Sue's Birthday

and I get the day off from work and the sun is out (vaguely). We did the cake &ice cream thing last night with the kids because tonight we will be at Fenway Park watching John Lester & the Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays. The day actually started oddly due to the fact that last night when I re-set the alarm clock so I would be up to get the kids on the bus, I must have bumped the time off by an hour AND I neglected to actually turn the alarm ON. So when we woke up in a panic because the clock said 8 o'clock and we hadn't heard the kids, I ran upstairs to check -- the boys bedroom and Nikki's were vacant, so they must have gotten out the door ok. Now granted, I would bet any amount of money that Joe did not take his ADHD pills or brush his teeth (or wash face & hands and comb hair - God help up). We realized the mistake - corrected the clock, and crawled back into bed for another hour. At the REAL 8 o'clock we heard footsteps upstairs and were curious why Tim was up so early - exept it wasn't Tim, it was Julie (the one I hadn't checked on (which was ok - she has senior priviledges and a 1st period study, so she was going in late and her friends were coming to pick her up at any moment. So by 9:30, Sue has jogged 2 miles, done her yoga, and is ready to go out and about for her mystery day. I will let her post about it later, cause I don't want to spoil the surprize!

Softball 2009

Last year I assumed that Nikki would play school softball this year - but to my surprise (and Mrs Goodwin's dismay) she decided to stick with town league for another year. Due to enough favorable conditions, I will be able to Head Coach her team. The 2nd good news was that my friend Gordon (who is also the league president) is eager to be my assistant coach. 10 years ago he was my assistant with Coreys (and his son Cullen's) minor league Little League team - the A's. "And a good time was had by all". Two years ago I unofficially helped out as his pitching coach when Nikki was on his team. Now, although he has had plenty of success coaching softball and basketball teams on his own over the last ten years, we get a chance to team up again. I find it humbling that he would be eager to be MY assistant, but I am glad - because I already know that we have the same basic philosophy's and won't be second guessing each others moves or motives. That is a priceless situation in youth sports (isn't THAT a sad statement!). So like 30 years ago when in Hanson I had my buddy Corey Meiggs as my assistant, I will have someone who is a trusted friend to "work" with (really it's more like "play"). Now Gordan is quite different in many ways than Corey M, but the qualities of easy going, cheerful, good humored, and beloved by the kids are very much the same (and thankfully his daughter is a very good player). So this year should be a fun one - without pangs of longing watching from the sidelines. Granted, Gordon and I both need to be conscious of the fact that both of our softball-widow wives could be conspiring against us together on those same sidelines if we get too wrapped up in our fun and forget/neglect them through the season - which is always the big fear (we do tend to get foolishly self-involved during this time of year, and make them suffer unfairly). But maybe he & I can help remind each other. Maybe we can vow to take our wives out more during the season, but probably not together - as we would spend the whole time discussing players & strategies - not a smart idea!
So the challenge isn't about having a competitive team, but about fair & balanced playing time with the full-time people in our lives - and not getting blindly obsessed with this part-time adventure.
PLAY BALL!

bits and pieces

Hockey season is winding down - we are in playoffs and I've had some pretty good games these past two weekends. I was even complemented on a good job done reffing by one coach.
Softball season & baseball season are ready to start soon - Joe had evaluations and two practices already, while Nikki has Eval Day on saturday.
Burning season began a while ago, and this weekend we had a good bonfire, cleaning up lots of branches and old junk wood and even a decrepit wicker love seat.
Tax refund came and went much too quickly, but the mortgage & utilities are paid so I ain't complaining!
First thunder storm of the year tonight.
Ready for Easter & Spring!

