I love to see all the blooming trees in the spring. It makes every road I drive a pretty sight. It also makes our yard beautiful.

We have another magnolia like this beside the driveway. They bloom beautifully, but they’re as eager for spring as I am and usually get hit by one more frost. Thank goodness, this year was an exception, so we could enjoy the blooms longer.
The sand cherry bushes around the pool fence are in full bloom now.
This is our redbud tree in bloom and two of three of a different variety of magnolias in our back yard that are just beginning to bloom.
The front yard magnolia and this cherry tree are my favorites.

Spring. It’s my favorite season, and I’m loving it!

I went out to lunch with my group of retired SCC friends today and enjoyed more birthday wishes at a new restaurant across the street from the college: the Mellow Mushroom (pizza). It was pretty good, and I would definitely go back.

The redbuds, dogwoods, and Bradford pear trees are all blooming now, so Ted and I planned to have my birthday dinner at Bentley’s tomorrow. When I got home from lunch, Ted mentioned that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but the weather and the blooming trees were perfect for a drive to Bentley’s at the Lake of the Ozarks today. We’re retired, so we changed our plans. Ted filled the car with gas and we set out on the 2.5-hour drive.

We had a beautiful drive and a delicious dinner, with a surprising conversational thread. When the waitress brought our entrées, she asked if we wanted extra butter for the baked potatoes. We said “yes” and I was remarking to Ted how much I enjoy lots of butter on a hot, baked potato when I overheard a man at the table on our right ask for more butter. The waitress’s response was, “You can never have too much butter.” Within moments, the people at the table on our left also asked for more butter. The man told the waitress to “just bring the cow.”

As Julie says in the movie Julie and Julia, “Is there anything better than butter?”

I think I’m almost finished celebrating my 2019 birthday.

While the girls were here, someone looked at the kitchen floor and said, “Is that a puzzle piece?” It was! It was the missing piece from the tiny puzzle I put together about a week ago. Ted and I swept and scrubbed the kitchen floor just a few days ago and didn’t see a puzzle piece. My best guess is that it was stuck between the seat cushion and the chair frame and finally worked its way out.

It took sharp eyes to see this one-quarter-inch puzzle piece. If you didn’t know it was there, you might not even notice it in this picture.

Kathy and Annette came for a Saturday-Sunday weekend to celebrate Kathy’s (April 26) and my (March 20) birthdays together. Of course, Kari’s family joined us. (That’s what’s so great about having at least one of our children living nearby.) Thanks to all the outdoor work Ted and I did last week, we thoroughly enjoyed the near-80-degree temperatures.

The weather was beautiful for sitting on the patio in the afternoons.
Teddy killed time between his turns to play by making T’s with his Settlers game pieces.
We had dinner at Red Robin, where Kari and I shared a margarita.
After dinner, we sat around the firebowl, enjoying the warm weather, the clean pool, the clean concrete, the freshly-washed yard lights, and the party lights. We enjoyed the fire too.
Then it was time for cake–one for each of us. Dylan, the candlemeister, got things ready. He gave us one candle per decade of our ages.
Two birthday girls. At this point, neither Kathy nor I knew what was going to happen next. Read on.
In spite of doing our best, after two tries, I only blew out four candles, and Kathy’s score was still zero.
After four tries, all seven of my candles are out, but none of Kathy’s is. Are these trick candles, or what?
Finally! It’s time to cut the cakes.
There were birthday gifts for Kathy . . . (Check out the cute photo-bomber in the background.)
. . . and birthday gifts for me too.
Kari and the boys spent the night at our house. The boys were assigned to the three convertible beds in the basement. I threw all the pillows from those beds onto the futon. Teddy thought it might be fun to sleep under the pillows instead of in his sleeping bag.
After more outdoor time Sunday afternoon and dinner Sunday evening, Ted and I were alone again. Our time with the girls’ families went by too fast! About an hour after Kathy and Annette left, we had a light sprinkle of rain and a beautiful rainbow to end our co-birthday weekend. Perfect!

I saw an Eddie Bauer ad for thermal swimsuits. Ted and I don’t swim in our pool after early or mid-October (depending on the weather) because, even with heated water, the air is really chilly when we leave the water. I don’t think an insulated swimsuit will help my exposed skin, so I’m pretty sure I won’t be one of the delighted swimsuit buyers who must get into that alpine lake for an icy polar plunge.

This has been a busy week for Ted and me. We’ve been working hard to welcome spring to our yard.

