My day | Peaches Prattlings

{April 3, 2021} What…a day! Sun’s out…Top’s Down!

Just another typical Saturday, not much happening…except…

Up early…hot yoga…without PSM! What?! Yeah, on Thursday, we took hot yoga together and he told the instructor he wouldn’t be there, but I would…to represent us. What?! So…set the alarm for 645am and hot yoga, here I come. It was in the high 30s when I left the house…brrr, but about 45 when I came out of yoga, and I was sweating, so…top down on the car, ahhh…smoothie on the way home, what could be better?!

Got home, added a thin sweatshirt under my favorite heavy Keystone sweatshirt, got the pups out of the crate and to the park we went. It’s Spring, the flowers are blooming and people are going outdoors, nice! The park wasn’t too crowded, we did a few doggie greetings, and a kid even stopped us and asked if he could pet the dogs, especially Bee, beagles are his favorite dog breed. At the park, we walked through a Bald Eagle breeding ground, someone we passed told me there was a nest and there were 2 eagles in a tree, I couldn’t find them, bummer. There was even a sign “Bald Eagle Breeding Site, Don’t Linger and Be Quiet”. I really wanted to see them, maybe next time!

Back home, breakfast for all and to relax! While we dined, I watched the first episode of season 7 of Brokenwood, a mystery series based in New Zealand I’ll tell you about another time. It was great, I called my dad right after to talk about it since he had watched it the other day and was waiting for me to talk about it.

I showerd, got dressed, threw in a load of laundry, and loaded the pups in the car, top down, we were going to the bank, problem was…bank was closed, oh well. Drove around for a bit with the dogs then headed home. Ruby was happy to be out and in the car, Bee just didn’t want to get left behind! She’s up and happy and looking out the window when we’re stopped, but while the car is in motion, she is hunkered so far down into the seat, I think she’s hoping it will swallow her up! ha ha

We got home and the guy is doing amazing things fixing up our yard was there, we caught up for a bit, talked about Spring Break, plants, yards, forsythia, which he calls forcynthia, which I love! and then, into the crate with the pups, into my new black suede Indian Motorcycle jacket, I had to take it for a spin! It was about 75 degrees out at this point and even though it was warm, it was still a little windy, so I was very happy to have the jacket on.

I rode out to Castlewood State Park, not a far ride, rode through the park, there was a road that you can normally drive on, but it was closed, so I drove out of the park, down this fabulous winding and winding road, ended up on a main drag and kept going, it was great. I eventually turned around and headed back towards home, stopping at a Starbucks to enjoy a tasty beverage and a break, then headed home again.

Pups out of the crate, walk around the neighborhood, dinner for them, dinner for me. I tried something new, I roasted an artichoke and wow! It was fabulous! I can still smell the garlic in the house! y u m! I will be making that again! Then it was relaxing time! I finished an episode of Endeavour, I’ve been trying to finish the episode for about 3 weeks! It was good! Then it was RuPaul’s Drag Race and after the pups went to bed…I headed to the basement and made some really good progress with the stuff I brought back from Colorado. Grabbed the laundry and headed upstairs.

And now…I sit here talking to you, I moved the laundry basket to the floor so I can’t see it, I’ll take care of it tomorrow! So…there you have it, typical Saturday, not much happening, ha ha!

{April 2, 2021} Did I really do that?! Oh my gawd!

Hanging my head in shame, sigh, oh brother. It’s Passover, I did the big one you’re not supposed to do and it’s so silly how it happend!

One of the rules with Passover is not eating bread and I have been good this week, until last night…There’s actually no bread in the house, for my fabulous breakfast egg sandwich, I have been having it on matzah and it’s actually yummy. Every year, when Passover rolls around, I actually try to stay away from bread for a while, see how long I can last, go healthier, sometimes it works, sometimes…

So…last night we went to yoga, then decided to go to dinner and found a place with a veggie burger, let’s go! It was the Three Kings Public House, and it was pretty good. We started off with one of the best bowl of brussel sprouts I have ever had! I think they were blanched first, they were tender and not very bitter, then they were sauteed in homemade garlic oil, topped with parmesan cheese, candied almonds, and sweetened dried cranberries. It was fabulous! I could have eaten the entire bowl!

