again, it's freezing up north, and tiny snowflakes are threatening to become blizzard-sized. So I shouldn't be complaining about cloudy days here.

The RSVPs for our Valentine's party have been coming in. Just waiting for a few more now.... we'll have our usual group of Charades players-- these parties are always so much fun, and they've only gotten better over the years. Maybe... just maybe.... by the time the party comes around, the sun will have found its way back here. (Okay, that was just a tiny little complaint about the weather.)

Alpha Kappa Alpha

We went downtown yesterday, to the 100th Anniversary celebration of this wonderful sorority of women, Alpha Kappa Alpha. One of its members put together a Pajama Drive as part of their community service for their 100th "birthday."

The member contacted me last November, telling me that she hoped to collect 1908 pajamas, that number being significant because that's the founding year of their sorority. Their final collection number was most impressive-- the largest collection our Chapter of the Pajama Program has received to date--- 972 pajama sets, along with 2 pairs of tiny baby slippers. I'm so glad our neighbor V drove us downtown in her van, because all of those boxes never would have fit into our car.

I was totally overwhelmed with the AKA celebration yesterday. As soon as we walked into the school which was hosting their Health Fair, the PJ Drive, and the Voting Registration Desk, you could just feel the positive energy in there. It was like being at a party that you hoped would never end. And not only did all that good energy surround you, the love that was in the air there was unmistakable. There was a camera from a local station, so that was a little unexpected for me, but I'm hoping that whatever I said while the camera was rolling came out the way I wanted it to. I guess I'm going to have to practice public speaking if all these large PJ Drives continue to take place. The AKA also had their own photographer there, and he kept us all laughing as he posed us with the various members of each AKA Chapter. My husband was taking a lot of photos as well, so I tried to keep my eye on him as I spoke, and as I smiled--- a familiar face in the crowd to focus on!

Yesterday's PJ Drive was the idea of just one of the members of the AKA. She thought of it back in November, did everything she could to let everyone know what they were doing and what they hoped to accomplish, and so many of her sorority sisters told me that her enthusiasm was just boundless. The PJ table was so beautifully decorated, and the collection boxes were covered in bright wrapping paper, and she had clean boxes to pack everything in for us.... she literally thought of everything to make this event a success.

For me, standing in the AKA "family" of confident, dignified, unflappable women, I could feel their strength of character emanating outward--- and I hope some of that was taken in by every cell in my body.


We took V out to lunch yesterday before we drove home... we all needed to take a break from the pajamas--- I was helping to box the pjs inside the school, and my husband and V loaded them into the van. So before we got home to take everything out of the van, we stopped at a Cajun deli for a New Orleans-style lunch. (Mardi Gras has begun here in Texas and Louisiana.) We got home at 3:00, and from 3:30 till 10:30 last night, all I did was cut off price-tags, sort, count, (re-count just to double-check myself) and re-box all those pajamas. They're all separated now, and labeled, and I will get them delivered to the shelters this week.

What a day it was yesterday...... what a blessedly inspiring day. AKA rocks, to say the least!

Pouring rain........ still.

I went out to Kroger this morning because I was out of salad fixings.... it wasn't raining when I walked in, but it was pouring when I was about to leave. I had an umbrella with me, but that little purse-sized thing wouldn't have helped much in that downpour. So, along with six other women with filled shopping carts, we stood there in the lobby of the store waiting for the rain to either quit or let-up a bit. One woman had two quarts of ice cream and she was wondering out loud how long it would take for her ice cream to start melting while she was waiting for the rain to stop. (As she was saying that, I was thinking she was nuts to be buying ice cream when the temperature was barely 50 degrees, but of course I didn't say that.)

A couple of men came out into the lobby and looked at the rain, then looked at all of us waiting and chatting away, and each man decided that running through the rain was a better option than listening to the chatter. One old man was cursing the Channel 12 weatherman as he walked through the doors and out into the rain.

I've gotten a lot of reading done in the last couple of weeks, since all of this rain started. My husband gave me a bunch of cat books for Christmas, and I've read three out of the four. Now I'm reading "Mrs. Mike," an oldie-but-goodie. I hadn't read that in years and years, and I read something about it in one of Oprah's magazines, so I thought it was time to re-read that classic book.