Monday

We went to our Pilates class this morning to get some exercise. In retrospect, we’d have had plenty of exercise without the class today. The pool crew is coming tomorrow to open our pool for the season, so we needed to take off the cover, clean it, and pack it away until the crew puts it back on in the fall.

We tried something new with our pool last fall. We had a different pool crew last spring and, when they saw all the algae in our pool, they told us algae doesn’t grow in water colder than 60 degrees. (Why didn’t anybody tell us that ten years ago when we installed the pool?!) To test this theory, we waited an extra month to close the pool last fall, and are opening it a month earlier than usual this spring so that the water temperature was below 60 degrees all the while it was covered.

This is what the pool water looked like last year—and every other year—when we opened it. It usually took us 5-6 days to get it cleaned up for swimming.
This is how the pool water looked when we removed the cover this week. The pool crew told us sunlight filtering through the pool cover stimulated this minor algae growth.

With the cover off the pool, it was time for me to fire up the pressure washer to clean the winter dirt off our concrete. Bad news. Our two-year-old power washer leaked water out of every orifice–even where it didn’t look like there should be water. The only place it didn’t send water was through the hose, so we diagnosed a faulty pump–which we already replaced once under the warranty. We’ve had nothing but problems every time we tried to use this power washer, so we threw up our hands, then got in the car and bought a new one–a different brand.

We got the new power washer set up and then I finally got to work in the driveway. That was our first priority because we needed a large, clean surface to spread out the pool cover for cleaning.

I power wash the winter dirt off the driveway. Then Ted and I spread out the pool cover, wash one side, let it dry, flip it, wash the other side, let it dry, and pack it up. It’s heavy enough and awkward enough to require two people to handle it.

Since the pool guys are coming tomorrow, the pool deck was next on my power washing list.

Here I am, working hard while the pool cover is drying.
It’s easy to see where I’ve cleaned and where I need to clean.
At least you can tell I’m making a difference.

While I was busy doing all of the above, Ted took my car to the dealership for my airbag replacement. When he got home, he kept the power washer filled with gas for me, hung the party lights and the wind chimes over the patio, hand-washed every one of our two dozen solar lights, replaced the two dozen batteries in the lights, and re-set them around the pool and the patio. By then it was 7:00 p.m. and we were hungry.

Squeet! (Wisconsinese for “Let’s go eat.”)

Tuesday

Today I finished power washing the rest of our concrete while Ted took the spring things out of the storage shed, cleaned the inside and outside of the shed, and made room for the winter things. When he had all the lawn furniture on my newly-washed patio, we worked together to wash off the furniture and put it in place.

It’s beginning to look and feel like spring in our back yard.

After I was finished spattering dirty water over everything, Ted wiped down the pool fence and put the winter things in the storage shed. We finished just in time to sit poolside in the clean lawn chairs on the clean pool deck for about 15 minutes before the 7:38 p.m. sunset.

The pool, outdoor lights, and furniture are ready for the weekend.

Wednesday

You’d think we retired people worked enough this week to get a day off, but it’s going to rain tomorrow, so that didn’t happen.

Ted’s list of jobs today included mowing the lawn, washing the back windows that got spattered by my power washing yesterday, planting grass seed in the bare spots to catch tomorrow’s rain, replacing the storm doors with the screen doors, and cleaning up the fireplace.

Ted is finished mowing.

The pool guys swept the pool yesterday to loosen the algae so the pump could remove it. My job today was to vacuum the debris that settled on the pool floor. After that, I swept the pool once more to loosen the remaining bits of stubborn algae so they will get pumped out. I’ll have to vacuum again tomorrow to pick up the remaining minor debris.

One more vacuuming tomorrow should finish cleaning the pool. That will be only two days’ work instead of the usual 5-7 days to get it clean. We’ll stick with our new system of covering and opening the pool in cooler weather.

My other jobs today were to trim back the roses (we should have done that in February), to take the flannel sheets off our bed, and to make a batch of Scotcheroos for the weekend. We finished early today: 6:00 p.m.

Yes, it’s beginning to look like spring in our yard.

Thursday

It rained all day today, so we didn’t get the pool vacuumed. Instead, we vacuumed in the house. Kathy and Annette are coming this weekend to celebrate Kathy’s (April 26) and my (March 20) birthdays. Kari’s family will join us.

It was a good day to clean and do laundry, since we couldn’t work outside anyway. There was a lot of cleaning and a lot of laundry to do, so it wasn’t a day off, but it was less physically demanding than the last three days have been.

Tomorrow, Ted is going to vacuum the pool while I make birthday cakes–funfetti angel food cake for Kathy; Vienna Torte (again! whoopee!) for me. After that, I think Ted and I get a break–just in time for weekend fun with the girls and their families.