PSM ordered seafood stew and I ordered a veggie burger, which turned out to be a spicy black bean burger, of course, but I had dinner! It came with lettuce, tomato, and pickles, and avocado, along with sweet potato waffle fries, unfortunately with waaayyyy too much salt, but put enough ketchup and mayo on almost anything, problem solved. After I ordered I smacked my forehead and thought, duh! When the waiter came back, I asked him to lettuce wrap my burger, that threw him for a moment, but it came out just as I ordered.

When we were finished, PSM decided he was in the mood for something sweet and we ended up getting the dessert menu. The only thing on the menu I could eat, because the other two items: chocolate and cheesecake, no thanks, was bread pudding, sure, let’s get that. Not thinking in the least. It came, it looked good and it tasted alright, it was a little dry, but enjoyable and I haven’t had bread pudding in a while. I’m actually picky about my bread pudding, it’s always hit or miss when I have it.

There we are, munching away and half way through, I had put my fork down about a minute earlier, I had a total D U H moment! I smacked my forehead and exclaimed “Seriously?! O M G! I just ate BREAD pudding! It’s Passover, what’s ONE big thing you’re not supposed to eat? And it’s in the NAME of the dish!” I couldn’t believe it! I have been so good, then I do something like that! It’s in the name!

Where is the DOH/Forehead Slap emoji?!

{April 1, 2021} Why can’t a woman be more like a man? HA HA

Before you start crowing, I was listending to Pandora radio and one of my favorite stations is Broadway Musicals. As I’m working, Why can’t a woman be more like a man? from My Fair Lady came on, sung by Rex Harrison.

The musical, which originated on Broadway and then was made into a motion picture staring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn, sigh, one of my alltime favorite actresses, yes I know, I know, I have many, but she was…well, that’s another post for another day. And another post…the fact that Julie Andrews made that role on Broadway, but was denied the role because the producer, Jack L Warner didn’t think she was well known enough as a screen actor, humph I say! Don’t get me wrong, Audrey Hepburn was fabulous in the role, but c’mon on!

The tagline from IMDB: Snobbish phonetics Professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make flower girl Eliza Doolittle presentable in high society. That about sums it up. She’s poor and uneducated, he’s rich and possibly over educated. She doesn’t think she’s better than anyone, meaning, she is who she is, but she would like to improve her station and be a little more polished, she has a great song Wouldn’t it be loverly, truth be told, that was where I heard and first started using the word loverly, it’s a simple song of the simple things she wants in life. On the opposite end, he thinks he’s better than everyone, there’s no filter when he opens his mouth and his mother just shakes her head when he comes around.

Eliza overhears Henry Higgins identifying different individuals accents while outside of the theater one night, even claiming he could make her a proper lady. Eliza goes to his house the next morning wanting to hire him to give her elocution lessons, she wants to ‘talk better’.

Digression here…one of my favorite lines from Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith, who is having a conversation with Joan Cusack about taking speech classes. “What do you need speech classes for? Ya tawk fine!” Classic! Back to our regularly scheduled program…

Higgins agrees to take her on and “class her up”, he’s going to work with his house guest, Colonel Pickering, played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, to do it. The goal…the Embassy Ball, to see who they can fool. They work day and night, Eliza suffering through the torture he puts her through, while he suffers through the tireless effort he’s putting in, interesting take on things, different viewpoints. She manages to make it through, imagining all the ways to kill him! Just you wait. And for some reason he can’t understand why he can’t get along with women…

All of a sudden, she gets it “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain“, try saying that through a mouth full of marbles…and there is much joy and praise in the house, but…not for Eliza, it’s all for Henry Higgins, for all the work he’s done…The first test…take Eliza to the races to meet her mother and see how she fits in with the upper crust, she passes, mostly. She only says what she’s told, sort of, until the first races starts, then the gutter snipe comes out, for a moment, it’s priceless, and she actually charms a few people with it, especially one young man, but that’s another story for another day. Well, wait, here’s a man who falls in love with her, who just wants to be On the street where you live, but who does Eliza eventually fall in love with? Yup…

Back to the purpose of the post. After the races, which was a success, we are off to the Embassy Ball, where she is stunning, and stuns. She is regal and refined, and any other r words? She’s polished and proper, and a thing of beauty, she charms everyone and the Queen of Transylvania asks her to dance with the prince. She is now what she wanted to be, polished and proper, she could do anything, get a job in a flower shop, she could run the flower shop, she could probably marry well, who knows. Keep in mind, the story is set in London 1912, none of this would be considered wrong, unheard of, out of the ordinary.

