But maybe not.  Today, Ted and I set a record for walking:  18.25 miles.  After that, my pedometer broke.  Really.

We started the day with an omelette (French food in France) for lunch and then headed for Notre Dame.  On the way, we passed some green box-like things along the sidewalk and thought they were dumpsters for nearby apartments.  We were so-o-o-o wrong!

Top left: The boxes had legs that allowed them to fit over the concrete abutment along the sidewalk. Top right: From the front, they looked like dumpsters, but the front edge and top were constructed to be lifted to form . . . voilà! . . . (lower center) little sidewalk shops.

Because of the recent fire at Notre Dame, visitors cannot enter the cathedral, but there was still a crowd all the way around it on the sidewalks.  It was a sad sight, and the crowd was more somber than exuberant.

Here’s the classic view of the front of Notre Dame. The cathedral is located on an island in the Seine River.
The two rear towers and most of the roof were completely destroyed by the fire.

Our next stop was the Pantheon.  It must be one of the highest points in Paris, because we walked uphill all the way from Notre Dame.  There were pretty views of the Eiffel Tower and of Notre Dame from the Pantheon. 

The Pantheon was built in 1744 because King Louis XV wanted to dedicate a prestigious building to Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. In 1791, the monument was turned into the national Pantheon. Its crypt enshrines great men and women of France, including Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, and Marie Curie.

The Pantheon is in the Latin Quarter of Paris, so we walked around the neighborhood for a little while.  Since it was still early, we headed downhill and across the Seine to the Bastille.  We found the site, in spite of extensive road construction in the area, and were surprised to see that not even a remnant of the Bastille exists.  It felt like the Fourth of July without the Liberty Bell to visit.  The Bastille prison was pretty much destroyed after the French Revolution (no one felt warm and fuzzy about preserving it), and the site is now the home of an opera house.

The ultramodern building in the center is the opera house on the site of the former Bastille. There is no Bastille to be seen, although many streets and buildings in the neighborhood have “Bastille” in their names.

Time was passing, and our feet were getting tired, so we headed back to the hotel.  The sky became increasingly overcast and looked more and more like rain.  It took us a long time to cover the distance (or maybe it just seemed like a long time because we’d walked for so long), but we made it to about 30 feet from the hotel door before it started to sprinkle.  The shower didn’t last long, so we rested our legs and feet and went out later to feast on beouf bourguignon for dinner.  Yummy! (“Beef stew” sounds so much better in French.)

Again:  18.25 miles of walking in one afternoon!  Whew!

Note:  We’ve ordered vanilla ice cream twice in France.  Although it was called “vanilla,” it was French vanilla both times.  But of course, n’cest pas? 

This morning, Ted and I took the Eurostar from London to Paris.  We did that in 2016 and the high-speed train was a great experience.  We had first-class tickets, so we were served a lovely French lunch—with wine, of course.  We enjoyed the relaxing two-and-a-half hour ride through the French countryside.

Unfortunately, getting onto the train was far less enjoyable.  The London train station was crazy busy.  Maybe all those tennis and cricket fans were leaving town today.  The signage was terrible and, although we remembered the process from last time, it was difficult to find where “over there” was in such a big station with so many people crammed together.  When we got to the check-in line, we were told there were too many people waiting on the platform, so check-in would be delayed for the later trains.  First, we were delayed for ten minutes, then ten more, then ten more, . . . Finally, we were allowed to get in line.  Surprise!  One ID/passport check wasn’t sufficient; everyone had to do that part twice. 

It was a relief to find ourselves next in line to go through the gate that would allow us to take the escalators to the platform, but the relief was short-lived.  The electronic gate didn’t recognize Ted’s ticket and wouldn’t let him through.  A helpful attendant took him around the gate, and we proceeded to our train.  It took more than 90 minutes to get checked in and to arrive on the platform, and we had only ten minutes to spare before our train left.  Whew! Just breathe. . . .

The transfer from the Paris depot to our hotel went smoothly.  We unpacked a few things in our room and went immediately to the Tuilleries across the street to enjoy the park and to relax.

Thankfully, Ted and I had five hours of sleep on the plane, because London was hectic when we arrived. It was the last day of the Wimbledon championships and also the final match of the World Cup cricket championship between England and New Zealand, neither of which has ever won before. Traffic was horrible, and the sidewalks were packed. London won the cricket championship, so there was a lot of yelling and cheering in the streets all evening.

When we got hungry for dinner, the concierge told us there were restaurants on the street alongside the hotel. We turned the corner and guess what the first two restaurants were: McDonald’s and Five Guys! The others were local, and we chose one of those.

One day we ate dinner in an historic restaurant about two blocks from our hotel. It was called “Byron,” and the manager told us the entire building is “protected” and cannot be changed. The huge (18″ x 18″) ceiling beams, the stamped metal ceiling, the marble wall panels, the huge mirrors, and the mosaic floor are all more than 240 years old. It’s amazing how late Europeans eat. The restaurants are still packed at 10:30 p.m. and going strong with no sign of closing any time soon.

Note: On the menus, salads are described as “assorted leaves.”

This little shop was on the street with the restaurants. It was about the size of two kiosks at the mall.
As usual, we did a lot of walking. It’s unusually warm in London (low 80s), and we wanted ice cream one day, so we stopped at a gelato shop that featured “rose” ice cream cones in your choice of flavors. We chose vanilla and strawberry.
We walked to Buckingham Palace to see how far it was (about a mile) so we’d be in time for the changing of the guard in the morning. Here are some of the Palace gardens. Ted thought he saw the Queen deadheading flowers so they’d look nice tomorrow.
When we returned to the hotel after dinner, we saw that the hallway and stairway were lined with candles. Very pretty, and romantic too.