Friday

All finished.

The pool is vacuumed and the birthday cakes are ready to eat.

Tomorrow: Party time!

On “The Late Show, ” Steven Colbert reported that an Italian firm has designed stand-up airplane seats.

Colbert pointed out that, if you’re standing up, it’s not a seat.

He added that the only remaining way to cram more people on an airplane would be to put everyone in a pile. Do you think first class would be on the top, or would they get on first, like they do now?

The good thing about the pile? No seat belts needed.

As I was scrolling through the pictures in my camera, I came to this one and couldn’t figure out what it was.

It finally occurred to me: While I was working outside yesterday, I was wearing my red jacket and I had my phone in my jacket pocket. This is literally a “pocket photo.”

In June 2014, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA–pronounced “NIT-sah” according to Google), issued a recall of Takata airbags that were installed by 19 different automakers, including Lexus. The airbags exploded spontaneously, resulting in injury or death to the drivers and/or passengers in the vehicles. In fact, owners of the affected vehicles were warned not to drive their cars at all unless they were on their way to the dealer for a replacement airbag. For owners who were afraid to drive their cars, dealers offered car pick-up service.

The recall is currently estimated to affect more than 41.6 million vehicles–including mine–and is the largest recall in U.S. history. Naturally, there weren’t enough replacement parts for all the cars that needed new airbags, so cars were prioritized by risk factors. The greatest risk of explosion seems to result from humidity, high temperatures, and age of the vehicle. My turn for an airbag replacement came this spring–almost five years after the original recall–so I guess my risk level was low.

Ted took my car to the dealer and came home with a 2019 Lexus RX 350 as a loaner. Wow! No wonder there are so many of those on the road! It was unbelievably smooth to drive and had an even smoother ride. Just to tease Ted about his car, I told him it made my current Lexus feel like a Honda. My car is a sporty model–the IS-C, which stands for Intelligent Sport-Convertible. It has a “sporty” ride, which lets me “feel the road” a little more. Translation: It’s not as smooth as the Lexus RX crossover or the Lexus sedans. (But even so, Ted admits that it rides much smoother than his Honda.)

It was a dream to drive the RX for 48 hours, but it’s too big for me. I’ve got my eye on a Lexus RC (Racing Coupe) when I get tired of my IS-C. The problem: I looked at one in the showroom when I picked up my car today, and the base price was $64K. The one on display had lots of extras and hit $84K. I better start saving my pennies.

The RX-350 is almost exactly the size of Ted’s Honda CR-V.
Two cars this size really filled the garage. I’m going to stick with driving something smaller.

What can one do on a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon? When I was cleaning out our game closet, I found “the world’s smallest jigsaw puzzle” (read the box). I decided this was a good day to solve the puzzle. The pastel Easter m&ms Kari gave me for my birthday provide a scale model for the size of the puzzle pieces. The tweezer was included with the puzzle. The box says there are 234 pieces that form a 4″ x 6″ finished picture. Thank goodness it didn’t have 12,000 tiny pieces as described on the prank puzzle box we gave La for Christmas!

Four hours later, there were still 5 m&ms, but I discovered there were only 233 pieces in the box. I must have lost one (second row from the top, right center) the last time I put the puzzle together.

My cousin circulated a photo of the Prange’s store in Sheboygan as it looked “back in the day.” Judging by the cars, this is probably in the 1940s. Everyone from the Sheboygan area remembers Prange’s. It was the largest downtown store and a meeting place to hang out–“I’ll meet you at Prange’s corner.” All those display windows were unveiled on Thanksgiving Day, revealing animated Christmas scenarios featuring carolers, Christmas toys, and a Santa Claus display. It was a tradition to go downtown after Thanksgiving dinner to join the crowd looking at Prange’s windows.

My mom often took me to Prange’s as part of a Friday girls’ night out, leaving my dad at home with my brothers. Mom and I would have supper (that’s the evening meal in Wisconsin-speak) at Prange’s and then we’d shop at Prange’s and at other downtown stores. Those were special evenings that I still treasure. (Name-dropping note: Mom went to high school with the Prange and the Kohler kids. I only knew those names as corporate entities.)

While I’m reminiscing, . . . When we were in Hawai’i, Ted and I saw a photo of Honolulu before it became the hub of activity it is today. Our resort was on Waikiki Beach–the curved shoreline in the foreground of the picture. The beachside walk Ted and I took started beyond the hotel where the beach juts out in the center of the photo, and went deeper into the foreground of the photo. Ahhh, back in the day . . .