Well, what happens when they get home from the ball, Higgins and Pickering are so very proud of themselves, the household staff have been treating him like he’s all that and the bag o’ chips, they don’t pay Eliza much mind and no one says anything of what she’s done for herself, she put in the hard work, but does anyone notice, nope and Eliza finally realizes she doesn’t have to take that shite anymore and leaves, good on ya!

In the morning, when Higgins realizes she’s gone, he’s put out and out of sorts and doesn’t understand why. He can’t understand, after the triumph of the ball, why would she leave. Dense… and he goes into the reason we’re here, Why can’t a woman be more like a man? It’s a sort of conversation with Colonel Pickering, but more the musings of obnoxious, self-centered, misogynistic, need I go on?

If you actually listen to the lyrics, you have to laugh, and to hear it as a song, and if you never really paid attention, but then all of a sudden it hits you, wow. “Why can’t a woman be more like a man? Men are so honest, so thoroughly square;Eternally noble, historically fair.” really? “Why can’t a woman take after a man? Men are so pleasant, so easy to please. Whenever you’re with them, you’re always at ease.” seriously? “Why is thinking something women never do? And why is logic never even tried?
Straightening up their hair is all they ever do. Why don’t they straighten up the mess that’s inside?” Are you kidding me? Seriously, you just have to laugh. Just take a listen, something about it set to music…Now…I have a feeling there are some people who still feel this way, who am I to judge?

And what happens in the end? Eliza goes to Henry’s mother’s house, where he finds Eliza and she tells him she doesn’t need him any longer and walks out. What happens to Henry Higgins? What do you think he realizes? I’ve grown acustomed to her face. At home later, he’s mooning over her and she appears, you don’t see it, but you know she puts him in his place, she’s put up with him and he realizes he can’t or doesn’t want to live without him.

And all the things he moaned about…why can’t a woman be like him? All the reasons he fell in love with her. Go figure…

{March 30, 2021} The Court Jester

The Court Jester is one of my all time favorite movies. I know, I know, I’ve said that before, but if you have spent any time with me and my family, especially when I was younger, it was Danny Kaye all the way.

I truly have been a Danny Kaye fan most of my life and one day I’ll tell you all about the other movies of his I love, like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, yes, before Ben Stiller‘s version, White Christmas with Bing Crosby, A Song is Born, the list goes on. But…today, I’m going to tell you about a movie that myself, my dad, my sister, and my mom all loved. When we were kids, we spent our summers in Mastic Beach, NY, which is on the South Shore of Long Island. We had a VCR, for those of you under 45…ha ha, that’s a video cassette recorder, you would put the cassette tape in, watch it and then have to rewind it before you took it back! and we would bicycle or drive to the library and get movies out.

Two movies that my sister and I absolutely adored were Walt Disney’s Cinderella [1950] and The Court Jester [1955] with Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury. Some of you will know who all of these people are, but I’ll give you other references if that helps. I told you about Danny Kaye, but…you might not remember that he played Dr Burns, the dentist on The Cosby Show. Glynis Johns was also the mother, Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins and the grandmother in While You Were Sleeping, she used to come into the deli I worked in, in the Hamptons! Basil Rathbone was most famous as Sir Guy of Gisborne in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and personally, I think he was one of the best Sherlock Holmes. Lastly, there was Angela Lansbury, Miss Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast, and probably most known as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote. Ok, now you’re caught up on some of the bigger names in the movie.

