Weblog 251

December 5, 2010~ 1:15 am
It's been an EVENTFUL week! A week of snakes....



(Yes, my daughter now has a CORN SNAKE)- and a week of dogs and grandchildren DRESSED FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON...





...their front yard has moving, lit reindeer... their roof is trimmed in colorful lights and it's ONLY the 5th of December...everything's done but the tree, and the dogs and kids and house look WONDERFUL!

(That's some of the happy stuff, but the week started off rocky, to be sure.) On Tuesday morning, I lost my windshield wipers during a driving rainstorm while doing 60 miles an hour in the pitch dark on my way into work at 6:10am. LOL!!! (The damn things just made a sound like 'THUNK!', and stopped working.)

Hazard lights and the slow lane...my body shaking like a leaf, I drove the scariest 5 miles of my entire life, nearly BLIND. I pulled into work and called the car dealership.... rode in the tow truck back into Pittsburgh only to find the part that broke on my 3 year old Focus was 'obsolete'! WTF???

A rental car for Wednesday and (luckily) -my extended warranty, only set me back the hundred dollar deductible, but I can tell you I feel like the luckiest woman alive to be sitting here breathing this evening. Life sure throws some curve balls, that's for sure.

Friday evening however, I reunited with a cherished part of my past.

I'd gotten a call at work 2 weeks ago from Fr. Bill Rutledge, the parish priest from my formative grade school years. He's going to be 90 soon and he called out of the blue and wanted to meet for dinner. (His vision's grown so poor, he doesn't drive anymore) but he made reservations at what is now my FAVORITE restaurant in the Pittsburgh area.

Hartwood Restaurant.

Look at the scrumptious pictures across the top of their website. The food looks exactly like that and tastes like heaven! Believe me- I'm no culinary expert, but what I put in my mouth woke up EVERY TASTE BUD I have and some I never knew I had! The cuisine is something called 'Pan-Asian Pacific Rim'- the chefs originally hail from Maui. I had roasted walleye, apple chutney and mashed buttermilk potatoes. (A BIG LEAP for a cautious eater like myself) but I have to say the flavors got up and danced around on my tongue like little Rockettes!) Yep, it's HEAVENLY food, simply stunning.

Father Rutledge chose the place not just for the food, but for the ambiance. Hartwood is a quaint combination of bookstore and restaurant-- with working fireplaces (going blazes on Friday night) and stained glass, interesting nooks and crannies and layers and layers of things to look at. I LOVE IT! Wayne, Bill and I had a cozy table right in front of a crackling fireplace.

   

Here's Bill, standing and facing the camera at Hartwood. LOL!!



And here WE are, shoulder to shoulder, smiling for the camera.



My, how the years MOUNT! It's incredible that I've known this man for 50 years. Back when I was in 6th grade, Fr. Bill wanted to do something 'special' for our very German pastor. He selected 8 girls from the 6th grade class to form a singing group for a Christmas show in which we'd sing a few holiday standards, as well as Silent Night... in German. He carted us to singing lessons twice a week... had velvet red and green skating skirt costumes made with bunny fur trim and lovely white bunny fur muffs, and slowly but surely we turned into 'The Henriettes'. (Why the 'odd name'? The name of our old parish was St. Henry's) - and here I am in 1962, gazing into the Christmas creche in my living room at the old house, wearing the costume I loved so much.



And HERE'S BILL, from the same time period....



(Actually, in that photo he looks like he's FLOATING...he looks like a Magritte surreal figure. LOL!!) Some people are destined to stay connected. We've kept in touch through all the years since. Bill officiated at my wedding in 1972, and he's been present at all the major events in my life (even drove himself to Holly and Gary's outdoor covered-bridge wedding nearly 8 years ago, though he got lost and showed up late and nearly missed it....lol.) We've corresponded over the years and it's a connection that's been very important to me. He's a 'sticking post', the place I'm hitched to by way of history and background. Being together with both Wayne and Bill on Friday, having such a delicious meal... trading stories and opinions during a lovely catch up dinner was a superb gift this December. Bill's retired now, but living at a parish rectory in Glenshaw in his own private living quarters, still gardening (he had a vegetable farm at one time, working with teens in an inner-city parish, huckstering his wares to raise money for a seashore trip)- and he still keeps busy, still keeps his hands in dirt. Here's the GORGEOUS rose garden he sculpted last summer, just outside the rectory --(it was plain old, boring lawn before he got his hands on it.)