My birthday party continues. On March 21, one of my friends took me out to lunch at the Walnut Grill. To help us digest our food, she treated us to a one-hour reflexology session. OMG! We felt so-o-o-o good afterward, that we kept telling each other how good we felt.

On Sunday, March 24, Kari’s family joined Ted and me for a family birthday dinner. Naturally, it featured my favorite birthday cake–Vienna Torte–for which I discovered the bakers’ secret last spring.

I gave Dylan a box of candles and told him to go crazy putting them on the cake. He went for seven candles at full height and one candle at 0.2 height. Result: 7.2 decades. Einstein has nothing on Dylan’s math!

You might be able to tell that the candle flames match the colors of the individual candles. (It was a little easier to see in person.) I didn’t get the candles blown out in a single try, but I made a really good wish, so I hope it comes true anyway.

Kari’s family gave me a bag of Easter pastel m&ms (my favorite m&ms), a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers, and a gift certificate for a mom-daughter lunch with Kari. (It’s behind the photo of tulips.) Awesome!

On Thursday, March 28, I went out with two of my former college staff members, Jeanette and Gail, and they treated me to lunch. We went to Lewis & Clark’s restaurant in Historic St. Charles and had a wonderful time together.

It’s only March 30 today, so the celebration isn’t over yet. Stay tuned for birthday season update(s).

After Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was submitted, Steven Colbert brought his audience up to date. Here’s Steven’s list of reasons why . . . well, you can read it.

Thanks to Mueller, one reason can be erased.

On the other side of the whiteboard, Steven listed the ongoing investigations of President Trump, . . .

. . . and one of those can be erased as well. Only 16 to go.

As usual, I had a great birthday on the first day of spring. My tulips from Ted are opening nicely, and I’m looking forward to the other three bulbs in the pot blooming soon.

At our Pilates class, the group sang “Happy Birthday” to me. I asked how they knew it was my birthday and the answer was “Facebook.” Even though I’m not active on Facebook, I guess my birthday notification still went out to my FB friends. After class, Ted and I went out to lunch and followed that with a little shopping. I bought myself a birthday present.

For at least two years, when family members asked me for gift ideas, I’ve told them I’d like new speakers for my desktop computer. Mine are so old (25 years?), the rubber on the control dials has deteriorated and become sticky and gummy. Well, that’s not a problem any more.

My new speakers–smaller in size than the old ones and with plastic controls that probably won’t deteriorate for a zillion years.

Next, Ted took me out for dinner tonight. Check the etching on the glasses to see if you can guess which restaurant we picked.

Answer: Maggiano’s Little Italy. Is that what you guessed?

We saw Maggiano’s about six months ago and have been meaning to eat there ever since. We shouldn’t have waited. We had a hard time deciding what to order, even after we narrowed our choices down to four items. Everything was absolutely delicious, and now we can’t wait to go back to try something else from the menu.

Because it was my birthday, the waitress brought us a complimentary dessert–complete with candles.


On our way home from Maggiano’s, the clouds cleared enough for us to see the last supermoon of 2019. Throughout the day, I’ve had cards, texts, emails, and phone calls from family and friends, wishing me a happy birthday. It was a perfect day, as usual, so it’s no wonder I always enjoy my birthday–and the beginning of spring.

Below are two words and their definitions.

Which of the two words do you think the reporter should have used in the following paragraph about the current flooding in the upper Midwest?

It’s St. Patrick’s Day today, so Ted brought me something green. I enjoy his tradition of bringing me a blooming spring plant just before spring actually arrives. It helps me believe that winter is really nearly over.

The official kick-off date for my birthday season this year was Tuesday, March 12. I had a birthday coupon for a free entrée at First Watch, so Ted and I went out to lunch.

I also had a $20 birthday discount coupon for another restaurant, so we went out to dinner this evening. Check the logo etched on the glasses to see if you can name the restaurant.

Answer: Weber Grill. (Groan if you feel you must.)

. . . it’s off to work I go.

Thom and Katie are working hard to launch their new business in the coming weeks. Thom knows I’m good at grammar, so he sent a few things to me and asked me to look them over. I did so, made a few minor comments (I also made sure my children knew good grammar), and offered to review/edit anything he needed checked in the future.

I worked as a writer-editor at the Bureau of the Census when Ted and I were first married and lived in Washington, D.C. My job was to compile the material, compose the text, and prepare the quarterly BoC catalog for print. We did not have personal computers at that time (1970), so all copy had to be typed perfectly, and printer’s marks for every single thing involved in the typesetting (yes, actual setting of type) had to be included for the printer.