The tagline in IMBD: A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King. That pretty much says it all. It’s an action/adventure story, with a little swash buckler thrown in, romance, intrigue, all wrapped up in a musical. What more could you want?!

Danny Kaye plays Hubert Hawkins, he’s part of The Black Fox’s band of merry men, gives you a Robin Hood type of vibe. His role is to entertain the merry men, but he wants more, he wants to be out there, on the front lines, fighting, but The Black Fox feels he is best suited where he is. King Roderick I is on the throne, but not by birthright and he is constantly looking over his shoulder because there is a rumor that the royal baby was missed, the rightful heir to the throne and he can’t have that!

His righthand man is the evil Sir Ravenhurst, who does the kings bidding. Basil Rathbone can play a mean one, he can. Little known fact, he is best known for his fencing skills as the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history, what do you think about them apples! He really was great, it was a treat to watch his skills with a blade! What he did made Danny Kaye look good in their scenes.

Something happens at The Black Fox’s camp and Hawkins has to go with the Maid Jean, Glynis Johns, who happens to be The Black Fox’s Captain, to deliver the royal baby to the castle and take the throne back for the royal baby. Along the way, they meet Giacamo, King of Jesters and Jester to the King, and Hawkins takes his place when he gets to the palace, perfect cover!

Throughout the movie there is laughter, silliness, sword fighting, poison, intrigue, romance, spells, threats, singing, dancing, and to top it all off, a baby with a royal birthmark. What more could you want?!

The songs are clever and fun, with Danny Kaye, you know there has to be hillarity, some of the best scenes are where he is being a total goofball. The best scenes also have the most tongue tying lines! “The pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.”

Here’s a quote from IMDB about that line: Danny Kaye’s daughter, Dena Kaye, said for the rest of his life, when people recognized Danny in a restaurant, they would walk up and spout the entire “brew that is true” speech.

I mentioned romance, right? Hawkins is awkward around women, and when he appears at the castle, Princess Gwendolyn’s handmaid, Griselda, who is also a witch, puts a spell on Hawkins to romance the princess to save her own neck! She makes him braver than he ever was!

The reason I’m telling you all about this movie and these memories is I has it on as background while I was working today. There are certain movies and tv shows that I have seen so many times, I don’t have to actually pay attention to them, I can have them on in the background and still get work done. I might sing along, maybe to The Maladjusted Jester, or Life Could Not Better Be, or any of the songs he sings. When GES and I watched this movie, the same thing with Cinderella, we would watch it, rewind it, then watch it again, rewind, watch, repeat. We don’t have to say much more than one of the lines and we’re off and running, quoting lines and laughing with each other.

Today, while I was watching it, I actually recorded the Pellet with the Poison scene and sent it to my dad and sister, sent good vibes into the universe and got them right back.

My hope is that any one of the clips I posted has maybe piqued your interest just a bit, maybe you’re curious to explore the world of Danny Kaye, even try to find The Court Jester and check out all the merriment. Even if you just watch the clips, maybe look for additional clips and laugh, I’m good with that!

Get it. Got it. Good. Yes friends, if you’ve ever heard me say that…now you know where I got it!

{March 29, 2021} I wish I could use telepathy to blog

I know, it might sound crazy, there are so many reasons someone might want to use telepathy, and by the way…telepahty is apparently one of those words I have trouble typing without sounding it out. Do you have any of those words? I digress..shocker!

Back to my reason for this post. I know there are many reasons someone might want to be a telepath or have that ability, not here to talk about that, but the reason I want it…so I could blog any time! There are so many times I think about things I want to tell you and I’m not near my pc or even able to use my phone to jot down notes or even dictate, so…how great would it be if I could just think my post and there it would be?

Yeah, that’s about it. Are you loving this? This might be my shortest post in a long time.

You’re welcome. ha ha.

{March 28, 2021} Start with a Ride…End with a Seder

Sounds like the perfect Sunday to me, right?! It’s the second night of Passover, but the seder isn’t until the evening, so we planned a motorcycle ride with some of the guys from our group and another group.

