Family Festivities

A couple of months ago DIL Nicole asked if Grandma and Grandpa might be available to come to California and babysit so that she and Son Brian could do an overnight trip to celebrate their anniversary. Of course we said yes. While we were out there we decided to celebrate the birthday of Granddaughter Gee (Son Tony's oldest, who turns five years old later this month.) And to make it an entire family celebration, Son Donald took time off work to come with us.

Our whirlwind trip had us arriving at Brian's on Wednesday night and leaving on Monday morning. The time was divided into two parts. For the first we slept at Brian's house, got the kids (a 7-year old and 5-year old twins) to school and supervised their afternoon and evening activities with the help of the twins' nanny.

During our free time we ran some errands and drove to Redwood City to explore and eat at Mazra, a Mediterranean restaurant that came highly recommended. The highlight of our excellent meal was a whole roasted cauliflower appetizer.

Cauliflower

The next day we had some non-photogenic, but great authentic Chinese food at a local restaurant.

On Friday afternoon Son Tony, DIL Ie, and their family arrived from their Central Valley home. Brian's house will only hold a couple of overnight guests, so Tony rented an Airbnb ten minutes away. When Brian and Nicole returned home from their trip we ate dinner with them, then packed up our stuff and moved over to Tony's.

The next two days were nonstop family time. We watched a little league baseball game, celebrated the birthday girl with lunch, a pinata, and a rented bounce house (enjoyed by both the littles and the adults). One popular activity was constructing buildings with magnetic tiles. Uncle Donald's height came in handy with the really tall ones.

"Let's make it taller"

Sunday morning everyone headed back to Brian's for a Mother's Day brunch and more family time. I was in heaven! But all good things eventually have to end. Tony and family needed to get back home to organize for the week ahead. Nicole and Jay left for an appointment. Tony, Donald, and I played one last game of cards then said our goodbyes. We had to get to the airport early for our flight back home.

Five years ago today: Nextdoor Neighbor

Photo Enhancer

The operating system on my iPhone has a handy Clean Up feature which removes distracting objects from the background of photos. I've been playing with it and for the most part I like the way it works.

For example, I took a photo of a bouquet of flowers I received for Mother's Day:

The black electrical cord running behind the bouquet was a big distraction, so I got rid of it.

However, the feature isn't perfect. Removing the brass statue on the left hand side left a weird shadow.

Five years ago today: Heavens To Chicken

Nothing But The Best Punny Headlines

There's a  lot going on here, but no matter how busy life is there's always time for smiles 😊

• Something went wrong in jet crash, experts say

• Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers

• Safety Experts say school bus passengers should be belted

• Drunk gets nine months in violin case

• Iraqi head seeks arms

• Is there a ring of debris around Uranus?

• Panda mating fails; veterinarian takes over

• Teacher strikes idle kids

• New study of obesity looks for larger test group

• Squad helps dog bite victim

• Local high school dropouts cut in half

• Enraged cow injures farmer with axe

• Plane too close to ground, crash probe told

• Miners refuse to work after death

• Juvenile court to try shooting defendant

• Kids make nutritious snacks

• Two sisters reunited after 18 years in checkout counter

• Killer sentenced to die for second time in 10 years

• Astronaut takes blame for gas in spacecraft

• Red tape holds up new bridges

• War dims hope for peace

• If strike isn't settled quickly, it may last a while

• Cold wave linked to temperatures

• Elderly couple slain; police suspect homicide

Five years ago: An Unexpected Musical Treat

Hooray For Me!

Today I completed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's easy sit-to-stand test (STS), which measures lower body strength, endurance, and fall risk. All I had to do was count how many times I could rise from a seated position to a full stand in 30 seconds. The steps of the test:

• Sit in a chair without arm rests.
• Cross your arms and place your hands on the opposing shoulder. 
• Keep your feet on the floor and your back straight. 
• Start a stopwatch (or note the time on a clock with a second hand.
• Rise to a full standing position, then sit down again.
  
• Repeat the exercise for 30 seconds.

There are scoring targets for men and women in different age brackets. Women in my bracket should be able to do at least 11 repetitions. I am pleased to report that I even did a couple more than that.

Have you ever completed this test? If so, how did you do?

Five years ago: Grateful Or Not-Fill It Out

Mexican-ish

Happy Cinco de Mayo! It's a day that celebrates Mexico's victory over France at Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. In the United States, people mainly use the holiday as an excuse to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas.

