Hippety Hop

I'm home again! The trip went great. I love looking out my window and seeing SNOW. I thought that way about green grass when we first arrived in California, but the SNOW is just wonderful. So bright and pristine.

Being at home is wonderful and relaxing. Everything right where you like it. All the cliches are cliches because they are true.

I had a hard time getting my internet connection working. I had over 300 e-mails to access, and my server wouldn't work. This morning I called the help desk and they informed me it was because someone (Karen) had sent me something that was just too much for my poor dial up to handle. Sigh. I have everything done now, and it is great to be back in touch.

I will try to get my mind around it all for tomorrow. Right now I'm still just wallowing in the at homeness of it all. Right.

Minnesota, here we come

This is our last day in the land of green grass and sun. George has hit a few golf balls and we are busy finishing up our laundry and getting packed. Six weeks is a long time to be away from home. I am sad to leave our family here and excited to see our family and friends there. That's the way it goes. There is usually someone who lives far away and you don't see often enough.

We are so blessed with the technology that we have. We can e-mail each other to the ends of the earth... We can phone each other every day. I have just finished reading the biography of John Adams and trying to get my mind around the seemingly endless lapses of time between the happening of something and the realization of it by people on the other side of the globe. We know of things instantly, then it took three or four months or longer. Hard to imagine. Husbands and wives would be separated for three or four years with very difficult communication possibilities. On the other side of the coin, however, they wrote letters which are still in existence. John and Abigail exchanged a record number of letters over the years with a wonderful window into what was happening at the time. Fascinating for us to know now.

Our e-mails are ephemeral and there will be little or no record of our feelings. I wonder about blogs.. they will also disappear without a trace, I imagine. So immediacy as a good thing can be balanced by lack of permanance as a negative quality.

We have enjoyed our stay with our four year old and his mother. She is a great mom. He is cute and very bright!. We will miss them.

See ya in Minnesota on Saturday!

Dwindling Days

Today is Tuesday and we are heading back to Minnesota on Saturday. We will miss our little family here, but we will be glad to get back to our own digs. Something great about having things just the way you want. Outside of staying with my parents on our way to Brazil, I think this is the longest we've ever stayed with someone. We stayed in Florida for about three months waiting for our visas. First it was George, John and I, and eventually we added the brand new baby! And all of us sleeping in a single room. We managed that, but it was hard at times. My folks put up with us all with grace and always made us feel welcome, though. Such a wonderful time.

Now I am staying with our grandson who is a year or so younger than John was then. Brings back memories. He is just as adorable as John was all those years ago. And our daugter-in-law is the greatest. Fun.

I am eager to get home so I can add art to these blogs. Yeah! vicki

President's Day

I really miss the days when we had celebrations for the presidents individually. There was Washington's Birthday, the same as my brother's birthday, and Lincoln's Birthday. Now we celebrate mainly so that we can have a three day weekend. What an effete bunch.

I am reading John Adams a biography by David McCullough. It is heavy but interesting reading. The trials and tribulations of our founding fathers are laid out in a wonderful way. We should all do such reading. I have read Killer Angels, and 1776, one about the Civil war and the other about the revolutionary war, and now John Adams. I am so entranced by the books and the characters in them. Our forefathers. and mothers. Wow. and double Wow.

Happy President's Day. Hopefully our ship of state will sail on for another few years. vicki

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Well. It is a red letter day. My daughter's birthday. She is the light of our lives and a truly magnificent human being.

When she was two months old we headed to Brazil and she spent her first 5 years there. She spoke Portuguese as her native language, and understood but didn't speak English until a visit to the states when she was three... then she became bilingual after three months. Children are so amazing in many ways, but especially in their ability to learn and use language. She no longer speaks Portuguese, but I imagine it is buried somewhere in her brain awaiting new birth.