The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace occurs at 10:45 every morning. What a disappointment! We arrived about 15 minutes early and found a place to stand right in front. And there we stood, watching police on horses and bicycles riding back and forth to make sure no spectators breached the barriers. Around 11:00, a marching band of guards arrived from our left and got through one song (not Sousa, and not “Stars and Stripes Forever”) before entering the palace gates and disappearing from sight. About 15 minutes later, another band came from our right and did the same thing. Another 15 minutes later, a troop of eight guards arrived, stepping smartly, so we thought they must be the “new” guys. They also disappeared inside the fence. Finally, another 15 minutes later, both bands came marching out and went to our left and to our right. That was it! The show was apparently all about watching the police riding in circles.

Here’s the band coming from our left.
This is Buckingham Palace, and it’s what we saw for most of the 75 minutes we were there for the changing of the guard. You can see other people lined up around the open space, and the police in the neon yellow vests.
The next day, we walked to the London Tower Bridge. It was more fun than the changing of the guard.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Tate Modern Museum. It was interesting to see the modern art, even though we don’t want any of it in our house. This is a tower built of antique radios and speakers and titled “Babel.” I looked for a radio like I had in my bedroom when I was growing up, but didn’t see one.
On our last evening in London, we walked along the Thames and saw this bike counter beside the bike lane. It displayed the number of bicycles that went by each day and also the total for the year. We were there around 10:00 p.m. and it indicated 6,653 bikes had passed in the past 22 hours. The annual number was in the hundreds of thousands.

One evening, as we walked along the Thames on the Queen’s Walkway, we were passed by some bicycles. We knew they were behind us because they rang their bells and because their headlights projected “BIKE” in green letters on the path ahead of us. Cool!

We were surprised at how many shopkeepers spoke English as a second language in London–and at only an intermediate level. In non-English countries, we’ve often had a clerk call an English-speaking person to help us, but England is the home of English, so we expected at least store managers to speak fluent English. It’s definitely a one-world society these days.

Our last stop before returning to our hotel was a pretty view of lighted buildings and the London Eye (the Ferris wheel) across the Thames. It was so peaceful, we just sat on a park bench for awhile and enjoyed our last evening in London.

Ted and I flew to London at dinner time, with our arrival in London scheduled for just before lunch the next day. While we were waiting to board our flight, I had a little blast from the past when I saw one of my ESL teachers and his wife. We had a nice chat and learned they are going on from London to Budapest.

Last year, Ted and I decided that, for our next long flight, we’d spring for business class. As a result, we flew upscale to Europe today. Not only did that put us into Zone 1 boarding, but since we regularly fly in the main cabin, we felt like little kids opening Christmas gifts when we took our seats.

First, I stowed my back pack in my own overhead storage bin. Then I had to make room to sit, because my seat held a full set of bedding: mattress pad, quilted blanket, and pillow. There was even a pair of slippers in case I needed to get up during my sleep time.
There was a chilled bottle of water at each seat, and we were immediately offered a choice of beverages. I chose orange juice. Then we were given dinner and breakfast menus to make our meal choices. We also selected a wake-up time.
There were lots of comfort adjustments (4 separate menus), including a seat massage.
The complimentary toiletries bag included a toothbrush, toothpaste, sleep mask, ear plugs, a glass-cleaning cloth, soap, and even a pair of socks.
Dinner was served as soon as we reached a safe altitude. Note that dinner included a tray-sized white tablecloth. This was the first course . . .
. . . and here’s the main course. Everything was delicious! My choice of beverage was (free) wine. The breakfast was equally attractive and good. No disposable dishes or plastic wrap in sight!

With the nice blanket and the comfortable pillow in hand, I dropped my seat to the completely flat position, adjusted the mattress firmness, and actually slept soundly from the time I finished dinner until my breakfast wake-up call five hours later. Of course, it was a full breakfast, so Ted and I weren’t hungry when we arrived in London.

Wow! If flying were always like this (like it used to be years ago, with comfortable seating space, reasonably good meals at no additional cost, and free checked luggage), there would be far fewer grumpy passengers. The only downside was that it was lonely. Business class is, by definition, designed for people who want to work with minimal distractions while they fly. Although Ted and I had adjoining seats, we were physically too far apart to talk to each other during the flight. Still, we’re actually looking forward to our nine-hour overseas flight home instead of dreading the discomfort of the main cabin for that long.

Note: Not everyone in business class has class. The guy across the aisle from me took off his pants and slept in his boxers. I couldn’t believe it when I saw him do that.

When I was a junior in high school, I was selected to represent the local American Legion Auxiliary post at Badger Girls State, a week-long experience of faux government at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. (A concurrent Badger Boys State met in Ripon, WI.)

At Girls State, we learned how government works and we ran for state offices, including nominations, campaigning, and mock elections. I enjoyed the experience, from living in the dorm to participating in the activities, and the week went by too quickly. Except for one thing.

As we stood in line for meals in the dorm cafeteria (especially for dinner), someone in the line inevitably started singing “Kumbaya,” and then everyone else joined in. Long before the week and the impromptu songfests were over, I knew I never wanted to hear or sing “Kumbaya” again. When I saw this cartoon in the newspaper, it took me right back to Girls State.