It was supposed to get warm, up to about 57 today, sounds good. I layered up, had my Cuddl Duds on under my jeans, high-top sneaker knee socks, a long sleeve Indian Motorcycle shirt, my Looney Bin zip up sweatshirt, it’s not a thick sweatshirt, but it fits under my Indian Motorcycle Jacket. I wore leather gloves and covered my face with the neck gaiter I got at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. You’d think I was warm enough! Think again! O M G!

The wind, which was not supposed to come in, came in, and oh my word, it was frrreeezzzing! My legs, arms, and chest were fine. My feet and hands…let’s just say when I got off the bike at our first stop, I had trouble walking my feet were so cold and I stayed in the bathroom a few extra minutes, under the warm air dryer! PSM had even given me glove liners, didn’t help after the first 20 minutes!

We had met two of the guys at the usual starting point, then we rode into Illinois, it was about a 25 minute ride, met the rest of the folks that were riding, everyone one geared up, leather chaps, heavy winter coats, face coverings, the works. Mother Nature was trying to beat the tar out of us! She was succeeding. We left from the parking lot and rode to Grafton, only about a 30 minute ride from where we were.

At that point, after I came back from the hand dryer, which I considered taking with me! PSM and I decided we couldn’t keep going with them, they had about another 60 or 70 mile ride. On any other day, I would have been with them, I just couldn’t do it. I was also feeling the weight or in this case, the lack there of, of my bike. It’s a heavy bike, it weighs just under 600 pounds, but what this wind was doing, I was fighting some times to keep her straight, I was never in danger of falling, it just took a little more to keep her upright.

So…we bid everyone a fond farewell and headed back into town in search of breakfast. I will tell you, PSM was texting with one of the guys, they all felt like they had gotten the you-know-what beaten out of them! I think we made the right decision. Before I do another ride like that, much warmer gear!

We rode into Grafton, IL and looked for a place to eat. Google Maps listed a place that said “Great Weekend Breakfast”, perfect! We parked and went in. Guess what they didn’t have. Really? We looked for a few options and settled on the Alton Village Inn Pancake House, sorry, I could only find their menu online, the other links wouldn’t help you if you were interested! It was warm! They had hot tea and decaf coffee, we were happy! The service was pretty good and we were feasting on a veggie omelet and hash browns in no time. Ahhhh.

Eventually, begrudgingly, ha ha, we got back on the bikes and headed home. After getting the pups out of the crate, I headed in one direction…the hottest, steamiest, hottest, did I mention hottest? shower I could take! I took a few extra minutes in there, it was hot and steamy! And I finally started to get feelings back into my extremities again. Warm clothing on, we did stuff around the house and relaxed and eventually, it was time for second night seder with PSM’s family.

I was also able to sneak in a Zoom hello with my family, that was dad, LaLa, my sister, GES, my b-i-l ACS, and my nieces, EJS, and MGS. They were also zooming with extended family friend, I haven’t seen them all in a while, it was great! This was while we were on a break from PSM’s family. Tonight went a lot quicker than last night, less people so less technical difficulties, still a lot of fun, stories, laughter, and love, and food, always food. We went through the exodus out of Egypt, drank our four cups of wine, but…BTK, who wrote up the virtual haggadah added two extra blessings over the wine for PSM and I, hmmm…broke matzah, brought it together again, let in Elijah, and were blessed, what more could you want?!

We started with a ride and ended with a seder, life is good!

{March 27, 2021} Chag Sameach [Happy Holiday]

Tonight is the first night of Passover or Pesach in Hebrew. The story of Passover is the Jews exodus out of Egypt in the time of Pharoh. There are great stories associated with Passover, the exodus, Moses, Pharoh [they weren’t all bad!] and I’m sure we’ve talked about them in the past, check this one out A zissen pesach [I actually titled this post A zissen pesach, imagine my surprise when I found my past post A zissen pesach! Here’s another A Happy Passover. The links I added can give you lots of insight! into the holiday, but that’s not what I want to talk about tonight.

Passover is actually one of my favorite holidays, in case you didn’t know! I’ve loved it since I was a kid, mostly because it’s the time my family gets together and spends time with each other, shares stories, food, friendship, camaraderie, and love. What more could you want?! We started at my grandmother’s house in Brooklyn, NY, then moved it to Staten Island, NY, where I grew up, then my sister’s house in Boston, MA. When I met PSM, we did the divide and conquer, First Night Seder with my family, second night seder with his family, win-win!

