Traveling through St. Louis last month Peter snapped these.

Photos of the delectable dishes Susan has been serving Diane and friends.

Diane flies home today.

Today, Hilary turned 19 years old.  Hannah and I went out to UMass to take her to dinner.  We found a great pasta place appropriately named Pasta e Pasta.  I would post pictures, but I can’t figure how to get them off my new cell/camera.  Hilay received a new fake Prada bag that I got on my latest adventure to New York City this past weekend.  I have some great stories to tell about how I obtained it and will post more later this week. 

 

One short story in honor of Hilary day:  On Hilary’s second birthday, I was very pregnant with her sister Hannah.  Her father and I didn’t have enough money for a second crib, so we bought Hilary a big girl bed for her birthday.  We figured we would get her used to the bed for a few months so it would ease the transition of the new baby into the house.  She was so excited and eager to help put it together.  She helped put her new Sesame Street sheets on and couldn’t wait for night night.  She put her dolls and bears to sleep in it all afternoon.

 

When bed time came she got in her PJs, brushed her teeth and stood in front of the bed staring at it.  Blankie in hand, favorite two middle fingers in her mouth she looked at me and said, “Skoosiver?”  She said it again and again.  She took her fingers out of her mouth and said, “Skoosiver?” and twisted her tiny hand like she was opening a door.  I couldn’t figure out what she wanted and she wouldn’t get in the bed.  Finally she went over to the closet where we had stored the now disassembed cribby.  This time the light clicked on in my head.  She wanted the screwdriver to put back together her cribby.  I teared up immediately and scooped up my little girl who wanted to stay a baby another day.  That was the worst night’s sleep I ever got.  Hil, I and a half baked Han in a tiny twin.

 

Happy Birthday Hilary.  Stay a baby as long as you like.  I don’t mind a bit.

After dinner last night at Jeff and Karen’s, I picked up US 41 (your typical four lane divided highway) at the end of Bellemeade, and I headed north towards the Marriott. As I passed over the Lloyd Expressway, I saw a white van coming up the off ramp, entering my lane, heading in my direction. This has happened to me only once before, and I can say even in a non-highway situation closings speeds are such that you have very little time to react.

Two cars in front of me swerved out of his way, as I did. Open jawed, I watched in my rear view mirror for the inevitable head-on collision, but the cars behind me did as we did. No one honked, no one veered off the road to move safely away, no one ran into him for an easy insurance settlement – they just got out of his way and kept on going.

Last night’s storm dropped sixteen inches of snow on Torroemore where Susan lives and Diane is hiding.

On our way home from Kansas, Peter suggested we stop at the Missouri Botanical Museum. The first display was a room with eight thousand orchids, followed by a greenhouse with Camelias in bloom, then a rainforest dome, and finally an outdoors Japanese Garden.

Photo Gallery

I finally bought a heater for working outdoors. It’s a tricky thing to use. First, it works best if the only job scheduled for the day is sitting in front of it drinking coffee. Secondly, turning the thing on reminds me of our old unpredictable gas grill where safe operation depended on distance from the thing.

You press one red button to release the gas and a second one to ignite it. However, if your timing is not right, you get no flame or a perfect replication of a solar flare. The first time I tried the heater I burned most of the hair …wait a second, let me look…no, all of the hair off my left hand. The second time – and this is I believe is a patentable discovery – I incinerated my nose hairs. A most amazing, painless event accompanied by the quick crackling sound of mini-forest fire.

Niagara gallery.

This trip I ran into two monster traffic jams. The first one, right before Cleveland, I dodged by following truck drivers who seemed to know where they were going. The second one, near the center of Louisville, forced me to take the first available off ramp and right by the Louisville Visual Art Association. How could I not stop in? This was their featured exhibit.