Happy Birthday, sweet one. love, mom

TV Addiction

I found the 2 am Starting Over program. So I didn't hit the hay until 3 am. Then up at 6 to take the sprout to school at 7:30. George always gets up early, but I usually don't get up until 8 at least. Am I starting a new trend? Nah.

Have a great day. I know I'll be watching Olympics and then another late night - or early morning, which ever you would like to say! vicki

Valentine's Day

Well. I slept in. So I didn't get this blog done in time for one of my friends who is devastated that I didn't commemorate Valentine's Day. One of the most artificially pumped days of our Hallmark society. We celebrated last evening. Flowers and cards. And candy for our little sprout. All in order.

We tried to explain Valentine's Day to our Brazilian friends. They couldn't understand why we sent cards to everyone. They could see the lover angle, but not the school friends, the moms, the kids, etc. No matter how hard I tried to make sense of it for them, they couldn't see it. I wonder why we can? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? vicki

Monday

Wow. The Olympics. I am getting immersed in them. I am a late owl, anyway, and a TV addict, so the combination is daunting. So far I am really enjoying myself. The Flying Tomato! I ask you. Is he cute, or what! For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, The Flying Tomato is one of our (the US) skateboarders. He is awesome and cute and wonderful. And he won the gold medal to boot. Wow.

Well, I am trying to find Starting Over. It will be on at 2am the next two weeks here. As it is shown on NBC, and NBC is the Olympics channel. My time allotment will be interesting. I will let you know how I handle this crisis. Right.

Off to my Monday. We are getting Matthew to school so there are some things I have to pay attention to. He is such a cutie! vicki

Saturday

We went to the mall today to the kiddy park there. Wow. Mayhem. Oodles of little kids just tromping on each other. No one crying, though. Miraculous. We finally give it up. No room to do anything. Went and had lunch.

The big news is the great weather. Sitting in the sun. Relaxing. Wow. It's great. I miss all my Minnesota buddies. I'm lonesome! vicki

Abbott and Costello Moment

Or maybe Laurel and Hardy. Chevy Chase? Who is the current person doing slapstick comedy. Help me out here.

My husband, grandson and I went to the driving range at the golf club yesterday. George went in to get his clubs and I was in charge of getting balls out of a machine that dispenses them at the sliding of a card through a slot. Next to the machine sat a group of seven people having a meeting. I think it was all of the people who had to do with the running of the club. We tried to be as quiet as we could be so as not to disturb the flow of their conversation.

I ran the card through the slot and golf balls started spewing forth in all directions. I had not realized that I needed a little basket to put under the slot from which the balls would spew forth. I thought the onslaught would never end. The business people all got up to help field all of the rolling balls. The balls hit the cement with a loud report and then rolled all around. We all started laughing (thank goodness) and everyone was helpful. Matthew kept on finding more balls. George came out of the club house and wisely pretended not to know who these maniacs were! He says it was because there was nothing more that he could do. Truer words were never spoken. I had managed to do it all.

Hope you have a great day! vicki

Monday again?

Goodness gracious. How time flies. It's already the beginning of another week. We have more or less three weeks left of our stay in California... We don't seem to do anything but just what we do at home plus play with our grandson. My husband, of course, gets to golf which he couldn't be doing in snowy Minnesota. Although with the moderating temperatures they have had there earlier, some did golf in Minneapolis. Wow. This weather thing is strange at times.

It is sunny and warm here this week. If one can trust the prognosticators of such things, the warm and sunny is going to continue for most of the week. So we will go golfing this afternoon. I drive the golf car and give expert! advice on how to golf to my husband. I occasionally even monkey with the clubs like a real caddy. We have fun.

I actually painted a bit yesterday. And I just realized that it isn't Monday, it's TUESDAY. I really am on vacation... losing track of even what day it is! Ah, well. vicki

Hi Ho

The blog.spot is having technical difficulties. I was unable to get into my own blog this past three days, but I think the problems have been corrected. We'll see. My last post was lost in cyberspace. We will see if it ever surfaces. Probably not.

