We spent today in Jacksonville, FL (JAX) and we think/hope it was our last day of winter.  People in JAX have been telling us this is the coldest weather they’ve had all winter.  Well, thank you for sharing your cold weather with us!  We still needed warm clothing today, but it was sunny and pleasant outside–for late winter.  There’s another freeze warning out for tonight for JAX, but we are heading for Jupiter tomorrow and it better be warm!  Jupiter is just north of Miami, and that’s pretty far south for winter to visit.

We enjoyed our afternoon field trip to the Cummer Museum of Art and its gardens.  It’s rated as a gem by AAA, and we agreed.  We saw very nice artwork.

By the all-American sculptor, Remington, of course.  This piece is “Bronco.”

This is a picture of Mt. Washington in NH.  We were at the top of Mt. W. in October 1972.

This room displayed some of the modern art.  The photo at the left honors African Americans who struggled to achieve the right to serve in the military in WWII.  Notice the piles of old AM radios on the floor beneath that painting.

The portraits below were done by Andy Warhol.  They are:

Left to right, top row:  George Gershwin, Gertrude Stein, Franz Kafka, Louis Brandeis, and Golda Meir.  Left to right, bottom row:  Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sarah Bernhardt, Sigmund Freud, and the Marx Brothers.

No Campbell’s tomato soup can in sight.

The picture below is by Normal Rockwell.  I found the story behind it bittersweet.  The woman needs to go to the Mayo Clinic for some detailed tests, so she and her husband decide to treat the journey as a vacation.  They talk about it excitedly with their friends and finally make the trip.  The woman knows something is seriously wrong with her, but decides to spare her husband and keeps that knowledge to herself.  The husband finds out that his wife is seriously ill, and decides to keep that information to himself to spare her.  Shades of “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.

This should probably be titled “True love.”

After viewing the works in the gallery, we went out to the gardens.  The azaleas were in full bloom and the designs of the gardens were beautiful to see and relaxing to walk through and enjoy.

The English garden.  Spanish moss is growing in the tree on the left.  The tree hasn’t leafed out yet–it’s been too cold!

The Italian garden.

This is a huge live oak tree.

And this is the live oak from the inside.  Live oaks are monstrous, majestic Southern trees.  I wonder how old this one is.

Between the museum and the gardens, we saw a wall decorated with fish sculptures.

After the Cummer Museum, we went to see Fort Caroline.  The short story is:  The Fort was originally established by the French, who hoped to develop the entire eastern Florida coast as a mercantile enterprise.  The Spanish came and massacred the French.  The French (not the dead ones) got mad and came back to massacre the Spanish.  After that, the Fort was abandoned.  My opinion:  This is a perfect illustration of the waste of wars.

There is written history of the existence of the fort, but no artifacts have been found.  The National Park Service has re-created a fort to provide a feeling for what things might have been like, but there are no claims of authenticity for the recreation.  Our tax dollars at work.

The fort is actually (and historically) triangular.  Speaking of no authenticity, it doesn’t look like any fort we’ve ever seen before and I doubt if it would provide much protection from any enemies.

The (non-authentic) cannon was aimed at the gate, not at the river.  I guess it kept enemies from getting in by land.  No gunnery was pointed at the river on the other side of the fort.  Definitely not authentic.

The farther south we go, the colder the weather gets.  I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work.  Sure, it snowed in Nashville and Asheville, but the temperatures were in the 30s overnight and in the 40s during the day.  Not to mention that the latitude wasn’t too far south of St. Louis.  Hilton Head, on the other hand, is in southern South Carolina and not only was it cool while we were there yesterday, but today’s high temperature was five degrees cooler than yesterday’s and there’s a freeze warning out for tonight.  We’re in Jacksonville, Florida now, and there’s a hard freeze warning in tonight’s forecast with the low temperature expected to be in the mid-20s.  Luckily, we brought plenty of warm clothes with us, so we’re having fun anyway.

Today we visited Okefenokee Swamp Park in southern Georgia.  Of course it was cool (low 50s), but the sun was shining, so we were comfortable with jackets.  The swamp is over 500,000 acres in size, so we saw only a small part of it.  Due to drought conditions, there was no water in the swamp rivers in 2007 or in 2011, resulting in several large fires.  There was water today, however, so we were able to take a boat tour.

