Last week, Ted and I went out to lunch.  While we were eating, one of the waitresses went around the room and gave each woman a small box of candy.  Was the candy left over from Mother’s Day?  Of course it was, but every woman who received the little gift was smiling.

Three of our kids will be visiting us the last weekend in June, so I’ve been thinking about “family” over the past few days.  As a result, I’m also thinking about some things I’ve learned about families and relationships.

One of my perspectives of family came from a movie.  The two romantically involved main characters in My Big Fat Greek Wedding come from diametrically different family backgrounds.  At one point, the woman tells the man she is uncomfortable about her family and the way they behave.  The man responds by saying, “So your family’s weird.  Everybody’s family is weird.”  Hmmm.

I learned a way families get along from the TV series Everybody Loves Raymond.  Raymond’s mother is a stereotypical buttinski Mom.  (Wisconsin word for always putting her nose into everyone’s business.)  Mom does her usual interference routine at the wedding of her son, Robert, creating stress on the wedding day for several of the characters in the show, especially Robert.  In his role as the best man, Raymond makes a wedding toast to his brother and new sister-in-law.  In his toast, he refers to Mom’s actions of the day and mentions that “families edit.”  Family members know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and they “edit” the less than perfect moments of family life, focusing instead on the strengths of the family unit.

One of my most valuable insights into relationships came from my Grandma Lorenzen, and it applies to people in general, not only family units.  Grandma had a plaque above the stove in her kitchen that said:  “All are queer but me and thee, and sometimes me thinks even thee.”  (Note:  This was in the 1950s, when common usage of the word queer meant “odd.”)  I’ve always thought this was good to remember, and I guess Grandma thought so too.

I had a carpenter friend modify my old sewing cabinet for my new sewing machine and I was thrilled with the results.  Unfortunately, the first time I tried to use the sewing machine in the cabinet, I immediately realized I had forgotten that the power cords connect to the sewing machine below the cabinet surface.  I measured and checked and decided that it would not compromise the integrity of the cabinet to cut a hole in the vertical side of it.  If more room is needed, the top drawer could be cut down.  None of this would show with the sewing machine in place.  Dean said he thought he could do this for me.

Here’s Dean working on the inside pass-through for the power cords.

With the sewing machine in place, the power cords and switch are accessible through the top drawer space.

With some modification, the drawer slides right past the power cords.

Dean did such a good job, I decided it made the raw wood of the platform worthy of some stain and varnish.

The stained platform looks much nicer than raw wood.

The top drawer in action. I reach inside the drawer to turn on the power switch and everything works the way I want it to.

We needed new solar lights for the pool and patio area.  It’s hard to find solar lights brighter than 5 lumens (a pinprick of light), but we finally found some with 30 lumens and installed them.

Lights around the pool, . . .

. . . and more lights around the patio.

Jeff wondered which of these jackets looked better on him.   Ted found the same jackets.  What do you think, Jeff?  Does it help to see them on someone else?

Flamingos?

Geometrics?

Or maybe the whole shebang with the matching pants and tie as well.(Note:  There was only one flamingo jacket left for Ted to try.  I can’t wait to see the owners of the other flamingo jackets wearing them around town.)

Today, as Ted drove us through an underpass on I-70, I spotted a couple of State Patrol cars on the merging ramp to​ our right.  Since traffic slowed markedly at that point, I assumed there was an accident ahead and the officers were heading to the scene.

As Ted drove forward, I noticed those squad cars were part of a string:  there were actually ten squad cars and a State Patrol motorcycle lined up on the shoulder of the ramp!!  In addition, another official motorcycle was parked on the shoulder just ahead of the ramp after pulling a driver over, presumably for speeding.  Obviously, a sting operation was in progress as people started leaving town for the holiday weekend.

I think we can conclude that enforcement​ is up.

 

Dylan and Teddy were ready to open the 2017 swim season, so Kari brought them over for a swim.  Kari, Ted, and I thought it was a little too cool to get in the water.  Sitting in the sun felt better to us, but the two kids had a good time.

Go, boys, go!

I looked at the whiteboard on the refrigerator the other day and couldn’t believe who we needed to call.  My brothers’ names are Denny, Steve, Tom, and Russ.

