ok, so even my spouse claims that his mother never had an unspoken thought.....if it came to mind she said it.....so it should come as no surprise to my blood kin and to my cadre of readers that ecw chose a bride quite in keeping with his mamma's example.........keep this in mind when i say that there are those who are thinking about leaving the nest prematurely.........and to those young ones i want to voice caution.........yes, high school is a teenage wasteland.........you are certainly not the 1st to figure this out.........but it can remain a haven until you are ready to fly the coop....not intellectually, but emotionally....no one will argue that you have the brains to move on.......but until the hard veneer necessary to survive the real world has a chance to really crystallize, it may be wise to stick a little closer to home.......

ok, so there is no angst like mm angst....now that ecw and scw have decided to finish their cross-america bike trip this summer...after school ends and before scw leaves for belgium..........i have concluded that i have to actually be there when they finish....so i have decided that cayle and i will fly into denver after the band festival is over (we are very busy that weekend)........and drive 690 miles or so til i find them and their tandem.......and be their sag wagon until they finish....we will meet up with them about the time they enter yellowstone........i really like this idea....and i have convinced my partner that he doing a very good thing by agreeing to cover for me/pay others to cover for me........they will finish the journey somewhere in wyoming (i cannot remember the name oif the town) as they are riding east from oregon coast rather than west......the winds are presumably better that way........i am so excited to be able to be there for this monumental event.......

ok, so last night i changed the mean mamma likes section of my actual blog site......and it hasn't changed as of this morning.....i went back in to check, and it shows my changes on the template...........what is a blogger to do? we have a lot of catering work between today and saturday night........while this is good, i am already so tired i cannot think straight..........on a purely competitive note, i have a rose blooming. today, april 30....therese bugnet, a once-flowering fuschia colored rose, is blooming behind the garage.......the same bush in the front yard has yet to burst forth, though the petal colors are clearly visible......many irises have yet to bloom...it is somehow unnatural for roses to bloom before irises....speaking of blooms, somebody on my route to schools/work has planted fake flowers in the ground outside their front steps.....like they are real flowers....oh my.......and not even the same house that kept up the christmas lights til march.........

ok, so i have read over several recent blogs, and my spelling is atrocious (sp?) many apologies.......i rarely look at my actual site.....amd today i realized that i will have to make some changes.....my chair in the front room is...as we speak......being recovered............imagine.....just 2 years..or more in the making.........on another note.......i brought scw home before going to eku...and the mail was on the front table......clearly, acw had been home.....as robbers do not tend to bring in mail from the road.......

ok, so my worst employee quit abruptly today..right before centre's performance.........and my 2nd to last eku class.......luckily, everybody pitched in to help so the evening was not an entire bust..........for the record, gentle readers, quitting without 2 weeks notice is unforgivable in today's working world........

ok, so danville is a small place, but today at cayle's soccer game i was asked by yet another parent of an 8th grader if i was disappointed with danville schools and was scw transferring to 1) centre 2) out-of-town boarding school 3) st. john's.....the latter is humerous, as they do not presumably transer in 10th graders.......but the scuttlebut is troubling.....i answered with my usual.....scw neither complains nor speaks of moving on before graduation......both statements are true....lets see what he says after american studies with ms scott.........who was acw's burr in the butt junior year........ he could not do anything to please her...let's see if scw can so better.........speaking of schol systems.....i read overe the exhaustive listing of boyle a and b students in the paper today.........either the standards are different or the boyle students are each bloody einsteins..........

on a more interesting note.....i am studying up on paris.........i do believe that i need, rather than want .......to go to paris in january.........

ok, so a yellow iris bloomed overnight, despite the frost.........i wasn't there yesterday when i weeded........last night the c-w's went out to eat......this just never happens, as there are always leftovers from trc to eat for supper.....but last night mm just wasn't up to eating her own cooking....so we piled in the van and went to gualulahara (sp), the new one with the l. liscense......they were packed, but we got a table within 1 minutes....alas...we were not done with ordering, receiving food, getting scw's dessert, or getting a check for 2 solid hours.......the wait staff looked shell-shocked, and were clearly not prepared for the volume, either in number of servers or kitchen staff.......i really felt bad for them, and had to restrain myself from getting up and clearing off tables just to help out........when we got home i walked on the treadmill and watched igby goes down....which i rented because it starred susan sarandon........this was a bizarre tale of famiy dysfunction.....kind of like catcher in the rye in some respects, like holden caulfield with a perfect older brother, so sister, a parent in the looneybin, and a mother meaner than me...certainly not a feelgood romance.........like the movie we watched friday night...sweet home alabama.....predictable, but i didn't lay awake wondering what it all meant.........

