May

Washed, dried and folded 1,242 tablecloths.
Brooke & Corey got married.
Corbin & Nancy got engaged.
PAP normal - yay, another year without cancer.
Oh, but wait - mammo abnormal.
Right hand surgery.
Mother's Day - text only from Nancy and Corbin.
Came down with massive cold/bronchitis.
Angie's husband died.
Mammo re-check - mammo, mammo, ultrasound, biopsy, mammo.
Pause 2 days.
All clear.
Three year anniversary of Dad's death.
Steve moved out. I kept Lydia.
Doobert transport - Steve had to help because of my surgery.
Sick as a dead pig.
Stitches removed - healing well.
Picked Lainie up from airport. Loaned her my car for a week.
Mike's memorial (couldn't go; still sick + no car).
My 59th birthday. Text from Brooke first thing in morning, and from Corbin last thing at night.
In re severe depression, made appointment for psych intake/evaluation.
Treated to dinner by Steve, Lydia and Bill.
Janet turned 33.
Joel & Janet's 3rd anniversary.
Still coughing.
Took Lainie to airport.

Fall is in the air and Satan is in my car

The weather has begun to turn. After "triple digit temps" last weekend, we've had rain, overcast and chill the past few days. Naturally this means I must make applesauce cake.

Applesauce Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Crisco
2 eggs
15 oz. unsweetened applesauce
1-1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons powdered baking chocolate
2 tablespoons cinnamon
a veritable butt-load of raisins

Directions:
Grease and flour sugar a square cake pan (or 2 loaf pans or muffin tins or whatever else floats your boat). Mix shortening, eggs, applesauce and sugar together until well blended but still lumpy. Sift on top the remaining ingredients except raisins. Fold until well blended. Stir in raisins. Bake at 350 F for 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Serve naked.

My car is surely possessed

It's doing that thing where it doesn't make that clunk when I take the mechanic for a little joy-ride, so he says it's no big deal. Meanwhile, I believe I received a sign.

Uber-Goober

In spite of that, to save the cost and hassle of a rental, I loaned Lainie my car while she was in CA for a week. She came down to accompany me, Steve and Margaret to Marshall and Judy's 50th Wedding Anniversary party. I was their flower girl when they married in 1968. Don't do the math.

This photo of my late father's wives is evidence that 

my propensity for befriending exes runs in the family.

From the party, Lainie accompanied Ma and Cory back to Modesto, and then I drove down to pick her up on Monday. We had a nice lunch (unfortunately Cory was working at the time) before schlepping back to Sac. It was at the cafe that Ma tried to get a nice posed shot of us together and we pissed her off with this:

She hates it when we ham for the camera

Not a lot of obvious progress, but fun instead

The mudding, sanding, lather-rinse-repeat continues in the hallway. This ball is in Steve's court and I am unable to help or proceed with paint or flooring until he completes the work to his perfectionist standards. (Thank goddess for his perfectionist standards.)

Even after his diligent curtaining-off of the hallway, plus vacuuming and flat-surface-wiping, there is a thin layer of dust all over EVERYthing in the house. EVERYthing, I tell you. I'm trying hard not to stress out about it but it makes my OCD itch.

Debbi came to Sac over the weekend. We originally scheduled her visit so she could help me play with glue goo and put down paper flooring, but since the hall isn't ready for that yet she and I were forced to shop, chitty-chat, eat, drink and lounge. Oh, woe.

Ain't we hot for a couple of old broads

Corvallis

Steve and I took a small vacation. We left Thursday evening and flew to Portland, where Lainie and Paul picked us up at PDX. After a dinner in the airport that was better than standard airport food, there was the long drive back to their place. I had forgotten how long that drive was and it made me feel bad for them, and grateful for them.

Friday we lounged around, rested some, read some, and generally just took it easy until about 5:00. After a light, early supper of fabulous salad concocted by Miss Lainie, we headed over to the OSU campus. Turns out waiting was a very good idea. Silly us, we thought we'd escape the summer heat by flying north, but it was 95 up there on Friday!

By that late in the afternoon, though, we skipped over the hottest part of the day. We wandered through "Green Town" to see all the displays of "green" innovations. We learned about making cob, saw a people-sized camera obscura (that was closed for the day, but we made a note of it), watched the tail end of the kinetic sculpture introductions, and enjoyed looking at all the electric vehicles on display. I discovered I want to make a greenwall.

There were also community art projects happening outside the entry gates. The theme of this year's festival was water, or rather, "H2 Oh!" Folks had created freestanding art accordingly. Lainie covered a flat, fish-shaped piece of wood with paper printed in a sushi graphic, attached a depiction of an Elvis movie to the front of it, and added the Darkside logo. She called it "Dinner And a Movie." Even if people couldn't guess her title for the piece, we could tell they loved it, as we spied many, many visitors shooting pictures of it!

Friday night we saw the Jacob Merlin band open for Cherry Poppin' Daddies. Jacob Merlin was really pretty great; CPD was great at the beginning and end but, I have to admit, kinda boring in the middle of their show.

It was a late night for these two who are used to nodding off by about 9:00. By the time we got home and relaxed, it was about 1:00. Some of us slept delightfully late Saturday morning. After breakfast and showers, we got a bit of an earlier start, though. The weather was cooler than Friday and we got out to the campus by about 11:00 to discover the sidewalk chalk art. It was a lot of fun wandering around checking it out and, thankfully, we remembered our camera that day!

Unfortunately, Paul had to work most of the day. While Lainie went off on her own to see the Wave Exhibit, Steve and I checked out the Art Village. The carousel animal restorations were amazingly gorgeous.