I bought a shirt a few days ago, and noticed that the manufacturer has a clear mission statement on its tags.

Dylan will be 14 on July 13. Because Ted and I are leaving for our European trip that day, we celebrated early with Dylan. I can’t believe how quickly our grandchildren are growing up, but I love watching them do it.

P.S. Unlike Kathy and me, Dylan blew out all 14 candles on his first try.

Following our anniversary weekend with our family, Ted brought me a beautiful bouquet of a dozen roses. He said it was a thank you for all the work I did to coordinate the weekend activities and venues–restaurants, caterer, Innsbrook houses, photographer, etc. The bouquet is beautiful and his appreciation made all the work worthwhile.

This and so many other reasons are why I still love this man after 50 years of marriage to him.

Ted’s and my wish came true: for our 50th anniversary celebration the last weekend of June, our entire family–children, spouses, and grandchildren–was together at the same time! It was an enjoyable, event-filled weekend.

This memory candle was a wedding gift from our florist and used to be much taller. We have burned it every year on our anniversary, as directed in the florist’s message (below). I’ve moved the flowers downward several times over the years.
Just as the card says, the candle was present at our silver and golden anniversary parties. No great-grandchildren were present, but might be on the way in the foreseeable future. While we were together, Alex, our first grandchild, officially told the family of his engagement. He and Kaitlyn will be married in August.
We started the celebration Thursday evening with a family dinner at Maggiano’s. Here we are, ready to start the party.
Clockwise around the table, beginning front center: Zaque, Julian, Alex, Ted, me, Katie, Sefton, Thom, Kathy, Jeff.
Clockwise around the table, beginning left center: Kyra, La, Kari, Dean, Sky, Teddy, Dylan, Annette.
This is how modern two-year-olds amuse themselves when they’re finished eating.

Friday morning, we had an appointment at a photography studio for a family portrait and for a portrait of Ted and me. We’ve selected the ones we like, and the photographer is in the process of putting the digital files into the final portrait form.

After the professional photos, we had lunch and then went to a nearby park for more group pictures. Here we are with our four children. Left > right: Jeff, Kathy, me, Ted, Kari, Thom. Thom and Katie also took pictures with a “real” (not cell phone) camera, and are going to make some nice enlargements for Ted and me.
And here we are with our grandchildren. Left > right: Zaque, Alex, Kyra, Ted, me, Sky, Teddy, Dylan, Julian, Sefton. Sefton apparently thought he was finished after the morning photo shoot.
After the park photos, we headed to Innsbrook, a nearby resort, where Ted and I rented two houses for the weekend. This is the “big” house (sleeps 14).
This is the “little” house, called a “treehouse” by the owners. It sleeps 6.
It’s obvious we’ve all been trained to remove our shoes at the door. I counted 17 pairs in this pile.
Unfortunately, Julian’s weekend activities were somewhat limited by his broken collarbone. Check out his sling. He was riding his bike in the bike lane when a car made a right turn without checking the bike lane and hit him.
The big house offered lots of open space on the main floor, as well as a large game / media room on the lower level. It had two decks (one above the other), a screened porch accessible from the living room and from the master bedroom, and a dock on a small lake. This house was our gathering area. I opted for all meals to be catered. They were delivered warm, and all we had to do was come to this area for lunch and dinner.
The small A-frame house was charming with its wooded setting and its cozy living space. It was a nice place to have some quiet time away from the crowd.
Friday night turned out to be exciting when a severe thunderstorm passed through the area. Katie was delighted to hear loud thunder (the Seattle area doesn’t get much of that) and filmed the heavy rain and lightning. (That’s her at the sliding doorway.) One especially loud clap of thunder startled all of us into shouts, and Katie was thrilled that the shouts were on her recording. Conditions became more exciting when the power went out a little while after I took this picture. We scrambled for candles and cell phone flashlights.
Saturday morning was sunny and warm. No more rain! Kari and I took a canoe out on the lake at the big house.
Alex and Zaque chose the paddleboat. By this time, Kari and I were in the upper right of the picture with our canoe.
Next in line for the paddleboat were Kyra, La, Katie, and Sefton. Thom and Jeff steadied the boat while they climbed onboard.
The little house had two kayaks on another lake. Ted and I made use of them later in the day.
In the afternoon, we decided to head for the resort pool, which included a lazy river for young children (i.e., Sefton). Members of our group are tossing a ball around in the center of the pool.
Here are Katie and Sefton after a trip to the lazy river.
The little house had a golf cart that we found handy for going between our two houses (0.5 miles apart) and for getting around the resort. The golf cart was the hit of the weekend and everyone wanted to drive and / or ride in it. Here are Teddy and Dylan taking a turn in the back seat of the cart on our way home from the resort pool.
The dock was quiet on Sunday morning and I had a chance to do some reading in the sunshine.
The lake was Sunday-morning-calm and a restful place to relax.
We checked out of the resort on Sunday and went back to our own house. I put our wedding photo album and our wedding scrapbook album on the coffee table for everyone to look at.
Of course there was pool time in the afternoon.
Ted and I unpacked our Apple IIe for old times’ sake. The boys couldn’t get all the games to work, but managed to play a few rounds of Dig Dug.
On a less intellectual level, La threw popcorn kernels and Kyra tried to catch them in her mouth. The arrow points to the popcorn kernel and it looks like Kyra’s going to catch this one.
After everyone left, I went around the house to strip the beds and couldn’t help noticing that Julian’s camping skills were evident. All of his bedding, including the queen-size air mattress, was neatly arranged in small bundles almost suitable for a hiker’s backpack.
Ted and I went out in the evening after the kids left. When we returned to our car, a brief shower had just ended and we saw a full-arch rainbow. It was the perfect closure for our celebration weekend.