Speaking of cat books... one of the books suggested that no one should try to choose a cat. Rather, you should let the cat choose you. The book goes on to say that if you do that, you will have a better cat-person relationship. Well, looking at our three cats, that makes perfect sense to me.

Both of our black cats were strays who found us..... they meowed heartily to let us know they were lost and ready to be rescued (a cat who doesn't want to be found won't make a sound when someone is passing by). As for AngelBoy...... I went to the SPCA to pick out a kitten and I found him in a crate with his identical twin. There were two males, both identical in size and coloring. I chose the one closest to the front of the crate. I should have put him back in the crate when he dug his paws down and tried hard not to be taken out of that crate. At the time, I just thought he didn't want to leave his crate-mate, and I was probably right. The correct thing to do would have been to take the two cats, or just look at the other kittens.

But I didn't. I picked up this gorgeous little kitten, looked into those deep blue eyes of his, and I was hooked.... I was determined to have this blue-eyed fluffy cat which was unlike any other cat I'd ever had. And that's just what we have in AngelBoy.... a cat unlike any other we've ever had. He is a beautiful, fluffy, blue-eyed lavender-point Birman who is as independent as a cat can possibly be. Except, of course, when he cuddles up at my ankles and falls asleep with his head on my toes. It is during those moments when I can forgive all his indiscretions.

Just how long can it rain?

Another rainy drippy day. And still cold. Where have our warm winters gone? I am blessedly tired of wearing a coat and a scarf, not to mention two sweaters. (All of that clothing for 50-degree temperatures, if you can believe that. Up in NY, they would call this Spring.)

I went to the consignment shop today and dropped off my old yard-sale-treasure glassware.... and came home with the vintage light green, platinum-rimmed glasses. They're made by Noritake, and they're a discontinued design, which is always nice to hear-- makes them more unique.

This consignment shop has a small blackboard at their entrance, and every day they mark down a category of items which will sell all day long for a 20% discount. Today's featured sale was anything which is open or can be opened. I thought they meant something like covered boxes or covered serving bowls-- anything with a lid. Turns out that all their glassware was 20% off today-- because the tops are open. So that was a nice surprise when I got to the cash register.

I also found two light amber sherbet glasses... beautiful shape, high pedestal, made by Lenox (I didn't know they made glassware), and they will be perfect on the dining room table for Thanksgiving. I don't use glasses just for drinking.... they're great for tea-lights, votives, small candies, desserts, croutons, just about anything you can think of. They just had two of the amber glasses, which is fine....... I don't need to be finding room for any more glassware.

The consignment shop also had a set of bright red goblets when I went in the other day. Of course I thought they would look beautiful for a Christmas table, or for Valentine's Day.... but the goblets were large, and I definitely don't have room for those unless I start taking away some of my dishes....... and I love all the dishes that we have now, so I'm not ready to part with any of those. And besides, those red glasses weren't on display anymore, so I guess they were sold sometime between the other day and this afternoon.

Dishes..... glassware...... hard to resist those. I wonder if I got this collecting bug years and years ago from my grandmother, when we used to go into the basement level of the Gertz store on Jamaica Avenue-- Grandma would look for bargain-priced plates, bowls, cups and saucers. Everything she picked out was beautiful, and made of fine china, but at really low prices because nothing was in a complete set. And sometimes she would find a cup without a saucer (or vice versa) and then the search would be on to find a good match for it. I don't think my grandmother ever shopped on the upper floors of the Gertz store--- she always headed down to the basement level where the prices were lower. (Those were the days before resale shops and yard sales.)

Oh goodie... another drippy day.

After a beautifully warm (and normal-weather day) we're back to rainy, dreary, drippy, and a little bit colder. Will this never end? But on the bright side, I should count my blessings... it's below freezing or next-to-freezing in other parts of the country, and all this rain isn't as bad as the mounds of snow that's falling elsewhere. In other words, I should quit complaining. I am the first to admit that we get so spoiled here with lovely weather that when the sun doesn't shine, we (I) get downright cranky.

I went to one of the local consignment shops a couple of days ago.... I hadn't been there in a while and it was nice to walk around and see what they had. It's a huge store, filled with everything from a pretty teacup and saucer to a six-piece bedroom set. Everything in the store is in as-new condition, and the entire store is filled to the brim. Makes me wonder if half of this town is always in a re-modeling mode. Or they could be down-sizing. I'm not big on re-modeling (I tend to keep furniture forever) and I'm not ready to down-size yet.