ok, so mm may just go to a concert this summer...j.taylor is playing riverbed july 29....that might make a romantic road trip for two.......ecw and i have not been to a concert since we say crosby,stills and nash at riverbend pre-children.......the other concert at riverbend i could see myself attending is counting crows august 6......but 1 do not see myself buying tickets to 2 concerts at those prices.....not when i want to go to paris in january......

ok, so i stopped on the wayhome from work to get movies and to get chinese...this time i opted for wok and go, because it is across from titlewave.......big mistake...it is not nothing like wah mei in harrodsburg.........i will not be going back to wok and go.......

ok, so it is friday, finally.....of course, i still have to work tomorrow, but friday remains a milestone for the promise of sunday off........as noted yesterday, i found a neat apt. online..in the 3rd near the pompidiou centre......now i just have to convince my significant other that i really need to go to paris in january for a non-driving, non-manic stay of immersion in french culture..........

in other news, i am on a rose watch....i have 2 differetn bushes that look like they could bloom any moment...both are therese bugnet, a shrub that has a fuschia-colored double kind of floppy flower to it....only blooms once......the color of the yet-to-bloom buds is quite visible...all they have to do is to burst open......maybe a little warmth would do it......the rose watch is an informal competition with my brother-in-law nick in d.c.,,,who is the king of old roses and who gave me most of my bushes.....for some reason, my climate allows a tad bit earlier bloom season than his does........anyway, first bloom is worth at least a phone call..........

ok, so mm has seen it all.......as i was reading the new gourmet, out on the deck with a glass of wine........i heard the unmistakable sound of someone talking on the phone........yes....it was someone fishing.....and talking on the phone while he fished.........he was trying to cast and hold the phone under his chin/crooked neck......i can just see that phone flying out into the creek...never to be seen again..........

ok, so i am so excited.....there has been a new vitamin discovery...the first in 50+ years......pqq, which stands for some sort of quinone ...it appears to be a b vitamin...who knows what b-number it will be......good sources are fermented soy, kiwi, parsley, green pepper and green tea..........the discovery was made in japan......they are the ones who discovered a new taste (savory....unami...) and now the newest vitamin........

ok, so mm has gotten this wild hair about chilling out in paris for a week in january..l.there is an adorable apartment with 2 bedrooms available near the rambuteau metro in the 4rd, near beauburg..it has a sofa bed, a bedroom with a queen bed and a bedroom with 2 twin beds...so it could sleep up to 6, though it is advertised as 4 people.......1080 euros a week.......not bad for that much space......

ok, so discussion at book club was the most intense thus far...about whether the mother who died in as i lay dying was just plain mean or a tragic figure worthy of sympathy because she did not have access to birth control and the man she married turned out to be a lazy good for nothing.........obviously i agreed with the latter sentiment........the bundren family was quite a bunch of dysfunctionals.....the discussion turned to the likelihood that most families have their share of dysfunction if we were all honest about our troubled lives......no one took that bait......i, for one, did not see the point of telling this group just how dysfunctional my family can be.........

ok, so i have read about the 'straightedge' movement and i am both impressed and surprised.........in this day and age that commitment takes a lot of balls.........

ok, so as it is still technically earth day, i will go on record...and state that i have recycled every bit of plastic, glass, cardboard and metal that came out of trc over the past 3 years...and that the people at the boyle county recycling center think i am demon-posessed.....i see them 3-4 times a week, and they see my stuff the other days.......i oftren drop stuff off on saturday nights after closing...around 10:30 or so.....i call those 'daring midnight drops'.......i have even given up on turning off the van when i pull up.....or turning off npr.....i just leap out, open up the back end, pile up the goods, and drive back to work......after all this time i am annoyed that some of my staff have yet to 'get' what this is all about.........they still try to throw away pop cans....or mayonaise jars......and i still drag them out fo the trash for recycling...we save the earth one jar at a time............