The front end of our boat as we traveled down the Suwannee River.  The Suwannee and St. Mary rivers drain Okefenokee Swamp into the Gulf of Mexico.

Mirror Lake. .ekaL rorriM

A pretty view under a walking trail bridge in the park.Our guide could name every plant in the swamp.  Now we can name some of them as well.

Several varieties of water lilies are native to Okefenokee Swamp.

This is soapweed.  Our guide made his hands wet, rubbed the weed vigorously in his palms and produced a generous soapy lather.

These are the smallest plants in the swamp.  Look at the next picture to see some individual plants.

Ted has dozens of the plants on his fingertip.

This plant is called “never wet.”  It actually repels water and never gets wet.  In a swamp!

The green clumps in this tree are mistletoe, a parasitic plant.

The bald cypress has very shallow roots, so it grows “knees” to help support itself. The knees–the knobby things growing upward–can grow as far as 100 yards from the tree’s trunk.We saw a half dozen alligators.  None of the alligators was out when we visited the Everglades two years ago, so this is the first time Ted and I have seen alligators in their natural habitat.  We learned that the females are much smaller than the males.  The male alligator will fight and eat any other male alligators he encounters in his territory so he can have all the female alligators for himself.  We had a glimpse of a baby alligator in the water, but it hid in the plants while our boat was nearby.  Our guide said if you try to grab a baby alligator with your hands, it will rapidly bite you a half dozen times before you can let go.  Ouch!

The bull alligator on the left is estimated to be 110 years old and is about 20 feet long. One of his many wives (on the right) is about 35 years old and 6-8 feet long.

Look carefully. There is an alligator in the water.At one point on our tour, we got off the boat and climbed a viewing tower.  I don’t know how high it was, but there were over 100 steps to the top and we were above the treetops.  We had a small tour group and took pictures of each other.

Ted and me in the viewing tower.

Here we are in the boat.We had a very nice afternoon and enjoyed visiting Okefenokee.  We also greatly enjoyed our time in the Everglades two years ago.  Are we weird to like swamps?

 

20 pi jokes and puns, just for the fun of pi.

1  3.14% of sailors are pi-rates.

2  Never talk to pi. He’ll go on forever.

3  Come to the nerd side. We have pi.

4  Simple as 3.141592…

5  The roundest knight at King Arthur’s table was Sir Cumference. He ate too much pi.

6  The worst thing about getting hit in the face with pi is that it never ends.

7  What do you get when you take green cheese and divide its circumference by its diameter? Moon pi.

8  What was Sir Isaac Newton’s favorite dessert? Apple pi.

9  What is the official animal of Pi Day? The pi-thon.

10  A pizza has a radius z and thickness a. Its volume is pizza (or pi*z*z*a)

11  What is a math teacher’s favorite dessert? Pi!

12  The mathematician says, “Pi r squared.” The baker replies, “No, pies are round. Cakes are square.”

13  Just saw American Pi. I gave it a rating of 3.14.

14  In Alaska, where temperatures get below freezing, pi is only 3.00. After all, everything shrinks in the cold.

15  What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter? Pi in the sky.

16  How many pastry chefs does it take to make a pie? 3.14.

17  What do you get when you cut a jack-o’-lantern by its diameter? Pumpkin pi.

18  What is 1.57? Half a pie.

19  What is the ideal number of pieces to cut a pie into? 3.14.

20  How many calories are there in that slice of chocolate pi? Approximately 3.14.

 

Thanks, Grammarly.

A few days ago, the forecast for today on Hilton Head Island predicted a high temperature in the low 60s with sunny skies.  The reality when today arrived was a high temperature in the mid-50s, cloudy with a few peeks of sunshine, and a 25-30 mph cold west wind.  In short, a blustery day.

It was too cold to swim or to sit on the beach, so we drove around the island to see what we could see.  A realtor’s sign told us we could own part of the foot.  We looked at the map and noticed that the island is shaped remarkably like a foot.  (So why is it named Hilton Head?)

The pink area is HH Island.

At the toe of the island is a lighthouse and a small specialty shopping district, so we took a look around.

The Harbourtown lighthouse.

The trees along the roads we traveled definitely had a Southern look.

Y’all come in and have some sweet tea now, y’heah?

