A Happy Birthday

Darling Dakki is ninety!!!!  And very spry, especially given that her lifestyle totally defies modern wisdom regarding a safe  conveyance to a healthy old age. Her main exercise (for the last fifty years at least) has been getting up, walking to the breakfast table, then to her car, driving to church, then again to the table to read her newspaper and books, do the crossword, etc., until she finally ambles back to bed.  And her diet gives hope to all.  She seldom eats a vegetable and eschews salad or anything green altogether.  She has stated that she is aging so well because she is preserved in sugar!  I think this may be true.  On the other hand, although she does not really have any of the typically espoused healthy habits, she also doesn’t have any of typically condemned bad habits.  And she is kind and loving.  This last must be her secret.

I wanted to give her a party on her actual birthday, and as she seems to prefer going to lunch over dinner, lunch it was.  Most of the people I would normally invite are working during the day, thus unable to come and easing the party preparation trauma.  Rebecca and I used to have huge parties for birthdays and name days, but I never have tried to manage one on my own, and I would probably collapse if I were to attempt it.  So this petite assembly was perfect.  Pauline is a sine qua non at any family event, and Samos and Joseph are two Dakki favorites.  I, of course,am a main favorite.  At least, I like to think so.  

 The menu was pretty retro, as is Dakki herself, and what could be more retro than a pineapple upside down cake.  Judging by her recipe photo, Betty Crocker's can of pineapple had more discs than mine did.  This was a mini disappointment, but then I don't know if another would have fit on.  Betty had eight!  Hers must have been smaller. 

  A typical Dakki pose -- waiting for more tea!

  

Poor Samos injured his leg at work, so the  departing guests made an interesting display of modern (and retro, of course) caneware. 

Another Lazy Day

Whoa!  It’s been a while!  What’s my excuse?  Nothing blogworthy to report?  Au contraire!  There have been tons of things.  I was so tied up with doing them, that I had no time left.  Well, that is not the main thing.

 

For years, I wasted so much time at my computer reading blogs and stupid articles about movie stars with their plastic surgery disasters (such a boost of Schadenfreude those articles can deliver), playing cards with mice or ants, and  the like.  All the time, I would be thinking, “If I spent half this squandered time practicing the piano, I might actually be able to play something.“  While that concept had artistic, and even emotional, appeal, it was in direct conflict with my laziness quotient.  Then my darling friend Corinna, played her latest little piano solo for me, and I was suffused with jealously.  That was the inspiration, and I started devoting a bit of time every day to practicing myself.  Now, I am a tad obsessed.  This obsession has not really translated to positive results, as I still can’t play anything, but it makes me happy to try.  But … now I have new guilt pangs.  I don’t answer email.  I don’t write on my blog, I read the letters in my favorite on-line knotting group, but I have become an inveterate lurker, even when I have things to contribute.  I put a little yellow star next to the email, and tell myself that I will answer it later.  Sigh.  It never happens. 

So a teensy update on fun events of the past several weeks:

Runs with Becca and Rachael.  They actually run, while I trot along behind, whinging all the while, and thanking God for every enforced delay He sends us.  Here are Rachael and Becca being impatient, and me behind the camera being thrilled. 

Singing Faurés Requiem and participating in another amazing concert

Tobias's original Mom (Samos's Auntie Kree) visiting us.

Fabulous lectures on Victorian poets by Corinna followed by discussion among some very clever folk and one windbag.  The next one is on Gerard Manley Hopkins tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.

A walk to Chinatown with Rachael to meet

Diane and Michelle

At the Panama Hotel for tea.

 

On the way, a terrific rain storm burst upon us.  I had been in denial about the possiblility of rain, so we were completely unprepared, clothes-wise.   "Isn't this fun?" I asked Rachael. "If I were not with you though, I probably would not be thinking it that much fun."  "If I were not with you," she replied,"I would be calling a cab."