My weaknesses in these consignment shops are chairs, glassware, pretty porcelains, and china plates. There is no room in this house for one more chair, so I barely look at those anymore. As for glassware and plates... that's another story. I found a set of beautiful vintage glasses there...... very pale green with platinum rims, circa 1940. A set of nine long-stemmed goblets. I didn't buy them-- where would I put them? When I got home, I looked at all of my glassware and figured out that if I got rid of some of my current items, I would have plenty of room for those pretty glasses.

A lot of my glassware was found at other resale/consignment shops-- or traded with other dealers when I was a seller myself. Other pieces came from yard sales and moving sales. Seems like an easy solution to me... get together a box of lesser-quality glassware from the yard sales, bring them to the consignment shop for them to sell, and buy the 1940's platinum-rimmed set.

The consignment shop splits the sales 50/50, so that's a good deal as far as I'm concerned. I know what it's like to rent space in an antique/resale shop--- you have to keep inventory, pay quarterly taxes, rearrange your merchandise--- and keep it dust-free at all times (which is the biggest pain-in-the-butt). So bringing things to a consignment shop and letting them sell for you sounds great to me.


Young Miss C stopped by after school the other day... she had two large shopping bags filled with pajamas. She arranged for her Color Guard group at school to have a Pajama Party Practice, and she asked all of the girls on the team to bring a pair of pajamas for our Pajama Program Chapter. The girls collected 19 pairs of pajamas, one sparkly tee-shirt, and one bright pink pair of slippers. C sat with me a while and we cut off the tags and sorted them into sizes. (I cut off the tags to avoid paper-cuts on the kids' fingers when they try to pull off the tags instead of waiting to have them cut off with a scissors-- they get so excited!)

All of C's pajama-donations are already delivered... I brought them to the local church for their children's shelter, and they were most happy to get them. And even happier still to know that they were collected by a sixteen-yr-old high school student.

Just plain freezing.

The rain has quit. Finally. Thankfully. Yesterday afternoon became sunny and bright, and if you were inside looking out, you would have thought it was a typical semi-tropical January day out there. Not true. It was freezing. And this morning is still freezing. But not a raindrop in sight, so at least that's a step in the right direction.

The cats have sort of settled down and gotten used to the fact that it's cold out on the screen-porch and they can't spend too much time out there. AngelBoy has been following me all over the house since his little "accident" the other day. As I'm typing right now, he's sitting on the bookcase at my left, watching the letters magically appear on the screen. If I sit down to read, he's right there with his head resting on my foot. The other day I told him that he's only allowed free run of the house now if I can actually keep him in my sight... so he's taking that rule to heart. My husband and I will both swear that this blue-eyed cat knows exactly what we're saying. There's a little person hiding behind those long white whiskers.

Mickey Kitty has become the Mickey Express..... he will run out into the screen-porch to see what's going on in the yard, then come bolting through the open window to get into the warm house. Through the window, sliding on the tiles in the breakfast room, jumping on the end table near the living room sofa, then sailing from one side of the sofa to the other, then leaping from the sofa to the antique chair in front of the Oriental screen. His paws hit the back of that chair, which bumps into the Oriental screen, which trembles against the wall for a few seconds, which rattles the beads on the lampshade sitting on the small buffet in front of the Oriental screen. All of this takes just seconds, but in the middle of the night it's unnerving--- the chair going against the screen, which is hitting the wall, hitting the screen, then making the beads rattle. And if I get out of bed (which I always do)... there's tiny Mickey Kitty sitting on that chair with a Who? Me? look on his little face.

But.... cats lower your blood pressure. Whoever said that should be shot.

My love of screen-porches is long gone now. I want a sun-room instead, with glassed-in windows from floor to ceiling... all air-conditioned and heated, so the cats can use the room no matter what the temperature happens to be. I keep telling them all that they will once again be sleeping in the screen-porch as soon as our weather gets warmer.

My love of small cozy kitchens is also gone. With the weather being so cold, it seems that all the cats, as well as the dog, have been following us all over the house. Whenever we're in the kitchen lately, so are all the cats and Gracie. The dog will lay right in the middle of the floor, and the cats will spread out around her. If I'm making a meal, Mickey Kitty will be right near my legs, with his head pointing up towards the counter-top, trying to see what goodies I've got up there. Getting from the stove-top to the fridge is like a game of hop-scotch. And don't dare take a step without looking because you will trip over a paw or step on a tail. We need a larger house. Or fewer pets.