Fifty years ago today, Ted and I were married. Tomorrow, we’ll get started on the next fifty years.

My mom and I designed and made my wedding gown. I cut the appliqués and sewed them and the lace on by hand. My bouquet was similar to my mom’s wedding bouquet.
We’re still this happy together.
You can see rice in the air. It definitely brought us prosperity, fertility, and good fortune.
We never had a chance to finish eating the first piece of wedding cake we cut for each other. It was a sour cream chocolate cake, and every crumb was eaten because people came back for seconds.

I had some shopping to do in downtown St. Charles today, so I checked out the riverfront. This is our (gasp!) third dry day this week, so the rivers have gone down a little bit. (We had two dry days, then rain, then a dry day today and one more coming tomorrow. After that, the forecast predicts rain for six consecutive days.)

The Missouri River is very wide right now. Beneath the trees and just left of the center of the picture (above the red car), you can see the top of a park bench above the water. In 1993, the river covered the road and the parking lot, and stopped rising just before it reached the back doors of the shops on Main Street, about thirty feet behind where I stood to take this picture.
The Katy (M-K-T Railroad) Depot is above water now. The grass beside the train track is brown because it’s covered with river silt that marks last week’s high water point.
The bandstand still stands in water. If you look closely, you can see the water used to be three steps higher on the bandstand–almost up to its floor.

What a rainy spring we’re having! At the end of March, the TV weathercaster told us that the St. Louis area was already a full month ahead on rainfall for the year—and it hasn’t stopped. At this time, most river levels in Missouri are at their second-highest—second only to the record flooding we experienced in 1993. Levees are failing because they are so water-logged from standing water. St. Peters was under two tornado warnings two days apart just before we left for Zaque’s graduation in Colorado. Thankfully (for us), the tornado that hit Jefferson City the night before our trip dissipated six miles west of us.

As Ted and I drove through Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa on our way to and from Colorado, we saw standing water everywhere. Kansas has many new wetlands, and that was nothing, compared to Nebraska and Iowa, which can nearly qualify as large lakes! I-29 was under water from Council Bluffs, IA to St. Joseph, MO, so we had to take two-lane roads west of the Missouri River to get home. As we crossed the river at St. Joseph, we received a “tornado emergency” warning on our cell phones because a tornado was sighted west of Kansas City, heading for St. Joseph.

Everyone else was forced to use the secondary roads as well, so traffic was heavy. At times, the rain reduced visibility to less than a quarter-mile.

The day after we got home, we had another severe thunderstorm warning in our area. When it passed, we went out to do some errands, and saw this tree across the road about two miles from our house.

Make it stop! We want to have at least two dry days in a row so we can clean and seal our concrete, but we’re still waiting.

Guess where we went today.

That’s right, we went to the bike store—again. My bike doesn’t like to downshift, but it does like to slip the chain off the gears. Ted’s bike downshifts most of the time, but not always, so we went back to the bike store for a diagnosis. We must have ridden our bikes a lot more than we remember because Ted’s derailleur needed adjusting, and mine was worn out and needed to be replaced.

As we waited for the bike guy to test ride our bikes to check out the problems, we looked around and saw the unicycle stools above, some model bicycles, and the perfect bikes for (very) young riders.

This scale model Schwinn is similar to the bike Ted had when he was a kid.
I’ve never seen a bicycle built for six, but the bike guy assured me it’s a real thing. All the parts–pedals, brakes, kickstands, wheels, etc.–work.
Here’s a model of a rickshaw.
The wheels on these little bicycles are hard plastic (not inflatable), and the bikes are just the right size for two-year-old cyclists.

Today I had my six-month follow-up visit with my surgeon, and he told me exactly what I wanted to hear: Since no cancer cells have shown up on my three-month or six-month scans, he is confident that (1) he removed all of the cancer cells during my surgery last November; and (2) there are no stray cancer cells anywhere else in my body.

He agrees with my oncologist that scheduling nine-month and one-year scans is a good idea, but he said he is officially diagnosing me as cancer-free. Oh, happy day!

Since her fall on April 25, Mutzie’s condition has improved noticeably each day, and she is now in a rehabilitation center. The blood clot has dissolved and her face is healing very well. She walks on her own, but still has difficulty swallowing because her facial bones are not completely healed. She speaks clearly and seems to remember everything, although the memories are sometimes jumbled as a result of her concussion. She recognizes friends and family, but doesn’t always remember their names. It is expected that Mutzie will remain in the rehabilitation center for 90 days, after which she will be evaluated for future care. At this point, it seems very likely that she will be able to move to an assisted living facility at that time, rather than to a nursing home.

Yesterday, on our way home from Colorado, Ted and I stopped in Grand Island, NE to visit with Mutzie and to see her miracle aura in person. We joined a group of her visitors and enjoyed our time with her. She didn’t call Ted by name, but told the nurse all day that her “little brother” would be coming. (Ted is five years younger than Mutzie.) When Mutzie became tired, we left and enjoyed dinner with Lisa and her husband, Doug. This morning, we stopped in again for a short visit with Mutzie before leaving for home, and we had another nice conversation with her.