There were several places offering special meals today, but Hubby Tony and I chose to stay home and dine on leftovers of the homemade chili he made yesterday. I've never seen chili in a Mexican restaurant, but in my world it's close enough. 

Thanks to the "holiday" Tony had no problem finding ripe avocados to garnish the bowls. He also put out tortilla chips to complete the meal.

 Five years ago: "Four Dead In O-hi-o"

Rain...Rain...Cold...More Rain...

Not only is it still raining here, the temperature today is a chilly 20-degrees lower than average. 

Things will get better starting by the middle of next week, so hopefully this year St. Louis will only have a short blackberry winter (the Midwest's colloquial expression for a cold snap in late spring when the blackberries are in bloom).

Whenever I hear Mitch Miller I think of my parents, who were big fans of his.

Five years ago: Walk On

At Least The Temperatures Are Nice

I have been grumpy and out of sorts the past few days, but I couldn't figure out why until I saw a Facebook post from a local meteorologist. He said April 2025 has been the wettest on record in the metropolitan area. (In 2025 there was 10.85" of rain, which inched out the old record of 10.84" from 1893. According to the National Weather Service, the April average is 4.73" inches.)

Of course, with much rain comes much gloom. In the last eleven days of the month there was only one that had substantial sun:

Weather Underground

And between now and the middle of the month it looks like more of the same. Today there have been some teases of sun, but every time I've gone outside (or even thought about going outside) the sun disappears. 

I've been around long enough to know that eventually things will clear up and people will be talking about how dry things are. I can't wait for that day.

The Perfect Cup

I have a cup of coffee with breakfast and again mid-afternoon. A while back I decided to reduce my caffeine and switched to the smaller cups that came with our Fiestaware place settings. (Tony prefers to use the larger mugs). 

Cups small and large

However, for all other warm drinks I like to drink out a mug. The one I reach for the most came from a coffee crawl we went to three years ago. It fits well in my hand and keeps liquids warm.

BFF mug

 Last week Tony and I went to the Botanical Garden,where I redeemed a coupon for the annual member's gift. This year I received a lovely coffee mug.

Aren't the flowers beautiful?

That night I used the new mug for the first time. It fit well in my hand and kept my tea warm. However, the bottom was so wide that it did not fit in an IKEA cork coaster. The tapered bottom of my old BFF mug does.

Perfect

Five years ago today: Know Your Partner

Never Seen This Before!

When the weather is too cold/too hot/too wet Hubby Tony and I take our walk inside. One of the easiest places to go is the mall. I never know what I'm going to see there.

Every store has a large display window or windows. Of course, the purpose of those display windows is to get you to come into the store. The chain stores have carefully-designed displays with schematics that come directly from the home office. Smaller stores get to be more creative.

Most of the clothing stores feature mannequins sporting merchandise you can find inside. Sometimes the mannequins are realistic. Sometimes they come in unnatural colors. Sometimes they are missing heads or feet. With the exception of the plus-size women's stores, the stores in the malls I frequent put their merchandise on slim female and athletic male mannequins.

However, recently I saw an interesting development. At a lingerie and loungewear store, there was a male mannequin with shorts that fit under the belly of his dad bod pooch.

Five years ago: Lavandula

Repairing A Rip

The nighttime temperatures have warmed up enough that it was time for the flannel bedding to go.

Today I stripped the bed when I rolled out of it, then tossed the sheets and mattress pad into the washer. When the load was dry I folded the flannel and stored it in the linen closet until the fall, but before I could remake the bed with warm weather percale sheets there was a project to do.

I purchased the bed's quilt and dust ruffle in 2020. The center decking of the ruffle (the part between the base and mattress) was made from lightweight, non-woven material. Several months ago I noticed that it was tearing away from the ruffle piece on the right side of the bed. I didn't do anything about the issue and the rip got larger and larger; today when I took off the ruffle to make the repair there was a ten-inch long rip to sew back up.

The spare bedroom in the condo also serves as my office and sewing area. The sewing machine is pushed against the wall, halfway between a doorway and a large cat tree. There's not quite enough room to open up the cabinet all the way, which means not a lot of room to spread out a large piece like a queen-sized dust ruffle, but I did my best.

After sewing the ripped seam back together I wanted to stabilize the area so it wouldn't tear again. I got rid of most of my leftover material when we moved, but a piece of grosgrain ribbon did the job. The color didn't match, but it would be hidden under the mattress.

When I was ready to put the bed back together Hubby Tony helped me take the mattress off the base. I laid down the dust ruffle, then we rotated the mattress and lifted it onto the base. I did the rest of the bed making and called the job done.