ok, so acw came home for a few minutes tonight....to get his easter basket, and to see grandma's new puppy......i chanced upon him as scw and i were getting back from our drive to h-burg for hot and sour soup and shrimp lomein..........there he was......i had a quality 17 minutes with him before i left to teach my class..........i miss that boy....so bright and talented......such good company......i miss him terribly......

ok, so i have picked out a hotel in the marais.......for my tentative january trip to paris.....scw claims that i am incapable of a calm, non-frenzied trip to paris.....i may go just to prove him wrong.......well...maybe i could prove him wrong.....i have never been to paris and just lingered........and i have been to paris 10 times.......i have either gone with my parents for a few days, or my new spouse for an afternoon....or deedra...well...i took the train out of town nearly every day so when i was in town i was a madwoman..........and then 3 trips with bate....all carefully orchestrated with no free moments...and the trip with just us...the one that started in london with the chunnel crossing and ended in paris....well....that was also jam-packed..........scw does make a valid point....i visit paris like someone who will never return....and yet i do return......only to scurry about like a woman posessed........i love the stores, the museums, the cafes, the gardens......even in winter.......even when they try to pick my purse..........i long to tell you that my people are parisian, but so far we have no direct connections to paris.......just dubious relations to charlemagne......my mother-in-law posessed a discharge paper, signed by napolean, from some relative let out of prison during the empire..i guess that is dubious, as well......like being related to someone sent to australia as a thief............presumably sister elaine has said paper now, but she is not telling at this point...........on one of my bate trips. my mother-in-law asked if i could take a 1/2 hour or so and look up this paper in the library.......of course, it is in french, which i do not speak,and we were on a tight schedule...and she became quite annoyed that the entire bate escursion did not revolve around a napoleanonic discharge paper..........for the record, this is the same woman who would not tell me the address of the family home in baltinglass, ireland, presumably because i might actually go there..........anyway, back to paris...........it is the city of colette, my favorite author.......she dealt with the bad weather, and the changable political scene.....and got a state funeral outof it.......maybe i could just sit in the palais royale, outside of her windown. and read her books (en anglais) and get a bit of rest and relaxation.........

ok, so i dreamed about making bread...all last night.....someone kept adding extra water, so i couldn't get the consistency right.......then someone kept moving the pans........so frustrating............i have been rereading one of my paris guidebooks.......there is so much of paris i have not seen because it was not of interest to 7th/8th graders or because the metro didn't run close by.....maybe i am due another jaunt to the city of light.......

ok, so blogger ate a long entry yesterday, the one where i was feeling sorry for myself because my firstborn didn't come home for easter, and how his easter basket was sitting on the counter after lunch even though he lives but 36 miles away........but.......he did end up calling to wish us well and to let us know he was writing papers or he would have come home for lunch........i know that easter is not like christmas...and i know that eventually he will not even come home for that holiday...as he will be with his wife's family at some point......i might as well get used to this........maybe we will have to get into the habit of going away for holidays.....i would mind less about the children not coming homne if i were in hawaii or cruising new zealand.........

ok, so my mother showed up for easter lunch, not with a rabbit or a chick...but with a puppy....a shetland sheepdog puppy named princess.....she had mentioned this arrival, but we were somewhat unprepared for the reality of my mother buying a dog that we will end up raising....at some point.......however.....let's talk positive...my mother is quite transformed by the arrival......just tickled pink to have someone to take care of...and to dote upon.........this pup will be a very good thing, indeed...........

ok, so i treated myself to a french farce, with subtitles, called le placard (the closet)...it is released by miramiax, so it was a safe bet....and absolutely hysterical.........it involves a nondescript fellow named pignon who finds out he will be laid off from a condom factory near paris.......to save his job, his next-door neighbor digitally adds his head to gay-bar photos, then mails the photos to the head of pignon's company....who freaks out.....if the gay community hears that they have fired pignon, they will assume it is because he is gay......and will boycott them.......the twists that come of this are guffawingly funny at times....i have watched it twice.......and depend on the subtitles.......they speak so quickly and in such hushed tones i cannot make out the syllables en francais...........please add to my epitaph....she wanted so badly to speak good french.......

ok, so i catered a memorial/funeral service over near nicholasville tonight, for a friend of rick hempel's..and it turns out that he is an artist originally from lexington, named dan ludwig....who happens to know sheldon...small world....i didn't listen in on the actual service/remembrance....i had enough of the funeral/memorial service thing last fall and instead i sat outside and enjoyed the solitude for awhile.....the redbuds were quite lovely and there was a cardinal calling his mate...sweet.....