What we really need is some warm weather.....

Freezing rain.

Stupid weather. Absolutely stupid. I haven't been out of the house in three days, except to put the trash out, take the mail in, and walk Gracie every evening. (A very short walk.) So cold outside that I don't even want to go anywhere. And that should be my biggest complaint of the year. (My new mantra, it seems.)

I'm still trying to finish "World Without End." Had this not been such a busy day with the telephone, I would have made it to the last page of that book this afternoon. Oh well. There's still tonight, and tomorrow is another day.

One of my volunteers in the downtown area called to tell me that her three-month Pajama Drive is coming to an end..... and she has collected 1,908 pajamas. So far. So far! She wanted me to make an appearance at the end of her PJ Drive..... to officially be presented with all those pajamas, and (of course) to pick up those pjs and take them from there to here.

Which is wonderful, of course... but how do I fit all of those pajamas into my little two-seater car? Not a chance. My husband didn't think they would even fit into his larger car. What to do, what to do. And this is why I love my neighbors---- it took me less than three seconds to figure out who to ask-- V next door. I told her the problem and before I even asked the question (Can you possibly drive me downtown to pick up nearly 2000 pairs of pajamas?)... she was telling me this would be such an adventure and could she go with me? And did I need her van because we all know my car is cute but it's not for hauling anything more than a couple of shopping bags from Marshalls.

So we have a plan.... V will drive me downtown to the Pajama Drive... she even knows where the school is located, and we'll be in her van, and if her husband has to remove one of the back seats, then no problem, he'll just take care of that before we go. What a great neighbor! But I've been saying that for years. V can be a little eccentric at times (such as pulling up all the weeds in our flower garden to relieve her stress) but the bottom line is she has always a good neighbor.

Nearly 2000 pairs of pajamas... and this is only January.

As for the weather.... nothing I can do about that. Not a blessed thing.

My blue-eyed cat.

AngelBoy must know that I'm upset with him, because not only is he hugging my ankles with his fluffy little paws, but he jumped up in my lap today and just sat there looking at me. And he is not a lap cat..... he hates to be picked up, usually refuses to sit on anyone's lap. But that's exactly what he did today-- jumped up and sat there staring at me with those deep blue eyes of his. Totally expressionless, he just stared at me.

I'm so mad at you, AngelBoy..... you can be so good, and two minutes later, you do such stupid things. And he looked at me. Didn't blink. He never blinks first when it comes to eye-to-eye contact. He didn't even swish his tail while he was on my lap. Just sat there. He is maddening, this cat. As my husband says-- there must be a tiny person inside this cat.

I've been confining AngelBoy to the screen-porch and the laundry room since the other day. The only time he is in the house with me is if he has just used his litter box, and then I make him stay in the same room with me so I can watch him. I will call his name and tell him to come with me, and he will follow me gladly, tail high up in the air, blue eyes bright.... and he will sit down next to me and put his paws around my ankles and rest his head on my feet and he'll go to sleep. And he will stay that way until my feet and my legs go numb. Maybe that's his plan... so I won't be able to chase him if he suddenly bolts out of the room.

Do cats have astrological signs? AngelBoy is a Gemini. That right there could be a big part of the problem. Not to mention those blue eyes of his. Give me a blessed break.

"World Without End"

I am on the last part of Ken Follett's second book about the Middle Ages. "World Without End" seems to be the Book Without End.... for the simple reason that I keep having to put the book down and walk away from the story when it gets too intense. Which it does. Very often. Between the knights and the bishops, the priors and the nuns.... they all come together to make an amazing story.

I wonder, though, why the author didn't continue this book with the characters which were in the first book (The Pillars of The Earth). This volume begins two hundred years after the first book ended. He refers to the first book's characters in this volume... so why didn't he just continue on with them?

I'm hoping to finish this book in the next day or so. Oprah's next book selection will be on January 30th, so I not only want to finish "World Without End," but I would also like to read a couple of books before the next Oprah book. And I'm hoping that the next book she picks is one that I have already read--- which has happened about four times so far.