After exploring the island, we went back to the hotel and explored the resort at which we are staying.  It has indoor and outdoor swimming pools.  Two women were sunbathing in swimsuits at the outdoor pool.  On a nearby chair, a man reading a book was bundled up in a jacket and a pool blanket.  Someone was wearing the wrong clothing.  Given the weather, methinks it was the two women.

The view from our hotel room balcony.

Part of the hotel’s beachside backyard.

We took a walk along the beach and then spent some time relaxing outside on the lee/beach side of the hotel protected from the cold west wind.

The beach was pretty deserted on this blustery day, but it was still a beach.  Yes!  We’re at the beach!

It’s a tough life.  I had to wear a jacket to be comfortable in a hammock at the beach.

Ted said this is the first time he’s ever been in a hammock.

Obligatory foot shot of Ted and me taking life easy and watching the ocean waves.

We finished the day with a delicious steak dinner and some very good wine at a nearby restaurant.  The restaurant was described as “swanky.”  The food and prices were swanky, but it’s a beach town filled with resort visitors, so diners were in very casual clothes.  Can a restaurant be “swanky” if the diners are wearing flip-flops and shorts or jeans?

Tomorrow we head farther south in our continuing search for warmer weather.

After clearing today’s snow off the car, we drove to the Biltmore Estate.  Guess what we saw on our way to the main house.

In honor of today’s three inches of snow.

The first sight of Biltmore is impressive to visitors as they enter through the gates at the end of the 2.5-mile driveway.

It’s not much (hah!) but it was home for George and Edith Vanderbilt.

We had lunch in the Stables Cafe, right next door to the main house.  It was really a stable.  The Vanderbilts kept their horses here in the 1890s.

Our table was in one of the stalls below the windows.  No horses were present.

It took six years to complete the major portion of the house, and many more years to finish everything.  It cost $5 million and has 175,000 square feet with 250 rooms and 65 fireplaces.  The fireplace in the library is 6 feet high and 10 feet wide.  About 60 rooms have been restored and 39 are included on the public tours.  Biltmore was a private residence with 125,000 acres of land (now 8,000 acres).  It was opened to the public in 1930 to help increase tourism in the area.  Biltmore is a working plantation with about 2,000 employees.  Some of the Vanderbilt family still live on the grounds.  It was designed by three major architects and was obviously the home of a very wealthy family (shipping and railroad money), but is not ostentatious.  It feels welcoming, warm, and comfortable.  Season passes are available to the public for $99 and allow people to picnic on the grounds and to use the estate trails for walking, hiking, running, and biking.  The season pass also allows admission to special events held at the estate.

We toured the house, the gardens, and Antler Hill Village.  Biltmore has its own winery (wine tasting and purchase available in Antler Village), greenhouses, and horticultural buildings.  We also saw horses, cattle, and fields of farm crops.  We spent nearly six hours at Biltmore and enjoyed every minute of the time.  It helped a lot that the weather was sunny with the temperature in the upper 40s.

This is the room I want to have–filled bookshelves all the way to the ceiling and all the way around the room, with a balcony to reach the upper shelves (see the railing).

Check out this ceiling.

This is a basement room called the Hallowe’en Room.  It has murals painted on all the walls.

The dining room table was designed to seat 64 people.  The room includes a pipe organ–for dinner music?

This is a part of the gardens where spring bulbs were beginning to bloom.

The grand staircase.  In one stairwell, Ted and I counted seven floors.

I must get a dress and headpiece like this.  Peacock feathers are so me!

Last night, the winter storm warning was cut back to a shorter time span with less snow accumulation.  We didn’t see any falling snow east of Nashville yesterday, and the warning was due to expire at 11:00 a.m. today, so we didn’t expect to wake up and see another three inches of snow on our car!  Now we’ve seen more snow in the last two days than we had at home in the last three years!!  Why did we think we should go south for some warmer weather?  At least it was sunny all day today and temperatures got into the upper 40s.

We hauled out the snow brush and cleaned off the car.  Again.

Our drive today took us from Nashville, TN to Asheville, NC.  We planned to drive and hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but that plan became dependent on how the unexpected winter storm warning turned out.  The weather was cloudy, but dry, with not a single flake of snow outside of Nashville, in spite of the dire predictions for a major storm throughout our driving area.  The Smokies are very scenic, so it was a pretty day of driving in spite of the clouds.