Her miracle aura is still working.

Visiting in Mutzie’s room after dinner. Mutzie and Ted are facing the camera; Lisa, Doug, Glenn, and Anita (a church friend) are facing Mutzie.
Mutzie, aka Miracle Woman, and her little brother, Ted.

As always, Ted and I enjoyed our time with Jeff’s family in Longmont, CO. Friday night, we joined Zaque at his pre-graduation party; Saturday morning, we attended Zaque’s graduation; and Saturday evening, Ted and I took the family out to eat to celebrate Zaque’s graduation and Jeff’s retirement.

Although he has a few more details to wrap up at the office, within a few days, Jeff will leave the U.S. work force and will qualify for the “not seeking employment” checkbox on the Department of Labor forms. He and La have bought a house in Flathead Lake, MT and plan to move there in September. They are looking forward to the move, but will be very busy in the next few months preparing their current house for sale, traveling with their family, and taking care of other details before heading to Montana.

Meanwhile, still in Longmont, we went to church together on Sunday morning and had the privilege of hearing some of the graduates, including Zaque, speak to the congregation. The students’ talks were very interesting, and addressed topics related to going forward in their lives now that they have finished high school.

At the house, we had good food and good times with our family. We looked at pictures of Jeff and La’s new house, played sheephead and some other games, and spent quality time together. The bad weather forecasts continued, however. Longmont was under a tornado watch Sunday evening but, luckily, all we had was rain.

Modern social interaction: three of four people in this group are focused on their electronic devices.
Some cozy family time on the sofa.
Yum! Delicious homemade pizza for Sunday dinner!

I think Ted and I will have one more visit to Longmont. We will bid farewell to Zaque in September when he leaves to serve his church for two years in Oklahoma City. After that, we’ll be visiting Jeff and La in Montana. The fun never ends!

Today, our fourth grandchild graduated from high school. The weather was perfect for the outdoor ceremony.

Zaque is the tall guy under the orange arrow. He must be at least 6’1″–maybe more.
It’s official: he’s got the diploma. Or at least the folder for it. He had to pick up the paper diploma inside the school after the ceremony.
Even though the class was smaller than Alex’s and Kyra’s, there was still only one student we were interested in seeing. This girl’s mortarboard expressed her feelings and those of the audience as the last few kids were recognized.
The fun part: throwing the graduate caps into the air.

And then, the obligatory family pictures.

Like Jeff, Zaque has a large head, so his hat was too small to be comfortable.
Zaque with Mom and Dad. (Funny photo faces are required in Jeff’s family.)
Zaque and Kyra.
And of course, Zaque with Grandma and Grandpa.

Congratulations, Number Four. We’re proud of you.

We arrived at Jeff’s house later than planned today due to some serious storms. The night before we left home, the storm sirens went off at 1:00 a.m. A radar-indicated tornado was barreling down I-70 straight toward us. We didn’t get the all-clear until about 2:45 a.m., when the storm cell suddenly weakened and took a left turn to the north. Due to the weather, we got to bed much later than planned, and since we anticipated driving 8-9 hours the next day, we slept later than planned the next morning.

Yesterday, when we got to Junction City, KS, we were treated to what Ted calls “active weather.” We drove through severe thunderstorms, beginning in the early evening. Lightning was flashing all around us and directly overhead; thunder was booming constantly; visibility was less than one-quarter mile; traffic on I-70 was going only 40-45 mph; and I was looking no further than the taillights ahead of me to stay on the road. Result: we stopped for the night at Hays, rather than going all the way to Colby as we’d planned. Fortunately, we called ahead to a hotel and had a room. Other people stopping at the hotel because of the storm were told there were no vacancies.

In spite of our later-than-usual arrival at Jeff’s house today, we were still in time for Zaque’s graduation party at the church. Each of the seniors in the church sets up a display and every family brings food to share. Zaque baked chocolate chip cookies for the event. (He let his hungry Grandma “sample” a warm cookie before taking them to the party. I gave them the Grandma Stamp of Approval.) We attended the same type of party for Alex and for Kyra when they graduated. Here are some pictures of Zaque, his display, and the party room.

Everything in the display represents a part of Zaque’s life or an interest of his. Check out the Lego box he made for gift cards.
Zaque’s class was smaller than Alex’s and Kyra’s, so the crowd was smaller as well.

We’re glad we could be here for Zaque’s pre-graduation party. After two consecutive nights of severe storms, we were also glad to sleep in peace.

Last spring, I noticed some anonymously planted iris along the road a short distance from our house. Since irises are very prolific, I looked forward to seeing even more purple blooms this year, and I was well rewarded.

Last year’s irises.
This year’s irises.

The rock barrier along the road borders a large common ground with a lake. In addition to these four iris-decorated rocks, I noticed that the next four rocks also have irises planted near them. They are not blooming, but I hope to see an extended floral display next spring. Thank you to whoever is sharing the joy of spring flowers in our subdivision.

For the past two weeks, Ted and I have been getting ourselves and our ten-year-old little-used bikes back into shape. In our innocence, we thought we’d clean up the bikes, inflate the tires, and ride. In reality, we needed a full tune-up for each bike.

We’ve been riding the bikes every day for a week and, every day, we found another little problem. We’ve had to replace a worn-out tire, a rear taillight that died from the corroding batteries inside it, the aging hand grips, and my bike seat. The lethally corroded taillight is understandable, but we don’t remember riding the bikes enough to wear out a tire and a seat. I guess we did better than we gave ourselves credit for.