ok, so last night i downloaded 4 months of blogs...working backwards.....my goal is to have a hard copy just in case......i sat up late rereading, especially the spain trip.....the entries were so hurried....now that time has passed i wish that i had not rushed about so much...that i had forced us to sit and just look and take-in and enjoy......but we wanted to see it all, in the lack-of-faith manner that travelers have...i might never be back so i had better pack it in now.......i so want to go somewhere this january...just don't know where yet.....

ok, so i am listening to bob dylan singing forever young with bruce springstein......that song always makes me cry.......i have to take scw back into town soon.......then help ccw with her spelling......then watch the french movie i bought....the closet...with daniel autiel...it is supposed to be in french with english subtitles.....but i have my doubts as the cover is all in english.......i heard on the news this morning that the french are seeing a major dip in wine sales, and that they are blaming the boycott of french products because of the war....i think not.....i blame the aussies......they are going great guns with wine promotions...we have mostly aussie, new zealand, and oregonian wines on our list...just a few from france or california.......because the price and taste match up just fine and dandy.....the french outpriced themselves on many things years ago.......i guess they had a captive market......even the success of california vineyards did not cause the french to back off too much on price.....maybe the aussies will..........

ok, so it is official, i have been blogging for over 1 year...almost daily........i still enjoy it.....maybe not as much when i realize that i self-censor for fear of hurting feelings.....but i self-censor in most aspects of my life......it was only my late mother-in-law who never saw the need to watch what she said....she had no un-uttered thoughts......but then, i do not remember most of the things she said to me in a positive light.....i would hate to think that those who read this blog would remember what i had to say negatively........

ok, so today is maundy thursday, and i plan to go to church tonight......the last supper fo christ with his disciples was on the thursday before easter sunday........it is always a touching service......easter has snuck up on me this year........despite its late date.....i have a new jacket to wear to church on sunday, though the skirt i intended to wear with it may not fit.......whup.....i have very pleasant memories of childhood easters...my parents would always wait to buy spring/summer church shoes for me until we went to cleveland to celebrate with my mother's parents.......we always went to the same store....which sold poll parrot shoes......the store had a parrot, by the way.....one year i had orange patent leather shoes......oh so 60's.........alas, this year i have no need for orange patent leather shoes.....i wear good shoes so infrequently (only on some sundays and never when i have enough tan on my legs to get by wearing sandals......) that i will probably wear the same pair of black pumps until i die.........ecw has my permission to bury me in them...or rather cremate me in them.......

ok, so acw showed up at home this evening....to get his laundry.....and to pick up a bite to eat..........lord, i miss that boy...so bright.........so interesting to talk to.........when he was cayle's age we read moby dick, aloud....she still reads books with 1 line per page...........

ok, passover begins today...not normally a holiday on my radar, but this year is different.....for starts, one of my new cooks is a converted jew (probably the only one living in Mitchellsburg as we speak)......he converted when he married his ex-wife, and has not reconverted since she left him and moved to china (not a good health move.......) so he keeps kosher, at least so far and not eating pork, and shellfish, etc........in d.c., i stopped at a giant food store to buy dessert and appetizers for dinner.....and saw my first ever big-bang passover food display...whoa......more than i ever dreamed was available for this holy day........as i am unsure just which herbs are bitter, and because i wasn';t totally paying attention this morning on npr when the first sandwich (the hil-el matzoh with apple and bitter herbs...?) was being discussed......i will not be doing the passover thing today........this is pure laziness......as i fixed corned beef and cabbage on st patricks day, and i am not irish ...years ago ecw and i attended a sadar meal with sally and robb dine-fitch (the artist jim dine's half-bro) ...it was very interesting.......i believe robb read the passages from the holy book......but that is all i remember.
this morning when i trudged out to the road to get the paper at 6:50 am, the yard looked so beautiful, i wished that i could linger, with coffee, on the deck and just take it all in.......the perennials have taken over so much of the bedding square-footage that there is less and less to do each year when it comes to mulch...just the weeding of the wild onions.......all that is left is the back of the house, around scw's fish pond......which lacks fish at this time.......