A local TV channel is inviting viewers to “take a selfie with Steve,” the channel’s chief meteorologist.  The winning entry will receive $500 in free groceries from Schnuck’s, a local grocery chain.  Ted and I were shopping at Schnuck’s one day and saw Steve’s cutout, so I took a picture of my weather man with the TV weatherman.

Yesterday, I was looking for something and, while I was rummaging through my stuff, I found a Christmas card I bought for Ted and forgot about.  I decided that if I save it for next Christmas, I’ll probably forget about it again, so I added “at any other time of the year” to the “especially at Christmas” line and put the card out for Ted to discover.  Just before we went to bed, I noticed a card on my dresser.  It was a Christmas card from Ted with the added wish for a “Happy Mother’s Day.”  He said he’d bought the card about two years ago and kept forgetting about it.

One year, we bought each other identical cards for our anniversary.  When you’ve been married this long, do two minds become one?

 

Today we celebrated Dean’s birthday (May 3), Teddy’s birthday (May 15), and Kari’s birthday (May 19).  For good measure, we included Mother’s Day (today).  Teddy was allowed to choose the cake, so he asked me to make a pig cake for him, like last year.  We had presents, cake, and time to talk.  Life is good.

Dean got a new miter saw with laser alignment from Kari for his birthday.

Dean can use his new saw as he reconfigures the skate ramp he’s building.

Kari’s electric fry pan is missing a leg, has hot spots, and has a cord that arcs when it’s plugged in, so Ted and I gave her a new one for her birthday.

I made a pig nose and stuck it in Teddy’s gift bag.

Here are Teddy and Waffles with the quilt and pillow I made for them.

Naturally, Waffles had to try the pig nose too.

Teddy’s pig cake.  The pig looks mystified.  Maybe because I don’t draw very well and didn’t show his good side.

I hope Teddy wished for something wonderful.

If you’re a grandma and your grandson (Teddy) tells you he and his stuffed pig need a blanket for his birthday, what do you do?  Why, you make him and his pig a blanket!  I decided to make a simple quilt.

The last time I made a quilt, I bought two kits at a local craft store and made them for Tommy (at that time) and Kari to use for their naps.  The quilts turned out nicely, but required no imagination on my part–I just used the materials in the kits and followed the directions.

Tommy’s lion quilt.  I gave it to Katie as a baby shower gift for Sefton, along with some other baby items of Thom’s.

Kari’s quilt.  She took this picture and sent it to me as I  started working on Teddy’s quilt.This time, I was on my own, but how hard could a kid’s quilt be?  I bought some appropriate pig-patterned fabric, some backing, and some batting, then went home to attach two pieces of fabric to the batting and bind the edges.  I did not anticipate any enhancements–after all, it was for a nine-year-old and his stuffed pig!

Then I made the mistake of talking to the Quilting Queen, my sister-in-law, Mutzie.  She thought it would be nice to include a matching pillow.  Well, why not?  I had three throw pillows in the Goodwill box, so I rescued one.  Mutzie also thought an appliquéd pig cut out of the backing fabric and placed in the center of the top side would be cute.  I decided I might as well do the same on the pillow so it would look like a matched set.  Even better, I could use my sewing machine to add Teddy’s name to the quilt and Waffles’ name (the stuffed pig) to the pillow.

So far, I’ve altered one pillowcase with the new sewing machine I bought in December, so I still had to follow the instruction book to thread the needle, fill the bobbin and figure out how to use the touch screen to raise/lower the foot, select the stitch, the stitch length, and the tension and all the other stuff you have to do to sew.  (Sewing machines have come a long way in the last 50+ years.)  That slowed me down a lot in the beginning, but I can do it all without looking at the instruction book now!

When I estimated under ten hours to make this quilt, I obviously misjudged how long it would take to pin, baste, and sew so many things (appliqués, layers, binding).  Including the time it took to learn how to use my new sewing machine, I almost reached the forty-hour mark.

The project was fun.  The quilt turned out very well and I learned that my sewing machine is awesome.  I definitely made a good selection when I bought it.  Now I want to work on another project, just to use my sewing machine!

The Quilting Queen told me quilts should always be photographed vertically.  Pay no attention to the man behind the quilt.

Don’t all artists sign their work?  I had to try this feature of my sewing machine for the lettering on the quilt and on the pillow.