We sat awhile, listening to Common Pulse and Bon Ton Roulet at the Shady Stage. After pigging out on festival food Friday and half of Saturday, I discovered an amazing salad at one of the stands. It was spinach and mixed greens with strawberries, dried cranberries, candied pecans and a balsamic vinaigrette. Oh, man! It was absolutely delightful to eat such a cool, fresh, healthy meal in the shade while listening to those bands!

Behind us, on the Main Stage, a sound check for that night's headliner had begun. After hearing the usual, "One, two check. Ooonneee, twwwooooo, CHK!" for about five minutes, I glanced over my shoulder and saw in the distance several bodies standing at several microphones. Without waiting to figure out if what I was seeing was what I thought I was seeing, I jumped up (as much as my old bones can jump up from sitting on the ground) and raced across the grass. I was right! It was them! Out of their usual costume, dressed in kakhis and polo shirts, there were my boys! No one at the festival seemed to be paying attention, except for about ten of us who settled to the ground on the only patch of shade available, about 10 feet from where they stood.

Those of you who know me and my past must know that I am not easily starstruck. In fact, 99% of musicians kind of piss me off. Not these guys. I worship them. I've been wanting to see them live since the mid-80's. Now, not only was I seeing them live, but I was almost in their personal bubbles! It was like they were doing a pre-concert concert just for ME!

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a group of guys from South Africa, an a capella group, spreading peace, love and joy as they tour the world. Whenever I talk about them to people, I generally get the same response: "I've never heard of them." Yes you have, but you don't know it. Think back to Paul Simon's big hit, Diamonds on The Souls of Her Shoes. Remember the smooth harmonies and African beat in the background? That was Ladysmith.

Their less commercial music stirs something very deep inside me. I sat there on the grass, completely rapt in their presence. They did three numbers. At the end of it, I wept.

After a bit, we three went off to meet up with Paul at a Mexican restaurant in town. Giggles, really good food, blessed hydration - it was a good dinner break for all of us. Paul then had to go back to the theater to work until closing; Lainie, Steve and I headed back to the festival.

While Steve was great about schlepping the lawn chairs and picking a spot with a view right up the aisle for that night's musical events, Lainie and I wandered the chalk pictures some more. There were so many really great ones! We found Steve and settled in to wait.

A band from Zimbabwe called Bongo Love was opening that night. They weren't bad, but we all agreed they just didn't have "the groove." Maybe that was why we didn't notice - or care - that because of the aisle all we could see was people's butts as they wandered up and down, looking for a spare piece of grass on which to sit. When Ladysmith started their portion of the show, it only took a few minutes for me to know this Just Wasn't Going To Work For Me. Lainie and I both popped up and wandered forward, eventually finding some friends who allowed us to sit at their feet. This put us about 75 feet from center stage - a pretty good vantage point.

I don't know if I can describe the show without gushing too much. They were energized. They were funny. They were glorious, golden gods. (See?)

Because Lainie was a VIP (on the Board of Directors for the festival), she managed to do some schmoozing and get us backstage after the show. I bought a DVD and most of the boys sicned it for me (some were still cooling their heels in the RVs). We all shook hands, took a couple of pics, and there were huge smiles all around. When it became clear I'd have to let go and wouldn't be able to bring them all home with me, we made our exit and floated home.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Steve and I had a rather hectic, but fun, vacation to Oregon and Washington. We drove the whole way, not only to save a few bucks, but so that he could survey the sites around Northern California, Oregon and Washington.

Without giving a complete blow-by-blow, we spent one night with Mom in Sutherlin, Oregon. The next couple of nights were spent in Corvallis, Oregon, with Lainie and Paul. We got to see two films at Paul's theater: The Fall (omg, this film is So Great!) and Man On Wire.

Then we took Lainie with us and went up to Washington. After wandering a most-cool bookstore, we left her in the hands of friends in Seattle, then we took the car on the ferry to Bremerton where we had a faboo Italian dinner with Peter & Amber, Leslie & Jeff and Pat, as well as Amber's two sons. After one night in Bremerton, and breakfast with Leslie at the bakery where she works in Silverdale, it was back to Seattle for a couple of days playing tourist.

Finally, on Saturday, we got to Linda's house. This was actually the impetus for our trip - to meet Roberto and his kids, Ricardo and Noemi; to finally meet in person Greg (my evil twin); and to have that time with Linda before she moves to Italy. She made hummus and patlijan and tabbouleh; I made luleh kebabs. I only mention this because it is, of course, all about the food. We were so happy that Dale and Zoie were able to come, too, and we got to meet Linda's friends, Fawn and Nancy, and their twin babies. Unfortunately, Laurie and Beth weren't able to join us that evening (but we got to see Beth the following weekend here in Sacramento).

On Sunday, before picking Lainie up for the trip back to Corvallis, Steve and I had some time to kill so we went to Kubota Garden. It was perfectly lovely! We had a doggie bag of the previous night's leftovers, and enjoyed a peaceful brunch in the park.

The drive home turned adventurous when a rather sudden cloudburst eliminated all visibility for what was probably 10 seconds but felt like 10 minutes while we were hurtling down I-5. Paul, who was next to us on his Harley, had to pull off and sit at a rest stop with a gaggle of other travelers until the storm passed. Eventually, we all made it back to Corvallis safely.

The last evening of our visit we chose to forgo the rushing around and just spend the evening relaxing and chatting. It was quiet and very nice.

Steve and I drove all the next day to get home. *whew*


Complete photo album for Seattle trip is here.
Our Kubota Garden visit is documented here.