ok, so i have had 2 moments to think about this book, and i have a clear notion of how it will not play out on my life...for starts....the wife decides to give her husband dibs on the house if he will agree to host a wedding party for the daughter who marries unexpectedly in thailand........that will never happen...as i will not leave my garden without kicking and screaming...............i do not care who lives in my house, but nobody else gets my garden as long as i am breathing........

ok, so i just finished revenge of the middle aged woman........a british comedy/tragedy/light-hearted look at a woman who gets divorced and fired from her job as a book editor on the same day....well...not just the same day...but metaphysically so......at one point in this book i sat on the back deck and sobbed.........and i am not really sure why...something one fo their children said...or ex-girlfriend of the son said after her suicide........anyway.......this book is similar to bridgit jones diary in tone, but for the subject matter.....very british........semi-predictable ending.........hugh grant will certainly star as the husband who leaves......he is reaching that age bracket.......now just who will be the spurned wife? maybe emma thompson?............

ok, so i am amazed that kathy had already given away all of jeff's stuff.....the house was devoid of jeff.......i donot know if i could so quicky divest myself of spouse........i do not know....whther it is easier when they leave or die.....having read this book........i just do not know.......

ok, so i just had a call from a friend asking if i/we were available to cater an atypical funeral........many thoughts here...like what is a typical funeral.......and why were we the first choice>.............i cannot hink about work just yet................

ok, so today i helped kathy clark to move, along with 6-7 other people from the boyle county schools or our sunday school class.........she is moving first to a furnished house, the home of a church fellow who has moved to mcdoweel place......very 60's decor......and by may she will move to the house she bought...ann yankey's house on boone trail.......i have been to this house many times when the boys were little...our sitter margaret jean mcguire lived next door...when she went to the races...during keenelands' fall or spring meet, she woulkd ask her next-door neighbor ann yankey to watch the boys...she would warn me to polish their shoes....... all this ended when scw went to montessori at age 3 ...and ann yankey committed suicide sometime afterwards......kathy has not mentioned this...the living in ahouse where someone has commited suicide......but given all that she has been through she may not mind at all.......anyway...kathy clark's idea of moing was to have people arrive invehicles and take stuff out of closets...into the vehicles...drive to the new house, and take things out and put them away...........not much in boxes.....casey was there with his hardly clad girlfirend who was not introduced..........he has a phenomanal amount of khakis and cotton buttondowns and ties..........in fact...i was amazed at the volume of clothing we moved for kathy for just 1 month........and ecw tells me have have too many pieces of clothing.....also there were the youngs......anne and her husband...who imet when we were all pregnant with our first-borns....in lamaze class......18 years ago.......so many years ago.....i mulched 1.5 truckloads of mulch today and yesterday.....the last part will have to wait..........i am so sore.......and overwhelmed...by kathy's need to move and by her stoic approach to the move.......i do not think that i would be so composed if i was moving my household after 20 years of marriage..and my spouses death......ironically...i am reading a book entitled....the revenge of the middle-aged woman...by elizabeth buchan...the story of a 40-something woman who loses her spouse and her job as a book reviewer the same day...........i do not know if it is trite or just entertaining just yet.........

ok, so last night i watched impromptu, a film about the connection between george sand and frederic chopin.....george sand was a baroness who left her spouse and unhappy marriage to write novels...she was ahead of her time in that she preferred to wear trousers, to smoke cigars, and to love freely and often (scandalous in that day and age....) in this film she persued chopin shamelessly, not out of lust, but out of sincere awe for his music.....george sand once wrote.....we cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book into the fire........she lived fully in a time when most women were bound by convention to their duty as wives, daughters, and mothers........it was her motherhood that broke off her relationship with chopin......he began to fall in love with her daughter after they had been together 9 years........another telling quote.......guard well within yourself that treasure...kindness.....know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to aquire without meanness.........she sounds like a woman i would like to know.......

ok, so i want to tell you all (all 3-4) about the things i didn';t buy on vacation...because i was being prudent...and because i so much want to recover my chair and loveseat.....at hillwood in the gift shop there were at least 3 precious strings of amber beads.........just sweet and lovely.......and each over $100...now that is not a bad price for amber beads.......but somehow i wasn't moved to get out the debit card.......i stil regret that i didn't buy a similar strand years ago at the cincinnati art museum........one of these days...........