The battery in my speedometer was also dead and the battery opening had such tiny screws, we had to buy a jeweler’s screwdriver to replace the battery. To avoid ruining the unusual surface of the new hand grips with our sweaty palms, we bought biking gloves. We also decided we needed an updated bike carrier for the car so we can make use of the many greenways in the area. The carrier requires a trailer hitch, so we bought one of those too. We thought we’d install it ourselves, but we don’t have ramps to raise the car. Paying for installation was a lot cheaper than buying ramps, so we made an appointment to have the hitch installed.

Our legs are noticeably stronger after a week of biking. The hitch was installed yesterday, and we found no new problems on today’s bike ride. I think we’re finally ready for some serious bicycling.

Let’s ride!

I saw an article in USA Today that reported one-quarter of the West Antarctic ice sheet has been classified as “unstable.” According to the article, the ocean water in front of the glacier is too hot, causing the underside to melt where it grinds against the seabed. This allows the glacier to slide more quickly into the ocean and to become thinner.

My question is: How does anyone know where West Antarctica is? Every direction from the South Pole is north. Once you are north of the South Pole, moving in a clockwise direction around the pole will take you eastward, just like it does in the rest of the world; counterclockwise will take you westward. Where’s the starting point? Obviously, “West” Antarctica is an agreed-upon arbitrary area.

Today, Grumpy Cat died at the age of 7. Her real name was Tardar Sauce. She probably had a form of dwarfism that gave her large eyes, a downturned mouth, and a small body (less than 5 pounds). After an appearance on Reddit, she went viral on social media and was a popular meme. She became so popular, she actually had a publicist. She appeared in advertising (Friskies cat food, Honey Nut Cheerios, and more) as well as in books, movies, and a video game. Her image was sold on t-shirts and mugs and as a stuffed toy. In addition, she was the first feline to be included in Madame Taussaud’s wax museum collection. Grumpy Cat reportedly said, “It’s an honor. I hate it.” Below are a few of the most popular Grumpy Cat memes I found online.

When Ted and I were first married, I baked him a batch of his favorite cookies: chocolate chip. He saw me licking cookie dough off the mixer beater and, in a voice of disbelief, asked, “You eat the dough???” He couldn’t believe that raw cookie dough could possibly be good.

Today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, so I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies for Ted. Since the first time he tried a lick of cookie dough, it’s been a different story.

Let’s all have a chocolate chip cookie to celebrate!

Ted and I have selected a caterer for our 50th anniversary weekend. Before finalizing our menu choices, Karlyn, the caterer, wanted to provide us with a taste test. We asked when we could come to the market to do that, but she said she would bring everything to us. We expected her to bring a few bites each of the four meat entreés we are interested in ordering (i.e., a taste test), so we were caught completely off-guard when she had to make two trips to her car to bring in all the (warm!) food.

Top>bottom, left>right: pasta don lite (at least 12-15 servings), BBQ pulled chicken (at least 8 servings), chicken spiedini, Swedish meatballs, twice-baked mashed potato casserole (8 servings), beef brisket marsala (8 servings), meatballs in marinara sauce, Italian pulled beef (8 servings), tuxedo cake and strawberry shortcake (only 4 servings–darn!), and honey-glazed ham in pineapple / cherry sauce (4 servings). Not in the picture: mixed veggie salad (10-15 servings), plates, and serving / eating utensils.

Everything was so-o-o-o good, we know we made the right choice when we picked Valenti’s Catering. After eating some of everything (1-2 bites of each item filled a dinner plate), we asked Karlyn a few questions and talked about final menu choices. Then we talked about Wisconsin. She’s from Waukesha (a Milwaukee suburb) and was thrilled to meet fellow Wisconsinites. It was fun to share memories of WI with each other.

After Karlyn left, Ted and I sat at the table and looked in awe at the sheer quantity of leftovers. We put aside enough food for three meals, and then I texted Kari to see if her family would like something for dinner tonight while Ted offered food to Jim, our neighbor, who is “batching” it while his wife recovers from surgery.

The leftovers fill two shelves of our refrigerator. The plastic containers are for us; the rest is waiting to be shared. That container of white stuff in the upper right is nearly a quart of WOW! dressing, plus Karlyn gave us an 8-oz. bottle of it.

Kids, if you’re reading this, we’re going to eat well on our party weekend!

Ted and I bought pretty good (not titanium) bicycles for ourselves in 2009. His was a retirement gift from his co-workers; mine was to provide him with a bike-riding partner. Since then, we have probably put on about 1,000-1,200 miles–not spectacular over ten years.

We decided that this is the year we will ride our bikes and stop feeling guilty about having expensive bikes sitting idle in the garage. Our deadline to start biking was May 1. Ted cleaned up the bikes and inflated the tires but, unfortunately, we’ve had rain nearly every day since May 1. Today–at last!–the weather was beautiful, so we rolled the bikes out of the garage, put on our helmets and took off. (In case you’re wondering, it’s true that you never forget how to ride a bike.) The minute we hit the street, I started thinking how much fun this was, and I decided it was a great idea to get back to biking.

We went about 0.2 miles and then disaster hit. My chain fell off the derailleur. We got it back on without a problem, but then my gearshift didn’t work. I bike-walked home (Ted rode) and we took my bike to the dealer where we bought it so someone more knowledgeable than us could check it out.

