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Yesterday was also my son-in-law Duncan’s birthday which we also celebrated this last weekend. This is a picture of him and his family blowing out the candles. He put my new front porch glider together on the weekend and now the porch now looks very cleaned up. Duncan has stood on the roof of SafeCo field stadium in his engineering days. 
I was at a party Memorial Day, and people discussed how they got their cats. I said that you were leaving for college and were so nervous that your goal was to make everyone else as miserable as you were. But then our golden retriever brought home a new kitten in her mouth. You insisted we keep this kitten. I did not want a kitten. There was no one to take care of the kitten anyway, we were taking you to college. That kitten died, but later in the afternoon the dog retrieved another kitten born in the field, carrying it in her mouth. You, Margaret, made me take the kitten to the vet. Sure enough the kitten had a hernia from the retriever who had never retrieved. The vet said, “I’ll operate, I have always wanted to operate on something that small.” I said, “I don’t have the money.” You cried. He said, “I’ll do it for free.“ I said that there was no one to take care of the kitten, we were taking you to college. You cried, “But Mom, we have to save this kitten”. The vet said, “I will board her for free until you come home and she can drink from a saucer.” You just have to keep this kitten for every after. Your disposition perked up. We drove you to college and you ignored us once you got there. I went home to a kitten I did not want, and I left you at your falling apart apartment with a very heavy heart. 
Happy Birthday Margaret!
I am putting up a few photos from the weekend with Meredith and Margaret here with their families. It was a great time, and part of what made it great was the weather forecast predicted 63 degree weather and the temperature actually climbed to 79. This was a gift from Senor above. We thought we were living a page out of Coastal Living. The birthday cake is being included which is similar to a brownie with a peanut caramel crust.
I have a new grilling book by Mario Batali, which I am not going to critique because I am keeping it as my secret summer arsenal of recipes. But I cooked all weekend long out of the book and the hands down winner was the grilled artichokes. A little bit 
of work for ten, but a tour de force none the less. I just love it when someone says how brilliant a dish is, even if it is my own family. This is why I am not sharing Mr. Batali’s book with you. The appearance of being a genius is to be maintained.
Yesterday I read on the Internet, I think the New York Times, an article on how to get the most out of vegetables. It turns out that raw is not necessarily first choice. Canned was not worthless, but next to it. But the hilarity that caught my eye was that children who do not eat vegetables, don’t eat them because they do not taste good. Children who do eat vegetables eat them with lots of butter, salt, and /or some other nice flavoring. The miracle of research.
On another front, NoName’s driver said that his mother gave money to the relief effort. This is huge. This is really the first time that the citizens have made contributions to works of charity. They have in the past assumed that the government was the only way that help could happen. That some private citizen could help was not even considered. On the front more personal to my daughter. She went to my oldest grandson’s soccer tournament last weekend. My grandson is a very good soccer player for the sixth grade age group. He started in Brazil, and soccer playing was what was done at recess. Soccer is Brazil’s obsession along with beautiful women. He is not going to be a great soccer player because he does not want to spend all of his life after school playing soccer. None the less, he knows the game. This weekend his team placed third in this particular Shanghai tournament. The first place team was like the Shanghai National Soccer Team. The boys go to a state boarding school and practice 7-8 hours a day. My grandson’s team did not know what hit them. They had no clue as to what was happening. So if you want to take out futures on World Soccer, NoName says to put your bets on China. 
NoName called yesterday. She is still in earthquake depression. The death toll keeps rising and there is speculation on everything. But the one that was mentioned was that somehow the Army was behind the earthquake. Well if so, their Army is right up there with George W. who arranged for Katrina.
But there has been a bright side to his recent days. His grandson got sent to the principal’s office for being in a cheese fight in the cafeteria. Certainly in his fraternity in college Mr. Radish participated in many food fights. This was long ago in the days of not much social guilt. Who cleaned up the mess? I think the pledges. Naturally my grandson has denied having been an instigator. He assured his mother that he felt the need to defend himself. So he was sent to be reprimanded and had to fill out a slip on how the situation could have been handled better. “Stop throwing cheese.” Mr. Radish and I have let our imaginations soar over the cheese fight. I mean how much cheese could they have had? In this day of so many looming stuggles for children. In this day and age of many tragedies, a cheese fight with eight year olds seems innocence itself. 
Mr. Radish has a heavy heart about the China earthquake. More so than the Burma cyclone. As he has recently been to China and met the people and seen their building techniques in the out lying areas he knows that the buildings could not survive. Nor could the people inside the buildings. We talk to NoName and she is depressed. He, like NoName, grieves over the parents with no children.
This morning I was dressing to go the Physician Assistant to find out how my foot was doing. On the radio was a woman who was a matchmaker. She will find someone for you to marry that you will like, and who have had their credentials checked. It is for people in the upper money/fame echelons who are so busy or unskilled or shy they can not find the person for themselves, but yet they want a marriage. This woman and her team, clear the façade of the early stages of dating and get down to the heart of the matter. This service starts at $20,000 and moves somewhere into the six figures. If you are not picky about the physical credentials then it is probably $20,000. For the six figure numbers, you are allowed to stay in 24 hour telephone contact with “Barbie”, real name. And you have probably asked. for example, the woman is 5’6”, has blue eyes, plays tournament tennis, is fluent in Portuguese, likes rock and roll, is an archeologist, and a Phd. in Sudan studies. And Barbie works till she finds Mr./Ms right. Her previous job was recruiting for Fortune 500 companies. My ankle has mended and I am allowed to put full weight on my foot. The PA said that I was a fast healer. In a week I can start wearing a shoe and get out of the boot. I was thinking I might throw it away, but I think to be on the safe side I will keep it.
I repeat what I quoted last year. "There is no way to be a perfect Mother , and a million ways to be a good one." What had been My husband was with out fail very good to me on Mother’s Day, and made it an event. Some times it was painful. He always used to cook. None of this going out for Mother’s Day. No problems with reservations for us. But the painful part was that he did not know where anything was in the kitchen. "Where is the salt?" he would call from the other room. "Where are the knives? Do we have any flour?" "Don’t come, Just tell me where it is." Right. Our revised plan for this Mother’s Day is : Mr. Radish and I are going to celebrate Father’s Day, and go buy him a fishing rod. He knows what he wants, he is up for a present/toy. I feel like cooking and a good time will be had by both. 
planned for Mother’s Day for me has been cancelled due to my daughter’s upper respiratory virus. My daughters are excellent mothers. I am really torn between seeing them for Mother’s Day, and having their children and husband’s do for them. When the children are old enough, I think they want to celebrate with their own mother rather than their mother and grandmother. They should recognize their own mother’s efforts. I vote for the override this year.