Before meeting with the printer, two other writer-editors and I proofread the material together, taking turns reading it aloud. That experience showed me how valuable it is to have someone else’s eyes review your work–especially if that person is unfamiliar with the content. No matter how careful we are, when we read our own writing, we see what we expect to see and we often miss minor errors; when someone else reads it, the chance of catching those errors increases greatly. My intent was to offer a secondary reader’s eyes to Thom and Katie.

Thom told me he’d appreciate it if I would do that, and while we were all at Jeff’s house in February, Thom mentioned to Jeff that he has his first volunteer employee. Jeff didn’t expect to hear that it was me. I had an email from Thom a few days ago with my first official assignment.

My new job has flexible hours (as needed), a nice work environment (home), and good bosses (Thom and Katie). This is so exciting!

My brother Steve sent this so I’ll know what’s going on in the world tonight.

Today was our last day in Hawai’i. We’ve had such a good time and are feeling so relaxed that we hate to leave. At the same time, it will be good to be home again.

The day started with some leftover scattered light showers from last night, which cleared by lunchtime. As usual, we ate lunch at an outdoor restaurant. When the skies clouded over again, we decided it was a good time to print our boarding passes and pack our suitcases so we could go back outside when the sunshine returned. That was a good plan, and it gave us time to spend nearly two hours at our hotel pool. It was another relaxing afternoon.

The resort torch lighters run (yes, run) around the resort about half an hour before sunset, lighting the tiki torches that line the walkways. While we were sitting along a walkway waiting for the torch lighter, I was admiring how beautiful it is here–at the resort and in Hawai’i.

The foliage is beautiful everywhere we look.
The fountains, the palm trees, and the sunlight on some outdoor table umbrellas provided another pretty sight.
The torch lighter was right on time. I took this picture of him lighting one of the tiki torches.
He literally ran on to light the series of torches down the walkway.

After the torch lighting, it was time to return to our balcony to view our final sunset on this perfect vacation.

The sailboats were gathered for the nightly viewing and the cloud bank was above the horizon for a change.

Ted and I enjoyed our Saturday evening dinner at the Bali Restaurant so much, we decided to go there again for our final meal in Hawai’i.

The restaurant advertises its “oceanfront dining,” and this was the ocean view from our table. Our waiter told us we had the best table in the house, and I’m sure we did. What a gorgeous dinner setting!

Our airport pick-up time is 5:25 a.m. tomorrow. Our flight to LAX boards at 7:18 a.m. and we’re scheduled to arrive at STL at 10:36 p.m. local time. It’s been a wonderful week, and we’re looking forward to our next visit to Hawai’i. Next time, we’re going to Maui, because we’ve been told we’re “Maui people.” Aloha, Hawai’i.

As usual, Ted and I chose an outdoor restaurant (not hard to find) for lunch today.

I wish the weather in St. Louis was always this pleasant for outdoor eating.

After lunch, we decided to take a walk on the sidewalk that runs for several miles along the oceanfront. We saw some interesting sights.

This is the sidewalk–right along the beach.
The rules are different at the beach. At this Dairy Queen, it’s “No shoes, no shirt, service.”
It’s a surf-mobile! You can carry one more if you put it underneath the chassis.
On our walk, we learned that the people we see bobbing on the sand bar are taking surfing lessons. The lesson is over and these surfers are heading back to shore.
We had a beautiful view of Diamondhead. It doesn’t look that far away, but it’s about three miles from here to there.
Even getting change at the ABC Store was fun.
When we returned to our room, it was time to sit around the pool for awhile. I took this picture of Ted from our balcony.
We had intermittent rain showers for several hours, so there wasn't any visible sunset to watch today.

We had intermittent rain showers for several hours, so there wasn’t any visible sunset to watch today.

After dinner, Ted and I decided to sit at the outdoor Tapa Bar, listen to the live music, and enjoy some mai tais. Thanks to the rain showers, there was a cool wind and the temperature dropped to 66 degrees,* so we didn’t stay long, but it was fun for a little while and the mai tais were delicious–lots of pineapple, lime, and orange flavor, with some rum for fun. Oh yes, the music was good too.

*On our way to the resort from the airport, our cab driver told us that when the temperature goes below 70 degrees, he starts looking for his boots. I hope he found them today.

Tonight we went to the resort’s Starlight Luau. The event was on a rooftop, but it was cloudy and not starlit. There was no refund for that, however, so the show went on.

Here we are, ready to luau.
The buffet had many local Hawai’ian selections and everthing was delicious. This time, Ted was brave enough to try the purple poi dinner rolls.
The master of ceremonies gave us directions for the buffet procedures, introduced the performers, and even sang. I kept thinking of Don Ho, although Don was much better.