Even though our families and some of the traditions are different, the basics are the same. Similar seder meal, same prayers, maybe not said or sung the same way, but the same, and rules, rules for what we eat and how we eat it, some of the foods are the same because they are part of the story and seder, the haggadahs, the prayer books, might not be the same, but you could almost interchange them. But the one thing that is the same, the laughter that happens, no matter what.

Some great things came up today. First…my dad texted and asked where we should stop for pizza before the seder. This made my sister and I laugh. The tradition was…when we had seder at my grandmother’s house, my mom would spend the night before in Brooklyn with my grandmother prepping and cooking for the seder. The afternoon of Passover, my dad, sister, and I would drive into Brooklyn to my grandmother’s house, but first, we would stop for a slice of pizza. Even when we moved Passover to Staten Island, then Boston, we still had pizza as the ‘last meal’. I say last meal because it’s the last time we would have leavened bread, bread that rises, is made with wheat. Starting with the seder, we eat unleavened bread or matzoh.

I texted with a few Jewish friends today and one of my friends, one of my oldest friends from high school, CGS told me that she had been thinking about seders at my grandmother’s house, which made me smile, especially when she told me they were her first seders. As soon as she and I became friends, she was instantly a part of my family, and I became part of hers. She remembers how much fun and silly it was at my grandmothers and the best…she said she was thinking about my dad and the reclining chair!

The tradition stems from wealthy people in olden times reclining in their chairs when they ate meals. Not exactly the most comfortable thing today, but…it’s a tradition. Now…some people would use a pillow to recline, the thing that CGS reminded me of was the chair at the head of the table at my grandmother’s, it was actually broken and when it came time to talk about reclining, my dad would take the back off the chair and literally recline! That really was one of my favorites, and what a memory to share with friends! Thanks for that.

There were other traditions that we shared, and I could go on, but this post would go on for days. Tonight begins the Feast of Passover and I wish you a Zissen Pesach.

{March 26, 2021} Vegan Pho! Wa to the hoo!

We found a new place to go in St Louis that is not vegan, but has vegan offerings and guess who’s happy about it! Well, both of us! First, the food was really good and second, there is something or lots of somethings for both of us! Almost all of their offerings had a non-meat version! Wow!

We were looking for some grub and I went to my happy place, Happy Cow, and found something that was still open, not too far and had vegan options. The vegan restaurants were not close enough, and everything was closing in about an hour, and…dine in isn’t everywhere. So…I found DD Mau: Vietnamese Eatery, not far from where we live and we both wondered why we don’t go to that area very often, we definitely will rectify that.

The place is simple, a bunch of tables, spaced out socially distant, the centerpieces consist of a glass with three pieces of realistic looking, small fruit, an orange, lemon, and a lime. On the walls, now, that’s my favorite part…there was a mural of St Louis, hand drawn, but the other things…right up my bad pun alley…frame pictures of food items with cheesy puns. Two burritos dancing “Epic Wrap Battle”! A bowl of raman with two eggs on top “We are so eggcited to see you!” A head of lettuce “Romaine calm: There’s plenty to go around!” Have you met me?! I La La La Love that! The menu looks hand drawn and super simple and classic.

We each had a bowl of pho, mine was vegan, with vegan beef and PSM had seafood. We also got spring rolls with vegan shrimp and peanut sauce. These were the spring rolls made of rice paper. Now, don’t think I thought either of these vegan options tasted anything like the real thing, it’s just fun to have protein based options and why not. I do wish they had mock duck, one of my favorites.

The food didn’t take too long to come out, the spring rolls did come out a few minutes before the soup, which was nice. As we were eating, we enjoyed chatting, talked about some upcoming motorcycle rides and trips we are hoping to take, if…we can ever travel again. And…we remarked how good the food was, how close it was, and how we will definitely be going back. I am definitely looking forward to it, they have bánh mì, bao sliders, and tacos, how can we go wrong!