So much for DIY saving money

Mary & Matt dropped off our new computer system, which used to be owned by Matt's previous company - so it is a top-of-the-line tricked out gaming computer powerhouse (just for a reference point, the graphics card alone is worth around $300 new), 1-year old, 20" flat screen monitor, keyboard, mouse & all cords/wires. Because nothing is ever as easy as it seems, when I set it all up, I discovered that the cord to commect the CPU & the monitor was missing. I am by no means a computer expert, but I do know that you need a VGA cable here. - but maybe there is something I don't know about this and maybe there is some other type of cable that should be used in this situation. So I called Mary and she confirmed (and apologized) that one cable got left behind at her apartment in Billerica. She offered to mail it down, but we both knew that Suzie wasn't gonna wait 3 days to play with her new toy, so I figured I would just run out and but a new cable (how much could it cost?). So with a quick list of other needed items, I headed to Walmart under the theory that they have everything. Well they don't - no VGA cables. Oh well - Radio Shack would have one, and they did have a very expensive gold tipped "replacement VGA cable". Of course, when I got home and opened the package, I discovered that it had two "male" ends instead of the expected "1-male end, 1-female end" version that I thought was industry standard. So I called Staples to verify if they had what I needed (before wasting valuable time & gas) and they answered that they indeed did. When I picked it up, I questioned the clerk because the package said "for 17" or smaller monitors" and ours is 20" - but he assured me it should work, the disclaimer only means it works better with the smaller screens. It was half the price of the radio Shack cord and time was getting tight, so I headed home with it. The Female end with the Male connector screws attached to the monitor, and the Male end with the Female connectors lined up with the Female port with the....... ?what?...... why does this computer port have Female connectors lining up with the Female connectors on the cord???? That's not right! Damn! So now I've spent 1 1/2 hours and $35 and I STILL can't connect the computer & monitor. And now we have to run off to the Play. On the way we call Mary to say we'll drive up to Billerica after the play - if she will be around - and get her voicemail - and she doesn't call back - for four hours (apparently she has a life!). Eventually, desparately, Sue gets ahold of her and works out a plan to meet her in Waltham - 50 minutes away and half a gas tank ($$cha-ching$$) - to eat at Uno's ($$cha-ching$$) - and get the cable - which by the way looks NOTHING like a normal VGA cable!!!!!!

PS: we DID have a nice visit & meal! and now the computer works wonderfully well.

Remember The Alamo

173 years ago today, The battle of The Alamo ended. I only know this because on the radio this morning they were talking about how Phil Collins has basically given up his regular vocation of music and is obsessively devoting his life and fortune to becoming "All Knowing" about The Alamo (not the usual progression for a British subject - I think you start as a geek and desire to become a Rock Star, not the other way around!). Anyway, today I feel much better about myself and my new Civil War interest - which I dare say has not reached "Obsessive Compulsive" stage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo

OCRVTHS

Normally, I would be stressing over whether I should get rid of the truck and pick up a new used vehicle or keep sinking money into repairs. But now Jamie is at OCRVTHS (Old Colony Regional Vocation & Technical High School) learning the automotive trade and the cost of repair work has dropped dramatically. Today he will be working on replacing a broken leaf spring hanger, U-joint for the 4x4 drive, a heat controller, a purge pump & solenoid - and if he has time, will repack the wheel bearings. He will spend about 5-6 hours working on these items. A local garage charges $50 or more per hour (that would be $250-$300 for labor - plus parts which they also mark up). Here, I buy my own parts (if I know what I need) at retail list (which is more than the garages pay, but less than they charge for it), or the school can order the necessary parts.

So - bottom line - I paid about $150 for parts and will have to pay the school a $3 administrative fee, and maybe a bit for miscellaneous bolts or clamps, saving probably $50-$70 on the parts & the afore-mentioned labor charges. At this rate, I can happily keep my old pickup chugging along (and the car, and the van) and avoid the cost, stress and uncertainty of picking up a new junkbox (lets face it - a new car is out of the question for a while).

I need to remember to say thanks to Jamie - so far the only child to earn his keep while still in high school.

Maybe I'll have to convince Nikki to go there & take up plumbing, and Joe to become an electrician. Sure, they may do better with a degree from Brown, but I'd do better if they take up a trade!!!

