Another boat ride

Mr. Gadget and I are leaving the Calcondo

tomorrow on a two-week cruise.

We're going back to Connecticut

via the Panama Canal.

We'll be at sea for 5 days

before our first stop in Costa Rica.

We considered flying home,

but after further thought

we figured why should we fly for 5 hours

when we could float for 14 days

and take a shorter flight from Florida.

Sometimes we come up with the darndest ideas.

So I've reviewed the procedure for

blogging from afar

and I think I've got it.

But because inserting text and pictures

requires two different brain functions,

I'll just be doing the text part.

I'll try to make it colorful

and not too travelogy....

you know, like "then we did this and then we did that."

Or, "then we ate this and then we ate that."

Which reminds me, I'd better pack 

my extra-large pants.

Teapots

I finished one more set of cloth napkins

and mailed them off to a friend.

I bought the fabric years ago

with her in mind.

But I've just recently, finally,

decided what to make out of it.

This friend hails from Canada.

Prince Edward Island to be exact.

Back in our single days--

when we both had apartments

here in SoCal--

she taught me about the fine art

of brewing tea.

"It must always be served in a

ceramic pot, she said,

"And you must rinse the pot

first with hot water."

I had no idea.

I'm more of a coffee-drinker myself,

but on rare occasions when I have tea,

I heat up a cup of water

in the microwave and throw a teabag in.

When it looks about right I remove

the bag and put in one

packet of sweetener.

I'm never going to put milk

in my tea.

I just don't wanna.

Mr. Gadget drinks his tea that way

and he thinks I'm wrong.

But he thinks I'm wrong about a lot of things--

like for instance how I parallel park.

I don't wanna do that either,

so I don't.

But anyway, I made these napkins

for my tea-drinking friend

and I hope she likes them

and doesn't put them in a back closet to

save for a special occasion.

When she makes tea

it's always a special occasion,

and worthy of some handmade

teapot cloth napkins.

I'm hopeful she's received them by now.

Otherwise I may have spoiled the surprise.

It's a little like wallpaper...

...like when you decide to put a nice tropical stripe

on  your kitchen walls

and add a palm-tree border around the ceiling--

or some stenciling.

Then, a few years later,

after you've tired of the stripe,

you add a little sponge painting

and some sparkles.

Sometimes you do it yourself--

and risk a messy divorce--

and sometimes you hire someone else

to do it for you.

At some point you decide to sell the place

and you realize your walls are

hopelessly out-of-date.

So you begin peeling the layers off

and you can't believe what's underneath.

And you wonder why you went through

all that effort all those years

trying to keep up with styles

and what was trending now.

Maybe you should have just washed those walls

and put a little mousse on them now and then.

Today Clara, my Cali hairdresser,

cut my hair.

She said I'm 98% of the way

to my natural color--which, to my surprise,

is salt and pepper,

with more pepper than salt.

I'm quite pleased with the renovation

and I'm happy to say

my wallpapering days are over.

A world-class hug

Right after Mr. Gadget and I were married,

in 1981,

we moved to south Texas.

Very soon afterward,

I learned I was pregnant with Tech Guy.

I became friendly with my next door neighbor

who was about to become a new mom herself.

After her son was born

we began walking around the neighborhood

for exercise.

When the weather became hot

and humid, and the mosquitoes swarmed,

we walked in the mall.

We became good buddies.

She was like my mentor and answered all

my questions about the mysteries of childbirth.

"Well, yeah," she'd say in her Texas drawl,

"It'll hurt a little, but it's not so bad."

She was a very good friend.

And a very good liar.

After Tech Guy was born, we became known

in the neighborhood as

the two moms pushing strollers.

After a year or so

Mr. Gadget got a job transfer and

we moved to Connecticut.

We stayed in touch by mail and phone,

but eventually we found ourselves

communicating only once a year

at Christmas.

It was in our recent Christmas letter

that I gave her the news about Tech Guy.

A few weeks later a big box

arrived in the mail--

all the way from Texas.

Inside was this beautiful hand-crocheted

afghan.

In the accompanying note,

in her familiar handwriting,

she wrote of her sadness at our loss

and added,

"Wrap yourself up in this and consider

it a hug from me." 

 



No, I haven't croaked

(Imagine a cute frog picture here.  Blogger is being mean about photos at the moment.)

I'm still here, but I've been feeling poorly.  That flu bug I had last week just doesn't seem to want to go.

Fortunately, I've had good care.  Hilda the housemaid (aka Mr. Gadget) has hovered around me like a happy helicopter.  But now she says she needs to get back to her regular day job so I'm being forced to hobble around on my own.

So Christmas with the northern relatives was nice, all things considered.  Big City Girl arrived in good order (I think I already told you this) but not much good can be said for her return trip.  Her flight to NY was delayed 5 hours....and thank goodness that alert pilot in the plane behind hers noticed the fuel leaking out of the engine on the taxiway.

Then we had a small contingent of relatives (from Kansas) who followed us back south for a few days because they wanted to "do LA."  And if you've ever been to LA, you know it's not do-able in 2 days, so we narrowed them down to:  1) a train trip to San Diego (where my chin and nose met the pavement), and 2) a trip to the beach.

No sooner had my chin started healing up than my temperature started to rise.....and I'm still not back 100%, although my face looks much better and Mr. Gadget no longer needs to keep a low profile.

In addition to not blogging, I've been not knitting.  I've been reading though, and am about to finish a book I've enjoyed very much (The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty).  I've been reading it in large print, since that was the only copy the library had, and I must admit I kinda like that large easy-on-your-eyes type.  For some reason though, after I've read for an hour or two I feel compelled to head over to Denny's for the early-bird special.

Today I bought some yarn for a scarf.  I've knitted many scarves, but between BCG and me we never have enough.  Besides, I decided to put the red pest, I mean the red beast, on hold till the next time we're here at the Calcondo.  I'm going to have a much better relationship with it after I've had a little vacation--maybe like a two-week cruise.  In fact, if I don't start feeling better soon I'm going to schedule an appointment with a local doctor and see if he'll write me a prescription for one. I may have to turn on my charm.

(Here's a cute frog story to make up for the lack of frog photo.)