Overall…Two thumbsup!

{March 24, 2021} Impromptu backyard bbq…nice!

I told you we really like our neighbors, well, most of them anyway. Tonight was no exception. We got a text from next door about 5:40p inviting us next door for some food and drink and to enjoy the weather! How could we say no?!

We got the text “Hey everyone (orthogonal neighbors of ours), we’re grilling a bunch of food and enjoying being out on the patio for the nex thour to 90 minutes. Feel free to come over and enjoy some food and drinks if you’re feeling up for it 🙂

First…I have no idea what orthogonal meant! I did ask when we were over there! I didn’t have time to look it up, we had just finished work, we were feeding the dogs, grabbed two chairs and headed over. It basically meant the neighbors on either side of them and to the back. Hey, that’s a $10 word! It took me a minute just to pronounce it!

It was a feast! There were veggie kebobs, yahoo! Grilled chicken, shrimp, hot dogs, corn, potatos, and pineapple. I was a happy camper! The corn was fabulous, the pineapple terrific, grilling it took some of the citrus bite out of it, the potatos were perfect, and the kebabs, y u m!

We sat, ate, drank, chatted, sat, ate, drank, chatted, kind of a wash, rinse, repeat, but it was the best kind. Our hosts, have two girls, the youngest is adorable, has four teeth and she is using them! She hasn’t been on solid foods long, but she was loving everything she tried, chicken, potato, corn, peppers, you couldn’t stop her! Her big sister is a trip, bright, curious about everything, and so sweet, and…has her daddy wrapped around her little finger, it’s so precious to watch. M&KR are our neighbors, K’s dad JS was there as well, always great to see him. The neighbors on the other side of M&KR were there with their new baby A, so stinkin’ cute and loves when dad carries him around like a football, didn’t like it when he changed positions.

It really was nice to be outside, the weather was perfect tonight, most of today, actually, but really enjoying the time outside tonight. We talked lawns, grilling, home repair, Spring, families, movies, tv, blogging. MR had started a blog and stopped, she’s thinking about going back to it, I hope she does, I look forward to reading it if she does.

And true to the text, about an hour after we got there, it was time to head home, they had wee tots to get into bed. All in all, a joy, just what we have wanted when we move somewhere, looking forward to many more nights like these. It seems the fog is lifting.

{March 22, 2021} It’s really nice having nice neighbors

We moved into our neighborhood in November 2019, that was just long enough to meet our next door neighbors, and one couple down the street, and that was really it, and then…Covid shut everything down. Since we’ve lived here, we started meeting a few more people, or at least waving to them, then…April of last year, we adopted Bee and Ruby, and it’s amazing how many more people you meet when you have dogs.

I remember one of my first apartments when I lived in Atlanta, I moved in with someone who had a dog, Casey, a too smart for her own good Australian Shepard. My roommate started dating someone shortly after I moved in, so it was just me and the dog. We would go out every day for doggie happy hour, everyone would bring their dogs out to the big field out back, near the vollyball court, or what we sometimes referred to as the cat box…Everyone would let their dogs off leash and we would watch them have a great time. The funny thing is…we didn’t really know each other’s names, we knew the dogs names, and isn’t that what really matters? ha ha

Well, that’s what’s happening here, we’ve met so many more of our neighbors because they are out walking with their dogs and they know our dogs. I know I remember almost everyone’s name because I remember their dog’s name. And the same thing for them to me. Funny thing happened the other day…I was in the grocery store and I saw a neighbor without her dog and had to do a squinted look to think about who she was for a moment, kind of like when you’re a kid and see your teacher out of school!

It really is a nice feeling, seeing someone, saying hello, catching up, in your own neighborhood. I had that in my last house in Georgia, I didn’t have a dog, but I lived there for about 11 years, it was bound to happen. We had that a little in Hawai’i, people knew Molly, the four legged one, they liked saying hello to her. But here, I realized it this morning as we were walking the girls, and then tonight as I was getting the mail and one of my neighbors said hello and my name, but I didn’t see her in the dark!

Won’t you be my neighbor?

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What was I thinking?