I’ve been so busy I barely have time to blink before I’m collapsing into bed for the night. We gave up on plein air painting this month because the weather has been so uncooperative. Either it’s been 90 or thunder storming or both. We’ll paint in the extreme heat but thunderstorms are bad. Our easels are mostly made of metal. And water doesn’t mix well with oils. Maybe July will be more amenable. There’s another class on Monday evenings but my next few Mondays are booked up. As much as I love painting and as much fun as I’m having, I was kind of happy for the extra time. There’s just so much that needs doing!
Last week, I spent two late afternoons chasing BoopityBoop around their backyard, again. It was really fun! When Katie got home from work, we fed them their dinners, had popsicles on the deck, gave them baths and put them to bed. Then we made our own dinner and watched a movie. We watched Game Night, which was laugh out loud funny! I definitely recommend it.
One of the goals in Dad’s physical therapy has been to get him strong enough for a visit home. He’s been working on getting from his wheelchair into the car and then back. He really wants to go home, even if its only for an afternoon, so he worked really hard and the plan was to get him home for the afternoon on Saturday. He doesn’t have physical therapy on Saturdays and it was Father’s Day weekend, so it seemed like a no brainer.
So on Friday, I went over to the house to make sure it was all de-cluttered and ‘elder proof’. Turns out, Dad’s the reason the house is always so full of stuff. Mom has no problem keeping the clutter to a minimum on her own. All I did was remove two throw rugs and an umbrella stand from the front hall. Since I was there, I figured I would dust and sweep. Mom has spent so much time with Dad that I figured she didn’t have time to do mundane housework. I was slightly chagrined to see that even with everything on her plate these days, the dust was nowhere near as thick at her house as it is at mine. I don’t usually get around to dusting until the bunnies have armed themselves and it’s them or me. I did replace two bulbs in Mom’s bathroom vanity that had blown out. She had mentioned to me that she’d bought new bulbs only to discover that even on a step stool, she can’t raise her arms high enough to switch them.
Shoulders. They’re the knees of the upper body. (I know: it seems like it would be elbows but it’s not.)
I got a little bit of work done, then it was time to go to my niece Hattie’s graduation party. It was at a lovely park not too far away. It was in the mid 90s and had rained a little but by the time I got to the party, the rain was gone, the sky was blue and OH, the food was good! The park house was full of people and good eats. Just outside were picnic tables and a lovely playground. All my grandkids were there and they had a blast at the playground. Xena and Babalouie were more interested in the toys and other people than the cake but BoopityBoop were totally into the cake.
It was chocolate.
They were a total mess by the time the party was over. If you really loved cake, I’d think you’d make more of an effort to get it into your mouth but they seemed very happy to be wearing it.
Katie was on her way to a Bachelorette party and she was leaving the girls with us overnight. It’s a testament to her skill as a mom that she managed to get both cake smeared toddlers into her car, over to our house and out of the car without destroying her outfit.
Josie came over after the grad party so she could continue playing with the girls. She and I stripped them down and got them into the bath tub. They showed off all their amazing animal voices for us. They do lions, elephants, sheep, dogs and cats. For weeks, I’ve been teaching them to answer the question “what does Nana sound like?” with kissy noises. While they were splashing around in the bubbles, I asked “what does Nana sound like?” and they both kissed the air! It’s working!
Zack got home as we wrestled them into their pajamas. For some weird reason, Boop wouldn’t look at him. Usually, they can’t get enough of him but she made a point of not looking at him. It was like she owed him money or something.
By the time we got them cake free and jammied up, it was long past their bedtime. I’ve got two pack-n-plays set up in the little bedroom off the kitchen and they’ve spent enough time here now so that they know that’s their room. They wear sleep sacks over their jammies, since blankets are no longer used in cribs. They do bring their little blankie friends to sleep with. Those are hankie sized blankets with stuffed animals attached. They love ‘em. I got them all ready for bed, put them down, kissed them goodnight and turned off the lights and closed the door.
Then Jay, Zack, Josie and I stood outside the door and listened as the two of them spent the next half hour playing, talking, singing and laughing hysterically at each other. Then they fell asleep and slept all night.
Boopity woke up in the morning right after Jay did so the two of them played for an hour or so until I got up. Then Boop woke up, too and we all had breakfast.
Zack had about an hour to play with them before he had to go to work. Boop was over whatever beef she’d had about him the night before and launched herself at him on the couch. She was shrieking with laughter as he tossed her around when he suddenly said “Wait, is this Boop?” He had assumed he was playing with Boopity.
“They really do look just the same,” he said, “It’s their personalities that make them look different and they keep switching personalities.”
Katie came to pick them up around noon and I had to run to my Mom’s: it was time for Dad’s visit home!