The man we spoke with thinks there might be something defective in one of the cables, so he said if we can leave it for two days, they will perform a full tune-up and get it working again. Then he got to the best part: this is free, even though the sign says “Annual tune-up $79.” Why? Because the records show that when we bought the bikes, we paid $30 extra for a lifetime of annual tune-ups. What a smart decision we made in 2009! It was immediately obvious that we needed to drive back home to get Ted’s bike so it could be tuned up as well.

While we were at the bike shop, we decided we need a more up-to-date bike carrier than our 1990s vintage model. The carrier we selected requires a hitch on the car, so we also purchased our first hitch ever. In two days, we’ll be set to ride the greenways that have been built all over the metro area in the past ten years. Woo-ee! The thrills keep coming!

We have cable for our family room TV, but still use a rooftop antenna for the kitchen TV. We watch very little TV, but we caved and subscribed to cable for the family room because we couldn’t always watch our favorite programs. Rainy and windy weather affected the signal strength, and we always seemed to lose the signal just when we were getting interested in the program.

Lately, we’ve had a lot of rainy weather but, even on calm, dry days, the local TV stations haven’t been coming in on the non-cable kitchen TV. Now we know why.

We had high winds one day last week, and we assume the winds toppled our antenna because today we noticed it resting comfortably on the roof. When we get it fixed or replaced on Friday (depending on its condition), we should get better reception on the kitchen TV again.

My college roommates and I are planning a get-together for Fall 2019. Our email exchanges have included contact information updates for some of us, mutually agreeable meeting dates, etc. In addition, each of us usually adds a line about what’s going on in our lives at the time. The current conversational thread is spring.

Eileen (Marquette, MI): The last bit of snow melted in our yard yesterday. Hurrah! Happy spring!

Me (St. Louis, MO): We live farther south than you, so have been mowing the lawn for over a month. Happy spring!

Leila (Madison, WI): As for the weather, …

Leila wins!

What a beautiful spring we’re having–lots of rain, and no late frosts. Everything is blooming so well, and the blooms are lasting a long time. Our lilac tree is in full bloom now and it smells absolutely delicious!

Yesterday, Kathy and I met in Columbia for one of our highly anticipated mom-daughter days. We usually mention changing up our long-established routine, but we like how we spend the day, so we end up following the same pattern every time: begin with a 2-4 hour lunch; wander around downtown Columbia, with a stop to purchase a few pieces of chocolate at the chocolatier; sit for 2-4 hours in the mall food court eating the chocolate; then end with a 1-3 hour dinner. We talk, talk, talk during the entire day. Our day together isn’t about what we do or where we go–it’s about the talking. We usually spend 11-12 hours together and, when our time is up and we have to leave for our 1.5-hour drives home, we always mention how we aren’t nearly finished talking yet.

Yesterday, we were expecting a cool, cloudy day with a chance of showers, but the skies cleared, the sun came out, and I’m sure the temperatures were in the mid-70s. It was beautiful for our walk around the downtown area. After all the rain we’ve been having, sunshine made the day even more fun.

Thom and Katie gave Kathy a Shakespeare’s Pizza gift card for Christmas. The card’s expiration date is “When the revolution begins.” Since there was no revolution in sight, Kathy decided this was a good day to use the card. Shakespeare’s irreverent attitude continues on the gift card holder.

Shakespeare’s is near the UM campus, but the crowd includes people of all ages, from cradle to (still-this-side-of-the) grave. The restaurant atmosphere is funky and fun, like the gift cards, and includes this impudent sign in the parking lot.

The impertinence continues inside the restaurant. For example, if you want to find the restrooms, just “follow the yellow brick road.” There is an actual, continuous yellow brick inlaid path on the floor from every room in the restaurant to the restrooms.

You might think of Shakespeare as highbrow, but the restaurant owner doesn’t.

As always, the day ended before Kathy and I were finished talking. After an uneventful drive home, the first thing I saw when I opened the door to the kitchen was a bouquet of roses from Ted.

Ted missed me. The card said “For all the good news this week,” referring to my cancer-free diagnosis and his sister’s remarkable recovery from a severe accident. What a nice homecoming. The roses are gorgeous in the bay window.

St. Louis is having a wet spring. One of the TV weathercasters said that, by the end of March, the area was an entire month ahead on rainfall for this year and April was wetter than usual. Now it’s May, and it’s still raining. Last week, we had more than 5.5 inches of rain at our house. The forecast for the coming week includes another 3-4 days of rain (depending on whose forecast you look at). Squish!

All that rain meant the water level in the pool got too high.

Ted is measuring for me. The water is only 1.5 inches below the top of the liner.
Here’s Ted, getting the hose connected to drain some water from the pool.
That’s better. The skimmer is exposed again and can get back to work cleaning the surface of the water.

We’re ready for the next batch of rain that will hopefully produce a more moderate amount of precipitation. At least in the Midwest, we don’t have a water shortage.

Six days ago, Ted’s sister, Mutzie, fell as she was entering her house after attending a luncheon for the city library volunteers. Her neighbor saw her lying unconscious on the patio and called 911.

Mutzie broke all the facial bones on the right side of her head and had a blood clot on her brain. The doctors said the blood clot was in the speech area of her brain, and it was unlikely that Mutzie would ever speak or understand speech again. Surgery was too dangerous in her condition, and her face was not grotesquely mutilated by the broken bones, so the doctors decided to let her heal on her own. A breathing tube was inserted, and she was admitted to the ICU. She was given nothing more than Tylenol for her pain, because the doctors wanted her to wake up, and pain killers would sedate her.

