In the last eleven days, I’ve been to three birthday parties, had company over to the house four times, been to one show downtown, been out doing a little plein air painting, spent at least one evening with Xena, Babalouie and Kitten, helped build my sister a sound booth, gotten a ton of work done, watched a dozen sunsets on my front hill and walked around assorted Lakes ten times. One of those days, it stormed all day and Jay and I didn’t get a walk in but another day was so gorgeous that I walked Nokomis with Jay in the morning and Harriet with my sister Katie in the afternoon.
So, if I haven’t taken any time to write in the last two weeks excuuuuuuuuuuse meeeeeee.
That’ll be funnier if you’re old enough to remember when Steve Martin was funny.
July is birthday month for our extended family. Wes, Vince, Annie, John G., Hattie, Jenna, Alex, Josie, Meg and Megan all have birthdays in July. I have a feeling I’m missing a few more…I apologize to anyone I forgot.
Josie turned 24 a week or so ago. She requested a dinner of ribs, corn on the cob, devilled eggs, croissants and cheesy noodles. We invited all her siblings, nieces, nephew, grandparents and godparents. This year, her beaux Nick was involved as well. The weather was spectacular so we ate out on the deck. No one makes cheesy noodles like Grandma Punkin, so I got all the ingredients but she had to make them in a giant pot on my stove. Katie and Josie both filmed her as she mixed them up, in the hope that when they try to recreate the recipe next time, it will work! There was chocolate cherry cake for dessert.
The next day, my sister Margy and her husband Jeff came into town for the Hubbell Open.
Hubbellpalooza didn’t happen this year but the golf tournament was still on, even tho’ JP didn’t come back to play in it. JP is the only one of the boys (including the brothers in law who play golf) who haven’t won it. Looks like he’s given up!
Margy and Jeff got into town late in the evening. They stopped over at our place with a bottle of wine and we had a late dinner. They stayed at an airBnB right over by Lake Harriet, in fact, right on the street we grew up on! Our street, one block behind the band stand, was filled with what we called ‘back yard houses’. They were tiny little cabins that predated the houses that eventually were built on the same lots. When I was a kid, there were at least three back yard houses behind the ‘real’ houses on our street. When Margy went looking for a place to stay, she was so excited at the opportunity to stay in the house behind what will always be “Spargo’s House” to us (that family moved off the street over 40 years ago), she didn’t even care what the price was. The cabin was literally a shack when we were kids but it’s been refurbished to a glorious state as an airBnB! A lovely little two story cabin with a walk out basement leading out to a spectacular stone terrace overlooking the trolley tracks and the park behind the band stand at lake Harriet.
The golf tournament took place on Saturday and Sunday. Six foursomes played and everyone had a great time. Margy’s boys didn’t come to town because they’ve all got jobs now and Dad doesn’t play any more but he and Mom drove out to watch the play. Then they got lost trying to get back to town.
If Dad keeps working hard on his physical therapy, he won’t be playing in next year’s tournament but he may be driving his own cart!
Saturday evening, we all gathered for an enormous 40thbirthday party for my daughter in law Megan. Tyler and a buddy of his threw a giant, catered bash for her, which included having the Company Cowboys play!
That’s the band that Megan’s Dad, Lennis, has played with since he was in high school. they played Ty and Megan’s wedding (9 years ago!) and they’re fabulous! The party was at Ty’s buddies house because of parking. Brian owns a landscaping firm, which happens to be right next door to his house, so a giant parking lot was available for all the party guests. They also had a flat bed truck on which the band could set up and play.
Tyler and Megan have a wonderful property but Brian’s place looked like a show lot for a landscaper. It was breath taking! I’m talking a huge stone patio, decks, pergolas, a self contained stream with a waterfall and a great big fire pit over the footbridge, a huge perfect lawn, big play set, a bouncy house and beyond all that, a roping arena, then the pastures with horses. It looked fake but there it was, real as could be.
The weather couldn’t have been better; clear skies, warm but not sticky; a glorious sunset. I’ll have to find out who the caterer was because the food was outstanding.