Several of my brothers and a few large, strong grandsons had met Mom over at the home and they all loaded Dad into Mom’s car and brought him home. Their house is fairly accessible, as the couple who sold it to them had wheelchair bound daughter, I believe. There’s a nice, long sloping walk up to the front door and the downstairs bathroom has a walk in shower with no lip. I don’t know how one is supposed to get from the front door to the lower level but that’s not our worry right now.
My sister in law had brought all the food that was left over from the grad party the night before, others had brought along some side dishes and I’d managed to make peanut butter rice crispy bars while BoopityBoop weren’t looking. There was more than enough food for the whole gang.
Dad was really happy to be back home, even if it was just for an afternoon. He’s missed it. A half dozen or so grand kids played downstairs while the guys watched golf at one end of the great room and the rest of us sat around the giant dining room table, looking through a bag of ancient photos my Mom had. We found all kinds of pictures of Mom and Dad when they were kids and lots of photos of Mom’s brothers and sisters.
We found pictures of Uncle Bruce that looked just like my brother Joe’s son, Hootie. We found pictures of Uncle Mickey that looked very much like my sister’s son, Finbar. We found a few baby pictures of Mickey and compared them to baby pictures of Finny. Finbar has giant brown eyes and isn’t as heavy as Mickey was but the similarities are still striking. We found lots of pictures of ourselves from decades past and we howled at our hair and wardrobes. What struck me the most about the wedding pictures we found was that so much time has passed since those events that all seem like they happened just a few months back.
That’s life for you.
One minute, you’re a high school football star, hoping the war will be over before you get into it and the next you’re a ninety year old with 43 direct descendants who can’t wait until the physical therapist says you can move back home to stay.
All things pass.
Around 4:00, the golf was winding down and Dad was pretty tired, so we got him packed back into the car. Four of the guys followed Mom back to the home to help get Dad out of the car, into his chair and back to his room.
It was a great start to Father’s Day Weekend.
Sunday morning, after Mass, Jay and I headed to Bunny’s for brunch. As usual, the place was packed. We didn’t want to wait for a table but there were some seats at the bar so there we perched. Turns out, the fellow sitting next to Jay was also an avid fisherman/golfer. He had immigrated to the US back in ’73 (I don’t remember; somewhere in Africa) and he and his wife live at our end of town, about two miles from us. We had a lovely brunch and the conversation was delightful. I don’t think I ever heard their names. Didn’t matter: brunch at Bunny’s is like that.
I really don’t remember the rest of Sunday. I think it rained some and when it cleared up, we walked around the lake. We did go visit Dad for about an hour. Bill was there but we missed Mom. Katie and Meg were arriving as Jay and I left.
Monday was Jay’s birthday. My husband is 63! This fact made us laugh; we always planned on growing old together, we just didn’t know it would happen so fast. Our plan was to walk around the lake in the morning but a few things happened to disrupt the plan.
The first disruption happened when Jay was able to get one of his former players on the phone. M had been Jay’s star way back in the early 80s at Jamestown and Jay’s first All American. They’d lost track of each other years ago and hadn’t spoken since the early 90s. Jay managed to track him down and thought he would leave a message on his phone but got ahold of M himself instead
O SH******!
Sorry about that: the deck I’m sitting on was on fire.
Thursday (today) Jay and I drove to Wisconsin to stay at a friend’s cabin. We’ve been here before, its lovely and peaceful and just under three hours away so we took the offer of using it on the non-weekend. We got here around 4:30, unloaded our car and settled in. Jay put the pork tenderloin we’d brought along for dinner on the grill, turned it as low as it would go and went down to the lake to drop a line. I pulled out my laptop, and am currently sitting in a chais lounge on the deck. The house sits atop a hill, with a long stairway through the woods down to the shore. I’m sitting amid the treetops and birds. It’s absolutely wonderful!
I’m loving it, thinking and writing and listening to the birds when suddenly I notice the grill is smoking more than it should be. I walked over to see what’s up and what’s up is that the whole thing is in flames! I slammed the cover back down and turned off the gas but it made no difference at all to the flames which by then were shooting out the back of the grill. As I stood there, stupidly wondering what to do, the deck railing caught fire. I doused it with the bottle of water I was drinking and rang the bell on the deck to summon Jay back up from the lake. Together, we put out the flames and pulled the grill away from the railing to check the floor of the deck beneath it. Nothing was smoldering.
The pork loin got a bit blackened around the edges. Jay sliced it up and threw it into a frying pan in the house. When it was thoroughly cooked, he turned off the heat, covered the meat and went back down to the lake. The fish were biting when he was so rudely interrupted.
So that happened.