A typical scene in the Great Smoky Mountains.

We had no activities planned except for the park visit, so the highlight of the drive–a distant second to the scenery–was Gatlinburg, TN.  If you’ve been to Gatlinburg, I need say no more; if you haven’t, you should go for the experience.  Think “Wisconsin Dells, WI” or “Branson, MO” and you’ll be getting close.  Just add “Tennessee” to the mix and you’ve got the idea.  Gatlinburg is a one-street town, and all four lanes of traffic were slow–even at this time of year.  I’d hate to be here in the summer!  It’s the entrance to the national park, however, so we sat back in the car, crept along, and watched the show.

Slow traffic on the mile-long main street of Gatlinburg.

If you can’t keep it in the front yard or on the porch beside the washer and the refrigerator, put it in the upstairs window.

It’s Tennessee, so of course there’s moonshine . . .

. . . not to mention a mall with a denim-clad bear as its mascot.When we got to the eastern end of Gatlinburg, we had another surprise.

Hwy 441 is the road through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

It was disappointing to see the barricade after seeing no snow all day.  Darn those higher elevations!  Since we couldn’t drive on the single road that goes through the park, we had to turn around and drive through Gatlinburg (again!) in the other direction, then drive around the park.

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant called “Applewood.”  If it can be done with an apple, it was on the menu.  We ordered chicken pot pie.  Included with the price of that entreé were apple juice, apple fritters, apple butter, fried apples, and apple dinner rolls.  We were too full to finish the meal with the special deep-fried apple pie.  Apples of many varieties were for sale as well.  We noticed the heaters running in the apple storage area to protect the fruit from the freezing temperatures tonight.  The food was delicious and we more than met our required daily requirement of fruit.

Even the curtains in the restaurant are apple-themed.

Appetizer:  apple juice with apple fritters and apple butter.

Side dishes:  apple dinner rolls and fried apples.

We looked out of our hotel window this morning and saw . . . snow!!!  There was a 20 percent (slight) chance of light rain in the forecast for Nashville, but nothing about 3 inches of snow!  The winter storm is forecast for east of Nashville. Three inches is more snow than we’ve had at home all winter.  I think we were the only people at the hotel who had a snow brush in the car to deal with the wet, sloppy mess.

My snow-covered car.

Snow still coming down at the hotel.

 

We didn’t have to go too far east of Nashville to find snow-free ground and, in spite of the winter storm warning, we had dry–but cloudy–skies all day.  Three inches of snow was not part of the spring break road trip plan.

Ted and I left home this morning, heading for the southeast U.S. and warm, non-wintery weather.  St. Louis had such an early spring this year–nine days above 70 degrees in February and four in March so far–we wondered why we felt we needed to get away.  We’re going to miss lots of the early spring blooms.  Then the forecast for next week came out:  it’s going to be unseasonably cold next week.  In fact, St. Louis will be having its coldest temperatures of the year while we are gone.  The low temperature one night is going to be in the teens, so all those early blooms are going to freeze.  Well, at least we’ll feel like we’re escaping from winter to bask in southern sunshine!  Or so we thought.

Today we drove to Nashville.  We’ve been here several times, so didn’t plan any activities beyond getting here.  We had the worst lunch we ever remember eating:  horrible sandwiches with toasted bread literally as hard as croutons at Applebee’s in Marion, IL.  Dinner was much better at a restaurant near our Nashville hotel.  It’s Friday night, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for a table, but it was worth it.

After dinner, we checked the forecast for Asheville, NC–tomorrow’s destination.  The plan was to spend some time driving and hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park one day and to visit the Biltmore Estate and historic Hendersonville the next day.  We might get Biltmore in, but the weather doesn’t look promising for doing anything in the national park.

Yes, Saturday and Sunday are our scheduled days in Asheville.  This is not an escape from winter weather!  We’re planning an early start for tomorrow so we can arrive in Asheville before the worst of the snow hits the area.

Today is International Women’s Day.  To recognize this day, I’m sharing a picture of some of my favorite and most respected women.  These women worked in a broad spectrum of departments at SCC.  We are all retired now and we get together for lunch every two months.  Each of these women worked to make a difference in the lives of the people served by the college and in the community.  They are smart, interesting, and fun.  I’m honored and fortunate to call all of them my good friends.