Monday Morning Blowout

7:45am, Rt 495NB in Middleboro, my rear driver side tire decided it had had enough- and blew out. Thankfully (and I did actually remember to give thanks to God as I awaited AAA's arrival) it happened to me, on a sunny morning, on a holiday for most folks (light traffic day), the snow banks were gone, and there was plenty of room and solid ground to pull completely off the hiway onto the median strip. I remembered how scared Mary was when it happened a few years ago to her one morning, and was grateful that it was me driving this time. I was thankful that it didn't happen to Corey (he was originally going to borrow the truck and drive to NH for the weekend, but that plan fell through). I was grateful that it didn't happen to me yesterday as I was driving to the rink (as it was, my refereeing partner was late arriving and I had to ref the first two periods alone, and Lord knows nothing happens quickly when you have roadside car troubles). I was glad it didn't happen after work when I would have been on my way to pick up Julie at the train station (she has already suffered enough "alone a on train" trauma. All things considered, it couldn't have happened at a more opportune time & place - so again I say "Thank You God" (although being thankful over a blowout does seem a bit unusual!). Back in the fall, I had attempted to rotate my tires because one of the front ones was starting to wear a bit unevenly, but I could not remove the spare from underneath the truck bed (probably been there since 1995) and settled for simply moving the front tire to the rear (thats the one that blew). Jamie's Vo-Tech school was supposed to swap it when they took it in for some other work, but didn't for fear of breaking badly rusted parts. So I knew trying to change my flat would be futile so I didn't bother wasting my time and I simply called AAA for help. Of course, as I was waiting for the AAA operator to pull up my information, I noticed that my account expired on Feb 1st. She then proceeded to ask me if I was aware of it. Thankfully, she was able to take my credit card information and renew me over the phone from the median strip. I told her exactly were I was located and she informed me that help would arrive in about half an hour. One hour later, the service company driver called explaining that he had just gotten OFF of exit 4 (the exit number I told AAA that I was just BEYOND) and couldn't find me. I politely told him to get back onto the hiway and IMMEDIATELY get into the left hand lane (in my rear view mirror I could see the traffic merging at the end of the ramp). A service minivan pulled up, manned by a clearly inexperienced young man who was completely unable to help me (I had actually anticipated a ramp truck and a lift to the nearest garage). As a final demonstration of his inexperience, he borrowed my cell phone to call his shop for backup! He then gave back my phone and left. In a while, I saw the ramp truck approach (wrong lane) and shoot past, and waited while it went to the next exit and looped around again. Impressively, the new attendant was able to get the spare free, and changed the tires. Of course the spare - tho not a "donut" - was a pickup truck version of one and had permenent indentations on the side wall from years of being tightly clamped under the truck. Instead of prceeding to work, I decided I would be wise to go get an actual replacement tire instead. So I am taking a sick day, bought a used tire for $15, spent $15 more to get it mounted, and finally unloaded the old treadmill I have been lugging around in the back (long story) and got #3.60 for it at the metal recycling place!
All's well that ends well!

It's a good day when...

you realize that not only did your college son get a good co-op job, but also that he showed up for work the second day too. Yea Corey!

your daughter is in the newspaper and it's not the police log or obituaries. Yea Mary!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/02/05/she_knows_where_the_bodies_lie/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed7

(well, it's almost the obituaries!!!)

Joe Horoscope

Joe has discovered Horoscopes! Every morning he clicks whatever button on our DTV remote and reviews all of our daily predictions, going through the entire family - reading and laughing or calling us in to see what's in store for us today - and he knows us all (Julie = Aquarius, Me = Pisces, Sue = Aries, etc.... because I don't know the rest).

So anyway, here I am = Pisces, through & through
(copied from Wikipedia)

Pisces is represented by a pair of fish that are swimming in opposite directions, but remain held together at the mouth by a cord. In astrology, Pisces is considered a water sign, and is one of four mutable signs.^[1] Like the rest of the watery signs, Pisces is considered a "negative", feminine sign, which in Astrology means it is rather introvert.