ok, so now that i have been home a few hours, let me fill you in on some of the trip highlights.....#1 the orchid greenhouse at hillwood.......just fabulous, with over 200 blooming plants..the scent was just breathtaking.....literally........#2 the gardens at williamsburg......especially the one with the topiary and clipped box edging.......#3 the house at monticello.......just perfect in proportion, decoration, views, simplicity.........there are few historic homes that one can say.....i could live here...i do believe i could move into monticello.........#4 the maryland crab cake i had at the irish pub in anapolis.......though it would have tasted better with a small glass of guinness, but we were going to tour a college and i felt that beer might set the wrong mood.......#5 the admissions office at st johns.....we walked inthe door and the firts person to speak to us looked quite like betty poland.......scw says not, but she was strikingly similar in coloration, height, hairstyle........and demeanor.....#6....the lunch at hillwood cafe......a lovely room done in peach/pink walls with white woodwork that accented a wallsize canvas (probably russian) of a peasant picnic.........i had a stuffed cabbage roll with a salad and black bread........with baklava for dessert......#7the garden center at monticello where we bought heritage seeds for both flowers and vegetables.......now all we have to do is to get them to grow.........#8 the 11-hour sleep we got at charlottesville...we went to bed at 9:00 as we were so tired, and we didn't wake up til 8:00 the next morning.......#9 the chinese dinner with nick and roseanne......with chinese beer and hot and sour soup...and lo mein...and good conversation.......#10 the short time at the beach....watching ccw and scw playing in the frigid sand.......#11 (last one) watching scw enjoy his new role as camera man......now all he has to do is figure out how to transfer to dvd........

ok, so we are back from this break...and i am so glad......the weather was rainy and 35 or so the entire 6 days we were gone.......i wore basically the same outfit for most fo the time...just because it was warm.......we saw uva through the car window....as it was dark by the time we got to town....and the next morning it was rainy and cold.......monticello is always a pleasure..then on to williamsburg, where we opted not to pay for admission, because the youngest in our group had been so impatient and disinterested at monticello that we felt it would be a complete waste of cash.........and that is how it worked out...we were in the restored area no less than 25 minutes before she was bored and asking when we were going to eat again.......we did see the wren building at w&m...and looked around........on to chincoteague seashore, where cayle took off her shoes and socks, ran into the water, trotted back to the car, put back on her shoes and socks, then proceeded to play in the waves and sand despite the windchill of sub-freezing temp with her brother, whose lips were blue by the time he was made to come back to the car...he was determined to build a sandcastle...and build he did.........on to anapolis....where we had a bonafide tour of st. john's college.......of every building and nook and cranny...it does seem a place for someone who would like to learn greek and read the great books.......we had a marvelous visit with ecw's oldest brother nick and his wife roseanne..he showed no sign of his brain tumor....and has had a recent checkup that seemed promising despite the presence of the tumor.....he is planning to retire in november.......he sent back 7 rose bushes and and assortment of boxwood and perennials for a 'cottage garden' in my side yard.....scw and i spent a day in georgetown area of dc......saw hillwood estate, and marjorie merriweather post's russian collections and gardens.............lovely........so did i have a good time? it was so good to get away.....i did read a great deal of my john adams book.......and found out a bit of timely trivia......on his second voyage to france to serve as ambassador, the boat left him and his two sons off in northern spain, and he was forced to travel by mule through towns like burgos and bilbao on his way to the french frontier......he actually wrote and posted a letter to his wife from bilbao......... i missed acw on this trip.....i have never before gone without him.....he is as good a traveler as scw......but it is over. and now i am home.....i am going to get a load of mulch after i leave scw off at the act test......and i plan to spend the next 2 days totally devoted to my garden.......

ok, so i was worng about the navaho connection. lori prestewa was hopi, and her entire tribe mourns her passing.........the hopi nation lives close to the navaho nation.......i have been to arizona many times to visit my uncle ernie in cottonwood...p.o. box #1....he had lived there so long...........he was a good friend of barry goldwater, and my aunt ginger tells of meeting goldwater in ernie's front room, in her bathing suit covered by a towel.......i have both hopi and navaho jewelry upstairs, given to me by my arizona relatives.....though i never wear silver...it does not suit me......i have a very nice hopi ring and bracelet that i will sometime give my daughter, who doesnot seem to care about what suits........i digress.......