Left -> right, back row:  Me–adult education; Amy–not an SCC woman, but making a difference as a caregiver for Barb; Liz–business and industry.

Left -> right, front row:  Barb–academic success center (she has Alzheimer’s, so Amy brings her to our lunches); Terri–finance; Elaine–president’s office; Cindy–math instructor; Yvonne–continuing education.

Absent:  Barbara–science and technology.

Today, March 4th, is National Good Grammar Day, so “march forth” and use good grammar.

According to the National Weather Service, winter is over.  This means it’s practically summer, right?

Why, yes, it is.

We saw this Mini Cooper in a parking lot.  Check the outside mirror. . .

. . . and the roof.

Remember the stuff in your grandma’s house?  It was old and yellowed and you just thought “old,” “yellow,” and “Grandma’s house” went together.  I don’t want that to be me!

Ted and I have noticed that the plastic parts on our microwave are yellowing and the unit looks like the one in Grandma’s house.  It has only a 1.1 cu. ft. capacity and 850 watts of power, and still works after 24+ years without a repair.  The new one has a 2.0 cu. ft. capacity and 1000 watts of power.  We’ll see if they still make them to last more than 20 years.  It has a stainless steel finish, so at least it won’t turn “Grandma yellow” with age.

Here’s the old, yellowing “grandma” microwave.  The sticker shows that it was made in November 1993.

Ted and I opted to install the microwave ourselves.  To someone who is handy, this is probably a no-brainer, but we don’t get excited about doing stuff like this and are usually happy to ensure job security for the installation guy.  Still, a couple of screws and bolts didn’t sound too hard or worth the installation price.  Except for having to buy some appropriately-sized drill bits, we had everything we needed.  Lining up the template for the bracket on the wall took the most time, and everything actually went pretty smoothly.  We were pleasantly surprised with our success and opted out of microwaving something for dinner in favor of celebrating with pizza and a beer at Dewey’s instead.

New stainless steel finish microwave.  Perfectly and (almost) easily installed by Ted and Diane, Inc., LLC.

Really neat settings.  Choose a food, enter the quantity of food, and the sensor cooks it to perfection.  You can even soften ice cream without melting it.  Wow!

It’s been so warm over the past two weeks, that spring is arriving early.  Ted and I saw a star magnolia blooming in our neighborhood today, and the leaves are coming out on our privet hedge.  Our magnolia trees have buds that look almost ready to burst into flowers and our daffodils are several inches tall.  We saw a small patch of daffodils blooming today, but ours must be less protected–they’re a little bit behind.

One year, spring came early and stayed long enough for the trees to begin leafing out.  Then we got hit by temperatures in the low 20s and everything froze.  All the plants were weak for the entire summer.  I hope that won’t happen this year.  Meanwhile, it’s warm, sunny, and blooming nicely outside.  Cheers for spring!

Some of our daffodils growing to bloom for us.

Our hedge has green leaves sprouting.

A neighborhood star magnolia beginning to bloom.

As I drove to school to volunteer today, the DJ on the radio was playing “telephone songs”–songs that referred to telephones and/or calling on the phone in some way.  He was also taking calls about telephones from listeners.  Some of the things that came up in the “remember when” category included:

• The operator saying “Number, please,” and then connecting you to that number.  (Think Lily Tomlin on the Laugh In.)

• Party lines.  (We had one.)

• Ringtones made up of long and short rings.  (Ours was five short–you turned the crank to make the ring tone.  Everyone on the party line heard it and could identify who was being called.)

• Waiting to make a long-distance call until the rates went down.  (Been there, done that.)

• Pay phones for 10¢.  (Yup!  In high school, when we needed our parents to pick us up after an event, we’d call from the pay phone.  We could hear our parents say “Hello,” but they couldn’t hear us unless we put the dime in.  To save the dime, we’d just hang up, and that was the signal for Dad to get in the car.)

The best called-in story on the radio, however, was this one.  When the caller (we’ll call him Ed) was in college, he’d set a time to call his brother (he can be Joe) at another college.  At the appointed time, Ed and Joe would each go to a pay phone booth.  Ed then dialed the operator and requested a person-to-person collect call to the number at Joe’s pay phone.  Joe would answer, agree to accept the charges, and the two would have a nice talk.  The lingering question, according to Ed, is “Which pay phone got charged for the calls?”