• malleable / impressionable ^[5]

• gentle ^[5]

• good natured / easygoing ^[5]

• compassionate / sympathetic ^[5][6]

• sensitive ^[5]

• dreamy ^[5]

• instinctive / intuitive ^[5]

• imaginative / artistically able ^[5][6]

• gullible / naive / easily led ^[5]

• spiritual ^[5][6]

• escapist ^[5]

• selfless ^[6]

Attribute
Likes	Feeling appreciated, feeling loved, freedom, stability, mystical settings/enchantment, dreaming, having their input valued, being unique
Dislikes	Feeling vulnerable, having no goals to move toward, feeling invalidated, being criticized, illiteracy, noisy scenes and displays, having no sense of structure
Ideal careers	caring for the needy as in the fields of medicine or veterinary medicine [5] • anything related to the sea [5] • acting [5] • psychics or mystics [5] • religion [5] • cooking [5] •

Stuck

The day started fun enough - Sue & I (and a handful of other parents) served breakfast at 6:00am for Julies Senior Class Lockin - 65 sleep deprived 18 year olds looking for bacon and pancakes and bacon and english muffins and bacon and sausage and bacon eggs and ........
Needless to say, the bacon ran out fast but the kids were grateful for the rest.

Then I got stuck having to run to Hanson to resupply the rabbit and chicken feed, but made the most of it with a long fun visit at Nenna's house where numerous brothers & sisters and nieces and nephews meet for saturday morning breakfast.

Then I got stuck having to do the dump run.

Then the 3 youngest talked me into bringing them skating at John's Pond - the summertime local swimming hole. Of course I got stuck tightening everybodies skates which I hate doing! (and I wasn't even skating myself). In the winter the pond is inhabited by ice fishermen, nighttime skimobilers, and daytime skaters but the parking lot is not plowed, and the sloping entrance can become quite icy - a fact I remembered about 1 second too late. While the kids slipped and skidded around the pond (OK I admit it vaguely resembled skating) I tried to move the van out of it's spot - to no avail. I attempted all of the typical maneuvers - rocking, sand, even a piece of rug under the rear tire while Jamie & his friend Dylan pushed. Fortunately, an ice fisherman with a 4x4 truck and an emergency toe rope that he had never found the opportunity to use before now was happy to save the day. So with a little slipping and sliding and spinning of tires - and Jamie and Dylan being converted into traffic stoppers - the truck, followed closely by the van, skidded out onto the dry road. But at least the kids had fun (and I came out of it with a story with a happy ending!).

more E.W.E.

Mary delivered the entire bundle of 187 (275 pages) of Civil War Letters written by great great great uncle Erastus. Let the transcribing and discoveries begin. I already discovered that he knew his future wife Harriet (married in 1867) before he left for his original 3-month tour in April 1861, which answers one question but raises many more.

Weight loss is anti-American

I do realize that my job as the support person of someone who is on a weight loss program is vastly easier than that of the actual weight loss person. Even so, I think I can see why it is such a difficult task to succeed at. A large part of it is because so much of the psycology of it is backwards to what we are raised to believe - that bigger is better, that we want more while working less.

In America we work at our jobs to make more money so we can afford to live a better lifestyle. We want a bigger house with a larger yard, and we want to relax and cookout and drink beside our pool - all while hired hands take care of the mowing and pool cleaning as we ourselves avoid manual labor ( a sign of success). Instead of preparing our own meals, we prefer to eat at restaurants where the portions are so huge that no matter how much we stuff ourselves we couldn't possibly finish it all (a sign of success). Even our "sayings" tend to lead us in the opposite direction. It does seem wrong to say

"I look forward to seeing "less" of you in the future"
or
"you are climbing "down" the ladder of success"
or
"congratulations on your "small" accomplishment"