Such pressure....... so many books, so little time. (And that right there should be my biggest complaint: so many books.) What I really need to do is stay out of the library's bookstore, and stay out of Half-Price Bookstore--- both places have too many good books for just one dollar. And how can you leave them there at that price?

France calling....

Wonder of wonders.... how does a letter get from here to France in less time than it takes for a letter to get from here to the west coast?

I sent a letter to the man in France who knew my dad during the war..... and the phone rang this afternoon and it was the interpreter who had written the initial letter to our family, asking for information about my father. Was he well? Did he remember the family in Cremieu?

My father is indeed well (as well as an old man can be, he says) and he did remember the family.... and he asked me to write a letter to the interpreter. Which I did. And four days later, the phone rings and the interpreter is thanking me (in beautifully accented English) for answering his letter on behalf of the French gentleman who spent so much time with my dad. The French gentleman is now as old as my dad, and still speaks no English. When the interpreter told his friend that my father's daughter had answered their letter and sent photos, the man cried like a baby.

So now, of course, I will be writing back and forth to the interpreter. They will also send my dad a letter--- I told them to write fairly large, to make it easier for my dad to read. I called my father and told him about the phone call, and also told him that he might be getting a telephone call from France. He said they probably wouldn't call him because they were very poor people. I told him that their circumstances might have changed a bit since 1944.

My father kept in touch with that family after the war was over. They wrote letters back and forth for a couple of years. Then they both just stopped writing. My dad said "The war was over and everyone went back to work and tried to get a life together. There was no time anymore for letters."

So now, both men are in there late 80s. And they both have time. "But who knows how much," says my dad.

"Having cats lowers your blood pressure."

Baloney.

At least not today. Usually, it's just one of our cats who does something stupid in a twenty-four hour period. But it's been cold these past few days and they've spent more time in the house than out on the screen-porch, and today has been rainy.... they all have cabin fever.

First, (always first)-- it was AngelBoy. For whatever ridiculous reason in his little-bitty kitty-mind, he decided to pee in a corner.... and I don't mean in a corner of his litter box. He picked a corner of the living room, for god's sake...... on the carpet, and on the bricks of the fireplace. And then he looks at me. Yes? And your problem is???? I was too stunned to say anything but "AngelBoy......"

My husband heard the tone of my voice and walked into the room..... I showed him what happened.... and went so far as to say out loud I think this cat needs to be put to sleep. Usually, it's my husband who says those words, and it's me who defends that blue-eyed devil of a cat. This time, my husband spoke quietly to AngelBoy and brought him out to the screen-porch. I cleaned up the carpet, scrubbed the bricks on the hearth..... and all the while, those AngelBoy blue eyes were staring at me through the window. It was cold on that porch, and I didn't care at that moment.... I left him out there for an hour. Then I brought him back inside and put him in the laundry room. He must have known I was ticked off at him because he curled up and went to sleep...... in his plushy little crate-- heaven forbid he should not be totally comfortable in his time-out room.

A little while after that, tiny Mickey Kitty decided he needed to rearrange some of my Valentine decorations. Up onto the music box he went and down came the bright red gift bag with the shiny fringe along the top. Mickey tried to crawl into that pretty bag but I caught him just in time and tapped his little nose and reminded him how cold it was on the porch. Plus it's raining, you silly cat! (Mickey hates the sound of the rain on the porch roof.)

No sooner had Mickey settled down, then ShadowBaby decided to explore the vintage-looking Valentine cards that I have on the piano. Wouldn't you know it... he chose the prettiest card, which is covered in cut-work letters.... and he added his own cut-work design with his teeth. Not on the back of the card of course, but right there on the front. And there he sat... on top of the piano, looking at me with those golden eyes. And your problem is?

It's still cold outside.... which of course means it's still cold on the screen-porch. And it's still raining. AngelBoy is in the laundry room now, for the night-- where he always sleeps when it's too cold on the porch because I can't trust him in the house when I can't watch him. This cat is going to be eleven years old in a few months. I haven't been able to trust him for the last eight years of his life with us. That's a long time to be patient with a cat, no matter how blue his eyes are, and no matter how beautiful and fluffy he is, and no matter how sweet he can be when he wraps his paws around my ankle and looks up at me with the face of an angel.