A rectangular piece of cloth about one yard wide and two yards long can be wrapped and knotted in a variety of ways to create at least eight different garments for men and women that range from swimsuits to semi-formal wear (in the tropics, not in New York City). The models showed us the results of the various wrapping and knotting techniques. Amazingly, the cloth rectangles are for sale in the resort shops.

The performers showed us dances from each of the six Polynesian nations: Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji, and Hawai’i. The colors of their clothing indicate which country they represent, but I can never remember which is which. The first picture below is Hawai’i. I remember that because “Don Ho” told us the hula is found only in Hawai’i and the women’s skirts are not made of grass; they’re made of tapa leaves.

The highlight of the luau was definitely the fire dancers. Before performing, they hung protective netting around the stage to prevent audience injuries in case one of the fire swords went astray. Ted and I have seen fire dancers before, but this was the first time we saw a pyramid-type dance formation.

We had a very enjoyable evening. The food was good, and the performance was fun. On our way back to our room, we had an added bonus.

We came upon an open garage door with a large figure inside the storage area.
Apparently, there are times the resort needs a huge sumo wrestler figure as a prop.

In Hawai’i, the fun never ends.

Today, Ted and I went to the top of Diamondhead. This is the most popular hiking trail in the state of Hawai’i. It’s 0.8 miles one way and rises 560 feet in elevation, beginning on a paved state park sidewalk, but quickly giving way to a worn, lava rock trail and stairs.


We’re heading for the high point in the center of this photo. If you zoom your screen, you’ll discover blurry objects that resemble people at the top.
Here’s Ted on our way up. You can see people and the cut trail above him.
This is a good view of the Diamondhead crater. Before it started raining in the distance, we could see Molokai in the upper right.
This is what we walked on most of the way.
We paused for a moment to enjoy the views before making the final push to join the crowd at the top.
Just in case we didn’t notice that there’s nowhere higher to go but into the sky, the sign tells us we’re at the end of the trail.
Here’s Honolulu from the peak of Diamondhead. The arrow on the left points to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. The arrow on the right points to our hotel tower (one of eight) at our resort.
The views from the top are magnificent.
I think I can see New Zealand on the horizon. We’ll be there next December.
The hike up wasn’t bad, but going down was easier.
We enjoyed every minute of our time on Diamondhead this morning.

What did we do today in Hawai’i? Actually, not much of anything, and it was wonderful!

As we have every morning of our visit, Ted and I sat on our balcony sipping hot chocolate and coffee and admiring the view. We both enjoy the way the ocean’s color changes with the distance from shore and the depth of the water.

Just above the trees, you can see a brownish tinge in the water. There’s a good-sized sandbar out there and a lot of people stand on it and bob up and down with the waves.

After awhile, we got hungry and went to lunch. While we were eating, the restaurant manager came over to our table to tell us he could not only see, but “feel” that Ted and I were very much “in sync” with each other and that it was a “beautiful thing.” He also told us that the next time we come to Hawai’i, we should spend our time on Maui because we are “definitely Maui people”–whatever that means. Obviously, we are so relaxed, it shows.

After lunch, we spent a big chunk of the afternoon in our bathing suits on the beach and in the ocean water. I didn’t want to leave my camera/phone unattended onshore while we were in the water, so I don’t have any pictures of this. (No great loss for my readers.)

Then it was time to watch the sun set. It’s weird, but the sky has some cumulus clouds overhead most of the day with a clear horizon. Every day, however, as sunset approaches, a cloud bank appears on the western horizon and partially obscures the setting sun just before it drops behind the ocean. It happened again today.

Except for the clouds on the horizon, the sky was perfectly clear.

We had dinner reservations at the resort’s four-star restaurant, which had a dress code of “beach casual.” The sign asks for no swimwear, shorts, tank tops, or flip-flops, with collared shirts and closed-toe shoes preferred. We learned on our last visit to Hawai’i that an aloha shirt is considered dressy and an aloha shirt with a lei counts as formal, so Ted wore one of his aloha shirts. I wore casual pants (not jeans) and a nice top, but I only brought sandals for shoes, so I wore open-toed shoes and was admitted without any comment from the hostess. The man at the table beside ours was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, but I think he was the only one to seriously test the guidelines. The food and service were outstanding and we ranked them as the second-best we’ve ever had. (The best was in Taos, NM on our Fall 2017 trip to the Southwest.)