Sports teams who lose more than everybody else are scorned and made fun of and their coaches are fired. Downsizing in business is due to lack of success. Trimming the waste and tightening the belt means you are suffering through poor times but you hope to eventually return to being able to afford to splurge at will. Not having to perform manual labor is a professional goal and a sign of job success, so needing to go to a gym must be a sign of failure.
Virtually everything that shouts "AMERICAN DREAM!", a weight loss program say's "BAD, BAD, BAD". No wonder it is so hard for people to successfully lose weight and maintain that weight loss. On top of any of the physiological struggles going on internally, externally they are being UnAmerican - and that is just too much peer pressure to overcome for many.
Well, on her 1-year anniversary of her second serious attempt at personal downsizing, I want to congratulate Sue for being a big loser, for being a shinking violet, for being small minded, for running away from her problem, and for working like a dog. Keep up the good work.
xoxoxoxoxox

New Years at Gabe's

The annual New Years Eve party at Jim & Paula's got cancelled mid-afternoon due to the white-out blizzard that blew throughout the afternoon. Gabe and Una had planned on still going over, but when their own babysitter bailed out, J & P decided to brave the elements and go to G & U's house to ring in the New Year. As we too are on the south shore, and Jim had not directly spoken to us (just a voicemail) nor heard back from us yet (Sue inadvertantly left her cellphone at home while we were out and about) Gabe called my phone to ask if we got the news yet, and if we still wanted to come up for the evening. Having already been out playing in my 4x4 truck (took Jamie out to lunch & the mall for his birthday - Happy 16th Birthday Jamie), and because the weather report said the snow would end around 9:00pm, we said "of course we will be there! I love my 4-wheel drive". So the evening was a bit quieter & more low-key than most past New Years Parties, but it was still very nice - let's call it more intimate. Sue decided to leave Johnny Depp behind so it was just the 3 couples - J & P, D & S, and G & U and thier 4 children. A bowl of Chili, Meatballs, Chips & Dip, a few drinks, a vicious game of boggle, a couple of phone calls to/from Corey (at Times Square or thereabouts) and it was officially 2009.

Happy New Year!!!

Merry Christmas, Erastus

The day after Christmas was a day off for me, so as a present to myself I decided to return to visit the Boston Public Library and the letters of great-great-great uncle Erastus. I even brought reinforcements - Sue, Mary & Aunt Maria joined in to read the 188 letters from 1861-1865. They are fascinating to read and attempt to put into perspective, and although the four of us skimmed through the 5 folders in about 2 hours, it was too hard to narrow down which ones we should get copies of. Thanks to Maria's pragmatism, we all decided "what the heck - we'll ask for copies of ALL of them"! The archivist at the library explained that they are short of staff during the holidays but should be able to have the copies done within a few weeks. Then Mary informed me she has been trying to arrange with the South Carolina Historical Society to get copies of some of their collection. So my Erastus Christmas will last for a while as I wait in anticipation to have these 145 year old letters in my possession to pour over and dwell upon. What a fun new hobby!

Christmas Goodies

A Kelty backpack, a Stephan Stills CD, a Pat Metheney CD, jeans, Guitar strings, Ukelele strings, a genealogy book with a maternal pedigree back to 1573, various candy AND.......

a Beatles Monopoly game that Corey & Julie insisted we play in the evening. Now everybody knows that Monopoly is NOT a genteel game - it's vicious and cut-throat. Sue dropped out early and tried to make brownie points with her son by giving him all her property & cash, leaving he & Julie to gang up on me to attempt to crush me into oblivion.

But it was not to be! With a combination of shrewd manuvering and good luck of the dice I CRUSHED THEM, refusing to allow them to make an illegal out-of-turn trade by singing "I told you before, no, you can't do that" and making THEM sing "I'm A Loser".

YES, it was a Fab day!

(oh ya, I suppose I should mention everyone else made out ok too)

Company Christmas Spirit

Our new Marketing VP was bemoaning the fact that there appears to be no sense of Christmas Spirit around the company. Well, because the boss was not going to frivolously spend money on decorations, I felt that we should take what was available to us and make do. A few ornaments from home, and a potted plant from the cafeteria seemed to do the trick. VP Neil was very impressed and intends to keep it in his office until after New Years.