AngelBoy should be wrapping his fluffy paws around my husband's ankle and thanking him for saving his blue-eyed butt today, because I was ready to drive him to our vet. Especially when I was scrubbing those bricks. I kept thinking of Bill Cosby's line to his children when they misbehaved badly: "I brought you into this world.... and I can take you out." (I would bet that Mr. Cosby also had a misbehaving cat.)

These sneakers are made for walking...

.... and that's what I've been doing these past few months. I can't remember how long it's been, but I've been walking all over the neighborhood, depending on the weather of course. I've got caught in the rain just once..... I was talking on my cell phone and wasn't even paying attention to the sky, and all of a sudden, there was a thunderclap and a bit of lightning. I turned right around, put the hood of my jacket up (to cover the cell phone) and I started walking towards home. I got a little wet, not much.... but within five minutes of getting into my front door, the sky really opened up and it started pouring. Timing is everything.

The Amazing Race--- still watching that on Sunday nights. My husband has been watching it with me, and he's as into it as I am. Next week is the final show. Thankfully, the couple with the cranky/complaining/whining girl was eliminated last night. I was hoping they wouldn't win... not that I didn't want the guy to win-- I didn't want that girl to win. I hope this couple breaks up, and I hope the girl finds a cranky/complaining/whining guy so she can make him just as miserable as she seemed to make the nice guy she ran The Race with.

Dancing With The Stars---- I can hardly wait for that to begin again. The first show is supposed to be on March 23rd. I don't know which stars will be competing, and I don't check the web-sites or the magazine articles to find out. When it starts, I will be surprised, and that will be soon enough. We're at the middle of January already, so mid-March is just a heartbeat away. I miss watching the dancing, and I miss exercising to the music while the show is on. (That's more fun than walking around the neighborhood-- and I don't have to worry about the weather.)

Haven't watched The Apprentice this season, except for about three minutes that we happened to catch when my husband was flipping through the channels with the remote. Three minutes was all it took to tell us that we had made the right decision about not watching The Apprentice when it started up this month. Trump has a bunch of "stars" (and that term is debatable)competing for money for their favorite charities. Well, that's a nice thing to do, but Trump can do that without making a television show out of it. If Trump doesn't get back to the New York setting and the original premise of this show, then he may as well kiss it all good-bye and call it a day.

I have no idea why I started writing all about the few TV shows that I watch. Nothing else happening, I guess..... or I should say nothing else is happening that I can write about.

Denzel Washington

Is there anything that Denzel Washington cannot do? We went back to the theatre the other day to see "The Great Debaters." What a movie. A great movie. The kind of movie I like-- where you don't want to take your eyes off the screen for a second. As opposed to "I Am Legend," where I felt myself slipping down into my seat and shutting my eyes as much as I could. (Apologies to Will Smith... that movie just wasn't my cup of tea.)

Anyway..... "The Great Debaters"-- there wasn't a dry eye in the theatre when that movie ended. And when it did end, we all just sat there, listening to the music and watching the credits.

Now I understand why one of the local schools filled up their buses with students and brought them all to the theatre last week to see this movie. Every school around the country should do the very same thing.

The movies.

This morning was cloudy, drippy and humid....... and my husband didn't have any meetings at work...... so off we went to the movies. We had planned to see "The Great Debaters," being that our friends K & B had told us it was one of the best movies they've seen.

We got to the theatre for the first morning show. The parking lot was nearly empty, except for six school buses. Timing is everything--- those six school buses were filled with local students who had arranged to see "The Great Debaters." Every seat in every theatre that was showing that movie was sold out to all of those students and their teachers.

Oh well. So-- plan B. My husband asked me if I wanted to see the Will Smith movie, "I Am Legend." I didn't know anything about the movie, but I like Will Smith so I said sure. We bought tickets for that one and in we went.

And out I went--- I lasted about half an hour in that movie. My apologies to Will Smith, but I just couldn't take the intensity of this movie. I don't even want to type in a synopsis of the film because I don't want to even think about it again. I told my husband to stay and watch the movie, and I figured I'd wait in the lobby. I had my cell phone, so I could make some calls while I was waiting.

Which I did... but then I realized that the Chipmunk movie was still playing in one of the other theatres in the movie complex. Back I went into the "I Am Legend" theatre-- carefully not looking at the screen-- and I told my husband I'd be watching the Chipmunks until "his" movie was over.