Here’s Ted and the view from our window table. It’s an open-air restaurant (of course!) so there is no outside wall–only a very nice ocean view and a soft, warm breeze every now and then.

And that was it for today–lunch, beach time, and dinner. Yes, we’re really relaxed.

Ted and I have reached a state of complete relaxation, and it feels wonderful. With no specific daily plans and no “at home” tasks to do, we’re just enjoying ourselves moment by moment. Today we took a walk in the downtown area, discovered we can watch the sunset from our balcony, went to the resort’s Friday night fireworks show, and finished the day with some ice cream.

We saw this mural while we were walking this afternoon.
Here’s today’s sunset as seen from our balcony.

The resort has a ten-minute fireworks show on Waikiki Beach every Friday evening, beginning at 7:45 p.m. I’m positive they shot off an hour’s worth of fireworks during those ten minutes–the bangs were less than a second apart and the sky was ablaze with color for the entire show. The crowd was huge. Ted and I aren’t official crowd estimators, but we’re certain there were more than a thousand people sitting on the beach for the show, and that’s not counting those who watched from their hotel balconies.

The crowd is gathering for the fireworks show.

After the show, the restaurants had a second rush. (The first rush was just after the 6:36 p.m. sunset.) It was a beautiful night to eat outdoors. As usual.


When the fireworks crowd left the beach, several young men arrived and played with fire.

Ted and I went out for ice cream. This girl is making the waffle cones and bowls. She just rolled the waffle cone on the countertop and is reaching for a paper holder for it. These are fresh waffle cones!

We found some chairs and enjoyed the tropical evening air while we ate our ice cream. It was another relaxing day, and I’m looking forward to more of the same tomorrow.

After only a few hours of sleep, Ted and I were up again before sunrise yesterday. (I can’t believe I did that two days out of three!) We were at the airport by 5:30 a.m., ready to fly to Hawai’i.

We had a four-hour flight to Phoenix, a two-hour layover, then a seven-hour flight to Honolulu. The flights were both on time and uneventful, unlike our Hawai’ian trip last year. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. Honolulu time (8:30 p.m. St. Louis time) and were able to enjoy walking around the resort for a little while in the daylight, then eat dinner outside before going to our room and nearly falling into bed. We were fine all day, unless we stopped moving–then we realized how tired we were.

After a long night of sleep, we had a wonderful time today and spent most of it outside in the mid-70s sunny weather. In contrast, Kari texted us that her kids had a snow day today. I bet they had as much fun as we did–with different weather.

We always like to learn things about the places we visit, so we usually plan what we’re going to do each day. This time, however, relaxing sounded so good, we didn’t plan anything except to do whatever we feel like doing. Today we felt like spending some of the morning on our balcony, sipping coffee (Ted) and hot chocolate (me), looking at the Pacific Ocean, and relaxing until we were hungry for lunch.

This is the view from our balcony. We stayed in the Rainbow Tower (left) last January. It’s nice to have a view of the rainbow mosaic this time.
We ate lunch outside to enjoy the weather.

After lunch, we decided to explore (i.e., compare) the resort across the street from ours. (We like ours more.) After that, we walked to the Ana Moana shopping mall, less than a mile away. We had no shopping to do, but it gave us a destination. It’s the largest mall in the state of Hawai’i, with over 300 stores on three levels and an unusual range of shopping choices–everything from Target and Old Navy to Dior and Harry Winston (the real designer stores, not outlets). Surprisingly (to us), there was no food court. Later in the afternoon, we went to the beach.

Diamond head isn’t too far from our resort. We’ll be going to its top while we’re here.

We stayed at the beach to watch the sunset. The crowd of spectators begins to gather around 6:00, then dissipates after the sun goes down. There is no twilight in the tropics; after sunset, it’s dark within thirty minutes.

Sunsets over the ocean are beautiful.
After the beach crowd and the sunset crowd left, this beachcomber came out to hunt for buried treasure.
This is the pool and hot tub below our balcony. That’s a decorative design on the pool bottom, not a swimming serpent.

We had a very relaxing day and we’re loving the sunshine and warm weather. I’m so glad we’ll get to do it again tomorrow. It’s a tough job, but . . .

Ted and I were up early today and on our way home from Colorado before sunrise. It was a cold, sunny day.

The good thing about getting up early is watching the sun rise.
The snow-covered mountains west of I-25 were spectacular in the early-morning sunlight.
We saw hoarfrost during most of our drive through Colorado.
The trees at the eastern CO rest stop were decorated with hoarfrost.
The cold, snow-covered ground produced heavy fog for more than 50 miles in Kansas.
The high winds and heavy snow two days ago in Kansas gave us some beautiful scenery after the morning fog cleared.