So despite the economic downturn and bleak times for the construction and cabinetry industry....

MERRY CHRISTMAS

family Christmas party 2008

Another year, another annual family reunion/Christmas party/jam session.

Due to lots of snowfall, attendence was down but a fun time was had by all who did attend. Most notably were a few newcomers. Tommy Tobin brought along his new girlfriend - a young lady he met at bluegrass festivals and very sweet & pretty. Nephew Chris introduced the family to his girlfriend - a fellow teacher at the school he teaches at, who (sadly) I didn't actually get to chat with as we had to leave early and they arrived just before we left. Seldom seen relatives Neil and daughter Layla, and Eric with sons Matt and Sean made it to the party this year. David, Tommy & I managed to get all of Julies songs in before it was time to scoot.

Christmas wasn't always merry

I took Joe out shopping for his Secret Santa gift. Because there are so many siblings, we decided some years ago to have them all draw names and buy one Secret Santa gift for that sibling only. That way none of them had to spend $100+ on gifts. So instead Joe only had to borrow $20 from me to get his one gift. As we were driving he reminisced about the first two years that we did the Secret Santa routine, he was upset because each time he drew Mary's name - and he didn't like Mary back then, so he didn't want to buy her a present. It wasn't fair that he got her two years in a row and wasn't alowed to trade. When I asked him why he didn't like Mary in the beginning, he somberly replied "because she looked a lot like one of my Foster Mothers". Joe had spent a few years very much NOT beloved.

Thankfully, life has apparently gotten better for little Joe, he & Mary get along fine, and Christmas will be very merry for him this year - and not because he drew someone else for Secret Santa this year.

So make sure to acknowledge how fortunate we all are, do something kind for those less fortunate, and then make certain you remember to have a Merry Christmas.

80 years is a long time

Now the fields are all four lanes
And the moon's not just a name
Are you more amazed at how things change
Or how they stay the same
And do you sit here on this porch and wonder
How the time flies by
Or does it seem to barely creep along
With 75 Septembers come and gone
(Cheryl Wheelers "75 Septembers")

My mother turns 80 on Dec 16th, which is quite an accomplishment considering all she has had to endure - born before the Great Depression, The War to end all wars, Rock & Roll, etc.... raising (to varying degrees!) 11 children (8 born, 3 "steps") into successful adults (to varying degrees!)
I know how many times I joke that either Nikki or I will need to be dead before she gets through highschool. I wonder how often Mom said that about any and all of us.

So on the 13th, the children of this woman known by some as Edna, Nenna, twinny, Mrs. Blauss, Mrs. Howland, or even Golde (the part she once played in a local production of Fiddler On The Roof) threw her a surprize birthday party at Hanson's Congregational church where she is a Deacon. Over 100 people - a diverse group of old friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers - showed up to toast her.

Needless to say, in the beginning there was much brainstorming - sowing of ideas, threshing those ideas, throwing the chafe into the fires of hell, arm wrestling and name calling and pulling rank to narrow down the final decisions and details. We re-itterated what we have known all our lives - Wes (the first-borne) is the grand concept guy, Laurie (the eldest daughter) is the enforcer, Donnie, Marlene, Eric & David (the middle 4) are the snipers (keeping a safe distance and firing a few well-aimed shots now and then), Debbie (the littlest Blauss) tries to keep up but keeps getting knocked down (but God love her she keeps getting back up and rejoining the fray), and Heather (the baby - and despite the improbability of Mom being 45 and on her 2nd marriage - possibly the only "planned" baby of the lot of us) is the one who in the end gets her way because as the baby, she is the cutest and knows instinctively how to get what she wants. It's been that way since the day we were each born, and we are comfortable in our roles 35 to 58 years later.