So that's going to be my Plan B for our movie trips from now on....... to be aware of what's playing in the other theatres, just in case I'm sitting in front of a movie screen that's filled with something I'd rather not be looking at.

Better still.... the movie houses should just keep showing the Chipmunk movie from now on. It just makes you smile..... and makes you feel good..... and about the only intense moments come when one of the human characters gets too close to the chipmunks' cute little furry tails.

Happy hearts all over the house....

And so it begins..... we're getting ready for our Valentine's Party. I was in J's antique shop yesterday and he asked me when our Valentine's party would be. I told him to just let me know what time to be at his house, and we'd be there for the party. He gave me that look--- Are you for real?

My husband and I talked it over last night.... we decided to do a big Charades party, rather than a small dinner party. The Charades parties are always a lot of fun, and by the time the party-night comes around, I will have forgotten all the work that went into it. So last night I sent out an eMail to our friends, telling them to "save the date," and today I wrote out the invitations. (Hand-wrote..... I don't like computer-generated invitations.)

35 friends, plus my husband and myself. That's a lot of people. Not everyone can always come to these parties, but the list just keeps on growing. We added seven new people last year, and we've added two new people as of this morning.

I will mail and hand-deliver the invitations during this week. This morning, I took out the Valentine decorations, and spent half of the day hanging red and pink hearts all over the living room, dining room, breakfast room, kitchen, the foyer, and the powder room. As always, I tried to put the decorations in different places than they were last year, so the end result isn't predictable. The dining room chandelier is dripping with red hearts-- that's my favorite part.

We already have our first RSVP-- from two of our friends who got the "save the date" eMail. And so it begins. In two weeks, I will be asking myself Just whose idea was this anyway?

Sing like a Chipmunk

Well, I finally figured out a way to end the war in the Middle East--- saturate all those countries with loud-speakers which play music by Alvin and The Chipmunks, day in and day out. Honestly, I don't know how anyone can not smile and be happy while listening to this cute music.

In the 1960s, I had some records by the Chipmunks-- and I wore them all out because I played them so much. After we saw the new Chipmunk movie a couple of weeks ago, I ordered one of the old records (which has been put on CD)..... and I've been playing it every day since it came in the mail.

This CD is called The Chipmunks - Greatest Hits. They are all original recordings-- The Chipmunk Song (the very first recording, their Christmas song), Alvin's Harmonica (makes you laugh out loud), Ragtime Cowboy Joe, Alvin's Orchestra (another laugh-out-loud song), The Alvin Twist, Whistle While You Work, plus four of the original Beatles' songs: All My Loving, A Hard Day's Night, Can't Buy Me Love, and I Want To Hold Your Hand.

This music makes you smile. It makes you forget all the bad, the ridiculous, the sad, the senseless things that are going on in the real world.

Walk like an Egyptian...

It seems to me that there used to be a song years ago with those words--- walk like an Egyptian. That's about all that I can remember of it. I thought of that phrase because we went downtown yesterday to have lunch with K and B, and to see the pictures of their December trip to Egypt.

Amazing photos.... the pyramids are much larger and wider than I thought they would be. And did you know that the Sphinx has a tail? And the water of the Nile is more blue than brown-- somehow my mind's eye just thought the Nile would be brown. During their trip, K and B rode camels for miles and miles to get from one place to another. And they took various boat trips and even a hot-air balloon ride. I told them their vacations are more like "The Amazing Race" than relaxing getaways.

The trips they take to all these exotic locations are arranged by Overseas Adventure Tours. Small tour groups--- 16 people in their tours, and K and B say you feel very pampered. (Riding on a camel for four hours is pampered?)

Now they're deciding where to go next--- either Bali or Morocco. K wants Bali because it will be cleaner. B wants Morocco because it's more exotic. K is tired of breathing in dirty air, and having to wear face-masks during most of their travels. In the past few years, they've been to VietNam, India, Egypt.... all lacking in the cleanliness factor. They will have to make a decision very soon, as the small tour groups fill up fast, and December is a busy month for that "Adventure" company.