Note:  Unless you understand person-to-person and collect, you probably won’t think this is funny.  If you do understand, you’re probably admiring Ed’s and Joe’s ingenuity.

My cousin, Nancy, sent me a sentimental treasure:  eleven letters written by my mother to a neighborhood friend serving in the Army during World War II.  The friend was Frankie Kotnick, whose family lived near my mother’s family in Sheboygan.

One of the Kotnick kids–maybe Frankie–lived in Frankie’s parents’ house, and at least one of their children was a friend of Nancy, my cousin.  When the children were cleaning out the house, they found letters from my mother that Frankie had saved.  They offered the letters to Nancy, who shared them with other Lorenzen family members, including my Uncle Gibby and Aunt Ruth, siblings of my mother.  After that, Nancy generously sent the originals to me.

The letters, written from 1942-1944 when Mom was 20-22 years old, present her as a young, single woman–someone I never knew.  She loves to dance, she drinks, she hangs out on “Prange’s corner” with her friends, and she is “getting sick of this small town stuff” in Sheboygan.  She enlists in the Civilian Defense Home Guard and applies to the Civil Air Patrol, hoping for a job as a telephone operator or a secretary somewhere away from Sheboygan.  She confides in Frankie that “if a person wants to earn money or try to amount to something Sheboygan is the wrong place for them.”  All the action and the big money, she says, is in cities like Milwaukee and Chicago.  She admits she has it good living at home, but tells Frankie “my Mother and Dad would put their foot down if they knew I wanted to to (sic) this.  You know how parents act when it comes to something like that” (referring to moving away from home).

The letters provide a glimpse of my mother’s youth and the early 1940s.  Her sentences are filled with “gee” and “swell”–apparently the slang of the day.  Mom goes to lots of movies and dances, and mentions how much she loves to dance.  She confesses to a fascination with slot machines.  (When she and Dad went to Las Vegas, she won on a nickel slot machine in the days when real nickels fell out of the machine.)  The envelopes have three-cent postage stamps and the cancellation mark says “Buy war bonds and stamps.”  The envelope of a December letter has a Christmas seal on the back.  Mom mentions that Grandma was in charge of sugar rationing coupons for her area and spent a lot of time on that job.  Mom also tells Frankie that she wants to buy a used bicycle, but can’t find one for less than $28–more than a new one costs–so she’s decided to keep using her brother’s bicycle and wait until after the war to buy one when bicycles (metal) become more available again.

One day, my mother and her friend, Lorraine, got fed up with their jobs in Sheboygan and simply failed to show up for work the next day.  They took a bus to Milwaukee instead.  You can read the letter about that experience below.  I think moving to Milwaukee and being independent felt the same to Mom as going away to college felt for me.  Freedom!

Mom died 22 years ago, and I still miss her greatly.  Reading her letters to Frankie was like spending time with her again.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing these, Nancy.

The entire Midwest seems to be enjoying warmer than usual weather.  I love it!  We set a new record high of 79 degrees today, breaking the old record of 78 degrees that we set last year on this date.  So far, we’ve had 9 of 20 days in February that were above 60 degrees and 6 of those were above 70 degrees, with 4 more 60/70-degree days forecast before it cools down on Saturday.  Maybe even another record high coming up on Wednesday.

The normal high for today, according to the TV weathercaster, is 47 degrees.  Last year, the normal high for this day was 46 degrees.  That’s some pretty fast global warming!

We took the flannel sheets off the bed, and our daffodils are several inches high.  Keep those warm, sunny days coming!

I’m still working on some physical therapy for my injured oblique muscle.  Last week, Brian (my therapist) had two of his Washington University students at the center to observe him and other therapists working with patients.

As Brian put me through my paces, he mentioned to the two students that he would not ordinarily give exercises at this level to a woman of my age.  He cautioned them about fragile bones, lack of flexibility, etc. with older patients and described me as an exception to the rule.