It was more excitement than I was planning on having in Wisconsin.
Back to Monday: Jay got ahold of M and the two of them talked for an hour! M was a fantastic player, Jays first All American and after all these years, Jay still puts him on his All Star team of guys who ever played for him.
By the time they’d finished talking, the morning had slipped away and with it, the sunshine. We still wanted to walk but by the time we got to the lake, it had started to rain. It was nearly noon, so we decided to go out for lunch, then walk afterwards. Our first stop was Victors, over on 38thand Grand. It was quarter to 12 and the place was not only already packed, the wait was a half an hour. I didn’t want to wait. Jay was in the mood for some jambalaya, so we headed over to Stella’s. It was a good choice; Stella’s was not packed. We weren’t the only customers there but the place is huge and it felt like we were. Our waiter, Noah, treated us like the only customers he’d ever had or could possibly want. I had a walleye sandwich and it was delicious! Jay’s jambalaya did not disappoint.
On hearing that it was Jay’s birthday, Noah brought him a chocolate sundae with a candle on top after we’d finished our meals. It was yummy but we didn’t finish it. I still had a few peanut butter rice crispy bars at home and wasn’t about to blow all my sweet calories on a restaurant dessert. They never taste as good as they look and they never even look as good as what I can produce at home.
Dessert is another of my super-powers.
Dessert, the ability to grab hot things without getting burned (good thing!) feet made of wood and being rabies-proof. It’s a weird list of powers, I admit. I have no idea what my costume should look like.
We did manage to get a walk in later in the day. It never got real hot out but it was extremely muggy. I think we turned on the air conditioning but had to crank it down to about 67 to get it to kick on and remove all the humidity from the house. I do not remember what we did for dinner but I’m pretty sure it involved Manhattans on the front hill. That’s probably why I don’t remember the rest…
Tuesday, I ran all my errands, as usual. I went to see my Dad but missed him: he was over at the hospital, having his swallowing abilities tested again. He can eat soft stuff: oatmeal, mashed potatoes and ice cream. He can pretty much eat anything pureed. He needs to keep doing his swallowing exercises so he can get back to chewing.
That night we met some good friends for dinner over at Ciao Bella, in Edina. Neither Jay nor I had ever been there before. In fact, we didn’t even know where it was, despite driving right past it at least three times a week! You can’t see it from the street, as it’s completely socked in with trees and shrubbery. It’s in the midst of a neighborhood of high rise condos. There’s a Fuddruckers at the far end of the road but I had no idea there was such an awesome Italian restaurant hiding in the bushes!
We loved the place as soon as we walked in!
High end, packed but quiet, very nice; elegant but comfortable. Not a place for wannabes: totally for those who alreadyare.
We arrived ahead of our friends, so we ordered some drinks. I got a Manhattan. It was good but not quite as good as the ones Jay makes.
Dinner was delightful and delicious! Our friends had recently returned from living in Atlanta. The south didn’t suit them as well as they’d hoped. We had lots to catch up on and the food was great. I had rainbow trout and it was heavenly. The gal who manages the kitchen happens to be a friend of Tyler’s. We sent her our compliments and she bought us dessert!
If you ever eat there, Super Dessert Grandma recommends the cappuccino gelato; it’s insane.
I can hardly wait to eat there again!
Wednesday, I’d planned on getting to Sam’s club in the morning but instead Tyler dropped by and invited me out for lunch. Jay tagged along and we went to Barrio, in Edina.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten out three days in a row, when not actually on vacation.
Again, the food was killer. Man, there are a lot of fabulous places to eat around here! It would be really fun to make a mission out of eating at as many of them as possible over the course of the next few months…or years. My sister and her husband actually tried to do that a few years back but had to stop when they ran out of money. I’ve been to some I wouldn’t bother to return to: I’m not a huge fan of the Red Cow, for instance. But to others, like Ciao Bella, I will definitely return.
So that was yesterday. After lunch, I worked for a few hours, then got a text from MJ saying she and Katie were going to walk. Jay was sound asleep so I met them over at Katie’s house and we walked around the lake. We ran into three of my friends down there. Three! My sisters are all convinced I don’t actually have any friends, since I never leave my house but every other person at the lake yesterday yelled my name and hugged me.
It was very stressful; I could hardly wait to get back home, pull up the drawbridge and pull the shades.
So today, we packed up the car and hightailed it out of town…
Where we nearly burnt our friend’s cabin to the ground.
But the deck is once again peaceful and lovely, albeit a little scorched, Jay is back on the lake fishing, the pork was rescued, and dinner will still be delicious. We’re out of potable water but we stocked up on beer and wine before we arrived, so it’s all good.
And it’s the First Day of Summer!