ok, so i cannot sleep and so i have paged through the list of war dead.....kind of like the wall that is the viet nam memorial.........first of note is pfc lori prestewa, of tuba city, arizona....this is the navaho reservation.....so lori was surely a female navaho.......so sad when our warriors are women......also of note was pfc ruben estrella-sota.......an 18 year old from el paso texas.......i understand that hyphenation is commonplace in the latin community, but i wept at the thought of an 18-year old hyphenated boy being killed in combat........i feel so old and these soldiers were so young......

ok, so the cake did not actually fall, but it did cause quite a stir before it was cut.....the mother of the bride approached my partner at one point and said.....have i had too much wine or is that cake leaning? and jerry leaned to the side and said ...leaning? no..............when the cake was cut and dissassembled, it was clear that the baker forgot to put columns in all four corners of the bottom layer......hence the lean when 3 more layers were put on top........

ok, so tonight i have seen the leaing tower of pisa, or at least the theory of the leaning tower in practice....the baker for tonight's wedding cake arrived at 2 with the cake..for a 7 reception, no less, and from the get-go it was obvious that the cake was lopsided.......and after the baker was done 'setting it up' it started to lean,,,,,and lean some more...to the point that our servers came rushing in...the cake is leaning...we are afraid it will fall over.......parts are bulging where the cake is leaning....when it is cut into the pressure change may cause total implosion..........

ok, so i have this sense of dread about this trip.....like something big will go wrong.......of course, i always think something big will go wrong when i fly....that is why i have to stay awake....to keep the plane up and flying steady.......my paranoia this trip focuses on the norfolk /chesapeake bay tunnel/bridge...i fear that the terrorists will use a car bomb to blow it up the very day and hour we are on it.......now i know that this is quite a longshot.......but i still cannot get it off my mind........

ok, so mm leaves for vacation within 28 hours, or so, and she is quite and uncharacterisitically unprepared........for spain i was packed a full week beforehand........today i put in a load of laundry to assure that i will have clean underthings......not that i do not look forward to going away.....i certainly do.....but traveling domestically is not the challenge that foreign touring presents......shoo.....if i run out of clothing i could always keep an eye out for a goodwill........(others may quip that walmarts are for just such occassions, but i am on a non-walmart roll, and have no intentions of breaking down just yet) the truth is...we will be gone only 6 full days......in weather ranging from 55-75....a pair of shorts or two, several pairs of khakis......5 shirts......and i will be done...this basic trip is one that i made with acw and scw at least 3 times in years past....when ecw could not get off work......this basic trip is one i made in high school once and in college once and in grad school once......with different people but always the same sights...monticello, williamsburg, something in dc, i have a collection of pewter jefferson cups purchased at a rate of 1 per visit to monticello....each of my boys have 2 cups (on one trip that included ecw, scw was a toddler and make such a ruckus the tour guide asked ecw to take him outside.....i ended up taking scw someplace other than inside the gracius mansion, as ecw had never been there.........and we didn't make time for the gift shop on that occasion)......so 1 more day of work, and then we are off.......i am clearly out of the mood to work, so it is good that most of the food for the wedding tonight has already been done........just the arranging part is left for most of it......4 separate food stations......lots of kale and red cabbage garnish around the vegetable and cheese displays.....you know the look........i had purchased several books for the road, but i will not start them until i finish john adams.......)

ok, so i am at the part of john adam's biography where he and john quincy adams (age 10) are picked up by a ship under cover of darkness well north of boston...to go to france to implore the french king to support the americans in their war of indepedence.....from the get-go....this entire thing was deja-vu........the british contend that the war is unpopular...supported by only a handful of renegades......but the brits engage in some heinous shows of force, which rallies the side of the underdog.......adams arrives in paris, where he and franklin are put up...at no cost....by a rich guy who stands to make a fortune with government contracts for war-related provisions........sound familiar? they are staying in passy, which is part of my parisian fantasy..when i win the lottery i will buy a place just off the metro station la muette, in passy, on the park just before the musee marmatton.....which is just before the bois de bologne.........i digress........so adams and franklin are in paris trying to sell the war to the enemies of the brits......and france does side with the americans........recently..i heard someone say...in contempt...that they couldn't understand how the french had let us down, after we saved them in wwII.....frankly....wwII made us even...the french saved us in the revolution.......