At my next appointment, two days ago, Brian asked me about the possibility of trying some planks and/or bridges to help my oblique muscle.  I told him I do the advanced levels of those moves weekly in Pilates.  He asked me to demonstrate the Pilates moves, so I did.  His follow-up comment was, “I just hope I’m as healthy, strong, and flexible as you are when I’m your age.”

That’s a very flattering compliment for a grandma!

Note:  A different therapist told me once that she worked with an 85-year-old woman who could run rings around most of the young people she treats.  That’s my goal!

I bought a sewing machine and a serger just before Christmas, and finally had time to play with my new toys today.

The lady at the sewing machine store showed me how to knot the threads and just pull them through the serger to change colors or spools.  After that, she made me thread all four spools on the serger from start to finish.  She said I’d need to do it sooner or later when a thread breaks.  Aaarrrggghhh!!!  May my thread never break!  Imagine my relief when I saw that my serger came out of the box threaded.  Whew!

It took me about 30 minutes to get the sewing machine threaded and a bobbin filled.  Basically, the thread pattern through the machine is similar to my old sewing machine, but all the hooks and holes look different and I had to figure out what each little gizmo looked like so I could put the thread through or around the correct gizmo.  There have been some changes in the last 50+ years.  Last week, I bought some remnants so I could practice sewing and get used to my new machines.  I sewed and serged one six-inch seam, then declared myself ready to roll.  Confidence, yes!

My bed pillow is fat and has to be stuffed tightly to fit a standard pillowcase.  That makes the pillow so hard, it’s not comfortable.  Being a clever seamstress, I buy an extra matching pillowcase, cut a strip from it, and add the strip to the “real” pillowcase to make the pillowcase a little wider, allowing the pillow to be softer.  We had to buy new sheets for our new mattress, and today was the day to ditch my old pillowcase and adjust a new one for my fat pillow.  Success and a new pillowcase for me tonight.

Most fun I had:  Automatic needle threading and automatic thread cutting.  Woo-ee!

Most important thing I learned:  It takes a lot more time and space to set up two portable machines than to open one machine that’s installed in a cabinet.  I need a better set-up for future sewing.

Serger, pillowcase, and sewing machine.

Finished expanded pillowcase.  Purple arrows show the outside; green arrows show how I can do serging  on the inside now.  Mm-mm good!

I was volunteering at the Success School on Valentine’s Day when the principal came to each classroom offering cupcakes and valentines to all.  I think part of the secretary’s job (or maybe the teachers’ jobs) included finding inspirational sayings to make custom valentines.  Here is mine.  It’s not exactly the “Be Mine” type of valentine, but I like the thought.

A Dominican Republic newspaper meant to include a photo of President Trump with an article about his meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, but accidentally printed a photo of Alec Baldwin impersonating Trump.  The paper published an apology the following day.

Kari sent us some photos to let us know how Waffles (the pig we gave Teddy for Christmas) spends the day at home while the family is away.

First, while Teddy gets ready for school, Waffles has a little breakfast from the cat’s dish.

Then, after Teddy leaves, Waffles keeps an eye on the food bowls at the kitchen door.

On our flight to Seattle, there was an announcement from the cockpit.

“The captain has turned off the seatbelt sign, so you are now free to move about the cabin.  If you are seated, please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened.”

 

Ted and I just returned from our visit to Seattle (Puyallup) where we were introduced to our seventh grandson, Sefton Aron Schroeder.  (Kyra retains her status as our favorite granddaughter.)  I could go on and on, but whatever I have to say about Sefton would be the same thing in different words:  he’s a baby, he’s small, he’s so, so soft and cuddly, and he’s so, so sweet and lovable. Here is February 1-5 in pictures.

My first time holding Sefton.

Sefton with Grandpa.

Sefton with his big brother, Julian.

Sefton does not enjoy bath time.

Thom and Katie blow-dry Sefton after his bath.  He likes this a lot more than the bath.

Sefton can already sit by himself–with some support, of course.

Ted and Julian having a Connect Four tournament–just like they did when Julian was much younger.  This time, Julian didn’t cry when he lost a game to his grandpa; he just beat Grandpa in the next game.

Julian playing one of his piano compositions for us.

As part of his birthday gift, we took Julian to Trampoline Nation where he amazed us with twists and flips and twisting flips.

Me and two of my favorite boys–Julian and Sefton.

A family photo.

Thom and Katie’s Lego family.