Late spring means it’s time for the school orchestras to show their families how much they’ve improved since the fall concert.  Last week, Ted and I were able to attend Dylan’s spring concert.  The music selections are always fun and the concerts last about 30-40 minutes (an important factor when sitting on bleachers).  The improvement is always noticeable and we are thankful we have the opportunity to hear our grandchildren perform.

6th grade orchestra (Dylan) on the left; 5th grade orchestra on the right.  The arrow points to Dylan.

Can you find Dylan, our sixth grade cellist?

The parent in the blue shirt is serious about his photos!

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch used the non-word sillily on the front page of its sports section last week.  It reminds me of the Parisian bus with the “slididing” top and the “screeninings” available at the Lions Club.  I think slididing and screeninings were probably typos, but I have a hunch this sportswriter thought he needed to change the adjective silly (the kind of hair extensions) to an adverb, even though it does not function as an adverb (how, where, when).  He changed the y to i and added -ly.  Well, at least he knows how to form adverbs, even if he doesn’t know how to use them.  Aaarrgghh!

The Foundry Art Center is located at the St. Charles riverfront, so after viewing Sky’s and Dylan’s artwork, Ted and I walked along the river to survey the flooding from the recent rains (11 inches at our house).  Flood stage for the Missouri River at St. Charles is 25 feet.  At the time we were walking, the river was at 35.7 feet.  A few hours later, it crested at 35.8 feet.  One of the awesome sights at a flooding river is the speed of the current in the center of the river.  The power of a river in flood is obvious and is definitely something to be avoided.

The Katy Trail is under here somewhere.  That’s the top of a park bench beside the trees and behind the sign.

It’s a wide river when it’s in flood.  You can tell where the rapid current is flowing by the darker strip of water beyond the foreground trees.  The foreground trees are in the park; the normal riverbed lies behind them.

Park rest rooms are currently inaccessible.  You can see the train tracks underwater at the trash can and the tops of park benches among the trees on the right.

No picnics scheduled under this shelter for awhile.  The ground is a little higher here, so the train tracks show.

The bandstand is surrounded by 3- to 4-foot deep water.

In the 1993 flood, the water came to the back doors of the businesses on the right.  The pioneers built the downtown on high ground.

Ted and I are related to two artists whose work was selected for public exhibition:  Sky and Dylan.  Each spring, the St. Charles School District chooses a few representative art projects from each grade–K-12–and displays them at the Foundry Art Center in downtown St. Charles.  Of course, we had to take a personal look at the artwork.

Sky (not surprisingly) submitted a detailed Star Wars drawing.  Dylan painted a sunset sky.  The sun in Dylan’s painting is colorless.  Dylan told me it’s an artistic illusion:  the orange sky makes the sun look yellow.

And here’s a first grader’s picture that made us smile.  The minions always seem to have that effect.

The St. Louis National Weather Service Office recently had a public photo contest.  The winning photo (below) is currently the NWS-STL Facebook profile picture.  Wow!

The rain has finally moved out of the area.  We had a total​ of 11 inches at our house in 6 days–7.5 inches over the weekend and 3.5 inches yesterday and today, with one day of sunshine between the two storm systems.

Most of the rivers in the area have crested; some will have an additional crest from yesterday’s and today’s rain, but it will be lower than the crest from the weekend rain.  Flooding in the area is pretty bad, and clean-up will take awhile.  We’re looking forward to sunshine for the next 5-6 days.  It will be a welcome change.

Much of the local evening news tonight addressed flooding rivers and road closings.  One reporter noted that all roads to a particular area were under water, leaving that area “landlocked.”  Of course, that reminded me of Inigo Montoya’s line in The Princess Bride.

 

We had a beautiful, sunny 66-degree day today for a change.  It was a short break, though:  the rain returns tomorrow for another two days, with up to another 2-5 inches forecast in addition to the 5-7 inches the same area had over the weekend.  MODOT posted a map of statewide road closings today, including parts of I-44, I-55, and I-70.  As the water rises on I-55, people were instructed today to decide which side of the flooded roadway they want to be on tomorrow, because it will be closed tonight.

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Someone played with FaceApp, and this is making the rounds on Facebook.  It’s as much fun as the Muppet Presidential look-alikes.