Monday after the Super Bowl. Ugh. Terrible officiating. Mick Jagger is still a peripatetic goof ball. He's great. I never liked him, but I had to appreciate his energy for what the paper termed a "septuagenarian." That means a 70 something, doesn't it? Wow.

While we are out in California, I miss all my reference books. I know I could look anything up on the internet, but I have (until this time) chosen to stay with the printed page between covers. I love the feel of a book. The smell of a book. In short, I love books. My husband despairs because of the prevalence of books in my life. They take up lots of space and they cost lots of money. I look at it as an investment in my sanity... such a it is. I'm only slightly kidding. They really have saved my sanity more than once.

Have a good week. vicki

Friday

It's great to get to know my grandson a bit better. He is going through a period of finding himself and stubborness creeps in occasionally. Then I find myself doing what I realized was something that my father did with me. I go into an overcoming clown mode. I talk really loud, wave my arms and make menacing faces. He forgets all about whatever he was being stubborn about and gets the giggles. Mission accomplished. The adults around me are rather taken aback, but the boy and I love it. And we go on with whatever it was we were trying to do.

I first realized I was imitating my father while I was doing this when I was teaching. It worked for me then and I became rather famous for doing outrageous things. Maybe infamous would cover it better. I do love doing it, though. Maybe it's in the genes.

Have a great day.

spaghetti sauce

Well. Someone e-mailed me and asked what had happened to the spaghetti sauce. I forgot I had even mentioned it. Yes, I made spaghetti sauce. It was great if I do say so myself, and I do. And I discovered anew something called spaghetti squash. It's so fabulous. It is an oval smooth squash in a light yellow that one cooks and then kind of removes the flesh with a fork raking over the flesh. Spaghetti for the diabetic!!!!!!! It is good and hardly any carbs. I can finally have spaghetti sauce in sufficient quantities to enjoy. As Tony the Tiger would say, GGGGRRRREEEEAAAATTTT. The thing with the spaghetti sauce is that my secret is to simmer it for several hours adding the necessary liquid when necessary. I use lots of Italian Seasoning, salt, pepper, etc., etc. Each time I make it, it turns out somewhat different as I never measure anything when I cook. At home I use ground venison, but here I used lean hamburger, two pounds worth... onions... Several cans of tomato products: sauce, minced, paste, etc. At home I also use homemade tomato from the garden, but it turned out good without that.

I freak the chefs of the family out because I keep cooking it so much. They are sure I will poison them all. They have never lived where people do not have refrigeration, and so have to keep cooking their meat and other such cooked products. In Brazil thirty plus years ago, one could buy filet mignon very cheap as it was not a meat that could take repeated cooking, while the toughest meat was at a premium. Meat for Sunday, cooked again for Monday, then again on Tuesday and Wednesday. If there was more left, Thursday here we come. Beans and rice and molho. Yum, yum. Love it.

Well, thanks Karen for reminding me. I love it that you read my blog! Keep up the exercising and I will join you in a few weeks. Hi to the gang. love, vicki

Mid week

Tough day today. Our son left to be gone for two months. We will be here for a month of that, hoping to help our grandson adjust to his life with a bit of balance. Hard to understand when you're 4... or 75.

I watched the State of the Union last night. It's so interesting to me the way our country has taken adamant sides and won't listen to any other opinion. I just read the book "1776" by David McCoullough (sp?) and it is absolutely amazing that our country got its start at all and that it has survived all this time. Those people in the rebel army fought and survived long marches through WINTER with no shoes or coats. They were a tough breed. Whether our effete selves can take up the torch is always questionable. If we knew which torch to take up it would help. Just being against something doesn't seem sufficient. Where are the people with innovative ideas to solve the seemingly unsolvable. And earmarks!!! Who knew before what those were before this speech.

Sigh. vicki