Just before we left, the rain changed to snow.   Sefton’s first snow.  (For us, two coats of de-icer on the tarmak before our plane could take off.)

While we were in Seattle, we had the chance to spend Saturday with my brother Russ’s family who have moved to Seattle from Philadelphia.  We decided to spend the cold, rainy day at a museum and selected MoPOP–the Museum of Pop Culture–at Seattle Center, in the foggy shadow of the Space Needle.

Most of the museum focused on music and musicians from the 80s and 90s, but those exhibits were joined by displays of the Wizard of Oz and The Princess Bride because of the widespread cultural influence those movies have had.  There was also a special exhibit on Star Trek for the same reason.  Unfortunately for us, the Rube Goldberg exhibit doesn’t open until February 11.  It was an interesting afternoon and gave us a nice venue where we could stay warm and dry while we visited with each other.

This tower has over 700 guitars and other instruments wired together to play electronic music.

Some of the instruments in the guitar tower.

The Jimi Hendrix display required an entire room.

Star Trek, of course.   Beam me up!

Ted and me and a friendly guitar.

L -> R:  Russ, Nick, Betsy, Phil, Ben

We have recently had a private screening of a movie and a private seating at a restaurant.  Yesterday, we returned from Seattle on a (nearly) private jet, landed at a (nearly) private terminal, and were taken to our car by private shuttle (limo?).

The plane had 162 seats and only 42 passengers.  There were 7 crew members.  That must be close to the square footage and level of service we’d have on a private jet.

Ours was the last flight of the day.  All the shops were closed and everyone else had already left the airport.

Just Ted and me on our private shuttle/limo to the parking garage.

Ted and I went out to lunch today at one of our favorite restaurants.  The young woman who has been working as the cashier waited on us, so I asked if she has changed positions.  She said she has, and told us this is her third week waiting tables.  It’s her first week doing it on her own and the reason we haven’t previously seen her as a server, she said, is because she only works on Tuesdays.

Today is Monday.

On February 8, 2016, Dr. P. asked me if I would be willing to provide some trainings for the teachers at his school in India.  With Dr. P.’s permission, I invited my friend and adult education mentor, John, to be my co-trainer.  After much planning and a number of meetings, we set a departure date for December 27.  For several reasons directly related to Dr. P., it became obvious that not everything would be in place by that date, so we set February 9 as a more viable departure date.

Ted and I are in Washington state right now, getting acquainted with our new grandson, Sefton.  Because we will return to St. Louis just three days before the departure date for India, I already have most of my things packed for that trip.  John, my co-trainer, and I have had our inoculations and have received our Indian visas.  We have also spent a great deal of time preparing our training materials.  We are ready to go.

Imagine my surprise this morning when Dr. P.’s office manager called to tell me that the training will have to be postponed because Dr. P. will not have the necessary funding in place in time to purchase the airline tickets for the trip.  There is a possibility the training will be rescheduled for April or May.  I guess I’ll unpack when Ted and I get home on Sunday.

I’m feeling disappointed. . . . Is there an emoji for that?

Katie put this composite picture together.  Sefton is on the left; Katie is at the top right; and Thom is at the lower right.

sefton-katie-thom

Thom was our least attractive baby at birth.  When they brought him to me for one of his first feedings in the hospital, I put out my arms and said, “Come here, you homely little guy.”  I said it with love, but the nurse didn’t leave the room.  I’ve always wondered if she put herself on guard duty in case I harmed my baby.  In less than two weeks, Thom’s face firmed up and he started to look like the handsome man he is today.  He’s the epitome of my Grandma Lorenzen’s saying:  “Homely in the cradle; handsome at the table.”  (What does that say about our other children who were prettier right after their births and are still handsome and beautiful?)

The reader . . .

The reader . . .

. . . and what she’s doing.

. . . and what she's doing.

I love to stare at marked slices of tree for hours on end, hallucinating vividly.  Thanks for pointing this out, Grammarly.

A few weeks ago, we had a private showing of the movie “Fences.”  Today, I was busy dealing with visa details for my upcoming trip to India, so Ted and I decided to go out for a late lunch.  It was late enough that we had the privilege of a private lunch.  Aren’t we special?!

Just is--and really good food and service.

Just us–and really good food and service.