L -> R, top -> bottom:  Mike Pence, Ben Carson, Paul Ryan, Rudy Guiliani, Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Mitch McConnell, Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions

After our 7.5 inches of rain over the weekend, there was a final sunset sprinkle that produced a rainbow.  The rainbow visible from our house was less spectacular than the one in the photo below submitted by a local TV viewer.

We’ve had 7.5 inches of rain in the last 60-70 hours.  The cold front has gone through and, although the normal high for tomorrow is 71 degrees, temperatures aren’t expected to rise above the low 50s.  The weather guy on TV said he wished it was February, so it would be warm.  At least we weren’t in the blizzard or tornado zones, like western Kansas and Texas.

It’s April, so we opened our swimming pool.  When I mentioned to several people that we would be opening the pool on April 25, they asked how I knew exactly which day we’d do that.  I explained that a crew comes out in the fall to shut down the water system and the pumps, blow out the pipes, and winterize everything; then they come back in the spring and reverse the process.  As a result, we need to schedule the day they come.

We take the winter cover off the pool the day before the crew comes and the concrete is always dirty around the edges where dust, dirt, leaves, etc. collect over the winter months.  Ted set up the power washer and I got busy cleaning the concrete.

The concrete to the left of the red brick trim is clean; the concrete I’m standing on is still dirty. Can you see the difference?

After the crew leaves and all the mechanical stuff is running again, we need to kill off algae that’s grown over the winter, re-stabilize the chemicals in the water, and vacuum the dirt off the bottom of the pool.  It usually takes about 4-7 days to finish the cleaning, stabilize the chemicals, and heat up the water.  This year we learned that some of the pool-opening work can be greatly reduced and/or avoided.

Vacuuming the bottom of the pool.

We usually open the pool when the air temperatures are warm enough to consider swimming, and we close it when the air temperatures are too cool to have fun in the water.  While they were here this week, the pool crew (the same guys who come every fall and spring) told us that algae cannot grow if the water temperature is in the low 60s or below, so if we close the pool after the water cools down to about 60 degrees and open it before the water gets above 60 degrees, it won’t be nearly as dirty.  (Our water was 68 degrees when we removed the winter cover.)

The obvious question:  Why didn’t they tell us this the first year we had the pool???  We’ll definitely try that idea next fall!

A television viewer sent this beautiful sunset picture to a local station and it was later posted on Facebook.  I feel peaceful just looking at it.

This is what my birthday could have felt like–but didn’t.

If birthdays keep getting better as you age, I’m going to keep getting older.  This birthday was so much fun that, instead of counting the candles, I kept on celebrating.  I had a half dozen lunches with friends, a destination celebration at Key West, a surprise weekend visit from our children, and finally, dinner at Bentley’s with Ted.  We saw beautiful flowering trees and spring wildflowers on our drive to the Lake of the Ozarks, our favorite server was on duty, and dinner was delicious, as usual.

It’s going to take something amazing to top this year’s birthday celebrations!

The view from the restaurant window while we ate.  The Lake is visible just to the right of the picture.

I haven’t thought about my physics classes for a long time, but I remember this little gadget.

The newspaper hasn’t moved for awhile and Ted’s head is slumped forward.  Is he sleeping?  “Oh, no,” he tells me.  “I’m just resting my eyes.”  Picture Jeff sprawled on his bed (while he lived at home) with his eyes shut.  Was he sleeping?  Not at all.  He always insisted he was “thinking of what to do next.”

Last week, I saw a bumper sticker that reminded me of Ted and Jeff.

Kari’s family invited Ted and me to their house for Easter dinner.  All the food was delicious (Who taught that girl to cook?  Oh, right–me!), and it looked so pretty on the table, I had to take a picture of it.  Dylan, a master of presentation, set the table and planned the serving dishes and their placement, contributing to the overall effect.  After dinner, there was conversation and sheephead.  It’s so nice to live close to at least one of the kids’ families so we can share times like this.

Lots of milk drinkers in this group.

Albert Einstein was born March 14, 1879, making him a Pisces like me.  I’m sure that’s only one of the many amazing things Bertie and I have in common.  Today is the 62nd anniversary of Einsteins’ death.  To honor his unparalleled scientific mind, here are some things he said on subjects other than science.