It was a long day’s drive after a wonderful family visit. Tomorrow we’ll take the winter clothes out of our suitcases and replace them with our shorts. We’ll be leaving for Hawai’i–and a big change in climate–early the following morning.

Today, we all went to church to hear Kyra’s talk to the congregation about her mission experience. She did an excellent job. It was obvious that she is accustomed to talking to people (she admitted she wasn’t even nervous) and that she has matured a lot over the past 18 months.

Before getting involved in the rest of our day (lunch, games, conversation, a walk in the sunshine, etc.), I decided to take some family photos.

Ted and me.
Jeff’s family. L->R: La, Alex, Kyra, Zaque, and Jeff.
Thom and Julian.
Cousins. L->R: Julian, Alex, Kyra, and Zaque.

Today’s is La’s 50th birthday, which deserves something special, so Ted and I gave her a bouquet of flowers this morning.

The men of the family pampered the ladies for lunch. First, they cooked grilled cheese extraordinaire sandwiches for us. Thom, the family grilled cheese expert, was in charge of the griddle.

After dinner, the younger generation of men did the dishes.

Kurt and Megan, friends of Jeff and La, hosted a party at their house to celebrate La’s birthday and Kyra’s homecoming. Jeff, La, and Kyra left early for the party. The rest of us walked over a little later. I was escorted by this group of handsome men.

As the guests of honor, La and Kyra were presented with bouquets.

On our way home from the party, we saw some daffodils sprouting. It’s nearly spring!

Ted and I took the family out to dinner this evening to celebrate the four events of this week: Kyra’s homecoming and Julian’s, Jeff’s, and La’s birthdays. The Persons of Honor selected Outback as our destination. Here’s our family table.

Zaque has the ability to amuse himself in innumerable creative ways. While we waited for our food, one of the things he did was practice balancing his forks on his knife on his finger.

After dinner, Ted and I took some pictures. Here I am with my only granddaughter. It’s so nice to see her after her 18-month mission.

My grandsons are getting so tall! Sky isn’t here, but he’s taller than I am too! I’m starting to feel like a little shrimp with all these tall guys.

Finally, a picture of La’s and Kyra’s flowers with Thom and Julian at the piano (left).

Ted and I had a wonderful day with our family. I wish we all lived closer together so we could see each other more often, but maybe we are more appreciative of our time together this way. More good times are on the way tomorrow.

Ted and I are with Jeff’s family, as well as Thom and Julian for a few days. We’re celebrating Kyra’s homecoming from her mission (Feb. 20) and three birthdays: Julian (Feb. 16), Jeff (Feb. 18), and La (Feb. 23). Naturally, I had some computer questions to ask Jeff, one of which addressed the icon for my blog.

When I bookmark my blog, I get the gray icon in the lower left (above). Jeff’s blog, on the other hand, gets a flag (upper right, above). I asked how I could get a prettier icon than a gray square. Together, Jeff and I selected a “D” (lower right, above). Much better! Thank you, Jeff.

Ted and I have Sirius XM radio in our cars. As we were driving, we clicked on Channel 5–the “50s on 5” station where they play music from the 1950s. (Guess what they play on Channels 6, 7, and 8.) There are no commercials and no D.J.s on the 50s channel, but they do station IDs. This one said:

“With songs like these, . . .” (followed by one-line musical excerpts from Chances Are, Earth Angel, and I Love How You Love Me) “. . . it’s no wonder there was a baby boom.”

Happy Valentine’s Day.

This paragraph was in a story I was reading about a man with OCD. I guess he wanted to run away from all the stuff he’d collected.

Because it’s dangerously cold outside, Ted and I took our three-mile walk in the mall today. We walked through Penney’s to enter the mall and saw this awesome (?) cap that’s good for cold-weather walking.

Wow! Removable wireless headphones built into the cap!
I could be this happy if I had this cap, right? (I wasn’t even tempted to buy it.)

Last February, I posted this cartoon.

This year, we in the Midwest called it “Wednesday.” It was cold in St. Peters.

It was even colder at my brother Tom’s house in St. Charles, IL (west of Chicago).

From inside his house, where he said he was enjoying the furnace, Tom texted me this photo.

Anyone can throw a cup of boiling water into frigid air to watch it freeze instantly. This girl was more creative–she froze her hair.

All the local K-12 schools closed today because of the cold, but we’re Midwesterners, so Tom and JoEllen went to an appointment and Ted and I went to our morning Pilates class. The rest of the class was there too, so we all warmed up with a good workout. It’s practically summer!