After three days of being unconscious, Mutzie’s liver began to fail, so the breathing tube was removed according to her wishes as expressed in her advanced medical directive. She was moved to the comfort care floor of the hospital for end-of-life care, the liquids that were nourishing her were discontinued, and she was given morphine to keep her comfortable. The family was told she would probably live only one or two more days.

Today, the sixth day after she fell and three days after being admitted to the comfort care floor, Mutzie woke up. Two of her church friends were in her room at the time. She greeted them, asked what time it was, looked at the clock, and said, “Oh, it’s 1:20.” When the family arrived at the hospital, she recognized all of them. She is cognizant and remembers falling, knows she is in the hospital, and is able to sit in the chair in her room. The medical staff reinstated IV liquids and is assessing her ability to swallow. If she can swallow, they will give her solid food. The new prognosis is that she will need some rehabilitation and will then be able to go home.

Miracles happen.

Ted and Mutzie, Oct. 2016

Last week, Dean, my favorite son-in-law, asked me if I had time for him to treat me to a birthday lunch. Talk about irony! Dean is the one who teases me about having a “birthday season,” and now he’s contributing to the concept! Of course I said “yes,” and we agreed to meet at Pizza Hut. We had a good lunch and a great time together. Since it’s nearly his birthday (May 3), I suggested that he have a birthday season as well, and that I treat him to lunch in a few weeks. I can see this as a twice-a-year opportunity for the two of us to spend some enjoyable one-on-one time with each other.

I still have one more birthday celebration coming this year. Kari gave me a gift certificate for a birthday lunch, so when she finishes the SCC semester, we’ll have to schedule that. I’m having a good run and lots of good times in my 2019 birthday season.

Here’s the site of my good time with Dean last week.

I had an appointment with my oncologist this morning to get the results of last week’s CT scan. He told me there has been no change in the two small “suspicious” areas since my October 2018 scan six months ago. What a relief! I have a number of benign cysts scattered around my body, and I’m beginning to believe these two areas are simply previously undetected benign cysts. I have two more CT scans in my future–August and November– before the one-year anniversary of my surgery, but I think that six months without change allows me to say, with some degree of confidence, that I had cancer.

Ted and I went out to lunch to celebrate after my oncology appointment, and then we met with our travel agent to finalize some details of our upcoming July and December overseas trips. The travel agent has a calendar on her desk that perfectly described my day.

Remember those down-filled swimsuits I saw in an Eddie Bauer ad? One of my select readers (Thom) tactfully mentioned to me that, in recent years, a lot of companies publish spoof ads on April 1, just for the fun of it. Duh! I’m so literal-minded, I didn’t even think about what day it was when I saw that ad!

How do you spell gullible?

April 14 was the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. I saw a series of photos of the event and, although the pictures were interesting, I was amazed at the number of errors I saw in the captions. This was one of the most obvious ones.

The second sentence has one subject and two verb clauses. The subject of the sentence is “RMS Carpathia” and the verbs are “transported” and “were met.” The RMS Carpathia “were met”???? No, it “was met.” Aaarrrggghh! I’m hoping the error was the fault of Wikimedia and not the Library of Congress.

It’s spring, so it’s thunderstorm season in the Midwest. USA Today had a video of unusual upside-down lightning. It actually grows upward instead of striking downward. Wow! I wish I had seen that!

For my birthday, Kathy and Annette gave me a jar of Cherry Man jumbo maraschino cherries. They are available at the Hy-Vee grocery store in Kirksville and are the biggest cherries I’ve ever seen. I measured one and it was a little more than an inch in diameter, so only 14 cherries fit in this 12-ounce jar.

Around the lid, the directions tell me to: (1) Open jar; (2) Remove one cherry; (3) Put in Mouth; (4) Chew (yum!); and (5) Repeat. Ted and I did.

Given the number of beautiful redbud trees in full bloom this week, I’ve concluded that nearly everyone in the St. Louis area planted at least one redbud tree in their yard. (We used to have three, but two died.)

I’ve always been fascinated by a certain redbud tree up the street from us. In all the years we’ve lived here, it continues to thrive in its own style. Most redbud trees have a “normal” tree shape with an upright trunk and spreading branches, but not this one. Today, I officially designated this nonconformist tree as the winner of my “Most Interesting Redbud Tree” award. (There is no cash prize.)

Ever since Sputnik was launched, I’ve been interested in space, and I wish I either: (1) had enough money to buy a ticket now for the first flight to the moon; or (2) would live long enough to be able to afford a ticket to the moon. Meanwhile, I get excited about photos from deep space, the latest of which was the first photo of a black hole.

That’s awesome! Literally awe-some. On a lighter note, here’s another depiction of a black hole.

Ted and I went to lunch at St. Louis Bread Co. this week. A number of years ago, when we were in the Seattle area visiting Thom, Ted and I went to lunch at Panera Bread while Thom was at work, and we remarked on how similar to St. Louis Bread Co. it was. A little research at the time taught me that Panera Bread bought St. Louis Bread Co., which explained the similarity. The original company, founded in Kirkwood, MO (a western suburb of St. Louis) continues to operate over 100 sites in the St. Louis area under its original name of St. Louis Bread Co.

In the St. Louis area, we call it “BreadCo.”