Tonight we went to Sky’s concert.  This is always an enjoyable evening for us.  The difficulty of the music and the kids’ improvement in musical skills is always noticeable from one semester to the next.  These kids are now old enough for competitions, so we heard some of the pieces they played at their festivals.  A few of the kids are even brave enough to play solos and duets, so we heard their competition pieces as well.  Most of the music was classical, but then the director asked, “What’s a concert without Michael Jackson?” and the orchestra played Man in the Mirror and Thriller.  Yes, an enjoyable evening.

I love that blue violin on the left.  What if the blue-haired girl played the blue violin?  (Arrow to Sky on the right.)

Here’s a picture my dad took of our family in the 1960s–maybe 1962-63?  Dad didn’t play “photographer” like Mom did.  He was a straightforward point-and-shoot kind of guy.  We used to tease him about his pictures because, more often than not, he cut off the tops of his subjects’ heads, but included their feet in his photos.  This time, he got all of our heads in the picture.

The sun is shining from low in the west in the picture below, so it’s getting late in the afternoon.  We’re all dressed up in our Sunday best clothes to attend Denny’s baccalaureate event.  I’m even wearing gloves!

L -> R:  Tom, me, Denny (back), Russ (front), Mom, Steve

Last night, Ted and I were at Wal-Mart and we saw happiness that lit up the entire store.

Mom, Dad, and their four daughters were heading for the checkout lane and each of the girls had a brand new bicycle!  The bikes were in assorted sizes–one small, two medium, and one large–to fit the owners.  The girls’ smiles couldn’t have been any bigger, and their eyes were shining with excitement as they each rolled a bike past the checker and then out to their van.  Lots of heads were turning to watch (it was like a bicycle parade) and people were commenting on how happy and excited the girls were.

It was already dark outside (about 8:30 pm), but I’m pretty sure there was going to be some bike riding in the driveway before bedtime.

Over the kids’ surprise weekend visit, I had a chance to spend some one-on-one time with eight-year-old Teddy.  Teddy takes after his mother (Kari), and talks nonstop.  Like his mother, he’s interesting, so this is ok and excuses the listener from the challenge of making small talk with a young child.  What always amazes me about Teddy is that first, his mind is always working; and second, it jumps all over the place in no particular order.  For example, when Ted watched Teddy one day when he was sick and couldn’t go to school, Teddy blurted out, “I just don’t get the Big Bang!  I mean, what started it?”  During the 30-45 minutes Teddy and I were together last weekend, some of the myriad of topics that came up for discussion in rapid order included the following:

* Birch bark can be used for paper, so if you would draw pictures of trees on pieces of birch bark and then put them together with pieces of wood for covers, you would have a book about trees made out of trees.

* I wonder if you can ever chew gum enough to make it disappear.  You know, like when you chew other food, it gets smaller and smaller and smaller and then you swallow it, but gum always stays the same.  (I mentioned this conversation to Katie and she told me there is a gum that dissolves.  She had it once and said it was awful.)

* What if we didn’t have skin?  What if everything about our bodies–the organs and the muscles and the blood vessels and everything was still the same, but we didn’t have any skin to hold everything together?  Maybe we would have something rubbery and we would all be like robots.  (Demonstration of how we would move like robots if this should occur.)

* What do you think would happen if you put ice cream in hot chocolate?

* I think more men than women died on the Titanic because they put women and children in the lifeboats first, so fewer women than men were left on the ship.

* Kittens were saved from the Titanic.  Really.  This is true.  A mother cat had kittens in a lifeboat and they were saved when the lifeboat was launched.

* Maybe I could write a story about a Titanic lifeboat.  “A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a lifeboat sailed . . . ”

Kari told me later that Teddy had to research the Titanic for a school assignment, so that explains why the Titanic came up repeatedly.  As I said, conversation is interesting with Teddy.  You never know what he’s going to wonder about next.

I guess I’m not the only one who thinks about what “Grandma’s house” looks like to outsiders.  While the kids were here for my best birthday ever, we were gathered in the family room for conversation.  During the chitchat, Jeff brought up something he’s noticed over time.

Jeff:  “You know how old people’s houses always look dark and smell funny?”

Ted and me in our thoughts:  “Is he talking about us?”

Jeff:  “Well, your (i.e., our) house doesn’t.”

Ted and me:  “Whew!”

I think with the new, non-yellowed microwave, the light, and the lack of funny smells, our house passes the visitors’ litmus test.