i must confess that reading about john adams and john quincy adams is too much like george bush and george w. bush.........i cannot read the words without thinking of the names transposed......happily, john quincy adams seems like a brighter bulb than gwb.......harvard rather than yale.......with better than a c average............

ok, so acw surprised us last night by coming home to do his laundry and going back to uk this morning......he must have wanted to see us before we left for spring break........of course, we both gave him money.....it seems like his trip may have been for more than jovial parental attention.......no problem...my parents used to both give me money when i came home...of course, i never let on that the other had already given me money when the second held out the cash........i am becoming a cnn.com junkie.....just want to keep up to date on this baghdad assault.....just want it to be over......

ok, so scw's rotary exchange to belgium is still in the works, per mail received today........i do not worry about my boy traveling in this time of heightened travel security.......

ok, so mm has poison ivy on the toes of her left foot...not her right foot...just her left......they itch incessantly.....why.....you say? no idea.........

ok, so john adams once wrote his wife three letters in one day....just imagine how many blog entries he could have produced in the computer age.......he also used the term true blue years before uk co-opted it............

ok, so i have enjoyed reading the travel diary that is included on centre's web page.....all about the current london group's travels and antics......well, maybe antics doesn't accurately describe it, but thye lookd to be having a good time.......i got a bit nostalgic with the pics from stonehenge.......it was cold and windy the day we were there, and we had a hard time finding an open restaurant in salisbury.......a bit of trivia...acw bought the tolkein book the Simmarillon (sp) in the gift shop of the salisbury cathedral........the next day we took the chunnel to paris.....i miss traveling....and it is less than 3 months since i got off a plane......

ok, so i drove over to harrodsburg to buy carryout chinese this evening.......hot and sour soup, spring rolls and shrimp lo mein.....ooooh, ooooh, ooooh.....i just love the stuff.......i have treated myself to chinese a lot lately, mostly because i look at my own cooking so much during the day that i cannot look at it again at night.......i brought home a vegetable lasagna, which is perfectly good to eat......but i could not bring myself to warm it back up.........

i have started the last book club book...a biography of john adams.....this book is a stretch for me.....as it relies heavily on volumes of adams' letters...every other paragraph is a direct quote......it gets hard to pay attention......however, both adams and his wife abigail seem quite interesting as people....both well-read in latin and greek...and in clasical authors like cicero and homer.......abigail's mother opposed their marriage, as she did not see adams as good enough for her daughter.......his father was a farmer whilst abigail's father was a harvard-trained pastor......adams himself went to harvard at the age of 15, and graduated at 19......a timetable usual for the era.......that is all i know for now.......aside form the obvious...that adams went on to be the 2nd president of the united states, and that he would correspond with jefferson regularly after they both left office, and that they both died on the same day July 4, 1825....adams' last words were....'...jefferson still lives....' how do i know this? i have been to monticello several times, and this story is told each and every tour.........it is interesting trivia......adams also kept a diary.......not quite as interesting as blogging.......many of his entries were short and vague.......Christmas day.1767 ..spent the day thinking.........obviously it was abigail who did all the work, so that adams could do nothing but think.......

ok, so i took a little drive after the lunch crowd died down....with a load of boxes for kathy clark.......it feels strange to drop off boxes on someone's porch midday, but the day was lovely and it felt really good to get out into the sunshine......jerry is in louisville today, so the computer is idle......just perfect for someone who is playing hooky from work whilst still on the job.......i have been making email hotel requests for next week......and looking up hours of operation for museums......and looking at junk mail........

ok, so after my class at eku tonight i went to the prayer service at my church.....and who should sit next to me.....cheryl wolfe kerbaugh gibson.....who couldn;t wait to tell me that she had seen scw outside of dhs with a girl on saturday...looking so grown-up and relaxed and consumed...........did i know who the girl was......yes..........they are making a movie......a movie?...........she is one of scw's biggeste fans........and then cheryl started on about the war and her french friends and the sorry state of travel............and i have a note from our sunday school class to her...as she was recently robbed and her father is ill and her mother-in-law is moving and so many problems...but cheryl has been so faithful to me and my problems........i can see her now..bringing supper after my miscarriage......she is such a good person......we were sitting in front of her ex-mother-in-law at thetime/////charlotte'sgrandmother in fact..........only cheryl could handle such things...........she was so gracious......