The four of us had planned on going to a downtown Italian restaurant yesterday, but it was closed when we got there. Plan B-- a Thai restaurant. We drove there, and it was also closed. Why is it that all of these downtown restaurants are not open on a Sunday? Plan C-- a Turkish restaurant. Bingo! They were open, and the food was delicious........ lots of vegetable choices on the menu, and their bread was so warm and fluffy that I broke all my rules about not eating white bread. Oh well... it was worth every bite. And the tea--- hot tea after the meal, served in the cutest little clear glass tumblers. That alone was worth having to drive to three different restaurants.

On the way back to K and B's, we saw a bookshop that my husband and I hadn't been to before--- "Murder By The Book." K spotted it first, and was happily surprised that they were open on a Sunday. Before she could say another word, my husband pulled into the parking lot and we all went inside for a look-see. What a wonderful little bookshop! Not so big that you could get lost in it, and not so small that you felt cramped inbetween the stacks. They sell only mysteries, and their shelves were packed with every imaginable mystery writer you could think of.

They had one shelf filled with classics, and I found a beautiful old copy of "Wuthering Heights" for just $20..... such a nice volume, with gold-eding on the pages, and gilt designs on the blue leather covers. Before I put this pretty book on my own shelves, I will read it (again). Right now, it's in my pile of books-to-be-read (which never seems to diminish). As I've said--- I can buy books faster than I can read them.

I've been reading "World Without End," by Ken Follett...... another amazing historical novel about the Middle Ages. There are parts in this book, as there were in "The Pillars of The Earth," where I have to put the book down and walk away from it for a little while. That's when I pick up one of my decorating books so my eyes have something pretty to look at-- to give my brain a rest from the violence and the filth of the knights, and the deceptions of the monks and the bishops. (Nothing pampering about the Middle Ages, that's for sure.)

2008

I can remember being in elementary school and the nun put a math problem on the board-- she wanted us to figure out how old we'd be in the year 2000. We all laughed at the thought, to think that there could even be such a year in our future. When you're ten years old, you think that anyone over 22 is really old.

I think of that math problem every year about this time. Happy New Year.

We went downtown to the Science Museum yesterday. They had two exhibits-- one on Chinese artifacts from more than 2000 years ago, and one on designer jewelry made in the 1930s through the 1950s. I forget the designer's name, and I don't know if every piece in that collection was owned by one person...... but the jewels were fabulous. Such a contrast between the two exhibits.... one culture making practical, useful items for eating and drinking, the other culture making baubles and trinkets that are merely ornamental.

The weather has finally warmed up again. We had a few days of below-50 during the day, and close to freezing at night. Now we're back into the high 70s, right where we should be at this time of the year. Everyone is getting ready for Mardi Gras now...... the bakeries in the supermarkets are displaying the Mardi Gras cakes, and I'm sure the gift shops around town have lots of purple/green/gold decorations.

We're still thinking about the Valentine's party..... we may have just a sit-down dinner for 8 or 10, instead of our usual Charades party for 30. I can't believe how the Charades group has grown over the years. To think that we started out with less than 10 people. Now I send out invitations to 36, and usually about 30 friends are able to come. The large parties are a lot of work, much more than the dinner parties where there's just a small group of us around the dining room table. I told my husband we have to make up our minds soon.... the bigger the party, the sooner the invitations have to be mailed.

Interesting surprise....... one of my aunts got a letter from a man near Lyon, France who is looking for my father. Apparently, this man says that my dad and his Army company used to spend time with his family during the war. From Sept. to Dec., 1944, to be exact. The man in France found my aunt's name in the NY phone book, and had an interpreter send a letter to that address. The way the story goes--- my dad had kept in touch with the man and his family after the war was over, but then they lost contact after a few years.

So now, all these years later, the French man is wondering how my dad is, and is he even still alive, and can he get in touch with him again, for old time's sake. Which is where I come in. My aunt gave me the information... the name and address of the French man and his family, plus the name and address of the interpreter. My dad clearly remembers the French family, and asked me to write to the man and send a couple of photos. I will send one picture of my dad in his Army uniform, taken before the war ended, and one photo of myself with my dad, taken a few yeas ago.

I asked my dad how he communicated with the French man and his family if he didn't speak French and the man didn't speak English. My father said that everyone in his unit spoke a few words of a lot of different languages, and they were able to get their point across after a few tries. And when all else failed, he said they would draw pictures. "It was The War.... you did what you could to let people know what you needed to tell them. And if they took the time to listen, you knew right away that they weren't going to shoot you."