Josie, Nick, Katie and Adam all rode out with us. As we walked across the beautiful lawn toward a playset and bouncy house filled with little kids, Katie said "I'm so glad we didn't bring the girls!" I've never understood parents who bring their kids everywhere with them. Yes, this was a very kid friendly party but keeping an eye on one two year old is hard work; two of them is exponentially more work. Maybe next time. This time, Katie and Adam wanted to enjoy themselves.
In the middle of the Company Cowboy’s set, the birthday girl got up with her guitar and played a couple of songs. I’d never heard Megan perform before. SHE WAS GREAT!!
Half way through Bobby McGee, my sister in law turned to me, shocked, and said “Is there anything she can’t do?”
I’m sure there is. Everyone has their limitations. We simply haven’t discovered Megan’s yet.
After one day of play, Woody was up by ten strokes. In the 25 years of the tournament, Woody has won it ten times. It has actually been five years since the last time he won so I guess he’s due. As Andy pointed out, there had been bigger leads after the first day and bigger leads had been blown…but not by Woody.
So yeah, Woody won. By a lot.
The weather had turned again and it was wet and stormy all day on Sunday. After the tournament, we all met at my sister’s house to celebrate Meg’s 24thbirthday. While Katie spent the afternoon in the kitchen making the world’s biggest pot of veggie curry (yummmm; it was delicious!), Margy and I built a sound booth for Katie up in Meg’s old bedroom. No particular reason, just thought it might be cool.
Actually, Katie has been doing a lot of voice over work for the past few years. She’d been doing all her auditions in the closet in her own bedroom. Turns out, racks of clothes make perfect sound barriers! Now that Meg has moved out, Kate has taken over her bedroom. The room itself will be her new studio: she moved her drawing board and easel in a week or so ago. She wants to get all work related items out of her bedroom. Hey, don’t we all?
To change a little closet into a sound booth, all we really had to do was remove the high shelf and the clothes bar, trim everything to fit depth-wise instead of lengthwise and put it all up at the heights Katie needed them. The newly shortened shelf is now two shelves, placed for her computer and the bar is hung high enough for her microphone. She soundproofed the rooms windows to eliminate street noise and airplanes and several yards of wool stapled to the walls of the closet to muffle any echo finished it off. Sound Booth!
The party was a smashing success, culminating in a killer game of Catchphrase that went on for hours.
After a rainy Sunday, the following week featured the most beautiful weather of the year. It was hot and sunny and not too humid. We didn’t turn on the central air much at all. I had mine on upstairs: It gets really hot up there and I can’t be dripping sweat all over my canvases.
On Wednesday, we had some great friends whom we hadn’t seen in years over for dinner. We ate outside. We’ve taken advantage of our beautiful yard this year! I eat lunch out there nearly every day. This was the first time all year we’ve had a whole week without rain and we had dinner out there, with company, at least twice.
Friday, Megan and Ty dropped the kids with us and they went out for dinner. In addition to the three kids, they brought Josie’s new kitten into town with them. Josie and her friend Teal were here, also and we had yet another fun dinner on the deck.
After Josie and Teal took the kitten and left, I played with Kitten and gave her a bottle. She fell asleep and snoozed on a blanket on the porch floor while I taught Xena and Babalouie to play Mancala. They picked it up immediately. I had barely finished explaining the rules to Xena and she was figuring out strategies for both offense and defense. She beat me, fair and square. Babalouie nearly beat me when we played but his defense wasn’t quite as ruthless as his sister’s. He’ll beat me soon enough.
Saturday, I went to see Fiddler on the Roof with my daughter, Katie. I had seen the movie years ago but didn’t remember the story. All I remembered was that the music was great and I liked it. We both loved the show! The fellow who played Tevya was fantastic. The music is great, the cast performed it beautifully and the choreography was hot.
We saw the matinee and it was sunny and hot when we arrived at the theater. By the time I got home afterwards, it was pouring rain. Then Sunny had a fight with Rainy and won.
Jay and I have fallen into a nifty summer routine: coffee in the morning, work whenever, walk around a lake at some point in the day, drinks on the hill at sunset, dinner.
Life is good. Grand, in fact!