Bill has a way of turning whatever he focuses on into something of beauty, including people.

So this week has stimulated my 'attitude of gratitude': staying alive on Tuesday without crashing the car, seeing the grandkids and Holly's growing menagerie with, yes, the newest addition, MIKE THE CORN SNAKE



being held here on Saturday evening by Wayne (who LOVES snakes.) What a cute little bugger he is! How many colorful, moving wonders there are in this world! How lucky we are to experience and savor them. It's been........yep........it's been a fine week this first leg of December. It's gonna be a fine Christmas I think, with Kay's Christmas show coming up next Saturday evening in which she has both speaking and dancing parts as one of the 'Honey Fairies'. Life.........is just so damn good.




December 5, 2010~ 7:15 pm
Back now from visiting my mother. Took over a couple of light-up decorations for her room and some chocolate truffles. Regaled her with stories of dining out with Father Rutledge, and passed along the two pictures he wanted me to give her. She was very pleased. The ladies were all abuzz with talk of watching the Steelers play the Ravens tonight. (I usually catch the tail end of the game when they play in the afternoons on Sunday, but I'm afraid a game that starts at 8 p.m. is a bit too late for this early riser. Those gals will nod and watch and catnap all through it in their rooms, I'm sure. lol)

I wanted to share MY FAVORITE online Christmas game with you. It's 'obsolete' now......the business men who created it are now charging for newer versions and have taken the old original offline, but I FOUND IT --and saved it to my desktop! It's still there for downloading by using the Internet Wayback Machine, thank goodness) --AND YOU CAN TOO!

It was created in 2002 and will work with all older and newer PC's, and it's only 1.1 MB in size! Just click on the picture below, then double click the 'Download for PC' radio button for your very own version of



Elf Bowling
All you need do is press the spacebar to shoot your bowling ball aimed at the pesky, heckling, wanting-to-go-on-strike, overworked elves. Have fun! (I'm gonna play a few frames here myself. THEY GOT ME! THEY GOT ME! I LOVE THIS GAME!!!)




December 8, 2010~ 5:00 pm
There are things in life, just so strange...... you have to stop and take note. (As my son-in-law Gary did, when he sent me an email titled: "face in the chair".) LOL!!!

Undoubtedly you're familiar with photos of the famous face on Mars......



Well... now I give you... 'THE FACE IN THE CHAIR', taken at Gary's house. It's a photograph of one of their soft, upholstered living room arm chairs.



(His comment was, "I don't know if it's Jesus or the devil or Wilmer." ('Wilmer' being the former homeowner who's passed on. LOL!!!) It's a helluva thing anyway, isn't it?

You can see who ya want to................. as long as it isn't MARILYN MONROE!!!

My daughter Holly went to The Warhol last Friday to see the Marilyn exhibit and came home with a brochure from the exhibition. Seven year old Bill -('Bill the Fanciful') took a sudden and marked DISLIKE, even a FEAR of Andy Warhol's depictions of the blond beauty queen. (To be fair, think of how those garish Warhol colors, showing only the outlines of features- the heavy aqua eye make-up, etc., would look to a seven year old who'd never heard of her. NIGHTMARISH apparently.)

I made things worse when Bill asked me where she is now, and I told him she died young. She's dead... and that HORRIFIFED HIM. "Gram, you're scaring me!" "Bill," I said in frustration, "I can't even talk to you." "Talk to me about anything, but NOT ABOUT THAT MARILYN MONROE!" Oh God, I howled. Mostly because I can think of no one more benign and sweet as that lost actress.

She's......bunny fur......she's marshmallows and clouds. I think Bill would feel differently if his exposure to Marilyn had been more like this



THAR's 'Marilyn'.....as unthreatening as anything in this world. But it does make what goes on in kid's heads more and more fascinating to me. We just never know what we're writing on those little empty slates. Marilyns become monsters, depending upon the light...... and the artist. Warhol's RUINED MARILYN!! lol!!!!!!!

Some people do however, make silk purses out of everything they touch. I found the loveliest exhibit online of the Guild of Bookworkers. What those artists can do with bookbinding is incredible.



Click on the exceptional example above from artist Eric Alstrom, then click the other names on the left hand side one by one. They make me gape. They make me HAPPY.....all that beauty lavished upon the written word. Enjoy your visit.

(Oh, and back to faces- if you find any in your furniture or on your toast, etc. -- send them my way. I love 'em!.)





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