Needless to say, in the end it was a wonderful celebration, all went smoothly, everybody had a good time and we all lived to tell about it. Mom, ever the "happy-tear" queen, stayed well hydrated - being congratulated by people she's known since school days to little "India" who isn't in school yet. Without exception, every one of the 75 (or so) non-relatives who had been invited to attend felt tremendously honored that THEY were included in the celebration. We could have easily invited triple that number and still found more who wished they could have attended. Wes, in his Director/Producer role, greated guests and stood in the wings as the actors did their scenes. Laurie and her son Chris ran and narrated the power-point "This is your life" presentation. I supplied, set up and broke down the PA equipment, chatted up the semi-famous local legend saxaphone player Dana Colley (check out the former band Morphine, or more recently, The Twinemen) and his daughter, and received visit & kayak invitations from old neighbors the Mahoney's. Marlene & David mingled, Eric stayed home in NH (his wife a longtime sufferer of emotional/mental disorders although the rest of the "married to a Blauss support group" in-laws - Joanne, Sue & Dawn -who spent most of the evening in the downstairs kitchen, waitressing snacks, and sneaking Absolut into their own punch glasses, admire her as the most clever genius of all). Debbie & Heather did their best to make certain everything went the way it should (which is quite a trick for two people who don't necessarily agree on how things SHOULD go).

Thankfully, an emergency conference of the organizing committee had decided that morning to eliminate the "Surprize" part of the party. The liability of having "unexpected overwhelming emotion syndrome" be the cause of death and therefore not actually officially making it to 80 just seemed to big a risk. SMART MOVE! Knowing it was coming, 8 hours in advance, gave her the opportunity to absorbe it a bit instead of flattening her like a steamroller. Aside from the 'long-lost-friend' type atmosphere, the highlight came from nephew Chris' description of an "Edna Compliment!" and her propensity to unitentionally insult relatives. Her two most famous ones were: once telling Heather " you could be a Miss America - if only you had a talent", and when Chris commented that his young adult club at the church had only one male member - her response was "who would that be?" There was also a surprize performance from the church based vocal group "The Hearts" - an a'cappella womens group that Mom was a member of for many years. They had, unbeknownst to the rest of us, composed a tribute song for her and sang to her at the end of the evening.

Well, the end of the official evening, anyway. Some of us siblings, steps, and in-laws needed a drink (no alcohol at the church - Congregationalists, remember?) and gathered at JJ's afterwards. Every good event team holds a review session after the event, right?
(sadly, THAT story can't be told, at least not where certain non-attending relatives might discover them!!!!)

Like moths to a flame

Some people just attract attention. Without particularly trying, they can enter a room and other people seem to instinctively know that this is somebody worth paying attention too. This person treats everybody equally – the high-powered executive or the cleaning person – and they both feel that they are being treated with respect, kindness and friendliness. Of course I’ve known this about Sue forever (forever being since she was 15 years old) and it’s one of the many things I love about her and never get tired of witnessing. It happens in restaurants (one day a confused young waiter sheepishly confessed to her “I know you must be somebody famous by the way everybody else greats you, but I just don’t know who you are”). It happens at parties (just the other night a young man – coincidentally our sons EXACT age – was being mesmerized by her story telling and pleaded for the honor of hearing the next one which she initially was reluctant to tell on the basis of his young age - 23). But today was a bit more comical – at my work. As it happens, I messed up and took the wrong vehicle to work – so after bringing Joe & Jamie for a doctor’s appointment, she had to stop by and swap car with van. Our new marketing VP noticed the van pull in and then this woman with two children approaching the front door. He immediately pegged her as a potential purchaser of our fine kitchen cabinetry and leaped into action – greeting her cheerfully at the door, offering hot chocolate to the kids, and attempting to get a quick idea of what she might be interested in. OK – admittedly, this wasn’t the typical case of her “aura” drawing people in, but more a reflection of how desperate the cabinet industry is now-a-days. But despite Mr VP’s initial disappointment at losing the prospect of a sale (he knows how much I make) he continued on chatting happily and pushing the hot chocolate for the kids. Even when she is saying “no” to a man, they can’t resist the desire to be in her presence!